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Lindsey, Mallory, and I exchanged hugs. This was too nerve-racking not to prepare ourselves and take comfort where we could find it.
"Cool hair," Lindsey said.
Mallory had braided her ombre hair into Princess Leia - style side buns. She was one of the few people I knew - perhaps the only one - who could actually pull off the look.
"Thanks," she said, touching a bun. "Although I feel like I have cinnamon rolls attached to my head."
"Not that there's anything wrong with that," I said, pointing to the table.
We took seats around it, and when we were all seated, Ethan kicked things off.
"We believe John McKetrick has been manufacturing a serum intended to turn vampires back into humans. We believe he used Alan Bryant, Charla Bryant's brother, to develop that serum. We aren't certain if he planned to allow vampires the choice to become humans again or not. But given his history, it seems likely he would have made the decision for us.
"Alan Bryant wouldn't provide the information McKetrick needed. So McKetrick stole that information, torched Bryant Industries, and induced a riot to cover up the evidence."
"It was a distraction," Jonah said. "Keeping us focused on vampire haters, not on what was really going on between himself and Alan Bryant."
"And the Grey House riot?" Luc asked.
"Perfecting the distraction," Jonah said. "One night of rioting is a riot. It's ne'er-do-wells in action. Two nights of rioting? That's a movement. That's political activism."
"And it spreads his larger message of anti-vampire vitriol," Ethan said.
Jonah nodded.
"But why my grandfather?" I asked. "He had nothing to do with any of this. He's only secondarily involved."
"Maybe he wasn't only secondarily involved."
We all looked at Catcher, who met my gaze. "He was looking at that body for Detective Jacobs. The one that washed ashore."
Ethan frowned. "Okay? So?"
"He called because they weren't supernaturally able to identify it - because they weren't exactly sure what it was."
We sat in stunned silence for a moment.
"It was a failed experiment," I realized. "McKetrick's been working on the serum, and he's had failures. That's why he kept going back to Alan Bryant. McKetrick must have known he was involved and thought he was getting too close." I looked at Catcher. "What did Grandpa learn?"
"I don't know," he said. "But he'd learned something. He was supposed to meet with Detective Jacobs for coffee the next day."
"McKetrick found out and decided to put a kibosh on that meeting," Ethan said. "And your grandfather was involved with vampires, so the rioting cover story plays."
"That sick, twisted, manipulative son of a bitch," I muttered.
"So he is," Ethan said. "And that's why we're putting an end to this. Jeff," he prompted. "The building?"
Jeff spread a map on the table. "It used to be Weingarten Freight," he said. "Now it's Hornet Freight, but the floor plan is online either way."
"What do they ship?" Luc asked, leaning over to get a better glance.
"According to their Web site," Jeff said, "pretty much anything you want them to. Retail goods, medical goods, sporting equipment, industrial stuff."
The building was essentially a large square divided into chunks: offices, loading area, warehousing area.
"Entrance here," he said, pointing to a door. "Loading bays along this wall. Emergency exits here and here."
He pointed to the back corner of the building. "The admin area was set up here, along the front-left corner, and the rest of the space is divided into the loading and unloading area and the place they stored the goods between pickups and deliveries."
"What's the goal here?" Luc asked, looking to Ethan.
"I want to go in," Ethan said. "I want to garner evidence of what McKetrick's doing, and I want to end his ability to do it."
"And the CPD?" Catcher asked.
"McKetrick is the ultimate slime. If we go in without them, he'll claim we attacked, and chalk it up to more vampire violence." Ethan's gaze narrowed. "But I want my opportunity to chat with him face-to-face."
"Ethan - ," Luc said, but Ethan held up a hand.
"No," he said. "This isn't about practicalities or safety. He has ordered assassinations, endangered my vampires, destroyed homes, nearly killed Chuck. And now he thinks he can play God? No." His eyes flamed silver and green. "I will have a shot at him first. After that, assuming he survives, the humans can do what they will."
Catcher and Ethan looked at each other for a moment, until Catcher nodded.
"A little late notice never hurt anyone," he said.
Ethan nodded. "We have to assume he'll have weapons, and many of them. Specifically, we know he's got aspen guns, so I'm proposing the first wave be non-vampires."
He looked at Mallory. "We need help tonight, and we'll hire you to join our team for this mission if you're willing. I've already checked with Gabriel, and he's approved."
Mallory had helped us before, including when we tackled a fallen angel and ended his reign of terror over the city. She'd done it to help, and because her magic had created the problem in the first place. So it wasn't that Ethan had asked Mallory to assist us . . . but that he was hiring her to do it. She wasn't being dragged into supernatural drama; she was being hired by Cadogan House as an employee and given the imprimatur of authority that went with it. Ethan was putting his stamp of approval on a girl trying to live with her magic - and that stamp would likely go a long, long way toward her having a real future.
By the expression on her face, she realized the boon he'd offered her.
"Absolutely," she said. "Absolutely I will help. I appreciate the chance and the opportunity."
"It's dangerous," Ethan said. "Very dangerous, especially if you're the first line."
"I'm not afraid," Mallory said. And for the first time in a while, I think she actually meant it.
But Catcher was less than thrilled. He practically snarled at Ethan. "Do you have any idea how dangerous this is going to be?"
"I do," Ethan said. "I'll be fighting and sending my Sentinel into danger, and I realize precisely how frightening that proposition is."
His voice flattened. "I also recall it was dangerous in Nebraska, and that night on the Midway."
Ethan's meaning was unspoken, but still clear - Mallory had put us in danger before, and we'd responded despite it all. It wasn't any more unfair to ask her to pony up.
