House Rules - Chloe Neill Page 0,19

San Diego’s Sheridan House. She was tall and blond, with enviably long legs and a history with Ethan. She’d visited once since I’d been a member of the House, and she made it quite clear to me then that she wanted to rekindle their relationship. Ethan might have moved on, much to her chagrin, but she wasn’t ready to give up on him.

Part of that bond, undoubtedly, had been formed when Ethan made Lacey a vampire and helped train her to lead her own House. She was the only one of Ethan’s vampiric “children” to have her own House. With only twelve Houses in the United States, that made her a very valuable ally.

On the other hand, he also knew that Lacey had been a thorn in our side before, which made me wonder about his real motivations. How was she so vital?

“She and Darius have a unique friendship,” Ethan said, as if guessing my concern.

“Romantic?” I wondered.

“No. More an affinity. A kinship. They are two of a kind.”

Darius was fastidious and proper, and the Cadogan vampires called Lacey the Ice Queen. She was as carefully styled and modulated as Ethan—without the endearing personality. A friendship between her and Darius actually made a warped kind of sense.

“Darius is a member of the old guard,” he said. “We challenge the authority of the GP and, by virtue, his authority. By becoming Rogues, we become that which they despise: outcasts and traitors. I’m hoping that Lacey’s presence—an ally of his own, in a sense—will mitigate his more dictatorial sensibilities.”

Ethan ran his hands through his hair, then crossed them behind his head and leaned back against the headboard again. He looked concerned, and was obviously unaware of how the move tightened the muscles in his torso and made him look even more like a distracted cologne model from a GQ spread.

I couldn’t fault his logic. It was entirely reasonable that he’d ask Lacey to visit. I wasn’t crazy about the idea—mostly because I wasn’t crazy about her—but I was also a grown-up.

“Okay,” I said.

He looked at me with suspicion in his eyes. “Okay?”

“Okay,” I repeated with a smile. “I appreciate your honesty. I don’t trust her any farther than I can throw her, but I’ll deal.”

“Why don’t you trust her?” I saw the pain in his eyes; he was afraid I thought he’d be unfaithful. But it wasn’t him I worried about.

“She’s still in love with you.”

“She is not in love with me,” he countered, but there was a hint of pink in his cheeks.

“I assure you she is, and she’s all but willing to take me out to get to you.”

He looked mildly amused . . . and flattered in an ego-driven, masculine kind of way. “And you know this because?”

“She stares at you, she hangs on every word . . . and she told me.”

He looked surprised. “She told you?”

“She told me.” Maybe not in so many words, but she’d gotten the point across.

“Merit, Lacey has lived in Sheridan House for years. She is the only Master in a city with hundreds of vampires, and—I say this without personal interest—she’s a perfectly attractive woman. I assure you—if she wanted a suitor, she could find one.”

Not when she’s holding out for you, I silently thought, but kept that to myself. If he was truly that naive about her feelings, I figured that benefited me. It would be harder for her to woo him away if he had no romantic thoughts of her.

“Okay, then.”

Ethan looked at me. He watched me, really checking my mood and whether that “okay” meant okay in the male sense (“okay”) or the female sense (“possibly okay; it depends on what you say next”).

“You mean that,” he said.

“I do. I trust you. I’m not entirely sure I trust her, but I trust you.” I put my hand on his. “And more important, I know you’re worried about the House—and about Darius and the GP. Do what you need to do. I’ll live.”

Without warning, he pounced, wrapping my body in his, his warmth penetrating through to my core. As a vampire, I was often cold; Ethan Sullivan was by far the best blanket a girl could ask for.

“What time do they arrive?” I murmured.

“Hours yet.” He nipped at my neck and pulled me closer, a suggestion of exactly how we might spend those hours.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t in the cards for me tonight. “You’ve got work to do, and I need to get moving. We’ve got missing vampires and an Ombudsman