House Rules - Chloe Neill Page 0,44

whispers something to the person beside her, and she whispers it to the person beside her, and so on and so on, until the last one tries to guess what the person at the beginning said. The answers are always different after having been passed around.”

“Ah,” he said. “Then yes. It’s very much like that, although Luc’s got the gist of it. The egg was a thank-you to Peter from the duchess and her husband for what he did for Anastasia—if a posthumous thank-you. And it was a priceless thank-you, as far as the fairies were concerned.”

Priceless not only because of its intrinsic value or its value to the fairies, but because they’d actually thanked the vampires, when clearly there was no love lost between them.

“Score one for supernatural relations,” I said.

There was a knock at the door, which opened. Helen stepped inside. “The vampires are assembled.”

“Thank you, Helen. We’ll be with you in a moment.”

Helen nodded and exited again, closing the door behind her.

By the time I looked back at Ethan, he was well into Master vampire mode: his expression blank, his shoulders back, his chin authoritatively set. He adjusted the cuffs of his shirt before glancing at me.

“I think you’ll enjoy this particular performance, Sentinel,” he said.

I wasn’t sure exactly what he had in mind, but I wasn’t about to doubt him.

And, of course, I took a moment before heading inside to share the evening’s most important news in a quick text to Mallory: ETHAN EATS TOAST WITH A FORK.

It took a moment before she responded. DARTH SULLIVAN = PRETENTIOUS HOTTIE, she responded.

I really didn’t have a reason to disagree with that. But I loved that we were talking again.

* * *

The House’s ballroom was on the second floor, right beside the House library. It was a beautiful space, with wood floors, high ceilings, and majestic chandeliers that cast golden light around the room, although the nervous magic felt electric enough to illuminate the space on its own.

Michael Donovan stood with Lacey in the back of the room. They chatted together quietly and familiarly, probably having known each other during Lacey’s time at Cadogan House. They both glanced at me as I followed Ethan inside. Michael’s glance was pleasant; Lacey’s was suspicious.

I smiled pleasantly back at both of them—I was a grown-up, after all—as Ethan made his way to the raised dais at the front of the room. Hands in his pockets, he waited until the vampires quieted.

“Good evening,” he said. “Thank God it’s been quiet here tonight.”

The crowd offered a good-natured chuckle. We all knew when to laugh at the boss’s jokes. But the tone changed quickly.

“I’m going to dispense with the pleasantries,” he said, “and get to the point. Tomorrow, in a ceremony here at midnight, we will exit the GP. The ceremony is not long, but I expect Darius will have no shortage of wisdom to pass along. When the ceremony is complete, our House will no longer be affiliated with the Greenwich Presidium. Nor will we be members of the North American Vampire Registry.”

Ethan reached up and touched the gold medal around his neck. “Tomorrow,” he said, “we will return our medals to the GP.”

There was a cacophony of noise, of fearful shouts and angered outbursts. No one wanted to give up their medals, including myself. The golden disks were our dog tags, our identification, our badges of honor. They marked us as vampires, as Cadogan vampires, as Novitiates of a proud and noble House. They also marked us as members of the NAVR, which was precisely Ethan’s point.

“Novitiates!” Ethan yelled out, and the crowd quieted. “We have no choice; nor would I give us any. It is the right and honorable thing to return the badge of the GP’s authority over us. But I will be the first.” He reached up and unclasped the medal from his neck. He held it in his fist for a moment before dropping it into a box on the dais beside him.

“If we are to do it,” he said, “let us do it in solidarity.”

Luc was next, then Malik. Then Kelley and Juliet and Helen. One by one, every vampire assembled in the ballroom walked to the podium, pulled the medal from his or her neck, and dropped it into the box at Ethan’s feet.

I did the same, sharing a glance with him before I returned to my spot. He nodded, and I slipped back into the crowd.

“We also anticipate the GP will use its contracts with