House Rules - Chloe Neill Page 0,98

hotel across town, living from a suitcase as I contemplated my vampiric future.

When I reached the Ops Room, everyone was engaged in a task of some kind, but Luc was nowhere to be seen. In fact, the Ops Room was virtually empty except for Lindsey and a few of the temps.

“Where is everyone?” I wondered.

“I believe you’ll want to go next door,” Lindsey said. “Ethan and Jonah are sparring.”

“Oh, you cannot be serious,” I said, positive she was joking.

But she definitely, definitely was not.

They stood in the middle of the mats, both shirtless, Jonah also wearing martial arts pants. The air was thick with magic and the smells of sweat and blood.

In the time I’d gotten dressed and come downstairs, they’d been beating the crap out of each other, and they clearly hadn’t pulled any punches. Jonah’s eye was bruised, and his lip was cut and swollen. Ethan limped, his left foot obviously tender, and his knuckles were bloody and torn.

I walked into the room as Jonah wiped a smear of blood from his jaw. He nudged Ethan, who looked back at me.

I crossed my arms and stared back at him.

“Jonah volunteered for a little sparring practice,” Ethan said.

The liar.

But Jonah, who’d worked out the cover story with him, nodded. “The old man picked a fight. I thought it was a good idea, so I went along with it.”

I glanced up at the balcony, which was full of well-entertained vampires. “Could you excuse us for a moment?” I asked.

Seeing as I had no authority over them, they all looked at Ethan, who nodded; then they filed out of the room. When it was empty, I looked back at Ethan and unloaded the cannons.

“There’s a vampire assassin on the loose in Chicago,” I said, “and I could use a little cooperation. What the hell is going on?”

“We needed to clear the air,” Ethan said, silver eyes blazing as he stared at Jonah.

Jonah, his expression surprisingly serene, nodded in agreement.

“About what?”

“You,” they simultaneously said.

I was completely flabbergasted that two grown men—more than grown, chronologically—would waste their time throwing punches at each other.

“And this was the best way you could do it?”

“Yes,” they simultaneously answered.

I put my hands on my hips and closed my eyes. “This is completely ridiculous, and completely insulting.”

“It was necessary,” Ethan gritted out. “Boundaries needed to be set.”

“As if there was any risk of boundaries being breached,” Jonah countered, magic rising again, and it was clear they hadn’t really settled anything.

“You’ve deemed yourself her ‘partner,’” Ethan said.

“In the RG. You’re her romantic partner.”

“So I am. Can you remember that?”

Jonah’s eyes flattened, not, I thought, because he was jealous, but because Ethan had taken a stab at his honor.

“She is my partner,” Jonah said, “because she agreed to fight with me to protect the vampires in this city. If you don’t understand that, or can’t respect it, you’re the one with the problem, not me.”

“Hey,” I interrupted, “I am not a toy to be fought over.” I pointed at Jonah. “I’m his colleague”—I pointed at Ethan—“and his girlfriend. Those are the boundaries, and that’s where they’ll stay.”

“We needed to be sure of it,” Ethan said.

“You needed to whip them out and compare notes,” I countered. I looked at Jonah. “I’m still learning who you are. And you’re my partner, so I appreciate that you’re willing to take a punch for me.”

I walked to Ethan and glared up at him. “But you know better than this, Ethan Sullivan.”

I strode toward the door, then peeked back to watch Ethan reach out his hand. After a moment, Jonah shook it.

God save me from boys.

* * *

While Ethan and Jonah finished their testosterone fest, I went back to the Ops Room to stare at our whiteboard. Unfortunately, no clues had miraculously appeared overnight.

“It looks like you’ve gotten a lot done,” I said to Luc, but the Navarre vampire photos on the projector screen answered the question. Every photograph had been covered with an “X.”

“Yeah, but not the kind I prefer. I talked to Will; there’s not a single option in the group,” Luc said, swiveling around in his chair in a full circle before landing at the head of the table again. “They’re either alibied or completely motiveless.”

I frowned. “But how is that possible? We know it was a Navarre vampire, right? So it has to be one of them.”

Luc ran his hands through his curls. “You’d certainly think so, wouldn’t you? But unless Will is lying, which I highly doubt, they’re all off