when Darius answered, he didn’t really answer. “The shofet had voted to remove Cadogan House’s accreditation.”
There was silence except for the sudden rush of blood in my ears.
“The GP cannot disband this House,” Ethan quietly said.
“The GP can and will do what it deems appropriate. Tonight I need to speak with Morgan and Scott. I’ll interview you two and Kelley tomorrow.”
“For what purpose?” Malik asked.
Adding insult to injury was my best guess.
“Because I am head of the GP, and I’d like to see the data for myself.” The sound of his voice changed, and I guessed he’d stood up. “Ultimately, the GP will make the decision that is best for all its vampires. The call is not yours to make. Is that understood, gentlemen?”
“Sire,” they both said.
And that was apparently the end of that.
I heard the office door open and shut. I snapped my guards back into place and jumped to my feet, then peeked into the hallway. Darius—tall, rangy, and impeccably dressed in dress pants and a pin-striped shirt—walked down the hallway with Malik toward Malik’s office.
When they were out of sight, I walked to Ethan’s office. This was going to require serious damage control. Although I wasn’t entirely sure I was up to the task, someone had to do something. It might as well be me.
I wished myself good luck and opened the door.
Ethan was behind his desk. The room vibrated with furious energy.
“Will they actually kick us out?” I asked, earning me a flash of green eyes.
“You spied on us?”
“I strategically gathered evidence.”
“They’ve effectively done so,” Ethan said. “We’ve been impeached. Now we see if they can make it stick.” He rose from his desk, then walked across the room to the bar tucked into the built-in bookshelf. He opened a cabinet, pulled out a bottle, and twisted off the top, then poured two fingers into a short glass.
He took a sip, then glanced back at me. “Beverage?”
I walked toward the bar. “What are you drinking?”
“Forty-year-old Scotch.”
I whistled. That couldn’t have been cheap, and it probably didn’t bode well for the House that he’d cracked it.
Ethan didn’t show fear often. That he was worried now about what the GP might do made my stomach flutter with nerves. He was supposed to be the House’s rock; the rock wasn’t supposed to be nervous.
“No, thanks,” I said, crossing my arms and leaning against the cabinets. “What now?”
“Contingency planning,” he said darkly. “We have some backup plans in place, and if the House isn’t long for GP membership, they’ll need executing soon. Malik and I are going to finalize them.”
“The GP hasn’t done us any favors lately. Is it such a bad thing if we’re gone?”
He didn’t answer, and he wouldn’t meet my gaze.
I guessed it was worse than I’d thought. “Tell me.”
He took another sip. “The GP’s general philosophy is that if we are not aligned with them, we are against them.”
“That doesn’t make any sense. There are Rogue vampires in Chicago. I haven’t heard Noah mention any kind of GP harassment.”
Noah Beck was the unofficial leader of Chicago’s un-Housed vampires; he was also a member of the Red Guard, like me and Jonah.
“For now, it’s only a cold war,” he said. “The GP believes Rogue vampires will sabotage the Houses; the Rogues believe the Houses exist solely to perpetuate the more fascist tendencies of the GP. The current peace isn’t the usual state of affairs.”
“So the GP might actually attack us?”
“Should circumstances call for it, yes. Both the GP and the Houses within it.”
“Even Sheridan House? You made Lacey Sheridan a Master. She’s from Cadogan House, and her alliance insignia is hanging over our front door.” Also, Lacey Sheridan had a crush—or more—on Ethan, which made it unlikely she’d take up arms against him.
Glass in hand, Ethan walked to one of the club chairs in the seating area and leaned against it. “Haven’t you ever wondered why we bear other Houses’ alliance insignia if we’re all members of the GP? It’s a promise not to take up arms in the event worse comes to worst—or the GP orders them to act.”
“Good grief,” I said, moving to the chair beside him. No wonder Jonah had joined the RG.
Ethan finished his glass. “Vampires existed long before the GP was formed, and they will exist long after it’s gone. We can survive. We just might need to remind our Housed brothers and sisters of that.”
And some would take more convincing than others. “Morgan will be a terror.”
“Quite possibly. Scott Grey, less