for granted.
"Thank you."
He shrugged. "I borrowed your phone. Sent a message to Ethan to let him know you were okay. I thought you'd probably have checked in when you returned, and a call from me would have been really suspicious."
I nodded my agreement. Of course, just because he hadn't outed himself to Ethan didn't mean there weren't going to be questions. Ethan was still going to wonder where I'd spent the day.
I glanced into the sitting room where he'd slept. A plush couch and love seat were poised near another enormous flat-screen television mounted to the wall. The rest of the room was equally nice. Luxe carpet, rich colors, crown molding, and wainscoting. An arcade video game stood against one wall, and a framed Ryne Sandberg jersey hung on the other.
This place could have been featured on vampire Cribs.
"This is a pretty sweet place."
"New House, new digs. Well, relatively new House, anyway. Only eight years old, which isn't much when immortality is the context." He walked to a mini-fridge built into a cabinet on the far wall and opened it, revealing tidy rows of longneck bottles. He plucked one out and walked my way.
"I don't think hair of the dog is going to do it for me today."
"It's not beer." When he held it out, I looked it over. It was blood. Traditional beer bottle, but definitely not the traditional brew. It was another Blood4You product - the unfortunately named LongBeer. They really could use Mallory's marketing expertise.
"You looked like you could use it."
I nodded my agreement and twisted off the cap, my fingers shaking with the sudden hunger.
The blood was cold and had a peppery zing to it, like it had been doctored with a dash or two of Tabasco.
As blood went, it was delicious. But, more important, it satiated the need. I finished the bottle in seconds flat, then lowered it again, chest heaving.
"Guess you needed that?"
I nodded, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand. "Sorry. Sometimes the hunger takes me."
Jonah reached out and took the bottle from my hand. "It can do that. And you had a big night last night."
"Not as big as it might have been, but big enough. I got hungry at the party, and I was lucky not to flip out like everyone else there."
He dropped the bottle into a bin beside the refrigerator. "Speaking of, you certainly got the vamps fired up."
"It wasn't me," I assured him. "A female vamp bumped me, and I ended up with two vamps in my face trying to take me out."
Jonah frowned. "There did seem to be a lot of aggression in the air."
"And did you notice their eyes?" I asked.
"Totally silver, barely any pupil. They were seriously vamped out."
"There was also a lot of magic in the room.You put those two things together and you get vamps itching for a fight."
I shook my head. "This couldn't just be volume - all the vampires in a room together.
The Houses couldn't exist if just being near other vampires made them predatory enough to fight for no reason. Maybe it's a mob-mentality thing? One vamp sanctions violence and the rest of them fall into line?"
Jonah shook his head. "I've got another theory. What if the magic wasn't just leaked by the vamps - what if it was directing them?"
"You're suggesting someone was using magic against us? Fueling the aggression?"
He nodded. "Making the vamps super predatorial."
"Okay," I allowed, "say it is magic. But who does that implicate? Sorcerers? They usually try to stay away from vamp drama, and there are only, like, three in the Chicago area. I know two of them, and making vamps play gladiator isn't exactly on their to-do list." Granted, I'd never met Mallory's tutor, but I had a pretty good idea how he was spending his time - training her.
"Okay, so probably not sorcerers. How did you find Sarah?" Jonah asked.
"She was sitting on the floor, looked completely spaced-out. No visible bite marks, so something else had to be going on. Is it possible to glamour someone into illness? I mean, to make them physically weaker just from the glamour?"
He frowned, considering it. "I've never seen it.
But that's not to say it's not possible. Did you learn anything from her? How she found out about the party?"
I passed along the information she'd given me about Temple Bar and the man she'd seen outside. "She also gave me this," I said, digging the envelope from my pocket. I pulled it out, then opened