show, it was hard not to feel a little betrayed. “Yeah,” was all I could manage.
“Be careful, Lis.”
I said goodbye, and had just put my screen away, come back into the main living area, when Connor cursed.
“They’re outside?” I asked.
“They are now.”
Glad I’d lit only the small lamp, I joined him at the window. Two black SUVs—the supernatural’s preferred vehicle—were parked across the street. Vampires emerged in dark clothes, drew swords as they looked up at our building.
“Damn,” I said. We were here because of the possibility they’d show up, take me in. But I guess I hadn’t actually thought they’d go so far. Be quite so bold. I’d been wrong, which I hated. So was it time to run, or time to fight?
At the steady knock on the door, we both looked back, then at each other. My blood began to speed, anticipating a fight.
“Wait,” Connor said. “How’d they get up here so fast?”
He had a point. I cocked my head at the door. There was magic flowing in, but not animosity.
“I’m not sure it’s them,” I said and checked the peep. My relief was instantaneous.
I opened the door. “Uncle Malik,” I said, grinning at the tall, dark-skinned man who stood in the doorway. “Come in.”
I moved out of the way and, when he was inside, closed and locked the door behind us.
And when we were secure again, he held out his arms.
“Bring it in,” he said, and I didn’t hesitate, but let him wrap me in comfort. We weren’t related by blood, but that didn’t matter to me any more than it did to him. He was family, and always had been. And he felt the same about me even after he’d left the House to start his own. He’d been close to my parents, but had enough distance that he’d played neutral arbiter and advice giver dozens of times over the years, including about my decision to go to France.
“It’s really good to see you.”
“It’s good to see you, too,” he said, stepping back to get a good look. “You seem to be healthy and whole”—he cast an angry look toward the window—“contrary to the apparent wishes of those below. Compliance Bureau?”
I nodded. “You heard Blake was killed?”
“I did.”
I offered him the plastic bag, watched his eyes go wide with horror, then anger, as he realized what it held.
“A stalker?” he asked.
I nodded. “Or made to look that way.”
“You’ll get this to the Ombuds?”
“We will. Why are you here?” I asked. “Is everything okay with the House? With Aunt Aaliyah?” Uncle Malik’s wife was a writer, a profession that seemed to work well for night-bound vampires.
“She’s fine. Worried about you, as we both were. I thought you might want to talk.”
Without your parents, he meant. When you could be honest.
“Thank you,” I said. “I’m sorry about the timing.”
As if on cue, shouts echoed up from the street below.
“Elisa Sullivan.” Clive’s voice boomed through the night. “You have murdered a member of the AAM in cold blood. Surrender yourself now.”
“Shut the fuck up,” a human called out somewhere below us. “Or I’ll surrender all of you to the CPD.” Her accent was thickly Chicago, and I reminded myself to send her flowers when this was done.
Whatever Clive did—probably unsheathing his sword—had the window closing again beneath us. Flowers and cheesecake, I amended.
“We will have blood for blood!” Clive called out again. “You will answer for your crimes.”
“How’d you make it past them?” Connor asked Malik, head tilted.
“I told them I was a member of the AAM and respected their work, and understood the necessity of rules and their consistent enforcement.”
That might all be true—probably was true for a Master vampire in charge of his own House. But I didn’t think he’d admit that to the vampires currently threatening his niece.
I smiled, understanding. “You glamoured them.”
“Only a little,” Uncle Malik admitted. “They were surprisingly willing to believe me.”
“You’re a Master,” Connor said, “which puts you in a rarefied class. That probably helped.”
“Possibly,” Uncle Malik said, nodding, then glanced at me. “The glamour is already fading, and we need to get you out of here. Is there a back door?”
“I’d prefer a good brawl,” I growled. “But there’s a fire escape outside the window in Lulu’s room. And there’s an exit in the basement.” Being a good vampire, I’d scoped out the egresses when I first moved in. “They’ve probably got vampires watching the fire escape, but they may not know about the basement door. It leads up stairs to