Canon was revised when the AAM took power,” he said. “The Rule of Satisfaction is one of the sections that wasn’t.” He flipped forward a few more pages. “There’s no commentary, so I can’t speculate as to the modern intention. If this was a human legislature, we could review the debate transcripts. But vampires don’t keep those.” And he seemed exceedingly displeased by that failure.
He considered for a moment, staring blankly at the spines in front of him while tapping fingers on the open volume. “They didn’t change the rule when they could have. You have a reasonable argument that, even though it’s old-fashioned, they made a choice to keep it on the books, so the Rule still exists and can be used by vampires.” He shifted his gaze to me. “But that doesn’t mean the AAM will buy it.”
Fortunately, I only needed Nicole to buy it. And I knew how to negotiate.
TWENTY-ONE
I reviewed a few more books that might give me additional ammunition and, just in case, to check if sanctuary from any other Sup group was an option. Short answer: It wasn’t, as far as I could tell.
Maybe I could just live at Taco Hole. It was neutral ground, and I could build up my pain tolerance.
Connor messaged when his conversation with my dad was done, so I made my way back downstairs, found him waiting on the portico, the cool breeze ruffling his hair. It was chillier now than it had been when we’d gone inside.
“How was your meeting?”
Connor just looked at me, expression bland. “If he’d wanted you to know, brat, he’d have told you.”
“That bad?”
“Good or bad is none of your business. What did you find in the library?”
“A bit of Canon law that might help us. Maybe.”
“You sound very confident.”
“Yeah. I have to think it through. Let me mull it over a little, then I’ll give you the details, okay?”
His stare went even blander. “You’re asking me to trust you while you conceal information from me.”
“It’s different when I do it for reasons I don’t have the brain power to articulate right now. Something, something double standard?”
He rolled his eyes. “Fine. You have twenty-four hours.”
“You’re hilarious.” I leaned into him as we walked down the sidewalk. “Let’s go back to your place. I’m exhausted.”
“And hungry.”
“Only a little,” I admitted. But didn’t object when he grabbed a deep-dish pizza from an all-night joint on the way home.
He dropped it onto the counter when we reached the town house, and the shifter and not-quite-sorceress circled like animals.
“Thanks,” Alexei said, then dumped a slice on a plate. I watched in horror as he horizontally dissected the pizza, then placed each layer separately around the plate.
“What in the name of all that is good and delicious are you doing?” Lulu stared at him in horror. She was right. It was very upsetting.
He chewed, swallowed. “I’m eating pizza.”
“None of us think that’s what this is.” She looked up at us. “Right?”
“He doesn’t like his food to touch,” Connor said, apparently unbothered. He should have been bothered.
“It’s pizza. And it’s deep dish. Of course it’s going to touch. That’s the point.”
“Not the way he eats it.” Connor glanced at me, lips curled in amusement. “Are you so fastidious, brat, that you can’t let a man eat a pizza the way he wants? What kind of world would that be?”
“Pizza autocracy,” Alexei said, and cut through a wedge of cheese, bit in.
“A sane one,” I said, dishing up my own slice. “I’ve seen a lot of crazy things today, but that might be the weirdest.”
While we ate, Connor and I told them about our very dramatic evening.
Lulu looked me over, nodded. “You seem whole for now.” But there was worry in the set of her brows.
“I’m as good as I can be.” I looked at Alexei. “While we’re interrogating you, did you find anything blackmail-worthy?”
“Nothing,” he said, shaking his head. “If Clive has any skeletons in his closet, they’re well hidden.”
“It’s logical the AAM would be careful,” I said, “especially when staffing something called the ‘Compliance Bureau.’”
“What about Jonathan Black?” Connor asked.
I shouldn’t have been surprised that he’d asked Alexei to take a look, so I kept it to myself.
“You said you weren’t sure if he was a friend. Given his interest in you, I think that’s a question we need to answer now.”
“I didn’t say a thing,” I said and held up my hands for peace.
“What did you learn?” Connor asked.
“He has connections to certain criminal ventures of the supernatural