He stood in the threshold of my door as I sent Catcher a message. I wasn't exactly thril ed with Catcher right now, but I wanted a non-vamp to know I was heading into fairy territory. His response was nearly immediate: YOUR
FUNERAL.
Charming.
I pul ed out my dagger and slipped it into my boot, then took my sheathed katana from its horizontal wal mount.
That had been a gift from Luc; he'd instal ed one for Lindsey one rainy Saturday, and she'd decided it was fabulous enough that I'd needed one, too. I couldn't disagree - it was a gorgeous way to display the sword.
Even in its scabbard it was a beautiful weapon, sleek and gleaming, the blade inside equal y sleek but deadly and curving just so.
"Your rooms aren't quite as lush as ours are," Jonah said.
"You have more room and fewer vampires," I pointed out, gathering up my belt. He stepped aside as I closed the door behind us.swi room and "True."
He fol owed me back downstairs, but pul ed me to a stop before we went outside. "I don't actual y know where the queen lives - it's a secret the fairies guard with their lives.
In order to get that information, we'l have to offer them something in return."
So much for Chicago's sups being in this together. "What wil they want?"
"Precious metals or stones." He grinned. "They're stil on the gold standard. I don't suppose you have any sitting around?"
"Gold? No. No, I don't. I left al my bul ion in my room."
"Smart-ass," he said, but he was smiling when he said it.
As I considered our options, I absently touched the Cadogan medal around my neck . . . and got an idea.
"Fol ow me," I told him, and walked down the House's main hal way, where the administrative offices were located. Vampires were funneling back into the House now, and we found Helen in her office. Her Barbie-pink office.
The room lit by candles, she sat behind her desk in a pink tracksuit, every hair in her steel gray bob in place. She was making notes on a pad with an old-fashioned dip cal igraphy pen. She glanced up when we entered and dipped her pen back into a smal glass jar of black ink.
"Yes, Sentinel?"
"I don't suppose you have any extra Cadogan medals in hand?"
Alarm flashed through her eyes; that wasn't entirely unexpected. We'd already lost one blank Cadogan medal; it had been stolen and used by a former Cadogan vampire to try to frame the House in a series of murders. It stood to reason she'd be hesitant about throwing them around now.
"We've been directed by the GP and Malik to visit the fairies," I explained. "In order to ascertain how and where to do that, we need to talk to the fairies at the gate."
She nodded in understanding. "And they require payment for information." She stood up and walked to a file cabinet, then unlocked the top drawer. But before she opened it, she looked suspiciously at Jonah.
"He's the captain of the Grey House guards," I informed her. "He's been instrumental in helping us deal with these issues. You know, inter-House cooperation and al that."
She nodded, unlocked the door, and pul ed out two blank Cadogan medals, which she handed to me. "Do everything you can," she said, a tremor in her voice. "It's hard to know how to react or what I should do . . . I don't know what's happening."
"I don't think anyone does," I said, and assured her we'd do our best. But that didn't make me any less nervous at the weight being placed on our shoulders. Not that I'd let that deter me. Cadogan, at least, was short on guards and barely had enough to keep watch outside. Who else could do it?
Medals in hand, we walked back to the front door and stood on the smal stone porch for a moment, watching the fairies at the gate . . . and trying very hard to focus on the task at hand and not the chaos around us.
"I'm guessing you have more information about the fairies than I do," I told Jonah. "Would you like to handle this one?"
He nodded. "I can take it. Although I've never met Claudia before."
"Claudia? s">I don"
He smiled. "The fairy queen. The one they would die to protect."
"Of course they would," I muttered, then handed over the gold and fol owed him down the sidewalk.
Two male fairies stood point at the gate, their gaunt features exaggerated by their long, dark, straight hair, pul ed back tightly at the temples. They were tal and slender and they both wore black, and when they realized we were approaching them, they shared a none too flattering glance.
Jonah cut to the chase. "We need information, and we have treasure to offer."
The interest in their eyes was unmistakable; it might have been fair to cal it "lust." They had the same expressions of yearning you might have seen on an inveterate gambler offered a seat at a lucky table.
"What kind of treasure?" asked one of the fairies.
"Gold," Jonah told them. He rattled the medals together in his pocket, and their heads twitched a bit at the sound.
"What information?" the fairy asked.
"We need to speak with the queen."
Silence.
"And if the queen does not wish to speak with you?"
Jonah slowly lifted his gaze to the bril iantly red sky.
"The sky is on fire," he said. "You are the masters of the sky; it is your realm. If you've done this . . ." Jonah began, but a look of menace from one of the fairies made him pause. The look in their eyes left little doubt they'd be wil ing to go the distance to protect their honor.
But Jonah was undeterred. "If you've done this," Jonah repeated again, "your queen must have a reason. In order to assuage the humans, we need to advise them of it. And if your queen is not involved, then she wil undoubtedly be concerned. We seek knowledge. That is al ."
The fairies exchanged a glance. "Let us see the gold,"
said the chatty one.
Slowly, as if letting the excitement build, Jonah slipped the medals from his pocket. They dangled from their chains and spun slowly, and the fairies' eyes went wild.
"You wil find her in fortune's tower," said the fairy, reaching out his hand. Jonah dangled the medals above it.
"More," Jonah said. "This is a big city."
"It is the only remaining spire of what once stood strong."
He made a play for the medals again, but Jonah pul ed them out of reach.
"There are hundreds of skyscrapers in the Loop," he said. "A standing tower could be anywhere. That's insufficient information for this amount of gold."
The fairies were becoming tenser; I could feel the rise of magical angst in the air.