Morgan was obviously fuming, sending plumes of irritated magic into the air. But beneath that irritation was something different. A strain of fear, maybe? That would bear a little investigating, but later. One crisis at a time.
Apparently done with the reunion, Morgan turned on his heel and walked away. His girlfriend stayed behind and gave me a none-too-flattering visual evaluation.
"In case there was any question," she said, "you should keep your hands off him."
"Off Morgan?"
She gave me a bitchy head-bop.
"Rest assured, Morgan's not even on my radar. But good luck with him." You'l need it, I thought, the first time he has a bout of jealousy or starts pouting about some perceived slight.
It's not that I thought Morgan was a bad guy, but the boy loved drama.
The date muttered something unflattering. Being the bigger person, I merely smiled back at her. But the fantasy reaction stil played out in my mind - the one in which I put her on the floor with only a finger at one of her pressure points and held her there until she apologized for the slight.
Maybe Ethan had been right. Maybe being a vampire was going to wring the humanity right out of me.
After another few seconds of nasty looks, she turned and disappeared into the crowd. Jonah and I stood there for a moment staring after her. This time, instead of waiting for his strike, I played offense.
"We only dated for a few weeks."
He smiled a little. "I know about the bargain," he said.
"Noah and Scott were in the crowd."
I'd forgotten about that. Noah and Scott had both been present when Morgan had shown up at Cadogan House, frantic that a Cadogan vampireado
I'd given in, and although Morgan could be incredibly charming, he was much too immature to be a contender.
"How is Noah these days?" I wondered. Noah was a guard himself, but I hadn't heard from him since Jonah had become my primary contact. He was also the de facto leader of Chicago's Rogue vampires, those who weren't tied to a particular House.
"Busy. The Rogues always get nervous when the Houses are in trouble. They fear GP retaliation against them, or internment, if that's the way it goes."
"Reason number four to join the RG," I muttered.
Amusement in his eyes, Jonah slid me a glance. "What were one through three?"
"Helping the Houses, having a reliable partner, and those
'Midnight High School' T-shirts. Do I get one of those?"
"Of course. You'l just have to find somewhere private to keep it."
I hadn't considered that - that there would be RG gear, materials, documents I'd need to keep secreted away even within my own room. I'd have to give that some thought.
Jonah rubbed his hands together. "How about a drink now?"
"Yes, please," I agreed, but before I could place an order, I got a very bad vibe. The building vibrated a little. Only for a moment, but I'd have sworn I felt something.
"Did you feel that?"
"Feel what?"
I froze, and after a moment, wondered if I'd imagined it.
And as I stood there waiting, I happened to glance at a cup of water on a bar table beside us. The rumbling started deep and low, sending ripples across the water.
"Jonah - "
"I saw that," he said, then paused. "Maybe it's just real y big dinosaurs."
"Or real y big magic," I finished. "I think we need to get outside."
I could see in his face that he didn't want to believe anything was out there, but he had a duty to perform, so he was wil ing to take a look. "Let's go."
We scooted through the bodies and tables - the humans and vampires apparently oblivious to the rumblings - and stepped into the cool November air . . .
And saw nothing.
Partygoers walked up and down the street. Traffic was light, but there were a few cars out and about.
"I know I felt something," I said, scanning the street back and forth.
I took another step forward and closed my eyes, letting down some of the defenses I used to keep the mass of information that flooded into a vampire's brain at bay. For a moment, there was nothing . . . Just the typical smel s and sounds of a fal night in Chicago. The air smel ed of people and food and grease. Dirt from the bal park. Smoke from the traffic.
My eyes closed, my head tipped back, I felt the rumble again, the ground vibrating dizzyingly beneath me.
"Merit!" Jonah yel ed. I opened my eyes just in time to be snatched backward as he wrapped an arm around my waist and pul eais>
The asphalt split, a twenty-feet wide mountain of earth erupting into the middle of the street in front of us.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
I FEEL THE EARTH MOVE
"What the hel is that?" he asked, as we watched this new mountain burst through the middle of Wrigleyvil e. The asphalt around it cracked and moved, stopping traffic and turning over cars on the sides of the road. Car alarms and honking horns began to ripple down the sidewalk as chaos erupted, people streaming from the bars to scream at the bubble of earth in front of them.
Both too stunned to move, we stood on the sidewalk, Jonah's arm stil around me, staring at it. I risked a glance at the sky, and saw exactly what I'd expected to see.
It was flaming red again, the sky flashing as lightning lit the clouds from within. And I'd bet good money the lakes and rivers were back to black and were sucking in magic.
"This is earth," I said, foreboding col ecting heavily in my abdomen. "I talked to Tate. The problems occur when someone mixes good and evil magic and the balance of the elements is thrown off in the process."
"We'l leave aside the fact that you went to see Tate alone again," Jonah darkly said. "For now. Bigger point -
whoever or whatever is responsible for these problems is at it again."
Before I could answer him, the rumbling began again.
"Jonah," I warned, and he released me, scanning the street for the next eruption.
"I feel it," he agreed, and we watched, horrified, as another mountain punched through the sidewalk in the front of a real estate office down the block a bit. Before we could react, a third fol owed, a couple of blocks down the road.
"They're stil coming."
"And they're headed toward Grey House," he frantical y said, pul ing out his phone. He dialed some number, but then cursed. "I can't get through."
"Go," I told him. "Go back to your House. Take your vampires with you if you think you need help."
When he looked down at me, for the first time, I saw fear in his eyes.
"They'l bury us with this, Merit. They wil bury us."