“What?” Ethan asked, alarm in his expression.
“Aren’t we supposed to take something to dinner?” I asked, looking around the room. “Like a side dish or dessert or something. Don’t people usually do that when they’re, you know, adults?”
I didn’t have a lot of experience with potlucks, as my fusty parents generally relied on Pennebaker, their butler, to make most of their domestic arrangements. But I’d accompanied friends to their parents’ homes, and they always seemed to bring along cupcakes or dinner rolls or an extra bag of chips.
“Sometimes,” Lindsey said. “But I don’t think it’s required or anything.”
Maybe not, but I still imagined Robert and Charlotte arriving at my parents’ doorstep with children and hot dishes in hand, and I’d show up with a beau on my arm, a borrowed car, and a lifestyle my parents undoubtedly found questionable.
“Wine,” Ethan said. “We’ll ask Margot for a bottle of wine before we leave.”
“Good idea,” Lindsey said, snapping her fingers. “Make it a red. Humans love red wine.”
Luc looked at her askance. “Since when are you an expert on the human palate?”
“Since I was one,” she sarcastically said.
Ethan rolled his eyes and tapped his watch. “Since we’re down here, maybe we should discuss the protection of the House?”
“Right on,” Luc said, looking to Ethan. “We’ve polled the House. No one claims to know Robin Pope or recognize her picture, so that gives us some hope. But obviously, we’re still on high alert, considering the circumstances.”
“The riot circumstances?” Jonah asked, appearing at the doorway. “Or the GP ones?”
Jonah took in our ensembles but didn’t comment. I bet he had read Luc’s daily report.
“Both,” Ethan said. “Monmonth called a few minutes after dawn. He said he considers our harboring Grey House to be an act of war.”
Jonah looked stunned; I did not. I might have been a newer, greener vampire, but I had a lot more experience with GP shenanigans and egoism. Grey House hadn’t much been on the GP’s radar; we had. Often. Which was precisely why we’d left, even if our leaving hadn’t done much to eliminate the shenanigans. They’d pulled us back in.
“Just like in The Godfather,” I muttered.
“What was that?” Jonah asked.
“Nothing,” I said, turning to Ethan. “Can’t Darius do something to stop him? He’s still in charge.”
“Technically in charge,” Ethan said. “But his political capital is nearly gone. He all but pushed us out of the GP, lost us when we called his bluff, wasn’t able to consummate an attack against us, and was injured by a Rogue vampire. That doesn’t exactly inspire confidence among the world’s most powerful vamps.”
“Confidentially,” Jonah said, “it appears Darius has become rather agoraphobic since his fight with Michael Donovan.”
“Agoraphobic?”
“The encounter freaked him out,” Jonah said. “He’s not used to being weak, to feeling weak. Donovan got the jump on him, which completely screwed up his sense of self. The others, especially Monmonth, feel that weakness.”
“To be fair, he was wielding a gun that shot aspen stakes,” I said.
“Certainly,” Jonah allowed. “But Darius is centuries old, and he’s fought enemies before. And usually doesn’t need a pink vampire to rescue him.”
“Pink” in vampire terminology didn’t refer to my gender, but my age. I’d been a vampire for less than a year, and it stung Darius that his rescuer had been less strong and skilled than he imagined himself to be.
“And the other members of the GP are exploiting it?” Lindsey asked.
Jonah nodded. “They are vampires in the most traditional sense. Old-school monsters. The type Van Helsing hunted. The type villagers killed. They do not let subordination stand in their way.”
“Which is why they attacked Cadogan House,” Luc said, “even if they stood to gain financially when we left.”
We’d been required to pay the GP back for financial gains we’d made during our tenure in the GP, but because their attack breached our contract, we got to keep the money.
“So what do we do?” I asked.
“In the long term, ironically, we do what we can to secure Darius’s position. If he remains head of the GP, this conversation is moot.”
“How can we make him stronger?” Jonah asked.
“That will require some strategizing,” Ethan said.
“And in the short term?” I asked.