RED, RED WINE

Our dinner party was assembled in another room accessible through the atrium, a space in the warehouse nearly as large as the joint office had been. This one looked like a room for special events; tonight, a single, rectangular table was set in the middle of the room, a handful of modern-style chairs surrounding it.

Gabriel Keene, head of the North American Central Pack of shape-shifters, stood beside the table with his wife, Tonya. The Masters were already moving toward their chairs, having apparently already offered their introductions, which left the shifters to me.

I walked toward them, ignoring the vampire behind me and the others in the room. I wouldn't call Gabriel and Tonya friends per se, but Gabriel certainly had more foresight than Darius, which I could respect.

"I understand congratulations are in order," I said, offering them both a smile.

Gabriel was as manly as they came - big, brawny, tawny-haired, and honey-eyed with a love of leather and fine Harleys - but his face beamed with paternal pride. "We have a beautiful baby boy at home," he confirmed. "We appreciate the sentiment."

"It was nice of you to join us tonight," I said with a teasing smile. "I can't imagine you'd normally prefer vampire company to your newborn son's."

Gabriel cast a suspicious glance at Darius and the others. I understood the feeling. "There are things in life we need to do," he said, "and there are things in life we must do. Although I don't anticipate we'll stay very long."

Smiling, Tonya fished a tiny wallet out of her clutch. "Who could leave this face for long?" She held out a small photo of an admittedly adorable baby in a blue onesie. Gabriel smiled at the sight of the picture. He was clearly smitten.

There was a wealth of pride and love in his eyes, but when he raised his gaze to me, I could see the hint of fear behind it. The fear that comes from loving something so much you feel weighted down with it, nearly crushed by it. The fear of potential loss, of potential heartbreak, that you might fail the thing you worked so hard to bring into the world.

Parental fear, I suppose, made worse by the fact that being leader - Apex - of the Pack was hereditary. Connor was born a prince among wolves. He'd been born beneath a mantle of power, but also bearing the mantle of a responsibility he couldn't even begin to fathom.

It must have been a lot for Gabriel to bear, knowing the responsibility he'd one day hoist upon his child's shoulders.

"You'll do right by him," I whispered. I wasn't sure if the words were elegant enough, but they seemed right enough. And Gabriel's small nod told me I'd said just the right thing.

"How are things otherwise?"

"Well, we aren't being used as scientific experiments," Gabriel said dryly. "That's a small victory." One of his concerns about announcing shifters' existence to the world was the fear they'd become fodder for military or medical research - the kinds of things you saw in monster movies and horror flicks. It wasn't exactly a pleasant thought, and I was glad to hear it hadn't come to pass.

"It's not that I think humans don't believe we're threats," he added. "They just aren't entirely sure what to do with us."

Shifters were generally considered the most powerful supernatural beings, at least of the groups I knew about so far. I considered humans' ignorance on that point a benefit.

"And the shifters who attacked the House?"

His expression darkened. "They're working their way through the penal system just like any average human criminal."

While I grimaced, Scott clapped his hands together. "Welcome, all, to Grey House. I appreciate your attendance here, and hope this can be a step toward friendship among us. Shall we dine?"

Before we could answer, men and women in chef's whites began pouring into the room bearing silver dome-topped trays. I took a seat beside Ethan as the trays were deposited before us. Two vampires traveled around the table with carafes of lemon water and bottles of a deep red wine, pouring as the vampires requested. Only Ethan, Jonah, and I opted for the wine; I guess we needed a drink worse than the others.

Other vampires lifted the domes, revealing a meal that might have been described as "Predator's Delight." Loins, roasts, cutlets.

Sausages, steaks, filets. All laid out with artistic perfection. Oh, to be sure, there were sides, as well. Small fingerling potatoes, corn, and a grain salad of some kind. But in a room of vamps and shifters - predators among humans - the carnivorous urge was undeniable.

My stomach chose that moment to growl in a rumble that nearly echoed across the room.

As my cheeks heated, all eyes turned to me. I smiled lightly.

Gabriel smiled back, then lifted his water glass when the chefs disappeared from the room again.

"Thank you, Mr. Grey, for the opportunity to share grain and beast with you. This is a meaningful gesture to us, and we hope our families can continue to commune in peace in the years to come."

"Hear, hear," Darius said, raising his glass, as well. "We are now neighbors in this fine city, and we hope that our days of strife are behind us, and that we can work together in peace and allegiance for millennia to come."

Gabriel offered a polite nod and gestured with his glass again, but didn't exactly commit to the "allegiance" bit. Vamps collected formal allegiances like baseball cards; shifters weren't exactly crazy about that kind of thing.

"And since I'd truly rather Merit focus on her meal than on me," Gabriel said with a wink, "let's stop talking and start eating."

But, of course, that would have been much too simple.

I don't know why it surprised me that Scott offered up a mean feast. The man loved the Cubs, he had an amazing warehouse turned House, and Benson's was his House bar. Those facts screamed "Quality Master."

The food was no exception. The meats were choice cuts that even my particular father might have served to dinner guests. They were tender enough to make a knife irrelevant, and seared to perfection on the outside. He couldn't have done better, especially for a group of predators.

Honestly, if I'd been a guy, I would have finished my plate, relaxed in my chair, and unfastened the top button of my pants. Food that good deserved undisturbed digestion.

Unfortunately, it wasn't to be.

I'd just taken another sip of wine - grimacing at how dry it was - when the door at one end of the room burst open. Five vampires rushed in, some in black street clothes, but a couple wearing blue and yellow hockey-style jerseys with GREY HOUSE in capital letters across the front. They all had swords in hand and malice in their expressions.

"This is how you treat us?" asked one Grey House vamp who wore number thirty-two.

"Some fucking shifter and his bitch get fed like kings?"

The Grey House vamp on the other side wore number twenty-seven. "And the GP, too? Shit is falling down here in the States, and we're serving steak to a vamp from the UK? Does that seem right to you?"

Within seconds, my dagger was in hand. And I wasn't the only one on alert.

Scott Grey jumped out of his chair and marched to the end of the table. "Matt, Drew, back the fuck off. Drop the swords, and march right back to the door."

The Grey House vamps wavered, probably the result of some mental Master juju Scott was throwing their way. But the rest of them didn't seem to be affected at all.

I carefully got to my feet and moved toward them, spinning the dagger in my palm as the anticipation built. All five vamps wobbled a little on their feet, their movements erratic, their eyes darting around the room. As I moved incrementally closer, I could see the cause in their eyes - they were almost wholly silver.

"Scott, it's V," I warned him.

"Any easy solution for handling them?" he called back.

"Not without a sorcerer," I told him. "We'll have to knock them out the old-fashioned way."

"Then that's what we'll do," Ethan said, stepping beside me, a knife from the table in his hand.

"Nice of you to join us, Sullivan," I teased, my gaze following the vamps as they spread out in a line, ready to rumble, whatever the cost. And with Darius, an Apex, and three Masters in the room, the cost would be high. . . .

"Let's go, old man," Thirty-two said. "You want to fight your own vampires? You want to take his side over theirs?"

"Liege," Jonah said, "as your captain, I'm going to request you move into a safer position."

"Request it all you want, Red," Scott told him, a mirthless smile on his face. "But that's not going to stop me from putting these dumbshits in their places. That's what they get for doing V."

Ditto what he said, Sentinel, Ethan silently told me. I suppose he wasn't going to let me argue he should just sit this one out.

The Grey House vamps seemed equally eager to brawl. "Oh, go to hell, man," Twenty-seven said.

"Only if you join me," Scott said pleasantly, and before another second passed, the room erupted into violence. Jonah and Scott took the Grey House vamps. Gabriel, Darius, and Tonya were sitting this one out. That left the Rogues to me, Ethan, and Morgan.

"I got the one in the middle," I called out.

"That leaves the other two for us," Ethan said.

"Greer, take the one on the left."

And with that, we moved. I slipped between the in-House squabble to the angry-looking Rogue behind them, his eyes just as silver as the Grey vamps' had been. He was a big guy, and beads of sweat formed at his temple as he fought the rush of the drug. But this guy didn't care whether it was rage or drugs fueling his attack.

He bared his teeth and moved in.

I had to give him credit - he was faster than I would have imagined given his bulk. He moved like a spider - his weight carried delicately on small, mincing feet.

He slashed, stepping into the movement like a trained fighter. I blocked the knife with my dagger, but miscalculated his speed and felt the cold burn of pain on the back of my hand. My own blood scented the air, pushing my vampiric instincts into overdrive.

I glanced down and saw the thin line of crimson. Only a couple of inches long and not terribly deep. It was a glancing blow, but that didn't ease the burn.

"Not cool," I said, moving into a spin, the dagger in my hand slicing through the front of his shirt. He muttered a few choice phrases but jumped back again. I stayed on the offensive, my intent to make this guy as uncomfortable as possible - to keep him as off balance as possible  - while watching for a chance to knock him out.

"You think you're any better than the rest of them?" he muttered, raising the sword over his head and slashing down. I jumped back and out of the way, but my heel caught in a knot in one of the planks. I stumbled backward and into one of the room's giant wooden posts, catching myself with a hand.

Ethan's concerned voice echoed through my head. Sentinel.

I'm fine, I assured him, then kicked off my shoes. A vamp didn't need to fight in stilettos, anyway.

When I was upright again, I recentered the dagger in my hand and stared back at the vamp.

"You were saying?"

"Bitch," he called out, swinging his katana in an awkward cross-body slice that would have been better suited for a broadsword than fine Japanese steel. And I cringed on its behalf as I ducked, and felt the echoing shudder of the column as his katana made contact - and stuck there. What a waste.

I spun out from beneath him as he loosened his grip on the handle and began stepping backward, eyes widening as if suddenly aware that the Sentinel from Cadogan House was on his case.

Maybe the drug was beginning to wear off.

"I'm going to do you a solid," I said, holding my dagger out to the side. "I'm going to toss this away, so we can have a fair fight."

I saw the relief in his expression as I chucked the steel. And when his eyes shifted to watch it spin across the floor, I made my move. I threw out a roundhouse kick that connected with his head. He went down hard, like a sack of vampire potatoes, then bounced a little before finally rolling to a stop.

Sure, roundhousing someone while wearing a cocktail dress wasn't exactly ladylike, but it certainly was effective.

With my Rogue out of commission, I glanced over at Ethan. He was in the process of putting his on the floor with a twisting judostyle drop that rattled the floorboards. When he was down, Ethan used an elbow at the neck to knock him out.When the guy was still, he looked up at me, then noticed my guy was down. Roundhouse? he silently asked.

It is a classic, I said, glancing up. The rest of the party crashers had been bested, as well, all five of them out cold on the floor.

Jonah looked around the room, his gaze stopping when he reached me. "You okay?" he mouthed.

I nodded back. That definitely seemed personal.

"Scott," Darius called out, "What the fuck was that?"

Before Scott could answer, I filled in the blank. "With all due respect, Sire - those are your errant vampires."

Scott's guards, including Jonah's friends Jeremy and Danny, stormed the room not a moment later, pulling out the unconscious users. But they left the katana in the column - a visible sign to others in the House who might be stupid enough to try V.

We said goodbye to Gabriel and Tonya, who, understandably, left the House as soon as the coast was clear. Scott escorted the rest of us into the atrium while the remains of dinner were cleaned up. Charlie and Darius stood quietly together; Morgan stood alone. I was standing near Ethan when Scott and Jonah moved our way.

Scott looked between us. "Thanks for the assist."

Ethan nodded graciously. "It happens to the best of us, unfortunately."

"How are the vamps doing?" I asked.

"They're still out. They're in the infirmary under guard for the moment. When they're awake again, we'll have a lengthy conversation about drugs and responsibility."

"Did you know them well?" I asked.

"Only as applicants to the House," Scott said.

"They're relative newcomers. Members of your Initiate class."

"What's a 'newcomer' in immortal terms?" I asked.

A smile perked at one corner of Scott's mouth.

"Anything less than a decade."

Which made me a baby vamp.

Ethan slid a glance to where Darius stood, now offering up some sort of instructions while Charlie tapped at a tablet computer. "Do you think he'll consider the threat any more real now?"

"The GP has an odd attitude about things like this. I'm still not sure he sees us as anything other than troublemakers at this point. Squeaky wheels taking him away from real business in the UK."

"Are you going to investigate?"

Scott blew out a breath. "That's a tough one.

This is a problem in my House. It has to be addressed."

"And if you discover Celina had anything to do with it?"

"Then we didn't have this conversation, but the Chicago Houses agreed to quietly deal with the problem as it exists."

Scott and Ethan looked at each other until Scott extended a hand. Ethan shook it, the deal struck.

Scott gestured toward his office. "I'm going to have a chat with my guards for a moment. I assume Darius will want to speak with us before you leave."

"We'll wait here," Ethan agreed.

"I think Luc was right," he added when they were out of earshot. "I can hardly take you out anymore."

"I just took out a vamp twice my weight while wearing a cocktail dress and three-inch heels. I think I deserve some credit for that."

"Is that so?" he asked.

That's when I first felt it - that rumble of warning from somewhere deep in my bones, telling me something wasn't right. But I ignored it and challenged him anyway.

"Yes," I baldly said. "You're fortunate I was there to help."

"Fortunate? I believe I bested my own foe, Merit. Perhaps you should thank me for my assistance." He raked his gaze up and down my body. "I'm sure I can suggest some small measure of gratitude."

The blood began to pound in my ears, my skin prickling with sudden heat. I had no doubt my eyes were silver, but I didn't care. I slipped a finger into one of the belt loops on his trousers and tugged him closer. "What did you have in mind?"

His eyes changed, his pupils mere pinpricks of black against the swirling quicksilver of his irises.

He began moving forward, pushing me backward, and he didn't stop until my back was literally against the brick wall of the atrium.

Before I could object, his hands were on my face, his mouth against mine. His lips pulled at my mouth, kissing me hungrily, greedily.

In some satellite part of my brain, it occurred to me that it was odd that Ethan was kissing me in someone else's House. And yet, even as I thought it was weird, my blood began to warm and boil with a heat I'd never experienced before. It itched beneath my skin, adrenaline pushing through my veins as if I were still midbattle with the Grey House vampires.

"Ethan," I managed, calling his name in warning, even while I let him kiss me there in the middle of Grey House. He changed tactics and kissed me slowly, languorously, before finally opening his eyes and looking at me. There was an apology in his eyes.

"Something is . . . wrong."

I nodded my head, knowing that he'd meant this wasn't just love or lust, but a different kind of force, but the thought was distant, and the burning need was here and now.

It was immediate.

Intense.

I rolled my head to the side, my eyelids fluttering, the invitation overt.

"Do you need something from me?" His voice was low, more like the warning growl of a tiger than the question of a vampire.

I swallowed . . . and nodded. I felt like a teenager at a first dance. I didn't know the music, wasn't savvy to the steps, but the emotions were so basic, so fundamental, that it wasn't possible to dance them incorrectly.

Ethan lifted a hand to my neck, the bare touch of his fingertips nearly buckling my knees. And before I could ask why he was apologizing, he kissed me. His kiss was firm, insistent, and questing. He moved closer, wrapping his arms around my back and deepening the kiss. His tongue explored as he pressed harder against me, the sudden length of his unmistakable erection pressing against my stomach.

I should have been shocked. Should have reminded him that this was neither the time nor the place, that we'd seen how bad things could get. But with each possessive rumble in his throat, our own magics twined together. I was drawn in - by the magic, by the kiss, by the possessive bite of his fingers. I pulled him toward me, my fingers slipping into the belt loops on his trousers, and leaned up to deepen the kiss. I was as hungry for him as I'd ever been for blood, but this hunger was now. It was immediate, and it demanded to be sated.

Love was a dangerous drug.

Oh, God. That was it. Ethan wasn't overpowered by love or lust or the sudden, romance-novel-esque realization that He Had to Have Me Now. This was unprompted aggression, albeit of a slightly different variety than we'd seen before. . . .

"Ethan, I think we've been drugged."

He ignored me, instead growling and tangling his fingers into my hair. My heart tripped, not out of lust this time, but out of fear, because the growl had changed, become meaner.

I switched tactics, giving him a telepathic order that I hoped would push through the haze of drugs to the part of his brain that was still functioning. Ethan, stop.

He lifted his head, and I saw the conflict in his eyes. His brain ordered him to stop, but his body was propelling him forward - evidenced by his eyes. They were nearly all silver.

"What?" he asked.

"I think we've been drugged. Someone slipped us V. Maybe in the food?"

A wave of hot, itchy anger rushed through me.

I squeezed my eyes shut and my fingers into fists, pressing until the pain in my palms helped slow the spinning of my mind.

"The anger found a different outlet," he said, his voice hoarse. "Perhaps a different dose. Maybe in one of the meats?"

I shook my head. "The wine," I answered. "I think it was in the wine. It had an odd taste.

Really, really bitter."

"Who else drank the wine?"

I thought back. I'd had wine, as had Ethan.

And the only other person who'd had wine was Jonah. But I was saved the trouble of telling Ethan.

We both looked up as Jonah burst through the foliage in front of us. His eyes, already silver, became fierce as he stared Ethan down.

"It isn't nice not to share."

Ethan growled, low in his throat, a warning to Jonah. "I don't share."

Jonah clucked his tongue. "You should. Life is so much more interesting, don't you think, when all of us get a taste?" I'd heard of girls being thrilled to be fought over before, but I didn't like feeling like a piece of property.

"I'm no one's to offer up," I said.

"But you could do so much better," was Jonah's retort.

It's just V, I silently reminded Ethan. He had the wine, too.

"Regardless the cause, he'd best behave himself," Ethan gritted out. He stared Jonah down, fangs bared. They were nearly the same height, close to the same build. Ethan was fairer than Jonah, but they'd have made equally matched opponents, if not for Ethan's position, which surely would have reaped Jonah more trouble than the fight would have been worth.

"Jonah," I warned, standing up, as well. "Back off."

But instead of backing off, he bared his fangs at Ethan, hissing in warning that he'd found a prize and didn't plan to give it up.

I wasn't sure where the sudden interest had come from, but seriously doubted it had anything to do with me. More likely, Jonah had been drawn in by the magic that Ethan and I had spilled into the room. And in classic V fashion, he'd become unreasonably angry.

"Jonah, come on," I urged. "You need to back off. You don't want to fight a Master, especially not when Darius is here."

My voice was pleading, and he threw me a glance. His brows were drawn together, as if he was trying to puzzle out exactly why he was standing in the atrium, ready to fight for a girl he'd only recently come to respect, much less actually like.

But Ethan apparently hadn't noticed the self-reflection, and took a menacing step forward. "She is mine."

Jonah shook off rationality and faced him down. "That decision is hers to make, and it doesn't look like she's made it yet."

"She sure as fuck won't be choosing you,"

Ethan growled out.

Jonah lifted his arm. My own instincts kicked in, protecting Ethan at the top of my list.

"Step back, Jonah," I warned him, but he still hadn't managed to push through the V. He cocked back to swing. I reached forward to pull him off, but he swung blindly out. As if time had slowed down, I watched his fist move toward me, a swat to push me away. He made contact.

The lights went out.