“So revenge and power,” Luc said. “Those are perennial vampire favorites.”
“Of his as well,” Ethan said, rubbing his temples with his free hand.
“We could call Nicole,” Malik said wryly, and Ethan barked a laugh.
“To thank her for sending him our way?”
“You think she knew?” I asked.
“I think he’s canny enough to have visited her first, confirmed he had an ally, before coming here.”
“She could have arranged to have the note left in our apartment while she was here for the Testing,” I guessed.
Ethan nodded, and then his eyes narrowed. He glanced between me, Luc, and Malik. “If she knew he was alive, and if she knew it during the Testing . . .”
“Is he the reason she abolished the GP and created the AAM?” Malik finished, crossing his arms over his chest.
Luc sat on the arm of the chair across from us. “And how much of her maneuvering was just to give Balthasar a second chance?”
Ethan sighed. “We all knew she had ulterior motives—that she didn’t propose the AAM because she’s magnanimous.”
“Did she say anything about it last week?” Malik asked.
“No,” Ethan said. The country’s Masters had met in Atlanta, Nicole’s home, for the AAM’s first meeting and to discuss the organization’s building blocks: its location, its procedures, its decision-making apparatus, its finances, the possibility of holding a formal ceremony to celebrate the organization’s creation. I’d missed that particular trip—Luc had accompanied Ethan as his body man. From the riveting discussions of parliamentary procedure I’d had with Ethan afterward, I hadn’t missed much.
“The meeting was just as you’d expect a meeting of twelve egotistical and strategy-motivated vampires to be. If she’s trying to maneuver us into some position to support Balthasar, she didn’t show her hand.”
“Next planning meeting is next week,” Luc said. “Maybe this is step one.”
“I don’t know if I buy that theory,” I said, looking between them. “To go through Testing, the election, the disbanding of the GP, setting up the AAM—all the work you’ve done in the last few weeks to get the organization up and running—there are easier ways to get power to Balthasar.” I shrugged. “Hell, she could have just supported him as a candidate for Darius’s position.”
“That’s a point,” Luc agreed.
“Maybe you should call her,” Malik said. “Acknowledge he is here. Find out what you can. Get it out in the open.”
“That’s what she said,” I murmured, but loud enough for Luc to hear and grin approvingly.
“Nice, Sentinel.”
Ethan rolled his eyes. “You two have clearly been spending too much time together.”
“Two-a-days,” we said simultaneously.
“You train more, you bond more,” Luc said. “It’s part of my trademarked regimen: ‘Luc90X.’”
“That’s not a thing,” Malik said, “and it’s not trademarked. It’s probably a trademark violation.”
“Details.”
“Children,” Ethan said, standing and glancing at his watch. “Dawn is coming soon, and I think we’ve had plenty of excitement for one night.”
“Yes,” Luc said, rising at the obvious signal. “Let that be a lesson to you about attempting to leave the House and have a private life.”
“We’ll keep our relationship purely professional in the future,” I promised, which earned scoffs from all three of them.
“Tell that to the man who defended your honor with French and a blade earlier this evening,” Malik said. He had a valid point.
Reminded of the blade, Ethan walked across the room, plucked it from the wall with a fist, slipped it into a nearby drawer. “Let’s reconvene at dusk to discuss what we’ve learned about Balthasar, what we may need to prepare for.”