Page 7 of Protection of the Pack

I’d never delivered news like this before, so I went with the ‘ripping-off-a-plaster’ technique: quick and hard. ‘I got a call from the mansion. Mark is dead.’

Manners stilled. ‘This is bad.’

‘No shit.’

‘Not Mark dying but us being away when it happened. He made no bones about not considering you fit to lead, and it was only a question of time before he challenged you. The fact that he’s died before that challenge will make people more suspicious of you.’

‘You said I didn’t need to worry about him and he’d come around!’

‘I lied. I figured we’d have time to get you trained in combat before the challenge came. Mark wasn’t a hasty man. He was still assessing you, trying to find your weaknesses. We had time.’

I glared at him and snagged a croissant off his plate. I bit into it and tried to make the buttery flavour distract me from the fact that Manners had lied to me. For some reason, I hadn’t expected that.

Jess has always been so anti-liar; I’d recently discovered that’s because she is a truth-seeker who knows every time you fib to her. I’m a people pleaser, and a little white lie now and again is necessary in my book. I expect Manners felt his lie was in the same category, so why did it make me feel a bit sick?

When my mouth was empty – my mum didn’t raise me to be rude – I looked him in the eyes. ‘Don’t lie to me again. I need to know that I can trust you and your advice. Don’t sugar coat things, just give them to me straight.’ It came out a little more forcefully than I’d intended, but I meant every word. I needed him to be honest; I didn’t want a yes-man, I wanted an ally.

Manners nodded slowly. ‘Alright,’ he said. It wasn’t an oath, but I’d always felt that he was a man of his word. And it would have to do for now because I had more important things to worry about.

‘I can – and will – alibi you both,’ Maxwell stated. ‘The premises have video surveillance, so it will be easy to prove that you both spent the night here.’

Manners scrubbed his hand through his hair. ‘There’s a slight problem with that.’

‘What?’

‘I went out at around 1am. An old friend called, asking for help. I got back in about 3am.’

I sat down heavily at the breakfast bar. ‘Fuck. They’re going to say you killed Mark for me.’

‘We don’t know that,’ Manners replied levelly. ‘Did they say how he’d died? Maybe he just tripped and fell.’

I stared at him, stone-faced.

He gave a one-shouldered shrug. ‘It could happen,’ he muttered.

‘This complicates things,’ Maxwell said. ‘Did one of my guys go with you when you left the premises?’

Manners shook his head. ‘They offered but I turned them down. My whole life I’ve been brethren – human with a side of dragon. Whether I’m in Common or not, I’m still dangerous. I don’t need protection.’

I snorted. ‘What bullshit! A fire elemental could barbecue you before you could say Guy Fawkes.’

‘Barbecuing people is very much frowned on,’ Maxwell interjected. ‘Despite what you think, most fire elementals work as firemen. We use our innate skills to put out fires, not start them. We don’t use our flames to harm others.’

‘Unless you’re Benedict,’ I pointed out.

Maxwell flinched. ‘Benedict was an aberration. He came to power in an uncertain time, and he seemed strong and charismatic. We didn’t realise how unhinged he was until he started to throw his little flare parties.’

‘In which he set his enemies alight,’ I pointed out.

‘As I said, he was an aberration. Roscoe has worked hard to stamp out any hint of us using our element to hurt people.’ There was pride in Maxwell’s voice as he spoke of his lover. Roscoe had stepped up to the plate when Benedict died; now he was the fire elemental member for the Symposium and head of all of the fire elementals in the UK.

‘We’re getting off topic,’ I pointed out. ‘Who did you go and help, and why?’ I asked Manners.

‘A fellow brethren member. She was drunk and needed a lift home. No big deal.’

‘And she called you rather than a taxi?’ Suspicion laced my tone.

‘She’s been … lonely since she was posted here. There’s not a big Other presence, not like Liverpool. She just wanted to see a friendly face.’

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