Page 70 of Protection of the Pack

‘Yikes! What was the insult?’

‘No one can remember. They may be immortal, but their memories aren’t infallible.’

‘I bet it was a “your mama” joke,’ I muttered. ‘They never go down well.’

Manners laughed. ‘Imagine centuries of feuds because of a comment about the wrong MILF.’

Bastion was silent and statue like, his stony expression giving nothing away. ‘What about you?’ I asked. ‘Griffins are long lived, right?’

‘Long lived. Not immortal,’ he responded finally.

‘How old are you?’

‘That’s a rude question in any realm,’ Manners said to me reproachfully.

‘What was all that about missing vampyrs?’

‘It may be nothing,’ Bastion shrugged.

‘But it may be something.’

‘The new vampyr, the one he won’t tell us about, he’s been asking about missing vampyrs.’

‘So what, he’s a vampyric Sherlock Holmes?’

Bastion looked at me flatly. ‘I will dig into it further,’ he said finally. He wasn’t willing to speculate. ‘We’re done here.’ Bastion turned and walked away. We scrambled after him – after all, he had the car.

The afternoon was drawing to a close as we returned to the mansion. New gates secured the front drive, but they opened as we approached. As we drew up, there were no black Ford Escapes in sight and it became clear that the brethren were gone. The balcony door had been restored to its full glory, and I knew that invisible runes covered the house. The metal shutters were ready to slam down at a moment’s notice, and cameras covered every entrance and exit. We weren’t Fort Knox, but we were a helluva lot better than we’d been before.

‘Grab some dinner and get ready,’ Bastion advised. ‘We’ll leave at 10pm.’ He walked away without looking back. He was a hundred yards from us when he shifted into his griffin form; his clothes melted away and he became fifty percent lion, fifty percent eagle and one hundred percent deadly. He spread his white wings and flew off.

‘The vampyrs aren’t the only ones who can make a good exit,’ I muttered to Manners. ‘We need to work on ours.’

He threw me a grin and shook his head. I was being entertaining again.

We separated. I intended to go to my rooms when something occurred to me.IfMark’s death was somehow linked to the black tourneys, then Archie’s attack may have been related to them too. Maybe he saw someone he shouldn’t have; if that were true, then Noah might well be the next target.

The mansion was secure, but againstoutsideforces; something in me the whole way along had said this was an inside job. I didn’t like my suspect list, and I didn’t want to think of David, Elena or Noah’s parents being the guilty party, but there were too many ifs, ands or buts to risk Archie and Noah.

I sent Maxwell a message asking if the boys could roost in his hall again, but I got a negative; someone else was already booked in. I didn’t have a whole lot of allies to call on. The boys didn’t need a charge in Common and they didn’t need the portal – they just needed a safe house. Or at least, somewhere no one would expect them to be.

I could call Emory and beg for some help from the dragons and the brethren, but Emory had bled money today to secure the mansion, and it felt like I was casting doubt on his measures. Besides, he’d done enough. I liked Emory, but we weren’t friends – he was just shagging my best friend. I was sure we’d get to friendship eventually, because he seemed like a real nice dragon, but I was reluctant to add to the already sizeable tab.

Another possibility occurred to me. It was a long shot, but I’m always one to roll the dice so I sent another message. While I waited for a response, I tracked down Archie and Noah. As I’d expected, they were hanging out with Elena.

She looked up and met my eyes before looking away. She was nervous. Reluctantly I admitted to myself that I didn’t have time to deal with her right now. She’d be first up on tomorrow’s agenda.

Ace and Lauren were in the lounge, too, and they had David in their headlights. He was obviously uncomfortable. Ace flashed me a friendly smile but then turned back to his victim. I didn’t have time to rescue David from the council’s interrogation, so I shot him a sympathetic glance and left him to it.

I turned to Archie and Noah. ‘Archie, Noah – with me,’ I ordered. I was surprised and a little gratified when they both leapt to their feet, eager to help and prove themselves. I tugged them into the dormitory hallway. ‘Pack a bag, both of you. Quickly.’

They disappeared into their rooms. Thankfully, Archie’s room was once again secure now that Emory had arranged for the shattered balcony doors to be replaced. And not just with any old doors: oh no, he’d replaced them with bulletproof and shatter-resistant glass.

The boys didn’t take long before they reappeared. I gestured for them to follow me and took them out to the rose garden. ‘Archie, I’m pretty sure you were attacked because someone thinks you know something about the black tourneys that you might blab about. Is there anything you think you should tell me?’

He was scowling, really thinking about it, but eventually he shook his head. ‘I’m sorry, I wish there were.’ He looked down at his shoes. ‘But I was high the entire time and everything is pretty blurry. I remember Mark parading me around, calling me the crown prince of the pack. He was laughing at my dad for not knowing where I was, what I was doing. It was that shit that finally woke me up. Mark wasn’t my friend, he was being cruel and rude about Dad. At first I thought it was funny becauseIwas often rude about Dad, but he’smydad to be rude about.’ He looked up, searching my face for understanding.

I got it. We can all moan about our families because they’re ours, but woe betide anyone else who dares to criticise them.

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