7. Deacon
Chapter seven
Deacon
I’m at Kieran’s flat when Vasile arrives. After dealing with everything here—and not managing to get through to Vasile myself at all—I went back to the pack house to update Chaya on what had happened.
Moreau called not long after that. The fact that the Council have ousted him from his position with everything that is happening is unconscionable. There is no one among their ranks better suited to be in charge right now. Helene might have some magic, but she does not have the power—or the allies—to maintain the role she’s taken upon herself to possess.
Vasile looks as though he hasn’t slept all day. His eyes flare wide when he sees me, the blue of them vibrant in his surprise, but otherwise he doesn’t react beyond a curt nod.
“No issues getting here, then?” Kieran says.
“No,” Vasile replies. The sun only went down half an hour ago, so he must’ve been in a car mere seconds after it went dark. “Like Njáll said, many of our exits are hidden.”
Kieran nods in response. Drew is in the kitchen, making dinner, Sam leaning against the counter only a few feet away. From Adam’s scent, he’s still in Sam’s bedroom, and Lucien is in Kieran’s, though I can hear the telltale sounds of him getting ready.
I should leave. I know Vasile is here and safe. Hunter Helene has not been in touch with me yet, but once she’s certain the hunters don’t have Vasile, I know she will be.
I can’t bring myself to go. Chaya and Orion are more than a match for Helene, and besides, she will not dare to infiltrate our pack house. Doing so would be a direct violation of the treaty.
“You can stay here as long as you need to,” Kieran says. He’s still hovering, like he wants Vasile to decide what to do, and Vasile takes the other armchair, leaving Kieran to drop onto the sofa. Sam kisses Drew’s neck before he joins him, sprawling on one side and tucking his clearly borrowed hoodie over bent knees.
“Thank you,” Vasile says. “It should only be until Tamesis is caught. Destroyed.”
Soon , he doesn’t say, even though we all hope it will be.
Lucien slips out of the bedroom and joins his mate on the sofa, though he nods at his crai before he does. Drew finishes in the kitchen and trails his fingers over Sam’s shoulders before he goes into the other bedroom.
“Are you all right?” Vasile asks Lucien.
Lucien is paler than I’ve ever seen him, but he nods all the same. “It was… a surprise.”
“I would expect so.” Vasile crosses one leg over the other, tapping his fingertips against the arm of the chair. He’s uncomfortable. Trying not to show it, though. “I am sorry you had to find out the way that you did.”
“It is a relief, I suppose,” Lucien says, and Kieran clutches his hand, threading their fingers together.
Lucien’s gaze meets Vasile’s and holds it. Something passes between them, some understanding I will never quite reach.
“Yes, it can be,” Vasile replies. His voice is heavy, and I clench my hands into my thighs because I want to reach out to him, but I cannot.
Kieran curls into Lucien’s side. His eyes never leave Vasile. “Did you kill Nathan?” he asks.
I cannot reach for Vasile, but I also cannot fight the growl that rumbles through my chest. The impudence—Vasile looks at me, then away, but Kieran still stares at him, waiting.
“No,” Vasile says.
I already know it to be true, but his scent betrays no lie. Kieran can’t tell that. He studies Vasile’s face instead until he nods and relaxes against Lucien again.
“Yeah, I figured,” he says. “Just wanted to check.”
“Kieran,” Lucien murmurs, a faint reprimand in his voice, but Sam’s smirking on his other side like he expects nothing less.
“What?” Kieran’s tone is unrepentant, and he kisses Lucien’s cheek before he nuzzles his neck. “I had to. I still would’ve let him stay.”
“Well, thank you for that,” Vasile says dryly, even as I bite back another growl. “Do we have any ideas as to what we do next?”
Sam shakes his head. “Still no chance of tracking him. The best I can manage right now is to help boost protection for the packs and the clan. That’s where Tamesis will strike first, right?”
“Nathan’s the first hunter he’s killed,” Kieran says.
“He’ll kill more,” I say, and Vasile nods. “Especially if Moreau is out of the picture.”
Sam frowns, then his expression clears. “He’s sticking with the Hunt?”
“What’s that?”
Sam shakes his head at Kieran’s question. His tone turns bitter. “Nothing that’ll help us,” he says, crossing his arms over his chest.
I don’t know about that—but I know we can’t rely on them. Just because Tamesis is our main focus and threatens this entire city, it doesn’t mean the Wild Hunt will come to our aid. Moreau might. The vampire and his hunter—Jeremiah and Paxton—might. But their huntsman may well tell them not to, and as far as I know, he’s impossible to disobey.
“So what do we do?”
I sigh. “The alpha meet is on Monday.” I look at Vasile. “Will Njáll work with us in your stead?”
He frowns. “Of course.”
“Then I’ll see what we can agree on and take it to him. We’ll work out what we want to do with the Council after. Some of the hunters may join us anyway. There are some smart people there, even if they’re not currently leading it.”
Kieran and Sam both nod, but Sam still seems unsettled.
It’s a few minutes before his mates join us, Drew slipping past to attend to whatever he’s cooking. There’s a mark just below his jaw that wasn’t there when he went into the bedroom. Adam looks sleep-rumpled, drawn, but he waits for Sam to stand and then drops into the seat next to Lucien, dragging Sam back down onto his lap. Sam grumbles at him but seems to recognise he needs the comfort just as much as Lucien does.
From what Lucien told me this morning, that’s a good guess. Nathan had it out for Lucien’s loved ones as much as Lucien himself, and all I can wonder is how he managed to make it into the clan in the first place.
I glance at Vasile. Did he not know? Did he not care? Vasile isn’t looking at any of us. He’s staring past Lucien, out the window, into the night.
Drew is dishing up dinner when Sam suddenly goes rigid in Adam’s hold. “Hunters are here.”
Vasile sighs. “Earlier than I imagined.” He looks at me. “They didn’t go to the pack house?”
“It would appear not.” Chaya hasn’t even sent a text. I get to my feet and look from Kieran to Sam. “Come on. We need to meet them.”
“Both of us?” Sam asks, but he’s already standing. He frowns down at his outfit. “I’m not exactly dressed—”
“Your power’s enough,” I say, and he looks at me sharply. “It is. They haven’t got a hope in hell of getting through those wards, and they know that’s the least of what you can do.”
He scowls at me but nods, swatting away Adam’s hand when Adam digs his fingers into Sam’s thigh. Kieran huffs a laugh, brushing his lips against Lucien’s cheek before he stands, too.
“C’mon then,” he says. “Let’s get this over with.”
Vasile watches us as we head to the door, and though Drew is busy trying to organise the food so it doesn’t go cold, his eyes follow us, too.
“We need to be careful,” I say once we’re on the stairs. “They might guess Vasile is here, but they don’t know for sure.”
“Yeah, I think they’ve guessed,” Kieran says, and though his tone is joking, his expression is serious. Sam has his hands in the pocket of his hoodie, jaw set stubbornly as we head to the door.
“What if they want to come in?”
“You don’t have to let them,” I say to them both. “They’d have to make an official request to you with evidence, and then if you said no, they’d escalate it to me.”
“Evidence?” Kieran asks, tilting his head to one side. We reach the door, and I pause, my hand on the handle.
“They won’t have any,” I assure him. “But my being here doesn’t count. They’ll have to come to the main pack house directly. Just don’t let those wards drop.”
Sam smiles. Well, he bares his teeth. Close enough. “Yeah, that’s not gonna happen.”
I open the door, and we step out into the night.
Three hunters wait just beyond Sam’s wards—Naomi and two others who I don’t know. One, a man, is standing closest to the wards. Naomi is a pace back with the other, who looks far younger than Naomi or the man.
“They’ve got magic,” Sam murmurs, looking at the younger one. “Not a lot, but…”
Kieran lets out a little hum and I nod.
We approach, and the other hunter, the one Naomi’s age, inclines his head respectfully. “Alpha Deacon.” He hesitates only for a second before he looks over at Kieran and Sam. “Alpha Kieran. Mr Ware.”
I pause a step further away than Kieran and Sam. They’re here for Kieran’s pack. It’s his responsibility.
He tilts his head to one side, eyeing the hunter for a moment before he shoves his hands in his pockets. “You are…?”
“Hunter Holt.” He glances over his shoulder at Naomi and the other hunter. “I’m not sure if you’ve met before… Hunter Naomi. Hunter Thistle.”
Kieran looks at them both. “Hunter Naomi,” he says politely, inclining his head. “Hunter Thistle.”
Naomi frowns. “I am sorry we are here under such difficult circumstances.”
Kieran’s expression is unreadable, and I breathe in a little of his scent. Sam’s is easy to pick up—irritated, ready to fight. Kieran’s is more sedate, though there is no small amount of concern.
“So,” Kieran says, turning his attention back to Holt. “To what do I owe the pleasure? I doubt you’re here to congratulate me on my new pack.”
Holt looks as though he doesn’t know what to do with himself, and I can’t blame him. I don’t know what the hunters know of Kieran, but even my wolves aren’t certain of him yet.
“We are looking for the clan’s crai.” Holt shifts on his feet when Kieran doesn’t answer straight away. “Vasile.”
“I know his name,” Kieran says. “Shouldn’t you be out looking, then?”
“We have reason to believe he’s hiding here.”
“You do?” Kieran glances at Naomi, who doesn’t react, and Thistle, who flinches. “Well, he’s not. Hiding here, I mean.”
I breathe in his scent again, struggling to keep my own face expressionless. There’s not a hint of deception in it, even though we both know he’s telling a lie.
Holt smiles. It doesn’t reach his dark eyes. Nothing about him seems sincere, but especially not that. “Well, surely you won’t mind if we take a look around.”
“Don’t put words in my mouth,” Kieran says, and now there’s an undercurrent of threat in his tone. “Vasile is not hiding here. And you’re not coming in. You’ll just have to take my word for it.”
“I—You—” Holt shakes his head and I’m certain I see Naomi hide a smile behind her hand. “You don’t have grounds to—”
“To keep you out?” Kieran takes a step closer, and I don’t know exactly where the wards are, but I know he hasn’t stepped through them. “You found the dead body of a hunter outside my building. A hunter who was known to my mate, who tried to kill him and my second’s mate, too. And you think I’m going to allow a bunch of hunters to come tramping around less than a day later?”
Holt stares back at him, all the colour drained from his face.
“Would you let hunters in under those circumstances? Hunters who show up and demand it, without offering any evidence for their claims?”
Holt swallows hard. “N-No.”
“No.” Kieran dismisses him with a look, then looks past him at Naomi. “If you have evidence, I’ll be happy to look at it. But you’re not coming in. Not tonight.”
“Not ever,” Sam mutters under his breath.
“Of course, alpha,” she says, and the smile she gives him is sympathetic and genuine. “Apologies for the intrusion. I hope your mates are well soon.”
“Thank you,” Kieran replies. He steps back and Holt scurries after Naomi and Thistle once they’re a few feet away.
Sam lets out a sigh. “Could’ve let me scare him a little.”
Kieran snorts. “Yeah, and then they’d come running back with the entire fucking Council,” he replies. “I would’ve thought Naomi would have gone with Moreau.”
“I do not believe she is part of the Hunt,” I say. She can’t be, to still be with the Council. It’s hardly surprising. The little I know of the Hunt is that there are very few true hunters among them.
A lot of vampires, strangely.
“You think they’ll come back?” Kieran asks me.
“Possibly. How did you do that?”
“Do what?”
We’ve reached the door but pause outside of it, Kieran peering up at me curiously.
“You lied about Vasile, but I couldn’t scent it.”
To my surprise—and Sam’s, judging by his frown—Kieran lets out a laugh.
“Not been around many pups, huh?”
“I—What?”
“It’s not a tragic wolf thing,” Kieran says, rolling his eyes. “It’s just a wolf thing. Ask Ophelia. We all learn how to lie without lying so we can get away with shit. Didn’t you ever do it?”
He opens the door and walks inside. Sam and I follow. I shrug when Kieran looks at me; it never really came up when I was a pup.
“What do you mean?” Sam asks.
“I wasn’t lying,” Kieran says with a shrug. “Vasile isn’t hiding in the flat. He’s sitting there, waiting for us to get back.”
I huff a laugh. “And that works every time?”
“Nah, not every time. And, granted, I think I’m probably better at it than most wolves. But we all learn. Even Drew can do it a little.”
Sam shakes his head. “He doesn’t.”
“Well, the bond makes it basically impossible, I guess,” Kieran concedes. “I don’t know if I could lie to Lucien now. Not that I’d try.”
My own broken bond pulses as we take the stairs, like it knows Vasile is so near. It’s not entirely true. There are ways to pull back. Sometimes it’s necessary. If Kieran felt he needed to, he could keep things from his mate.
The point is the need. Should we ever need to? And if we do, what has happened in our relationships to take us to that point?
Vasile gets to his feet when we all trail through the door. Sam kicks off his shoes and wraps his arms around Drew from behind, letting out a pleased murmur when Adam joins them. Kieran wanders past me to slump on the sofa, leaning on Lucien.
Want rises in my chest, stronger than I’ve felt it in years.
I simply look at Vasile for a moment, taking in the way his black curls tumble around his face as he turns his head, the strong lines of his nose and jaw. His eyes are so blue, stark in contrast to his dark lashes and pale skin.
He catches my gaze, full lips parting when he realises I’m looking. Have been looking. I trace the entire length of him, his tight, slender form, and when our gazes meet again, I think I see a flicker of heat.
“How did it go?” Vasile asks.
“Fine,” I say. “The hunters are gone, and I doubt they will return without proof. This is a good place for you to stay.”
He nods, staring at me for a moment too long. Drew brushes past me with food for himself and Kieran, and Sam joins them on the sofa and drops onto Adam’s lap. Lucien stands by the window as Drew takes a seat, motioning for Vasile to take a chair again.
Lucien looks out at the night and frowns. “Ophelia and Dante are here.”
Sam frowns, twisting where he’s sitting, and Adam steadies his plate with a little laugh. “They are?”
“They’re not supposed to be?” Kieran asks.
Sam shrugs. He takes another bite of his dinner—some kind of mushroom risotto, from the looks of it. “Figured they’d stay home tonight.”
“They live close by?” I ask. I lean against the kitchen counter. The other chair is free, and far enough away from Vasile that I can trust myself to behave, but the restless itch under my skin won’t let me sit.
“Not close enough,” Kieran mutters, and Lucien rests his hand on the back of Kieran’s neck.
“Is there another flat you can buy here?” I ask him. “Our pack has the money for it.”
Kieran shakes his head. “Not yet. We’re keeping an eye out, though.”
“And we’re good for it,” Sam adds, only a little bite in his voice. I wonder what he’d be like if he were a wolf. A vicious little thing, for certain. “They can move into the one down the hall once it’s done up and not occupied.”
There’s a knock at the door before it opens, and Ophelia starts when she sees me. She smiles, though, eyes flicking over my frame. “Alpha. How are you feeling?”
“All healed,” I reply.
She slips in and Dante closes the door behind them both, nodding before he takes off his shoes.
“There’s more food,” Drew says. “If you want.”
Ophelia shakes her head. She takes the chair and Dante sits on the far arm, eyes darting between all of us. “The hunters are moving tonight.”
“They believe I killed one of their number,” Vasile says.
“Any trouble?” Dante asks, looking at Sam, who shakes his head.
“Nothing we couldn’t handle.”
I reach inside my jacket pocket. I should call Chaya and let her know I’m on my way back. Let her know the hunters are likely on their way; she and Orion can handle things, but I’d prefer for them to be prepared.
My hand brushes the note from earlier in the day. With everything that’s happened, I’ve forgotten about it. I take it out and turn it over in my hands.
Nothing good sits inside this envelope. I know it. I know, too, that even if I were to take it to the hunters, it wouldn’t prove Vasile’s innocence. Helene doesn’t care, or she would’ve kept Moreau close, spoken to Vasile before sending hunters to the clan to take him in.
Vasile’s voice cuts through my thoughts, my name on his lips. When I look up, he’s staring at the envelope in my hands.
“It—I found it earlier. On the body. Forgot about it.”
“And you didn’t think to give it to the hunters?”
I swallow. “It’s for you.”
His eyes meet mine and understanding passes between us. We have to stop Tamesis, no matter what.
I pass him the envelope. I can only hope that this will somehow help us do that.