20. Vasile
Chapter twenty
Vasile
I wake alone but with the unerring knowledge that my mate is close by. How close, though? I lift my head out of the nest of pillows, ignoring the mess I’ve made of my hair, and look blearily around the room.
He’s not here. Not in the entire flat, from what I can tell.
But he’s in the building, and the moment I realise that I can feel that, that I know , I drop one hand to my chest.
It should be impossible. Still, I fancy I can feel the pulse of a mating bond under my skin. Is it healing?
I sigh and climb out of bed, then shower and dress slowly. I make sure to pull back on the bond—I don’t want to distract Deacon with it, not if he’s with Kieran’s pack, dealing with their new wolf.
Pushing my hair out of my face, I study my reflection in the mirror. There’s not a mark remaining on me from last night—of course—but I wish there were.
Deacon wants to mate me. The thought hits me all at once, almost staggering in its intensity, and I shake my head at my pale reflection. It is something he said in the moment, maybe. He is simply surprised to have me so close, worried that Tamesis will hurt me.
I huff an unamused laugh. Oh, Tamesis never hurt me like that. Why would he? There are so many other ways to get to people, and the more time it took, the more resistance he faced, the more he enjoyed the chase.
Is that still true?
Does it matter?
I leave the mirror—and the bathroom—behind, slipping out into the hall and down to Kieran’s flat. Adam answers the door, halfway through a yawn, and I give him an amused look when he steps aside. “You should still be resting.”
“I’m going,” he slurs, pushing the door closed and staggering back over to where Drew is sitting, clearly waiting for him. My eyes catch on Deacon for a moment. He offers me a wan smile but doesn’t get up from his seat.
Adam kisses Drew’s temple and murmurs something in his ear before he shuffles back into his bedroom. That leaves me alone in the room with Kieran, Drew, Deacon, and Quinn—who is eyeing me warily, leaning against Drew’s side.
“We should have a better idea of where Tamesis might be once Quinn’s gone through it all with Drew,” Deacon says, and I turn my attention back to him. “But we’ll need to work with the clan and the hunters to check everywhere properly.”
“Fine,” I say. “We need to all be in a room together.”
“You too?” Kieran asks. “The hunters are probably still after you.”
I can handle the hunters, especially if we’re closer to catching up with Tamesis than we have been so far. Njáll has heard nothing from Helene, as far as I can tell. “Set up a meeting with your alphas,” I say to Deacon. “I’ll bring Njáll and Elle.”
Kieran sighs and pulls his phone out of his pocket. Deacon’s gaze sharpens. “What are you doing?”
“Letting Sam know he’s got to be ready to ward the shit out of wherever we’re going. Or did you want Tamesis to take us all down at once?”
He meets Deacon’s gaze and holds it, and Deacon’s expression changes from stern to exasperated in an instant. I swallow my own smile.
“What about the hunters?” I ask.
“We’ll ask Moreau who should come,” Deacon says. We’ll not ask him who we should trust, then. “I don’t know where he went last night, but hopefully he’s still nearby.”
Deacon gets to his feet and claps Kieran on the shoulder before he heads for the door. I follow him, unsure if I want to kiss him or tell him to be safe or ask him to stay.
“Have you heard any more from Tamesis?” I ask quietly.
“No.” His gaze darts past me, to where Drew is talking to Quinn. “But I think he’s closer to the edge than we thought.”
“What do you mean?”
“Quinn said he escaped because Tamesis was angry about something. Angry enough not to notice someone sneaking out from under him? You know he’s got better control over them than that.”
Over a pup like Quinn, sure. I can believe it. I nod. “The emails?”
“I think he really thought one of us would show.”
I lower my voice further. “Is it… safe? Leaving him here?”
Deacon stares at me for a long moment, but I can’t take the words back. I don’t know Kieran and Drew that well, all things considered, but I see the way Deacon wants to protect them. And though Adam may be part of this pack now, he was a member of my clan first. Lucien still hasn’t left us, technically.
I don’t want to throw Quinn to the wolves—as it were—but I want to protect this pack.
“As safe as he can be,” Deacon says. “If Tamesis hasn’t attacked here already…”
“He probably can’t.”
Maybe he tried, the night Adam and Sam first sensed him here. Months ago, when he likely had access to more fae blood than he does now.
“Fine,” I say. “I’ll keep them safe.”
Deacon’s gaze softens, and he leans in but doesn’t kiss me. “Keep yourself safe, Vas. We’ll survive this yet.”
He presses our foreheads together, just once, so gently, then opens the door and slips out into the hall. I sigh, staring at it for a long moment.
I cannot wait until this is all over.
I see little of Deacon over the next few days, and at the weekend, he calls to let me and Kieran know that the meeting will take place on Monday. I don’t ask what’s taking so long. Another wolf has been killed, and everyone is on edge.
Njáll and Elle meet us at Kieran’s building that evening. Sam is coming along, as is Lucien, and he and Elle climb into the very back of the car, talking quietly to each other. Sam sits up front with the driver—after what I suspect is a silent argument with Kieran about who precisely will do that—and Kieran slides in on my right-hand side, Njáll on the left.
“The donors are worried,” Njáll murmurs as we drive through early evening traffic. “Several have asked to be let out of their contracts.”
“And?”
He shrugs. “I let them, of course. I’ve asked them to remain in the clan house for the time being, though. A couple left anyway.”
“Tamesis…?”
“No one has seen him nearby, of course,” Njáll says. “But you haven’t returned, and the hunters drop by every few days to see if you’re back.”
Kieran sighs. Deacon spoke to Moreau too, and none of the Council are attending tonight’s meeting. I’m not even certain they’re aware of it. Quinn gave Drew and Kieran all the details he could remember—we just have to hope they’ll help us.
When we pull up outside the pack house, Moreau and Naomi are climbing out of their own car. Moreau pauses when he sees me, motioning for Naomi to go ahead. She smiles at me, ducking her head before she moves past me to speak to Elle.
Sam shakes his head and heads up the steps to knock on the door.
“I’m sorry,” Moreau says as he approaches. Next to me, Njáll growls. “I didn’t say it before, but I’m sorry that I didn’t tell you what was going on. What I thought was going on.”
I’m still angry. I can feel the burn of it in my chest. After everything that happened—But there’s little point in it. I know why he kept it to himself, too. If there was a chance he could be wrong, why drag us all into it?
“I know you are,” I say instead, and he takes it for the understanding it is.
“Come on,” Sam calls. A wolf is holding the door open, eyes down as he waves us all inside. “Let’s get this thing over with.”
Chaya meets us in the hall, then takes us to the meeting room, where all the alphas are waiting. I catalogue their reactions as they take us all in. Kieran’s not quite accepted, not by all of them, and most of them fear Sam, too.
Moreau’s met with a healthy dose of respect, but me—
One of the alphas jumps to his feet when his eyes land on me. “You’ve got to be—”
“Sit down , Jude,” Deacon growls. He rubs his temples. How long have they been sitting here? “The crai is here because we need to work with the clan.”
Jude snarls, eyes flashing silver, and Deacon turns to him, his own growl rumbling in his chest. “Is there a problem with that?”
Everyone seems to hold their breath as they wait for Jude to reply. Eventually, he shakes his head. “No, alpha.”
“Good.” Deacon gestures at the table. “Everyone, please sit.”
There aren’t enough seats for all of us, but Sam and Lucien stand on either side of Kieran’s chair, and Njáll and Elle take up similar positions beside mine. Naomi sits to Moreau’s left—perhaps she is here on behalf of the Council after all, whether they know it or not.
“We’re all here because we know we need to work together to stop Tamesis,” Deacon says. “He’s slowed in his killing, but that doesn’t mean he won’t increase in frequency again.”
“He’s been killing hunters in the meantime,” Naomi says, expression grim. “We’ve lost four in the past week.”
I shake my head. “How?”
“They were out on patrol,” Naomi says. “We had everyone go in pairs—we can’t have teams larger than that without sacrificing huge areas. One pair was killed by wolves. The other by mages.”
Sam shifts from foot to foot, then asks, “Could your mages pick up their magic?”
Naomi nods. “It was strange. Tainted, like the ones from before.”
One of the wolves looks at Sam. “We’ve kept our pack houses warded, like you said.”
“I don’t know if it’ll be enough,” he says honestly. “But it might surprise them enough to slow them down.”
The wolf frowns, taking this in, but nods.
“What information did you get from Quinn?” Deacon asks Kieran.
“Quinn?” another wolf asks.
“Quinn comes from the same pack as I do,” Kieran says. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a folded sheet of paper. “Tamesis infiltrated the pack. The fae blood he has—he used it to mess with the pack bonds and take control.”
“And this Quinn…” The wolf tilts her head to one side. “He escaped?”
“Yes, Alpha Rhea,” Kieran says. “He gave us all the information he could on where Tamesis and the rest might be hiding. He’s certain they’re the only pack, so we have a good list of the wolves, but there are about a dozen mages and some vampires, too.”
Deacon’s surprised gaze snaps to mine, and I nod. Tamesis passed through several clans on his way down. Some of the vampires would have run when attacked—we don’t possess quite the same bonds as packs do—but he killed the head of each clan and then, clearly, accepted some of the vampires left behind.
“So we have places we can begin to search,” Deacon says. “Even if we can’t find him, we suspect there are enough people working with him who do not wish to that we might find clues left behind.”
Rhea shakes her head. “And when we do find him, what then? Who’s going to kill him?”
“I will,” I say. “I’ve done it before, and this time, I’ll make sure it sticks, even if I have to hold him out in the sun myself.”
Some of the wolves still don’t trust me, I know that, but her expression softens just a little. “Okay, we have a plan to search,” she says. “Why not just draw him out?”
“What do you have in mind?” Moreau asks, even as most people around the table tense. Drawing Tamesis out… It certainly could backfire. Odds are good he’d know we were doing it.
Rhea looks at the other wolf who spoke to Sam before. “Levi?”
“We need a large, empty place,” he says with a nod. “Preferably soundproofed, if there are as many as you’re saying there are. They’re not going to go down without a fight.”
“No, they won’t,” Deacon agrees.
“There are too many pups in our territory,” says another wolf, crossing her arms over her chest. “We can’t risk them.”
“There are places in our districts,” I begin. “I’m certain we can—”
“No,” Levi says, giving me an apologetic smile when he cuts me off. “We can use Bite. It’s big enough, and if we can draw them there, we can contain them.”
“We can ward it,” Sam agrees. “Even if the fighting spills out onto the street, we can make it so no one will see it. A couple of your mages should be able to help our coven with that.”
Levi nods immediately, and Deacon sighs. “Okay. So if we can’t find him, we need something that will lead him there.”
“Vasile will,” Rhea says. “Won’t you?”
Deacon hates the idea—I can see that, and I think I can feel it, too, somewhere deep in my chest.
But she’s not wrong. “I will.”
“That’ll make the entire clan vulnerable,” Deacon says instead of arguing for me not to do it.
“I can do it,” Kieran says, and my eyes snap to him.
Deacon shakes his head, even as Lucien reaches forward almost involuntarily and grabs Kieran’s shoulder. “No,” Deacon says. “You—”
“He’ll be expecting a trick if it’s Vasile,” Kieran says, and I hear his heart jump once before he settles it again. He looks at me. “You know he will. He knows you too well.”
“And you?” Deacon asks.
Kieran looks at him, and when he grins, it’s dark, wolfish. “He doesn’t know me at all. If I play it right, he’ll think I’ve given up. That I just want to protect my pack.”
No. No, we can’t let him do this. Lucien’s grip on Kieran tightens, though he says nothing, and Sam’s jaw clenches, his own hands clasped behind his back.
“We’ll consider it,” Deacon says, though I know he’s come to the same conclusion I have—out of the four of us Tamesis is focused on, he really doesn’t know Kieran well at all. “For now, we need to prepare. We need to know who can fight.”
“I’ll check with the clan,” Njáll says. “We have plenty of vampires who’ll help, but some of our human guards may be inclined to volunteer, too.”
Moreau looks at Naomi, who nods. “We’re not… necessarily involving the Council,” she says. “But there are plenty of hunters who want to find him. There are plenty of hunters who believe in your innocence, crai.”
I incline my head in thanks when she looks at me. The more hunters Tamesis kills—or has killed—the more he paints a target on his back. I know that.
“Alphas, check among your own packs. Anyone who can fight, who’s willing to fight. And the mages. See if any of them are willing to help. Coordinate with Sam on that.”
Sam nods when some of the alphas look at him, and Deacon sighs, leaning back in his chair.
“Consider yourselves dismissed. We need to get started.”
Voices fill the room as the wolves begin to get up, speaking to their seconds and to each other. I sit back in my chair.
I honestly don’t know if that went well or not.