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‘Good idea. Strength in numbers. Both of you be careful who you accept food and drink from. Archie, do you remember who brought your drinks?’
Archie shrugged helplessly. ‘I’m sorry. I was a bit excited after the hunt. We took turns organising rounds of drinks. No one sticks out in my memory, but I’m sure Mrs Dawes and Elena served most of them. They often do.’
‘Never mind. We’ll work it out.’ I repeated. I’d wait until I’d heard from Amber about whether it was possible to scry a wolf before I raised the idea with Archie.
‘Elena didn’t get on with Mark, did she?’ I asked casually.
Archie frowned a little, catching my drift. ‘Elena had no love for Mark, but she couldn’t … wouldn’t hurtme.’ He laid emphasis on the last word. So he didn’t doubt she could have hurt Mark. Interesting.
‘She looooves Archie,’ Liam teased, nudging him in a juvenile fashion.
Archie glared at him. ‘Shut up,’ he muttered.
Liam sobered. ‘Actually, maybe she would hurt you. You broke her heart. It took ages for her to start hanging out with us again. I blame Archie for dating a friend – don’t mix business with pleasure.’
Archie coloured. ‘We dated for all of three months. Things ended – it was fine.’
Liam snorted. ‘Eventually.’
I raised an eyebrow. ‘How did things end?’ I asked Archie. ‘Did you dump her?’
Archie winced. ‘Dump is such a shitty term. I liked her, but I’m not ready for something serious and that’s what she wanted. She’s also pretty messy, she always had to come to my room. It got to be a bit much.’ I tried not to condemn him for dumping someone for being a little untidy.
He was red faced and embarrassed so I directed the conversation back to Mark. ‘She didn’t like Mark?’
‘She seemed to like Mark well enough when she joined the pack,’ Liam disagreed.
‘I know she wasn’t always part of the Home Counties pack. Do you know where she came from originally?’
‘She was a born werewolf. She used to talk about her family a lot. I think she petitioned the council to move from a southern pack – Cornwall or Devon.’
‘Any idea why?’
Liam shrugged. ‘It’s not unusual at her age. It’s hard to find a werewolf mate if everyone you know grew up with you and thinks of you like a little sister.’
It was my turn to frown. ‘And is it always the women who are displaced?’
Archie rolled his eyes. ‘Don’t go all feminist on us! It’s the way it’s been for centuries – it’s tradition.’
‘Traditions can change,’ I growled. ‘Back to Elena and Mark. She liked him but they had a falling out – over what?’
Archie shrugged and Liam shook his head; they didn’t know, or they weren’t sharing, I wasn’t sure which. I’d have to ask Elena herself.
As we drew up to the mansion, Archie let out a low whistle. ‘They’ve been busy.’
He wasn’t wrong. There were new metal installations above every window and door. Metal shutters? That felt a bit overkill – but what did I know? One pack mate was dead and another had been attacked. I wasn’t sure if the shutters were to keep intruders out if we hit a panic button or to keep them in.
There was a team of witches on ladders painting runes on every surface. The marks looked a little ugly, but you wouldn’t see them if you were in Common.
‘Go and mingle,’ I said to Archie and Liam. ‘Reassure everyone you’re okay. I’m going to talk to the witches and then the security guys.’
I approached Amber. She had a clipboard and was marching up and down like a military commander, checking all the runework was perfect. ‘Hey, how’s it going?’ I asked.
‘All but done.’ Amber confirmed. ‘We’re just finishing up the last few sets.’
‘Are there any anti-vampyr runes?’
She raised an eyebrow, ‘Most people are content without them if it’s a residential property.’
