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I thought of the five vampyrs meeting in the park around the corner. It might be overkill, but paranoia was fast becoming a good friend of mine. ‘Can you do one or two? I’d feel better.’
She raised an eyebrow but nodded and stalked over to one of the witches who was still up a ladder. ‘Shauna,’ she called, ‘we need another protection rune.’
‘Against what?’
‘Vampyrs.’
‘I’m on it,’ Shauna promised.
‘Anything else?’ Amber asked me impatiently.
‘Nope, that’s great. Thanks.’
‘Pay the invoice promptly. That’s the thanks I prefer,’ Amber said brusquely.
‘Sure thing.’
I left them to it and went into my office. The room had been transformed: on my side was my mahogany desk, bookshelves and cosy leather chair; on the other side was a security station. It somewhat ruined the ambiance.
What’s up?Esme asked.
They’ve made our den look horrible,I grumped.
I felt her amusement.It keeps the pack safe,she pointed out.
At times, she’s a better person than me.Yeah,I sighed.Okay.
There were numerous CCTV screens, computers and keyboards, and two swivel chairs. The screens were wall mounted and the computers were set up on a sleek modern desk. Manners was sitting at it with the kid, Fritz.
Sam was lounging in my leather chair, looking casual and deadly in equal measure. Something about the guy screamed predator, and he made both Esme and me uneasy. Helookednormal but there was a deadly alertness to him that he couldn’t quite hide. He made Manners look soft, which was ridiculous because Manners was the toughest guy I’d ever met. It was the eyes. Sam had deadly eyes.
‘Toodles,’ I called into the room. ‘How’s it going?’
‘Toodles?’ Fritz giggled. ‘You’re not very scary for an alpha.’
‘I can alpha your ass off, but this is my office and I refuse to be cowed.’ I met Sam’s eyes and the tiniest smile tugged at his lips. I was amusing the terrifying guy – great.
‘What’s with all the metal shutters?’ I asked. ‘Are they to keep intruders in or out?’
‘Both,’ Manners confirmed. ‘We’ve situated panic buttons in a couple of places. Hit one of those and the mansion goes into lockdown – no one in and no one out. If we’re attacked, we can roll down shutters to make it harder for our enemy to gain entrance. And don’t worry – the Prime has already dealt with the planning permission and it’s been granted.’
It hadn’t even occurred to me that planning permission would be required. Emory had greased some palms to get all of this done so quickly. I got the feeling that I was going to owe my best friend’s partner big time. ‘And the runes?’
‘Amber sent a team.’
‘At the Prime’s request, I assume,’ I said drily.
‘He looks after his friends,’ Manners said with a hint of pride. He idolised Emory and it wasn’t hard to see why. Emory is head of both the dragons and the brethren in the whole of the UK, and he knows a thing or two about inspiring loyalty. Maybe I could ask for his Spark Notes.
‘What precisely do the runes do?’
‘A few things. Primarily, we got ones to keep the Common realmers away, to help prevent humans stumbling on a house full of wolves. We’ve also got anti-fire runes, which will stand up to even a level-one fire elemental – for a short period at least. And we’ve got anti-spy runes. You could have a conversation with your window open in this office and someone standing outside won’t hear a word.’
Now that would be handy. I’m a big James Bond fan, and I loved the cloak-and-dagger vibe. Life was so much more exciting now I was a werewolf. ‘Cool. I asked them to add some anti-vampyr runes as well.’
‘It’s probably overkill. Vampyrs can’t gain access to a residential house without permission anyway.’
‘I’d rather go over than under. What about our land?’ I asked. ‘Can vampyrs gain access to that?’
