27. Chapter 27

Chapter 27

‘Dad!' I shouted and threw myself down on the carpet next to him.

He's okay, Esme reassured me. He's just processing. She was right. His eyelids were flickering rapidly, like he was in REM sleep.

‘He's going to need painkillers,' Leyla said clinically. ‘Potions don't work on clearing removal. You'll need some good old Common-realm paracetamol and ibuprofen.'

‘I'll get some,' Greg said.

‘Kitchen,' Ben directed distractedly, eyes on our father. ‘The cupboard over the sink.'

Greg stalked out and Ben dropped down next to me. We both waited anxiously for our Dad to come out of whatever trance he was in. A few moments later he let out a low groan and pressed a hand to his head. ‘I feel like I've been hit by a truck,' he complained. His eyes opened and focused on Ben and me.

His eyes widened in alarm. ‘I forgot! They made me forget!' He lurched upright. ‘I didn't mean to!' he promised hastily. ‘I'd ruled it out, I swear. I wasn't going to forget about magic, I was just going to try to acclimatise slowly.' He gave a low groan. ‘God, it hurts. Fuck me.' He lifted a shaking hand to his head and winced in pain.

Greg came back in with some pills and water. ‘Here,' he said, passing them to my dad. ‘For the pain, sir. They won't take it away completely but they'll lessen the impact.'

Dad knocked back the pills and gratefully gulped down some water.

Greg turned to Leyla. ‘Thank you, you can go.'

She packed up her things and turned to me. ‘I'll send an invoice.'

‘Thank you,' I replied. ‘I'll pay it when it lands.' As an accountant, I believed in being a prompt payer of bills to help with others' cashflow.

We all waited until she'd gone before turning back to Dad. ‘What happened?' I asked urgently.

‘One of the chaps in black – she was a chap-ess, actually.'

‘A woman?'

‘Yes. She said they'd detected a threat to me and were moving me to a secure location. They promised they were doing the same to your mother. One of your wolves was with them. He was talking about taking me to the mansion, but in the end they took me somewhere else.' Dad met my eyes. ‘I rang you, Lucy, but you didn't answer.'

Pulling out my phone, I scrolled through the call history; sure enough, there was a missed call from Dad the day before I'd found out he'd been cleared. I frowned. I didn't remember seeing a missed call.

My jaw clenched as I reached an inescapable conclusion: someone I trusted had cleared it from the screen before I could see it. ‘Describe the man,' I said tightly. ‘My wolf.'

It had to be someone with access to the security console; Liam, Archie or Tristan were the likeliest, and I really didn't want Dad to describe any of them because I trusted them all. I felt sick at the thought of it.

My dad cast his mind back. ‘Average height,' he started. ‘Pale skin, mousy hair, glasses.'

Glasses? I stared at him. Being changed into a werewolf healed minor imperfections like shitty eyesight. There was only one wolf that wore glasses and it was an affectation, a leftover from his Common life: David.

Suddenly it all made sense. David, whom I often found looking down at the ground or out the window. It had surprised me when we'd met that this meek, mild-mannered man who was eleventh in the pack, because he'd seemed far more subservient than I'd have expected an eleventh to be. Maybe it was all a front, a way of hiding but still being in the battle core.

He hadn't been born a werewolf; he'd been changed after a near-fatal car accident. The werewolf who'd been driving hadn't wanted to risk being strung up on manslaughter charges so he'd broken the rules and tried to turn David.

David, who could have easily planted the Domini's invite on Ares' lean-to that he had built.

David, who knew the rose bushes like the back of his hand, well enough to recognise if a stray rose had been plucked to be laid on the mantelpiece like he'd demanded. He hadn't needed to stay up carousing in front of our camera monitor, he could have just loitered in the gardens. No one would have thought twice about his presence there.

David, who'd drugged the dark seraph to stop them seeing him set fire to the lawn with his lovely message, Burn, Bitch ! David, who was as fastidious and fussy as me, and who would burn a fucking comma into a death threat.

David who was sweet on Daniella but had pulled back from her recently, though he'd been too late. Geneve had discovered his emotional entanglement and kidnapped Daniella as a power play. She'd been trying to teach David his place in the Domini ranks, which was presumably below her.

David, who'd sat in on our heist plans and presumably told Geneve all about them. According to Greg's intel she was supposed to be away, but no doubt she'd flown back to deal with us personally. As an elder dragon, she was all-but immortal and she hadn't been scared of us. She'd let her brethren stumble around with Greg whilst she'd dealt with the threat herself. Her arrogance had killed her, and I – I had rescued Daniella and delivered her back to David.

David, whom I'd tied to Nina to keep her from being lonely. Nina had trusted David like I had, and she would surely give him access to the orb if he asked nicely.

Oh my God. My ears were ringing.