Chapter 4

Ashley laid the ace of spades on the table. “I’d say that was another win for me. What’s that, three straight wins?”

“Four and you know it.” Jack threw his cards onto the discard pile. “At this rate you’ll clean me out of cash, and I’m no longer willing to pay with sexual favours.”

He laughed. “That’s been the case for a long time now, and if I still wanted sex with you, then we wouldn’t be ex-boyfriends.”

The bell rang on the desk, startling them both even though they should have been expecting it. “That’ll be Crofton arriving. Have you met him already?” Jack asked.

“No, I’ve not been here when he’s been in attendance.”

Jack played with a strand of his long black hair, a habit he had when he was thinking things through. “I wonder whether if it would have been better if we were here later, rather than for the main event. I’m not sure how this is going to pan out.”

“Niall said he thought it better to have you there for the legal side of things and me because I will be leading the investigation—although it’s been a while since I’ve led an enquiry into an individual. Most of my recent work has been exploring unexpected manifestations so I’m not one hundred percent certain I’m best placed for this.”

“From my research I’m not sure anyone would be. There’s been all sorts of culling of creatures that shouldn’t have been sired in the first place, but not a direct challenge that an earl wouldn’t be worthy to take their seat. A successor can be axed by the incumbent at any point until the title is passed down, but I’ve not found any record of this type of challenge having been made before.”

Ashley had done some digging himself and had drawn a similar blank. None of this sat right with him, and he felt any accusation should be made openly and instead there was a coward hiding behind their anonymity. “I heard that there’s some contention over whether the other brother would have been a better choice.”

“There’s plenty of rumours about Ben Redbourn,” Jack said with a smirk. “None of them would be a reason for him not to take the family seat—quite the opposite.”

“I guess it’s to be expected, he’s only a baby, he’s probably only just grown into his fangs, so it could be as simple as someone thinking he’s not ready.”

“He was turned more than a century ago, but I take your point, although the House of Hewel has always been on the younger side than most. His sired siblings are even younger.” Jack reached over and picked up his tablet. “I’ve made some notes. I needed to get the Redbourn history right in my head before I checked the legal precedents.”

“How’d you get that thing to work in here?”

Jack rolled his eyes. “I don’t, I’ve just spelled it to mimic the functions I need. Dear lord, Ashley, have you forgotten all your magic?”

“No, I just don’t waste energy on something that’s as easily done by other means.”

The door flung open and Niall strode in. “Ah, there you both are. Right, the Council is in recess. I wound them all up with the expectation of something juicy, made Ben Redbourn sit in a spare seat to the side, and then got them to review the quarterly accounts.”

Ashley laughed. “Keeping them on their toes.”

“Something like that. I wanted to observe them for a little while, see if any of them gave themselves away so we could figure out if they had made the challenge.”

“Did they?”

“No, MacLove looked pissed off that he was here at all. Apparently, he’d been told he was mandated to come and he had better things to do than sitting around looking at numbers.”

“Who told him that he had to be here?” Jack asked. “I didn’t think any of the meetings were strictly mandatory, but if you didn’t show up you couldn’t object if the Council voted for something you didn’t want.”

“I may have alluded to the importance of the evening. They all received an official Council spectral mail. Except for Ben Redbourn, for him we sent a car.”

Jack scowled. “We don’t send cars, there’s no budget for that.”

“How would you know?” Ashley asked.

“I do the legal check of the budget before it’s released.”

Niall clicked his tongue. “There’s someone who has gone to a lot of trouble to make sure we have to investigate the worthiness of Crofton to take his seat, and to hide who it is who requested it.”

Jack tutted. “The anonymous angle is rather cowardly.”

“But allowable. It is meant to avoid retribution, but it’s just got my back up.”

“So what do we do now?”

Niall poured himself a glass of water. “We go in there and state the situation. Introduce Jack as legal counsel and he can shut them up if—when—Crofton starts getting bolshy, by revealing there is a little-known law that can put a prospective Council member effectively under house arrest, providing there is a warlock of significant power to contain them.”

“I’m not a prison officer,” Ashley said. “I thought I was meant to be conducting an investigation.”

“You are. But the intent is to instil an element of control so you and Jack will be at Crofton Hall to get to the bottom of this bullshit. I want you to get under the fucker’s skin, figure out what’s really going on in the House of Hewel to stop this fuckwittery, as I don’t want another messy shitstorm like the Denmouths where the next in line got too big for her boots and ended up disinherited and staked through her heart. Ben Redbourn might not be the right man for the job, but equally he could be perfect. The trouble is we don’t know either way and that’s a problem.”

Ashley was happy enough to play the role Niall wanted. Men like Ben Redbourn were easy enough to rile up, a few dings to their ego and they’d crumble. “They might call my jurisdiction into doubt.”

“The whole Council is here, they’ll hear there’s a protocol and will vote in line with it.”

“Even the House of Hewel?”

Niall shrugged. “It will be passed by a majority vote, but it’d be better for them to go along with it to clear their name. Now can you dress up a bit… look a bit more warlocky?”

Jack huffed. “What’s wrong with us being in suits? You’re in a suit.”

“I’m not asking for a pointy hat but would it kill you to put on a robe? They’re all sitting in there in capes, high collars and swishy gowns, MacLove’s in a kilt… I’d like to make it look like we’re making an effort.”

“I will if you will,” Ashley said.

“Deal.”

Niall clicked his fingers and his suit morphed into a dark grey robe with a purple sash around his middle that Cardinal Richelieu would have found appealing. “Oh, not those ones,” groaned Ashley. “Dad!”

“You agreed. Black for you pair, maybe a red sash for Ashley. I’d like to evoke a bit of religious dogma that might have them worried.”

Jack chuckled and Ashley found himself in a floor-length robe and if he was wearing what Jack was, he no doubt looked as much of a prick with the added splash of ecclesiastical crimson for true twattery. If it wasn’t for Ben Redbourn, he wouldn’t have to put up with this bollocks, being a Committee member was meant to open doors to new magical research not a dress-up closet.

“Perfect,” Niall said, rubbing his hands together. “Let’s go and make the Vampire Council realise that they still have to answer to someone.”

Ashley followed his dad out and Niall led the way, Jack and him walking side by side. A gong rang, calling the Council back to the meeting. He’d witnessed the vampires from the sidelines, but had heard about the pomp and grandiosity, and their love of archaic traditions. Warlocks weren’t without some examples, but he got the feeling he was going to need a great deal of patience. He would enjoy messing with Ben Redbourn.