Chapter 8

Jack tugged at the collar of his shirt, Ashley noticing a redness that wasn’t there the night before. “You all right?”

“The water’s a tad on the alkaline side for me, I think I’m getting a scale breakout. I didn’t notice until after I’d got in the shower and when I tried to adjust it there was some sort of override.”

Jack often suffered for a few days when somewhere new, his siren ancestry causing his skin to react, and while it didn’t last long it was uncomfortable. “Do you want me to brew a new batch of the calming potion?”

“I should have enough left of the one you made me to last the few days while I adapt. If it goes on for longer I may have to take you up on the offer. Besides, I can cope with a bit of itching, I’m more concerned with the override... it was definitely elf. I tried a few other things and I’m pretty certain there are additional emergency ones that could take down my wards.”

Ashley’s lip curled at the idea, wards were erected for a reason and for there to be a way to dismantle them meant Jack had good reason to be concerned.

“Overrides are complex dark magic that are only ever used, even by elves, when there are real reasons to be concerned. They are draining and difficult to master. We should probably ask a direct question, it could be part of the reason why Ben Redbourn was flagged for investigation.”

“Give me a day or so to probe a bit, usually there’s signs to why they are placed and that might be another piece of evidence.”

Karl materialised with a silver salver. “Your full English breakfast, gentlemen. Mrs Weather wanted to know if you’d like a hot lunch.”

Ashley’s eyes boggled at the plate of food that was placed in front of him. “I’m not sure I’ll need to eat again before dinner.”

“I’m afraid Mrs Weather is unlikely to accept that as an answer. I will suggest a cold lunch, later in the afternoon, that way you can combine it with afternoon tea.”

“Sounds like this Mrs Weather is a bit of a feeder,” Jack said, spearing a sausage. “What is she? A goblin?”

“Human.”

“Human?” Ashley said. “Are you sure?”

“Yes, her family has been in service to the Redbourns for centuries.”

“Isn’t it dangerous to be human in this vicinity?”

“Both the Earl and the Viscount adore her.” Karl smiled—it was slightly maniacal. “No one messes with Mrs Weather.”

“Well, she makes a marvellous breakfast, and that alone is a cause for devotion.” Jack waved his fork. “I bet she’s a baker too.”

“Award-winning. I believe she’s doing a batch of jam tarts this afternoon, so you’re in for a treat.”

“You’re rather friendly for a demon, especially one whose boss we’re investigating,” Ashley said.

“His lordship has told me to cooperate fully with you, including as soon as you are ready, showing you the archive and the special collection.”

At his heart, Ashley had always been a researcher. He’d done many things over the centuries, but nothing had given him more joy than the hours locked away experimenting in his laboratory. The draw of what might be hidden in the depths of Crofton Hall had piqued his interest and although it had to be a distraction tactic, he wasn’t about to refuse.

“It might be the best place to start,” he said and Jack rolled his eyes. “No doubt there’ll be a detailed family history, which would be a decent grounding for the next few days.”

“I’m finishing my breakfast first,” Jack said. “I know you, Ashley, we’ll be down there hours and I might miss the jam tarts.”

Jack had always had the ability to make everybody think he was on their side. It was a rarity for a lawyer, and an even rarer warlock trait, but they had worked successfully together on many projects over the years both before and after they had dated, and he would always hold an affection for him even though he was an annoying twat at times.

“I will not deprive you of your breakfast, we both know you are the devil himself if you’re hungry.”

Ashley had already devised a list of things he wanted to achieve in the first few days at Crofton Hall, and if it all went to plan, they should have uncovered part of why this whole farce was going on in the first place. Ben didn’t seem, based on their interactions so far, to be anything but a typical annoying vampire, possibly brighter than the average fang on two legs, still he wasn’t some great terror or an incompetent idiot, which would deem him unsuitable to take the title he had been awarded by his sire.

He left Jack to finish his breakfast and went instead to collect a few items from his room. On his return to the parlour he noticed Jack was staring at a book on a set of shelves in the corner of the room. “Something caught your eye?”

“The hall has a separate library doesn’t it?”

“Yes.”

“Then I wonder why this particular set of books is here. I mean The Indigenous Cabbages of Western Germany doesn’t seem to be the sort of thing you’d have in a family room. Neither does The Famous Apples of an English Garden sit naturally here.”

“Perhaps there is no room in the library and those books are just there to look pretty, to fill the shelves so there wasn’t an empty space.”

Jack made a low humming noise, but his further contemplations were derailed as Karl returned to escort them to the archive. Most old and noble families had taken care to preserve the historical records, so it was no surprise that Crofton Hall had an archive but what was a surprise as they entered a beautifully appointed room was it was so disorganised. “Good Lord,” Ashley said, seeing piles upon piles of papers across a desk.

“It was Lord Benjamin’s idea to finally sort out the archive,” explained Karl. “It’s still very much a work in progress, and Dr Callagan has only been in office for a little over six months.”

Jack was leaning over a railing and Ashley realised he was staring into a hole or rather a spiral staircase leading underneath the office they were standing in. “What’s down there?”

“The rest of the archive, or rather most of the archive.”

Jack was heading down the spiral stairs.

“Sir, let me go ahead, just to see Dr Callagan is there. He’s not always a morning person.”

Karl’s agitation seemed too great to be about upsetting an archivist mid whatever it was archivists did and he thought Jack had the same feeling as he quickened his pace, Ashley hurried to join him. Karl disappeared in a puff of smoke and when Ashley arrived in the basement archive he saw him standing over what looked like a large dog bed, his back to them, holding up a blanket.

“Gentleman, if you would return upstairs for a moment,” Karl said, not turning around.

“They’re fine.” The voice was almost a growl and had a twang of Irish to it.

The blanket was snatched away and wrapped around the body of a shaggy individual. His hair was a mess of dark blond curls falling to just above his shoulders, and he was on the hairy side for the average man. He was as tall as Karl but not as lean, being best described as cuddly.

“You’re a werewolf,” Jack said. “Was last night the end of your monthly cycle?”

Jack’s magic had a different edge to Ashley’s and he was always quicker on this type of deduction.

“Hello to you too.” He hobbled over to a desk and pulled out a chair. “Karl, can I get some coffee?”

“Are you sure you are happy to be left alone? These are the warlocks we were warned about.”

“I could smell them the minute they entered the hall. Don’t worry, we’re not a danger to each other—not now it’s morning.”

“You’re why there are emergency overrides for the wards,” Jack said. “Have you eaten someone before?”

“No, I fecking well haven’t. But I insisted on some safeguards for the household when Ben offered me the position.”

Ashley was surprised to hear that. “At your insistence?”

“I don’t particularly like turning into a mad slobbering wolf every month. My potions keep enough sanity in my noggin so I don’t do something terrible, but I’d not forgive myself if I hurt someone.”

“There’s a number of your kind who wouldn’t care,” Jack said. He waved his fingers and a pile of clothes appeared on the desk. “We’ll leave you to dress, Dr Callagan.”

“Call me Dara.” He placed a hand on the clothes, his nails were still a little on the claw side. “Thank you for these.”

“I’m Jack and this is Ashley. We’re not monsters either.”

Dara gave him a sniff and a curious look. “What are you?”

“A lawyer.”

Jack’s ancestry had not always been in his favour, and Ashley had heard stories of how, despite Jack’s great skill, he had been treated unfairly in the past. His siren heritage didn’t appear to be a problem for him most days, but Jack had a great deal of empathy for members of the paranormal community who were treated poorly due to their species. Werewolves being one of them.

Once back upstairs Ashley gravitated to a pile of folders. “If we have to search the archive we could be here forever.”

Jack laughed. “Maybe Ben reported himself to get some help for Dara.”

“He’s something, isn’t he? An elf secretary, a demon for a valet, and now a werewolf archivist.”

“I’m a historian. Ben thinks archivist sounds fancier.”

Ashley hadn’t heard Dara arrive. “Either way, it’s not usual.”

“Neither’s Ben Redbourn. As blood-sucking fiends go, he’s a pretty decent guy and I don’t think you’ll find anything that should prevent him from becoming the Dark Earl of Crofton.”

“We’re not here to prevent, just to get to the truth. If there’s nothing, then that’s what we’ll report,” Ashley said. “We will be fair.”

“But not friendly.”

“Where’s the need? I’m no happier to be here than the Redbourns are to have me. I’ve set aside important projects because someone triggered an old protocol that saw me and my colleague stuck here to investigate a fucking vampire so I’m in no mood to be friendly.”

Dara shrugged. “Fair enough.”

Jack stepped between them. “Ben said you had quite a collection of interesting books, I’m sure, around our other work, Ashley would love to read them and it might improve his mood.”

“That’d be no problem.”

“Great.” Jack smiled. “I don’t know if you’d be the correct person to ask for a potted family history and records for the last hundred years or so?”

“I was expecting that request.”

Dara stretched his neck as he walked to the desk, a cracking noise accompanied his shoulder rotation, and Ashley thought it had to be hell working out the kinks after changing back into his human form.

“The first Earl of Crofton was Anthony Redbourn, he was an earl in the true sense of the human nobility of the time, but that all ceased to be in 1596 when he was turned and the dark earldom of Crofton was created in its stead. As far as the humans are concerned, Anthony Redbourn died during a drunken brawl in a tavern on London’s South Bank after an altercation with a group of actors. The reality is he had an altercation with an actor but, boy, it was very different from what everyone else thought.”

Jack perched on the edge of the desk and Ashley wished he wouldn’t, he would need to have a word about him remaining professional. “That was Sebastian Hewel, correct?”

“Correct. Anthony was na?ve, had been put in place as earl to be manipulated by some of his peers, but one of his friends, the Duke of Marchent, was trying to protect him. However, he introduced him to someone who would change both their lives forever.”

“So it was Marchent who introduced Crofton to Sebastian? Had Marchent already been turned?”

Dara shook his head. “No, Anthony was turned first, what happened was Marchent was a patron of the Chamberlain’s men and, through them, had met Sebastian, he then introduced Anthony to Sebastian at his London townhouse during one of his lavish feasts.”

“Hewel was already powerful by that time, one of the four great vampire sires to roam the Earth—why did he become so enamoured with Anthony Redbourn?” Ashley asked. “Especially, as far as I’m aware, he still is.”

“Love does strange things to a man. I ended up a fecking werewolf.”

“You’re telling me that Sebastian Hewel fell in love with Anthony so much that he created the first dark earldom and then began the House of Hewel.”

“Technically it’s not the first dark earldom, that was MacLove, in the House of Cartwright a century or so before. But you’re right, it was Anthony who triggered Sebastian to finally build the fourth House.”

“I didn’t realise the House of Hewel was the youngest.”

“Depends on how you’re judging the age. There’s not much in it between Hewel and Devereaux in terms of set-up, Langley was the last to complete but he had started not long after Cartwright.”

“But the Invigilators have been in place since the 1600s.”

“Yes, the Heads of the Houses wanted it, to make things fair and that’s the point of them and no doubt why you’re here.” Dara grinned, he was still a bit fangy. “The houses were only finished in the 1840s when Langley added his duke, and the House of Hewel was completed in 1812 when the Viscount Whetford was put in place.”

Ashley had a general understanding because Niall had explained some of it, but since he’d tried to avoid getting involved with the Vampire Council unless strictly necessary, some of his knowledge needed refreshing.

“Is it true the four Heads of House are Knights Templar?” Jack asked. “I’ve asked several people but I’ve never got a straight answer.”

“What I know is two were originally, and one was part of their entourage and they returned with Devereaux from the Sixth Crusade in the Holy Land in 1229 very different people. I don’t know what happened, just that was the start.”

The origin story was blurred, and Ashley suspected deliberately so. “But in terms of the House of Hewel, Anthony became the first Dark Earl of Crofton in 1596, and it wasn’t until 1816 that Charles took over, correct?”

“Yes. Charles was turned in 1724. He was a naval captain originally called Charles Yardly, who Anthony became friends with on a journey to the New World. He saved Anthony’s ship from a pirate attack and was injured. Anthony turned him to stop him dying, well, from not existing, and by 1780 he was officially recognised as the Viscount of Crofton.”

“Which brings us to Benjamin, I understand there’s not a sexual motivation for the sires in the House of Hewel, with the exception of Anthony and Sebastian.”

“Correct. Benjamin Howes came to Charles’s attention through the current Duke of Marchent, they were at Trinity College together and Benjamin was considered to be of keen intellect and quick-witted.”

“Did turning him into a vampire remove those traits? Because that’s not his reputation now.”

Dara smirked. “Reputations can be built in many ways, and if someone wants to be seen in one light over another, then if they are smart enough they get what they want.”

Ashley snorted. “Are you telling me Ben Redbourn is still a brilliant academic?”

“Absolutely, he continued his research, but with more of a focus on the paranormal after he was turned, I assumed it was one of the reasons why he was chosen to be the next Dark Earl over his sired siblings.”

“Then that makes him an amazing actor, as I’m not buying it.”

“He has the pedigree—Sebastian Hewel was known as one of the best actors of his time. Shakespeare is meant to have written plays for him.”

“Vampiric thrall has a lot to answer for.”

Dara selected a folder from the desk and handed it to Ashley. “I prepared a family overview including the known vampires that have been sired by the Redbourns. Although, there’s only a handful who were allowed to use the Redbourn name. The other folders on this desk are the first wave of documents relating to the estate in the last five years, from when Ben became viscount.”

“We’ll have a read of this first, then work through the others,” Ashley said. “If we have any questions we’ll let you know.”

“I’m usually in here during the week, and I’m not nocturnal for most of the month so you know where to find me. Do you want to see the special collection now?”

Ashley wanted to, but equally he didn’t want to fall into the obvious trap they’d laid for him. “Maybe in a day or two—we don’t want to get distracted.”