Page 128 of Vampire Kings Box Set

Ringford smirked.

He didn’t say a fucking word. He let his shitty ginger expression say everything it needed to.

That was when Lorien punched him right in the face.

Ringford staggered back, clutching at a freshly broken nose. His expression was one of shock, as if he’d never imagined anyone might actually strike him for being an asshole. Lorien was also shocked. He wasn’t generally given to violence, at least, not the stand-up knock-down brawl kind of violence.

“Okay, hell, easy!” Henry grabbed him around the neck. Lorien found himself in a head lock, bent double, marched out of the library by Henry.

“Sorry! We’re leaving,” Henry called to the librarian as he bundled Lorien out of the room. “Good luck with the nose.”

If Ringford had something to say, Lorien couldn’t hear it. His ears were pressed against Henry’s ribs and biceps, his head wrapped up in a muscle sandwich.

Henry let go of Lorien outside the Library. Lorien stumbled a step or two and came upright.

“Bit of a scrapper in there, is there?” Henry nudged Lorien in the chest. “Wouldn’t have thought that would be your style.”

“You don’t know me either,” Lorien said, still defensive. “I did what had to be done. He was rude to you, disrespectful to me, and dismissive of the king. He deserved more than a punch.”

As Lorien spoke, he reached back to smooth his hair. It had gotten mussed in the general rough and tumble, more than he generally preferred it to be mussed. He looked at Henry, expecting the pack master to be furious. All that talk about discipline before they went in and then he’d ended up decking someone.

Henry was smiling. Lorien hadn’t seen Henry smile before. It was quite an experience. It was the sort of expression that made flowers seem to bloom from cracked pavement and rainbows fill a stormy sky. It was a broad, bright, toothy grin and though it flashed only for a moment, Lorien felt as though it had changed him forever.

“Alright. I’ll give you a pass on that.”

“So gracious of you, sir.”

“For future record, I don’t need to be defended from pissant officials. I’ve experienced more vampire prejudice in my life than you can imagine. My skin is thick.”

“For your record,” Lorien replied. “I don’t allow disrespect like that in my presence. It’s dangerous. If that’s how the staff feel they can act around us, it could mean insurrection.”

Henry nodded, understanding. “I guess we will see what your king thinks.”

Lorien just barely stopped himself from asking Henry not to tell Maddox. For one, he’d sound like the baby whelp Henry had accused him of acting like. For two, he didn’t actually care. Maddox should know that it wasn’t just Will sliding out of control.

“Gentlemen. Did you have a fruitful experience?” Maddox greeted them on their return.

“Aside from Lorien hitting your librarian, we were fine.”

Henry did not wait even two minutes to completely drop Lorien in potential trouble.

“He deserved it,” Lorien said quickly.

Maddox’s eyes slid to Henry.

“He did,” Henry agreed.

“We will talk about that soon,” Maddox said with a dark, questioning glance at Lorien that held more than a hint of warning. “For now, we have a bigger problem.”

“What’s that?”

“Ivan has resurfaced at the home of one of my human unit members.”

“Really? Why?”

Maddox ignored Lorien’s question.

“We need to go and get him before he causes chaos in suburbia. Or rather, any more chaos.”