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Njáll

A ugustine is already livid when he arrives at my office the next night. It is clear that Mark, escorting him in once again, does not want to leave him with me, despite the fact that Maurice is once again present, but when I give him a stern look, he withdraws.

“I have been awaiting your response for days,” Augustine hisses. He does not sit, instead pacing up and down in front of my desk. Maurice has taken a more relaxed posture today, sprawled across the sofa as he is, but his eyes unerringly track Augustine’s every step.

“I know,” I reply. “I apologise. There were other matters that I needed to attend to.”

I do not allow my gaze to stray to Maurice again. Afsaneh had little to say last night, and I am thankful for it, as I hardly listened to her in the first place. I was too caught up in all that had happened before.

“Well, I certainly hope they were important. My wishes have not changed.”

“Our ability to accommodate them may have,” I reply. “I do not believe it will be possible for you to challenge Quinn directly.”

That stops Augustine in his tracks. He turns his glare on me. “Excuse me?”

“He already went before the Hunters’ Council. They assessed his deeds, as they did with all the vampires and wolves who entered the city with Tamesis.”

“It is not up to them.”

“Yes, it is.”

“No!” Augustine slams his hands down on my desk, and Maurice sits sharply upright. I don’t look directly at him. Instead, I meet Augustine’s furious gaze. I will not be cowed. “We are not from here, and neither is he. Your rules do not apply.”

“And yet you came to me,” I reply.

“A courtesy,” Augustine snarls. “If he were in his former pack, I simply would have gone there.”

I lean back in my chair, tilting my head back to look at him.

“And from what I know of them, you would not have made it far.” That certainly feels true.

I think Quinn’s former alpha was a lot of things, but he certainly was not a man who would have allowed a vampire to come and challenge one of his wolves unchecked.

Augustine growls again. I merely watch him. If he wants to have a tantrum, he can. I am sympathetic to his plight, but I am to Quinn’s, too, and I am cognizant of the rules we all still have to follow.

“What do you want, Augustine?” I ask. “Truly? You can’t have unfettered vengeance, you know that.”

“I want a chance for retribution.”

“And what does that mean ?” I bite back the frustration that threatens to leak into my voice. “What would satisfy you? More shed blood cannot be the case.”

He sneers at me, standing at his full height as though he wishes to tower over me. I do not change my loose posture. This is my office, my clan, my city. The same tired question rings in my mind—what would Vasile do? Stare him down. Make himself cold and distant, his tone not one to be questioned.

I am not him. I cannot be him. But I can be as solid as I ever have been while allowing for something… softer, perhaps.

So I do not move as Augustine swears, then turns on his heel and storms out into the hall. The door slams against the wall outside, no doubt cracking the plaster, and I only shake my head once Mark has followed and I know Augustine is being escorted out of the building.

Maurice approaches my desk with some hesitance. He frowns when I look up at him.

“Is that how you intended to handle things?”

“Do you have a better idea?”

“No.” Maurice shrugs. His light shirt tonight is pale green, which should clash with his copper hair, but instead offsets the grey of his eyes. “That’s not what I asked.”

“I’m not sure I knew how to handle it before he became agitated,” I say. Our conversation is stilted in a way it wasn’t even the first night he was here. “There really is little I can do for him. If the wolves close ranks, they’ll kill him before he gets anywhere near Quinn.”

Maurice hums. I don’t know what to do with him—or the fact that I spent the entire day resting fitfully, unable to think of much more than our kiss—so I pick up my phone instead.

I could use some counsel, after all.

Maurice wanders back over to the sofa as I call Afsaneh. “Crai,” she says, a smile in her voice. “How can I help?”

“Augustine came by tonight,” I say. “I am not sure if there was another way to handle the situation.”

“You want advice?” She sounds surprised.

“Please.” I keep my eyes trained on the top of my desk, unwilling to look up and see what Maurice thinks of me. It cannot be anything good. “I think this is beyond my scope.”

“Of course it isn’t,” Afsaneh says with a mild scoff. “But I will come by all the same. Have you spoken to the Council?”

“Alwynn is aware that Augustine is here. I would not be surprised if Deacon has spoken to her, too.”

“I’ll be there in an hour or so.”

I frown. She probably has work to do, and I am asking her to come here for what? To help me deal with a problem I should be able to manage?

“If you are busy, then do not—”

“I am not as busy as all that,” Afsaneh says, cutting me off. “You can entrust more to us if you need to, crai. Kayode and me especially.”

“You’ve spoken about this?”

“Naturally. Briar is not overwhelmed, but she is working most closely with Elle, and unless we add another chieftain, I believe they will both be busy for a while yet. But Kayode and I have been chieftains for a long time—you know this. We have the ability to help you, and no one in our districts would begrudge us that.”

“I don’t want to take you from more important matters when there are things I could handle alone.”

“ Njáll ,” she says, her tone terribly fond.

“We want to help you. Neither of us could imagine being in your position—and though we may not fully understand all the stresses you are under now, we certainly understand the position you were in before. Let us take some of that burden from you. It will surely be better shared.”

She’s not wrong. I tap a finger against the top of my desk as I think.

“We’ll talk about it when you arrive,” I say. It is not a no. It is only… Vasile never had any of this help. He had us as his chieftains because he appreciated that with such a wide territory, he could better keep an eye on it by having a dedicated vampire in each space.

And not only that. He knew he had to keep us close.

Me, Afsaneh, Kayode, Briar, Lazarus… We were the most powerful vampires who remained in the city.

We had accepted him as our crai, sure, because the hunters had said it was necessary for the treaty to be upheld, but that did not mean we trusted him. Not then.

He needed to monitor a threat. I do not. Not from them.

“One hour, Njáll,” Afsaneh says before she hangs up.

I sigh and lean back in my chair, still determinedly not looking at Maurice, although I can feel the burn of his gaze on my face.

“You’re thinking awfully hard over there,” Maurice says.

He has the same tone in his voice as Afsaneh did when she said my name. The same fondness. I expect it even less from him than I do from her and it has me looking over at him in surprise.

“Come sit here,” he says, patting the sofa cushion next to him.

I should not. I should email Alwynn and Deacon to tell them what has occurred with Augustine tonight.

No. I should call them both, but I have no intention of doing that.

There is a donor who is waiting to be turned, and I need to deal with her paperwork, as well as that of the vampire who plans to turn her.

Not to mention the issues that have arisen within the donors themselves—nothing too serious, but all things I need to go over, to ensure they are healthy and happy and want to remain—

“Njáll,” Maurice says, and this time, his voice is edged with a warning.

I do not know why I get to my feet and walk over there.

I am in charge of the clan, not Maurice, even if we both know his position in the Hunt somehow keeps his standing above mine.

When I sink onto the sofa, I sigh all the same, and Maurice shifts so he’s facing me, one arm resting on the sofa’s back.

“What truly has you worried?”

So much. I should not have this job. I am not certain I want it, and even if I do, I know I cannot live up to the legacy Vasile has left behind. I miss having less responsibility and the handful of friendships I have since lost.

I worry that whatever is happening with the fae runs deeper than Maurice is telling me.

I worry, too, that Augustine will attack Quinn regardless of what I’ve told him, and I’m not sure if I’m more concerned for him—because I am certain he won’t survive it—or Quinn, who is no responsibility of mine.

I worry that I am a hypocrite and that, no matter what, I cannot rule because I cannot be fair. If I were in Augustine’s position, I never would have approached the crai. I would have gone after the perpetrator myself. I know that, deep in my bones.

“Njáll?” Maurice prompts.

I sigh and roll my head, looking over at him. He stares steadily back, and I wonder at him for a moment. Last night was the first time I saw him truly ruffled. No. Scared. When Reijo attacked me, Maurice was concerned but unflappable, easily able to deal with everything.

Last night… That is why he kissed me back, isn’t it? Because he was scared, too. Because he needed that closeness just like I did.

I need that closeness again. Or something similar .

“All of it,” I say and tilt my head back so I can look at the ceiling again before I close my eyes. “Everything has me worried, Maurice.”