“Do you smell dog?”
Ringford was minor vampiric nobility, one of the librarians. His position remained constant no matter what happened among the royals. Legend had it he’d traveled the Oregon Trail several times just for the fun of it. He missed the old kind of human suffering. He had a long handlebar mustache in the finest hue of ginger and long hair to match tied back behind his head. He was wearing a cowboy hat even though the Library was devoid of steers.
“No,” Lorien said.
“The odor appears to be emanating from your friend. Either he has smuggled a filthy chihuahua in with him, or he is the dog himself.”
“Leave him alone,” Lorien said. Ringford ignored him. He approached Henry with an offended look on his face, as if simply being in the presence of one of Henry’s kind was so disgusting, he could barely contain himself.
“You cannot be in here, sir.”
Lorien stepped in between Ringford and Henry. “Maddox sent him. Lay off.”
“I don’t care if the god emperor of the sun sent him, the Library is a place for vampires and on occasion, their blood pets. We do not allow animals here.”
Apparently Will hadn’t tipped that radar, probably because last time he had been here he’d yet to be properly turned on to his wolf side by eating human flesh. The next royal audience was going to be interesting and deeply scandalous.
“It’s fine,” Henry said. “I have what I need.”
“I’m going to have to wash all the books,” Ringford sighed. “They’re going to smell for weeks.”
Lorien felt a flash of temper unlike his usual flashes of temper which came from feeling abused in some way. This time he was outraged on behalf of someone else, and that sensation was as powerful as it was strange.
“You will show some respect,” Lorien hissed.
“Or what, fledgling?”
Nobody besides Maddox and Chauvelin knew that Lorien was the one who had ended the reign of the previous kings via the medium of murder. Lorien did not command much in the way of native respect. Maddox had told him he had some status, but vampires were simple creatures of hierarchy very much based on age.
“Or I will make you regret every decision you’ve made since you first opened your mouth.”
“Alright,” Henry said, putting a hand on Lorien’s shoulder from behind. “That’s enough.”
“It’s not enough,” Lorien insisted, his green eyes narrowed to two slits of venom. “We are here on the orders of the king. You may not respect me. You may think you are better than him, but you are nothing compared to Maddox.”
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.”