Vera glanced down as a large object rolled through her office and came to a stop a few feet away from her polished black Louboutins. Tanner Jeffries' eyes stared up at her, unseeing, from their dismembered perch.
She moved her gaze to the man who had just thrown the head. "Take a seat, Mr Duke."
Hamish ignored her direction. Instead he strode up to her desk, placing himself directly in front of the Grand Magus.
Vera pursed her crimson lips, taking in the werewolf's obvious distress, and stood to face him. "We'll, I imagine if you were here to kill me, you would have done so without the theatrics. Now please," she gestured at the chair in front of her.
Hamish didn't move. Clenching his hands into fists he allowed his eyes to flash once, in warning. He could feel Tundra prowling below his surface, begging to be let loose again, and he had half a mind to give the wolf what it wanted.
"Very well." She nodded, sitting back down. "How can I help you, Mr Duke?"
"Your follower tried to kill us last night. He used a Mutatis spell to transform himself into a wolf. He kidnapped Bela- Belatrice Gray and used her as bait to lure the Knights into a trap. His plan failed." He scanned her face, waiting for some sort of reaction. Vera looked at him as if he'd asked her how many lumps of sugar she wanted in her coffee.
"I see." She waved towards the head at her feet. "And you decided to take matters into your own hands?"
Hamish felt himself edging closer to Tundra's white-hot fury. He slammed his fists down between them, shaking the table and earning a small flinch from Vera. "This isn't the first time members of the Order have targeted us. You expect the Knights to protect you, but you send crazed zealots to attack innocent-"
"As much as I'd like to," Vera interrupted him, her clipped tone echoing off the stone walls, "I do not track my disciples' every move and I am certainly not responsible for Mr Jeffries' actions."
Hamish glared at her from across the table. She huffed and rolled her eyes. "Fine. Yes, I did hear something about such a plot yesterday."
"And you didn't think to warn us?"
"In my experience, Acolytes very rarely get anywhere when they use spells above their training. They usually end up causing more damage to themselves than others. Anyway, it was my understanding that the Knights could handle themselves."
"It's not the Knights that I was worried about."
Vera was surprised by how much this kidnapping had rattled the normally unflappable leader - and for a student too, not even a member of his pack. "If memory serves," She said, considering her words, "werewolves can be deeply territorial. I wouldn't want to step on any toes - or paws, by involving The Order in events concerning your girlfriend."
"She's not my- that's not the point. Bela could have died, she almost did. She's covered in bruises and we can't even explain what happened to her."
She studied him carefully. "Do I need to remind you about the importance of keeping this organisation a secret, Mr Duke?"
Hamish was taken aback. He removed his hands from the table and folded them across his chest. "I haven't broken any rules, Miss Stone."
"Grand Magus," She corrected him. "And good, let's keep it that way." Vera flicked her hand and the doors to her office swung open with a sharp crack. "Now if you'll excuse me."
Hamish didn't move.
She sighed. This conversation had already gone on for much longer than she would have liked. "Mr Duke, why are you still here?"
"You don't seem concerned that one of your lemmings nearly killed a student at your school Chancellor, or that I killed him."
"As I said, cautionary tale." Vera's tone was cold. She was becoming more and more irritated by the second. "Let me make something very clear to you, Mr Duke. At the moment we have a mutually beneficial agreement with the Knights. As long as the arrangement continues it allows me to grant you, and your friends some leeway. Mr Jeffries dabbled in something dangerous, against the wishes of this Temple and he is clearly not going to have the luxury of making the same mistake twice."
She rose from her chair and circled around the table, causing Hamish to take a step back.
"I could choose to punish you and your friends. I could remove your memories and make sure Miss Gray never even remembers meeting any of you, but you've removed a disorderly Acolyte from my midst and saved me the headache of having to find a replacement TA for Professor Liebernacht - that man would drive a Saint to drink. Consider the matter - and yourself - dismissed."
She turned away from him, refocusing herself on the manuscript laid out across her table. Their conversation was clearly over.
Hamish made it to the office door before she called him, "Mr Duke?"
Hamish glanced back at her.
"Send one of the Acolytes through to clear this up, before it stains my rug."
"Yes, Grand Magus."
- - - - -"What-up, Ham Christian Anderson?"
Hamish grimaced at his phone. "First off, no." Randall chuckled on the other end of the line. "Secondly, we don't have to worry about Tanner anymore."
"Oh dude," Randall let out a low whistle. "Did you eat his heart?"
"Yes," Hamish replied.
With Alyssa's tracking spell it hadn't taken long to find Tanner again. Caught out without the ingredients for his Mutatis spell, he'd been little threat to Tundra this time around.
"And then I decapitated him and took his head to Vera's office." Randall could hear the strain in the older man's voice.
"What?" Randall's shock was evident, "Um, isn't declaring war on The Order something we should have discussed as a group first?"
Hamish ran a hand over his face as he walked across the Belgrave campus. Randall was right, he'd had no way of knowing how Vera would react to him showing up with a bloody head. In his anger he'd acted rashly, endangering the tenuous peace they'd established. "You're right," he sighed, "I wasn't thinking straight. I'm sorry."
"Ok, well what happened - do we need to start laying magic traps around the Den like in Home Alone?"
Hamish smiled to himself. Even worried Randall couldn't resist a pop culture reference. "Not yet," he said, "The Grand Magus gave us a pass on this one. She more or less implied that she would wipe all of our memories again if we stepped out of line and threatened to make Bela forget we exist, but she didn't seem too upset that I killed Tanner."
Randall sighed in relief. "Oh boy. Well, can you blame her? Do you remember when he brought a guitar to that house party and sat around playing it all night? What a douche."
Hamish hummed in agreement.
"Wait," said Randall, his voice rising a few decibels, "Was she more more, or more less with the mind-wiping? Because that was not a good time for any of us."
"I'll catch you up properly when I get back," Hamish skirted around a student tour group. "I'm on my way to the Den now. Is Bela up yet?"
"Yeah, I took her home about an hour ago." "You what?" Hamish stopped for a second and then took off towards the Den again, his pace faster.
"Haim, relax. I made sure she was fine. I'm going to go and check on her in a few hours. You know she's my friend, right? I'm not going to let anything happen to her."
"I know, but she shouldn't be on her own. I should-"
"You should let her sleep." Randall interrupted. "She's had a long night - you both have. Tanner's dead, she's safe, Haim." When Hamish didn't answer he continued, "Listen, why don't you go home and get some rest. I'll check in on Bela in the morning and text you if anything comes up."
Hamish shook his head and then remembered that his friend couldn't see him. It had been a long night. "Randall, I know you mean well but I need to-"
"Look," Randall interrupted, his voice firm. "I know you're the boss but that wasn't a request - go get some rest. You're not any use to anyone at the moment."
"Harsh, but fair." Hamish could almost hear Randall smiling on the other end of the line. "Ok, you're right - thanks." He pressed end on the call and headed back to his apartment, trying to dampen the uneasy feeling rising from his stomach.
He hadn't realised how much he was counting on seeing Bela until Randall said she wasn't at the Den. The prospect of leaving her in someone else's care, even someone he trusted as much as Randall, made him bristle in a way that was totally unfamiliar and not entirely unpleasant. He knew if he was in wolf form he wouldn't be able to stop himself from going to her apartment, but Tundra wasn't in charge right now, he was.
Now, Hamish thought as he crossed the sidewalk opposite his apartment, he just needed to actually believe that himself.