by Lauren Dane
His crazy, wheezy laugh comforted her. “Well, we don’t always get things the way we want ’em, Cloris. Fate’s a bitch. Ha! Don’t let her know I said that.”
“Cross my heart. Carl, I need to go out of the city.”
“Hold on to your hat. We’ll get where you need to be. Tell me about your birthday.”
She sat back and trusted him to get them where she wanted to go, not bothering to ask how he knew she’d been gone or that she needed to meet with the Devils. “I was in Ireland last week. Cold. I keep forgetting it gets cold in Europe. We had snow one of the days.”
“Got some presents from Her I see. Good. Gonna need that in the next little while. Dark days a coming. Serial killer in town I hear. Wowee. Always felt like those guys needed to be culled. Like rabid animals from the herd. They’re sick and they’ll infect the rest.”
“I hear you. I’m looking for him. And when I find him, I will do the culling.”
“Watch your back, Cloris. That fancy man over ’ta your place, he seems like a good one to have at your back in a firefight.”
“Ha. I thought you were all knowing.”
He wheezed again as he headed away from the lights of the city. “You oughta forgive the guy. He’s a man after all. My wife always used to say that. Then I think I ran out the clock on that excuse.”
“He’s a predator.”
“As are you. Predators would get bored with a fluffy bunny type, know what I mean? Can’t say I ever saw much of a future with you and the cop or those others you were with.”
He pulled to a halt in the parking lot of a shitty bar on the side of a road barely wide enough to be considered a highway. She hadn’t even noticed he’d gotten them this far.
“Meter’s running, Jenny. Don’t take too long.”
She took a deep breath and stepped out. It was windy. Cold. The night was so quiet it ran against her skin like the reverse nap of fabric. Not right at all.
When she walked in, she saw Rex right away, leaning against the bar. Cleaning his ear with keys. Gross. Who did that? She shuddered as she headed toward him.
Brigid filled her hard and fast, the cold shock of it bringing her steps a little slower as she attempted to swallow all that power without letting anyone know she was struggling. Danger was to be had here, Rowan knew it, but this was something else. When the Goddess pushed her way into Rowan that way, it was akin to an internal defense system.
He paused, cocking his head and looking her over. “It is good to see you, Bride. It’s been some time.”
Not in her own voice, Rowan spoke, “Rex Price, we are appreciative of your assistance in this matter.”
Deep within, Rowan wondered about the connection between the Goddess and the Devils, but she kept quiet. If She planned to answer, She would.
“This thing hunts in our ground. This offends us deeply, Hunter.”
Brigid receded enough for Rowan to come forward. She inclined her head, just enough to show respect but not give any position to the other man. “Price. It is my aim to find it and kill it.”
He pushed a sheet of paper across the bar. “We grant you access to our ground.”
Which was good. Hunting in the areas controlled by the Devils without their permission was a very bad idea. She rarely did it if she could avoid it. This meant, too, that this Vampire had edged out of the main part of town and into the darker corners.
Price licked his lips and she saw the flash of other in his eyes. That flash of magicks older than most anything left on the face of the planet. The Devils were a physical incarnation of chaos magicks, like the Wild Hunt. They were the keepers of the balance, though their methods would most likely never make sense to humans, Rowan understood and feared what they were. Brigid respected them and the taste of her power she’d given them in return for their cooperation had been a small price to pay.
Or so Brigid thought. Rowan was merely grateful she couldn’t really remember much about what transpired. But nothing came for free in the world, especially not between beings of great power like the Goddess and these Devils.
She just considered herself lucky she had something they wanted.
“We’re looking too.” Price’s second approached and pushed a beer her way across the scarred bar. “They leave an absence of things in their wake. Better than a footprint, as it happens.” A flash of a smile brought a glimpse of sharp teeth and a repressed shiver.
One had to be careful when thanking beings so old. It had to be done right or you could end up offending, or worse, being in the wrong kind of debt with them.
Inside, Rowan’s connection to Brigid was brighter than it had been before the trip to Kildare. She knew the Goddess waited, watching how she handled this.
Rowan inclined her head again, opting for that rather than words. It seemed to satisfy both Brigid and Price, which was enough.
Though she wanted to leave and get looking again, she knew she would be risking offense if she left without drinking the beer they’d offered.
“What think you of the Scion?” Price had wandered off, but his second remained. “Not the one before. The one you ended—” again the flash of teeth, “—he’d be worse than useless against this killer Vampire.”
Ah, more politics here. If she said the right words, they’d turn on Clive. Which should have pleased her given what a giant prick he was. But she couldn’t bring herself to pull that trigger.
“From what I can tell he’s done a great deal to bring the more troublesome of his number to heel. Jacques, the one before, wouldn’t have even been aware of this issue.” She kept her language formal. It was useless to appeal to their feelings about humans or even a sense of fairness. These beings lived on balance. They thrived on chaos, but an ordered chaos. The kind that kept them secret from humans. Without that secrecy their ability to go about their business was impeded and no one liked red tape.
“Humans watch too much television. One of these days they will find enough to push the majority into believing.”
And Rowan didn’t want to think of what sort of punishment would be meted out to whoever provided that last bit of evidence.
“Is he cooperating?”
She shrugged. “In his way. You know how they are.”
He snorted. “Vampires have always been like this. More self-centered than humans. For all the mess they leave, they have zero affinity for cleaning it up.”
Which, in its own way, served the Devils because Devils clean up messes of the sort Vampires left.
Rowan wondered if this Vampire left the bodies close to people to keep the messes from being cleaned up on purpose.
Brigid warmed from that place in Rowan’s belly. She was on to something. She drank the rest of her beer as fast as was permissible before inclining her head again.
“I must be off to continue my hunt.”
Mick, the Devil she’d been talking to, handed her a business card. “My contact information. We are available to you on this matter.”
Nodding, she put the card in her pocket and left the way she’d come, never turning her back on the bar completely. Mick flashed a grin and winked, bringing a reluctant smile to her lips.
She half expected Carl to be gone, but what she hadn’t expected at all, was to see Clive standing, leaning against the passenger door of a sleek sedan, waiting.
“What did you do with Carl?”
“Carl? Is that what he calls himself these days? He saw me pull up, walked over, extorted your fare from me and drove off. Said to tell you to watch your back. Which given the circumstances we’re in, seems good advice.”
“Why are you here?”
“This is my problem too, in case that has escaped your notice.”
“Notice or not, you don’t need me to find this Vampire. You’re the Scion, you don’t need me at all. You have people to do your bidding.”
“I do. It’s a good thing.” He opened the door and indicated she get in.
Most likely she could walk into that bar and get a
ride to town. Most likely she could do it in a way that would not offend or end up having her owe more than she wanted to pay.
But if Carl had left, it was saying something specific about what she needed to do.
She got in and only sighed at the warmth of the heated seats once Clive had closed the door to walk around.
“Where are we headed?”
She sent him a raised brow he wouldn’t see as he paid attention to the road like he was supposed to. “I thought your people had info on this Vampire. Or at least a few of them.”
“They told you nothing? What was the point of this trip out here if they told you nothing?”
“Too bad I’m not actually strategizing with you.” She nearly added fuckface at the end, but he heard it either way. “The Devils aren’t workmen for hire. That attitude would be a colossal mistake. I can hunt on their ground. Head back to town so I can get my car.”
“We’d be more effective working together.” He ignored her comments and headed east. “If you’ve received their permission to hunt, let’s head out to one of the spots my people identified as a possibility.”
“I have permission. You don’t. Also, you’re a jackhole and I don’t want to be with you.”
“I’m in your company, doing your bidding. Of course I have permission. It’s implied.”
She snorted and then cringed inwardly. “Do you think the Devils play lawyerball by Vampire Nation rules? Because I don’t. Just FYI if they get on us about this shit, I will throw you under the bus so fast you won’t even see it coming.” She turned to him, smiling sweetly. “And I’ll enjoy it.”
He muttered under his breath.
“We withdrew our complaint. I just thought you should know.”
She did know. Susan told her before she left to come home.
“If you hadn’t I would have known because you’d have received the official missive from Hunter Corp referring to the close circuit video footage you claimed not to have but my assistant was able to hack into your system and find.”
She let him chew on that for a while before speaking again. “And I think your holding that back and pretending you didn’t have it was a totally pussy move. Vampires, Goddess, you’re all fourteen-year-old girls. How did that happen?”
She was pretty sure she heard the click of his jaw as he clenched it. It was then she remembered her project and made a promise to redouble her efforts to get that neck tic back in play.
“It was internal business. We rescinded our complaint before we refused to turn over the footage.”
“Were you an insufferable asshole when you were younger? Or did you learn it over time? You get a gold star.”
“I’m trying to apologize and explain.”
“You need a fucking dictionary then so you can look up the word apology. As for your specious excuse about internal business? Only if you define internal business as evidence of your appalling lack of security and control over your side pieces. Really, Scion, you need to control your women better.”
“Side piece? Is that vulgar slang for lady friend?”
“That’s me, always keeping it classy. However, men I fucked once upon a time are not trying to kill people in parking lots because I moved on. I prefer vulgar to that. Anyway, you’re not that awesome in the sack that I’d be killing people over your penis. Also, she wasn’t your lady friend. You had sex with her, but not enough that she was your anything. Just because she was gullible doesn’t mean I am.”
“She was young and stupid. It was an overreaction on your part to kill her.”
She couldn’t hold back the head whip at that bit of stupidity.
He sighed. “She was young and stupid and infatuated. I admit that. She wasn’t worldly and when my affections faded, she was unable to handle it. It was my own failing.”
Did he think that was an apology? Not bloody likely!
“You saw that footage, I practically begged her not to take me on so don’t make her stupidity my fault.” And now she was mad all over again. “You piss me off, Stewart. Just drop me at my place, suddenly I have zero desire to be anywhere near you unless I’m driving a blade through your chest.”
The road was dark as they sped away from town and all the lights and people. All she saw out there was the shadow of the mountains in the distance and the occasional reflective buttons in the road when the light from the moon hit them just right.
Of course he needed no headlights. Neither did she really. But she played along and used her headlights when she drove. Stupid showoff Vampire.
Suddenly, she slid in her seat as he pulled off the main road and sped down a dirt track. He didn’t reply to her as he continued at an alarming rate of speed down that shitty little road.
Rowan hoped his alignment was FUBAR.
When he slammed the brakes on and got out of the car suddenly, her anger spiked and she followed. “What is your problem?”
With a growl, he stalked to her, hauled her close by the fistfuls of her sweater he grabbed and got in her face. “It would appear that you are.”
Her heart sped. Not from fear. No that would be too simple and too normal. Heaven knew normal was not on the plate for her.
Adrenaline spiked as his mouth hovered above hers. She tried not to pant, worked to control her pulse, knowing he could hear the rush of her blood through her veins, knew he would hear the way she swallowed a moan of desire.
“That’s not my problem. Your murderous Vampire is. And if this goes on any longer, he’ll be the problem for a camera crew. The media is here. Serial killers get great coverage you know. Also, the stupid fucker took a cop’s girlfriend. Lastly, you are all far too cocky if you think you can just get away with this level of violence.”
He heaved a sigh. Heavy, threaded with frustration.
“Don’t you think I know all this? I’ve got my people on it, double shifts with human help. This Vampire is not registered so we’re having to go through nest by nest to find him.”
Most of the old ones were reluctant to register and be part of the larger nests. They liked to be left alone and do their own thing. She didn’t blame them really, after all, who wanted to be three hundred and be told what to do in any way?
“I don’t know what you think. Half the time you’re trying to get into my pants, the other half you’re accusing me of being part of some grand conspiracy to frame Vampires for crimes they didn’t commit.”
“I said I was sorry for accusing you.”
“Sort of. And yet, you do it all the time.”
“I’m sorry.” He licked his lips. “She was young and silly and she’s dead. Her parents are still alive. I had to tell them. I saw the footage. I saw you try to walk away and I saw her continue after you.”
She got it then. It wasn’t really about her, it was about his own sense of guilt and failure. Tenderness brushed between them for long moments as they stared at one another.
He kissed her then, hard, possessive, his fingers digging into the muscle at her hip.
Stillness rushed over the landscape. A wave as suffocating as water, as heavy and disorienting. Clive’s fingers left their grip at her hip as he moved away lightning-quick, crouching and looking up. Rowan’s gaze had been locked on him for just a moment, long enough to miss the source of the dull thud.
Spinning, she coughed slightly at the dust still hanging in the air. Just a moment before that cough strangled in her throat, tangled and caught as the body sprawled on the ground became visible.
Within moments she’d unsheathed her blade, the ringing of the metal clearing the sheath breaking that dread silence. Gaze now locked on the sky, she attempted to catch sight of the Vampire, but got none. She turned to Clive but he’d launched himself upward already, leaving Rowan earthbound and reaching for her phone. Goddess knew how she’d explain this, but it had to be called in.
There, lying in the dirt, arms and legs akimbo, eyes dead, pain and terror etched into what was left of her face, was Lisa. Though Rowan had expected this, had
known it would most likely come, the sight of the woman Jack had loved so fiercely was still a shock.
Though she knew Jack would be angry, she called Fred. It’d be better for Jack in the long run that she called someone else first, even if he wouldn’t see it that way.
As she had no idea how to explain it all, she opted for curt and blunt.
“Fred? This is Rowan Summerwaite. I’m out in the desert west of town and I’m looking at the pretty fresh body of what once was Lisa Walker. Same MO as the others at first glance. I figured you would want the call first rather than 911.”
Fred cursed and then sighed. “I was hoping like hell she just ripped Jack off and blew town. Did you call him?”
“Not yet. I called you first.”
“I’m going to ask you to let me handle Jack. Can you do that for me?”
“Yes.” She considered telling him to be gentle with Jack, but Fred had been a cop going on twenty years; he knew his job. More importantly, Rowan knew the man cared about Jack and considered him a friend as well as a good cop. “I’ll be here until you arrive.”
“Oh and we found Karen Fisk dead. House fire. Her husband is missing. Thought you’d want to know.”
Damn it! Rowan had known the Fisks had been involved in this somehow and now it was too late to get anything from them.
After thanking him, Rowan gave him the coordinates from her phone and promised not to contaminate his scene.
But that didn’t mean she couldn’t get all the info possible before scene response arrived. After she hung up, she drew her camera from her bag and began to photograph the scene and the body. So much rage. Lisa’s body was barely in one piece, much of it had been shredded by tooth and nail. Her face was a ruin of torn flesh and blood. From what Rowan could see, some internal organs were missing.
Brigid took over, Rowan knew it the moment the nausea passed and calm seeped through the anger and dismay. After that it was easier to photograph and record her notes as she made a call back to Carey and began to send the data to the office.
She’d moved away from the body and back to the car when Clive landed, looking mussed up and highly pissed off. His eyes…her heart stuttered a moment as she took in the eerie glow she’d seen in Theo’s gaze in times when his people had angered him. Usually right before he ripped their heads off.
