by Lauren Dane
She stood tall, dusted off her pants, glared at Clive and walked out, David in her wake.
Chapter Twelve
“Do you want to talk about it?” David asked as they headed down the street, away from the house they were staying in. She wasn’t ready to go back just yet.
“We were aware the Vampire Nation had knowledge of the Blood Front when they showed up at the Keep for the Joint Tribunal meeting. They have a hundred dumb, shadowy clubs of eight haughty old Vamps who sit around, drink aged bloodwine and talk about how humans were all cattle who should be bowing down to them. It’s their version of bridge club. But I clearly don’t know all the details they do.”
David sighed, following as they headed down the steps leading to the tiny island nestled between the castle district and the Vltava River. Kampa Island, so pretty and quiet and the perfect place to get some space to think this over before she said or did something bad.
“They don’t tell you everything. You don’t tell them everything. In and of itself it’s not alarming you don’t have all the details. Do you feel as if you’ve not been given something integral to this hunt? Or is this internal Vampire Nation business they’d keep to themselves because that’s how they are. And? It’s not your business unless it does concern the hunt. And if it does, I’ll arrange our travel to Venice myself after you tell them all to fuck off and we head off to handle this ourselves.”
She threw herself onto a bench with a sigh, looking across the river toward Old Town Square. “It’s disturbing and amazing to watch you be so smart and in charge.”
“I’m not a child, Deese. You don’t have to protect me like that.”
“David, you don’t need to be a child for me to protect you. You’re my family. Mine to keep safe and nothing you say will change that. I’m proud of you. I’m always proud of you. I know you’re skilled and tough. Letting you come was not about me accepting that because I knew it already. It’s more that you’re taking on this expanded role with so much aplomb and thoughtfulness that I’m proud in a new way.”
She heard his swallow as he processed all she’d said. Hell, she was trying not to process it right then because she wasn’t prone to this sort of sharing and over the last few weeks the intensity of her relationships with the important people in her world had gotten so much deeper. Killing and punching and being angry was easier ground for her to stand on. She knew that, was comfortable with it. But if that’s all she felt, she had no room for all this other stuff like pride in David and love for Clive. And also upset that she felt he’d held back. Which seemed so stupid and simpering, but she felt it nonetheless. Which made her cranky.
“Is it that you love him and feel like he lied to you?”
He’d changed the subject, which meant he accepted what she’d said and they were moving on.
“I do love him. Goddess knows why, but handsome, powerful, intelligent, rich, arrogant asshole seems to be my favorite flavor. And yes, I suppose part of it is that.” It stung. Did he think he couldn’t trust her? She who’d saved them all from Theo just two days before? She who’d come to do their work and dispatch Enyo and deal with their internal shit that could be a threat to their very existence?
“After all Vampires have done to me I still seek to protect them and they hold back. It’s fine for me to take out the garbage but not sit at the dining room table?”
David settled back against the bench and they were both silent for a time.
“It’s my belief that this increased contact with your father and all this Nation business will raise the threat factor toward you immeasurably. I’m not exceptionally comfortable with that. But to tell you honestly, I also believe you need them.”
She’d done this to herself by allowing all this Vampire Nation stuff back into her personal life. “As long as I was killing them everything was fine. Once I started letting one sex me up and doing family dinners with the other one this has all gotten out of control.” But she did need them now. She’d opened the door and they’d come in and made themselves at home. Damn it.
“And there’s something hinky going on with Hunter Corp.”
David sighed. “Yes. Why didn’t they know about this? They have to. Which means they didn’t tell you. Do they all know or is this a matter of a faction knowing and not telling everyone else?”
“I only know I can trust Susan and Rex. She pulled that weird thing about you petitioning to come with me but it wasn’t to harm me. I haven’t been able to get her alone and off the Hunter Corp. grid to ask her what’s going on. But I need to initiate some contact, so if you can start the process by reaching out to her valet I’d appreciate it.”
“I’ll do that when we get back to the house. Or do you want me to book our travel to Venice?”
“I think I have to get an answer to my question first. And yours. Does it have anything to do with my hunt and if so, yes, we’ll be leaving.”
“You’d leave him for that?”
“I don’t think I could live with myself if I thought we had this deeper level of trust and we didn’t when it really counted. How could I respect myself if I don’t walk away from that?”
They stood and he hugged her. A quick thing but she’d needed it more than she’d thought.
“Let’s go back so you can get answers. He’s going to start looking for you once they get that house cleaned up.”
“Oh I have no doubt he knows I’m pissed.”
* * *
Clive knew she wasn’t on the premises when the Vampires got back to their villa. He shot a glance Alice’s way and she gave him a replying expression that told him he deserved exactly what he was getting.
“Where the hell is she? Leaves us to do all the work and she’s not even here? Check her rooms to be sure she hasn’t left,” Warren said to Gemma.
Alice spoke up, stepping to Warren. “With all due respect, Scion Farrelly, you can’t do that. If you send someone into her rooms she’s going to get very angry. You can’t check on her that way.”
“Why is that?” Warren’s surprise was another point in Clive’s favor. At least he understood why Rowan would not take her rooms being searched in her absence well.
“Because she’s not an animal or one of our servants. You can’t invade her private space and not expect there to be repercussions.”
Warren’s sputter of indignation was priceless. “Repercussions? For what?”
Alice huffed a breath and Clive wanted to demand she admit he was far less annoying then Warren. “You honestly haven’t even realized she’s angry over not being told everything about the Blood Front?”
“We told her what she needed to know,” Clive said. Moreover, he’d been instructed not to share anything more than he had to about the history of the Blood Front. The First had insisted she be informed of anything that would be integral to the hunt and her safety, but also that she was not to be given any information otherwise. The Blood Front had been around a long time but most of them hadn’t really taken it seriously. It had been an Old Vampires Club as Rowan would say. Elitist, yes. Violent rhetoric, yes, but mainly they’d never done much more than whine so The First had decided they were less of a threat and more of an annoyance and he preferred it that way.
Clive couldn’t argue with that reaction because he’d have had the same one. Better to let that sort of thing happen and stay in the nattering, prattling stage instead of give it attention and make them all feel as if they had to act.
And the problem with that stance was what they all drowned in just then. They’d been doing far more than talking and the Nation hadn’t known it until it had gotten this out of hand and boiled over at the Joint Tribunal.
He had wanted to give her the whole file about the Blood Front but had been overruled not only by three of the four other Scions—Warren had sided with Clive—but The First as well.
<
br /> There were limits even Clive had to obey.
In the pit of his belly he felt the swell of her power. She was on the way back. Interesting. He hadn’t felt her like this before she’d given him her blood. Part of his concern eased back a little. Their connection was still strong.
“We told her what we were allowed to tell her,” Warren corrected. “If she has an issue with that she should take it up with her father because that’s where the order came from. In any case, she knows now so we don’t have to continue to withhold it.”
“And we still don’t need to enter her quarters without her presence.” Alice kindly referred them back to her point. She was right, of course. Clive never would have allowed such an invasion of her space and more likely than not Warren was just blowing off steam. Not that Clive planned to save him from Rowan, who was inside the house by that time, heading to them.
“She can’t just take off without telling us where she’s going. What sort of team is this if she doesn’t even check in?”
Gemma’s eyes widened and she stepped back as Rowan’s energy rushed into the room right as she did.
“Yeah, because knowing all the background information is necessary. I totally get that. Too bad you fuckers still don’t. If you want my help—and let’s be totally clear that you need it regardless of want—you really should be attempting to be sure I have all the information I need so I don’t end up getting hit in the face with it. Or say, have it ambush me in the dark while I’m unarmed. I thought we’d gotten past all this holding information back business after the last time you did this and I nearly ended up dead because of that. How many times is it, do you think, that I’ll need to nearly die before Vampires figure out it’s totally cool to tell me stuff that could prevent said nearly dying.” Her normally cutting tone had gone very flat.
He’d been feeling her energy but she must have locked it down. She gave off nothing, though it was clear she was pissed. No, this sort of blank calm shook Clive’s calm in a very serious way. Rowan refused to meet his gaze for longer than a few seconds as she looked back and forth between the Vampires in the room.
He’d known she’d be angry, but this was different. Closed off was not acceptable. This had to be worked out because he had no plans to let her slide away from him and back into lone Hunter mode.
“We told you what we were allowed to.” It was Recht who stepped between both Clive and Warren to take the brunt. “You’re no stranger to how Vampires operate. You had to assume you didn’t know everything.”
“What I assumed was that if you trusted me enough to do your dirty work and to draw fire, you’d have done me the courtesy of simply telling me the Blood Front was more than just some twice a year country house party a bunch of Vampires stuck in Victorian England went to and complained about humans at while they ate watercress sandwiches.”
“You don’t need to know that.” Recht shrugged and she sighed.
“You know what? Maybe I didn’t. I can’t look at it from here and know if it would have made a difference. And neither can any of you.”
Warren scrubbed a hand over his face. “We don’t have time for a philosophical discussion right now. We can never know what we can’t know. Etcetera. The First was very clear about what we could share. When something comes up we think you need to hear, we seek the permission to share it. That’s how this works, which is no surprise to you.”
David stood at her side and Clive flicked his glance to the other man who looked less angry at Clive than concerned for Rowan.
Clive leaned close to her. “Rowan, may I speak with you privately?”
She cut her gaze his way. “No. We spoke privately earlier. I think that’s enough.”
That was more than enough, just not in the way she meant.
He looked to David. “I do hope you’ll pardon me for this.” And then grabbed Rowan around the waist and tugged her toward his room.
“I said I’m not interested in private anything with you, Scion,” she growled through her clenched teeth as she dug her heels in. Still, she hadn’t gone for her sword. Yet.
“Yes you are and unless you want everyone in this house to hear how much, you’ll accompany me to my rooms where we can speak privately,” he said quietly.
“Go ahead and get close enough. I’m going to punch you in the dick. I’m happy for everyone to hear that.”
Relieved that her anger had filled in the blank canvas she’d given him before, he grinned and kissed her temple as they finally reached the doors to his room. “There’s my Rowan.”
“I’m not your anything.”
He opened the doors and pushed her though, closing and locking them at his back. He engaged the daylight locks as well as he kept an eye on her, making sure she wasn’t really going to punch him in the penis.
“You’re far too good at understanding Vampires not to have known this was coming.” He stalked her way and for the first time she appeared to realize she’d pushed a master Vampire too far and that he was coming for her.
She kept him from flanking her so he just took her down, his front to her front, landing on the bed, his body pinning hers.
“I imagine that blade and the sheath are uncomfortable underneath you. Obviously I value my life so I didn’t attempt to remove it before you landed. I could be convinced to let you remove it yourself if you promise you’ll listen to all I have to say.”
“I’m not interested in anything you have to say. It’s over, Clive. Thanks for the sex.”
“I think not. Hush or you’re going to make me cranky. Why do you have to be so difficult even when you finally admit you love me? You know I told you all I could. You know I told you more than I was supposed to. I would never put you in danger if I had something that could help you. At the same time, outside that very narrow exception, it’s not up to me to choose how much to tell you. What I am sorry for is upsetting you and having you find out the way you did.”
She tried to give her Hunter face. A detached mask. She’d used this face on him before and he hated it. But her emotions crashed over him, wave after wave of sadness, of anger and a little fear. The Rowan beneath him was vulnerable and hurting and she couldn’t hide it.
“I don’t care anymore. It’s fine. Whatever.” Her bottom lip actually quivered just the tiniest bit.
Or, maybe she could hide it. Most likely she could, actually. But she wasn’t trying that hard. And that meant she wanted to get back on track with him. At least enough to not stab him.
Now that he’d cleaved himself to her the way he’d finally stopped fighting, the need to fix it, to make her happy—scratch that, she was, after all, still Rowan—keep her satisfied and not in pain, beat at him.
“Yes you do care. And I want you to.” He risked a quick kiss but the violence in the way she responded, the edge of her teeth, a growl of sound was going to lead to her undoing. He let her see it in his eyes, the way he meant to claim her until she was a trembling mess of muscles and skin once they had worked this out.
“Foreplay already, darling?”
She snarled and he continued speaking, amused but not letting her see it. “But you have to remember who I am. Who we all are. Including you. Vampires have built an empire around secrecy. It’s kept us alive. It’s a revered duty to us. As you know. Also, I hasten to point out that I am certain you don’t tell me everything about Hunter Corp.” Her frown only underlined what he already knew. “I know you’re puzzling over something with them right now but you haven’t said much about it. I don’t push. I assume you’ll tell me what you can.”
“I don’t tell you everything, but I’d never hold back something important. I trust you. I thought you trusted me too.”
He sighed and rolled to his side, his hand on her waist to keep her from running off. “I’m here with you in the place I am most vulnerable. How many times have I truste
d you with my very life? I love you, Rowan. Those aren’t just words for me. There’s no one I’d rather have at my side in my life and at my back in a fight. But I’m a Scion. I have many responsibilities and I’m in charge of upholding the laws of my people. I was told what I could and couldn’t tell you, by my leader and your father. You have my heart and my trust. He’s got my allegiance and my Vampires have my diligence and protection. We both have myriad responsibilities and commitments and this will take work on our part, but there’s no reason we can’t continue to be together and face these things head on.”
“This is a lot of work.”
“Rowan.”
“What?” Her surly tone returned and made him feel a great deal better.
“You can only push me so far.”
She went to her elbows. “Is that so?”
“There’s still quite a lot I can get to before the sun comes up, you know.” He eased closer, pulling the sheath she wore to keep her blade hand free.
“You must be feeling quite lucky to be getting this close.” She bared her teeth. “I’m still angry, Clive.”
He cupped her cheek. “You’re good at anger, darling. I’m good at making you come when you’re angry. It’s obvious how perfect I am for you.”
She blinked slowly, one of her brows sliding up.
“Earlier tonight you were quite the one to watch.”
She tried not to smile for a brief moment and then gave in. “I knew that got you hard. You like it when I’m rough.”
“Watching you interrogate a prisoner is one of life’s finest pleasures.”
“Some men want threesomes. You get off on me beating people bloody. We’re a pair.”
“I never said I’d turn down an offer of a threesome. Should you ever be driven by the desire to have one, of course. It’s all about your pleasure.”
She rolled on top of him. Her sword still on her back because she might still want to use it. “Yeah? So I could invite Warren in here and you’d be down with that?”
