by Lauren Dane
Before he could say anything back and make her appear—as she liked to call it—dumb, she squeezed his hand one last time and turned to face the group now gathered in the hall.
“Where are the sorcerers? I trust we left some of them alive?” Her voice was sharp, taut and people began to snap to attention.
Clive didn’t want to go, but the sun hinted at the farthest edge of the sky. With one last look, he and the others left to rush back to safety.
After his quick shower he just fell onto the mattress, pulled her side of the duvet back so it would be ready for her and let himself sleep.
* * *
“We have one sorcerer alive. He’s in a sort of magical stasis. It won’t last forever so you need to speak to him,” Donna said.
“And then what?” This was her witness; she wanted to know what the hell they thought was going to happen.
“And then we will handle our problem here in Venice,” Donna replied. “We have a Vampire too but we’re going to have to work fast or wait until sundown.”
Rowan wiped her hands the best she could on a wet cloth David handed her. “Let’s go see this Vampire and I’ll make my decision after that.”
“He’s in the light tight room down the hall,” Donna said.
Rowan hadn’t argued with her about the sorcerer. She wasn’t so sure she would. First though, she had to see the Vampire.
When she walked into the room a few doors down from where she’d just finally separated that cow from her life, she made a nearly comical halt when she saw who was inside.
With a muttered curse, Rowan rushed back out and dialed Nadir. The Five wouldn’t go down to rest until the sun was up completely. They’d be sure Theo was going to stay in place first. But she was cutting it really close.
While she waited, Rowan asked Donna, “Who took this one prisoner? Did another Vampire see him?”
Donna pointed at the other guy she’d met earlier.
He came forward and spoke, “I knocked the Vampire out. First I dropped a rock on his head from a balcony and then I hit him with a spell. We brought him inside a few minutes ago. I don’t know if any of the Vampires you were with saw him. I don’t think so. We were in separate places. This Vamp was with the sorcerers. Protection while they were working.”
“Are you going to tell us who this is?” Donna asked.
Rowan shrugged. “I will if you tell me what the hell kind of magic they were doing.”
Donna nodded after thinking it over a bit.
“All right. This is one of the guards from the Keep. He serves The First. As had his family for generations. I need to—”
Nadir answered and Rowan turned her attention there. “You have a problem. Giancarlo is working with the Blood Front.” She gave a quick rundown. “I have about five minutes before he loses consciousness so I need to go.”
“I will deal with that immediately. Keep me updated.” Nadir disconnected.
Rowan went back into the room where the Vampire was being held. She shook her head as she took in a face quite familiar to her. “By now you’ve probably guessed I’m not going to kill you. Yet anyway. You’re going to be unconscious shortly and you’ll be my prisoner. Before that I’d like you to know I am really beyond sick of this whole situation with you and this dime store knock off of an idea J.K. Rowling did like a billion times better. So, you better wake up eager to enlighten me. You’ll tell me either way. It’s really up to you how the script goes. I’m quite vexed that someone who has held such a position of trust and honor would choose to use it in this way.”
She stood, moving to David. “Make sure this room is light tight and then strap him to the bed with that rope in your pack. It’s got silver just under a fine surface dusting that protects unless the Vampire struggles and wears it away.” This she made sure to say loud enough for Giancarlo to hear. She wanted him alive and he seemed willing to stay that way.
What happened after she found what she needed to know was another story.
Donna then took Rowan to the main salon where they’d been keeping the sorcerer in magical stasis. Whatever that meant.
Before they went inside though, Rowan halted the practitioners she was with.
“You said you were going to tell me about what kind of magic fuckery Enyo and her little gang of castaways were up to?”
Donna came over. “There are, as you know, many ways to access magical power. There are methods I find ridiculous, some I find disgusting, even reprehensible. But we have a few things we simply don’t do. Not any of us.”
“And so one of those things is what Enyo did, which is why you all got together and kicked these sorcerers’ asses.”
Donna nodded. “I ask that you keep what I’m going to tell you from as many people as possible. We know you might have to share this information, but please be careful with it.”
Rowan nodded, indicating she agreed.
“Do you know what a shade is?”
A chill worked over the surface of her skin. Brigid stirred in the pit of her belly. “Basically. It’s sort of like a ghost.”
“It’s what happens when a soul is torn away from a living being. The body will die a short while later, but there’s no transition for that being. A shade is a restless, voracious ghost, empty, searching, in pain and misery. It is the worst sort of dishonor to create such creatures.”
Rowan blew out a long breath. “So, she’s making them to get power? Or to use in her bidding? What?”
“The kind of power a practitioner would gain from such an act would be tremendous. All that life force would have made Enyo and her group strong. Or the sorcerers strong. She can’t command a shade. No one can. They’re not sentient that way. Just suffering.”
“Is this an Enyo deal, or a sorcerer deal? Can you tell? It’s a problem either way, but the source affects how I’ll go about correcting it.” Though she hoped it was the former, Rowan had been around the block enough times to know it rarely worked out that way.
“That I don’t know. It’s not like this type of magic is performed even rarely. It’s not done! The knowledge of how to do these workings isn’t readily available. When we combed through the other villa we came across things I’d never even seen before. We had to consult with some elders to get more information.”
“I imagine if you were a super old Vampire you probably had the connections. All sorts of weird stuff happened every day when Enyo was young so perhaps it was easier back in her day to get in on the ground floor and she’s been doing it over the centuries maybe?”
“Given the state of her when you killed her she’d been working with and around that magic for a very long time so that’s likely.”
Rowan stretched a bit, popping her shoulder and cracking her neck, feeling better immediately. “Well, seems like the only way we can know is to talk to this joker and see what he’s going to share. So what’s the protocol? How does this work?”
* * *
Turns out magical stasis was pretty much like a medically induced coma. When they went into the room, the sorcerer was laying on a table, strapped down. Several very large men watched on warily.
One of the practitioners slowly brought the prisoner to consciousness and Rowan sat across from where he’d been restrained.
“I’m not going to waste time pretending to be your friend.” Rowan shrugged. “I’m not. You know it. So, you can talk to me, or not. But I’m going to recommend the telling me option. The other one is a lot more painful and I’ll still get the information I need.”
His features remained impassive.
“It’s cool, you’d be surprised at how many people manage to continue to be brave at this point in the discussion. Bear with me. I’m going to start with what I know. Share information, so to speak. I know someone at Hunter Corp. engaged your services to watch me. But y
ou little fuckers have been doing a lot more than watching. I don’t know about you, but repeatedly being attacked and nearly killed makes me cranky.” Rowan growled his way and he flinched, which cheered her.
She sat back a little, taking his measure. “Sorry, got sidetracked. Like I said, I know about the connection to Hunter Corp. But I also know you’re working both sides of the fence.”
He might have had some admirable physical control at keeping his facial features pretty blank, but his eyes told Rowan more than his face would have anyway. He was a liar-liar-pants-on-fire.
“Now, what I’m wondering is what shape your problem is.” She cocked her head.
He didn’t know where she was going but there was the dawn of some genuine fear in his gaze.
At least he was smart on some level.
“I’m now going to ask you questions. You’re then going to answer them. I have all day before the Vampires will awaken. No one is coming for you for fifteen hours or so. At the earliest. Lest you think your compatriots will make some heroic attempt to free you, they won’t. You’re the only one left alive.”
Rowan stood, looking to the practitioners in the room. “If you’re squeamish I suggest you get out now because he’s going to make me prove just how serious I am before he starts talking.”
A few left, taking up positions in the hall, at the ready if she called, but out of sight.
The dude stayed, as did the two who’d already been in the room. Donna shifted to see better, but kept her distance.
Rowan shut the door and removed the jacket she’d been wearing, draping it over the back of a nearby chair. She left her blade at her back as she circled the table and came to a halt at his feet. She wanted him to have to strain to see her. Wanted him to know how helpless he was. And she wanted him to believe she would hurt him for hours and hours and hours if she had to.
Mostly the ones like this sorcerer made her give them an example.
She let her hair down and then rebraided it, keeping it tight against her head and neck, tucking the end into her shirt.
“That’s better. Have you seen Pulp Fiction? What’s your name, by the way?”
He remained silent so she shrugged. “Okay, I’m going to call you Ernesto. You look like you could be an Ernesto. Have you seen the movie?” When he didn’t respond she continued. “You really should. Anyway, there’s this part where Samuel L. Jackson is getting ready to kill someone and he’s got this great bible verse he says to be spooky. While I’ve done that a few times to see how it fit, I ended up with a basic script. A disclaimer, if you will.
“I know you’re thinking that you can take whatever I’m going to do to you. And you think that because you have no idea what I’m going to do to you. None of you ever do. I warn you every time and most of you make the wrong choice. But I’m giving it to you anyway, because that’s how I roll. This is fate and choice and chance and all that big cosmic stuff. Make your choice knowingly.”
Just as she thought, he said nothing.
She didn’t bother with something in the low end of the pain spectrum. The lesson had to be swift, furious and resolute. Most of them learned after that.
She buried the small knife she kept in her boot in his side, narrowly missing anything vital. Close enough to be very painful. She pulled it out as she chopped him in the throat with the edge of her hand.
He cried out and then choked, shuddering from the impact. Rowan got close enough to nearly touch his nose and dug the knife back into the wound. “Do we understand one another now?”
He screamed and then started nodding furiously as tears streamed from his eyes.
David handed her a warm, wet hand towel and took the knife, cleaning it as she got rid of the worst of the blood off her hands and wrists.
“If you can behave yourself and not try any magical bullshit, I’ll let someone staunch that wound. Otherwise you’ll probably stop bleeding soon. Probably. Or you’ll bleed out and die. Either way you’re going to be feeling pretty faint once the adrenaline wears off from this round of questioning.”
“You’re crazy!”
Rowan shook her head. “No, I’m determined. Now that you understand just how determined I am you need to start answering my questions. Playtime is over. I have stuff to do.”
“I won’t use magic.”
Which wasn’t that much of a promise, but it was enough for the moment. Rowan nodded at Donna, who took the other towels David had provided and used one to press down on Ernesto’s side to halt the flow of blood.
“She can use her magic to help block the pain,” the prisoner said.
Rowan shrugged. “She could. But she’s not going to. You’re in the hole when it comes to your credit with me. Do you understand that saying?”
He nodded, pale but a little calmer.
“Who from Hunter Corp. hired you? Feel free to add details you know I’m going to ask you. If you make me work too hard for this I’m going to conclude you need some more lessons. I have more than one knife with me.”
“I don’t know his name. He got in touch with some others who refused to do what he wanted, but they gave him my information.”
Rowan waited, looking at him expectantly. When it was clear he was still going to make her work for it, she stabbed him near his shoulder joint. Slicing through tendons.
He howled in pain and then went very white. Rowan wiped the blade on his shirt and stepped back.
“We didn’t always talk to the same guy. It was two different men and one woman. At first they wanted us to watch you. We couldn’t get to you inside the Keep. But when you left for Las Vegas and then when you headed off to Prague someone would contact us to let us know where you were headed.”
“First they wanted you to watch me and then?”
“She had to leave Prague. We knew where you were. In the house belonging to the Nation. Can I have some water? Something for the pain?”
“I find pain is a really good motivator. You have to get along to go along, Ernesto. Keep talking. You knew where we were in Prague how?”
“The Blood Front had someone in place at the Keep. He’s been giving us information for several years. He showed up a few days ago. Said he’d left the Keep for good. Had some stuff with him. She was pretty excited about that. Then the orders from the people from Hunter Corp. changed. We were supposed to take you from the villa here in Venice. Kill everyone else. The shutters were rigged to open at full day and flood the room with light.”
And totally violating the Treaty because Hunter Corp. had given them safe harbor and it had been violated. That, so close to the attack on Rowan that had been a violation of the same kind, only from the Vampires and Theo’s shaky constitution and things would descend into full on war soon enough.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Rowan was already up when Clive surfaced at sundown. But she hadn’t gone far. He found her sitting in the adjoining room, wearing the robe he’d given her, a phone pressed to her ear, her fingers flying over the keys of the laptop at the desk.
He paused to kiss the top of her head then checked his voicemail and in with his human secretary back in Las Vegas. And what he heard had him waiting not so very patiently for her to end that call.
“The Lacoste family has a smaller offshoot, the Berns. The Berns have been in service to The First for four generations. One of them, Giancarlo, was a house guard at the Keep. I often trained with him when I was young. His cousin is on Theo’s staff. His mother was actually born at the Keep, as was his grandfather. He’s been giving the Blood Front information for the last four years. It may have gone on longer, but that’s what we’ve been able to verify for sure so far,” Rowan said as soon as she hung up.
Clive knelt in front of her, taking her hands, kissing her fingertips. “Is your father all right?”
Rowan nodded and
told him the story of how she’d walked into that room and recognized Giancarlo immediately. “I called right before sunrise and caught Nadir. The human staff took everyone Giancarlo is related to into custody and they’ll be questioned shortly. I spoke with Nadir’s human chief of staff earlier. I expect she’ll check in with me in a few hours depending on what she’s learned.”
She closed her laptop and rose. “We’re going to need a meal for the telling of the rest of this.”
He stopped her, needing some private words. She looked tired and sad. The tired was one thing, but the sad broke his heart. “Last night you did what you needed to do. And you were remarkable. I have no doubt that you’ve spent all day out at that estate, ordering people around, gathering information. When did you come to bed?”
“I got three hours’ sleep. That’s not bad. I need less sleep now. When this is over—” She halted mid sentence. “I used to say that and think I meant after I’d killed Enyo but now that I’ve killed her it’s still not over.”
“No it isn’t. But we’re all better off with her gone.”
“Come on. I’m starved and I need coffee. I heard David out on the landing about ten minutes ago so he’ll have left us some.”
Relief settled in. He’d thought she meant to go downstairs and be with everyone. He wanted her to himself for a while longer. Wanted to talk with her privately about all that’d happened.
He opened the door and indeed, David had left a tray with a carafe of coffee and one of citrus juice of some type. Under a dome there were several sandwiches and Rowan wasted no time making herself a plate and going back into the bedroom with it and her cup of coffee.
“You knew I eat in bed before you bound yourself to me. Too late to cry now,” she called over her shoulder.
“You have other qualities to make up for it.”
“You’re talking about my ass, huh? That’s better,” she said with a happy sigh after her first drink of coffee. He settled in bed with her, both on top of the duvet with food between them.
