by Lauren Dane
Her nails raked down his shoulders, breaking the skin. The sting of pain slid into pleasure as he continued to fuck into her body, taking in the feel of her in his arms, her pussy wrapped around his cock so tight he’d have been sweating if they weren’t in the shower.
On and on he went, thrusting deep, watching her react. Her pupils had swallowed nearly all the color in her eyes. Her lips were swollen from his kisses, skin flushed from orgasm.
But when she tightened all around him and had a smaller, deep orgasm, there was nothing to hold back anymore. Climax hit hard in his solar plexus, knocking the breath from him as he went to his knees, Rowan still wrapped around him.
Orgasm seemed to pound in his ears, deafening, like the roar of the ocean as he lost himself in her.
She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and pulled him close, both of them attempting to get their breath back.
They stayed that way until the water began to run cool and she made a sound of annoyance. She wasn’t one for cold showers.
She joined him in his bed for a while, snuggling close after rechecking all the locks to make sure he’d be secure. The doorway had been fitted with a secondary block against any sunlight. A sort of zipper contraption he hated, but had to admit worked well against the sun.
“I’m not one for camping, but if this was what it was like, I’d probably complain less about going,” she said, exhaustion in her tone.
“Would you care to walk me through whatever convoluted logic that got us talking about camping?”
“This is sort of like a tent with that zipper entry thing,” she said as if he was dumb for not seeing it.
“Even if this is exactly what camping was, I’d be opposed to it. Camping is outside where there are bugs and the hard ground. I prefer temperature control and a very nice mattress along with running water and indoor toilets.”
“You lived in times without those things! You wiped your butt with rushes and leaves!”
He snorted an undignified laugh. “Yes, darling Hunter, which is why I am so very convinced those creature comforts are such wonderful things I don’t want to live without. Not even for a few days. But I didn’t use leaves. We had other things. Still not as nice as toilet paper and that’s quite enough of this entire conversation.”
She snickered as the sun began to drag on his consciousness.
“I’ll be here when you wake up so don’t bother to order me to do that,” she muttered as she made to get out of bed.
“I like to boss you around. Makes me feel like I’m doing something with my life.”
She snickered. “I love you, Scion, you smug bastard. Sweet dreams.” She kissed him quick and was gone.
Chapter Six
Rowan awakened several hours later, the scent of freshly brewing coffee as good as a hard shake. That and she was hungry and needed to work out because it had been a while and she couldn’t afford to get rusty.
After dressing and wrapping her hair up in a bun, she headed to the garage where she’d set up a bag and some weights. First she’d exercise and then she’d meditate. She needed that mind-body connection to clear things up. Hopefully.
There was something soothing about letting muscle memory take over while she worked out the investigation in her head. She jumped rope, did some kickboxing with the bag and after some free weights, she did her hated pull-ups until her biceps burned.
Rowan tried to forget about everything but figuring out who was behind all these killings. Tried to forget the burning in the pit of her stomach, the clench of her heart when she thought to remind herself to relay information to Carey, only to remember he was dead.
She dropped to the ground with a grunt, feeling the burn of her exertion. It had been a while since she’d worked out hard enough—outside literal matches to the death—to achieve that so it was a positive. Her body welcomed it. Her brain seemed to kick in as well.
Sweaty, muscles still jumping, she headed to the backyard that edged an open expanse of mountain and desert. Rowan needed to meditate and open the way between her and Brigid. Close out all voices but her own and that of the Goddess. Seeking solace, strength and insight.
It was already hot, but she found a flat enough stone the masonry wall cast shade on and settled, letting the heat and energy of the earth seep into her body as she relaxed and let go. Giving herself over to that otherness that lived within her. And then the clasp of her very being, that tug as she moved to another level of concentration and existence.
* * *
Rowan came back to herself a few minutes later. Sometimes she remembered every step of any contact she had while in a meditative state. There were memories of her birth mother and those of the Goddess.
Other times she simply came back to herself with a shift in her emotional state but with no specific memories of what she’d experienced. A deep knowing left in her gut.
That day was one of the latter, though she was bolstered when she opened her eyes. Feeling less alone and at loose ends. It was the deep grief sitting low in her belly that brought the certainty that her dear friend Thena was gone.
Not knowing how to put it into words just yet, Rowan showered first before heading to the kitchen where David had a cup of coffee and breakfast ready.
“Good morning, you goddess damned miracle,” she told David while tipping cream into her coffee mug.
“Good morning. I heard you working out but left you to your own devices as you did. Are you well?”
She shrugged as she spread some butter over her toast. “This is one of those situations where it is what it is and how I feel about it makes no difference. Thena is dead, David. I know this to my toes.” She’d blurted it, hoping that the quick words would make it easier. But it still tore from her, sharp edged.
He flinched as if she’d slapped him.
Rowan sighed softly. David was still soft in places and she should remember that. Be gentle with him more than she was. “I’m sorry. I should have delivered that with some finesse. I know you care about her too.”
David waved it away. “It’s not your method of delivery, deesse. It’s the fact that you believe it. And if you believe it, I know it’s true. Do you have any specific sense of why or where she might be?” His hands fluttered, as if he wanted to hug or touch her for comfort but didn’t.
Rowan sipped her coffee and then patted his arm. The contact was for him more than her, but it was her responsibility to look after his well-being.
It was the right thing to do, she noted, when he leaned back a little and got himself together.
“I think the why is her connection to me. They want to get at me and they keep failing so they’re hitting everyone I care about. And they succeeded, obviously. Twice now. Maybe a third time if we find Martin dead too. As for where? I don’t know. She worked from home mainly so we’re monitoring her electronics to see if she—or I guess anyone else—uses her sign in. Her parents are dead and she has no siblings or close family. Just her friends and the other acolytes for Athena. We need to keep looking. I’ll be talking to the Vamps who went out to her house last night but it has to wait until sundown. I have the report in my inbox so I’ll go over it now. How are we coming on breaking into her cell phone provider?”
“I’ve got some help on that. I can hack into email, but cell companies make things more complicated. Carey had contacts with people who make it look easy and I’m getting help from that direction. They’re as angry at his murder as we are.”
Rowan knew David understood what and how much to divulge to other people so she didn’t bother to ask if he’d gone over that with whoever was helping them. It felt right somehow that this help come from those who loved Carey too.
They spoke for a while, going back and forth with information and ideas. Each would pause to make a call or send an email, check the data they’d collected to try and put together a rough timeline.
Most of investigation was tedious. Checking and rechecking information, sifting through data to figure out what was relevant. But for Rowan it always came down to her gut.
“You need to trust yourself more,” she told David. “Hunches, something that doesn’t feel right, those little things about letting your subconscious do the work along with you, that’s key. Yes, I want you to rely on science and data. But there’s a difference between ignoring hard data and taking into account things you were born with.”
“You’ve been at this a lot longer.”
Rowan snorted. “Are you calling me old?”
David blushed. “I’m saying you’re a tough act to follow.”
“Well, that’s lovely. But I got here from training. You’re training and I’m a very good teacher.” She wouldn’t even beat him bloody for fucking up. She wanted David learning in a way that didn’t involve abuse or killing of his spirit.
And three hours later the mother acolyte at the local shrine to Athena got in contact with Rowan and gave her the news she’d already accepted but still had been dreading.
* * *
Brigid took over once Rowan got out of the car and began to walk up the nondescript front steps to the double doors of the Las Vegas shrine to Athena. The mother acolyte, Marian, opened them and stood there, holding her hands out.
“She’s inside. Come through,” Marian said quietly.
There was no Vessel, but the presence of Athena was palpable as Rowan was drawn into the front entry and down the hall to a sitting room.
She tried to mentally steel herself against what was in that room. The reality that her friend was truly dead.
But when the couch, and the body on it, covered with a pale purple sheet, came into full view, there was no preparing for such a thing.
Brigid made sure Rowan didn’t go to her knees at the sight, though a sound of longing and sadness broke from her lips as she took the last two steps.
“I’m sorry, Thena,” Rowan whispered, bending to pull the sheet back to see her face one last time. And recoiling at the sight of what had been done to her friend’s beautiful features.
Outrage filled her hot and fast, shoving out everything else. Brigid was incensed at the torture and physical damage inflicted on Thena. Outraged at the violation of one of their oldest laws. Protection to those who served a power.
“What is this?” Her voice was heavily layered with magic and power. The acolytes in the room who’d been kneeling by Thena’s body all looked down, too afraid to speak.
“I apologize. It was not my intention to make this worse. You loved her too,” Rowan managed around the pain in her chest. “You said her body was dumped off here in your yard?”
“Sometime between six and eleven or so this morning. I went out to get the mail at eleven fifteen. I saw...the sheet. One of her feet was out so I could tell it was a person. There were birds,” the acolyte said.
Rowan’s interest sharpened as she attempted to examine the wounds on Thena, trying to imagine her a stranger and failing. She’d been physically tortured. Beaten. But her skin was wrong. Like leather almost in some places.
“What kind of birds?”
“Black birds. Crows. They were protecting her, not hurting her.”
That was the truth of it. Rowan rarely saw the Morrigan, but she was often near death and battles, much like Brigid tended to be. The birds were hers.
There were other powers, old powers, as ancient as Vampires. Some of them, like the Dust Devils, could be older. Those who still gave themselves in service to those old powers were offered protection for that service. Brigid’s acolytes were given free room and board, along with health benefits. Rowan had insisted on it and Brigid had approved. Rowan had paid for it and that was all right too. She had money enough.
Other gods and goddesses had similar shrines and priests and acolytes. Most had waned in power over the centuries as less people believed and followed. But Athena was still powerful and her servants had been harmed.
“I will make sure whoever did this to her is found and punished,” Rowan said, the words a promise. A vow.
The look on the mother acolyte’s face, the one who’d brought Rowan into the room, said they were as outraged as she. And wouldn’t be satisfied until vengeance was meted.
“I loved her as if she were my sister,” Rowan said, softer this time. “She was put in danger because she was my friend. I’m sorry for that.”
“There was no telling Thena what to do or where to go. Certainly no way to tell her who to love. She knew things were dangerous and she lived her own way. And she died. But not because of you.”
Marian stepped closer, taking Rowan’s hands after moving slowly enough that Rowan could have avoided the touch if she’d wanted to.
“Thena would have hated it if you went off on a journey of vengeance and got careless. I’m a paralegal, not a witch, but I can see magic. This power they’re using is not like anything I’ve ever encountered. It’s wrong and twisted. Dark. Please be careful.”
That it seemed to seep from Thena’s body in oily waves only echoed that. This territory was unfamiliar in a way that left her off balance and uncertain.
“I have a friend who is a witch. A talented one. She’s due in town today. May I bring her here to look at Thena?” Genevieve would know. Or would know who might know.
Marian nodded. “Of course. However we can help we will.” Hesitation. “I don’t know how to bring this up, but we need to make arrangements for her body. I’m not entirely sure how to do that given her condition. If we call the authorities won’t there be trouble?”
“A pyre.” Brigid’s voice slid from Rowan’s mouth. “We will send her off to the next world in the manner she deserves, lovely one. My Vessel will handle the preparation.”
Marian’s eyes widened and she blushed before managing to stammer, “Thank you, Goddess.”
Rowan hoped Brigid knew what to do because she sure as heck didn’t know how to go about burning a dead body in Las Vegas in a way that everyone involved didn’t end up at the police station.
But Marian was right that if they called the authorities it would only bring trouble. Human police weren’t capable or equipped to handle whatever was responsible for this murder. It would only put them in danger and get in the way of Rowan’s ability to solve the case herself and handle the punishment.
“Any word on Martin?” one of the acolytes asked.
Rowan shook her head. “Still looking for him.”
“They were always together. If she’s here...like this, he wouldn’t have allowed it if he was able to. I’m worried for him.”
Rowan was too. “If I hear anything I’ll let you know.”
David arranged to have Thena’s body picked up and stored until they were ready to do the ceremony and as they left, many hugs were given, along with a fresh loaf of bread and some freezer jam.
* * *
“I’m sorry, Rowan,” David said once they drove away.
He began to steer the conversation to sharing feelings but she just couldn’t deal with it right at the moment. So she walled it back with ice and layers of rage. She needed the moat between her grief and the job to be done.
“The motherfuckers who did this are going to feel wrath such as they never imagined. Sorry is for after. Right now I need to be about rage, not grief.”
He risked a quick squeeze of her forearm. “So long as you accept you won’t be doing this alone.”
“I did this alone for years before you came along, bucko.”
“Bucko? I believe that might be a new one. Should I be insulted? Wait, don’t answer.”
Rowan snickered. He knew she needed the laugh and gave it to her.
“As for your doing this alone, that was then. Whether you wanted to accumulate us or not, you have a team of people at your back. People who’d do any
thing for you because they love you that much.”
“What did I say about that? I can’t do anything weepy right now,” she snapped.
“So long as you know you won’t be doing this alone,” he repeated, underlining it.
Half a mile later she sighed. “You’re getting very scrappy. We have to find Martin now. I need to go deal with some of my criminally inclined sources to see if I can drum up some information that way. Don’t say you’re coming because you’re not. There are some sources you won’t be interacting with for a variety of reasons.”
“I have sources too, you know,” he said.
“I know you do. I appreciate those sources. You’ll keep making them over time until you’re old like me and have a hive of scum and villainy all of your own.”
“I appreciate that you can use a Star Wars reference in even the darkest of times.”
“We all have our gifts.”
David sniffed. “You have to go back to the house first because Clive will wake up soon and wonder where you are. We left in a hurry.”
They were both silent awhile as they remembered the panic and rush to get over to where Thena had been found.
Rowan said, “Sunset is three hours from now.” Though Clive would wake a little earlier than that as it was full summer at that point and the daylight lasted a lot longer. He’d be confined to his room and do work there until he could move more freely when the sun finally went down.
He’d be free enough to be pissed that she hadn’t left a note and work up all sorts of uptight offense and by the time he tracked her down there’d be unpleasantness and rather than makeup sex, there’d be that sick feeling in her gut when she was mad at him and couldn’t resolve it. Usually because it was something that came from her direction.
Her phone buzzed and David looked at the screen. “Genevieve has arrived and is on her way to her hotel. She says she’ll call once she’s settled in. She expects to have a meal with you.”
