by Lauren Dane
“We need to hire some more staff to get the Motherhouse up and running,” she told David when he brought her a cup of coffee and some sort of sweet roll Elisabeth had probably made.
“Hunters or valets and support staff?” he asked, settling in at the chair across from hers with a cup of tea and his own sweet roll.
“All the above. You’ll need your own assistant but I’ll let you do the hiring for that.” Goddess, maybe he’d be a little less up in her business every moment if he had someone to supervise and sniff indignantly at.
She nearly laughed and he gave her a closer look so she carried on. “Vanessa has already started but she’ll have an office and at least one or two staff of her own so they can be available for Hunters nationwide. A resource library needs to be created, maintained and then as much as possible, needs to be made easily accessed by Hunters and their staff no matter where they are. I expect Vanessa will be the best person to get on that.”
David scribbled notes, comparing to his tablet from time to time.
Rowan continued. “The Hunters in the region we know already so we’ll need to have enough space for them to be able to use the Motherhouse at any time they might need to. We’ll need some permanent offices on the fourth and fifth floors, but let’s also set up some guest offices on the lower floors, along with sleeping spaces—bedrooms and some dormitory type rooms with bunk beds in case we might need it and I sincerely hope we never do. A communal kitchen area on each floor. Conference rooms of varying sizes with all the prerequisite tech.”
Things were beginning to take shape in her head. The vision for the future of Hunter Corp. filled her with a growing passion to forge a safer future for them all. The status quo had gotten so stale it had allowed for rot. And that rot and the betrayals that had followed had devastated their organization to the very core. All that loss had to mean something. Rowan would not let it be in vain.
“We’ll have to make sure the training opportunities for Hunters and valets alike are available. Like Susan’s valet, I think you could be an excellent liaison.”
David blushed furiously. “Me?”
“Having a well trained valet means that valet’s chances of survival on the job are higher. You’re very good at your job and I think you have a very good way with people. Even difficult people like Clive. I don’t expect you to teach all the classes, but ideas for what sort of training would be good, what resources we’re not already delivering, that’s what I need to hear.”
He nodded, clearly pleased.
“Some of the more old school Hunters won’t want a valet and though I understand that perspective, I am still determined to attempt to convince them to take one on. It’s a way to continue the work we’re doing. Bringing in new voices, new perspectives. A lot of Hunters started as valets.”
His burst of laughter startled her and Star looked up, sneezed and went back to sleep. Rowan let him calm down a little before she arched her eyebrow and demanded he share whatever it was he found so hilarious.
“When Ms. Espy called me and offered me the position as your valet I have never in my life been so thrilled and terrified at the same time. You’re aware of your reputation,” he said, forestalling any argument on her part.
She’d learned very early on that reputation was a weapon. Fear and respect could resemble one another, especially in their world. Rowan had carved out space for herself where she could do her job as a Hunter and as a Vessel. She was not under the thumb of anyone. She made her own choices and sometimes those choices were vicious and violent because she had to remind beings far stronger than she was that she would always handle any threat to her or those she protected with pain and it was better to just leave her the fuck alone.
“When you showed up all squeaky clean and well mannered I was so pissed. Not at you.” She pointed at him to underline that. “But I’d told Susan to fuck off and leave me alone. I worked alone.” Rowan paused. “You wouldn’t leave. That’s when I figured I was keeping you. It was like telling a puppy to leave you alone, but I did. Then you ignored me with such fantastically polite deviousness.”
He smiled. The polite English boy who’d first shown up on her doorstep had been hardened over the years but there was still kindness and affection in his eyes.
“You needed me,” he said quietly. “And I needed you. Ms. Espy knew that. I know you feel like having close friends and family weakens you—”
She held a hand up. “Stop. It’s not that. It’s the opposite. It exposes you. Weakens you all. I used to believe I could protect everyone. It was the only way I could let you get close. Or Carey.” Rowan shook her head. “But I failed. And I failed Thena and Martin. People die when they live in our world and I’m a magnet for all sorts of beasties. I didn’t want any valet because I didn’t want to bring that into anyone’s life.”
“Ours is a wilder world than the one most humans see. And you go out there every day and fight off the worst of it to protect those who can’t protect themselves. That is a calling, Rowan. You are one against scores and you still keep going. Because you must. It’s who you are. Which is why I serve you and more importantly why I respect you. You are not perfect. You’re going to fail. But your chances of success are higher because you have us around you. Every one of us has chosen to ally ourselves with your cause. That is not making us weaker. That’s letting us all live up to our potential and help you take out the villains every time.”
Rowan blew out a breath and struggled through the waves of emotion. “It is unimaginable to me not to have you as my valet. You’ve taught me just as much as I’ve taught you and that’s why I’m going to keep pushing the holdouts that a valet would be a good thing.” She shifted away from the emotional place they’d just been in, back to business. “At the very least it helps the Motherhouse keep track of Hunters in the field so less will just go missing and no one knows.”
“I think that’s a very good idea. Still, some of these new changes are bound to cause at least a bit of discord. There will be Hunters who aren’t going to like the move to organize better here in the United States,” David said, letting her step back on less vulnerable ground.
“Most of those are the Hunters who act like they’re mercenaries. We’re not mercenaries. We’re not hired guns. I have long felt we needed to underline that and get rid of or yank those Hunters who’re riding that line too closely back. Things are changing. We need to change with the times or lose our way.”
He nodded, agreeing. Good. He’d tell her if he thought she was wrong. Or too wrong.
“Apropos of that, I’m going to suggest we always work in teams of at least two. Too many people have gone missing. Too many witches kidnapped and drained. Too many Vampires being Made without permission. Things are in flux. We’ll need a real presence and I want everyone in the field to be as safe as possible. Hunters are human for the most part. We need to raise our security up to where we can meet that sort of threat level.”
They spoke of setting up a network of cross training with other Hunters across the United States. Rowan let the details pull her along. It felt as if she was actually doing something instead of constantly reacting to things.
Things were unfinished. There was yet another layer to this whole damned mess she’d been wading in since she’d first dealt with the Blood Front only a year prior.
Only a year. It had felt like a century since that moment she’d met Enyo and the other Vampires who were out to destroy the Treaty that held the peace between the paranormal groups and protected humans in the bargain.
Each time she’d thought they were finally done, that they’d lopped off the head of whatever group that was behind so many disappearances and murders, there was yet another level. Killing Lyr the week before had been a major step. She felt that to her toes. But it hadn’t been the end.
There would always be problems. Always threats. Always things she’d have to investigate, Vamp
ires she’d have to stake, people she’d need to insult. But this hurtling from one death to the next, scrabbling to stay alive and keep those she loved the same, had exhausted her.
“The end is coming,” she told David. “Yes, we’ll be investigating some other nonsense next month but we’re so close to figuring out just who the fuck is behind all this Blood Front and magic stuff I can nearly taste it.”
“I can’t say I’ll be complaining about something new to be worried about. Do you think this is the last of the Blood Front?” David asked. “Every time we think they’re done, they return.”
“Like herpes.” Rowan snorted. “There are always going to be groups like Blood Front. Making yourself feel better at the expense of someone else is a pretty popular game. Humans love it too, but Vampires are champions. They bitch on a professional level. So as they sit around and complain, they’ll always return to humans and how they should be free to feed and Make as they choose. It might have a new name the next time, but the message is always the same. However, I think once we take out whoever is at the head of this conspiracy the balance will shift greatly.”
“And that is your gift and your path,” Clive murmured as he bent to kiss her temple, phone calls over for at least the time being. He settled at her side and spoke in a normal tone. “The balance here will be hard fought.”
“It always is. Balance is achieved through struggle and painful lessons. It happens because things have slid so far out of alignment it takes a violent correction to find true north again.”
Clive took her hand a moment and squeezed. “Well said. And I have the permission to investigate in England. He wouldn’t go beyond that without more details from me and I’m not willing to give those details to him yet.”
“I don’t think Warren is Blood Front,” Rowan told him.
“Neither do I. But there are those within his organization who are and they’re the ones leaking tactical information to our enemies. I trust Warren. Within limits.” Clive flicked his gaze over her with a faint, feral smile. “But I don’t trust anyone else working for him.”
Fair enough.
“The sun is coming. Lie with me for a while,” he said. “Put aside work and just be with me.”
“Why are you being so sweet to me?” she asked him once they were alone. She closed the door at her back. “It’d better not be because you want to tell me there’s no use me heading out to investigate this black market Vampire. If you do, I’m going to punch you in the taint.”
He winced and she laughed, shaking her finger at him.
“Can’t it just be that I want to be alone with you a while before I go to rest?” He patted the mattress.
“I’m serious about that threat so don’t test me,” she vowed as she got into bed and then moved to him, putting her head on his chest.
“I value my taint—and what a truly delightful word for it—too much to take any chances.”
She started giggling so hard she got the hiccups. “Say taint again. Please,” she said, breathless between bouts of laughter.
“Still my precious fragile flower.” He kissed the top of her head and she settled into him, occasionally snickering as she remembered the way he said taint.
“Now,” he continued a few minutes later. “I’m not going to ask you not to pursue your investigation of the Vampire and his connection to the Blood Front and the black market. I very rarely ask you to put aside your job and I know this is far more than just your job. But I do propose we share information. I know you’re pursuing lines of inquiry with Genevieve’s help. And I’m sure you know I’ve got Alice working with Nadir doing the same on my end. We’re much stronger if we work together.”
“Before I agree, I want to be totally clear. I’m going to end every last bit of the Blood Front I find. I’m looking. Hard. All this Vampire messing around with magic business has me very agitated. This violates the Treaty. I will also be terminating this Vampire fucking with the black magic and enabling the atrocities of his boss. I don’t need your permission. I won’t seek permission from the Vampire Nation to do my job. The Blood Front and any and all Vampires connected to it need to be ended. I will do that. We clear?”
He flipped her to her back so he could loom over her. “You know what it does to me when you’re like this,” he growled.
“That’s because you’re a deviant with insatiable desires. In any case, are we clear?” she repeated.
He sighed and then nodded. “We’re clear. If there are things I am forbidden to share with you as a Hunter, I will tell you about it. But I want to reassure you,” he said as he put a finger over her lips to stay her argument, “that’s not at issue here.”
“All right then.”
“Can we get back to those insatiable desires you just mentioned?” he asked, dipping to kiss her long and slow.
She hummed as his taste made itself at home within her. Her fingers slid into his hair—so thick and soft—and held him in that kiss until she wrapped her thighs around him, trapping him just where she wanted.
And yet he had her pants off one leg in three deft moves and talented fingers on her clit, before she’d barely had time to register his movements.
When he took her like this, as if there was nothing he could do but have her right then that very moment, it left her breathless. She’d never had trust that deep with anyone before. Never experienced that thrill edged with something sharp and dark.
“Only you,” she told him, knowing they both needed the words.
He kissed her again as she began to come lightning fast. His fingers moved, replaced by the head of his cock, which he pressed into her body with a thrust so swift and deep her tits bounced.
She was so wet and hot and loose from that climax she stretched against him as he fucked into her body, hard and intense, every bit of his focus on her. A lock of his hair dared break free from its brethren and came to slide over his forehead.
In that moment she could imagine him as a regency hero just as easily as a modern day spy or super soldier. The light in his eyes burned for her and she let him in and held on as he snarled. She knew he was close.
Knew her unique magic rose to meet his, blood and magic. Before there was anything else there had been blood and magic. Totemic and powerful. They sealed bargains and fates. Told truths in ways words never could. Together they were the foundation of whatever threat she and Clive faced and were about to eradicate.
Together they’d make her stronger. Make Clive stronger. That’s how they’d prevail.
He came then on a grunt of her name, the light in his eyes still burning but now glazed with pleasure.
They lay together, catching their breath, holding hands for long minutes after. Just being with one another.
When sunrise got closer, he finally got up to change back into a pair of soft lounge pants and a long sleeved shirt while she dressed in her own warm, comfortable travel clothes. The air smelled like sex and that pleased her immensely.
It still did as she left the room half an hour later to let him sleep the daylight away.
Out in the main cabin, she settled into her seat, reclined it back, tucked her blanket around her legs and answered a very testy text from Genevieve who was also on her way to London because, in her words, who else could be trusted to examine the magic of this Vampire and see if there’s a link to his master?
Rowan had just wanted to save her friend yet another flight off to somewhere else to help her out. Genevieve was still dealing with all the witch stuff that was connected to the case Rowan and Clive worked so Rowan figured they’d only call her if it was necessary.
Everyone acted as if she had no resources other than whoever it was giving her some sort of pissy lecture about how important their skill and gifts were to Rowan’s investigations. She’d done her job before Genevieve. Before Clive. Before David. She had sources all over the fucking planet! She
managed just fucking fine, thank you very much, before all these bloody people came into her life and made themselves so important.
Once they’d finished their little text argument—including an apology from Rowan for not including Genevieve from the start—she turned to David and gave him a quick overview of the situation.
“She just wants to help,” David said. “And she’s worried about you. I certainly understand that perspective. I worry for you all the time. And she does it because she cares.”
“This is a risky job. She has a whole different job that does not include missions where people fucking try to kill her and everyone connected to her.”
He gave her that utterly British face they used when they were just so offended and/or disappointed in you. A call out as well as a way to not have to express things out loud.
One of David’s brows rose and he pursed his lips ever so slightly.
It made her laugh. “Clive adds a sniff to his version of that look,” she told him as she ate some fruit and cheese that’d materialized. “How loud it is depends on the offense. You’re going to need to find your own spin to truly master that expression. Maybe one of those little huffs you do when you’re done with whatever thing I’m doing repeatedly to your disappointment.”
He laughed. “I’ve had reservations about Genevieve, you know that. Perhaps some resentment as you may have noticed. It felt as if she wanted to replace me. But as you said to me, she’s your equal. Your friend.”
She began to speak but he held his hand up, asking her to let him continue so she did.
“I know we have other sources in London, but one thing I have not ever doubted is that Genevieve is the most knowledgeable and powerful magic user we know and have access to. She’s the best and we’re aiming at something that’s more powerful than Lyr so I’m quite pleased to let someone of her power help us. For all our sakes and safety. She might not be the target of assassination at the level you are—and who is—but I think she does know what it’s like to be so powerful that everyone connected to her is in danger.”
