by Lauren Dane
* * *
Rowan sort of hoped he’d wait her out a little longer or try to leave by the window because she wanted to rip this pretentious fucking place to pieces. He probably had a solid gold toilet. If he did she’d find a way to drain all his bank accounts and give the money to art galleries, schools and hospitals all across the world.
But if she was reading the situation right—and she knew her fucking with people until they gave you what you wanted better than most—there was no way Rod was going to run away now that she’d called him out on it. Especially now that she’d announced she was human.
Which was a lie, but for the purpose of this social experiment, it was close enough to the button she needed to push until he gave her what she demanded and showed his face.
In the meantime, she unsheathed her blade as she approached a painting on a nearby wall. There was another across from where she stood that she wouldn’t harm for anything but the one she walked toward was a print. There were more out there.
In fact.
“This painting. Roth had this in his house too,” she said to Clive.
Clive considered a moment and then agreed with a shake of his head. “What a coincidence.”
“Well, look, he and Roth are cut from the same cloth. This Rod, you know who he is, right?”
Clive nodded. She knew he was trying to tell her as much as he could but also keep his vow to protect the Vampire Nation.
“Let me prognosticate while I get back to tearing this place up.” She went into the sitting room to the right of the front entry, and in view of her husband and dopey Chauncy she snatched up the pricey drinkware on the cart and hurled a few at the wall near the fireplace.
Rejoining them in the entry she spoke to Clive again. “Rod comes from some old and fancy pedigreed family within the Nation. I can’t remember any Rods off the top of my head so he’s been flying below the radar. At least to the outside world. His dad or sister or a cousin, whatever, they’re the ones who run the business the family makes its money from. Like Roth,” she said of the traitor at Hunter Corp, “he’s unremarkable. Just rich. He probably has a sub-par dick and never makes his partners come. So he plays his little black market game for kicks, to feel like he’s the shit instead of a son the family fervently does its best to ignore.”
Ah, that was the button to push because Roderick slammed open the door to the room Chauncy had indicated and hurled himself downstairs, incisors out, snarling, nails drawn.
She sidestepped before kicking the side of Roderick’s knee, sending him off balance, and while he was falling, wondering about his poor life choices, Rowan followed up with the back of her heel against his temple. So hard she felt the echo through her leg.
It was worth it to see the look on his face right before he hit the floor.
Rowan sent a quick text to David before bending down to grab Rod by the back of his robe and drag him through to a smaller room on the first floor where she hadn’t broken anything. Yet.
David and Genevieve came in, locking the front door on their way. David dropped Rowan’s bag at her feet and they got to work securing Rod to the chair in such a way that he would be unable to move enough to try an escape.
In one corner there were windows that were uncovered for the evening but would be secured before dawn to protect the Vampire household. Clive handled that while they took Chauncy to another room. Genevieve spelled him to sleep but Rowan insisted on tying him up the same way they’d done his master just in case he came back to consciousness before they wanted him to.
“There are items of great power here,” Genevieve said to Rowan as they stood in the hall.
“He’s selling spells to Vampires who wield magic.”
“Indeed. But I believe he may also have magical objects here too. We need to find wherever he stores his stock. It needs to be de-spelled and removed correctly so we won’t cause any harm.”
“I was just about to sit and chat with Rod. Let’s ask him.” Rowan gave a sunny smile before turning away.
Clive glanced her way as they came in. “As I’m sure David is about to inform you, this is Roderick Haigh. He’s the youngest child of Osric and Getta Haigh.”
Well. “I have heard of his dad. His dad and Theo are buddies though. Or they were the last time I checked.” The Haighs were one of the foundational families who became the original Vampire Nation. Osric would be a very highly placed source if he was their leak.
But was he? She found that hard to believe. The loyalty Osric gave Theo had seemed very genuine and complete. Vampires were con artists and fucked one another over all the time so it wasn’t impossible he was acting or that his allegiances had changed. But if that was the case, he deserved an award for acting because he never even rang a single alarm for her and she was the most suspicious person she knew.
Rod had achieved consciousness once more as he attempted to struggle against his bonds and failed. “You’ll pay for coming in here this way.”
Rowan ignored that and looked to Clive. “Do you know this trust fund shitlord?”
“I know his father. I know his mother and oldest sister. They’re always strong supporters of The First.” Which was what she knew as well.
“And him?”
Clive curled his lip a moment. “We don’t move in the same circles.”
“Thank Goddess for that or I’d never let you near me. This guy has lazy rich kid written all over him.” Rowan shifted her attention from Clive back to Rod. “Where do you keep your stock, junior?”
“I will call the authorities!”
“Yeah. This is me, quaking at that threat. I can leave you on the front steps for sunrise so you can meet the authorities you call to save you. I mean, once you manage to get free from your bonds and find a phone that is. And after your fingers heal up.” She gave him a bright smile.
While he stewed and pretended he was tough, Rowan turned to Clive. “He’s not going to say where his stash is. Go search with Genevieve. You might see something you remember. I’ll stay here with Rod so he and I can chat a while.”
Star came to sit at Rowan’s feet, her gaze on Roderick. The dog didn’t trust him either.
David set himself up at a desk in the corner of the room they were in and connected with Vanessa back in Las Vegas. So far, Vanessa had done an excellent job and had kept her cool under pressure. And she was going to work a hack into Vampire Nation archives to see what they could find about this Blood Front motherfucker in front of Rowan.
There were things Clive wasn’t free to share with outsiders. Even his wife. She hated that. However, she had her own secrets she didn’t share with the Vampire Nation either so mainly they made it work. Rowan wanted in to see all the data about Rod and his family. Wanted to know if the Nation knew he was connected to Blood Front or had any suspicions about him at all.
Vanessa would get the data and Rowan would know. Clive wouldn’t have to be in the middle and she wouldn’t owe a debt to the Vampires. Every bit of that worked for her.
Rowan dragged a chair across the floor, making as much noise as possible. She stopped when she could sit very close, facing Roderick. Out of reach, obviously, she wasn’t a fool. But she wanted to see his pupils. Wanted to watch him sweat.
“I don’t know who you are. Yet. But I bet you know who I am.” She crossed one leg over the other and folded her hands in her lap.
“Why would I know who you are?” he said with a sneer.
“Because I’m the daughter of The First. And I’m married to the Scion of North America. And I’m a Hunter with a goddess inside me. My job is staking you fucks when you break the Treaty. And since very few of you can be satisfied with incredible wealth, long lives and super strength, eventually laws get broken. And then I have to come in and clean up the mess your parents made.”
He winced when she mentioned the Scion bit, which she found interesting
and wanted to know more about. Rowan cocked her head as something on the desk where David worked caught her eye.
She rose and headed over, picking up the token. A disk of sorts. Rowan had to grab the edge of the desk to keep her legs when her dream settled firmly into her memory. She held the symbol she saw in her dream.
David watched her and she turned the image to face him. “Do you recognize this?”
He looked closely at the image as she realized it was a stylized wolf with a dragon circling it, making a sort of frame.
After he shook his head no, David took a picture of it and began an image recognition program. She headed back, flipping the disk like a coin. On the reverse side of the wolf image was a fingerprint that appeared to be molded into the metal.
Roderick’s eyes widened and then he looked everywhere in the room but her. Bingo. This little gold token was important to her investigation. She sat again with a sigh. “Tell me about the spells you sold to Lyr.”
He stiffened and then tried to be invisible, staying silent.
“Don’t worry about my saying his name aloud. He can’t hurt you anymore. Clive killed him a little over a week ago. But, I totally can hurt you. Right now. And I think we both know I will and probably will like it because I’m just that messed up. I like to think I’m fair so I’m going to tell you the same thing I tell everyone else before we begin a delicate period of question and answer. Just tell me what I want to know. If you don’t, I’ll make you regret it. You’re not going to believe me. Or you’ll think you’re a big bad Vampire and can withstand whatever I do. And then you’ll evade my question or lie to me and I have to show you I mean business. It’s regrettable but honestly, you guys make me do it every time.”
He glared and she knew she was going to have to cut him to achieve compliance.
“Let’s start slow. How long have you been a member of the Blood Front?”
Rod just looked at her without speaking so she sprang forward and sliced into his face and neck several times before sitting back.
Chapter Ten
Clive heard the scream and hefted the box more securely and quickened his ascent down the stairs.
“Rowan is busy already,” Genevieve said, holding her own box.
“She’s a go-getter, that one,” he said as they entered the room to find Rowan sitting in a priceless chair, a bloody knife in her hand and bloody hatch marks on Roderick’s face and neck.
“I assume you gave him the speech,” Clive said to Rowan.
She shrugged with an annoyed sigh. “Of course I did. They never listen. I told you that. Oh and here, this is the image from my dream. You recognize it?” She tossed him a large coin sized disc and everything in him froze a moment when he saw what it was.
“Where did you get this?” Clive asked Roderick as he put the box down. He held up the token so there was no mistaking what he meant.
And the smirk he got in return gave Clive the answer he’d been dreading.
“What is it?” Rowan asked.
That this had been in her prophecy dream meant it was important to this exact issue.
“It’s a token, as you thought. For payment of a secret debt to be paid by a Vampire house. They’re old-fashioned. Vampires use currency now from wherever they reside. This is something Vampires relied on back during the Treaty War to pay spies and, I wager, for dark magic spellwork they could use on the enemy.”
He turned his attention back to Roderick. “I asked you a question. Where did you get this?”
Rowan appeared annoyed and Clive realized he’d stepped on her toes with the interrogation, but he needed answers about the token and he needed them immediately.
When Roderick didn’t answer, Rowan moved again, so quickly it barely registered with Clive. It was Roderick’s whimper and the sound of a blade cleaving flesh that caught his attention.
She sat again and Clive took in the seeping slices she’d made into the skin of Roderick’s arm and chest, shredding the expensive smoking jacket the other Vampire wore.
“Next time I’m going to start breaking things while I leave this knife in your body. It’s silver so you won’t heal nearly as fast,” Rowan told Roderick. “Answer his question and do yourself a favor, Rod.”
He laughed and she sprang forward and in two movements she’d broken several of his fingers, had stabbed him through the shoulder, leaving her blade there, and was sitting back in her chair.
Christ she was ferocious. His gums ached as he had to push back his desire for her and get back to the task at hand.
David spared a brief glance at the scene and went back to work. It was only a matter of time before his computer search would bear fruit and Clive needed to get answers from Roderick before that happened.
“I asked you where you got this.” Clive held the token again, his thumb brushing over the print on the smooth side.
Rod was finally understanding the depth of his trouble. Clive saw it in the other Vampire’s eyes. Still thinking, deciding, planning whatever deception he might think would get him free of this still alive.
“It’s a collectable. I find such pieces of our history, especially that time when we reigned supreme, interesting enough to acquire them when they come available.”
* * *
Rowan left another blade, this one long and thin, in Roderick’s left thigh.
“I answered the question!” Rod screamed.
“You lied. I told you up front lying was not allowed.” Rowan’s voice was modulated hard and sharp at the edge, enough to slice into Roderick’s last bit of bravado.
“It was payment for a spell. As you know.” Roderick said this with his jaw clenched.
“Payment for an illegal spell,” Rowan said. “Because you run a pretty lucrative black market in illegal magic. And you funnel some of that cash back into the Blood Front so they can also give a cut to whatever power is at the top of all these trap and siphon spells. How am I doing?”
He nodded. “I could tweet about it or I could support the organization that will take our rightful place again on the face of the earth.”
Rowan wasn’t the only one rolling her eyes at that.
“You haven’t earned your rightful place. Who gave you this?” Clive demanded, adding the power of the Vampires he ruled as Scion.
Rowan gave him a sideways look. Chances were that much raw power in London would alert Warren that Clive was hunting on his territory and using his power as Scion there. A very tricky thing.
She said nothing, trusting, he knew, that Clive was aware of what he was doing and that he did it on purpose.
“House Stewart of Three.”
Rowan didn’t turn to look at Clive then. She went very still, hands on the blades in her lap.
He hoped she wasn’t going to use them on him for not saying it up front. He’d needed to hear it from Roderick. Out loud. So that he could accept what he would have to do in response.
“Thomas Stewart.”
Clive’s uncle. His father’s next oldest brother. Clive’s father was House Stewart. Clive, being Scion and the heir to House Stewart, was House Stewart of Two.
“Tell me exactly what my uncle has used this to pay for and do not use this moment as one to attempt bravado.”
Roderick didn’t even hesitate. “He’s my main connection to the leadership of the Blood Front. I pass the percentage to him. He sometimes buys spells but usually pays for them for others who then pick them up from me or an associate.”
“My uncle uses magic?”
“He buys the spells. I don’t know if he uses them or if he gives them to others to use.”
“What kind of spells?”
“Why don’t you ask him? He’s your uncle.”
* * *
Rowan slapped his face over the slow healing marks she’d carved there earlier. She hated the wince she’d felt from
Clive through their bond.
“Siphons and traps mainly. Sometimes something mundane like a sex related spell. Stay hard, get off multiple times, that sort. Usually he just paid for Lyr’s stuff. I swear,” he added, looking over to Rowan.
“I have questions about the contents of these two boxes when you’re done,” Genevieve said. “Why not just jump into his head, steal his memories and be done with this fool altogether?” she asked Clive.
“Sometimes you need a scalpel not a battle axe,” Rowan said. Her hands were sticky with Rod’s blood but her mind was racing with possible scenarios about the revelation that Thomas Stewart was not only Blood Front, but working with this other power who’d been setting them all against one another. He’d been involved in the murder of her friends. Had been there when she watched Carey’s murder via computer screen.
More pressing was the risk to the entire Stewart line. How Clive reacted and whatever punishment he issued, it had to be laser perfect. Brutal and merciless. Otherwise when Theo found out, he’d want to erase not only House Stewart in its entirety from the face of the earth, but he’d murder Clive and take North America.
And once in that sort of bloodlust state, he’d lose what small hold he had on sanity and who knew what he would do? He was super old and had a lot of enemies and grievances. Untold misery and death would flow from that.
Rowan was Clive’s secret weapon. The nuclear option, but she’d do it to save Clive and his parents.
