Blood and Blade

by Lauren Dane

  Her laugh was close to a cackle of glee, which made him laugh as well. “I totally am. But we’ll be in our swank suite of rooms. Warm and dry snacking on all the things Dina will cook to spoil me.”

  Dina knew how much Rowan deserved it. And since she’d made a sacrifice by exposing her vulnerability to her father, Clive would have to be sure to spoil her too, to make up for it.

  “And they will be in tents humans use for glamping and it won’t be enough because Vampires are the most extra of all beings.” She started laughing again.

  “What is glamping? Is that a weird sex thing?”

  “It’s a portmanteau! Glamor camping. Glamping. Anyway they’re like super nice tents with multiple rooms and electricity and running water. All the things that make camping intolerable, glamping addresses. I mean, you’re still not sleeping in a hotel suite or at home. But if you had to be camping, that’s the way to go.”

  “The best way to go is not to camp at all.”

  “Not if your boss tells you to. Then you have to pretend to love it. He’s such a dick.”

  “I can’t believe I don’t even get nauseated anymore when you say things like that. Maybe the terror has numbed me.”

  “You gotta roll tough if you ride with me. That’s all I’m saying.”

  “That’s never all you’re saying. There’s always more for you to say.”

  She tossed a balled up sheet of paper at his head.

  “Obviously you love and adore my dulcet tones and yearn to hear me talk all the time because I am super fucking wise. Duh.”

  “So very correct,” he told her with a smirk. “Thank you. Truly. For your sacrifice. I know how hard it is for you with him. That you did it for me and my parents is something I’ll forever be grateful for.”

  She ducked her head but he scented her blush. “You’re welcome. I like your parents and I’m rather happy they weren’t executed and I like our life. Well, the parts of it where no one is trying to kill us. So if you weren’t Scion, it would be very different. Really I’m just selfish.”

  When he first met her he’d have agreed with that statement but years and countless selfless acts later, he knew the truth. She was the opposite of selfish.

  “What have you been up to today?”

  “I updated my files with everything we found out in London. I forgot that Theo told me a bunch of stuff about Lyr so I added that as well. I don’t know if any of it is very useful but we have it.”

  “Information is always useful, even if you don’t know it just yet,” he said.

  “Someone super wise must have told you that,” she said of one of her favorite phrases.

  “Let’s go to dinner and then I’ll bring you back here and head to work. We haven’t had a proper date in some time.”

  Her brows rose. “Really?”

  “Yes. Fleur will have a table ready for us. I know you like the food there.” It was a Nation run restaurant with all the stars, ribbons and medallions it could count. He had fond memories of a spectacular fight they’d had in a back office before it had gone the other way and they’d had spectacular sex on the desk in the office where they’d been quarreling.

  “It’s cute you’re sentimental about the place you bent me over a desk.”

  “So romantic and poetic, darling.”

  “I know. Okay, give me half an hour to change clothes and get ready.” She kissed him quickly as she dashed out.

  He made a call to Alice, who told him to leave all the arrangements up to her. Which he did. As he was already dressed for his day, he then called his parents and left a message they’d get when they woke up for the evening. He’d call again before he went to his rest. It’d be after dark in London by that time so he could give them an update then.

  It was mainly business details anyway. The mansion and town house were both in areas in high demand and the properties had been off the market for several generations so he didn’t think they’d have any trouble whatsoever selling them quickly. An appraiser would be out to take inventory of all the art and furnishings to get a value on those.

  That money, thirty percent of it overall, would go to Warren as the Scion of Europe. Farrelley had gotten shirty with Clive until Clive reminded him that all the mess he’d cleaned up happened on European lands and territories, which made it Warren’s responsibility in the first place so he should say thank you, take the restitution and clean his act up.

  Warren had accepted the offer rather quickly after that.

  Both Warren and The First would end up several million pounds richer after this whole thing settled out. More than fair, Clive thought. Especially as Rowan and Clive’d handled the executions of the offending parties themselves.

  And the invitation to the Yule Ball and New Year’s Eve dinner would have his parents very excited. They already liked Rowan a great deal, but this would make his father shift from like to adoration.

  Clive understood that because he rather adored his prickly wife too.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Because she was relaxed—as much as she ever got—and in love with her husband, Rowan tried to ignore just how pleased and slightly breathless all the employees and the other Vampires having meals in the restaurant were to have their Scion in attendance that night. The maître d’ nearly passed out with delight at the sight of them approaching the entrance. Their server, a rather cranky and slightly scary Vampire who appeared to be in her early fifties but was over a hundred and fifty, nearly smiled as she’d approached their table with a decanter of bloodwine and sparkling water with lemons for Rowan.

  To his credit, Clive took his position and responsibility to all the Vampires under his hand very seriously. He ruled with an iron fist when he had to, but he held his territory without the same sort of entitled assholery his predecessor had oozed until Rowan had executed him for violating the Treaty like a dingus. A prosperous territory was good for everyone. It was good for status in their world and no one liked status more than a Vampire.

  After their first course had been served and they were alone again, Rowan stole a piece of his bruschetta from his plate. “You’re much nicer to the help than most Vampires. Especially ones your age.”

  “I think that’s a compliment so I’ll say thank you.” He gave her a wary look that made her smile his way.

  “I was just comparing you to your predecessor. He was such a dick and well, you can be a dick too, but you’re not usually a dick who punches down. There’s something very sexy about that.”

  He raised his left eyebrow a moment. “Well, I’m certainly glad you think so. It doesn’t take any effort at all to treat people whose job it is to help you like garbage. It’s lazy. And it doesn’t create a loyal territory.”

  When he got all political and savvy it sent a shiver of delight through her. A simple man with a simple life would have been novel, she’d thought. But she wouldn’t have stayed.

  This complicated man with his complicated job and his very gray set of morals and values? He was her equal in so many ways. He thought about the future. He considered the past. He took into account how his own actions might affect a situation.

  He was a grown ass man and damn if that wasn’t everything she never realized she needed in a life partner until she had it.

  Of course it took him nearly five centuries to get to that point, but she wasn’t going to get hung up on that. He was how he was right then. At her side as an equal. At her back as an ally—most of the time anyway. He wasn’t human and he didn’t try to hide it. That was an honesty she appreciated. It was one of the reasons she trusted him so much.

  The Vampires in his territory trusted him too. They tolerated Rowan, but they adored Clive. She was sure the news about his uncles was already making the rounds but here in the heart of his territory, all was well. They seemed to thrive under his leadership. Which was important. Vampires loved status and mo
ney and nice things. Servers and valets still expected to be doing well when their Scion was doing well.

  He kept them happy so they’d get his back. That’s what Rowan hoped, anyway. Aside from the omnipresent groups of complainers and troublemaking rabble in any case. She wasn’t a Vampire and she was already involved in Nation politics way more than she’d ever wanted to be. And that was because of him.

  But, again, she wasn’t a Vampire and at least half the time a Vampire was her problem, not her solution. So they had an uneasy truce but both sides knew where the other stood.

  “Genevieve called me earlier, right before we left the house. She’s in Los Angeles right now, addressing the Senate with all the evidence we found in London. And after I hung up I realized just how helpful it’s been to have her around when we’re dealing with all this magic stuff. Without the witches in Venice and without Genevieve’s help since then, there are so many things I would have missed.”

  She moaned happily when the waiter arrived bearing the next course of beautiful seafood linguini with freshly made pasta.

  It would be a million years before a Vampire admitted they needed the help or assistance of any other group, but Rowan knew it was the same for Clive. He’d see Genevieve as a powerful tool in his arsenal in his own way.

  He sipped his wine and watched her eat, pleasure on his features. It made her silly that he looked at her the way he did.

  “I’m thinking of changing some things up,” she said.

  His pleasure was replaced with wariness. “These very unsubtle segues into a new topic make me nervous.”

  She laughed. “Goddess it’s fun to poke at you. Meaning, I think the American chapterhouses should work in teams and that those teams should not only have human Hunters but magic users too. Things are changing too fast and far too dangerously not to change with the times.”

  He took a breath and then thought about it, not saying anything.

  “It’ll be complicated and let’s be real, once I propose this, if the Conclave agrees, it’s going to piss off the Vampire Nation because it’ll appear as if two of the Treaty parties have united while leaving the third out.”

  He lifted a shoulder as he continued to think.

  She knew she’d hit the nail on the head though, because he hadn’t argued.

  “This is going to be a great deal of work to make happen. Regardless of how the Nation ends up feeling,” he said at last.

  Rowan’s sigh was heartfelt because boy oh boy was he right. A huge undertaking. Constant politics because the jealousy and infighting would start up the moment she introduced the idea.

  She’d have to deal with an unmitigated amount of bullshit.

  “I don’t have the personality to make things like this happen. I’m nowhere near being good at sucking up,” she said, trying to talk herself out of it.

  “I disagree. You’re precisely the personality to make this happen. Anyone less blunt, anyone less strong and full of a sense of purpose and they’d walk all over you. You’d spend years in meetings just trying to decide on what font the contract would be in. Nothing would ever happen.”

  He refilled her water and she nodded her thanks as she tried not to suck down her dinner like she’d been starving.

  “If I do this, you’re going to be mad at me a time or three. It’s bound to happen,” she said and he actually chortled. “Did you just chortle? Chortle?”

  Again with the smirk. “I’m mad at you a time or three at least daily. I expect that’ll be the same no matter what. We get past it because we agree on the most important things. Aside from making it easier for you, what’s in it for the Nation?”

  Though she knew he was just giving her a taste of what would come if she decided to go forward with these multi person teams, she also knew it was a genuine question.

  “Let’s start with the most obvious, shall we? A prosperous territory means the Vampires within it don’t break the Treaty’s most important laws. No killing of humans—especially without proper body disposal. And keep the secret. Be discreet. Serial kidnappings and murders of dozens of Vampires, humans and witches to fuel whatever being that’s been using the Blood Front to do its bidding is not discreet in any sense of the word.”

  His barely reined snarl of anger was an underline to exactly what she was saying.

  “Whether you like it or not, the day is coming when that secrecy is going to fall away. The human world will finally get irrefutable proof and enough of them will believe it that paranormal beings are going to have to reveal our existence. Until then, it’s in all our best interest to attempt some semblance of order. Working together will aid that. Anyway, you can’t have it both ways. Oppose these teams but not participate either. Goddess this is so good.” She pointed at her plate with a piece of bread.

  “I’ll let the chef know. I do think he’s falling for you and who can blame him?” he said, tone very dry, and despite herself, it sent heat to her belly.

  “As for not having it both ways? Darling Hunter, I can. And I might, depending on your answers. The Vampire Nation is under no obligation to make things easier for Hunter Corp.”

  “No, just to be a constant pain in my ass though.”

  “That’s merely a bonus.”

  She snorted. “You’re full of yourself tonight. Or I should say more full of it than usual.”

  “And why shouldn’t I be? Sitting here with you, the most intriguing and fascinating person in this room. Your power seems to hum around you. Everyone here knows you’re mine. If that’s not something to be full of myself over, what is?” he purred and got her all googly eyed.

  “Over four centuries of developing your game, Scion, has done you well.”

  “How will the participation of a Vampire member of your teams be compensated?” he asked.

  That made her laugh. Even in the darkest times he made her laugh.

  Who’d have thought it would be so mind numbingly sexy?

  “That’s something that would have to be worked out via negotiation. Open negotiation with full transparency with the witches. But if you think you’ll be paid to participate in an organization that works to the benefit of everyone you’re sorely mistaken.”

  “And why should you be paid for our expertise? This is something we are compensated for regularly.”

  “So what? Those situations are different and you know it. Stop playing around. You want me to charge you for every time I have to take out some Vampire Nation bullshit that you all missed? Would that be better for you? No. It’s better for us all if we work together. Period. Each group will pay their own way because each group benefits.”

  “Then it can’t be a Hunter Corp. situation because that’s going to be a sticking point. You have to know that.”

  Rowan wanted to stab him in the face for making this more complicated than it had to be Even though she knew he was probably right and, fuck, this was already more work than she wanted to think about. “Never mind. Forget I even said anything. Fuck you all.” She shoved some bread into her face.

  “I’m unable to forget you said anything and you will be too. I imagine you’re going to have a new barrage of arguments for me when I get home from work. So see? Something to look forward to.” Clive ran a hand down his tie.

  She snorted. “You can all just be in danger and deal with it yourself. It’s going to be me and the witches and if you fanged assholes come at me I’ll set you on fire.”

  “That seems a bit rash.”

  “You’re acting like you’re new here. Oh!” She brightened as her empty plate was taken and replaced with a trio of ice creams with pistachio brittle.

  Rowan was still thinking about the idea of mixed teams of paranormals when Clive pulled up in front of their house.

  “Where are you off to now?” he asked before she got out.

  “Video meeting with London. I’ve got to go
through my notes and work with David on next steps. We’re just sort of waiting now. Waiting for the other shoe to drop. There are pieces missing. The information is there. The clues are there, we just have to figure out where to look.”

  “There are many people working on this. You’re not going to give up until you figure it out. Have faith. I do when it comes to you. You’re a dog with a bone which makes my life hard sometimes, but the bad guys’ lives even harder.”

  She took his hand and squeezed when he was quiet for a few moments. Thinking, she knew, about having to face his people after what had gone down in London. “They already know and they’re going to support you,” Rowan said. “They know your leadership is strong and capable. You can’t control your asshole relatives. Most people have a few assholes in the family tree. Vampires more so because they’re all assholes to start with. They’re going to understand. And be glad you did what had to be done.”

  “One hopes.”

  Star galloped around the side of the house, a ball in her mouth. David ran after her, pausing to wave at them.

  “There’s our daughter,” Rowan said.

  “Go play with your dog,” Clive told her, pulling her to him for a quick kiss.

  “I’ll see you later on. Be careful.”

  “You too. I love you,” he told her.

  “Love you too, Scion. Thanks for dinner.”

  She got out and tossed the ball Star dropped at her feet and he pulled down the drive, heading back to town.

  Chapter Seventeen

  “Are things well?” David asked her as she approached.

  “Well enough. How about you?”

  “Elisabeth fed me. I returned many messages. Got in contact with Vanessa. The old owners of our new building said we can move in any time we want. For a fee, naturally, but it wasn’t so steep. Not that I let them know that. So if you’re agreeable, we can start furnishing it and getting people a place to work.”

  “Let’s have Genevieve ward it before anyone starts working there. Do I have to go anywhere to look at furniture or anything like that?”