Chapter Five
“I’ll see you in about half an hour,” she told Clive as they walked back toward his office. They had plans to meet for dinner in a private dining room at Fleur shortly. David had gone into the office Clive had given Rowan at Die Mitte to check in at the motherhouse. Genevieve and Konrad had left. There would be a rotating Conclave guard personally appointed by Konrad should the Procellas manage to try anything.
“Will you come into my office for a moment? I’d like to speak to you in private.”
The rest of the way to his office she considered how hard she’d pretend to be outraged by the idea of having sex in there, and then how much time she had to make it a reality.
Instead, once the door was closed, he leaned close to her ear and said, “Will you take my blood? You might meet with trouble and all progress made toward you recovering your strength, the better.”
There were times when her spouse could be a supreme pain in her ass. He was a condescending know-it-all with a superiority complex. Mainly because he was pretty hot shit. Still, his attitude could work her nerves.
And then he’d do something like offer her his blood so quietly no one could overhear because he knew she had...complicated feelings about giving and taking blood from Vampires.
For a very long time the emotional damage from the way blood had been used to manipulate her as she’d grown up in the Keep had created a wound so great, she was sure she’d never get over it. Vampires tied humans to them using blood. Sometimes to help them. To protect them and keep them strong. Other times—and sometimes at the same time—it was to create a bond so the Vampire could direct the human’s behavior in whatever way they pleased any time they had a notion to.
Her foster father, the First and oldest of all Vampires, had done all those things. As a result of the blood he’d given her, she’d been stronger and faster. Healthier. No doubt, her lifespan had been extended. He’d taken her blood because as one of the protected humans who’d lived in his household, her blood was a tithe. Her blood, like her service, belonged to him. It marked her so that others within the world the Vampires ruled wouldn’t poach her or take blood from her without permission. Theo’s permission, not Rowan’s.
Despite the positives, she’d been a possession. Always at the bottom of everything, the fact was, she was not in charge of her own fate. Theo’s blood bond to her meant he could—and did—barge into her mind at any time he chose. She had no real privacy. No real time off. No moment when she wasn’t always painfully aware of her status.
It had gone on until the Goddess had begun to manifest herself within Rowan. Theo hadn’t liked that at all. But it had shifted the balance of power until the bond between Brigid and Rowan—Goddess and Vessel—was strong enough Rowan was able to keep Theo out more often.
All of that was to say Rowan had some heavy-duty triggers and hot buttons when it came to blood exchange. And Vampires.
It wasn’t until she’d been with Clive quite some time when she’d shared blood outside a life-and-death situation. It hadn’t been terrible at all. In fact, it deepened their bond. There were so many ways this Vampire had changed the way she viewed things.
Rowan smiled up at him for just a brief moment. “Thank you.”
He took her hand, turning it so he cradled it wrist up. He bent his head and brushed his lips over her veins there. Once. Twice. Then he struck. A slice of pain, gone in a breath as he sipped from her. Just a tiny taste before offering his own, two crimson beads of blood already welling against his skin.
She only needed a swallow or two. Warmth spread all through her, tingling at her scalp and the tips of her toes. There was a little sting as all that healing power seeped into the still-wounded parts of her body, knitting things back together.
“That will make walking a lot easier tonight,” she told him before kissing the spot on his wrist she’d just fed from.
He wanted to preen but settled for a smirk designed to annoy—and therefore delight—her. “Try not to break anything else between now and when I join you shortly. Normally I’d say it was only half an hour, but I’ve loved you long enough to know you can find trouble anywhere at any time.”
“I do what I want, Scion,” she told him after delivering a smacking kiss.
“Allow me to accompany you downstairs to the garage. I’ve got something for you.”
“Did you give me a tank? With rockets?” she asked, teasing as the elevator doors opened on the private garage level.
The replacement for her old heavily armored vehicle was a new, even more protected high-tech fortress on wheels. “Don’t joke. If I could get away with it, I’d do just that.”
She took in the beefy and yet elegant BMW SUV. Matte black. Not as giant as her previous vehicle, but the smaller size meant she had more maneuverability and speed when she needed it.
“I had this in production for you anyway.” He’d learned early on that his wife destroyed cars on a regular basis so it was best to always have the next one in production. That allowed for upgrades to allow for advances in technology and weaponry.
He had trouble getting her to accept diamonds, but expensive weapons were one of her weaknesses so he indulged it however often he could.
“I like how sneaky and sort of mean it looks. But it’s still classy. That’s your touch, obviously.”
He opened the liftgate. “There are three separate ways to get into the weapons lockers. So even if you don’t have the keys and the fingerprint locks are shot out you still have another way.” He tapped a panel that slid open. “Retinal scan. You know my feelings about having a point of access without a lock.” Clive gave her a look as they both remembered the ambush and the way she’d been unable to get her weapons because the fingerprint lock had been destroyed and the keys had been lost in the crash.
He did not much care what anyone else thought about it. A lock slowed her down. Limited her options and he wished very much she’d abandon that altogether and said as much out loud.
“I have too much interaction with human law enforcement. If I got pulled over it’d be a whole thing. It’s easier to do it right and avoid drama.” She allowed a quick hug. “But I do love that you pulled this off in such a short period of time. It’s very sexy.”
He gave her a wary look, which only seemed to amuse her.
“I really do appreciate you. And the way you want me protected,” she said quietly.
“There’s a voice-activated control system as well. So you can make a call for backup or what have you, whenever you need that. And the windows are your magic windows. Darius made it work on a much expedited schedule.”
The Dust Devils had created a proprietary and partly magical process that created spy-proof windows. She’d discovered this fact and had been obsessed with getting it for her own vehicles ever since.
She brightened considerably. “Ooh! You really get me.”
It was easy to think Rowan’s blunt nature meant she was simple. Nothing about her was simple. Complicated. Layered. Beautifully flawed. No one in all the centuries of his existence had held such fascination for him. Each new aspect of her only brought a deeper craving.
“I aim to get some more of you at day’s end,” he said, lips pressed to her ear.
“Looking forward to it.”
David called out, and they both turned to watch his approach.
“Update?” she asked.
“I have information regarding Elmer Marsc.”
Marsc’s name had come up in the interview process when one of the Hunter Corp. candidates had revealed Marsc had been his Maker and had abused him and several other Vampires in his line.
From everything they’d uncovered, Rowan’s new hire had been telling the truth and once Rowan had her day with Marsc, Clive would most assuredly handle him from a Vampire Nation perspective.
He hated it that this was yet another thing on her plate to be saddled with. But, given the gleam in her eyes, perhaps a little bit of therapeutic energy she would expend on this predator Vampire would be of use to her general mood.
Whatever the case, it wasn’t as if Clive would tell her to stand down or that she’d taken on too much. This was her job. Her path.
So he’d do what he could to provide assistance, especially as this Vampire Rowan was hunting was a problem he would be pleased to solve.
Rowan nodded at David. “Appreciate it.”
David gave his report efficiently. “Unsurprisingly, he’s got a massive house at Red Rock.”
“Lots of gates out there to protect those million-dollar estates. I get that. I like privacy too. However, why’s he there? Instead of on the Strip in some luxury condo like the rest of the predators he knows? He can’t play day golf, and he doesn’t seem to like men over twenty-two or so and that place is awash with middle-aged human men. Elmer’s like that one actor guy. The one who was a kid star but now he’s well into his forties. He gets older but his girlfriends stay young. I bet he’s one of those men who likes to believe he’s teaching his younger lovers. Taking them under his wing to educate them on the finer things in life.” She rolled her eyes.
David snickered. “Certainly, as they call it, he’s a walking red flag but he’s got a lot of money, so he gets away with it like other rich walking red flags.” After a cheeky grin, David got back to his report. “We’ve managed to get into place to keep an eye on his home—I do know how much you love a good home invasion—but he’s out a lot more. He likes a certain type of bar. The dual named dudebro type with games, vastly overpriced cocktails, and mid chicken wings.”
Rowan shuddered. “I know the type.”
“There are four different ones he frequents in a circle around Las Vegas. Henderson, Summerlin, North Vegas, and Spring Valley.”
That was a hunting pattern. His attention homed in, and Rowan gave him a sideways glance. “That’s a feed loop. There’s no fucking way he’s there for any other reason.” She curled her lip. “Why would a Vampire who can’t get drunk from anything served at Bob and Chad’s or whatever the name be hanging out there? Does he crave skee ball at all hours? That racing simulator? An addiction to deep-fried onions to go with his diet of the blood of barely legal humans?”
Clive blew out a frustrated breath. They were nearly immortal with myriad gifts and Vampires took risks like this. It threatened them all.
David said, “At least at a bar you know they’re all legal adults of drinking age. A change of pace for him.”
Rowan made a sound of derision. “They’re almost all spaces that include minors too, though. You need an ID to buy liquor, but the rest of the place is full of nineteen-year-olds playing at being legal and being ripe for weirdos like Elmer. You know he chooses those for a reason. He’ll avoid the places near UNLV. Too many authority figures sniffing around along with the human predators. They’ll have marked that territory for themselves.”
Rowan gagged and David curled his lip.
Vampires like Elmer had gotten away with centuries of entitled behavior. Rule breaking that may have started off as minor began to worsen because they grew accustomed to the idea the law did not apply to them.
But in the end, they ended up like Clive’s predecessor. Dead. Because eventually, someone who had enough power and will—like Rowan—would pay attention. His wife cared very little about rules, but what was right was paramount to her existence.
Rowan looked his way. “I just have a feeling about this.”
Because Rowan was an entirely unique power, she had come into new gifts over the years. One of those gifts she’d been attempting to hone and understand better had been prophecy. Via dreams and what she termed knowings. Once he’d gotten to know her, Clive had always trusted her feelings. She was intuitive as a base setting, but these prophecies had come from Brigid, and had bound with whatever made Rowan an excellent Hunter. The end result was magnificent.
Rowan gave him a sideways glance and a wash of her amusement came through their shared bond. His wife knew him very well.
“As ever, your feelings are my command,” Clive said, bowing low and kissing her knuckles.
She snorted. “I want to go to Marsc’s house. I need to...there’s something or someone I’m supposed to see or say or whatever.” Rowan shrugged. “It’s not quite nine, so I want to go and mess with Marsc’s life before I eat obscene amounts of linguine.”
Two of his favorite things about her was watching her wreck lives and enjoy food. The latter allowed him to spoil her without interference. The former just made him hotter for her. “Only if I am allowed to accompany you on this mission. This is my Vampire. His crimes are happening in my city.” And whether she wanted to admit it or not, she was still healing from multiple attempts on her life. Having a Scion at her side would annoy her, but she’d know it was a good thing.
“I need to go to the motherhouse to change into more suitable clothing and to do a little bit of planning with my notes first.”
“I will meet you there in fifteen minutes. I have some things to handle here first as well.” Clive tossed the keys to David. “See you both shortly.”