Chapter Nineteen
When they arrived at the Motherhouse, the parking lot was full of familiar motorcycles and on those motorcycles usually sat Dust Devils. None of whom seemed to be around.
“They’re here to help Bastien with some sort of installation of plants in the lobby,” David said.
Bastien was a green witch, and Lorraine’s son. “Oh. Makes sense. It did seem like a lot of them just for Genevieve.” She indicated the bike bearing intricate metalwork. “Marco’s on-site.”
David blushed and fought a smile.
“Yeah?” she asked him before they went inside. “I thought there was something in the way he was around you.”
Plus, Marco had saved David’s life at the Procella mansion. It was really fucking sexy to have someone save your life when you were into them on a sexytimes-way level. She and Clive had experienced some of the hottest sex they’d ever had right after one had saved the other’s life.
“Things went nowhere with whatsherface? The archivist?” He’d been flirting hard-core with the witch who headed up the Conclave archives. He’d described her with terms like brilliant and witty. Busy, busy man. Rowan liked that he was paying attention to other parts of his life besides work. He deserved romance.
Then a wave of uncertainty hit. Should she add something to indicate she wasn’t judging? Goddess. She didn’t know how to be the sort of friend you chatted about romance with, but more than that, she was so...proud he’d want to share with her.
David caught her hesitation and reached out, touching her arm. Just a brief brush of his hand. Enough to say he understood the unspoken and things were fine.
“She and I have a date for drinks next week. She’s coming to Las Vegas for work of some sort. Marco is...well, unexpected. But I find I rather like him.”
“You’re young, you have a great job, you’re gorgeous and intelligent, and you always know exactly which bagel from the dozen I’m going to want first. Although that’s not really relevant to you and your very exciting romantic life. Go, you,” she told him.
“It is very exciting, I must admit.” His expression was so adorable she wanted to pinch his damned cheeks. Instead, she let him open the door for her as they entered the lobby.
They had originally considered leasing space on the first floor to various businesses but had decided to use that space as an atrium with plants and water features that would pump the place full of not only cleaner air, but soothing sounds and green magic. It would be a spot they could find peace in. Even if only for minutes.
There were three Devils with Bastien, helping with bags of soil and setting up all the machinery for the various components of the overall space.
“You can certainly feel the magic here,” David said. “And yet, it still feels like our place.”
Rowan had been fervently hoping that would be the case. It had been her idea to bring in witches and Vampires to create a few special Hunter teams. She’d been the one to ruffle the feathers of the Vampire Nation as well as the Conclave. Not every idea worked out. Most didn’t. But it was gratifying to see the results of her choices. Of the risks she’d taken to open their doors wider.
Malin waved them over to the reception desk, handing David a stack of things before they went up to the secure floors that made up the heart of the Hunter Corporation’s Motherhouse in North America.
There was a guard stationed at the elevator and then beyond him two different types of biometric scans. If the person attempting entry by that point was an imposter, an alarm would go off, locking that security point with the person inside until they could be identified or removed.
Beyond that were the stairwells and the elevators to the floors holding their workspaces, some dormitory-styled bedrooms, a kitchen and lounge, a library, archive, and the most secure space in the building, the weapons locker.
“This feels like an action movie sometimes,” David said as they passed through the main doors to the floor where Rowan and David’s offices were. Just a few weeks before they’d just been getting it furnished. And now it hummed with activity. All sorts of various trainings appeared to be in progress. Young fresh faces and no small number of wary gazes made up the group.
“You chose well,” David told her in an undertone as they headed into her office.
It was a good mix. One needed the other. It was so easy to forget there was a reason they did what they did. And all that excitement could get you killed if you didn’t think twice. She hoped the combo would create a sense of family.
Hunter Corp. had to face and deal with all manner of threats to humanity. It was more than a place you showed up to every day to punch a timecard. As such, Rowan had learned over her time as a Hunter just what support was so desperately needed in the field.
She wanted them to have an unshakeable certainty they had many fellow Hunters who would always have their back. They need not face those monsters in the dark alone.
Once, Rowan had imagined she could do it herself. She’d been wrong. And beat to shit all the time. At least now when she got beat to shit, there were many who showed up to help her heal. It still made her nervous sometimes. She liked to feel like she was a solitary individual. A loner who needed no one. And for years and years it had felt close to true.
She looked up from the stack of mail he’d put on her desk to him.
It hadn’t been true. Now that she’d accepted these people who’d shown up for her time and again, she’d accepted it had been loneliness that had driven her to that point. Now her life was full of creatures who chose her. It was a gift.
One she wanted the others working for Hunter Corp. to have as well.
“First let me procure you some coffee,” David said, “and then we can go over everything that’s come in.”
She didn’t argue with that.
Especially when she had to sift through reports on the various searches they’d done in the prior days.
“I recognize some of these Vampires in the photos we took from Elmer’s house. A few of Jacques.” She held it up toward David. “Purple velvet low-rise bell-bottomed trousers with a matching vest. He even had those wide sideburns.” It made her want to comb through photos of Clive to see what he looked like in the seventies. Her mother-in-law would have some, Rowan bet.
There were some photos that had Aron in them. Taken in the thirties through when he left Elmer’s line. “Goddess he was young.” She touched the earliest image. “Elmer is such a fucking creep.”
“It seems so,” David said.
“I’ll show these to Clive, get him to identify the others,” she said, setting the stack aside to look over the list of what they’d pulled from the thumb drives and data cards they’d taken from the Procella mansion and the Gloat Palace.
David rose. “I’ve got a number of meetings ahead of me. Vanessa is available if you want to speak with her regarding any of this.”
“Great. I’ll probably pop over to see her just to say thanks and to see if there are any updates on the list Vihan was building with her.”
Vihan had arrived in Vegas two weeks prior and had already become integral to their little ragtag crew of Hunters. It was good that David had his own valet. The job of taking Hunter Corp. into the future was a big one with many moving parts.
“I have that information,” David said, pausing at the doorway.
Rowan waved a hand at him. “Go do your whatever it was you need to do. I can walk my ass over there.”
And when she tapped on the open doorjamb of the tech playground, Vanessa turned her head and when she saw it was Rowan her smile, goddess, it was pleased.
She should have done this more, Rowan realized.
“Hi there. Do you have a moment? I wanted to talk about the list of missing from the various cities we’d identified two weeks ago.”
“I do. Come in.”
Vanessa pointed at a rolling stool that Rowan deposited herself on and glided over to the desk full of monitors the purple-haired woman sat at.
“Okay, so.” Vanessa made a few mouse clicks and typed some stuff. The data that had been on the screens disappeared and new information popped up. “Originally, we realized the concentration of cities. Seattle, Portland, Southern California, New York City and Nashville. Highest numbers per capita of disappeared is Southern California followed by Seattle.”
Rowan leaned in, looking at name after name. Address after address.
Then she paused. “Wait.” Rowan pointed. “Scroll back a few screens.”
Vanessa did as asked, pausing each page to let Rowan read through, and then found it. An address on Holly Drive.
“Holly,” she murmured.
“What does that mean?” Vanessa asked.
Rowan briefly explained the various prophetic dreams and knowings she’d been having. Including the most recent that had featured greenery she now realized was holly.
“That’s the address you and Genevieve went to. In Long Beach,” Vanessa said.
Well, fuck.
Rowan pulled out her phone and looked up the time for sunset. “I need this data with filters for some words. Is that possible?”
Vanessa rolled her eyes and then pushed her berry-red eyeglasses up her nose. “What words?”
Rowan thought for a moment. “Holly, sparrow, bird, storm, ocean, ships. Too generic?”
“I think we can do it. It’s a wide net, but how many of these addresses could have any of those terms? It should be relatively easy once we have a filtered batch of data to cull what isn’t useful. Then we have a small enough sample that it might give us a direction.”
“Great. That will be a big help. Even if we can’t figure out who it is from the results, we’ll know who it likely isn’t. That’s an answer too.”
Vanessa turned to Rowan. “You’ve brought me to the field more than once and it teaches me new things each time. No one before you has given me that trust. And I know this might sound weird—I don’t want to make you sad—but it feels very much like Carey has been here too, keeping an eye on me.”
It was hard. Letting them out into the field meant they’d be exposed to danger. The kind of danger that had caught up to Carey and murdered him.
Carey had been hers. One of the first friends she’d made within Hunter Corp. He’d been killed for that loyalty. In all the rest of her days, when she looked for him, he would not be there. He would not come back. There would never be another moment in his company and that was still a hard realization.
It hurt. Grief wasn’t new to Rowan’s life. Her parents, both long dead, were simply the beginning of the losses she’d come to endure over and over. She hated it. No matter how many times she told herself grief was the price one paid for love, it still yawned in her belly. So big and dark it was one of the few things that truly scared her.
Because there were others whose loss she could not imagine surviving. David. So human and fragile compared with those creatures out to harm. The son of her heart.
Clive. The unexpected other half of her. The one being in all the universe who saw her so clearly and...celebrated all the things others had sought to punish her for. He celebrated her strength. Her darkness and her sharp edges. Was proud of them. To be seen by him so well and loved because of it was a miracle she wasn’t sure she’d ever understand.
But she’d accept it nonetheless because by that point, she simply never wanted a life without her vexing Vampire. And because being understood and known was a beautiful gift she’d never felt worthy of, but she’d never give up.
“Can you do a more thorough search of that address? I know we’ve been looking at the people who went missing, but more details, if possible, would be good. On their jobs. Friends. There’s a connection. The more information I have, the easier it will be to figure it out.”
“I have every confidence you will. These missing people are fortunate that it is you who seeks them,” Vanessa said quietly.
Rowan told herself it didn’t matter that Vanessa had such false confidence. People died around her for goddess’ sake!
But that was a lie. It mattered. Their confidence in her, even when she fucked up right and left, was a gift, and she was too weak not to take the solace that trust offered.
“I’ve gotten the new filters applied. Give me some time.”
“I have every confidence you too will prevail,” Rowan said, echoing Vanessa.
She stood, taking the folder Vanessa had prepared.
“I’ll keep you apprised,” Vanessa said as Rowan got to the doorway.
“Appreciate it.”
Darius felt the pulse of magic as it echoed toward where he stood in Genevieve’s office, looking out over the mountains just beyond.
The sun was tumbling from the sky. Darkness was already rising. The city changed so much in this moment, as day slid away, and the night took her place like a queen.
Gone were the hikers and other adventurers. They’d headed back to hotels and condos to shower and reemerge dressed for fine dining. For dancing and flirting. For gambling of all types. So many risks being taken.
He breathed in deep. The flavor of the magic, of the life energy that was essential to his and the rest of the Trick’s existence, had changed as well. Anticipation spiced it now. Longing. They’d start to flow from their rooms and into the night to play and sin and provide a feast with their emotions.
Darius had been thinking that the fading light changed her too. His brilliant witch whose power was a beacon in the darkness. In the night her magic was velvet and sensual. Her light was still a beacon but there were shafts of reds, golds, blues, and bronze in her. As if her power were reflected through stained glass.
And then the pulse heading toward them.
Darius spun to her, their gazes locking. She stood and held out a hand. “No. Let it come. It’s mine.”
He eased that shield back and he knew she’d been telling the truth as that magic flowed through him and he tasted her on every single nerve ending.
His attention locked on her, she tipped her head back with a sigh as the spell swirled around her and then seemed to settle over her skin before sinking inside.
He’d never been more aroused.
She glowed with energy. With the power she was born to. And...the power they’d brought her when she’d become their priestess.
He saw it in her. In those shafts of light. Devil magic had twined with her own. It coursed through her, utterly part of Genevieve. It was a punch. That realization that such an important part of what he was lived in her.
Satisfaction followed. He’d marked her. Deeply and irrevocably. He might have felt guilty over it. If she was someone else perhaps. But she wasn’t naive or innocent. She knew what he was and she’d accepted every part with open arms and a curious, eager mind.
Nothing else would have shattered the walls he’d erected around himself for millennia.
He was in love with Genevieve Aubert.
As he thought it, her eyes opened, her attention seeking him until she found him in a breath. “I set a warning spell at that house in Long Beach. With the missing witches. Someone is there.”
“Let’s go tell Rowan,” he said.