Chapter Twenty-Three
“She’s not going to say a word.” Genevieve used a keypad to get them through to another part of the floor. “She knows we have her on the explosion and that we know there’s something going on between these families. But she thinks she can wait, and we’ll give up.”
“If you set her free, I’m going to hunt her down and end her myself. Don’t test me. I beheaded a fucking Scion, that bitch in there is nothing by comparison.”
Genevieve’s laughter relaxed the witch whose back went stiff as she overheard Rowan’s words. Rowan’s serious, totally honest words.
“She won’t walk free for the next century, maybe two. That bomb I can absolutely track back to her. She’s responsible for the deaths of all those witches and humans and she did it in a public way. However, I can’t deny the pleasure I will feel when she finally figures out she’s done for, and nothing and no one can help her.”
“I like this side of you,” Rowan told her.
“I’m exhausted by these machinations. If we didn’t need to know more from them, I’d simply send them all away immediately, stripped of their magic for eternity. Now, let’s go see this poor girl that woman brutalized.”
“I still think her magic needs to be stripped away for eternity. She’s used it to harm others more than once.”
Genevieve was leaning toward the same perspective.
“We’re not going to set her free to let her hurt anyone else. Of that you can be certain.” She’d make the recommendation to Konrad, and he’d take it into consideration along with whatever Hunter Corp. and the Dust Devils had to say.
Standing just outside the double doors leading to the small medical clinic, Rowan was hit by a wave of...certainty. This was where she needed to be. Answers were coming.
A soft yip had them turning to catch sight of Star trotting toward them. Since the last time Rowan had seen her dog was in Las Vegas several hours before it was a bit of a surprise, but frankly, Star was far more often a help than a hindrance.
And Rowan didn’t want to fail. Not the woman on the other side of the door or her missing friends.
Star went to her back legs and braced her front paws almost delicately around any possible sore spots on Rowan’s chest. Then she touched her cool nose to Rowan’s and gave her a quick kiss before going back to all fours.
It was hard to be sad when your dog touched noses with you. Rowan gave Star a scratch behind her ears before she took a deep breath and got her head back in the game.
“Dorothy is the key,” she murmured to Genevieve. “My dreams keep sending me here. And with all the bites, there’s obviously a connection to the Vampires.” Clive was already on the hunt for whichever fanged fuckheads were responsible. Rowan would be delighted to help in that endeavor once they were able to speak with the injured witch.
Genevieve said, “Your foresight brought you here. So this is where we need to be.”
Rowan wasn’t sure why, but that assurance settled something within. She didn’t have to be believed by everyone, that came with the territory. But it was...nice to have support in her corner.
The doctors in the room cautioned them Dorothy was still groggy and recovering from some of the treatments she’d gone through. They said nothing about a dog, even when Star put her chin next to Dorothy’s arm and gave her those pretty eyes.
Pity squeezed in Rowan’s chest at the sight of the witch in the hospital bed. The bites had been treated, the worst of them had been covered by bandages. But there were so many of them, at least half of her body was covered, especially the most-used feeding spots like the throat and arms.
Why had Vampires mistreated her so badly? Yes, Rowan was familiar with the ways asshole Vamps harmed those they were supposed to protect, but for the most part, they didn’t hurt those who gave their blood to their household. It was threaded into their culture. This looked like an overreaction, but Vampires rarely did anything without a reason, usually four or five of them. So what exactly were they up to?
Tears welled in Dorothy’s eyes as Genevieve brought two stools to her bedside. “I thought I was going to die.” A sob stole her words and Rowan had to lock down all her emotions before she ended up crying too.
Star sighed softly and shifted herself to lay her head against Dorothy’s arm. The witch paused a moment before a smile crept over her mouth and she ran her fingertips across Star’s fur.
“Hello there,” she said, and Star gave an adorable little snuffle snort.
“You lived, Dorothy,” Genevieve said. “The universe needs you, and your attackers underestimated you. Living is your victory, yes?”
Dorothy swallowed hard and blinked back tears.
Rowan began, filling her tone with a flood of comfort and empathy, which Brigid fed her in a steady stream. “We know you’re hurting and confused, and we don’t want to rush you into talking. We need to know what happened so we can better try to find your friends.”
She’d reached not for violence and menace, but comfort. Compassion. That too, felt like it was exactly how it was supposed to be. Knowledge, knowing slammed through her as all the parts of herself that had been running at top speed in what felt like totally different directions threaded together.
Like lightning, liquid power— magic —rushed through her veins, leaving harmony in its wake. In all her life she’d been waiting for this moment and hadn’t even known it consciously.
Genevieve turned her attention to Rowan, her eyes widening as she drew a breath to speak.
Rowan lifted a hand. “I am well,” she told her friend. And also to everyone watching in the control room so Clive understood he didn’t need to react.
“Your voice,” Dorothy said.
“I am a Vessel to Brigid. Her magic is heavy in the room, but it’s good magic. Like Star is good magic.”
Rowan then realized that much like Brigid being a triple goddess, Rowan, Star, and Brigid were of three in a similar way.
The warmth returned in Rowan’s chest. Pleasure, she realized. Brigid was pleased with this new accord between them, like a high-speed-train connection.
Amazing.
“I want to help,” Dorothy said.
“Thank you,” Rowan said. “First, know there are multiple teams out as we speak looking for Jaylin and Kerry. My valet is taking notes right this very moment and he’ll get any details to them. Take your time. If you need a break, just say so.”
“Two months ago, Jay came home from work and said he’d won some contest he entered at the chain restaurant near his job. The prize was a four-day cruise to Cabo, and he called to ask if three of us could go instead of two and they agreed as long as we all shared a stateroom. We were excited, you know? Anyway, there was a party with the winners, a dinner sail that set out from San Pedro. Afterward, when we got back home, Kerry, our other roommate, said she wasn’t going on the cruise.”
Dorothy took a break to sip some water and catch her breath. They’d given her some medication and also had used various spells to keep her calm and comfortable, so the pain was more emotional than physical. Far harder to manage.
Dorothy was strong, though. And after a brief pause, she continued with the story. “Some creep harassed her the whole night long and we were on a boat so she couldn’t escape him. I knew the guy she was talking about. He was a witch. There were several witches there, along with a few humans and a Vampire. She didn’t want to repeat it over days of the Mexico cruise, and we didn’t blame her. In fact, Jay and I decided not to go either because the whole night had felt like theater. Like there was some other thing happening that they didn’t want us to see.
“He told the cruise people, and they started offering all sorts of assurances. Then as we kept saying no, they got mad. They insisted the guy Kerry was talking about wasn’t even going to be on the cruise so there was no reason not to go. But by that point, we all had a bad taste in our mouth over it and their reaction, so we thanked them again but refused and hung up. They called multiple times afterward, but none of us answered.
“And then two days later they came to the house. I had just gotten out of the shower but everyone else was still sleeping. The bathroom door opened up and before I could fight, they hit me with a knockout spell. By the time we regained consciousness, they’d moved us. We only saw three rooms of the place we were at first. The bathroom, a bunk room where they kept us, and...”
Dorothy lifted a hand to her mouth, covering it as her lips quivered.
Rowan knew from experience that some things were hard to speak of, especially right after they happened. Genevieve, too, understood that pain.
They needed her to tell them what she knew. But she needed to understand they would not force her to part with whatever it was. It was hers to tell however she could manage.
So Rowan and Genevieve waited until Dorothy got herself together and resumed. “They drugged us and then put us in the other room. Where the Vampires came. At first, they were nice. They fed us and talked to us. Made sure we had showers and all that. Then one of them bit me and took blood. I didn’t want to be fed on. I said so over and over. They didn’t care. They said it was time for us to come live with them. They took Kerry. I don’t know where. She was gone for a few days and then the Vampire—he was different from the other two—who took her did something wrong. I don’t know what, but it made all the other Vampires nervous. They argued and then even physically fought.” She shivered. “Jay and I were drugged into unconsciousness again and when we came to, we’d been placed in a different house. No Vampires. It was witches. Two of them. For several days they acted like they were helping. They treated some of Jay’s injuries. He’d been caught up in the brawl between the Vampires,” Dorothy explained.
“You said the Vampire who took Kerry was different. What did you mean?” Rowan asked her.
“It was his accent. His inflections and pauses were unlike anyone I’ve heard before. But it did remind me of a teacher at the Conclave building, Tinto Gaddon. Not the same accent, but the quality of it. He was old , I think, Kerry’s Vampire.”
Genevieve nodded. “Tinto is at least a thousand. It might be that the accent is from a language and culture that’s changed or even been lost over time.”
Okay so most likely an ancient, or a Vampire who lived in a part of the world Dorothy hadn’t encountered. The audacity certainly screamed old age. Those Vampires liked what they liked, and they’d liked it long enough to not want it any other way. If they saw a human or a witch they wanted as a blood servant, they’d certainly believe they were entitled to take whoever they pleased.
The picture she was beginning to see clearly was not a pleasant one.
“Thank you. Please, go on,” Rowan urged, and Star nudged her side gently. Just a hey I’m here .
“Then she came. Another witch. She said time was up. Jay and I were about to be bonded into Vampiric households and it was an honor. That if we just cooperated, we’d grow to like it and once we’d earned our Vampire’s trust, we’d have more freedom. It paid more than our current jobs. We’d have nice things and live in a mansion. We asked over and over where Kerry had gone but no one would say. I stopped cooperating. I tried to run but they caught me, and the Vampires came back.”
Fear sweated from her pores as her voice went a little breathless.
Clive’s rage churned through his bond with Rowan. Most Vampires, big assholes or not, wouldn’t do such things. But some did. Rowan could kill thousands of Vampires true dead but there’d still be of this sort of thing unless the Nation dropped on them like a house every time one poked a head out.
“It was the same two as from the other place. Jay, they did something to him. He was leaning toward accepting this new plan. But it made me mad instead. They couldn’t just take me where I didn’t want to go! The feedings began again and this time, they left their bites open to make me compliant . That’s when Jay started to change his mind. Maybe it was the shock of seeing what had been done? I don’t know. I just wanted revenge, so I knew I had to hold on for the right opportunity and Jay was back on my side. It was stupid luck, but one of the witches who always scurried off when the Vampires came left her stuff behind. Her keycard had been tucked between the pages of her book. Then we had to wait until midday when the witches ate their lunch, before the shift change when the one whose keycard I took came back and would discover her card gone.
“We waited until the right moment and Jay and I ran. Well, he ran. I stumbled, but he helped me. The house they were keeping us was only a few miles from our place. It felt like years getting there. We didn’t want to call the police because the one witch who came to tell us about the Vampires said they had connections with the cops, and no one would help us. We wanted to get home. An old teacher of mine knows someone in leadership at the Conclave. We just had to get her number from the house so she could help us.”
She told them about how once they’d neared their neighborhood, a car full of witches had begun to cruise through, trying to find them, which slowed them down further, so they took refuge in the backyard of a neighbor’s house. How Jay had left her there to jump into their own yard and get into the house through the back door.
And then how she’d crawled to the street, trying to escape as Jay had led them away, yelling as he did. He’d created a diversion to keep her safe. She made it as far as the bags of trash and passed out. That’s where they’d found her less than two hours later.
Rowan said, “Can you describe the witch from the dinner cruise? The one who harassed your friend?”
As she did, Genevieve scrolled through her phone and then turned a photo around for the other woman to see.
“Yes! That’s him.”
“His name is Hugo Procella. And he’s got a history of stalking women. He’s in custody and he won’t be hurting anyone again,” Genevieve said. “He stalked me too. Your friend was right about her instincts.”
Dorothy described the Vampires and Rowan took notes, dread creeping into her gut as she began to see all the connections.
“Can we show you some photographs?” Genevieve asked. “Once we identify these witches, we’ll be able to find them quicker.”
“And Vampires, if it’s not too much.”
“Will you stop them from hurting anyone else?” Dorothy asked Rowan.
“When I find the Vampires who did this to you, they won’t be able to harm anyone again.”
Rowan was entirely unsurprised to find David waiting with the file box of photos they’d taken from Elmer’s house. “I took the liberty of selecting the ones I thought you might want to show Dorothy.”
As she sifted through the various photos, setting aside shots including Vampires Rowan was fairly sure were involved, Konrad told her, “The Vampires, your local Hunters, and my teams have been fed all the identifying information we received from your interview so far.”
“Alice is coordinating a team of Vampires on scent trails leading from the house on Holly. They’re reporting back with the others in real time,” Clive said.
“Excellent.” She took the file David handed her and opened it. “There are a lot of creeps in these. I’m fairly certain one of the Vampires she described was Stephen Baker.” Rowan paused as she slid the contents of a manila envelope onto the table. “Well, what do you know? Here’s one of Stephen from the sixties. That’s Aron.” She pointed to the Vampire on his left. She put that one on her stack and added one of Elmer in a crowd shot.
Konrad made a sound that had Rowan’s attention landing on him. “What is it?”
He shook his head. “It’s nothing. Just remembered back in the day, Fiona did variety.” He took a photo from Genevieve’s folder and pointed.
Nineteen twenty-two, according to the writing on the back. A black-and-white crowd shot taken on a stage with striped curtains at their back. At one side of the group was an older gentleman with what looked to be a dog act with a collie and a poodle. There were a few dudes in suits, a man playing the mother role, still in his wig and dress. Some musicians, a child, and smack dab in the middle was a sultry-eyed Fiona Clare in a dark-toned gown.
“I bet that face sold a hell of a lot of tickets,” Rowan said. “What was her act? Dancing? Magician’s assistant? Nah, she’s no one’s assistant.”
Konrad chuckled. “You’re very good at reading people. I saw her perform a time or two. She’s got a beautiful voice. They called her the Sparrow.”
“Well, now.” Rowan blew out a breath and plopped her butt back into a chair. She didn’t want to give away all her secrets, but the prophecy dreams were known by the people in that room, so she quickly explained to Konrad about the holly leading them to the house in Long Beach and the sparrow in her most recent experience.
“From the moment Fiona entered the room when Genevieve and I were at their home, I had a visceral response to her. Don’t mistake me, she’s deadly and intelligent. I respect what a badass she is. On the surface. But I had a deep distrust of everything she said. I obviously knew she and her husband were involved somehow, but while he’s certainly a participant, she’s in charge. The symbolism in my dream just underlined it. I want to go speak to her again after we’re done with Dorothy.”
“I have a strong feeling we’ll have a lot more of an idea of what’s going on by the time we’re done here,” Genevieve told her. “Are you ready to see what else we’re about to find out?”
Over the next few minutes, Dorothy had identified Rose as one of the witches she saw on the dinner cruise and also at the second location they’d been taken. Sergio had come to the first location. Dorothy recognized Antonia from the dinner cruise, along with Gerard Clare.
Rowan knew Antonia had been way more involved than she’d claimed.
Rowan showed a picture of Baker and Dorothy backed up, alarmed. “That’s the one who bit me. The one whose household I was supposed to be bonded into.”
Rowan drew out the next, the crowd shot of Elmer and his pervo friends, and turned it to Dorothy. “Him.” Elmer. “Him.” Another Vampire not well known to Rowan, but Clive would know. Then, “What’s she doing there?”
That sound...a sound of discovery and certainty, drew Rowan’s attention. “Which?” she asked, using her control to not rush Dorothy.
Dorothy pointed to a redhead off to the side, standing not with the Vampires posing, but with a smaller group. “That’s the witch who showed up to tell us we were going to be sent to Vampire households. She’s the one who ordered me punished.”
Genevieve took the photo. “I don’t know her. But that’s easily remedied. Just outside the door are several people, including my father, who know just about everyone. Failing that, we have the ability to do an image search. We’re going to find these people and make sure they can never hurt anyone else.”
A few minutes later, they let the doctor—also a witch—take over and put Dorothy into a healing sleep.