by Lauren Dane
“The Vampire Nation has not agreed to any such thing, Hunter,” Theo replied, the anger in his tone having slid more deeply into that cool, detached uber predator space he loved to inhabit.
“But you did. Back in the day when you signed the Treaty. I will kill or question any Vampire as necessary.” She didn’t shrug, because it would have been like waving a red flag in his face.
He narrowed his gaze at her and she was glad for the thousands of miles between them. Still, she was no wilting flower. He’d created the titanium coated spine she carried. He’d bear the consequences of that.
And also, she thought he liked to have this interplay with her. He considered it a fascinating game.
He had a very frightening concept of what a game was.
“Give me your reasons,” he ordered. “Extraordinary is an amorphous word.”
Here there was safe harbor. She knew how to do this. “There have been multiple attempts on my life because of this conspiracy. One of my assistants was murdered while they plotted to murder my valet. A dear friend, an acolyte of Athena, was tortured and murdered because of her connection to me. As was her husband and one of my security staff whose bodies were left at the scene of an arson with a magical fire so hot it turned their remains to dust. Last night there was a car bomb on a supposedly secure parking deck at Nation headquarters here in Las Vegas. All these things touch Vampires. We know this is true because you were there as some of these events have transpired. Leaks within the Vampire Nation—in your own territory no less—have led to dozens of injuries and deaths of Hunters and those humans and paranormals we employ or protect. Any combination of these things would be defined as extraordinary. The Hunter Corporation is at war with these sorcerers. We will avenge those of our protected we’ve lost.”
“Scion Stewart, what is your opinion of this alteration to the Treaty?” Theo asked.
“As you’re aware, my territory has already declared war alongside Hunter Corp. Rowan is my wife. As such, whatever happens to her, happens to me when it comes to matters such as this. A leak in the Vampire Nation meant the security schematics to her home were made accessible to those who’d killed Carey. They were in Las Vegas for at least a week, perhaps two while they surveilled her building and began to build the layers of some very complicated, apparently archaic magic. This happened in my city, with resources the Nation has. As soon as Rowan leaves this call, the other Scions are scheduled to be part of the meeting where I plan to propose the entire Nation declares war not only in solidarity with Hunter Corp., but because this is about our Protected as well. Our rules have been broken. Our Protected have been threatened and harmed.”
“And you propose, Hunter, to execute all Vampires on sight?”
Rowan ruthlessly tamped down her desire to snort at that silliness. “Well, as much as that might make my job easier, I’ll attempt to make every effort not to do that. But in the field, when I am confronted with a situation where putting down a Vampire who is a threat is my only choice, I’m not thinking twice about it. I don’t need a warrant. I don’t need permission. We’re at war and these sorcerers and anyone and anything working with them, helping them or giving them aid in any way is my target.” She already had a warrant anyway, but she wasn’t going to re-apply every time some janked up Vamp got in her face trying to blow her up.
“I’ll take your suggestion under advisement,” Theo said, pouring on the magnanimous.
She was going to do whatever she needed to do to stay alive and to keep those she was responsible for safe. He could advise that until the cows came home for all she cared. He was on another continent anyway.
Rowan nodded at him and then turned to Clive. “I have work. I’ll leave you to yours.”
“Petal, you keep yourself in one piece or there’ll be hell to pay,” Theo said. “You’re my child. I will not tolerate any foolishness with these assassination attempts.”
In his own way, he loved her. She knew that. But it wasn’t always an easy love to accept—or endure. Still, he was her father, for all intents and purposes. And he meant what he’d said so she took it as the endearment he’d intended.
“Doing my best,” she told him.
“See that you do. And don’t let it be so long before you check in with me again.” He waved a hand, dismissing her, so she took the opportunity to leave while she could.
* * *
David was in Alice’s office, sitting at her desk as he peered at her screen. Alice stood behind him, watching, but when she caught sight of Rowan she smiled. “Come in and have some tea. I’ve got to nip into Clive’s office while he’s on his call.”
She grabbed a stack of things and headed out after pointing Rowan to the snacks that went with the tea.
“What’s up?” she asked David as she dropped sugar cubes into teacups.
“I was watching the footage of the parking deck from yesterday. I’ve gotten through several hours and so far, I’ve seen nothing out of the ordinary. I started at the explosion and worked my way back. Alice started when Clive arrived and forward to the explosion. No one even touched the car after Clive parked.”
“Let’s look at the footage as he’s driving in then. Obviously he isn’t going to be hitting a drive thru for a coffee, but I checked with him anyway. He says he didn’t stop except for traffic lights.”
“Alice has procured enough footage to cover from the time he exited the highway until he entered the secured level of the parking garage. I haven’t gone over it yet.”
Rowan grabbed her tea and headed to the empty desk, telling David to send the info to that computer.
“There are a lot of weird ass people doing weird ass shit in Las Vegas. It’s bananas,” she said as she finished. “Alice deserves a raise for aligning the timeline so we have consecutive video from freeway exit to entrance of Die Mitte.”
“Anything?” David asked as he looked up from what he’d been doing.
“Nothing. He drove straight in. There wasn’t any time for someone to put a bomb in his car!” She was missing something, damn it.
“Rowan, there’s a woman downstairs to see you. Genevieve Aubert,” one of Alice’s assistants came in to announce.
“Oh, well, I’ll go down to meet her. David, keep on the footage. Update me as necessary,” she called over her shoulder as she left, not waiting for his response.
* * *
Genevieve waited on the main level, flirting prettily with one of the hot dads waiting for a chip cash-out. She waved over her shoulder and forgot about him immediately when she caught sight of Rowan.
“Come, let me look at this car,” Genevieve said after an air kiss.
Rowan led the way through the warren of back hallways the Vampires and casino employees used. “Just get a general feel too, while you’re here. We don’t know who the problem is so if they have a special guilt spell wafting off them, lemme know.”
“Then pancakes and I’ll tell you about my trip. There’s much to say.”
Genevieve and her pancake thing. “Are you some sort of pancake fiend?”
“Sometimes. They’re so full of deliciousness. They make me sleepy and calm. What’s not to like?” Genevieve laughed.
“I can’t disagree,” Rowan told her.
Once they got to the parking deck, Rowan arranged to have everyone leave the area so Genevieve could get a better read. Chances were, someone would run off and tattle to Patience, but that was fine. It was her scene after all.
Rowan stood back and let her friend do her thing.
Genevieve got that blank look in her eyes that she did when she accessed those voices, that well of energy she seemed to be powered by as she slowly circled the remains of Clive’s car.
As Rowan watched her work, in the back of her mind, she sorted through all they knew so far and worked on fitting the pieces together.
While Rowan worked through all th
e magic crap that’d been hurled her way, she realized it was Vampires who’d introduced it into her life. Those stupid Blood Front assholes had been connected to Enyo, a wannabe goddess who had magic and vengeance to spare until Rowan killed her.
Always the connection to Vampires though. Not just Enyo but all her disciples and the dumbasses she brought with her to fight her battles. When Rowan had been on a hunt in Europe, she’d encountered the Vamps with magic, and the sorcerers who appeared to be linked to Enyo. In hindsight, they’d had their own goals and objectives. Enyo hadn’t seemed to know that. She’d thought they were her pets when really, she was a total puppet with some other power pulling the strings.
Whatever it was, that was the key. And Rowan wouldn’t be done with this mess until she figured it out.
Which, no matter how she looked at it, pissed her off. She had things to do. Had to set up a new Motherhouse for Hunter Corp. Had to clean up that whole mess, which also connected to this magic bullshit.
Again, none of it could be handled until she found the poisonous root of this problem and burned it with acid and salted the earth afterward so nothing could grow there again.
Finally, Genevieve stood straighter, as if she was removing a heavy cloak, and turned back to Rowan.
“There was no bomb. Not a physical bomb anyway.”
Rowan pushed to stand straight, feet planted wide. “What does that mean? I was here. And the blast radius says bomb. The whole explody thing says bomb.”
“It’s a spell. A rare one too. It would have taken an immense amount of power to direct it the way it did.”
“Of course. Why not? Everything else has been pointing in that direction.” It also would explain why no video they’d watched showed anyone attaching a bomb to the undercarriage of Clive’s car.
But how did it get applied? How was it placed?
“How would it be done? Like could they all be in the casino or hotel when they did it? Sit at a slot machine and set it off when they thought we were already in the car?”
Genevieve shook her head. “I don’t think so, no. It would require close proximity when it was cast. Maybe even close enough to touch.”
“Well, shit, that would have happened anywhere. Who knows when? He uses his Vampire flying thing a lot, but he loves to drive and he hates my car.” Rowan looked to Genevieve with an eye roll. “He has opinions about a lot of things and one of them is that he prefers a Jaguar or BMW. Of which he has more than one. The Nation has a few of them for staff to use.
“He uses the fleet from time to time but he prefers his personal vehicle. Like I said, opinions.” Rowan indicated the wreck of metal that was once a sleek, midnight blue Jag F-Type her husband adored.
“The spell would have been worked recently. Within twelve hours, more likely eight or less. Like I said, it’s a rare spell that needs a lot of power. It can only store it for so long before it goes off prematurely or dissipates. There’s a lot of ambient magic here. Vampires have their own but when that spell detonated, it tossed magic everywhere. I have a signature. It’s really stupid of these sorcerers to leave this much evidence. It might be that they simply underestimated your allies. Didn’t consider you might have a witch powerful enough to see this. Either way it’s sloppy.”
“I said earlier that it was reckless. And then I began to wonder if the recklessness had a point. To keep us all fighting and distracted so we missed whatever was really going on.”
Genevieve nodded. “That could be. And if so it speaks to an older magical power. The spells used do as well. I don’t want to talk about this more on camera. But I think if I can go along whatever route Clive comes in by in his vehicle, I might be able to see where the spell was laid.”
Chapter Thirteen
“Is there some way to protect against a spell like this?” Rowan asked as they drove the route Clive had the night before. She’d left David back at Die Mitte with Alice, going over security footage of the casino floor for anything that looked unusual. Which sounded like actual hell to Rowan, so she was grateful to have someone else to order to do it in her stead.
In order to be in exactly the same place Clive had, Rowan had taken a risk and driven all the way back to the safe house and started from there after Genevieve looked her car over.
“That this could happen once was amazing enough. Again? I don’t think it’s something to worry over. But I can ward your vehicles and bill the Vampire Nation and Hunter Corp. for it,” Genevieve replied, her gaze slowly roaming over the roadside.
“Here, turn east,” she said after another mile.
“Someone touched his car here?” Rowan looked at the desolate roadside but Genevieve made a sound.
“No. Not laid here. But there’s a wisp of that magic coming from over there.” She pointed to the east.
Magic GPS was a very cool thing.
Rowan headed that way, down a far less nice road, where she had to slow down or risk her damned suspension. Which is why she’d left her Boxster at home and opted for the far sturdier SUV David had procured for them and Genevieve had declared safe and free of magic explosive spells or what have you.
The silence thickened as Genevieve’s magic rose, filling the car with nearly stifling warmth. In the background Rowan could hear the susurrant whispers of the power within her friend. And she wondered, not for the first time, just what Genevieve’s story was. If she’d always used her magic with the voices. If the voices gave her the magic or whatever.
But she waited, hoping Genevieve would trust her enough to share at some point. It was her life and she was the best person to decide when to share it and with who.
Even if it was super interesting.
Genevieve pointed a few more times. Speaking less and less until she ordered, “Stop,” in a hoarse whisper.
Rowan did, bringing the car to a halt and turning the engine off. The quiet of night settled around them, but before she took more than a few breaths, Rowan knew there was a problem.
“Are you carrying a weapon?” Genevieve asked.
“Naturally. More than one, as it happens.”
“Just checking. There’s something here. I don’t know what. But I need to see it.”
“I’ve got your back. What do you need from me other than that?”
Genevieve took a deep breath as she pulled a pipe from her inside pocket and took a few hits.
“If anything tries to come at me, kill it.”
“I can do that,” Rowan told her before getting out and heading around to guard Genevieve as she did the same.
“Magic users,” Genevieve said, in a voice that had an echo. She began with some fluid hand movements and then followed with words that seemed to split the air open and then, ahead of them the obfuscation spell fell away, revealing a shiny black Town Car not too far from a firepit and some sort of circle for a magical working.
When the spell fell and they could see what was beyond it, a flood of power seemed to rush through, like water rushing over stones, heading toward them in a flood. Genevieve said something and it flowed past them instead of over them, raising the hair on Rowan’s arms as it did.
The power around Genevieve throbbed with intensity. It left Rowan a little dizzy just being caught up in it.
She’d thought she understood what it was like to see powerful magic being worked. The practitioners who’d come to her aid in Venice were all top notch.
But this was something entirely different.
Rowan shook her head to get it straight again. She planted her feet, bent at the knees a bit and after sweeping aside her hair, pulled her tanto from the sheath at her back.
It rang in the night, the sound clear and frightening. A call of death.
She allowed herself a fancy turn of her wrist, letting the blade catch the light of the moon. Sacred steel. Runes and magical glyphs on the blade. Edged in silver. Another warni
ng.
Rowan’s own form of magical power.
“You’re trespassing,” one of the men—it appeared there were three in total—who’d been standing around the firepit called out.
“Do you need to borrow my phone to call 911? Tell them what happened and what you’re doing out here?” Rowan said, liking very much that he looked confused. This wasn’t going to script and he hadn’t managed to make the connections the other two men he was with had.
They knew Rowan and Genevieve weren’t normal people who’d just happened upon whatever they were up to.
“Didn’t think so,” Rowan said. “Seems to me you’re out here doing something sneaky. Which doesn’t put you in a position to be imperious and demand shit.”
Genevieve snickered.
“Excuse me?” he asked, someone clearly not used to being questioned.
“Who are you and what are you doing out here?” she replied instead, keeping her words slow and clear, just to fuck with him.
“I don’t owe you explanations. You’re going to be sorry you didn’t just scurry off when I gave you the chance,” he said, stepping to the side, revealing yet one more person, this one a sorcerer.
“Oooh, the old you’ll be sorry routine. Apologies though. I’m not duly scared off by it. I have daddy issues I guess.” Rowan shrugged. “There are four of you and two of us. Not very sporting of you to be all threateny and shit.”
It was the sorcerer that alarmed Rowan most. When he moved to stand forward, Genevieve hissed on an intake of breath and her magic slammed around the two of them.
Genevieve began to utter in another language, fingers moving quickly and the sorcerer threw magic their way but it seemed to splat against the barrier and glop down the sides.