by Lauren Dane
“I think you’ll find it easier to locate the end of the line back there.” Rowan jerked a thumb.
Inordinately pleased with the opportunity to deliver a dressing down, she turned, grasping the hand of the guy on the dock and stepping down into the boat.
“Off we go, Sally!”
Chapter Sixteen
Rowan rubbed the bump on her head. He’d gunned the boat and she’d knocked the back of her skull against the gleaming hardwood at the back of her seat. Like a fucking rookie. She was so agitated it took a moment to find her manners.
“Carl.” Otherwise known as Crazy Carl, a sage who turned up in her life from time to time to deliver some mystic advice. In his own, taxidermy obsessed, totally mad-as-a-coot manner.
On his own timetable. And not if she got shirty. He had something to say and she had to be patient until he said it.
“Lottie, you look a little ragged.”
He also never got her name right. It was on purpose. She thought.
“Yeah, I’ve been getting that one today.” She took a look around the taxi, noting the swank details. “Did you do something naughty, Carl, and take this pretty boat from someone who owned it?”
“It’s mine now. That’s all that matters.”
Okay then.
“What brings you to Venice?”
He zipped around a corner so fast Rowan was pretty sure they’d have hit the wall if he hadn’t had some sort of magical mojo to keep from doing it.
“I’m a world traveler. We already covered this back in London. Did you bump your head harder than I thought?”
He grinned back at her over his shoulder, his usual orange camo cowboy hat had been replaced with a jaunty short billed ball cap.
She raised a brow at him but he didn’t give one tiny fuck. Which was why she loved him so much, even when he was a giant pain. He was like a kitten. Even she couldn’t stay annoyed with a kitten.
Cosmic protection most likely kept him alive, just like kittens and babies. If they were cute enough you couldn’t be annoyed and they’d make it through to adulthood.
“If it would fit into your plans, I need to look around.” She was just going to assume he had some sort of internal GPS and wouldn’t get lost. Or maybe he would. She just wanted him to cruise around the back canals where Venice was quieter and she could get a better feel of who and what was a threat. Or not. Though the latter was clearly wishful thinking.
“I’ve created a trip itinerary, Maisy. Just you be patient.”
Maisy was a new one. “Isn’t Maisy a cow’s name?”
“My mother’s name was Maisy.”
Rowan cringed. “Oh. I’m sorry.”
He cackled and she realized he’d totally lied to poke at her. She shook her head, scanning the buildings as they floated past. The further they got from the Grand Canal, the less frequent the calls from one gondolier to another as they came around a blind corner became.
“You’re a sneaky old bastard,” she muttered and he laughed more.
“I got into town last night. Isn’t as clean as it was the last time I was here.”
He didn’t mean litter. He meant power.
“I’m here to sweep it clean.”
“Like in that movie with the cab driver with the hair?”
She paused before she realized he meant Taxi Driver. “Sort of. Only without the penis. I don’t have one.”
He nodded, very seriously. “Well, that’s a question I don’t have to ask in the future.”
“Can we?” Rowan pointed for them to turn but he waved her away.
“I have an itinerary, Lola. What you need isn’t down there.”
She sat back, willing patience. She had so much to do. Daylight was wasting.
“Patience isn’t your strong suit. You have a lot of years in you. More now after your tussle with that rabid beast. Rabies is a death sentence you know. Can’t rehabilitate rabies away. Brain gets damaged.”
He slowed down, letting the force carry the boat through the canal.
“Anyway, as I was saying. Lots of years in you. Patience means you pay better attention. There’s always something to be done. I understand that. It’s busy time down at the library.”
He wouldn’t actually come out and say anything plain. He had this sideways, meandering delivery that at first listen didn’t mean anything specific. But after many years of Carl taxi rides here and there, she’d gotten the hang of it. Mostly. He was a sage after all so it came with being mysterious.
“Heard your little friend lost an eye.”
Rowan snorted. She didn’t bother to ask him where he’d heard it. He would have told her if he’d wanted her to know. They probably had a gossip website.
“That’s what she gets for invading my space bubble.”
“Glad you still got your sense of humor. You’ll need it before this is over.”
She moved forward to hear him better.
“I never figured her for Italy. I had Greece in the pool.”
“You guys have a pool?”
“Like fantasy football, not one to swim in. We got the ocean for that. They like to talk big while we play a round of golf.”
“So, a golf club for ancient wise ones? That’s pretty cool.”
He growled. “They’re weird. Some of ’em are flat out nuts.”
Rowan gave him a look, which he ignored. “Yeah, I’m sure some of you are.”
“So I lost three hundred dollars because I figured your one-eyed friend would run to familiar ground. Don’t know who chose Italy. Probably Monty, that stupendous oaf. As I was saying, the last time I was here in Venice it was a lot cleaner. They got themselves an infestation. I expect you know how to exterminate some pretty nasty creatures. But this time.”
He trailed off.
“See that wall over there? At the corner?”
Rowan nodded. Generations of gondoliers and other boaters would have bumped into it over and over. The layers of plaster and paint and whatever else had worn away to the brick beneath.
“There’s a great bakery near my hotel.”
Rowan struggled through, knowing he was giving her some sort of clue or clues, but not having any idea what it was, she gave it up for a while. If she let it stew a little it might make sense later.
“Where are you staying?”
“I just told you. A hotel near a bakery. Aren’t you listening?”
“Yes. Of course.”
“Cakes.”
“At the bakery?” Cake for breakfast would be really good. She needed to stop by the bakery near her place and bring back cake. Maybe she’d share with everyone else. If they deserved it.
“Layers. All the elements line up, make it better.”
She mulled that over a minute or two before she got an idea what he might mean.
“Like say, if you combined magic with Vampires?”
“Recipes are just chemistry. Magic is just chemistry.”
“Are you ever allowed to just say what the heck is going on?”
“Where would the fun be in that?” He pulled up at the dock in front of her house.
“How do you do that?”
“Magic.” He grinned for a moment and then darkened. “Do not speak her name until you are face to face.”
“She’s here in that palazzo, isn’t she?”
“Why ask me when you know the answer already?”
“Because everyone gets mad when I kill the wrong Vampire. If I make extra sure, the less likely the chances of me having to spend hours upon hours in a meeting, going to meetings, coming home from meetings or waiting for one to end or begin.”
“You’re never going to be as powerful as you can be if you don’t stop questioning what you know here...” he
tapped her temple, “...and here.” He tapped her chest over her heart. “You were made to do your job. Nature made you perfect from birth. All you need to do is own it and be it.”
Wow. He’d actually been less mysterious this visit than he ever had been before.
“Are you here to fight against her?”
“Sometimes I like it when a fox is posed, teeth bared and ready to rumble. Other times maybe he’s sleeping or laying on a log. You see what I mean?”
“Um. Give me a second.” She cast a quick look for one of the dead, stuffed things he seemed to carry with him and spied a lizard of some sort on a shelf to his left.
“My son is an engineer.”
She stepped away, repressing a shudder. “The one who isn’t talking to you anymore because you keep trying to get him to go snake hunting with you?”
Carl, in addition to whatever he did at this mysterious clubhouse with other sages, had several ex wives and three adult children. He seemed to forever be agitating one or all of them at the same time.
He chuckled. “That’s my younger son. Just like his mother. She doesn’t like me either. Though she liked me well enough for a bit of time.” His laugh went a little bawdy for a breath or two.
And just like that, she got what he had meant. “Everyone has a different role to play.” Even his creepy taxidermy projects apparently.
“Now you’re talking, Sally.”
Since he was being pretty coherent in some of his answers, she decided to press a little more. “There are people, friends, who want to help me. They could be of use, but they’re human. Fragile.”
Carl pushed his super shiny wrap around sunglasses up his nose a little. “Cake,” he reiterated. “Remember? Now go on. Daylight’s wasting and you have things to do.”
She had no idea how long they’d been gone. He had a way of altering her perception that way so she could have spent ten hours or fifteen minutes with him.
He helped her to the dock. “Keep wary. We talked in London about deep, cold water.” He referred to her stop, on the way to the Keep, nearly three months before. He’d warned her about Enyo. Well, via a slightly meandering story, which was pretty much his standard operating procedure. “Trouble can be like an iceberg. What you can see isn’t the most dangerous part.”
He stood across from her, also on the dock. Brigid rose like a cobra flaring its hood.
“Speak plainly, Sophos,” Brigid warned.
Carl’s grin went from slightly goofy to a little dark, and maybe a little reverent too.
He lifted a hand in surrender but it was soothing as well. “Whoa there, Bride. I mean no harm. You know that or I’d have seen this before now. I’m allowed to urge her to remember that revenge breeds haste. Haste breeds mistakes. The real enemy is not a one, but a many.”
Brigid had more than one name, had been revered by more than one culture, more than one religion, more than one time period. Bride was one of Her incarnations and it pleased Her to hear the sage use it.
And it pleased them both to realize he’d answered the question. Brigid stepped back enough for Rowan to continue. Rowan didn’t reference that whole thing with Her, getting right to the point.
“I knew this was more than about that one-eyed skank. The Blood Front business is a problem.”
He tipped his hat her way. “You’re a bright one. Engineering is like magic. It’s like lots of things. A recipe for how to get something to work in any case.” He looked into her eyes, seeing Her there. “Nice to see you again, Bride.” And his jolly was back when he turned to Rowan once he’d gotten back into the boat. “Be seeing you around, Lolly!”
Before she knew it, he’d swept her into a hug, kissed her smack on the lips and had jumped back in his boat before speeding off, leaving her to stare at him as he left her sight.
“What a weird fucking day,” she mumbled, moving inside.
Chapter Seventeen
After another ridiculous teleconference with Hunter Corp, she wanted to call the investigator, but she didn’t have to because as she pulled the phone out, he called her.
“I don’t have everything just yet, but I wanted to relay what I did have. This Wesslyian cat, he’s had feelers out in the magical black market, looking for some people to perform off the books jobs. I don’t have the link yet. I’m still looking.”
“Any idea what types of off the books jobs?”
“I’ve heard hired muscle, but I don’t know if it was magical, physical or what. And some custom spells. No one much wants to talk about that which says to me it was harmful in nature. But that’s just guesswork on my part.”
She thanked him and headed back out to the office downstairs where David was. Happily he was not only where she hoped he’d be, but had brought her a sandwich and some lemonade. “I can’t believe they wanted you to hold off on the raid of that palazzo,” David said.
“I can’t believe he thought I was seeking permission in the first place.”
Roth had brought several of his key supporters to the teleconference, including Hilary Sams, who’d tried one of those aw shucks, I’m just joshing things a few times when she’d been ripping Rowan down and Rowan wasn’t having it.
He’d known she wasn’t at the Hunter Corp. arranged villa, which she’d found very strange indeed. It was quite rare for any of the partners to check up like that. Especially if they weren’t an active part of the investigation.
David gave her a wry look. “They continue to miscalculate and underestimate you.”
“It used to piss me off. It still does, actually. But they all have to learn the hard way. I don’t know how many others besides Hilary and Roth are involved, but I’ll find out.” She told him what the investigator had reported in their earlier phone call.
David paled, but kept himself together.
“I know he’s behind this attempt to harm you. When I get enough evidence, the same as I’d use to back up any other execution, that will be handled.”
“You could just work with them to have him jailed or whatever.”
Rowan shook her head. “He’s playing big league games now. He’s got to face the consequences. He’s trying to start a war, trying to engage people to hurt a Hunter Corp. employee. More than one. But you’re what I care about. I gave him chances. He’s ignoring those chances.”
David kept looking at her.
“I get that you think I’m being harsh.”
He shook his head. “No, Deese, I don’t. I’m just honored by the way you treat me. And protect me. I worry for you, how they’ll react. But then I realize you don’t care. You don’t do you?”
“I’m beginning to understand I can continue to do what I believe in without working for Hunter Corp. if they can’t make better choices.”
She changed the subject because she didn’t want to get into it any further just then. “I cruised by the Hunter Corp. villa earlier. It’s being watched. Luckily there are so many magic bearing creatures here in Venice it’s not that easy to locate me. But I’m going to head back over there and take them out later on. I want to question them to see what they know. But first, it’s Pirate Polly the Vampire Queen we need to handle.”
Rowan really did love the fact that she’d poked out Enyo’s eye. She couldn’t wait to taunt her over it. Right before she used her blade to kill the ancient Vampire.
“Call Donna and ask if she’s still willing to help.”
He grinned. “I’m glad.”
“I don’t want to do this. They have no real idea of what they’re getting into. But I need them and they’re the type to try to do it on their own if I said no and that would be worse. Don’t use her name. Pirate Polly I mean.”
“Of course. I’ll pass that on when I speak to Donna, but I’m going to assume they already know.”
“It does come
under the magic stuff umbrella. They have this thing about the name of a thing having power. Which is actually true and not just hokum. I love the word hokum.”
“You have about two hours before the Vampires rise. May I suggest this is a good time for some rest?”
She’d taken what Carl had said to heart. No matter how badly she wanted to storm in and kill everyone inside that palazzo, it all needed to be planned carefully. Enyo wasn’t an ordinary Vampire and there was sorcery involved in some way that was so bad it made the other badass witches she knew pretty much run the other way. To rush because Rowan was impatient would end in disaster. She had humans to protect and Enyo was the most formidable enemy she’d ever faced.
She wouldn’t be raiding that palazzo that night. But she would need to be sharp when she was creating the plan.
“You’re right. I’m going to sleep. I need to talk to Recht. If he comes down before I do, can you let him know?”
David nodded and she headed up to the room she belatedly remembered Clive was in. She briefly considered the couch in the sitting room but he’d be upset and as much as he’d understand she needed to be alone, part of him would feel rejected and she’d stopped trying to pretend it didn’t matter.
She stripped to her panties and a T-shirt before she headed in. All was quiet of course. Clive would still be in the same position he went to sleep in. Nearly totally still. His skin would be cool.
Sliding in bed on her side, she managed to snuggle into the duvet and close her eyes. The house was safe. She was safe. Everyone under that roof was safe and she could finally sleep.
* * *
Clive awoke and smiled as he realized she was in bed with him. Rolled up in the duvet like a crepe, her hair sticking out the top.
That she was still asleep told Clive she only got to bed a few hours before. He wanted her to sleep more than he wanted to show her just how much he missed her while he was resting.
He eased out quietly. He showered, dressed and headed downstairs. He wanted to check in with Recht and Warren regarding The First’s mental health. Rowan would also most likely be checking, but this was Nation business. They needed to be rooting out the leak within their ranks as well. He had his own people on it, as did Warren. But the Five were far better at this sort of thing. Vampires were terrified of a visit from The First’s lieutenants and usually confessed quickly rather than endure whatever plans they had to get a confession from an uncooperative Vampire.