by Lauren Dane
She pretended to wipe away a tear, sniffing. “They grow up so fast.”
“You think this situation with Hunter Corp. and the business with your one-eyed friend are connected.”
Rowan sighed before turning to face Clive. “There’s a connection, but I don’t think I’m seeing all of it just yet.”
“I’m afraid you’re correct. I’m going to sweep along this way. I will reconnect with you over there in an hour. Don’t ignore my texts.”
“I don’t ignore them. Sometimes I don’t see them because I’m busy.” Or when she didn’t want to deal with him. Which was technically ignoring but not really. Probably. Anyway, she’d go where she wanted, when she wanted. So there.
His expression told her he knew what she’d been thinking. “Whatever you say. So, I’ll be texting you to get your whereabouts.”
“I’m going inside if it looks safe. This is the job. You knew it before you put a ring on it so suck it up. Go on. I’ll see you later.” She kissed him quickly before jogging the other direction.
The night was heavy. It had rained on and off over the ten minutes it took Rowan to make her way over to the side of Venice facing Guidecca. The Hunter Corp. residence was on a side canal not too far away from the last gondola yard remaining in Venice. And the roof gave her a place to settle in to watch the comings and goings without being visible herself.
It didn’t take much time for Rowan to locate the people watching the villa, waiting. Within ten minutes she’d already started to think of them as the stupids.
There were three of them. They smoked and spoke loudly to one another and on their phones. She knew exactly where they were the whole time and not a single time did even one of them look up higher than street level.
She took pictures with a nifty pocket-sized camera with fantastic zoom. Carey had given it to her before she’d come back to Germany.
Technology being what it was, she was able to then send the pictures directly from her camera to her phone and then off to Carey to see if he could get a bead on who these watchers were.
They smelled human. Moved like it too. But until she’d gathered some more information, she’d hold off on saying it was certain. Which meant she needed to get a lot closer. After she got into that villa.
No one seemed to be inside. And when the stupids on surveillance wandered off after talk of some wine and a snack, she sent a quick text to Clive that she was headed in to an empty house and would let him know what she found.
He called her immediately and she answered after considering not doing so for a ring or two. “I’m on my way. I just spoke with David. He’s working with Donna’s people and Carey and will stay where he is to coordinate. Wait for me before you go in.”
“The stupids sent to watch the place have wandered off to get drunk and eat too much. I should be doing that right now. And yet, here I am. There’s no one inside. If you’re on your way, I’ll see you in a bit. Don’t worry about me. Also, I’ve been doing this for a little bit of time. I’m cool.”
She disconnected but heard him grumbling about how much he did worry just before the call dropped and she slipped her phone back into her pocket and buttoned it closed.
A quick scramble and she was down off the roof and on the little lane the villa sat.
She crept across the nearly deserted street, across a small courtyard and circled the entire villa, seeing nothing.
There was something here. Not here as in where she stood. But in the air. In the city. Something wanted to do harm. To her. To everyone.
She eased through the slightly open double doors leading to the house’s small front garden. It was kept up well, as Rowan assumed it would be. This property had to be worth quite a bit and whatever their sins, Hunter Corp. took care of things of value. Most of them away.
It wasn’t like Rowan shouldn’t have been there. It was prepared for her arrival, or supposed to have been. No staff she could see. Maybe they’d been told to go home.
She peeked through a window and seeing nothing, skipped using the pass code they provided for the front door keypad and picked a lock to a side door.
She knew all the Hunter security protocols and after a quick few minutes she’d managed to get it on a loop so that it didn’t show any doors or windows being opened.
Nothing of note on the main floor, which was pretty much just organized storage. The second floor was the heart of the house, clearly, just like hers. There were flowers in vases. Which she usually hated. These were roses—she preferred peonies—and they were still relatively fresh as they overflowed from vases all over the place.
She checked each of the six bedrooms on the second and third floor. They’d been readied with fresh linens and more fucking flowers. If she hadn’t fixed the security system, every sound in the house would have been recorded she bet. Jerks.
Whatever the case, nothing looked overly suspicious and she wanted to get out so she could position herself closer to where the stupids would be when they came back.
She wanted to know who—and what—they were.
It was as she was rounding the stairs coming back to the first floor that she heard the security system beep off and the front doors opened up.
She edged back up and around the corner, listening to what was happening.
It was the stupids. The average criminal couldn’t have managed to get in and these jokers weren’t even good enough to be average. They’d been given that code, which meant someone at Hunter Corp. had given it to them.
Someone she worked with, knowing she was coming here, had given people the tools to hurt her. She narrowed her eyes as she added them to her to-do list.
Downstairs they made a call, saying she wasn’t coming. Rowan nearly went down there to say hello before she knocked them both out. They moved around and made a lot of noise but made no move to come up the stairs.
Rolling her eyes, she figured she’d just go around, hop out through a window and meet up with Clive as he made his way to her. Amateurs.
Down the hall and out a window onto a decent sized ledge. There should be plants out there, she thought. It would look better. The neighbors would be happier too.
It was just a matter of a careful climb down but once her feet touched the ground the gravity of her choice hit her, along with a nasty spell that knocked her on her ass.
Luckily, once she’d touched the ground, Brigid had taken over and the magic, though disgusting, seemed to slide off her skin after some more super hot skin action.
Hurt like hell, but at least she wasn’t suffering whatever that spell intended her to.
“You motherfucker.” Rowan was back as she rolled out of the way, avoiding another strike of whatever the fuck it was coming from a sorcerer she was going to stomp the hell out of shortly.
All her supercharged blood helped her to open herself up to Brigid so they could work as a unit. It was as if she needed that extra boost to truly create that sort of magical link.
Whatever the case, even at first there was a slight disorientation as Rowan had to fit Her very precisely in her head.
That momentary bit of dizziness had been the break the Vampire who’d been lurking just at the corner of the house needed. He hit her hard, slamming her against the wall.
The air left her with a painful whoosh and he followed up with a punch to the kidneys.
The Goddess fully linked, Rowan gathered her strength and pushed back, kneeing him in the balls as she did.
He flew backward, arms windmilling and hit the low stone wall at his back, tumbling into the street.
“Piece of shit.” She turned her attention back to the sorcerer who’d been tossing magic her way. “Now. We were having a discussion about who you are and why you’re attacking me.”
He didn’t respond, just kept his chanting. Rowan had to be smart an
d attack at a time when his attention was fully diverted, but not be close when he managed to complete whatever spell he was building.
The Vampire she’d knocked out came back and a few beats later the stupids came around the corner. They all started threatening and making violent gestures at the top of their lungs.
“Dear Goddess, stop yelling. You guys make so much noise it’s a wonder you didn’t get caught before now. Well.” Rowan jerked her chin at the two humans who’d been casing the house. “They couldn’t. But you.”
The Vampire charged and she ducked to the side, just missing when she aimed a hard kick at the side of his knee. It landed and knocked him back, but it just slowed him.
The humans came at her from the other side, babbling in Italian that sounded very much like they were from Rome.
She drew her sword and the sound made her laugh with delight. Power surged through her as she connected with the blessed blade forged just for her.
This too had gotten stronger after her attack and recovery.
“I don’t like to kill humans, even stupid ones. But I will.” Brigid seemed to purr the words but it was Rowan who smiled when they were done.
They cursed at her and she shrugged. One movement. She kissed the hilt and breathed in and out deeply, centering herself.
A flick of her wrist as she stepped to one side, one last movement of her arm and stupid one was dead.
The other human came at her from one side while the Vampire did from the other. Then the sorcerer broke his chant and Rowan had to choose which of those to ignore while she dealt with the biggest threat.
She took the hit from the Vampire as she dropped to her knees and rolled out of the way just as the spell formed and came at her.
Only momentarily deterred, the Vampire picked her up by the back of her shirt and punched her with the other fist and then brought her down hard as he brought his knee up and racked her like he was a professional wrestler.
Sweet mercy, that fucking hurt.
Rowan struggled to breathe through bright bursts of jagged pain as one of her ribs broke. But she didn’t drop her blade. Instead she punched stupid two in the temple with her fist wrapped around the hilt. He dropped like a stone and she stumbled from the way as the Vampire came at her again.
Clive rocketed into the yard with a snarl she’d never heard him use. It was a sound of rage, pitched low. Too low for most humans to hear, which made it even scarier.
His eyes had gone amber, burning with violence as he hit the sorcerer from behind, knocking him into the ground so hard he lost consciousness.
Her breath was coming easier as her body was already beginning to knit her rib back together. That hurt, but in a different way. “Don’t kill him or the Vampire. I need to know stuff.”
* * *
Clive looked her over quickly, but carefully as the other Vampire tried to flank them. Rowan knew Clive was just waiting to strike and it was gloriously ferocious when he did.
His gaze, as it was on her, had been concerned and possessive. Hot. But when the other Vamp got close enough, Clive’s energy changed. His features went hard.
Rowan actually didn’t see him move, that’s how fast he went from facing her to holding the other Vampire by the throat, pressing him against the wall of the house.
“I’ll get what we need.” Clive’s voice had changed as his teeth had elongated.
Rowan knew what he planned and if he was fine with it, she was too. The other Vampire though, he hadn’t gotten it yet. He didn’t know who Clive was, only that Clive was powerful.
“I’m not going to tell you or this whore anything.” He spit blood, but Clive had reached up and slapped the Vamp’s face to the side. Again so fast she didn’t see the movement, only the result.
“I don’t need you to. You put your hands on my wife. You hurt her. I won’t tolerate that.” Clive’s voice had lost its cultured cream and carried razors and briars.
Right as Clive plunged into his brain, the other Vampire finally figured it out. It was too late for more than a brief expression of surprise before he went blank and limp.
“I have what we need,” Clive said to Rowan, the tension humming from his muscles. He shifted all that scary attention back on the other Vamp. “I’m looking you in the face so I can watch you as I separate you from your life. Traitor.”
The Vampire landed on the ground, a gaping hole in his chest where Clive had punched through his ribcage and taken his heart.
Okay then.
He turned to her as the body began to break down. “We should deal with this human and go. What do you want to do with the body of the other one and the...bloody fucking hell.”
Rowan turned to him and realized the spot the sorcerer had been in was empty.
“Deal with the human. Get what he knows. Leave the bodies here. I’m going after the sorcerer.”
Clive’s jaw may have actually clicked from clenching it so hard. “Let me handle this. It will take moments then we will go hunt the sorcerer. Or whoever else we’re actually looking for.”
Oh yeah, Enyo.
“They were sent by pirate Polly?”
He sighed and didn’t even bring the human back to consciousness before taking a little of his blood to create a link and then got what the guy knew all in about two minutes.
“We’re leaving the bodies here? We can clean this.”
Rowan looked at him. “Who ordered this attack on the house?”
“Let’s get out of here. I don’t want to talk outside.”
“Do I need to send a message to those assholes in HC? Tell me that.”
“Yes.”
Rowan nodded. “All right. Leave them and let’s go.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
As they approached the church they’d been in earlier that night, Clive put an arm around her shoulders. “I told you not to go in there until I’d arrived.”
She snorted, but didn’t try to duck away. “It would have been fine eventually. I mean, I was taking them out one by one.”
He growled and she laughed for a moment before stopping him, a hand on his chest as she came to face him. “Thank you for coming. I knew you were on the way. It helped.”
He couldn’t be angry with her. It was her job, after all. She had to work alone all the time, which he knew suited her. But he’d not been pleased to find her fending off three attackers at once.
“I will always come for you.”
Her features went tender and he breathed in deep, taking in night, Venice, magic and death. And her. This woman who had changed everything. Who had allowed herself to belong to him as he most assuredly belonged to her.
People came up the other end of the street and they turned to let Recht and Alice catch up to them before going inside where the practitioners were already waiting.
“Here’s what we know,” Clive addressed everyone who’d gathered in the church. “She’s on Giudecca. She’s in a private estate that can only be accessed by water. There’s a sorcerer on the loose who knows we took a human and another Vampire who had information on where our target is resting.”
Rowan cleaned her sword of blood and dirt and slid it back into the sheath and then spoke. “It’s two hours until sunup. She’ll either have left by now or she’ll wait until sundown tomorrow and get out first thing, before we can get to her. I bet she’s going to stay, thinking this is so close to sunrise we won’t come for her. But she’s wrong.
“I don’t think the sorcerer who came at me is the only one around. There’s every reason to think we’ll have a magical assault as well as a physical one.” Rowan thought about Carl’s layer cake talk. Donna and her fellow practitioners were part of the recipe and she’d need them to be successful.
Two other practitioners had joined the group and spoke quietly
with Donna first and then to the group. “We want to be included in this plan.”
“Before you say no, we can help, Rowan,” Donna said. “We know it’s dangerous. We know there are risks. We want to help and this is our city.”
She was right. Rowan nodded. “Okay. But I’m in charge and if I tell you to do something you need to do it. Even if you don’t agree with me.”
But Rowan needn’t have worried. They all nodded. She guessed having witnessed some of this shit already from the scene at the place Enyo had been staying first had been enough to impress on them the gravity and danger of this enemy.
David stood. “I’ve arranged several boats to take us.”
“We won’t need a boat,” Warren said.
They could fly, but she hadn’t planned to mention that in front of the practitioners she didn’t know that well. Too late now.
Rowan gave Clive a look. “Don’t move on that estate until we arrive.”
Clive nodded before the Vampires took off. She and David headed after them in a sleek, modern boat that delivered them the short trip across the Giudecca Canal to the island of Giudecca. The practitioners had split between three boats and would station themselves around the estate as best they could. Out of reach, hopefully, but still effective.
“You didn’t say anything about whether or not Hunter Corporation was behind any of these attacks,” David said as they headed across.
“According to the investigator and what we found out from those we dealt with earlier today, Roth hired the sorcerers to watch me. We aren’t sure if Hunter Corp. is behind trying to kill me or not. None of them seemed to have orders concerning you.” Which meant it was very possible there were more out there meant to harm David and she didn’t know where. Yet. They couldn’t hide forever.
“What we do know is that the humans and the Vampire were together. One Eye sent them. So there’s a leak, all right, and we know Roth has tried to harm me in the past so I can’t see why it wouldn’t be him. But the presence of the Vampire and the humans also casing the place complicates matters. Is Roth working with One Eye? Doubtful.”