by Dane, Lauren
“What are you protecting us from?” Rowan sniffed the herbs, knowing a few were protective.
“I have nothing concrete. But it does seem...uncommon, doesn’t it? That multiple people at this meeting are having nightmares? Reduced sleep makes one irritable.”
“I haven’t had any nightmares. Not a one. I don’t know that I’ve dreamt at all.”
Dina beamed, patting her cheek. “Well, you’re special. We know that.”
“Why does that feel like it’s only partly a compliment?”
Dina laughed. “Because you know me too well. Your Goddess protects you, I’d wager. I imagine The First is protected due to his age and the uniqueness of his existence. If you have problems, please tell me.”
“All right. Thanks for all this.” Rowan held up the bundle.
“I’m making frittata and sausages just for you.”
Rowan left the kitchen, smiling, but trouble niggled at her.
Chapter Fourteen
Celesse caught up with her a few minutes after she’d returned downstairs. David had been dubious about the bundle of herbs under his pillow, but he’d done it and she’d put some under hers too. She’d watched him drink all the tea with a grimace and then tuck into bed. He’d tried to argue that she might need him, but she’d given him an imperious look and he’d quieted and begun to settle.
“They’re on the way back to London now. There’s an uproar at the Motherhouses, as I’m sure you anticipated. But I put forward my recommendation along with yours that Valerie be terminated. The codes on all the doors and computers have been changed. She’ll be given two weeks’ pay. Roth is a different story. That will take time.”
Rowan blew out a breath. “I imagine.”
“But we will get this amendment passed, Rowan. You’re doing a great job, despite the insanity. It’s going to happen, and then you can take a well-deserved vacation. Goodness knows, I plan to.”
“Vacation sounds pretty good right about now.” She paused a moment. “Celesse, are you having nightmares?”
Celesse cocked her head, surprise on her face. “I am. How did you know?”
“David’s been having them. As have others. I stopped by a few rooms of the remaining Hunter staff. Every one of them reported they’d been having nightmares and echoes of them during their waking hours. So much so it made them irritable today.” She needed to talk to Clive about the Vampires and then get with Dina to see about getting the herb bundles and tea to whoever needed them. Rowan explained that to Celesse, too.
She’d saved some of the herbs for Clive, and Celesse, so she handed them over. “Put the bundle under your pillow.”
“Do you think there’s some sort of magic at work here?”
“I don’t know if it’s on purpose or not.” Rowan shrugged. “Some magic is so toxic it sort of, um, off gasses a level of nastiness. It could be that. Or on purpose. Or the result of a weapon or a book here. I don’t know. But I do know it’s not normal to have a bunch of people having nightmares like this.”
Celesse nodded. “I know some protective magic. I’ll use it on my room, and I have a talisman of sorts in my case. I haven’t worn it, but I will from now on. You?”
Rowan nodded. “I haven’t had a problem yet. But I’ll sure as hell be protecting myself from now on.”
“All right then. I’ll check in on my staff too. Looks like it’s just us and our assistants now.” Celesse sniffed the bundle of herbs.
“Chances are, we can get more done, which is nice. We took a vote with the other partners and members of the committee. We know what needs to happen. All this other stuff is a waste of time. Do you want to talk about the situation with Roth and Valerie at all? I mean, more than the bare details?” Rowan really hated to be responsible and professional sometimes.
Celesse laughed. “We’ll talk tomorrow. I’m exhausted from all the drama and the lack of sleep. I’m looking forward to this working.” She held up the bundle. “And getting some rest. We’ll have our normal meeting time and get this all squared away. After you deal with the Vampires, go to bed, Rowan. Or go to your Scion. You’ve worked hard enough for a team of people.”
“All right. I’ll see you tomorrow then.” She looked at her watch. “Later today, I guess.”
“I don’t know how you do it. Living this schedule is really hard.”
“It’s been my schedule pretty much my entire life.” Rowan shrugged, feeling exposed and emotional.
Celesse went up the stairs but headed down one hall while Rowan continued in a different direction, toward where the Vampires were staying.
She nodded to Alice, who was coming out of Clive’s rooms.
“Rowan, are you well?”
“Maybe in a few days I can say yet more convincingly. You?”
Alice smiled. “Yes, that, as well. He’s waiting for you.” She indicated Clive’s door.
“Thanks. Alice?”
“Yes?”
“I know Vampires don’t normally dream when they rest during daylight, but do you ever at all? Like in unusual situations?”
Alice’s gaze narrowed. “How did you know?”
“I didn’t until just now. Will you tell me?”
“Yes, let’s go into his room, though.” Alice turned and tapped on Clive’s door. “It’s Alice.”
Rowan tried not to grin, knowing Alice was just making sure Clive wasn’t going to leap on her thinking it was Rowan.
“I can tell the difference between your footfalls.” Clive smiled easily. “She also smells different.”
Alice snorted. “It’s always good to give a warning when someone is expecting their lover at the door.”
“I heard you two outside.” Clive stared at Rowan and then looked to the empty place beside him on the couch and she sat with a relieved sigh. She’d changed from the super-high heels she’d had on earlier but it was still good to get off her feet.
“So you heard me ask about dreaming, then. Care to enlighten me?”
“We usually don’t dream when we’re out during the day. Some of the older Vampires, ones who can wake up before twilight, manage a sort of REM sleep as they begin to wake up.”
“Lots of older Vampires here right now. Do you have this REM sleep thing?”
“Sometimes.”
“Alice?”
“It’s only happened a handful of times. But every day since I’ve been here. Yesterday was the worst so far, though. Before when it happened it was more like a handful of images.”
“And the difference?”
“Horrifying images.” Alice swallowed. “When we travel I often don’t rest deeply. In the back of my mind, I suppose I’m worried about being exposed to the sun. The plane crashing. Something happening that I can’t control. I’m not as safe as I am at home. So I’m irritable for a day or two until I rest better. But it’s like what my dreams are is so bad, it shakes me so deeply I don’t wake rested at all. But I’m not alone, am I?”
Rowan shook her head. “No. Humans too. And it seems to carry over when people are awake.” She stood. “I’ll be back in a few minutes. I might have something that’ll help. But not enough of it. I’ll have it sent to your rooms, all right?”
“What is it?”
“I know a kitchen witch.”
Selfishly, she kept what she had set aside for Clive. If Dina didn’t have enough, it wasn’t really even a choice between Clive and anyone else.
“I’ll accompany you.” Clive stood smoothly.
“I’m just going to run downstairs and back. It shouldn’t even take me ten minutes.” Though she’d also need to chat with a few Vampires too.
She said this as he ushered her to the door as if she hadn’t just told him she’d do it. Attached to her like a suave British limpet.
“Alice, go
on. Thank you for your assistance.”
Alice nodded. “Thank you, Rowan.”
She squeezed Rowan’s hand, and Rowan tried not to blush.
“Any time. I mean, no big deal and stuff. I’ll probably bug you after you wake to see how it worked.”
Clive propelled her down the hall as Alice moved to her room.
“I can do this without you, you know. I know my way around.”
He pulled her closer. “Of course you do. But I want to talk with you.”
“We should do that behind closed doors.”
“Probably. In which case, I like being with you.”
She snorted. “Since when?”
He sniffed, offended. “Hush, you. I quite enjoy being around you when you’re not poking at hornets’ nests or provoking millennia-old Vampires to kill you.”
“Ha. I do that by existing, apparently.”
She caught sight of Nadir, the Voice of the Five, Theo’s personal guard, in the great room. “Nadir, do you have a moment?”
Nadir nodded. “Is there a problem? Or should I say, another problem?”
“I hear you. Believe me.”
“The humans you sent back to London should have been set on fire and left to die.”
“I’d probably lose my job if that happened. Humans get pissy about that sort of thing.”
Nadir rolled her eyes. “Stupid humans.”
“Yes, well. I wanted to ask you about your daytime rest. Have you had any trouble with nightmares?”
Nadir narrowed her gaze a moment. “I take it this is a problem for many?”
Rowan explained what she knew at that point, which wasn’t a whole lot more than that many in the Keep had been suffering disrupted sleep and nightmares.
“I have not. I checked with the rest of the Five because several of my staff have reported disruptions to their rest. None of the Five are affected.” She rattled off the names and titles of those who were.
“If I have some herbs delivered to you or to someone in your stead, would you be sure those Vampires who have been having problems used them?”
“Yes.”
“Okay. I’m going to handle it now. Thank you for your assistance, Nadir.” Rowan lowered her chin in respect.
“You’re welcome, Rowan.”
She headed back to the kitchen, depositing Clive at one of the tables. “Stay here. I don’t need you for the next part.”
He frowned, but obeyed, and she wanted to laugh but didn’t.
* * *
Clive watched her cross to where Cook—Dina, he remembered her name was—stood working with several others. They all turned, open-faced and happy to see Rowan approaching.
She and Dina left the main kitchen. He used one of the house intercoms to get in contact with the rest of the Scions, asking them to check in with their people about nightmares. There was a fair amount of reticence from certain quarters connected with Victoriana’s cadre, but so be it. He couldn’t make people take care of themselves, especially when he had a very strong suspicion this nightmare situation came directly from one of them.
He’d only been back at the table Rowan had deposited him at for a few minutes when Rowan came out. She spoke briefly with one of the kitchen staff, who created a tray with a teapot, and Dina added a bundle of something.
Rowan came back his way and he stood. He wanted very much to say something about how much it moved him to see her this way—open and affectionate—but he got the sense she was frazzled at the edges and he didn’t want to make things worse.
“They’re making up multiple pots of tea and the bundles for underneath pillows. The household staff has been instructed to connect with relevant parties to be sure everyone who needs or wants assistance will receive it. Alice is first on the list, by the way.”
It pleased him that she’d take care of his people. As if she ruled at his side already. Oh yes, he knew it would never happen the way some Vampire couples ran their territory and protected their Vampires. But she took the time to be sure Alice was protected, put her at the head of a list. He smiled at her and she smiled back warily as they headed to his suite.
“You’re making me nervous with that smile of yours.”
He took her hand, not caring who saw. “It should. I’m thinking of how much I appreciate you and how kind you are.”
She snorted and he left it alone.
Back in his room, he locked the outer doors and led her into his bedchamber. “You took far longer than an hour.” He spoke as he pulled her hair free and then got to work on the buttons of the blouse she wore.
“Sorry. Every time I started over here, something else would happen. Who knew there’d be some sort of full-on meltdown by a partner of the Hunter Corp. and his useless sort-of stepdaughter? So you knock one out and have them bodily removed and it causes some flack apparently. Then the nightmare thing. And this Enyo, Clive, what the fuck is she?”
He kissed down her neck, licking over fat veins carrying blood his mouth watered for. Sometimes he felt like that tension of wanting it so badly and not having it only made her hotter. Which sort of made him messed up, but he was willing to accept that.
But the Enyo situation... He broke away and pushed Rowan’s shirt off, revealing toned limbs and pale skin. He brushed his lips over the mound of her breast at the top of her bra, delighting in the gooseflesh that broke out and her small sigh.
“The nightmares...that makes me nervous. I was asking around about other Joint Tribunal meetings earlier. What do you think? Are they normally this fraught and tense? Beyond the usual showing of plumage and flashing of fang I mean.”
There was always an opportunity to talk about the insanity of their jobs. Never as much time as he wanted for sex with her. “You’re talking again.”
“I do that. You tell me that all the time. Stop changing the subject. You can lick my nipple and answer my questions.”
“I’d rather just lick your nipple,” he groused.
She patted his shoulder, laughing, and he smiled before giving the nipple in question a sharp nip. She arched into him with a moan.
“From time to time over the years they’ve been violent. We’ve had challenges to the death. Bloody fights at the negotiation table. We’re a passionate people. You know this as well as I do. You grew up here.”
“Yes, yes. But this just seems to be a very cranky bunch of yellers and screamers. You all like to blame your shit on being passionate, but you like rules even more. And there’ve been outbursts, multiple outbursts, in every single meeting. That just seems excessive. Even for you guys.”
“Your backhanded-compliment gene is very advanced. So do you think there’s a connection then? Between the nightmares and everyone’s general downturn of behavior? And how would that be?”
“I don’t know for sure, but I’m leaning toward yes. The bundles I had sent out—and you’re going to use yours or face my wrath—are supposed to be sort-of talismanic against magic meant to disturb your emotions and your rest.”
“Magic? Really?” Such a thing wasn’t out of the realm of possibility. They certainly had a history of using it on one another, most notably during their last war. Mainly by the Hunters. “Hunter Corp.?”
“I don’t think so. I’d know about it. And if I didn’t, I still think Roth would have. Roth is a dick, yes, but he’s not known for acting out the way he did here. He wasn’t here long enough to sleep, but some are far more susceptible to the effects of magic. David said he had flashbacks during his waking hours, so it’s still working even when we’re not asleep. Anyway, with Roth, if he’d known or been behind something, he’d have protected himself. But I don’t think he knew. Susan or Celesse, or Rex, would know if HC ordered it. You can’t be using sorcerers and not have anyone in charge know. Hunter Corp. is too linear for that. Plus we d
on’t have anyone on the payroll right now. I’ve been looking for about a year. I had to contract out the last time I needed some magic.”
She hummed as he licked and nibbled up her rib cage, her nails sinking into his skin a little as she did.
“I don’t think this is coming from Hunter Corp. But it’s also affecting Vampires, so if it’s you, whoever is doing it isn’t afraid of being caught and killed.”
Some Vampires did mess around with magics. Usually the older ones, so it could be Victoriana or someone from her camp.
“I don’t think it’s Collette. I’ve never known her to dabble at all.”
“Maybe one of the Blood Front flunkies. Or Enyo herself? I need to know more about her. I can’t be going into this blind. We want the same thing, Clive. I know you support the amendment in some form. I’m not going to use what you tell me to harm the Nation. You know that.”
He sighed. “It’s not that. She’s a very old one, Rowan. Even I don’t know much more than that. I understand enough that she scares me and I’m worried for you. You’re poking at her.”
“I told you I’m not. But Brigid does not like her. Not one tiny bit. Theo doesn’t seem overly crazy about her either. But he totally banged her back in the day.”
Clive winced at the way she spoke about The First. Not as a Vampire would have, but as The First’s daughter, he knew. Well, if one had Rowan as a daughter anyway. But it still made him nervous. At times it felt like blasphemy.
“Can I tell you,” she whispered against the spot just below his ear, “that when you get all judgy and slightly paranoid when I talk about Theo banging someone, it really makes me hot for you?”
“You’re a twisted individual, Rowan Summerwaite. And she is a very old and powerful Vampire. Victoriana is bad enough, but Enyo is another sort of danger.”
“It would really be helpful to me if you all had, like, a breakdown of who you all are so I can keep track. Didn’t they use to have something like that in Regency times? So you could see which duke’s daughter or whatever was up for auction?”
Against his better judgment he laughed instead of being outraged. “We didn’t auction them off. But, yes, there was a sort-of almanac for bloodlines. Vampires don’t want that. We like our privacy. We don’t want nosy Hunters being able to look up our history any time they take it into their heads to do so.”