Blood and Blade

by Lauren Dane

  He ran his hands over her skin, loving the heat and muscle there. Loving that she was all his to touch.

  Her hair had come loose from the braid and a river of red gold shimmered around her shoulders. Rowan was a creature of shadow and flame, of blood and magic and steel.

  He didn’t need the lights on to see her, to feel the heat of her skin against his. He’d know her with his eyes closed.

  And when she slid down his cock, her pussy wrapped around him so hot and snug he nearly lost consciousness.

  Never in over four centuries had it been this with anyone else. He told her so in one long stream, delighting in the way her skin heated even more with a blush.

  Rowan set the pace, slow and deep as she moved. She gripped his biceps, her nails digging in slightly. Her eyes were dreamy, nearly all the way closed.

  He traced fingertips over the lines of her hips and over her belly on his way up to her breasts. Round and round her nipples until she arched into his touch on a gasp.

  He could be merciless. Ruthless. Calculated. And she was there, waiting for him, at his side. That sunlight he couldn’t have anywhere else. That softness wrapped in sarcasm and razor sharp edges.

  She hummed low and rough when he brushed a finger against her clit. Her inner muscles squeezed him as she superheated. She sped her pace, the pleasure of it nearly overwhelming as it dug in.

  Rowan whipped her head back on a snarl as she came in a hot rush. But she kept on, undulating her hips, grinding herself against him, holding him hostage until he had no choice but to come as hard as she had.

  With a grunt, she rolled off and collapsed onto the bed at his side. “I knew you’d make waiting up for you worth my while,” she said.

  “So glad to have met quality assurance.” He leaned over to kiss her, nipping her bottom lip a few times. “I meant to be here hours ago but every time I tried to leave something else came up.”

  “That’s all right. I worked with David. Genevieve came over with some aliases of the names of witches Roderick had given us. Vanessa is on that. Something feels like this is big. One of those two names is going to be key.”

  He certainly hoped so.

  “Will you be sharing those names with me?”

  She snickered. “I’d be up for sharing them if you were all participating in my teams.”

  “There’s much to negotiate before that can be a reality.”

  She snorted. “I’m telling you right now there will be no forty-seven years of negotiating stupid shit that has nothing to do with anything. Participate or don’t. But you won’t kill it by yanking my chain and dragging your feet.”

  She was Rowan Summerwaite the Hunter right then. The sharp edges rose and titillated him in their own way.

  Her idea was a very good one. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to make her work for it.

  “I promise. Not forty-seven-year-long negotiations.”

  “Smartass.”

  He chuckled.

  “I have one more thing to say and then we’ll talk about this mixed team idea as Scion and Hunter when I wake tonight. Be Rowan with me right now.”

  “I can agree to that. Tell me.”

  “We found the leak within our organization.” He went on to explain the Vampire was low-level but had enough skill in getting around blocks and firewalls that she’d admitted she got help in exchange for a large sum of money from a Vampire who lived in Southern California. Lyr.

  “So, she just did it for the cash? What the fuck?”

  “She claimed she didn’t know what the info was used for. But upon further examination and interrogation, admitted she knew. Especially after we sent out a notice to all Vampires within my Las Vegas organization to be on the lookout for anything suspicious. She worked in my casino. I shudder to wonder how many times she might have cheated someone.”

  “But I’m sure she never will again.”

  He sniffed. “She won’t be doing anything ever again. Patience and a team searched the Vampire’s apartment and found a few things linking her to Lyr. Stupid. The whole thing is absurd. All this time she was right there under my nose.”

  “Lyr might have been a dickhole, but he knew strategy. Someone like her, she’s just some low-level nobody dealing blackjack. Who is going to look her way? And with some added technical help, she can get around security to access info on Lyr’s behalf and no one is the wiser. And she gave him information that while sensitive wasn’t super top secret. That would have definitely raised an alarm.”

  “She’s true dead and Patience is investigating her and any ties she might have to others.” Clive pinched the bridge of his nose a moment.

  “I’m sure you’ll be sharing all that intelligence when you acquire it.”

  He hugged her close. “Whatever I deem necessary, yes.”

  After she poked him in the ribs, she turned a little in his arms. Warm, pleased that the leak had been plugged, and full with love, Rowan propped her chin on a fist and stared at his gorgeous face. “I had another dream.”

  He reached out to run a hand over her hair. “A prophecy dream?”

  It felt so weird to call them that. Rowan cringed every time but she really needed to get over that because that’s what they were.

  “Yeah. I think.”

  “What’s the difference between a regular dream and a prophecy dream?”

  “I don’t know. I mean. I rarely remember my normal dreams unless they’re super weird or it’s one where I’m nailing Clive Owen or whatever. But the prophecy dreams are vivid. Not the whole part, but bits and pieces. Symbols. Flashes of meaning. I hate to say it, but they’re like Carl’s bullshit slam poetry sage stuff.”

  “So what was this one about?” He twirled a long tendril of her hair around his finger.

  “Iron and salt. That’s what I remember most.”

  “Any idea what that might be related to?”

  “No. But I will. Just like the token your uncle had given Roderick. It’s all there and I’ll understand when I should. I hope anyway.”

  “You will eventually find your target. I have faith in your inability to let things go.”

  She snorted and then poked him in the side.

  “How did the speech go?”

  “It went well. As you knew it would. We assigned a special investigative team to the Blood Front here in the United States. I’ll share pertinent information as it comes.”

  “That was a nice way of saying you’re not going to give me everything you find out.”

  “Yes, it rather was, wasn’t it?”

  Ugh, he was so arrogant and delicious. “It’s a good thing you’re so good at sex because you’re smug enough I normally would just stake a Vamp like you.”

  “Ah, but I am so good at sex, so I suppose I’m safe.”

  She started laughing. “You’re in a mood.”

  “Despite all the violence and chaos out in the world, I’m perfectly happy right now with you here at my side. When I came home and found you asleep on the couch, clearly trying to wait for me, it felt like coming home.”

  “Awww. You like me,” she teased.

  He tugged her closer to kiss her hard and fast. “I do. Even when you’re a pain in my ass and you scare all my employees.”

  “They wouldn’t be scared if they hadn’t done anything wrong.”

  “That’s my girl,” he murmured, holding her close.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Blood and magic. In the beginning that’s all there was. And now Rowan needed to figure out just exactly who and what they were dealing with because they were messing with the balance of everything.

  Rowan looked over a map detailing the Western United States. Specifically the area north of Las Vegas, on the way to Salt Lake City. Vanessa had taken all the disappearances and stories of odd happenings and placed them geographica
lly for Rowan and Genevieve to examine.

  “I like your initiative,” Rowan told her new computer person.

  Vanessa grinned. “Thank you. I hope it’s helpful.”

  Vanessa was a tiny sprite of a woman with bright purple hair, a lip piercing and more ink than most anyone else Rowan knew. She had an intuition necessary in work like theirs. Intuition told her that data collected could be useful and initiative made it a reality.

  Carey would have loved her as much as Rowan was beginning to.

  When Genevieve rolled in at three, Rowan pointed at the map. “Look at this.”

  Genevieve did and then handed over a thumb drive. “Look at this.”

  Rowan plugged it into her laptop and the file opened up. It was page after page of information about a witch named Patrizia Lusair. Aka Patty Lusk, Trish Lush, Risa Ayers and Lisa Pat.

  “She really went for it with some of these also knowns. Trish Lush?” Rowan said. She did the math quickly and realized Patrizia was, at the very least, eighty-three years old and had been criming it up for most of it.

  Genevieve laughed. “She’s been in jail several times. Longest stint was three years in Louisiana in the seventies for some sort of embezzlement from the bank she worked for. She’s originally from Southern Italy. Came to the US in the forties, after World War II ended, but from some of the things we found, she was running from some people she’d made very angry back in Italy. Connected to organized crime.”

  “So she came here and started over a dozen times or so. Our girl sure does like to bilk people.” Rowan looked over the arrests of the aliases. Most Patrizia’d skipped bail on. Then another in some other state, a new name, similar charges and the same outcome. She’d done a few thirty and sixty day stints between 1957 and 2015. The three year stretch—in Louisiana no less—in the seventies was the longest and there’d been a five year period after she’d been released where she showed no law enforcement interaction. She’d maybe tried to go clean or she’d been smarter and hadn’t gotten caught.

  “Is she a member of the Conclave?” Some witches were independent practitioners who refused to participate in magic user organizations. As long as they obeyed the rules about not harming anyone with magic they were generally left alone. Certainly Pat-whoeverthefuck wasn’t a rule follower so she should have been sending up red flags somewhere.

  “She’s fallen through the cracks, I think. She filed as independent in 1955. None of her crimes would pop as using magic to harm humans. We can’t keep track of everyone and everything so we focus on crimes or activities when witches use their magic to harm humans. Embezzlement isn’t going to set off an alarm. If it was in a gaming establishment we would look because witches can’t use their power to cheat at games of chance. But she never went near anything like that.” Genevieve looked up from the screen a moment. “Last known address is about three hours north of here. She’s got land in the middle of nowhere with some kind of living space on it but I don’t know what type. I don’t know if it’s fenced or anything like that either. All my investigator found were some tax records and the deed. No employment that we could find either.”

  Rowan sat back in her chair and looked out the window while she stroked Star’s head. The dog liked to check in with Rowan while she worked. Star would come up, put her chin on Rowan’s thigh until Rowan gave her some love.

  It was a good reminder to get up and move around from time to time. Especially now that she had a dog who liked to run and play and get exercise.

  Rowan nodded. “She’s the independent contractor type anyway. Got herself sent away for three years when she worked for the bank and stole their money, didn’t she? All those aliases say she’s always sort of preferred to be her own boss, so to speak. She’s smarter now. Works her grift on the low to keep out of jail. Jail sucks. She’s too old for that shit. And that she’s kept herself outside any illegal activity that would raise suspicions within the Conclave, I don’t think she’s stupid. I think she knew what she was doing. It can’t be a secret that you all only really look for certain kinds of lawbreaking. That’s only common sense.”

  Genevieve said, “We don’t care about ninety percent of the stupid and illegal things witches do. They’re living in a human world. They do human crimes. They lie and cheat and steal and get into fights. They might even write up spells to get rid of acne or regrow hair or better erections, but we aren’t interested in policing the universe. Our job as the Conclave is to protect and advocate for magic users. Together we are more powerful than apart. We’ve lived through wars and drownings and trials. We care about witches being put on trial and executed for helping a child with croup.”

  Rowan nodded. “I understand. And I agree. I see a lot of things all day long that are wrong or bad or even illegal but I can’t let that all get in the way of what my real job is. I can’t stop paranormals from making mistakes. But I don’t need to stake a Vampire for every little infraction. I’m not attacking you over this. I’m just trying to put together the facts so we can find her and figure out what she’s got to do with Roderick, the Blood Front and this big bad we haven’t found yet.”

  “I’m sorry. I got defensive.”

  “It’s okay. Defensive is my middle name,” Rowan told her. “What about the other one? You said there were two? Vanessa hasn’t found anything on either witch yet so they’re smart enough to avoid detection from me anyway.”

  “Dead. It’s looking like he could have been connected to this whole mess because he disappeared about four months ago. He lived in Portland, Oregon, for the last fifteen years. Worked at a private college. He was a member of the Conclave but never participated in any events. Didn’t hang out with other witches. He had lovers on and off. Liked Vampires.”

  “Well, you know, some of them are really good in bed,” Rowan murmured.

  Genevieve snickered. “If you say so.”

  “Where are these Vampire lovers today?”

  “We hit walls with that. I thought perhaps you and your Vanessa might be of some assistance.”

  Something Rowan hadn’t told Clive and didn’t plan to unless her hand was forced was that Carey had found a way into the Vampire Nation’s archives and computer system. That information had been passed along to Vanessa, who could hopefully track someone down so they could get more information on the dead witch and whatever he’d been up to.

  She hadn’t told Genevieve either nor did she plan to. What she was doing was highly problematic and should the Vampire Nation find out, there’d be a whole political thing. So they kept it close and if it did come out, Rowan had a plan to just boldly claim she’d done it and didn’t regret it. Truth was, if they could get into Hunter Corp.’s systems, they would too.

  Hell, it looked as if the Vampire Nation had gotten into Hunter Corp.’s system with the help of the traitors inside. But fortunately Roth and his traitor friends hadn’t had access to the highest levels of their system and those remained accessible to only a very small group.

  Rowan had David get the information about the pseudonyms to Vanessa so she could get working.

  “Thanks for sharing this.” Rowan tipped her chin toward her computer screen. “I’d probably have found it. Eventually. But every minute these magic users are out there unchecked is an opportunity to hurt those I’m bound to protect.”

  “Me as well.”

  Rowan pulled up the map she’d been looking at when Genevieve arrived. “Because a lot of the disappearances and drainings happened out here in the west, Vanessa created this for us. It’s a map of reports that might be connected to paranormal activity over the last twelve months. Compare it to the map for two years before.”

  There were still reports, but far less within a hundred mile radius of the plot of land Patty owned.

  “We should take a drive out there. Check out the land. See exactly what sort of domicile she’s got going on there,” Rowan said.


  “It’s three hours’ drive.”

  “I’m driving so let’s say two and some change. Unless we end up behind a bunch of RVs—and you never know when that might happen—the road should be fairly uncongested.”

  Rowan looked at her screen. “It’s not quite three. We can be there and back by midnight even if we spend some time chitchatting with Patty. Even if there’s nothing there but empty dirt, we’ll know something we don’t know now.”

  Elisabeth managed to pack them some snacks and drinks by the time Rowan had spoken with David to keep him on track with Vanessa and the Hunters in Los Angeles, who’d need to be updated about what had happened in London.

  It was...nice to be able to trust him to take care of things when she couldn’t. And while she had brought him out in the field with her far more often than she had before, this wasn’t about shielding him from field work, but sharing the load.

  As she’d told Genevieve, the road, a two lane ribbon of asphalt that wound its way into the horizon, was fairly uncongested. There were others that were fewer miles to their destination, but this route was far less commonly full of tourists.

  Which meant the ability to open up the new luxury SUV her husband had insisted she use, and speed down the road, eating up the miles. Star had insisted on coming along so she was in the back. Occasionally giving Rowan a cold nose against her neck to say hello.

  “There’s a particular kind of magic in the air here,” Genevieve said.

  “There are plenty of legends about this whole region. Plenty of tragedy and loss.”

  “The mountains give off power. There are crevasses and caves and notches that catch magic. Crystals. A purity because out here it’s fairly untouched by the human world. I never had a study here in the United States and I think it’s time to remedy that.”

  “Study?”

  “When I was eight, my father sent me to my first study. A practitioner of rune magic. I stayed with her until I killed her and left at twelve. But she taught me a great deal. I’ve studied all over the planet. On small islands in the middle of the ocean to villages high up in the mountains. I know how to use blood and water, bones, stones, runes, I know how to sing a spell, sign a spell, will it into being. My last one was fifteen years ago. I learned kitchen magic and healing arts in the Yukon. I’ve never been so glad I know fire magic in my life. Fortunately my teacher lived in a beautiful log house that was always warm and dry. That was the closest I’ve come from the north to the US and from the south, it’s Guatemala City.”