Blade on the Hunt (16 page)

“Let’s hope it’s her and not an entirely new and separate threat. I sort of have a lot to do right now.” Rowan finished her wine.

“Trouble likes company.”

“I’m trouble’s best friend.”

“How long has it been since you’ve slept?” Donna asked.

Over a full day by that point. “That’s on my list. But I have other things to do first.” Like call Hunter Corp. and report in because even if Roth was being a treasonous asshole, not everyone there was. This clusterfuck was Hunter Corp.’s job and she had no plans to let them sidle away from their responsibility.

After that rousing call, she’d check in with her investigator to see if he’d heard anything of use to her about Roth and this business with David. Then she might just be able manage to grab a few hours’ sleep before the Vampires woke up.

Right then, Rowan pushed away her exhaustion and began to put together an angle of attack. “You said you had the plans for the palazzo?”

“We aren’t done negotiating yet.”

Rowan shook her head. “Nope. I’d appreciate the plans, but I’m sure Carey could get them too. I’m not going to let you put yourselves in the line of fire.”

“I can help you, Rowan. Me and the other practitioners in Venice. We can put our magic to good use.”

Rowan’s power seemed to fill the room in one hard burst. “It’s
my job
to protect humans from creatures like whoever is in that palazzo. It’s
my job
to kill it and end any threat. This is what I’m going to do.”

Donna blew out a breath. “I understand you want to protect us.”

Affection was one thing; she cared for the Goldonis. She’d protect them, even if they were unhappy about it. “The sentence needs to end right there.”

David came into the room but instead of leaving, he came to stand with them, a brow rising as he caught sight of the wine.

“You’ve been busy today.”

They filled him in on what they’d learned. David made notes and sent several texts to Carey, who coordinated with his counterpart at Hunter Corp.

“Donna is right,
Deese.
” David said this respectfully, but he was firm.

“I liked it better when you were perfectly obedient.” Rowan frowned his way.

He bowed slightly, hiding a smile still showing in his eyes. “I am yours to command. As ever.”

“Look at you! Was that sarcasm? I wrote that book, mister. Don’t try it. You’re not even afraid of me anymore. I’m slipping. I used to make people weep with a look and now you’re giving me puppy dog eyes. It’s like I’m in hell.”

David ignored Rowan. “How close do you have to be for your magic to be effective?” he asked Donna.

“We can all stay at least several houses away. My mother and I can access the third floor of the café where Rowan and I sat earlier today. Across the canal from the palazzo. The others can position themselves similarly.” Donna turned her attention to Rowan. “All of us, across traditions and practices are standing against this abomination and rooting it out. Let us be your shield. You’ll be gone in a few days. Venice will still be here. We’ll still be here. And it’ll remain
our
job to keep it safe. We’ve already been working—all of us with the gift—together to find it. We’re no small power and we’re at your disposal.”

They were right. But damn it, the more things she had to keep track of, the slower her response would be.

Rowan had allowed herself to be soothed by this sense of camaraderie, and of course she was appreciative of Donna’s expertise. But Rowan was responsible for her and all these other practitioners. Didn’t they get it?

Rowan blew out a frustrated breath. Trying to manage people was a pain in her ass. “I need to take a walk to think about it.”

“You shouldn’t go out alone,” David admonished.

Rowan’s eyebrow slid up very slowly. Sarcasm was one thing—and she was proud he was so good at it—but he needed to remember what she was. “I’m a big girl.”

Chastened, he nodded. “Of course. I’m not questioning that. Merely requesting that you be safe. Which of course you will be because that’s your job.”

“Nice recovery. Get back with Carey and then have Susan’s valet set up that call with Hunter Corp. I don’t want you dealing with Roth, or anyone else but Celesse or Susan. Oh and for that conference call, make sure Carey’s included.” He’d know bullshit in ways Rowan wouldn’t even think to be suspicious of. He was crafty in ways she wasn’t. “Anyone starts trouble while I’m gone, shoot them in the face. And then text me.”

She headed back out, needing to be alone to parse over all the stuff in her head.

The desire to simply go over to that palazzo, kick the doors open and hunt until she sliced Enyo’s head off rode her nerves, made her jittery. Like a bead of water skittering across the surface of a hot pan.

The Rowan she’d
been
would have done it a year ago.

Now she had all these people to juggle. Some to protect, others to mollify, fear or deceive. And some of those people were all those at once.

Her life before Clive came into it had been free of having to ask people for permission to do things. Or to seek their input.

Clive had changed things.

That was pretty mushy, she realized, cringing. But there was no denying it. He’d come along at a time when everything in her life had been in flux. Any other man and she’d never have considered him.

But he’d gotten all up in her head and her life and her heart and there wasn’t much else to do.

He’d changed
her
and then the intervening year a hundred other things had altered her life.

And six months ago her loyalty to Hunter Corp. had been unquestioned. Sure she had annoyances, but most things annoyed her and people being in charge of her had always chafed.

The Joint Tribunal had changed things. Roth trying to harm David had changed things. Hunter Corp’s foot dragging when it came to investigating the role of one of their own in this leak they so clearly have within their organization had changed things.

She didn’t trust them anymore.

She headed down to the Grand Canal so she could grab a water taxi. Rowan had already walked up and down the bridges and back alleyways so at least she could cruise through by water while she was doing her thinking.

Rain was coming but that hadn’t stopped the crowds. Rowan waited her turn in the line up for the water taxis, neatly defending her turf when a young couple tried to cut in line.

“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.