Blade on the Hunt (20 page)

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.”

“The sorcerers are working for both and giving the Vampires information.”

Nicely deduced. “I’m thinking that’s a contender for what is actually going on. But there’s more to find out first.” After she killed Enyo of course. And then she’d also figure out who was the threat to David and handle that too. It was a giant game of whack a mole. It seemed like she had to bop some stupid mole over the head to keep it from trying to kill her or her protected all the fucking time these days.

Ah well, too late to decide to be a hairdresser or a gardener.

She cut the motor as they got close. Rowan wasn’t sure of the exact place, but it was impossible to ignore the power, like a beacon, coming from up ahead.

The Vampires waited for them.

Rowan conferred with Donna and the practitioners once they’d dropped anchor and were out of sight. Clive explained that from what they could tell with their Vampire spidey sense an ancient was in the main building. There were four other Vampires of some power. How many others they couldn’t tell but after a little surveillance they caught sight of three humans.

“They’re with your target.”

A simple, short sentence and it was all she needed. “We’re going ahead as planned.”

“
We’ll be more effective if we’re close.
You have other problems to take care of.
Let us do this
,” Donna had urged back on the dock before they’d headed to Giudecca.

No matter how much Rowan didn’t want to say they could come along, she knew there was no other choice. She nodded and made them promise to obey her and stay out of the fray with Vampires.

“We’ll be all right. You go handle your business,” Donna assured Rowan as they parted.

* * *

She and Clive headed through a pretty back garden, unusual in these parts that it was so big.

A flare of heat on her skin again and Rowan shoved Clive down as the spell landed with a splat of disgusting stink where he’d been standing.

David headed the other way, landing with a thump, but was otherwise safe a few feet across the paved walk.

“Fucking sorcerers. I’m going to kill Roth twice for this,” Rowan snarled.

Clive pulled them both over, out of sight and behind a substantial enough set of terra cotta pots that they’d have some protection from attack.

Rowan craned her neck to see David, who was eyeing another path to get up to the house. She shook her head at him, but he waved her off.

She started to head in his direction but Clive took her shoulder, leaning close. “You have to let David go whatever way he can make it into the house. Trust that you’ve trained him well.”

A series of crashes and shouts indicated the practitioners had engaged the sorcerers.

Clive indicated that they move to the west, to avoid the back of the house where a magical skirmish took place. The other Vampires were approaching from different floors so they could attack from as many directions as possible.

Inside, shouts of warning were raised and the doors to the main house facing Venice flew open as Vampires ran out and any time she’d had to haul David’s ass back to them passed.

The battle had begun in earnest.

Rowan took one out, Clive the other and they made it inside. Enyo had to be there somewhere and she was going to find that bitch and kill her true dead.

“She’ll be hiding somewhere, too cowardly to protect her people. And still they do her bidding like weaklings,” Clive said loud enough Rowan was sure he was driving her out, or at the very least, underlining that lack of loyalty to anyone who might be in the vicinity.

* * *

Clive suspected Enyo would be up on the second floor. This wasn’t a space made solely for Vampires. The curtains and window covers did not lock down. They were storm shutters, which would keep it dark enough, but not secure from breach.

He pointed up and Rowan nodded. She’d stopped favoring her non-injured side so he guessed she’d healed up enough that she wasn’t in too much pain. He hoped.

Rowan would fight to the death and he wanted her as strong as possible.

She grabbed him before they got to the stairs. “You get the fuck out of here and into a safe place before daylight. Do you hear me?”

“I’ve got a few bolt holes in mind. Lots of abandoned places in these islands scattered all over the area if I can’t make it back to the villa. Go. Don’t get killed or I’ll make you a Vampire.”

“Fuck off. Neither of us is dying because you owe me dinner and gelato.”

“What? Did you levy a tax on me? It was just gelato a few hours ago.”

“The price you pay for keeping company with a mercurial woman.”

“I love you, Rowan.” He kissed her and she nipped his bottom lip as he broke away.

“I love you too. Now come on. If she gets away I’m going to kick you in the balls.”

“So, back to normal then,” he muttered as they crept up the servant’s stairs accessible through the kitchen.

At the top the narrow stairwell led to a wide hallway with rooms on both sides. And at the very end they caught sight of Enyo heading around a corner. They followed, keeping some distance just in case there was a trap they couldn’t see.

“She’s mine,” Rowan said it as she cleared the corner and caught Enyo trying to get out through a window.

She turned and Rowan noted the eye patch and began to laugh. “Oh wow. This is even better than I’d imagined. Hey, what’s shaking, Pirate Polly?”

“You dare?”

“Bitch, I dare you to infinity and back. And I will laugh and laugh that your pretty face is so disfigured now. I’d add ‘for eternity’ and make it sound all spooky but you don’t have eternity. I’m going to go ahead and kill you right now. Never fear though, I’m going to do it extra hard. I wouldn’t want to shortchange you the full painful, horrifying revenge-filled death you so richly deserve.”

Enyo looked to the window again and Rowan reached back, wrapping her palm around her blade’s hilt and that’s when She took over.

Brigid looked at the Vampire, at the blood sucking bitch who had killed Brigid’s previous Vessel. A young woman who was far softer than the one who held Her essence now.

“So this is what a tick looks like on two legs.” She put herself between the Vampire and her method of escape. The blade She held was balanced perfectly, its magic singing through Rowan and Brigid both.

Her Vessel’s mate stood ready to jump in should she ask for help. The warrior in Her recognized the strength and loyalty it took to stand back and let the Vessel put herself in harm’s way. But he did it because it was necessary.

He was more than adequate as a husband. Even if he was a Vampire.

Inside, Her Vessel let go of her control totally, giving over to Brigid. Either of them could kill her and avenge what needed avenging. But Rowan let Her do it to lay that ghost to rest.

“You can kill me but you won’t stop what’s already in motion.”

Brigid stood very still, focusing, her concentration on the tiniest detail. There were four others in the house. The sorcerers were still outside, battling the others who accompanied Her Vessel.

A quick movement and the blade sliced through the air audibly. “I love that sound. Don’t you? This Vessel’s heart always beats faster when she hears it.” She circled as Her prey did the same. “You made a grave error, pushing this one.”

Brigid stepped close, cut three times and danced away as the scent of blood hit the air. She smiled at the thin bloody lines on Enyo’s chest.

“Enyo. Oh, I’ve longed to form that sound but we kept it in because we needed to get close enough to strike. You ran. But you can’t run forever. I can because I’m a goddess. You? You’re about to be dead.”

The Vampire rushed her and Brigid laughed again at the moment she realized how much stronger and faster this Vessel was than the last time.

“You ambushed her in the dark when she had no weapon. You like to feel as if you are a superior being when you are a bag of meat and skin who has tainted her soul with the magics she’s worked.”

In the corner of her vision, Clive stood up straighter.

Enyo’s smile turned into a sneer of disgust. “You’re an old goddess no one cares about, Brigid. All those centuries ago,
that
one had far more power than this. More people believed in you. Now you’re nothing more than an automaton who uses her body when she allows it.”

Enyo feinted and managed to get two solid hits in. This body would be sore, but it was not crucial that Brigid stop at this point.

She cocked Her head, blinking without speaking until the Vampire began to squirm under the scrutiny. “Usually creatures who bear as much power as you have some sense of honor. You have none.”

As She’d suspected, that prodded the Vampire into action. Brigid sliced her several more times, this time deeper. Arterial blood began to seep into the material of the frock Enyo wore. Dark, sticky, all of it running from her body just like her life would be.

“Blood from a killing wound always smells so much better I think.”

Clive barked a laugh and Brigid appreciated that he’d found Her humorous. A warmth inside said Her Vessel approved as well. This one had connected to Brigid in a way no others had for a very long time. Brigid would not let Her Vessel down.
This time
She would protect her.

“My Vessel would say something like, you’re not so tough now, are you, bitch?” She got the words right, but Rowan had better delivery.

The stench of tainted blood began to fill the space. “I think perhaps you’re realizing how slow those wounds this blade made are to heal. Distressing, is it not? To feel your life running from your veins? After so long being the one to bring this to others at your hands, aren’t you fortunate to understand it from this perspective? My Vessel says it’s a teaching moment.”

“Your time has passed!” Enyo screamed, putting power behind her words, pelting Brigid with it as she followed with a series of swipes with her nails, her jaws snapping as she tried to bite.

“
My
time has not passed. Your time, however.” Brigid made a face and then let Rowan take over the swordwork. She and the blade were bound, much like Brigid and Rowan were bound. They all worked together at that moment in a perfect rhythm.