Goddess With a Blade (8 page)

Chapter Eleven

Damn the woman.
Clive shoved a hand through his hair and clicked the phone shut as he got her voice mail yet again. She’d been ducking his calls for the last six weeks.

He knew she was in town. He’d seen her here and there, heard she’d been checking in on the Vampyre Theater crew. She was avoiding him, plain and simple.

Probably in a snit because he’d been right about the killer being the Vampire she’d slain in the desert. Or maybe because of his ridiculously quick job when they’d had sex on the desk of his office at Fleur.

He sighed at that memory. At his stupidity and lack of control when it came to her. Normally he was far smoother with women, but she tested him sorely. It was certainly her fault he rushed through it all.

Not that it would happen ever again. It was a stupid, stupid mistake, one he would not repeat. But he still needed to check in with her.

He turned his head at the sound of Alice tapping on his door. “Yes, come in.”

The look on her face told him he wasn’t going to be happy with her news.

Rowan looked at the caller ID on her cell phone and sighed. Clive. She’d been ducking him and Jack both for the last month and a half. Clive more successfully than Jack.

Jack hadn’t liked what she had to say when she told him she’d tracked down his vic and her family in Barstow. There was a fight. He’d been beyond pissed off that she’d gone without telling him until afterward.

But she missed Jack. Missed his company and having dinner with him. Missed his obsession with NASCAR and basketball. Just missed him plain and simple.

Worse, she’d sort of missed Clive’s arrogant British accent and the way he smelled. She was so fucked up.

Giving in, she picked up the line. “What?”

“Oh to hear those dulcet tones again, dear Hunter. You’ve been avoiding me.”

“You’re not important enough to me to avoid.” Thank Goddess he couldn’t hear her heart speed up at the lie.

“Mmm-hmm. Well, as much as it pains me to admit, you may have been correct about Rossinni not being the killer.”

“There’s been another murder.” Her voice was flat as rage, cold and focused, centered her. Suddenly all her tingly bits stopped their dancing and she wanted to kill something.

“Yes. I’m calling you because my people picked up the information on the police scanners. It appears to be the same situation as before.”

Before she could give in to her anger and scream at his useless ass over the phone, she simply hung up on him and began to get ready to leave the penthouse.

Her phone rang again but when she saw it was Clive she ignored it and let it go to voice mail. She wished she’d had the forethought to leave him a special fuck-you message. Maybe later, before bed.

She quickly dialed Mary, her source at the police station, and arranged to meet with her at their usual spot and then Carey to let him know they’d be working late that night and to meet her at the office.

Mary’s face was pale, even in the reddish tint of the lights of the bar. Pain marked her features, etched into her face.

Here at least, she could ease and help. Rowan sat and drew the other woman’s hands into her own. Healing, one of her gifts from the Goddess, would be welcome here. She couldn’t turn back time, or save whoever was murdered, but she could offer Mary some solace.

“It must be very bad.” Rowan’s voice was soft, gentle as she sent her power like a warm caress from her grasp into the other woman.

The tautness of Mary’s features eased slightly. “I haven’t seen it all. I don’t have a lot for you right now because it’s still very new. They found the body three hours ago. But it’s similar to the other victim. Drained of all blood. But she…” Mary shuddered. “She’s been torn up. They’re trying to say it was ritual mutilation but, pardon my saying so, I’ve seen ritual mutilation a time or two and this isn’t it. So much rage, Rowan.”

“Ripped up? Like with teeth?”

“Her chest was ripped open like last time. But it looks like something took big bites out of her. Something with very sharp canines.” Mary looked at Rowan, her fear giving way to professionalism. “You’ll find this monster and take care of him.” It wasn’t a question.

Rowan nodded. “Will you get me the reports when they come in? Was she sexually assaulted? On drugs? Do we know who she is?”

“There’s been a rush put on everything. She’d been dead for a day or so they think. I’ll call Carey or you when I get everything. The file contains preliminary notes and some scene pictures. It’s very near where the last body was found.”

“Thank you for your service, Mary. Be well and I hope your pain is lessened. This murder is not on your hands. But I will make sure the monster responsible is taken care of.”

Rowan stood, brushing her lips across the temple of the acolyte who’d been such a help.

She tried not to speed to her office where she knew Carey waited for her. She was surprised to see Cindy there on a Saturday. Clearly she’d been out the night before given the hangover face, but Rowan would take any help she could get right then.

Carey’s face remained solemn as she briefed him but when Cindy left to go pick up a late lunch he let out a long sigh. “So, bet you’re pretty pissed off at the Scion right about now.”

“Not that I don’t appreciate being right and all, because well, that’s a given. But I don’t appreciate having another human woman dying at this freak’s hands because Clive underestimated me.”

But what bugged her the most was how much she wanted, and
needed
to be at the scene right then but couldn’t because it would be thick with cops. Rowan would need to wait until the very late night to go, maybe even the following day. The positive was that Mary would get her the rest of the info as it came in. But it wasn’t the same as seeing it herself.

Cindy brought the food in, actually pitching in with copying and some basic data entry as they ate. Maybe they should use her more often for help with the investigative stuff. She wasn’t entirely useless, though she was terribly lazy. But Carey hadn’t been as driven when Rowan first met him either.

By the time she ended up back at the penthouse it was nearing two in the morning and Rowan was exhausted emotionally as well as physically. So it wasn’t a pleasure to see Clive leaning up against her front door looking delicious and like a huge prick all at once.

She looked him up and down. “Why are you here? Do you have a death wish? I’m in a wish-fulfillment sort of mood so that would be win-win for us both.”

“You’re angry with me. I thought it best to discuss this issue like adults so we could avoid bad blood between the Hunter Corporation and the Nation.”

“Ever the master of understatement, aren’t you? How about this? I could kill you. I know I’d feel loads better.” She walked past him and unlocked her front door. He hesitated at the entrance and she waved him in.

“I did not kill this woman, Hunter.”

“Your inaction did. And your ridiculous belief that a human couldn’t possibly know more than a Vampire.” She moved to her back hall and got rid of her blade and other weapons before returning to where she left him in the living room. She wouldn’t need them, it wouldn’t come to blood. At least not yet.

“Why must you insist on knowing what I do or don’t believe? It’s very arrogant.”

Rowan snorted, turning to stalk into the kitchen where she headed to get a beer. He wandered in, still haughty. “Want one?” She held a bottle up, mainly because manners dictated she offer, but also to see his reaction to drinking from a bottle.

To her surprise, he nodded. She popped one open for him and tipped her head toward the cabinet, asking if he wanted a glass.

He grabbed the bottle from her hand and took several drinks. “I’m not as uptight as you think I am, human.”

“Puhleeze. You’re so uptight I bet your boxers are ironed.”

“What’s wrong with that?”

She burst out laughing and began to make herself a sandwich. “Want one?”

“I’ve eaten this evening, thank you. Are you going to dance around this murder and talk about the state of my undergarments or can we discuss it like mature people?”

“You’re not people. You’re a Vampire. And the state of your starched boxers just shows what an uptight, judgmental bastard you are.”

“I am not a bastard thank you very much. I know who my parents were and they were married when I was born. I don’t deny I am rigid, that’s what it takes to run my territory and keep my people in line.”

“Oh yeah, so in line they rip poor human women to pieces and dump them in the desert like they were nothing. Sounds like they’re so well behaved instead of animals on the loose. What do you know about it? Tell me everything.”

He narrowed his gaze at her and leaned forward, palms against the marble countertop. “It is clear there is a rogue at large. I agree. I have my people on it and I will share what I believe is important enough to share. But I am not a Hunter, it is not my job to do yours for you.”

“It was clear six weeks ago too. The only difference today is that another human family has to mourn. Because of a Vampire.”

He had the good sense to look away briefly, before he gathered his composure again.

“I came to you and told you you had a problem. You blew me off. And now two humans are dead.
That
is arrogant. Have you seen pictures yet?” Having stabbed that point home, she gave him her back and stalked out to grab the file. Proud of herself, she managed to slide it to him instead of throwing it in his face.

He looked through it and breathed through his nose. The anger rolled off him in waves. When his gaze met hers, she saw his emotions quite plainly. “Sloppy. This Vampire has no control at all. He’s exposed us all. I will kill him.”

“Not if I kill him first. There are bite marks here and here.” She pointed at the picture. “They’ll try to blame it on animals postmortem… If you’re lucky.”

“This messiness…it’s beyond dangerous. Do they know who she is?”

Rowan shook her head. “Not as of the time this information came to me. I want to go to the scene but it can’t happen today. It’ll still be hot out there with cops.”

“I tried earlier and yes, it’s still filled with law-enforcement personnel. My people are more skilled at concealing themselves. One of my lieutenants is there and will report to me.” He held a hand up to quiet her. “Yes, of course, I will share with you what you need to know. Rowan, it was not my intention to have another human die because I didn’t trust your perceptions. Despite what you may believe about me, I do not want this rogue to kill any more humans. It’s bad for us all.”

“That must be why you keep accusing me of trying to find a way to pin stuff on your people just for shits and giggles.”

He sighed and stood straight. “Must you be so argumentative when I’m trying to be apologetic? You’re a very trying woman.”

“Apologetic? I don’t know where you were raised, bub, but where I was raised, by a monster no less, I was taught an apology goes something like
I’m sorry.
”

He sighed. She was going to make him say it, infuriating woman. “I’m sorry I didn’t believe you. I will reiterate my belief that your intense dislike for my people creates a blind spot within you but I do not believe in this case you are wrong.”

She took a healthy bite of her sandwich and plopped her rather delectable bottom on one of the chairs lining the center island. “That’s a start, although you should have stopped after
I’m sorry.
The rest sort of negates the apology.”

He wrestled a smile. So very hard on the outside and yet, he’d seen glimpses of a softer woman beneath the exterior. It intrigued him, made him want to know more even as he knew it was the very last thing on earth he should want.

“London.” He sat across from her and took another drink of the beer.

“Hmm?”

“You said you didn’t know where I was raised. I was raised in London. My parents were,
are
natural Vampires.”

Surprise lit her eyes. He liked the way it softened her face.

“How old are you?”

“Cheeky.”

She shrugged and he tried hard not to notice the tip of her tongue as it darted to gather a spot of mustard on her lip.

“Four-hundred-and-seventy-five more or less.”

“Wow, the world has really changed in your lifetime. I remember Theo talking about seeing an aqueduct for the first time in Rome, lit by the moon. It’s hard to imagine living in a time before electricity much less a time before running water.” She looked up at his expression after her casual use of The First’s name.

Pushing away from the island and moving to put her dish in the sink, she laughed with a shrug. “I forgot you people have all this reverence for him and rarely utter his given name. He was just Theo to me.”

He heard the emotion in her voice and wondered, not for the first time, about the feelings she must have for the man who raised her and yet had her parents killed. It gave him a chill to imagine what it had been like for her. He rarely mentioned Theo’s given name because to name a thing gave it power and the last thing Clive wanted was to invite The First into his life any more than he had to.

And then he paused because he wanted her to tell him. He wanted to know about her life and that was not a good direction.

She moved to stand at the doorway. She stood silent, her back to him for long moments. He didn’t speak, sensing something was about to happen, not wanting to ruin it.

Slowly, she turned on her heel and leaned against the doorway. “I’m going to take a shower. Care to join me?”

Surprise momentarily stole his words. “What? You aren’t going to goad me into a fight first?”

“I could. I
do
want to alternately smack you or fuck you. But as you did apologize and we both know sex is inevitable when we’re in the same room alone for three minutes, I thought I’d kill two birds and take a shower first.”

If she’d been nice, or even rational, he might have resisted. But something about her goaded him and that worked on levels he hadn’t ever experienced before. Still, it wouldn’t do to agree so eagerly right off. “You know this is a very bad idea.” Not that he had any intention of stopping it.