Chapter Fourteen
Rowan didn’t bother with the valet. She had no intention of giving Clive Stewart any notice she was on her way. At least until she got inside the hotel.
She was angry at herself for not getting it earlier, but she sure as hell did now. This Vampire was using humans to get high. They’d broken through and found some version of crystal meth that Vamps could get high from. Until that point, they hadn’t been able to use any street drugs but pot. She didn’t know why, but she had no issues with it. Stoned Vampires just sort of sat around looking at the stars and stuff. They didn’t rip people to shreds and leave them in the desert. But meth? What about heroin or cocaine? What happened when a Vampire ran out of money and needed a fix?
Such things fell under the designation, very bad.
Glad she still had her ass-kicking boots on, she motored up to the private elevators. The attendant looked her up and down.
“This is a private elevator. Guest room elevators are around the corner.”
“Good to know should I ever actually stay. But I need this elevator to reach Clive Stewart. Go ahead and run along to tell him the Hunter is here. I’ll wait.”
She turned her back on him, dismissing him entirely.
If he didn’t hop to it, she had a great deal of tension that needed working out. Punching someone a few times was always a great stress reliever.
Cheered, she turned as the elevator doors dinged open. His real personal assistant stepped out, looking even more pressed and steamed than her boss did. Until that moment, she’d thought it a feat totally unachievable.
“Ms. Summerwaite. I’m Alice, Mr. Stewart’s assistant. Please, come with me. He was expecting you earlier, but got called into a meeting.”
Rowan followed her into the elevator.
“I’ve taken the liberty of having some food delivered. I hope you don’t mind. I imagine, given the report he just gave to his people, that you might need a few minutes to collect yourself and perhaps to rest and recharge.”
It was hard not to appreciate Alice’s thoroughness. But not overly difficult to remember what she was. And what they weren’t. But Rowan did have manners, no matter what the other woman’s boss thought.
“Thank you. Please inform him I will wait no longer than five minutes.”
“I’ll let him know.” Alice smiled, just a brief flash. Rowan wondered if Alice gave Clive a rasher of shit and bet she did.
That amused her enough to settle in at the pretty and elegant seating area near the windows. She hadn’t eaten in a while, not since lunch with Jack over twelve hours before. No harm in having at least two of those little tea sandwich things Susan loved so much.
She’d planned to have dinner with the acolytes, maybe even spend the night at the ranch. She had a room there. They’d give her privacy. She’d be safe and taken care of and just for a few hours she could relax and let herself be. The lure of it had driven her out there in the first place.
But, she thought as she sipped the lovely mango juice Alice had provided, Brigid had been right. Once she’d come back to herself, she knew she needed to confront Clive.
Annoyance that she left behind peace and calm to come back to this mess of blood, politics, sex and violence was a fire she tried to ignore. It would do her no good to punch him in that perfect nose. Though she’d feel better for a little while.
She snorted. His five minutes were up. Heaving a sigh, she gave in and gobbled up several more of the smoked-salmon-and-cucumber sandwiches before she made to leave. She’d made it to the elevator right as he exited.
“Where in the hell did you hie off to? You were supposed to come right back here.” He had the audacity to look cool and collected, even as he was being a total dick.
“Excuse me? Is there a dog or a cat in here you’re speaking to? Because we both know what a terrible disaster it would be for you to ever talk to me like that.”
His pupils swallowed the color in his eyes and she had to work to hold her ground. Their energy, like a live thing in the room with them, sinuously made its way around them.
“And then you come here and summon me,” he continued as if she had said nothing. “I’m not a fan of being summoned, Ms. Summerwaite.”
“Who cares what you’re a fan of? How about you stick your shitty behavior right up your ass? Why didn’t you tell me?” Annoyed, she stepped up to him, knowing how stupid it was, she did it anyway.
“Tell you what? What are you on about?”
“Are you stupid? Really? Because the only way I could possibly believe you don’t know what I’m talking about is if you were stupid. You knew. You fucking asshole.” She resisted shoving him, only barely, by turning on her heel and giving herself desperately needed distance.
“You came here six hours late to insult me?”
“You’re not my boss, or my business manager. We’ll get to that part in a bit. Back to why you’re a total peen. You knew. You. Knew. How long have Vampires been getting blood highs from crystal meth?”
He sighed, heavily, and pinched the bridge of his nose. “This is Vampire business.”
“Dead human women are Vampire business now? Oh good, I’ll just send Jack your way the next time your little friend gets to work. I have a birthday trip to plan, I’d much rather be doing that than hanging out in meth-town messing up my manicure.”
“You know what I mean by that.”
“Maybe. Turns out I don’t care either way. ’Cause, in case you forgot, I have a business too. It’s to kill Vampires who make human women dead. This was something I needed to know.”
“Why are you making this personal?”
She looked around the room and then back to him. “Are we on a reality show? Next you’ll tell me you aren’t here to make friends. Then you’ll drink too much, have sex with a stranger in your hot tub and puke. Maybe you and I can have a spat about how you never wash the dishes.”
“What are you talking about?”
She made the time-out signal with her hands. “Don’t pretend you don’t watch all those skeezy shows with floozies and himbos. Anyway, about your astounding behavior. Can you honestly stand there and say this stuff to me with a straight face? This is key information! I have wasted time and effort I could have better used to take this Vampire out. You let me twist, all the while knowing and not telling me. There aren’t words to describe how stabbity this makes me.”
“I only got this information recently. Before the second murder. I have a request in to be heard by the Council about it. So I could share it with you.”
“Excuses. I know you’re powerful enough to give him a call directly. I also can bet he told you to help me out. You’re wasting my time, dicking me around with this stupid shit.”
“You know as well as I do, there are processes. I can’t just give you everything. My people distrust you. I have to go through all the steps.”
“And to think I had actually achieved a mental place where I could exist without driving a stake into your chest.” Muttering, she stalked past him to the phone. She dialed the number she knew by heart and waited.
“This is Rowan Summerwaite, I need to speak to The First.”
Clive made contact with her shoulder. That was his mistake, but one she gleefully took advantage of, taking his hand and bending his wrist back, hard enough to make it hurt.
He moved away with a snarl, his incisors gleaming. Her mental illness sent a thrill through her. It was the only way to explain why every time the man showed his true nature she liked it. If she wasn’t on the phone, she’d probably have done something totally inappropriate like kiss him. Or worse.
“What is your problem?”
“You are. Don’t touch me or I will rip that arm off and use the stump to fuck your face up. Asshole.”
“Ah, hello there, petal. How are you, sweetest?” The amusement in his voice was clear. “Who is this asshole and shall I help you fuck his or her face up?”
Both Rowan and Clive sprang backward, away from the other at the sound of Theo’s voice coming over the line.
Petal, good Goddess, it had been a long time since she’d heard him speak to her in any affectionate sense. She missed him, even as she hated him, he was, despite it all, her father. Closest thing she’d ever have to one in this life anyway.
“Thank you for speaking with me.” Father or not, even Rowan didn’t mess around with Theo and his status. She feared very few people; he was at the top of her list.
“I am always available when you need me. What do you require?”
“I am attempting to keep the Nation from exposure, but am currently facing difficulties gaining all the information I need.”
He laughed, rusty and sharp at the edges. “Do you expect otherwise? Why should we help the Hunters police us?”
She bit back her first response, which she doubted he’d have seen the humor in. “Vater.” She swallowed, hard. Control was the only way to get what she wanted with him. If he made her lose it she came to him with nothing.
In her mind’s eye she saw him. He’d be sitting in his favorite chair near the windows so he could look out at the world as he pleased. So very unearthly. Flawless. Pale, pale as moonlight skin, though his hair was still blond. His eyes were an unexciting sort of brown, but as bloodlust hit, their color deepened to port.
He’d be amused, it was why he remained on the phone with her. That and she knew he missed her too, in his own way. But also quick to cut her off and side with Clive.
“It is my job, the job of a Hunter to deal with Vampires breaking the treaty. Treaty notwithstanding, this Vampire’s manner is so out of control, so openly Other, the risk of exposure is very high. I am not asking for this information without a pressing reason. Delays will only harm the interests and safety of the Vampire Nation.”
He was quiet, she knew, half daydreaming and half playing over the issues.
“Is my Scion there?”
She knew Clive could hear every word of the conversation, not that she’d planned to lie.
“Yes. I’m standing in his, whatever you call this giant receiving room I’m sure no one ever uses.”
Theo found this outrageously funny. For him, funny and insane were kissing cousins, so she always tread carefully, especially when he laughed. “Put me on speaker, or whatever it is that will allow me to address you both at the same time.”
She sensed, rather than heard or saw, Clive’s sigh. She merely rolled her eyes at his annoyed glare.
“I’m here, Sir.”
Rowan did take a second to admire the way he presented himself.
“The Hunter has made a powerful case. What is your perspective?”
“Politically, this has the potential to be explosive. Our people here do not like her. She recently staked one of their own. They feel persecuted.”
“They are as dumb as sheep. She should have staked the whole city, cleared the streets before you came in.”
Rowan knew better than to celebrate just yet, but she did raise a brow, not looking at Clive, but knowing he saw.
“And still, you are right to keep such things in mind. Give her the information on my order. I will bring it up to the Council once this call is concluded. You will have their official response by the time you awaken tomorrow. If they believe I am playing favorites, they are correct. And yet, please do suggest your people contact me if they have concerns.”
Ha! Not so much.
Clive’s spine snapped rigid at the threat. “As you command. I will transfer the information to her immediately. We are sorry to have intruded.”
“You might be, but Rowan isn’t.” His laughter made her smile. “And I’m not either. It makes me very happy to hear your voice, Rowan.”
Rowan bowed her head, revealing her wrist and her family mark.
Clive would have had to be made of stone to remain unmoved at the elegance in her submission.
The First couldn’t have seen it. She did it automatically, like muscle memory. And yet, the weight of it was a tangible thing.
“Thank you.”
The connection was severed and she took a deep breath. He watched as she put herself back together.
“Before you start a fight and the warm glow of this feeling evaporates under the bright glare of your bitchiness, I will tell you I found the way you presented yourself to him rather impressive.”
She softened, just a tiny bit, before sliding her armor into place once again. “You give the best compliments. Now, let’s get this done because I do not want to be here any longer than I have to be.”
He’d made an error, not giving her the information. He knew that, but he had no choice. He wasn’t overstating the trouble there would be if she appeared to be getting special treatment.
And yet, he’d done damage to their relationship. Or whatever it was they’d had. “Fine. You stood me up.”
“You got out of my car because you didn’t want to be seen arriving here with me. Now, I understand that, and had you simply spoken to me about it instead of your silly charade, I might have met you here.”
“Had you not stood me up and then went over my head to my boss, your foster father I hasten to add, I might have told you that I was making the strongest recommendation to the Council that we share this information with you.”
“Fine. Don’t expect me to not be hot about this. Moving along. Spill.”
“I received a report about the recent surge of Vampires who’d cracked the recipe for meth and had finally turned on the switch allowing them to get high from the blood of a human user. I put some people on it but all they found were several Vampires who’d binged and then fried. They were shells. Nearly dead. None of them appear to live very long.” And his people had taken care of any who weren’t already dead. His vengeance had to be swift or he’d be the one being punished.
“Or so you thought. Who’s the supplier and why isn’t he dead yet?”
“Why don’t we sit instead of having this tedious discussion standing?”
“I’m not here for a tea party, Scion. In case it hadn’t occurred to you, I have a murderer to find and stake before the cops find him and suddenly I have to deal with the body count and the television cameras.”
“My men are on this. He can’t go very far. And the next time he makes a mistake, I will be there.”
“The next time he makes a mistake means he’s killed another human. That’s a pretty unacceptable loss.”
“What is it you want?” He shoved a file at her. “I’ve given you all the information I have. My best people are on it. I’m doing all I can. And yet you want more.”
She sighed, running her hands through her hair. “I do. Do you know where his nest is? Or who the Vampire who cracked the code is? Have you questioned anyone?”
“It’s all in the file. My lieutenant has made detailed notes on everything. We don’t know who it is or where his nest is.”
“He’s old and working with at least one human.”
“Yes. You knew this?”
“I’d planned to share it with you when we were alone.” One brow slid upward.
Like a madman, he stepped the last inch between them and pressed his mouth to her forehead, impeding the movement of that ridiculous eyebrow.
The sound he made echoed against hers. That deep, full-body compulsion to do something even though you knew it was absurd.
He kissed her temple, over her ear. Her skin warmed as her scent ripened. Her power, whatever it was that came off her in waves, danger, violence, control—she was ruthlessly driven and it perfumed her skin. Nothing had ever caught his attention the way she had.
The heat of her blood pulsed with so much energy, Clive felt it as his lips brushed against the hollow just behind her jaw.
Her fingers left a butterfly of a touch against his side. He shivered as she caressed the curve of his ribs. Hissed when she dug her nails into his biceps as he licked over her jugular, teasing himself senseless with what he knew he’d never have.
In this, with his hands sliding up and over her breasts, with the indrawn breath and the exhaled sigh, with their mouths on each other, they were in sync. No tussling for control, no arguments. He was completely sure he wanted her. Equally sure she wanted him just as much.
One-armed, he picked her up around her waist, hauling her to him to take her mouth as he moved to his bedroom. He kicked the door closed, throwing the locks he used during the day as he rested.
His bedroom. Intimate. Vampires didn’t allow many people into the place they slept. A French winged bed dominated the space. Sumptuously upholstered in a deep-as-the-ocean blue, it complemented the slate-gray walls and black-and-chrome accents. Luxuriously appointed, it was also classic and elegant.
This was the bedroom of a man who liked his sleep. All Vampires were hedonists. Every one she’d ever met had at least one thing they indulged in for the pure pleasure of it.
Clive Stewart may have been a control freak, tight-assed, all-business Scion outside this room, but here was where Clive the man lived.
He put her on the bed and stepped away while she got rid of the boots and he kicked off his shoes.
Rowan obliged, helping as he pulled her sweater up and over her head. Her bra followed. She liked the way he undressed her. As if he was warring between a need to see her naked and being a gentleman. But when he pulled his shirt off without bothering to unbutton it, as the sound of buttons hitting the bed and floor fell around them, all she could do was shiver at his loss of control.
He raised gooseflesh in the wake of his lips as they cruised from one nipple to the other.
“You smell of magick,” he murmured against her belly.
None of that belonged here. She pulled at his hair to move him again and he went back to work, kissing her hip while he made quick work of her pants and panties.
And his mouth was on her, his tongue doing all sorts of delightful things. His hair cool and soft against the skin of her inner thighs. He drove her toward orgasm at a relentless pace.
When it came so hard her back bowed from the bed, his mouth still on her, she may have pulled his hair a little hard, but he didn’t seem to mind as he wasted little time scrambling up her body, fitting the head of his cock at her entrance and pressing in slowly.
All there was was the slide of flesh against flesh, flex and bunch of muscle, slick, sweat-sheened thighs against hips and ass. His eyes went emerald, glittering with the desire to take her blood.
But he kept that control, even as that roguish lock of his hair dared to fall against his forehead.
His body was a thing of beauty. Lean, hard muscle hidden by the tailored clothing seemed a delicious secret. He certainly knew what he was about. He’d put those hundreds of years to good use, honing his sexual skills to a sharp point.
His sexuality was instinctually connected to hers in a way that unsettled her even as she couldn’t seem to resist it. He knew what she liked, pushed her boundaries all while playing her every instinct like a magician.
He wasn’t afraid he’d break her; he touched her exactly how he wanted. It was so bold and sure in that supremely masculine way of his it made the back of her knees tingle when he looked at her just so.
Arching, she canted her hips to get more, his near snarl when she changed angle and he got deeper sent a shiver through her.
She left her grip on his biceps to tangle her fingers in his hair, urging him deeper, harder, faster. He teased her, driving into her over and over only to back off with gentler, slower strokes.
Needing more, she angled her other leg and rolled him to his back.
“You’re greedy.”
She added a swivel of her hips as she came down on him fully. “Yes and I often eat my dessert first. I have many moral flaws.”
“Impatient,” he grunted as he grabbed her hips and drove up into her.
“Yes!” Her nails dug into his sides where the heels of her hands pressed hard for balance.
“Brilliant in bed.”
Her next sharp comeback wisped away. Flattered, she fluttered her lashes before closing her eyes. “Thank you. A girl could get used to a man who’s been taking lovers for over four centuries. You’re quite adept yourself.”
God above, she was magnificent. Her hair had come loose and lay wild against her bare skin as she rose and fell above him. Her blood raced just beneath the skin. So pretty, flushed with pleasure and her exertion, her lips swollen from their earlier kisses.
And when he began to tip over, she sat against him hard, arching her back, her head dropping as she came around him, crumbling the last bit of control he had.