Blade on the Hunt (23 page)

Chapter Twenty-Five

Everyone else waited for them in the salon. “About time,” Warren grumbled.

“We were having sex. It takes time to do that right.” Rowan sat. “Let me tell you all about the day I had.” She explained to the Vampires about Giancarlo and how he’d been hooking the Blood Front Vampires up with lodging in Vampire Nation properties worldwide.

“Nadir tells me the human staff was able to halt outside access to many accounts but it’s hard to know just how much he had the chance to get into.” Over the coming months they’d need to go through all their properties to see if things had been taken. Look through all finances and the like. “I brought the things from his room at the estate so you can look through it. We should get over there so you can talk to him, Recht.”

“As soon as you tell us what the sorcerer said.”

“He was reticent to share at first. But we came to an understanding. Enyo made one of their number into a Vampire about thirty years ago. He was taught the soul stealing stuff by Enyo personally as he was growing up but until recently they only did it once a year. She travels around with three or four of them and about a year ago, the frequency of their working increased and sorcerers he’d never seen before started showing up. She was working with other people he never met. And I believe that.”

“Do you think it’s Roth?”

“I don’t know. Maybe. But I don’t think so. He wants to destroy all Vampires. I can’t see him working with them. There’s something more than stealing souls to keep young or whatever going on here. This isn’t about Enyo and Theo. The addition of magic into this particular situation is most distressing. Carey has been working on some of the computer data we found on various flash drives. Plans for buildings. Financial data though we don’t know for who.”

“Curious,” Warren said.

She told them the rest of what she’d learned before Recht and Warren headed to Giudecca to question Giancarlo, leaving her alone with Clive, David and Alice.

“I sent Carey pictures of the men who were waiting for me at the Hunter Corp. villa last night, along with shots of the sorcerer. One of the humans was a contract killer. One of the Vampire crime families has used him in the past, though goddess knows why. These guys were so inept.

“He ran their pictures, along with some of Roth and Hilary through his facial recognition stuff and there’s nothing we found with them together. However, my source found some financial transactions that match up with the payments that were made to the humans and sorcerers to take me out. And I found of a picture of David on the phone of one of the guys we killed at the estate yesterday.”

David’s face hardened for a moment. “We’re going to London when we’re done here? They want you to present evidence, we’ll present it.”

“Yes that’s what they want. And I will give them all the evidence. Because Roth and his friends are going down. But after that I don’t know.”

“Whatever we decide—”

Rowan interrupted David. “We?”

David’s resolve firmed up and he stood taller. “Yes. We. I’m your valet. Where you go, I go.”

“Even if it’s out of Hunter Corp?”

“Yes. Do you think I want to be in a place that put so little weight on my life and safety? On your life and safety? I serve you, Rowan. Not Hunter Corp.”

Panicked but strangely satisfied, Rowan stood, pretending she had something she needed to brush off the front of her pants. “Ugh. Let’s go already. I am all done with this sharing my feelings stuff and we have prisoners to interrogate. David, when you get the chance, please make travel arrangements to London. I won’t be staying at the usual hotel, but don’t tell them that. Then get us a flat or a house and arrange for a car. We have a lot more things on the list to finish up.”

“I have a home in London,” Clive said to David. “Get with Alice to make those arrangements. I’ll be coming too.”

“You have a continent to run, Clive,” Rowan said as people began to mill around and get working. “I’ll come back to Vegas when I’m finished in London. Though I’m staying at your flat. Mayfair?”

“Our townhouse. Belgravia. Would you like me to buy you a flat in Mayfair?”

He totally would because he was that way.

“I’m sure Belgravia will suit me just fine.”

“Excellent. I quite like the neighborhood. I’ll show you around while we’re there. Don’t argue with me, Rowan. I may not be staying the whole time depending on how ridiculous this situation is with Hunter Corp. But I will be accompanying you. I want you to meet my family, I want you to be in our townhouse.” He stepped closer and she allowed it, even smiling up at him briefly before she remembered to frown.

He grinned then.

“Let me show you the London I love. I want to be there with my wife. My mate.”

“Ooh, you’re so good at this. I don’t stand a chance, do I?”

He laughed, grabbing that bit of joy she gave him with both hands. “I’m not sure which one of us stands a chance, but I think perhaps, it’s both.”

She hugged him for a brief moment. “That works. Get cracking, Scion. We have stuff to do.”

“I do adore you.” He kissed her nose and she narrowed her eyes at him but didn’t try to punch anything so he stepped neatly away and got to it before she changed her mind. What a truly lucky Vampire he was.

* * * * *

For more information on Lauren Dane’s upcoming releases from Carina Press and Harlequin HQN, including the next Rowan book and a new paranormal romance series starting in late 2015, please visit
www.LaurenDane.com
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About the Author

The story goes like this: While on pregnancy bed rest, Lauren Dane had plenty of down time so her husband took her comments about “giving that writing thing a serious go” to heart and brought home a secondhand laptop. She wrote her first book on it before it gave up the ghost. Even better, she sold that book and never looked back.

Today Lauren is a
New York Times
and
USA TODAY
bestselling author of over fifty novels and novellas across several genres. Though she no longer has to deal with Polly Pocket and getting those tiny outfits on and off, you may catch her in a nostalgic moment when the house is silent because the kids are all in school and she can get work done. Just a moment though.

Visit Lauren on the web at
laurendane.com

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You can write to her at: PO BOX 45175, Seattle, WA 98145

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LAUREN DANE

When trouble comes to town in the form of bad-boy rocker Paddy Hurley, will Natalie Clayton give in to a little trouble?

A librarian in the small town of Hood River, Natalie Clayton’s world is very nearly perfect. After a turbulent childhood and her once-wild ways, life is now under control. But trouble has a way of turning up unexpectedly—especially in the tall, charismatically sexy form of Paddy Hurley...

Even after years of the rock-and-roll lifestyle, Paddy never forgot the two wickedly hot weeks he once shared with Natalie. Now he wants more...but there is a fine line between well-behaved and misbehaved—and the only compromise is between the sheets!

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ISBN-13: 9781426898983

Blade on the Hunt

Copyright © 2014 by Lauren Dane

Edited by Angela James

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