Blade To The Keep Part 14

He watched Rowan's face as she read it.

Rowan looked up from the paper and at everyone in the room before speaking. "It is not the aim of Hunter Corp. to have a greater reach into the daily workings of the Nation. The Amendment isn't our attempt to control you more. We cannot, however, continue on without access to integral information that changes how we'd need to look at information we already do have an interest in or responsibility for. We will look over the revised language and give you our position tomorrow when we meet the final time."

Paola nodded. "Fair enough. Committee adjourned."

Collette moved in Rowan's direction, and Clive groaned inwardly as he strolled over, hoping to head any more violence off before it started.

"How dare you insult Vampires the way you do!"

"I'm getting the how dare you thing a lot tonight. Are you finished, or do you actually want to know how I dare call out s.h.i.+tty behavior when I see it?"

"You need to know your place."

Rowan c.o.c.ked her head and smiled so deadly and dangerous Clive paused a moment. And found himself wanting very much to get her alone.

"I do know my place. It's above dumb a.s.sholes like you who think long teeth and blood drinking makes them better instead of just different. You, in case you didn't know what I was talking about. You see, Collette, the very people who most often like to believe they're above others are usually the motherf.u.c.kers who can't hack it but are too dumb to realize that. Like you."

"Your gutter language just shows what you are. Intelligent people don't need bad language."

"Listen, Sunday school, I don't need bad language at all. I choose to use it because it pleases me, and frankly 'stupid motherf.u.c.ker' describes you quite well. Now, I have things to do. You've registered your opinion. No one cares. Run along."

Rowan made a shooing motion with her hand, and Collette fell back with a gasp.

"You're a pa.s.sing fancy to Clive, you know. He won't stay. There are women you dally with and women you marry. We know which one you are." Collette snarled.

Rowan laughed, looking over to Clive. "Is this the part where we pull each other's hair or whatever? Sorry, I've never fought over a man with a woman he'd so obviously dumped decades before, so you'll have to run through the process."

Clive put an arm around her waist, brutally holding back an amused laugh. "This has gone far enough. Collette, you've said your piece. Leave it be."

"You're betraying your people for her, Clive. There will be a price to pay for this...this..." She flapped a hand in Rowan's direction.

"Hot dish? Spectacular female? Vessel for a G.o.ddess? b.i.t.c.h who will take you out if you get in her face again? Your superior in every way?"

Clive pulled her tighter against him. "Never mind what price I'll pay, Collette. It bears thinking, I believe, for you to understand what the price is for the line you've drawn and what side you're standing on. In any case, you're acting like a fool and being disruptive. You look like a jealous, petulant twit. Don't push this into territory you can't handle."

Rowan pouted. "Really? Why not? Why must you kill all my fun, Clive? I want her to."

He pivoted her around and led her to the door. "Darling, if we get through this without you killing anyone, I'll go to the shooting range with you every day for a month."

She smiled, pleased. "Really?"

"Really." He leaned in very close as they left the room. "I have another present for you I'll happily give to you in a few minutes if you want to meet me in my room."

"Is it a kitten?"

He barked a laugh. "Well, a p.u.s.s.y might be involved."

It was her turn to laugh. "I'm such a bad influence on you. Which is way more awesome than a neck tic because this comes with s.e.x."

"A what?"

Whoops! She blushed. "Nothing. Never mind. I'll be in your room in about an hour. I need to deal with Motherhouse Hunter Corp. bulls.h.i.+t politics right now." And she wanted to see if they'd managed to dig up any info about Enyo too.

He pushed her into an alcove, not apparently caring who saw, and kissed her hard. She put her arms around his neck, surprised, but unabashedly into it, arching into his body. He pulled away, breath coming fast, eyes burning.

"Don't make me wait too long."

"Will you start without me? And if so, can you please at least video it so I can watch?"

"Maybe. Go and scare people and make them cry. But hurry it up."

She was still smiling when she headed out to find David.

David handed her a folder when she got back to the works.p.a.ce the Hunter Corp. had been using while at the Keep.

"Carey is still looking, but he sent all he had so far. Would you like me to brief you on it and fill you in on all the other business of ridding ourselves of Roth and Valerie?"

She sighed, taking the mug he handed her way. "Let's hear it."

"Enyo appears to have been made during the h.e.l.lenistic age in Greece. Early records of her are understandably scarce. That would make her at least two thousand and a century or two in case you're not current on h.e.l.lenistic timelines."

"As you do." She snorted. Rowan knew Theo was Etruscan, though he referred to the Etruscans as Rasenna. And she knew after some poking around that he was born, not made, roughly in 800 BCE. The Vampires spoke a very old language most Hunter Corp. scholars thought was a dialect based on Etruscan.

"Do you know of the mythology of Enyo?"

"G.o.ddess of war, right? Um, daughter of Zeus and Hera?"

"The mythology often writes of her as a G.o.ddess who delighted in great amounts of bloodshed and destruction."

"Ah, that's right. Sometimes referred to as one of the Furies too. She was into the sacking of cities. Dude, you're not saying she's that Enyo."

He shrugged. "There's nothing to suggest she's an actual G.o.ddess, or even a Vessel like you are. But she certainly has some personality traits shared with her mythological namesake."

Rowan thought back to Brigid's reaction when Enyo first walked into the room. It was clear She had some dealings with Enyo. But Brigid, like the mythological Enyo, was an old G.o.ddess with roots far older than even those oldest Celtic roots. It was not inconceivable that She'd dealt with Enyo the Vampire. She didn't like Vampires much, though she did tolerate Clive. But Her reaction was way more than simple dislike.

"This one clearly models her behavior on her namesake." David shrugged again.

It wasn't entirely unusual for such a thing. In fact, Vampires, especially the older ones who'd lasted more than a few centuries, often changed their names to the names of people they admired or to be scarier or whatever. Rowan sort of thought it was dumb, but maybe if she'd lived a few thousand years she'd want a change too.

"Hm, well. In any case, Brigid doesn't like her one bit, and given the way she rises every time Enyo is near, she's giving me a big red flag about her. What else is there? Theo said something like she was the Blood Front, so?"

"There's just not much. She's been mentioned here and there in accounts of ma.s.s murders of humans over history. But not even in a clear sense. Just references that Carey thinks mean her. You know how they are."

Rowan was clearly going to have to broach the subject with Theo. She was having tea with him when he woke the following day so that would be a good time. By then Carey would hopefully have more, too, so she'd have some leverage. If she came in there with nothing more than what she had, Theo would be disappointed and p.r.o.ne to not giving her any help at all.

"Okay. I'm sure Carey will stay on it, so keep me updated. What's the situation with the Motherhouse?"

"Valerie and Roth were escorted from the Keep and taken to an airfield. Celesse arranged for them to be picked up there. She's been on the phone with Hunter Corp. on and off since then. She just stepped out to grab some tea, I think." David paused. "He was very unpleasant here. To the staff, I mean. Insulting to the humans."

Rowan chewed her bottom lip. "Of course he was. I can't believe he started yelling like that. He's a d.i.c.k, yes, an ent.i.tled a.s.shole even. But a guy doesn't have that sort of power by acting out that way. He bides his time and strikes. There's no gossip about him doing that stuff. He tried to physically attack me twice. And look, I act that way, but I'm in the field and I'm just gifted with my fists. But he's a desk guy. I don't know what the h.e.l.l is happening."

She needed to ask Clive if this sort of upheaval was normal for a Joint Tribunal. This was the first she'd attended, and even for Vampires it seemed over the top.

"I'm going to check in with Susan. Why don't you go up to bed?" She looked David over critically. "You look tired."

"I've been having nightmares. Bad ones. They keep waking me up and then it's hard to get back to sleep. Over the day today they...it was like I had flashbacks or something. I shouldn't eat right before bed, or maybe it's the change in sleeping hours."

"Do you normally have nightmares?" Rowan couldn't recall him ever bringing it up before.

"No. It's not usually a problem. I suppose, being here and all." He shrugged as the words faded. "It's...it carries over into my waking hours it's so bad. I've never experienced anything like it."

She did call this Nightmare Country after all. But he hadn't grown up here. She hadn't shared much of her childhood with him, not that sort of detail anyway.

"Go upstairs and take a long hot shower. I'm going to the kitchen and they're going to send up some tea. Most likely it will taste awful and you'll hate it. But you will drink it all, and you will then go to sleep." Without thinking too hard, she kissed his forehead and he blushed.

"Thank you for looking after me, Deesse."

She shooed him out and then headed toward the kitchen.

Dina saw her and smiled. "Rowan!"

"Loved the trout, by the way. And I had far too much apple cake." Mainly to keep from focusing on the insane tension at dinner Enyo had caused.

Dina's smile got wider. "Good. What can I get you? I have some more apple cake, if you'd like a slice with some tea or hot chocolate?"

"I'm still full from dinner." Rowan stepped closer, sliding her arm through Dina's, leading her away from the doors and deeper into the noise of the kitchen.

"Can I ask you something?"

Dina nodded, her face serious. "Of course."

"Are all Joint Tribunals like this? I'm not going to pretend you don't know about all the drama and craziness over the last two days."

"Well, you know how Vampires can be. You put ten of them in the same room and there are always dominance issues. Add Hunters to the mix and things are usually fraught. But this is an unusual level of tension and violence. It's not entirely unheard of." Dina shrugged. "You know how they can be when they feel threatened."

"All right. Thank you. I need something else from you." Dina was what Rowan called a kitchen witch. Gifted with herbs and healing of all types. If anyone could help with the nightmares David had, it was her.

Dina took her hands. "Anything, you know that."

"My valet, David, he's having some terrible nightmares. They're keeping him awake and he's not feeling his best."

Dina's expression darkened and Rowan waited.

"He's not the first who has complained of them at this meeting."

"Really?" Well, now, something was at work here, something above the normal fear of being in an ancient castle keep filled with killers and predators.

Dina nodded. "Wait here. I have something that might protect his sleep."

An interesting way to put it, Rowan thought. But it felt appropriate.

Just a few minutes later, Dina bustled back to her. "I've sent a cart up to your rooms. You drink some too. He needs to drink the tea a few times a day and most especially before he goes to sleep." Then she handed a wrapped bundle to Rowan. "Put this under his pillow and yours, too."

"What are you protecting us from?" Rowan sniffed the herbs, knowing a few were protective.

"I have nothing concrete. But it does seem...uncommon, doesn't it? That multiple people at this meeting are having nightmares? Reduced sleep makes one irritable."

"I haven't had any nightmares. Not a one. I don't know that I've dreamt at all."

Dina beamed, patting her cheek. "Well, you're special. We know that."

"Why does that feel like it's only partly a compliment?"

Dina laughed. "Because you know me too well. Your G.o.ddess protects you, I'd wager. I imagine The First is protected due to his age and the uniqueness of his existence. If you have problems, please tell me."

"All right. Thanks for all this." Rowan held up the bundle.

"I'm making frittata and sausages just for you."

Rowan left the kitchen, smiling, but trouble niggled at her.

Chapter Fourteen.

Celesse caught up with her a few minutes after she'd returned downstairs. David had been dubious about the bundle of herbs under his pillow, but he'd done it and she'd put some under hers too. She'd watched him drink all the tea with a grimace and then tuck into bed. He'd tried to argue that she might need him, but she'd given him an imperious look and he'd quieted and begun to settle.

"They're on the way back to London now. There's an uproar at the Motherhouses, as I'm sure you antic.i.p.ated. But I put forward my recommendation along with yours that Valerie be terminated. The codes on all the doors and computers have been changed. She'll be given two weeks' pay. Roth is a different story. That will take time."

Rowan blew out a breath. "I imagine."

"But we will get this amendment pa.s.sed, Rowan. You're doing a great job, despite the insanity. It's going to happen, and then you can take a well-deserved vacation. Goodness knows, I plan to."

"Vacation sounds pretty good right about now." She paused a moment. "Celesse, are you having nightmares?"

Celesse c.o.c.ked her head, surprise on her face. "I am. How did you know?"

"David's been having them. As have others. I stopped by a few rooms of the remaining Hunter staff. Every one of them reported they'd been having nightmares and echoes of them during their waking hours. So much so it made them irritable today." She needed to talk to Clive about the Vampires and then get with Dina to see about getting the herb bundles and tea to whoever needed them. Rowan explained that to Celesse, too.

She'd saved some of the herbs for Clive, and Celesse, so she handed them over. "Put the bundle under your pillow."