At Blade's Edge

  On the other end of the phone there was coughing and Clive wagged his finger at her as he struggled to keep a straight face.

  “Surprisingly, it’s quite classic. You’d make the interior design choices, naturally,” Craig assured her.

  “Hold off on the peacock skin, Craig. My wife doesn’t like it.”

  “Is that an actual thing?” Rowan asked, horrified at the shit rich people got up to.

  “Not that I know of. But if it is, you won’t find it in your home,” Craig said.

  “Okay, whatever. Do whatever. I’ll find my own real estate for work business.”

  “You’ve got your instructions then. I’ll see you and get an update upon our return next week.” Clive hung up and looked her over carefully.

  “It’s at the achy, bone knitting pain part. Which really, when you think about how bad it’d be if I were just a regular strength human, means I’m doing just peachy so stop with the Clint Eastwood look. Or, you could chomp on a cigar wearing a poncho, jeans and some boots. Oh. Goddess yes. That’s what I’d like for my birthday.”

  He struggled to follow along and then finally sighed, giving up. “Thank you for being so cooperative on the house issue. I know you hate boring details like where you live. But I want us to have a home. Together. It’s not too far out from the Strip. I can be at work, even if I did something so human as drive in, within half an hour given the hours we Vampires keep. If I flew, it would take a quarter of that.”

  It was weird to talk about him flying.

  “Do I have to look at fabric and stuff? Choose flooring and paint? Because your penis is not big enough to demand such a thing of me. Well, okay, I’m lying. I like your penis a lot and if you really truly thought it would make you feel better, I’d do paint choices. But I’m hoping you know I don’t get wood while looking at blinds and save me the horror. Because you do get wood I bet.”

  “My delicate flower.”

  “That’s me. Delicate as fuck. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about the Motherhouse thing. I realized after I brought it up that it was one of those tell-your-partner-in-private-first things.

  “Well, truthfully I’m not all that surprised. I knew after the last few days that you wouldn’t leave Hunter Corp. And if you feel like what you’re doing is the right choice, I support you totally.”

  “There you go being better at this relationship stuff than me.”

  “I do so love to win. Don’t rob me of the little things.” He gave her the sexy smirk again. Knowing how hot it made her.

  “Since we’re both awake at the same time and no one is currently attempting to kill one or the other of us, I say we go upstairs, watch a movie and then have sex. Or we can have sex and watch a movie. Or just have sex. Yes, the sex part is what I’d like most.”

  He stood, holding a hand out as he passed. “Come along then. We wouldn’t want to let you get dissatisfied.”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  In his bed after the movie, he snuggled close but she grunted and he moved back, afraid he’d bumped a still sore spot. “Are you all right?”

  “You’ll know if I say no.”

  The flattened sound of her voice led him to believe this wasn’t about physical pain but something else. Her answer didn’t even make sense. Though he wasn’t going to say it in those exact words because he liked his balls. “If you say no and you’re lying you mean?” He sighed. “I believe that should you want to shut me out entirely you could. And I’d know you weren’t telling me the truth because of that. Or because of this conversation. So, since we both know you’re upset about something, why don’t you tell me what it is.”

  He had no idea what was going on, but the fuzzy sort of anxiety bleeding through their link drove at him to fix it.

  “It’s dumb.”

  She tried to put her hand over her face but he wouldn’t let her.

  “No hiding.”

  “Now that we’ve...you know...linked via blood and I found it surprisingly awesome, I’m less thrilled that you feed from anyone else. Like the idea that you’re doing that to anyone else’s pink parts when you feed makes me want to drive my car through your front door. But I guess it’s my front door too at some mythical house you promise me won’t look like Caligula designed it. So I won’t do that.”

  “You’re babbling.”

  Rowan flipped him off.

  “You’re jealous.” He wanted not to smile at that, but it was impossible.

  “I am. Goddess help me, I am and it’s petty and awful and I hate it. I’ll get used to it. Mainly by not thinking about it and occasionally bringing it up during a fight when I’m extra mad. Sorry about that in advance. Why are you making that face at me? Stop. Stop smiling like that. You’re weirding me out.”

  “I can’t not smile at you so don’t tell me not to.”

  “Why? Are you plotting my death and how you’ll get away with it?”

  “Not right at this moment, no. I’m smiling because you please me.”

  “I hope you don’t expect me to punch your old side pieces and get mad that you loved others before I was even born or whatever.”

  “I’d never think such a thing.”

  “You’re making fun.” Her mouth nearly pouted, but she kept it on the sexy side with surly.

  “I am. In case you haven’t noticed, this is foreplay for us.” He cupped her pussy through her pants and still the heat of her branded him.

  “As long as you don’t skimp on the other parts of foreplay, we’re on the same page,” she warned.

  “I think we can both agree I don’t skimp on anything.”

  “It’s wrong that when you’re extra conceited it makes me so hot.”

  She really was the one perfect fit. No one saw him the way she did. Accepted him, even the parts he knew annoyed her. She kept him from tipping over into endless rules and regulations.

  Her energy balanced his. Her ferocity stoked his, his patience encouraged hers. They poked and taunted, but never to truly harm. He’d never felt more alive in all his years than he had since she’d stalked into his apartment and had the audacity to turn her back on him.

  Dismissing him as no threat at all.

  That was most likely the moment he’d begun to fall in love with her. “I was just remembering that first time you came to me. The way you walked out when you’d had enough of our argument.”

  “You were so shocked I had the audacity to defy you. To not give a shiny penny’s worth of a shit that you were a Scion.”

  He pulled her pants and underpants free and she climbed atop him, straddling his body as she got him naked.

  “I don’t have to feed daily,” he gave her as she slid down his cock and began to rock slowly against him. “I’m old enough that once every few days is fine unless I’m injured or use a great deal of power. More to the point, what we shared isn’t something that happens with anyone else. My donors and I are strictly professional. They do me a service but I don’t use any more glamour than enough to make sure it doesn’t hurt. I don’t use a sexual glamour at all and I haven’t since you and I have been together.”

  “Oh. Well, good. Okay, that’s good.”

  She was good around him. Hot and slick, hugging his cock as she kept him deep.

  “There’s no one else like you. No one else for me. Not ever,” he whispered and she bent to kiss him, taking those words into herself, grinding against him.

  “Take what you want.” He meant more than her climax. He offered her everything he had, everything he was.

  He found her clit, squeezing it over and over as she continued that grinding rock of her body into his until she went very still and got very quiet, all her energy on the inside as her body heated around his cock, forcing him over into orgasm right behind her.

  She fell to the b
ed at his side just moments later, both of them wheezing to get breath.

  “Nope, no skimping.”

  Rowan waited until Clive had gotten to sleep before she got out of bed and headed over to her bedchamber. She stood at the windows a while, watching as the world of daylight came to life. A world Clive had never seen outside films.

  She wished she could share that with him, but like having his children, she wasn’t going to get everything she wished for.

  Strangely enough, it was all right. She could accept that in exchange for this gift Clive had been, she’d have to pay. The good always came to balance out the bad. Or that was the plan. Sometimes it didn’t always work out that way. But it did often enough that Rowan had allowed herself to believe she could have this wondrous thing with Clive and still do her job.

  She made some notes, sent emails off to a dozen people and at long last tucked into bed. It’d be nice to get enough rest for a change. For that day she was safe. No one was going to harm her there in the heart of the Keep.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Theo was fully charged at sunset when she attended him for his tea. Clive had headed off to meet with the Scions about this whole sorcerer mess thing so it was just the two of them. All the festivities stuff would start several hours from then with the first official dinner so she took the opportunity to have some time alone with him to gauge his emotional state.

  “It does my heart good to see you so happy, Petal,” Theo told her as she turned the handle of his teacup just so.

  “Thank you. I’m also happy to see you so well.”

  “For a while I listened to music no one else can hear.” He looked off into the middle distance for a few breaths.

  She put cookies on a plate and allowed a slight clink of the tongs. Enough to snatch his attention back from wherever he’d been.

  “I’m not pleased Hunter Corp. has dug their talons into you even deeper.” He frowned.

  Nadir had updated him on what had gone on in London, but had told Rowan she’d edited to keep him from getting too angry.

  A caution Rowan approved of mightily.

  She’d share about Hunter Corp. To a point. “I’ve been with them longer than I lived here. I’m doing what I’m supposed to. I feel very certain about that.” Though she knew there were tribulations to come. A sense of dread had been hanging over her life for so long she’d greeted it like a neighbor by this point.

  Theo said, “It’s been centuries since I’ve felt this much unease. So many things changing all at once. The energy of it is delicious, but also metallic with too much worry and fear. Normally fear is tasty, but modern fear I don’t much like. In the cities modern fear leaves behind a jittery sort of film.”

  Stress. Modern humans with their rush rush rush, hurry hurry hurry. It ate them alive.

  “I don’t like that you’ll be in deeper with them. I don’t have to and you can’t make me.”

  Rowan just stared at him. Okay then.

  “I appreciate your concern, Vater.” She needed him to remain calm. The Keep was full of people and more would be arriving by the day. If he lost it she had no idea how many would die before she could get things under control again.

  “I know. I apologize. I worry because I love you. But I understand you have your own way of doing things.” Theo looked her over carefully. “I’ll find a way to tolerate it. Enzo has advised me on this.”

  He patted her hand, snatching a cookie from her plate right after.

  She laughed and he relaxed, letting go of the anger that had been building up, stinging at her skin like angry insects.

  “Tell me about your home in London then. I should like to know the details.”

  She spent the better part of the next hour telling him about the house, about their plans in Las Vegas, about the art she’d seen recently and had loved.

  “I need to dress for dinner. Enzo has peeked in on us twice now,” Theo said sometime later.

  Rowan stood, taking care of the tray, which Recht took to the door.

  “I’ll see you shortly,” she told Theo.

  “Wait. Enzo, bring the boxes please.”

  Her cousin came in with several boxes that he left on the low table near Theo.

  He patted the top box, a leather valise of sorts, before he opened it. “Your father had clothes in his rooms here when he...died. I have saved them all these years. Not able to bring myself to give them to you or throw them out. But I think it’s time.”

  She’d only seen pictures of her father. He’d died when she was a baby. Or to be more accurate, Theo had ordered her parents killed for violating the inviolable rules of humans working in service to Vampire houses.

  Some shirts, a pair of work pants. Soft slippers. A boar bristle brush and shaving kit.

  “There’s nothing of you there. Not outwardly. He worked so hard to conceal your existence, you know. But his scent changed. I can smell it even now. How he loved you.”

  Tears stung the backs of her eyes as she tore her attention from the clothes to the face of the man who—for better and for worse—had been the only father she’d ever known.

  “Having raised you. Having seen your light and your fierce spirit, I understand why he did it. I’d die for you as well. We share that, your father and I. We love you.”

  Before she could reply, he turned, calling out to Enzo that it was time to get dressed.

  She walked back to her rooms still thinking about the last several hours. Complicated was a word people used a lot when they talked about family relationships. It certainly applied to her own.

  There had to be better words. Probably a German word so why didn’t she know it? She had every reason to want Theo dead. And so many more to love him. Loving him made her feel guilty sometimes. Not loving him would have made her feel even worse.

  Yeah, complicated just didn’t do it justice.

  Clive had left a note that he’d meet her downstairs for pre-dinner drinks. Which meant he was annoyed by whatever had happened at the Scion-athon and wanted to cool down before seeing her.

  Cataline seemed to burst from a side door. “I think you should wear the green tonight. I’ll do your hair.”

  Rowan held a hand over her heart. “You scared the heck out of me.”

  “If I hadn’t come to help, you’d under style your hair. You know your father likes a more fancy hairdo.”

  She got into the green dress, something she bet Clive had picked out because it was simple and managed to be luxurious and sexy all at the same time. Her back—and thus the worst of her scars—would be under material, but the front dipped low enough to give a peek without being too much.

  Cataline twisted and pinned Rowan’s hair into a braided crown.

  “These are a present from your husband,” Cataline said as she brought out a dazzling pair of diamond chandelier-style earrings.

  “I think I’ll keep him,” Rowan murmured as she slid into shoes.

  “He does a good job in the present department and he’s certainly not hard to look at. You’ve made your father so happy, Rowan. The rest of the household too.” Cataline hugged Rowan tight before dashing off with a warning not to mess up her hair or clothes.

  Like she was four.

  Rowan put on some lipstick and after one last look, headed downstairs.

  Clive knew she was on the way, felt the build, the crackly and snap of her energy as she got closer. He smiled at the sight of her in that dress with those earrings. She looked every bit as perfect as he knew she’d be when he picked them out for her.

  She came straight to him. He kissed her wrist. “You look fantastic. Would you like a glass of champagne?”

  “Yes, that’d be lovely.”

  He clinked his glass to hers as they began to make their way though the reception, spend
ing time with each Scion, accepting gifts and congratulations in a long ritual that took a total of two and a half hours just to complete.

  Rowan hadn’t complained a single time. He knew she’d been agitated a few times. Bored here and there. Genuinely touched as well. She did everything expected of her and she did it to perfection.

  When she’d told him she was good at this, she hadn’t been bragging. Nor had it been a surprise to him. He’d seen her work a room multiple times and never ceased to be amazed by her skill at reading people.

  “Before we go into dinner, I have something for you.” Theo flicked his wrist and a rolling cart came in with a laptop on it bearing Carey’s face.

  “You didn’t think I’d miss out on all the festivities did you?” Carey asked her. “I’m here working, but I’m there in spirit. We’ll have a shindig here for you when you and Clive get back. You look gorge in that green. Dang, your dude has good taste.”

  Rowan grinned. So damned happy to see his face. To hear he was pleased for her. It rang through her emotions so clearly he didn’t have to be bonded to her to see it all over her features.

  “Thank you. Be sure to water my plants. We’ll be home in a few days.”

  There was a crashing sound in the background and Carey turned to look over his shoulder. “What the fuck?”

  Rowan got closer to the screen. “What’s happening?”

  Clive moved with her. He pulled his phone from his pocket, calling his office to get his people out to help Carey.

  The alarm went from the klaxon to red lights.

  Carey grabbed a gun from a holster attached to the underside of his desk. But it was too late. Two bodies showed up, keeping their faces out of the camera. They held Carey in place, gagging him and tying his wrists to the chair arms.

  It was a bad dream, watching as Carey struggled, ineffective against the hold they had on him. Must have been magic being used because Carey was a big guy, he should have been able to at least struggle harder.

  Fear was in his gaze as he looked into the camera.

  “You there! In my home. What is it you seek from me,” Rowan demanded, hoping she could talk them down or at the very least give time for Vampires to show up or Carey to free himself.