Theo shrugged.
“Not this process, though. Though certainly there is a way to discuss how these things are done. Gate crashing isn’t one of them.” Brigid showed her teeth to Enyo.
“You’ll keep your words to a Vampire civil, human,” Victoriana hissed.
“Or what?” It was Rowan who spoke then. She hadn’t killed anything for three months but suddenly the lack of violence when she dearly wanted to pop someone in the face flooded through her.
Damned Vampires and their constant power displays. Exhausting. But she could do it with the best of them after all, so she sucked up her annoyance and used it.
“Or you could end up challenged.”
Rowan laughed. “Good luck with that one, Vicky.”
Clive growled under his breath and Rowan ignored him. Fuck all these assholes. All this bullshit was a waste of time. A challenge might underline her point and shore up her power all at the same time.
Since she’d been unable to drive Clive into developing a nervous tic—though he did growl more these days because of her—maybe she could transfer her efforts into pushing Victoriana into calling a challenge.
Rowan could beat Victoriana, she knew that to her bones. Enyo? Well, she was older and no doubt sneaky as fuck. But Rowan had a few things up her sleeve. And a Goddess in her belly. Still, best to focus on Victoriana and her need to white-knight for her puppet master.
“This soup is marvelous,” Clive told the server. “Please let Cook know I said so.”
That broke the tension a little, and they went back to dinner.
Chapter Twelve
Once Theo declared dinner was over—and what a horrible, tortured ninety minutes that had been—they had a twenty-minute break before heading into the big meeting. Rowan paused, writing a quick note to David and handing it to him.
She’d instructed him to get on the line with Carey to find out who this Enyo bitch was. He would have done it prior to that but it had been impossible for anyone to leave. The tension imprisoned everyone in the dining room.
Clearly, as Theo had indicated, Enyo was Blood Front. But that they hadn’t gotten any info on her before, when Carey looked at the Blood Front, worried her a little. He needed to dig deeper, and she didn’t want to risk being overheard.
David read the note and slid it into a pocket. He nodded. “I’ll be back in time for the meeting.” He turned smartly and headed up to their rooms.
Clive took her elbow and steered her off toward the fireplace in one of Theo’s numerous receiving rooms. He pressed a mug of mulled cider into her hands and narrowed his gaze. “First you nearly get into a fight with a Hunter in the hall, and then that mess in the dining room? What was that? She is not one to poke at, Rowan.”
“Roth? News travels fast around here.”
“I saw it. I was looking for you, and David sent me your way and I watched from the shadows.” The annoyance melted away, replaced by a look she knew all too well.
“You got off on it. Such a dirty bird, Scion.”
“When you’re strong and vicious it makes me want to leap on you and lick every part of your skin.”
Rowan fluttered her lashes. “Isn’t this better than you being angry with me?”
He groaned and the annoyance was back. “Stop poking ancient Vampires, Rowan, or you won’t be around for me to lick. Tell your goddess to be careful.”
“Look, I’m sure you won’t believe me, but She comes when she wants.”
“Well, tell her not to! Damn it, Rowan, this is not a Vampire to play with.”
Rowan sighed. “Look, let me repeat myself. She comes when she wants to. She’s a Goddess, Scion. They’re sort of the epitome of I do what I want. If She came to me that way, She had a reason. She doesn’t idly play with her food. They have a history in some way. I just have to figure out what.”
“And during dinner? Vicky? Christ, Rowan, you’re going to push her too far.”
“Who’s to say that’s not my plan?” She breathed the words into his ear.
He growled, shoving a hand through that perfectly brushed hair, and Rowan held back a smile. He really was cute sometimes.
“Don’t growl. Save your voice for arguing with me in a few minutes.” She patted his hand.
“If Vampires could have heart attacks, you’d have killed me with one by now. The human male you throttled wants the Hunter Corp. to fire you. Can you just, for once, take a smaller bite? Do you have to be on everyone’s list at the same time? Don’t you get tired?”
Rowan blew out a breath. Yes, yes, she did. But what did it matter? Things needed doing, and she needed to do them. Wallowing never helped anything.
“My path is my path. I’ve said that many times the last few days, but it makes it no less true. I’m here for a reason. I stand between humans and Vampires and between Vampires and Hunters. If She makes herself known by throwing some weird language at a bitchy old Vampire, She did so to help me in some way. As for Roth? I have no doubt he rang up the Motherhouse and told Hilary Sams what a horrible person I was for attacking him unprovoked. He’s such a crybaby.”
“Ancient Greek.”
“What?”
“The language She spoke to Enyo. It was ancient Greek. And yes, that’s what he said, though he claimed you tried to choke him.”
“Tried? Whatever. If I’d wanted to choke him, he’d have gotten choked.” She waved a hand, annoyed. “Okay, so I know Enyo is a few grand old. Lovely.” Rowan also figured her ego might be easier to manipulate too. Hopefully. You live a few thousand years and you start to think you’re infallible. Hard to kill and extremely long lived was not infallible.
It didn’t shed much light on whatever Brigid’s beef with Enyo was, but the window for potential issues was pretty big.
“As for Roth, I can’t worry about him. He’s making waves, but it’s just going to keep him from reaching the shore.” Roth thought he was going to shut the amendment down. But he was instead focused on Rowan instead of the amendment. It was a waste of time, which was fine because it kept him busy on something ineffectual. She’d expected more from a guy with that much time on the Hunter payroll.
People were a constant disappointment.
“What do you mean?” Suspicion ruled Clive’s features.
She waved a hand at him and wrestled back a smile. “Hush. I’m not sharing my game plan with you. You’re the enemy.”
“I’m not your enemy. Have I ever told you how much I love it when you wear that shade of lipstick?”
She made a frustrated sound, flattered but that was beside the point. “They already think I’m too soft on Vampires as it is. Apparently they think I’ve been enchanted by your penis.” She rolled her eyes, and he looked offended. “You do your job. I’ll do mine.”
“I have it on good authority it’s an excellent penis.” He paused just a moment before he blurted out on a soft breath, “I love you.”
She blinked at him, utterly without words.
He smiled, brushing a tendril of her hair back. “When you turned your back on Roth in the hall earlier and walked away? You were magnificent. I knew then. There’s no one else in the universe for me but you.”
If he’d said she was beautiful, she’d have waved it off as fluff and flattery. But his declaration of love followed by a compliment on her bloodthirsty ways? That was genuine. And something that mattered to her.
Still, he’d left her totally flustered. “You can’t love me. I’m the Hunter. I killed your predecessor. I kill Vampires. Though, yes, your penis is quite delightful.”
His smile didn’t waver for a moment. “I can. And I know. I know who you are. And I know what you are. I know if I did the things my predecessor did, you’d kill me too. You are...” He licked his lips, thinking. “You are the most steadfast individual I’ve ever met.
Yes, you have a job to do and I have a job to do. And we may not always agree what is best, and I will ever work to protect my people. But you do have a path and it is true. And it is honorable. And remarkable. I love you, Rowan Summerwaite, Vessel, Hunter, Vasallus.”
She blushed, but before she could reply, a group of Vampires came down the hallway toward the room their meeting would be held in.
“We have a meeting to go to. I need to meet with my people before I head in. Good luck, and please, if for no other reason than my nerves, watch yourself.” He kissed her forehead and with a small bow, left the room.
She stood there for long moments, staring at the space he’d just been, struck utterly silly by his declaration of love. She was thirty years old and no man had ever told her that. She wouldn’t have believed it anyway. But...Clive was something entirely different. Things were never boring with him around. Stuffy as he was, at the end of the day he let her be. Never tried to change her even when to do so would make his life a lot easier.
Allowing herself a small, satisfied smile, she headed out and to her own meeting.
* * *
She met with her people just outside the main meeting room, a place she’d spent a lot of time in as a child. She’d been given all manner of lessons in the space, as well as attended multiple private dinners and meetings with Vampires who’d come to visit Theo.
Rowan pushed the past away. Pushed away the flustering declaration of love by her uptight Scion and focused. Time for business.
“All right, let’s not waste time and get right to the meat of the issue. Hunter Corp. has presented an amendment to the Treaty. You’ve all received a copy of the amendment and our position paper on why we’re proposing it.”
Rowan didn’t bother sitting, she liked to range around.
“I call for a vote.” Victoriana raised a hand.
“You’re not a member of the committee. You’re not recognized.” Paola spoke and didn’t bother to hide her disdain.
“I’m a member of the Vampire Nation.”
Paola looked murderous. “Yes, but you’re not a member of this committee. As we’ve already gone over earlier. The rules state the only votes that hold sway are those of the members of this committee. There are eight members of this committee. You are not one of those eight.”
Rowan blew out a breath. “Some of you are under the impression that this is some sort of mock trial held at a secondary school. Or a seminar. The makeup of the committee is what it is. It is what it has been for two hundred years now. If you have a problem with how that works, there’s a process in place for that. This is not the appropriate venue for shouted-out upset that you were too lazy to take part in the hard work of coming up with the work for this committee and want to jump in now.”
“This is outrageous. This is not even democracy!” Valerie spoke and then looked to Roth for approval.
Rowan didn’t hide her disdain. “Shall I get you a dictionary, Ms. Portman? Then you can look up democracy and then you can look at the charter of Hunter Corporation and the Vampire Nation. Most of the words you would see would not be found in the definition of democracy.”
“Enough. This is not amateur hour. Or Prime Minister’s Question Time.” Paola sighed, pulling the paper with the proposed amendment out. “We took a straw poll among our members. We don’t have enough to vote this into effect. Nor do we have the votes to rule it out.”
“What are the issues at the heart of the contention then?”
“You cannot get involved in every single issue within the Vampire Nation!” Damn, that Victoriana was a shrill bitch.
“One more outburst from anyone not recognized by the co-chairs of this committee—that would be me or Rowan Summerwaite—and that person will be removed from the room and sent home from this Joint Tribunal.”
“Based on whose authority?” It was Enyo who spoke, her magic sliding through the room.
Paola narrowed her gaze, and Rowan stood back and watched the ancient Vampire dick measuring begin. “If you’d like to read how the organization of the Joint Tribunal is made up, or how the Nation was formed to start with, Rowan pointed out that there are copies of the charters for both in the library. I have the authority here to run this committee. You’re a visitor.”
Enyo began to speak again, and Rowan made a cutting motion through the air. “Enough! You are wasting my time. This is a meeting and we have an agenda. Stay on topic or shut up. Your feelings one way or the other are of no consequence here. If you don’t like that reality, I really don’t care. Take it up with your own people.” She turned a glare on Valerie and Roth. “And if you don’t like it, you know the number to the Motherhouse. Call Hilary and see what she has to say. But if you interrupt one more time, you will be ejected and I will do it myself.”
Silence hung heavy as Victoriana attempted to use her thrall on Rowan.
Rowan fell away as Brigid rose again, grabbing that magic and tossing it back to Victoriana, who fell out of her chair. “You have been warned about using your petty magics on humans. If you do it again, there will be grave consequences, Vampire.”
She turned back to Paola, who widened her eyes a moment and then shrugged.
“Now, to get back to the subject at hand, what are the issues at the heart of the contention?”
Takahiro lifted a finger. “We don’t want you having more oversight. You have enough as it is.”
Which was a fair enough worry in Rowan’s estimation.
Celesse answered the issue. “How, then, do you propose we get around the basic facts here? First, that you did not notify Hunter Corp. of something important and that when Rowan brought this up, she was told you were not required to by the Treaty. And the withholding of that information led to a Hunter having to clean up a Nation-made mess?”
“I don’t support changing the Treaty for one issue.” Takahiro shrugged. “In the big picture, four humans died. I don’t believe we should cede any more of our sovereignty for that. There are billions of humans. It was a rogue who did the deed. Thank you for taking care of that problem but that does not mean we need to give Hunter Corp. more power over us.”
“The issue isn’t the number of humans who were murdered by one of yours. The issue is that without this Treaty, you were not mandated to share the information that the blood barrier had been broken for crystal meth. A dangerous drug in humans and lethal beyond anything I’ve seen in an old Vampire. This was pertinent, not just in the case of the investigation of this rogue, but in general.”
“It’s not your business. You have no call to know everything about us.” Victoriana spoke yet again.
“Is that so? Then how are we supposed to keep you monsters in line?” Roth shot back.
Rowan moved to where Roth sat and hauled him from his seat. “You were warned.” She attempted to shuffle him to the door, but he put up a fight and she went very still and let him see the danger in her gaze.
“Don’t push me, Wesslyian.” She tightened her grasp and he started yelling. “We don’t need a Treaty. We’d be better off killing you all when the sun was up and ridding the earth of every last one of you.”
She spun, pulling him into a chokehold, and shoved him with her body to the door. The sense of absurdity nearly overwhelmed Rowan. This was a Full Partner with three decades of service under his belt acting like a hooligan. It made absolutely no sense.
Valerie got up, screeching, and Celesse, who’d gotten up when Rowan had, stalked to Valerie, grabbed her by the hair and yanked. “Shut up, you stupid girl!”
Rowan called back over her shoulder, “I’ll be back in a moment.” Celesse followed leading a caterwauling Valerie by the hair.
Out in the hallway once the door had been closed, Rowan shoved Roth away.
“You bitch! How dare you manhandle me?”
“Fuck you. I dare because
I’m the bitch who has the job. And you are leaving. Immediately.”
“You don’t have the authority.”
“You think so?”
She turned and made a motion to one of the guards, who approached carefully. “Yes, Rowan?”
“Please have all of Mr. Wesslyian’s and Ms. Portman’s things packed while you keep them confined to the front sitting room. If either attempts to leave, you have the permission of Hunter Corporation to prevent that with whatever level of force you deem necessary.”
The guard smiled, showing sharp white teeth, and nodded.
“You can’t do this!” Roth ran at her and she ducked her leg out and then followed with a cuff of her fist to his temple, dropping him into an unconscious heap.
“What the everloving fuck?”
Celesse sighed and held Valerie, who continued to screech. She slapped Valerie’s cheek hard enough to cut through the freakout. “Stop embarrassing yourself and be quiet.”
Rowan had been slapped that hard a few times, but she’d been sixteen at the time. Celesse didn’t normally resort to force, but once her patience had been exhausted, she tolerated no more bullshit.
“I can’t believe you hit me.” Valerie blinked back tears.
“Believe it. And while you’re at it, know I’ll do it again if you can’t keep yourself under control. You’re in enough trouble, Valerie, don’t make it worse.”
Cataline showed up, her attention only on Rowan. “Their things are being readied for departure.”
Rowan pressed the bridge of her nose. “Thank you. We’ll call the Motherhouse and have them arrange for pickup at the airfield.”
“Shall I also arrange for a transport from here to the airfield?” Cataline didn’t miss a thing.
“Immediately, please. These two are not to speak to anyone.” Rowan nudged an unconscious Roth with the toe of her boot.
“This will be the end for you.” Valerie sneered. “You’ve just attacked a partner of Hunter Corp.!”
“Hey, dumbass, I’m a partner of Hunter Corp. So is Celesse. We’re not that rare around here. Nor are we allowed to attempt to derail a meeting of the Joint Tribunal against express orders. Get on that plane and do it quietly and maybe you’ll get a decent letter of recommendation. Not from me, of course, but someone might feel sorry for you.”