At Blade's Edge (12 page)

Chapter Eleven

“Are you telling me you took a cab home instead of the car for spite?” Clive asked as he followed her into the house and upstairs.

“Well, I did plan to walk over to Roth’s house, but then I realized I’d left several things here I might need like my sword and lock pick tools so I changed the plan. It was a bonus to needle you a little after having to spend the evening with your fucking family.”

He waltzed her into his arms, fully aware she allowed it. He kissed her, also fully aware she allowed that.

“You’re magnificent.”

“You just want to see my boobs.”

“You already let me see them.”

She laughed. “I do. You can see them again briefly as I change into my breaking into someone’s house while they’re at some stupid party with a bunch of other vapid assholes outfit.”

He headed to his closet to change from his suit into something far more amenable to such behavior.

“Are those jeans pressed? Goddess mine,” Rowan muttered as she came downstairs looking comfortable enough for a little crime.

“There’s no need to act uncivilized. I have a staff for a reason.” He sniffed. “If someone sees me, I like to not appear to live in a bin.”

“Bin as in trash can?”

“It’s a boot and a bonnet and a bin. And they’re biscuits.”

“Don’t forget to lecture me on how they’re crisps and chips are what you eat with fish.”

“Are you mocking me?”

“Maybe a little. You don’t need to accompany me. I was sneaky and stuff before you arrived, you know. Some people think I’m a pretty big deal. And I’ve got Genevieve meeting me there for some magical help.”

“Of course I know. I want to accompany you. I get what I want. So let’s speak of this no more.”

She rolled her eyes, but led him out the back through the alley behind the mews house.

“David is in place, keeping surveillance on Roth and his dumb hooker of a girlfriend. He says they’re still having cocktail hour before the dinner, but I want to keep this tight.”

Genevieve waited for them at the corner, stepping into sight as if she’d teleported there. Rowan needed to ask if that was something she could do because it seemed like a super cool power, spell, whatever.

“Your aura is stronger when he’s with you,” Genevieve told her without preamble as they skirted around the back of Roth’s place.

“Hot Vampire husbands are the new black, I hear.”

Clive gave her a brief look, his mouth curving up slightly.

Rowan texted David, who conferred momentarily with Carey before giving them the go ahead once the alarm system routed around the back door she then opened with a quick flick of her tools.

Once inside, Genevieve had them be still as she did some sort of spell. “We’re clear. No one will see or hear our presence. The house is empty. If you’ll allow me to take a tour of the rooms while you remain here, I can get a better idea of anything magical used to hide something.”

Rowan nodded as Genevieve left.

“She’s like no witch I’ve ever met,” Clive said. “Her power is...there is a great deal of it. And yet the flavor is...” He shook his head. “I’ve never sensed its like.”

It was easy enough after a bit to figure out what sort of witch one was dealing with. Magic had a sort of flavor or scent. Though the origin of spells and that sort of thing was way out of her league.

“Yeah, she’s one of a kind I think,” Rowan murmured. In her belly, Rowan knew Genevieve was important. Not just to this investigation, but to Rowan’s future. The Goddess agreed.

Clive said nothing further, though Rowan knew he would be thinking on how that would affect them. What political outcomes may occur, how it would keep Rowan safe or not.

Rowan may not have been perfect at the wife game, but she knew he wanted to protect her. Knew he put her first every opportunity he got. It settled her prickly nerves.

Ten minutes later, Genevieve came back to them, motioning for them to join her. They followed her into Roth’s closet.

“There.” She pointed. “He’s got a repulsion spell here. Tells your attention to shift elsewhere. It’s not elegant, or that sturdy, but it’s quite good for what it is. Someone with a gift that hasn’t been trained, most likely.”

“You should be my profiler,” Rowan said as she went to a crouch in front of the fancy pants panel just beneath a chair rail. In a fucking closet. “I was in this room and didn’t see it at all.”

“This is the most fun I’ve had in ages.” Genevieve’s voice was lazily affectionate. More human than the otherworldly tone she took on when deep within certain types of magic she worked.

Genevieve continued. “I can’t say if it was added recently or not, chances are it was given the relative strength. I wanted you to feel it before I unraveled it.”

Rowan nodded her thanks as she forced herself to focus and examine the area. Now wasn’t the time to wonder how many clues she might have missed because of such spells. Now was the time to figure out how to see through the trick the next time.

“Tell me how you see it,” she asked Genevieve. Rowan didn’t have magic. Not like practitioners did. But that didn’t mean she had to be totally helpless. There were always paths around an obstacle.

It was all a matter of what one was willing to pay to get there.

The truth of it was, Rowan was fairly certain she’d be dealing with a lot more magic in the future. It had come to live in her gut ever since she’d first dealt with the Vampire serial killer she’d had to put down in Vegas two years before.

Genevieve said, “There’s magic in every day things. Everything emits it on some level. A spell changes what is supposed to be.”

Clive had his haughty
magic is woo woo and science is science
face on, though he remained diplomatically silent. This, from a guy who was nearly half a millennia old. A fucking
Vampire.
He could be so condescending to anything he perceived as a threat to logic and reason.

If Genevieve slapped him down, it’d be rightfully so.

Instead, she waved a hand lazily. The Genevieve version of an eye roll once she caught his expression. “Just because you can explain something scientifically doesn’t mean it’s not magic. The entire universe is magic in myriad forms. It’s comets and atoms. It’s the double helix. You can call it science, but it’s all magic, including Vampires.”

Clive tipped his chin slightly. “A valid point, Ms. Aubert, and one I take as a rightful correction.”

Genevieve nodded her acceptance of his apology.

“Back to your question, Rowan. When I’m in a place I sift through it, looking, feeling what
should
be here and then what shouldn’t stands out. That’s the spell, usually. My explanation is inelegant. This is not an act that words do justice to.”

Having tried on more than one occasion to describe what it was like to have a Goddess inside her body, Rowan understood that very well.

“I get that. More than you know. I appreciate your answer, which I found quite elegant, to be honest with you. In any case, I do much the same when I investigate a scene,” Rowan told her.

Rowan got to her feet, stepping back. “I look for places where seams fit. That’s where most hidey holes are. Secret doors or drawers. Old Vamps have the best antiques with places to secret things in.”

She continued to examine the room until she realized there was a very slight change in the energy level around her when her gaze hit what was the outer edge of the spell.

So slight and nearly perfect Rowan wasn’t sure she would notice it again, especially if a lot of people were in the room, or if it was noisy or held distractions. She knew for a fact she’d already been in this room the day before and saw nothing.

Rowan
hated
that she’d failed. “Even right now after I’ve touched and examined that spot closely, I can barely see it.”

“I think the point here would be to accept you cannot be perfect. It’s a hard lesson for creatures such as we. You’re not a practitioner. You have other gifts. For those times your gifts aren’t enough, you have friends.” Genevieve drew something in the air and the spell seemed to lessen a bit. Enough that Rowan caught the edge of a panel she’d touched several times and hadn’t seen the latch on. Saw the edge of it much clearer than she had.

With a slight pop and rush of energy, the magic seemed to fall away entirely, revealing the hiding spot.

“He got this spell somewhere and he got the money for it too. This can’t have been cheap.” Now that Rowan could see the panel, she made sure there were no booby traps before she actually opened it up. “Is this clear? Can I open it?” she asked Genevieve, who assured her it was.

Inside...well, inside appeared to be the solution to many of her problems. If the flash drives and small memo books were any indication.

“Genevieve, can you put the spell back? Make it look like we never found it?” Rowan asked as she tucked things into the messenger bag she carried.

“I’ll pretend not to be offended by that question.”

Rowan snorted. “Thanks. Can you perhaps lock it so we can delay the moment he realizes his stuff is gone? I need to go through it all and we don’t have the time here.” Rowan finished up, standing once more.

“I will put it back so he believes it hasn’t been disturbed, but I’ll change the unlock. He’ll have to track down whoever crafted the spell for help. That will take more time. Then, naturally, the caster will have no luck. Ever.”

“I really love the way you think, Genevieve. Eventually, he’ll just hack through the wall with a tool of some sort, that’s what I would do. But this gives me all sorts of time. Thank you”

“I can also create a sphere around this little space that pickaxes can’t get through. Just for fun. They’ll realize they’ve been duped, but until they do, it will be extra frustrating. I find I like the idea of these idiots being frustrated and afraid of you.”

Truly, her crush on Genevieve grew by leaps and bounds each time she said stuff like that. “I like that too. It’s one of my best, happiest things.”

Genevieve cast the spell and after one last look through the house and finding nothing else, they headed out.

* * *

David met them back at the house. In
her
office, she thought with a slight frisson of fear and excitement.

There was a lot going on, even for Rowan’s life, and it seemed she’d been fighting not to drown for a very long time.

“You’re taking on new, powerful allies in a manner I quite approve of, darling.” Clive kissed her temple while David got the tea ready.

“I never imagined she’d want to involve herself like this. I haven’t seen her since before I met you. I certainly appreciate the help. Goddess knows I need it right now.”

“After all we’ve found of late, you don’t think this is the Vampires or Hunter Corp. at all, do you?” David asked as he brought a tray in.

Rowan had gotten Carey on Skype and started the meeting after activating the very fantastic and expensive security Clive had thoughtfully paid for.

“I don’t think whoever is pulling the strings is doing so to advance the Nation or Hunter Corp.” She held up a flash drive. “There are three of these.”

“David, connect those to the shared network. I’ll access from here,” Carey said, his fingers flying over the keys on his end. “Don’t worry, Ro, your dude made sure the setup there had antivirus and top of the line magic shiz.”

Rowan allowed herself a small smile. “He’s pretty okay for a Vampire, right?”

Carey snickered as he worked. “So, you were going to tell us who the big bad is this week.”

“I don’t know the who, but I know the what. This is magical. Genevieve knows it, which is one of the reasons she helped me at first. They’ve got their own internal shit apparently.”

“If so, why involve Enyo and the Blood Front? Why bring Roth in?” David asked.

“It’s a pretty Vampire move, actually. I’m impressed. The more your enemies fight with each other, the easier your job of getting rid of them both is. I don’t know the bottom line here. If there’s a pure magic thing like the Blood Front or if they’re power mad and want to rule the world. There’s a lot I don’t know right now.”

She paged through the memo book with names and numbers that looked suspiciously like a payment log.

Clive looked at it over her shoulder and winced as he took it all in. “Tell me he can’t have been stupid enough to write this down in such an easily deciphered way.”

Rowan snorted. “I’m sure it’s no surprise to you just how stupid people are when they should be far more careful. My job would be way harder if they were smarter.”

“This isn’t even encrypted,” Carey said. “Password protected, but I’ve already got some of it unraveled.”

Rowan moved to where David sat looking at a screen he shared with Carey.

Addresses and other coordinates, along with dates. Sick knowledge gathered in her belly as she grabbed the memo books and began to compare the dates.

Down the page she connected things bit by bit. She pointed at the dates and then slid her finger across to what were city names and then, she realized operation titles scribbled to the side.

“See here?” Rowan got their attention. “June 17 of last year, Geneva, and Lofty. Lofty is a field designation. It’s one of Celesse’s people from the Paris Motherhouse.”

She rolled her chair over to the unused screen and opened up her spreadsheets. Hunter Corp. kept the data ready for easy collection at the end of every quarter. It was only put together after an op had ended.

June of the prior year showed an operation in Switzerland, ending up in Geneva.

“I don’t give them this much detail in my reports usually, but...” Rowan scrubbed a hand over her face. “These are meets. They appear to have been arranged through the staff at the Motherhouse here and in Paris. I’ve used at least two of the safehouses on these. This address is coded do not use now.” He’d given their enemies information used to harm not only the mission of Hunter Corp., but the people within it.

More information popped up as she went though files. More proof. Connections between the data that had been given to some elusive someone in exchange for money were right in front of her.