She snarled. “I thought I’d gotten away clean when other people were put in charge of the wolf shifter workgroup.”

  David chuckled. “That was a very nice turn of events as you already have plenty on your plate. But it makes sense to leave this Principatus issue with you.”

  It had been unavoidable. She was the Vampire expert, and this was in her territory, after all.

  “Not bad for the first middle-of-the-night meeting and work session for all the new staff. Lots of sexy and gory bits to keep everyone interested.” There’d been an air of camaraderie Rowan had really liked.

  They did dangerous stuff all the time. And they had to keep it secret from most of the world. Having tight relationships at work was crucial to unit cohesion and connection. Trust. The kind of loyalty that had them putting their lives on the line for one another on a regular basis.

  She was responsible for them all. For each bright and burning soul who’d pledged to put themselves on the line for what was right. The weight of it could be stifling sometimes. But when they worked together to make something important happen, she was far more impressed and proud than burdened.

  Star bounded up with a happy bark to welcome them home. Rowan paused, knelt to be face-to-face, and was pleased when her leg cooperated without pain.

  “And how are you tonight? I haven’t seen you in a few hours, so I figured you came home to eat and catch a nap after we got Elmer handled.”

  Star licked her nose as she accepted Rowan’s pets and scratches behind her ears.

  “I’m sorry to be in so late,” Rowan told Elisabeth as they entered the kitchen. She washed her hands while she looked around to see what sort of yummy dinner was in her future.

  “You were both working. The Scion had the food from your canceled dinner at Fleur sent here. It kept,” Elisabeth said.

  “He’s on his way too. I texted him when I left the motherhouse. I’m in for the rest of the night so I’m going to change before I eat. You should go to bed,” she told Elisabeth.

  “I have worked in a Vampire’s household the entirety of my adult life. I’m quite used to being up this late to handle meals.”

  That and Clive had probably inferred strongly that Rowan needed minding after, especially as she still recovered from the ambush.

  “I’ll retire once you’ve both had your meal. Go on and get yourself into comfortable clothes. I’ll pour out a cup of tea, so it’ll be cool enough to drink by the time you get back.”

  * * *

  He came to her because it always seemed that all roads led to Rowan. She entered their sitting room just as he did.

  “There she is,” he murmured, taking her in. This version of his wife was softer than the one she was outside their home. Here she’d gotten rid of the warrior gear. She’d swapped out stab-proof material and multiple weapons pockets for soft, clingy lounge pants and a long-sleeved T-shirt bearing a graphic of a snarling honey badger holding up one paw giving a middle claw.

  She gave him a smile. “The bond is pinging more clearly these days. At least for me. When you get about a mile away in your car, I get that first real burst of feeling. Just a sort of blooming recognition that you’re near.”

  She ducked her head, always shy when it came to expressing tender emotions.

  He pulled her into his arms and kissed her until she settled that clawing need she always drew from him. “I believe it’s a case of reading it better as well as the bond we share deepening and strengthening.”

  Satisfied very much indeed, Clive spun her neatly, tucked her hand in the crook of his arm, and led her toward the door. “I’d dance you into your bedchamber right now, but Elisabeth will wait until we eat before she goes to rest.”

  “I’m home for the night anyway. We’ll eat. You can catch me up. I can catch you up and then you can fill all my filthy needs.”

  Smothering a laugh, he leaned close and breathed her in deep at the nape of her neck and slid the edge of his teeth over the sensitive skin there. Teasing.

  He turned as she did, their mouths meeting in a kiss that wasn’t slow and gentle. It was a kiss with claws, the gnash of teeth, the slide of tongues, and no small amount of heated need building between them. Need they both knew would be sated at the end of their day together.

  “If I don’t get you out before your tea gets cold, I will be scolded, so let’s get moving,” he teased, drawing her to the table where several domed platters sat.

  For a few more moments, she was soft for him and then she straightened in her chair, drawing her power back around herself. Clive settled to get comfortable next to her. “Please rest and eat first.”

  Elisabeth placed a new cup and saucer at Rowan’s place. “This is a fresh one. Chamomile with some other bits. I put in some of the blueberry honey you favor. Genevieve’s friend Ms. Lorraine sent it over. The tea and the honey.”

  “For a scary old lady, she’s got a very gooey center,” Rowan said, unaware of the irony. Though it was only Rowan’s soul that was old. She sipped the tea and shrugged. “That’s quite nice.”

  She buttered a slice of bread and hummed happily when she pulled up the cover on the first platter to find roasted potatoes. Rosemary and garlic wafted out as she spooned some onto her plate. Once she’d added chicken piccata and some roasted broccolini, Rowan seemed to take a steadying breath before she took several bites.

  They all watched her. David as he filled his own plate. Elisabeth, pleasure written all over her as Rowan so obviously appreciated the meal and her tea. Clive, assuring himself she’d be taking in enough calories to heal. Assuring himself she was okay. Alive. At his side.

  “This is exactly what I needed at the end of what has been a totally weird day. You always take care of me so well,” Rowan said in between bites.

  “Since dinner came from Fleur, there are leftovers for tomorrow. But for after you finish tonight, there’s a lemon coconut cake. If you have the room,” Elisabeth said with a pleased blush.

  “That sounds perfect.”

  He glared at her when she started speaking. “Please. Just eat for a few minutes. Recharge. Then we can do business.”

  David gave Clive an approving nod.

  Finally, after she’d gone back for seconds, she began to fill him in. “Busy freaking day! Okay, let’s see. Procella stuff. As you know, Hugo and Sergio are in holding cells. Antonia is still at the Conclave facility but might be sprung unless I can find something on her. Otherwise, we’ll use her as bait.”

  “You think she’s part of whatever it is Sergio and Hugo are up to?” Clive asked.

  “I think Antonia and her dad, Alfonso, are cosplaying as modern thinkers who reject Sergio’s old-world—all the isms—views. But the deeper I dig and see how they all act? It sure fucking looks to me like they’re not so different at all. Alfonso is still on the wind. Odd, given that we’ve got Hugo in custody at this point so I’m assuming he’s in on whatever the hell is behind the curtain, along with the rest of that damned family.”

  “Self-preservation,” Clive said. “I wouldn’t want you and Konrad Aubert looking for me at the same time. He might be in a closet somewhere rocking and weeping at the horror.”

  That made her cheer up considerably. “Wouldn’t that be awesome? Where is he? Did he manage to get himself on a ship, since he was already down there? Is someone hiding him? I don’t think he’s back in Vegas. Between me and the Devils, we’d know.” She sighed and scrunched her nose a moment. “And the mother on the way back from New Zealand? There is simply no way I believe she’s not involved with something sketchy. It’s all connected somehow. They can’t evade me forever.”

  David said, “We’re doing a deep dive on the cruise company. Vanessa reached out to her compatriot at the Southern California chapterhouse since she’s already working on intelligence gathering on the Vampire front. After I’m finished here, I’ll make a first pass through the interview and notes from New Zealand.”

  “Perfect. Coincidences are one thing, but when there are fourteen of them, it’s a pattern, not a coincidence. First thing in the morning, I’m going over to the Procellas’ mansion to search the servants’ wing,” Rowan said as she forked up a potato after sliding it through the sauce pooled on the plate. “Gonna do my daytime non-Vampire business while you’re all incapable of getting up to mischief. At least in my time zone.”

  “You’ll sleep first, though, correct?” he said. He was prepared to argue if necessary. What he wasn’t prepared to do was watch her limp again. Not without clucking at her until she rested and let her system heal itself.

  “Yes. Like I said. I’m going to go over that interview. Review my notes on the search already performed at the Procella place, and then I’ll go to sleep. But before any of that. Let me get to the Vampire portion of my to-do list. How about we start with this Sanguis Whatsits and what Elmer, Stephen Baker, and that fucking guard have to do with it.”

  “I apologize again for Eduard, the guard who attacked you. That is absolutely my failure. As for Sanguis Principatus, let me update you on what I’ve discovered after a discussion with Elmer, Stephen Baker, and Eduard. I have unredacted transcripts of the interrogations as requested so sweetly via Alice, but I’ll give you an abridged version with the pertinent bits highlighted as well.”

  She chuckled at that. “That might make me less annoyed at you.”

  Clive brushed the backs of his fingers down her throat, admiring the way she felt. So vital.

  “One does what one can to keep a mate of the quality mine has.”

  After resting her head against his arm a moment, she got back to her meal.

  The sessions were...exhaustive, but he’d gotten some answers. “There’s a connection between the three via Sanguis Principatus. The Vampire who brought them into the group was Jacques. He was Eduard’s Maker and, I’m certain you’ll be shocked to know, a contemporary of Elmer’s. Elmer claims Jacques knew of his little hobby and sent humans who might appeal his way.”

  “Of course he did. We just got the Blood Front dealt with barely a month ago. Can you all just not scheme for a little while? Just give me six months to deal with all the other stuff I need to. Then you can get back to plotting. I’m one person and you all come up with one thing after the next. I’m tired,” she confessed.

  “I was thinking rather the same earlier. A getaway would be nice at some point. We really haven’t had a break in quite some time.”

  Rowan surprised him by saying, “After the Joint Tribunal, how about we take a week and go to Venice? I’ll call ahead and have the house readied. It’ll rain a lot, but we’ll be in Venice, and I have rain boots. I think Star would love Italy.”

  It had been a rather delightful surprise to discover she had a beautifully furnished piazza in Venice, complete with staff. They’d been in the city on the trail of Enyo, a powerful, magic-wielding Vampire who’d nearly killed Rowan. In a satisfying turn of events, it was Rowan who’d ended her.

  In Venice Rowan was colorful and full of joy. More open to wandering and spending a few hours just the two of them. It made him feel young to follow as she led them down long and twisty alleys to a cicchetti bar open at night for all the various supernatural citizens of the city unable to amble into one during their more common daylight hours.

  There it would be just the two of them. Time to heal up and have great heaping amounts of sex and limoncello.

  “I’d very much like that. We can give some vacation time to Elisabeth, Betchamp, and David as well.”

  David snorted. “I’ll remain at my post so my boss doesn’t decide to come back early because she’s worried things will fall apart in her absence. I’ll claim that week at another time. I promise.”

  Rowan’s snort of laughter relaxed everyone in the vicinity. “It’s only because you’ll be here that I can even consider vacation.”

  David ducked his head a moment, clearly pleased by her confidence in him. He stood and ferried his dishes to the machine in the kitchen. “I’m going to finish up a few things, send some emails, and then go to bed. I’ll see you in the morning.” He gave Rowan a slight bow.

  They sent Elisabeth off as well and then settled on the couch in the sitting room to continue their work discussion.

  Clive grabbed one of the folded throws and tucked it around her once she rested her leg on a pillow. “Are you warm enough?”

  She nodded. “Yes, thank you. Sit and tell me more.”

  “Elmer attempted to paint himself as an integral member of Jacques’s team. I’m not so convinced, but given what he admitted, and what Baker said—he loathes Elmer—it sounds like Jacques used him as muscle.”

  “Threats from a bland guy like Elmer could actually be terrifying. I doubt he has any moral hesitation about assaulting and terrorizing people to get them to do whatever his master commanded. Lot of that in my life of late.”

  “That very thing occurred to me, as it happens. Patience is doing deeper background as we speak, but I figured you might like to do it yourself as well. Tell me about your prior run-in with Stephen Baker,” he asked. It’d been clear at the time there’d been history, but there hadn’t been any opportunity to ask for details until that point.

  “Hang on a sec. I want to send some new keywords to David and Vanessa.” Rowan tapped on her phone for a minute or two before tucking it away again.

  “About a year before I finally executed your predecessor, I got a call from one of my connections, an ER nurse. They’d brought in a woman who’d been found half-naked, raving, the bottoms of her feet torn up from running barefoot. Law enforcement figured it was drugs. But my friend the ER nurse realized the rants were about Vampires. I went over there, got the woman out and into a clinic where she could be treated for what had really happened to her.”

  Clive blew out a breath.

  “Putting together all she’d managed to remember, I ended up on the doorstep of another one of Jacques’s inner circle, Tomas Derwin.”

  Clive snarled at the name. “He was one of the first Vampires I ended when I got to Las Vegas.”

  “One of your finest qualities. Anyway. Inside Derwin’s place were far too many humans in various states of blood intoxication. Stephen Baker was one of the Vampires there and it was his bite pattern on the woman in the ER. Jacques got involved. Intervened to keep me from leaving Baker and his buddies staked out for the sun. Promised he’d keep a tighter rein on his Vampires. Baker paid restitution. I kept an eye on him until I executed Jacques and then had to spend the following year in meetings, testifying and filling out paperwork.”

  “I’m sorry it’s so tedious to kill a Scion,” he teased.

  She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, Yelena, the human in the ER that night, was all kinds of fucked-up back then. She’s a landscaper in Taos now.” She smiled briefly.

  “Well, that certainly explains why he seems to have such a deep enmity toward you.” Clive didn’t much care for it. Many Vampires distrusted or disliked her and Hunter Corp. But there was a deeper vein in some Vampires. More than distrust and dislike. Virulent hatred. Aggressive and violent. These Vampires knew Rowan was a force in the universe that could not be swayed from what was right. Their very existence was threatened by her.

  Clive would be sure Baker, Elmer, and Eduard never got the opportunity to act on their feelings toward his wife.

  “Seems odd he’d be working for Elmer. Like it should be the other way around.” She shrugged. “Vampires and their hierarchy. Anyway. Refresh me on Sanguis Principatus. I have a bare-bones idea of what they are, but it’s been a long time. I put in a request for the librarian at the London motherhouse to create a brief for me so when I wake up, I’ll have it.”

  She was asking him for information but letting him choose how much to share. A few attempts on her life ago, Clive had given up all pretext that he’d ever place anyone or anything above Rowan if he had to choose.

  She needed this information. And in the end, whatever she did, it would be to the benefit of the Vampire Nation as a whole because she was a bulldog. She would not quit until the job was done.

  “The Blood Front is older than I am. Started by aristocratic Vampire families in the late thirteenth century. Sanguis Principatus came along at the beginning of the twentieth century. Yesterday to Vampires. I had to do a quick bit of research before I interrogated Elmer to refresh myself. The Vampires who started it were born not Made, but the roots of the organization are far less class rigid than the Blood Front.”

  “I wish you all would choose to not be rigid about things that weren’t plots to subjugate humanity. I mean, that’s the aim, right? No group with a name like that is knitting socks for orphans.”

  He knew she just had to vent, so he continued. “About a hundred years ago there was an incident.” He’d already decided to tell her everything, so he did. “A reason I had to do some refreshing was they didn’t call themselves Sanguis Principatus at first. A group of them interrupted a meeting being held in New York City by high-ranking Vampires who’d been working together to set up power boundaries in the United States.”

  “What’s their angle, then?”

  “They wanted what most Vampires want. Power enough to be left alone to do whatever we choose. These upstarts felt that the United States should be ruled, and territories created by an approach as unique as its Vampires. These families—little more than organized criminal empires—wanted a place at the table and territories to control the same way powerful Vampiric families did in other territories. The old guard did not agree.”