That tired line.

  “Sure. I’m certain you won’t have any trouble producing the names of the Vampires you sold adepts to. So that we can verify ourselves they’re all in place of their own free will. Seems like consent has been a tricky issue for you in this business venture,” Rowan said.

  “I’m bound by a nondisclosure agreement.”

  Rowan laughed long and hard at that. “No, you aren’t. Even if you did such a ridiculous thing, it doesn’t matter. You can’t NDA your way around this. NDA.” She laughed some more. “You’re not some starlet going to a celebrity sex and drug party up in the hills. You’re stalking and trafficking in humans and other witches to sell off to Vampires to use up like a carton of milk.”

  “They’re treated like royalty!”

  “I’ve got two witches recovering from being your idea of royalty and another still missing.” Their physical wounds were healed, but the emotional and mental damage would take a great deal of time and effort to process. That spurred Rowan on. “Both have identified you as being at the scene of multiple events. I should add this lest you get ideas, that Vampire who bought Kerry? He’s in Vampire Nation custody. In a cell in a dungeon kept by the First. Nothing you could even dream up would be half as bad as the reality he’s facing. I spoke to his inquisitor a few hours ago. He texted me twice to let me know they were getting somewhere. Mardoc is not going to protect you. He can’t even protect himself. And when he’s offered a chance to get a reprieve from his interrogations, we’ll know more about you. You’re fucked. So, you can make it worse by refusing to tell us what the hell you’ve done. Or you can at least raise the standard of the type of fucked you are by answering our questions.”

  “For over thirty years everything was legal,” Fiona all but snarled. “I said all along we didn’t need the ones who weren’t interested. There are plenty of adepts over the years who jumped at the opportunity. More than enough profit for everyone. Our stop-loss rate was very low. Those adepts who didn’t wish to be bound to a Vampire rarely even made it to the stage where the Vampires met them and began to...we called it courting because they would get to know each other. Vampires are very charming.

  “But Teresa got greedy. She and Rose decided even that loss of a few adepts a year was too much. Teresa ran to the others to tattle. Convinced them we lost too much money each time we allowed anyone to leave because we had to start the process over with new recruits.”

  Recruits. Stop loss. Rowan shoved her disgust deep, trying to keep a blank expression to encourage Fiona to keep talking.

  “By that point, Teresa had moved on from Hugo to Sergio. And she convinced the others to let the Procellas join the group. Her big selling point was that Sergio had Hugo on a leash and Hugo had a talent with coercive magics. Worse, she arranged a premium! The Vampires she was dealing with directly were willing to pay more when it wasn’t willing and extra measures like magic and other types of discipline had to be employed.”

  The casual way this witch spoke about the depraved things they were doing to adepts brought a rage so hot it scalded. It was more than just Brigid being upset; it was a union between them. Each new thing she learned was worse than the last. These witches and Vampires needed to be ended.

  It was like a cork had been popped as Fiona continued this torrent of bitter truth.

  “Joseph is weak, and Rose is, well, she’s a sociopath. She only did it for the entertainment. Like pulling wings off flies. The Sansburys don’t even need the money. The Salazars live a quiet but very expensive life. The new bonus and premium system seemed to put paid to any qualms they may have had. Gerard and I were outvoted. What could we do by that point? At least there were people on the inside who tried to ensure the adepts were willing by the end of the trial period.”

  Rowan showed her teeth a moment as she leaned over the table slightly. “So when they weren’t willing and you ordered a witch to be bitten repeatedly and not have her wounds healed? This is the discipline you mean? Why not use Hugo to change her mind? Why torture her?”

  “Cases with reticent recruits are very rare. The female witch needed discipline because she had a natural resistance to Hugo’s coercion magics. The other one with her, the male, he was swayed and most likely we could have turned the woman around too. But we didn’t have time and then she escaped. Gerard and I didn’t have any choice. Were we supposed to call the Conclave to turn them in? Walk away from a business I was instrumental in starting and running for over three decades when it hit a bump or two?”

  “But you, the face and power within the Conclave as it pertains to the Clare line, were...helpless against a witch you described as a secretary? This is rather confusing.” Genevieve cocked her head.

  Fiona flinched, but to her credit, she soldiered on. “It didn’t start out that way. A hundred years ago Teresa worked for me doing administrative tasks. I still had a stage career, but the Clares have always run a business empire, so she worked on that side of things. Teresa isn’t very bright, but she’s vicious, petty, and greedy. She used everything she could to gain power and influence all while she ingratiated herself into the family business. Like a tick.

  “Then in the seventies, she met and attached herself to Rose. And the two of them liked Vampires. A lot.” Fiona curled her lip a moment. “They partied in Las Vegas with the Vampires there.”

  Bingo. That’s how they hooked up with Jacques and the other Vampires and discovered the world of adepts. And the Clares discovered Sanguis Principatus. Damn all these long-game feints Vampires were so fond of.

  Fiona kept going. “That connection to the Vampire Nation and the Scion was quite profitable for us. We arranged parties and events with er...paid entertainment who were all adepts. That’s how it all started. And it only allowed Teresa to dig her claws in deeper to the family and the group until she worked out what each member of the group wanted or needed and manipulated until she got whatever she wanted.”

  Genevieve huffed an annoyed breath. “Then you decided to come to the Conclave for permission to use more coercive magic on humans? You didn’t think this could get our attention when you were already breaking our most sacrosanct laws? What sort of madness is this?”

  “Those fucking Procellas!” Fiona threw her hands up, rage on her face. “Truth is, none of us even knew about that petition to the Conclave until right after they’d done it, and it was too late. Sergio and Teresa figured since Hugo had the gift, they could use it on their various properties to fleece humans more efficiently. She said she wanted to diversify her arm of the business. She sold it as a way to also keep an eye out for anyone they might recruit for a Vampire client. We’ve had a great deal of success in attracting adepts through our various entertainment-based events so that’s what she claimed when we called her out.” Fiona sighed deeply. “All that greed made Teresa even more stupid because Hugo is not only a pig, it was that petition that ended everything!”

  Genevieve shrugged. “Well, it was the petition that made me look twice at what you were all doing.”

  Rowan added, “That and trying to have me killed in the middle of the day on one of the busiest and most surveilled streets in the country.”

  “Of course their vulgarity ended up with werewolf assassins on the Las Vegas Strip. And of course it’s my bimbo cousin who’s put us in this position. We are legitimate business owners. We made a mistake, but it was to rely on family. Surely you can see that.”

  “Who’s the connection with the Vampires? Not back in the day when you ran adept hookers for their parties, but now,” Rowan asked instead of replying to Fiona’s bullshit.

  “Teresa used to sleep with some friend of the Scion. Not the one you’re married to,” she said to Rowan, “the one before him. She was always at their parties. Eduard something or other.”

  The guard who’d attacked Rowan at Die Mitte and a known member of Sanguis Principatus.

  Fuck. All sorts of things began to shift and began to make sense.

  “He and Mardoc, the creepy old Vampire, were friends from way back.” She looked at Rowan with a smirk. “Then Mardoc got himself in big trouble for threatening to kill Hunters. The other Vampires in their group lost their minds as they should have, because this sort of thing should be private! He and Hugo, absolute creeps. We had to send the two recruits we had left to another location because of the brawl the Vampires started and then disappeared after everything began to crumble around us. The male, Jaylin, had been engaged by a Vampire recommended to us via Mardoc. He was supposed to have gone with the human Mardoc took, but Mardoc ran off with the human and left Jaylin behind. I don’t know where Stephen is. He’s the one who engaged the services of the female witch, but he’s ghosting us. And Eduard hasn’t returned my calls either.”

  “That’s because Stephen and Eduard are in custody of the Vampire Nation.” Rowan stared at Fiona. “But back to your story. You’re saying Teresa met up with Eduard and hung out with all those Vampires who were buddies with Jacques and then you hatched this trafficking ring?”

  “It’s not trafficking! For over thirty years we simply brought parties with the same interests together. A lucrative introduction service. Teresa is the one who changed things five years ago. I can’t be responsible for that. It was her idea.”

  They could call it whatever the fuck they wanted, but it didn’t change reality.

  “Where did Mardoc take Kerry? If you help us find her, you might escape with your life,” Genevieve said.

  Fiona paled. “Life?”

  “Have you been paying attention at all? Is the situation not dire enough for you?” Rowan snapped.

  “If you do not cooperate—and that includes removing the geas you’ve placed on the others, as well as giving us the location of our missing—you will be executed for your part in this conspiracy. It’s up to you.”

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Clive took his wife in as she stalked down a hallway toward an interview room. She’d only found out minutes before, as they were flying back home to Las Vegas, that the missing human woman, Kerry, had been found. And it hadn’t been good news.

  He knew Rowan was taking it personally. Full of guilt that she was unable to figure out this twisty, fucked-up conspiracy in time to save Kerry’s life.

  The set of Genevieve’s mouth said she felt the same guilt as Rowan, and as much as Clive would shove someone in the way to take a hit that was not Rowan’s, it wasn’t Genevieve’s either.

  The witches had a lot to account for. As did the Vampires.

  Christ. The absolute shambolic shit show these Sanguis Principatus Vampires had created; the layers of discipline Clive had to administer as well as the scorched-earth way he would have to react to this would be a massive undertaking.

  He had other things he’d prefer to deal with, which only made him angrier.

  “Send Elmer next,” Rowan said to one of the Vampire guards. “I don’t need him for this part. Eduard first.”

  The former guard physically recoiled when Rowan entered the room and she narrowed her gaze at him, the predator inside going sharp and still. Goddess she was magnificent.

  “Sanguis Principatus has been involved in a scheme with a bunch of witches to stalk, kidnap, and enslave adepts. You were so very high and mighty when you were questioned at first. Remember that? Oh woe, the Hunter found out my pervert best friend Elmer has been sniffing around teenagers. That might endanger my deal with Stephen Baker for all those sweet adepts, so I’ll pretend I’m morally outraged. You’re fucking pathetic.”

  Starting strong.

  Clive simply sat back and let his wife do what she did best. Whatever was left of Eduard when she was finished with him, Clive would crush under his boot.

  Eduard jerked back with the end of each sentence, his mouth dropping open for a moment at the end.

  “You see,” Rowan continued without waiting for a reply, “many Vampires like to think they’re smarter than everyone else because they’re older. Or because they have superpowers. It’s your weakest spot and goddess love you all, you just keep doing it. Over and over and over. I come in, things are hinky as fuck and I run you all to ground. And I do, because you’re stupid and think self-control is for other people. So here I am, Ed. Looking at a stupid motherfucker—yet again—who thought with his ego instead of his brain.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Eduard managed.

  “Teresa says hi. She also said you were terrible in bed and never made her come unless you took her blood. I’m not surprised at all to hear you’re too lazy to find a clit and give it some attention.”

  Eduard’s color rose and Rowan chuckled.

  “I’m talking to Stephen after this. And Elmer. So you know the deal. First one to talk gets a better deal from Hunter Corp.”

  Certainly not from the Nation. But she’d said it that way to keep Eduard’s mind off that fact.

  “These crimes are judged by a panel. A panel we’ve already charged with examining all the evidence we’ve collected,” Clive said. “Being cooperative is imperative to your very existence.”

  “Shall I tell you how I think it went down?” Rowan asked with deceptive calm. Clive felt the surge of her emotions, knew she would never lose control, but also understood she wanted to. “That night when I arrested Elmer, Stephen called to let you know I was about to arrest Elmer. And you both knew Elmer was a liability to your little trafficking ring because he’s a scumbag with zero concern about how whatever he did would bring you into the spotlight eventually, so you let him get caught and figured you’d handle him when he arrived here to be thrown into a cell.” Rowan waved a hand. “Anyhoodle, your little stunt by putting hands on me was you panicking, but also a signal to let Elmer know you saw him. You wanted him to think you were protecting him, but he also knew it was a warning to shut up since he was in a cell here and at your mercy. You saw that footage of the ambush and that I was using a cane and you assumed I was weak. You could have made your point and backed off, but you underestimated me, and I knocked you the fuck out. Taintweasel.”

  Rowan tipped her head back and laughed. Brigid rose then and seemed to fill the room up as an amber halo of power radiated around Rowan’s body. The air was thick with magic. Rowan’s unique magic as a Vessel.

  Eduard blinked fast and swallowed audibly.

  Clive watched Rowan level her gaze on Eduard, freezing him there in terror for long moments.

  Finally, he said to Clive, “For thirty-one years, Sanguis Principatus provided a service to our members. An introduction to the sweetest feeds possible. No Nation laws were broken, nor was the Treaty violated. Jacques was a real Scion who served his Vampires.”

  “He’s not going to respond,” Rowan interrupted. “You and I are talking about your little club and all the years after the first thirty-one when oodles of laws, Nation, Treaty, and the Conclave, were being broken. Focus.”

  Eduard licked his lips. “I wasn’t part of that. I have blood servants. Adepts who willingly serve me. I don’t need to force anyone. You can’t pin that on me.”

  “Look, let’s not do this. You’re trying to quibble here; claim you didn’t use magic and violence to break an unwilling adept, so you’re not like the others who did. But if it’s not a deal breaker to you, you’re exactly the same. There were underage adepts. Your little introductions for Elmer.”

  A guess, Clive knew. But when the words landed, Eduard’s change of expression said it was an accurate one. His wife’s intuition remained undefeated.

  “Not in the years since Scion Stewart took over.”

  Before that, the territory was lawless when it came to such rules and the Nation had been on the other side of the ocean, and as long as the profits rolled in and appearances were kept, they’d been left alone.

  “He was fine for a few years, but he wanted more, and we didn’t want the possible problems, so we said no. Offered him adepts who were still young, but legal adults. He started hunting again to get his own. We have nothing to do with that. You can’t hold us responsible for it.” Eduard tried to fold his arms over his chest, but his wrists were shackled.

  Rowan made a low sound in her throat. A growling snarl as she processed that information about Elmer.

  “We know you’re the one who has been feeding Mardoc and his ridiculous lords information about Scion Stewart’s territory and my activities,” Rowan said, standing. “Armas, one of his little friends and the Vampire who was expecting delivery of Jaylin Prince, confessed.”

  Mardoc had bragged about his deal with Sanguis Principatus and the various other services they provided members. Armas had only been an official member for a few months when Mardoc had convinced him and the others that Rowan and Hunter Corp. were weak, and it was time to cause them trouble and keep them hobbled and ineffective.

  “Don’t judge them too harshly,” Clive said. “They’ve been guests of the First in his dungeons. Andros has been attending them all.”

  “Theo came to visit Mardoc. That loosened his tongue, I’m told.” Rowan snorted.

  Clive suppressed a shudder. At one time in what felt like another life, he’d had been subject to the First’s displeasure and discipline.

  “Tell us everything or I’m walking out of here. No more games. I’m done with you,” Rowan said, her hand on the doorknob.

  “Fine!”

  Rowan knocked on the door and David came in, seating himself, reading for notes. Alice was doing the same.

  “Start at the beginning. You and Teresa.”

  * * *

  An hour and a half later, an insulated mug of coffee at her left hand, Rowan and Clive sat across from Stephen Baker. They’d moved Elmer’s interrogation again, knowing they’d get more information from Baker to pile on Elmer’s head.