Blood and Blade (Goddess with a Blade #6) - Lauren Dane Page 0,2
of my spouse’s luxury car?” Rowan asked, trying to stay patient.
“You’re on a journey. A map is helpful. And Star here needed someone to guide. That’s what kelpies do. Guide. If anyone needs a guide more than you, I can’t think of who it might be.”
“I don’t need a dog. I travel a lot. My life is sort of chaotic, in case you hadn’t noticed.” And she had a fussy spouse who would shit every time the dog shed some hair or, Goddess forbid, peed in the house or something like that.
“Of course you need a dog. You have one right here. Are you paying attention, Dolly? You’re driving out here on unmarked roads. To an uncertain destination. In chaotic times as you so rightfully point out.”
“I liked it better when you drove a cab and picked me up in cars or boats full of stuffed, dead animals,” she muttered.
“In the interests of not angering your husband, I didn’t bring any of my babies along for the ride.”
Babies. Naturally he’d consider a stuffed coyote or snake or weasel to be his babies. Weirdo.
“No. Just a random dog.”
“Not random at all,” Carl said as if that answered everything.
A mile or two later he spoke. “Blood and magic. It all comes down to that.”
Rowan shoved aside the three dozen things she’d been mulling over to give him—and the road—all her focus. She needed to pay close attention to everything he said. And didn’t say.
“You ever been to the Grand Canyon?” he asked.
The dog barked and despite herself, Rowan snorted, amused. “It’s not that far from here. I went when Hunter Corp. sent me here.” It had been more of a, fine, everyone says you should see it type of thing at first. But the magic there had hummed in the air, greeting her, welcoming her the moment she’d gotten out of the car and her booted foot had hit the dirt.
There’d been so much power emanating from the earth she’d stayed three extra days. Camping and soaking it all up. A system of ley lines crisscrossed the park, guiding her and the Goddess as they settled into their new home.
“There’re a lot of juicy ley lines there, but not so much leading there from here. I expect you know that,” Rowan added.
“I’m glad you do too. I love the Grand Canyon. Makes the hair on my body stand up. Not just power. But friction. Earth rubbing against earth. Pushing up through the soil, rising. Slow but relentless friction as water flows. Canyons open up. There’s so much ancient magic and power where things touch.”
So was this about magic? Or friction? Water? Canyons? Ley lines?
“It’s about all those things and more,” he said, as if she’d spoken the words aloud.
He was quiet long enough that she knew he wanted her to fill him in on what was happening.
“So we were just in Los Angeles. We killed a big bad. Magic-using Vamp named Lyr. Blood Front is back again. Or never left. Like cockroaches. Ugh. Anyway. We aren’t done. There’s more. Someone or something more powerful. Or... I don’t know. A different power making all this upset and murder type business between paranormal groups so it can be free to do whatever its own goal is and soak up all that discord in the offing.”
“Bill Shakespeare said something about there being more here on earth than we could have dreamed of. Or something like that,” Carl told her.
Which was his way of agreeing with her.
“Your man has bad magic on him,” he said after being silent for a long while.
Ice washed over Rowan’s skin. “What? How?”
“You know what. How isn’t important and I can’t tell you anyway. The priestess witch needs to intervene.”
Damn it. Rowan had been trying to talk Clive into letting Genevieve give him the magical once-over but he’d insisted he didn’t need any help. He’d used his gifts to jump into Lyr’s brain to take his memories.
But unlike his usual instant to a few hours before all the memories from the other person came to him, this time a week had passed and Clive was still having problems accessing memories and impressions.
It had turned him into a cranky, sulky dude and it was wearing on her.
“Because you love him. You don’t like it when he’s upset and you can’t fix it.”
She growled at his comments and the way he’d yet again plucked things from her head. And because he was right and she’d turned into a sap for love. Gross.