Blood and Blade (Goddess with a Blade #6) - Lauren Dane Page 0,35

of North America. And I’m a Hunter with a goddess inside me. My job is staking you fucks when you break the Treaty. And since very few of you can be satisfied with incredible wealth, long lives and super strength, eventually laws get broken. And then I have to come in and clean up the mess your parents made.”

He winced when she mentioned the Scion bit, which she found interesting and wanted to know more about. Rowan cocked her head as something on the desk where David worked caught her eye.

She rose and headed over, picking up the token. A disk of sorts. Rowan had to grab the edge of the desk to keep her legs when her dream settled firmly into her memory. She held the symbol she saw in her dream.

David watched her and she turned the image to face him. “Do you recognize this?”

He looked closely at the image as she realized it was a stylized wolf with a dragon circling it, making a sort of frame.

After he shook his head no, David took a picture of it and began an image recognition program. She headed back, flipping the disk like a coin. On the reverse side of the wolf image was a fingerprint that appeared to be molded into the metal.

Roderick’s eyes widened and then he looked everywhere in the room but her. Bingo. This little gold token was important to her investigation. She sat again with a sigh. “Tell me about the spells you sold to Lyr.”

He stiffened and then tried to be invisible, staying silent.

“Don’t worry about my saying his name aloud. He can’t hurt you anymore. Clive killed him a little over a week ago. But, I totally can hurt you. Right now. And I think we both know I will and probably will like it because I’m just that messed up. I like to think I’m fair so I’m going to tell you the same thing I tell everyone else before we begin a delicate period of question and answer. Just tell me what I want to know. If you don’t, I’ll make you regret it. You’re not going to believe me. Or you’ll think you’re a big bad Vampire and can withstand whatever I do. And then you’ll evade my question or lie to me and I have to show you I mean business. It’s regrettable but honestly, you guys make me do it every time.”

He glared and she knew she was going to have to cut him to achieve compliance.

“Let’s start slow. How long have you been a member of the Blood Front?”

Rod just looked at her without speaking so she sprang forward and sliced into his face and neck several times before sitting back.

Chapter Ten

Clive heard the scream and hefted the box more securely and quickened his ascent down the stairs.

“Rowan is busy already,” Genevieve said, holding her own box.

“She’s a go-getter, that one,” he said as they entered the room to find Rowan sitting in a priceless chair, a bloody knife in her hand and bloody hatch marks on Roderick’s face and neck.

“I assume you gave him the speech,” Clive said to Rowan.

She shrugged with an annoyed sigh. “Of course I did. They never listen. I told you that. Oh and here, this is the image from my dream. You recognize it?” She tossed him a large coin sized disc and everything in him froze a moment when he saw what it was.

“Where did you get this?” Clive asked Roderick as he put the box down. He held up the token so there was no mistaking what he meant.

And the smirk he got in return gave Clive the answer he’d been dreading.

“What is it?” Rowan asked.

That this had been in her prophecy dream meant it was important to this exact issue.

“It’s a token, as you thought. For payment of a secret debt to be paid by a Vampire house. They’re old-fashioned. Vampires use currency now from wherever they reside. This is something Vampires relied on back during the Treaty War to pay spies and, I wager, for dark magic spellwork they could use on the enemy.”

He turned his attention back to Roderick. “I asked you a question. Where did you get this?”

Rowan appeared annoyed and Clive realized he’d stepped on her toes with the interrogation, but he needed answers about the token and he needed them immediately.

When Roderick didn’t answer, Rowan moved again, so quickly it barely registered with Clive. It was Roderick’s whimper and the sound