Blood and Blade (Goddess with a Blade #6) - Lauren Dane Page 0,37

battle axe,” Rowan said. Her hands were sticky with Rod’s blood but her mind was racing with possible scenarios about the revelation that Thomas Stewart was not only Blood Front, but working with this other power who’d been setting them all against one another. He’d been involved in the murder of her friends. Had been there when she watched Carey’s murder via computer screen.

More pressing was the risk to the entire Stewart line. How Clive reacted and whatever punishment he issued, it had to be laser perfect. Brutal and merciless. Otherwise when Theo found out, he’d want to erase not only House Stewart in its entirety from the face of the earth, but he’d murder Clive and take North America.

And once in that sort of bloodlust state, he’d lose what small hold he had on sanity and who knew what he would do? He was super old and had a lot of enemies and grievances. Untold misery and death would flow from that.

Rowan was Clive’s secret weapon. The nuclear option, but she’d do it to save Clive and his parents.

First they had to get all the info they could from Rod. Clive could indeed tap into Rod’s head and take his memories. It would most likely leave Rod a mess and the memories weren’t like an encyclopedia article. It was bits and pieces and symbols and faces. It had to be put together and it took time. And even then, just because Rod had experienced it didn’t mean Clive would see it. It wasn’t that fine a tool.

It’d be easier and more expedient to just get the information via interrogation and by that point, Rod wasn’t going to put up a fight. Rowan knew that silver had to burn. Hoped it did because he was part of the group that had her friends murdered.

Clive had gone full Vamp. His eyes held that otherworldly light. His voice seemed charming and melodic but it was totally his glamour. He had the dial turned up to eleven.

Even if she couldn’t see that with her own eyes, she sure as fuck felt it through their bond. He was rip-apart-cars level mad.

“Where do you get the spells?” Clive demanded.

“I have sources. Mages and sorcerers who make extras to send my way. It’s a boutique business and I only serve the highest quality of clientele.” Rod looked to Rowan who flipped him off.

“Names and contact information,” Clive ordered.

Rod tried to hem and haw but finally gave them the information. Genevieve spent a few minutes conferring back and forth with someone over her phone before she came back into the room.

“How long have you been working with Thomas?” Clive asked.

“Four years.”

“Who runs the Blood Front now?” Rowan asked as she chose a stiletto that’d been edged in silver and quenched in holy water. “Answer me completely and honestly and do not make me repeat myself. This is heading for your eye if you fuck around. I swear to you right now.”

He believed her. “Garen.”

“Was he in charge during the last purge handed down by The First?” Theo had not too long ago gone out and slaughtered entire lines of Vampires he’d found to be part of a Blood Front conspiracy that had aimed to kill Rowan and weaken the Vampire Nation to start a war.

He’d killed a whole lot of Vampires then so she found it astonishing that these fuckers didn’t just find a new hobby to avoid trouble from their leader.

Rod said, “No. He was third in line. When the others were disciplined and there were leadership openings, he took it on.”

Rowan probably saw the back of her brain when she rolled her eyes. “Disciplined. That’s a word for it. He hunted them down. Ran them into the ground. Killed them painfully by ripping them apart and then he ate them. Bones and all and shit them out. That’s what happened to them. Their names will never be spoken officially again. Those who managed to escape him the first time will truly understand what a miscalculation it was to continue playing Blood Front Vampire instead of vacationing in Paris. I will never understand how stupid you all can be when it comes to your existence.”

“Who is working with Thomas within House Stewart?” Clive asked.

“Like me, Thomas has family who ignore his brilliance. And so he must suffer the weight alone.”

“I should stab you in the face for believing such utter bullshit,” Rowan said. She should do it anyway. If anyone deserved to be stabbed in the