splayed on her belly against the cool tile before she turned back to Betchamp. “No. No worries. She does have very strong ideas and you were right to let her lead. And to ride with this cabbie who yes, I believe is...he’s sort of my fairy god-sage mentor type person. He’s the one who brought Star to me to start with. If he took Star somewhere, she needed to go there. So thank you. And thank you for taking care of us all.” If Carl was involved again so soon after helping her the last time, things must be in motion that were severe or dire enough to warrant the extra attention. That was worrisome but she appreciated the help in any case.
Betchamp’s pleasure was evident in the color rising to his cheeks and that made Rowan doubly glad she’d thanked him.
“Star, you want to come on a ride with me and Auntie Genevieve? We can also stop by that spot you sniffed out near the Tower.”
The dog rolled to her back, grin on her mouth, tongue lolling. She wriggled a little before getting to her feet with a yodel type bark.
“Well, that’s a new one. I can’t wait to see what your daddy thinks of that sound.” Rowan snickered a while as she gathered her things and called David over to see if he wanted to accompany them. Which of course he did.
And he managed to talk her into his driving so she could keep an eye out for somewhere they might need to stop.
The place near the Tower was first. Star didn’t point out a bad guy’s door or bark at a truck or whatever. She trotted around, sniffing. She paused at a marker of some sort and Rowan took a photo of it and the symbol on it. It was one of those markers the city used to point out historical stuff. She did the same around the end of a hedgerow and a short stone wall.
After twenty minutes of dog stuff, Star moved back to the car so Rowan followed. She’d figure it out later. Maybe.
They went to Arthur’s flat next.
The violence of the night before still hung in the air, making her stomach twist a little as she remembered it was Clive who had to execute his uncles and their entire lines. Yes, it had to happen and yes, they were both pissant traitors who got a lot of people killed, including Carey and Thena. It would have been easier for Rowan to have handled it. And she would have without flinching because she loved the people they got murdered and because some creatures needed to be rubbed out of existence. Those two fucking assholes deserved to die twice.
“Let’s rip this place apart. We’ll try not to fuck up the antiques.” Rowan figured they’d sell the house and the stuff inside to pay Warren and the Vampire Nation in reparations for the damage Arthur and Thomas did.
“This place isn’t even warded!” Genevieve moved through the first floor muttering in French about inept Vampires.
For someone involved with all the black market magic, Arthur and his side chick had a lack of traps hiding their lawbreaking. Within the first half an hour they’d found thumb drives and some negatives and other potential evidence as they avoided the remains of the violence all throughout the flat. Rowan figured there’d been at least five, probably six Vampires in residence the night before given the stains on the carpet.
She was going to have to contact the Dust Devils in London for their particular type of cleaning skills to deal with the flat she was in and Thomas’s place as well. She’d need to see both first and also speak with Clive about it before she made contact though. So much politics from so many directions.
She’d been trained for this from birth. No matter that she hated it, no matter that she wanted peace and quiet. This was her path and she was meant to be there.
Thomas’s mansion was...well, Rowan understood Clive’s need to wash it off before he’d come back to their house. Even with sunrise chasing him the whole way.
The three of them stood in the doorway and took the scene inside in, no one speaking for long moments until Star used her body to push Rowan over the threshold.
“Star says we should just move it already,” Rowan told them as she stepped over a pile of bones and goo that would have been someone the night before. Not