Blood and Blade (Goddess with a Blade #6) - Lauren Dane Page 0,5
sliced up and added to a wide variety of sugar cubes and other things along with a little pitcher of milk for Rowan’s black tea.
Star trotted past them and settled next to Rowan’s chair, resting her head on her paws with a satisfied sigh.
“Tell me,” Clive said with a glance in Star’s direction.
“Carl says she’s sort of a familiar and that she chose me.”
“And what do you think about that claim?” Clive asked.
Rowan paused as she considered. “I don’t ever discount what Carl says. It feels...right. She’s got an attitude, which seems like a good fit with me. Also I got a call about my car and it’s going to cost me several grand. There’s some such thing front-end something or other and it’s broken. Insurance will cover all but a few hundred bucks so that’s nice, huh?”
“It’s greatly disturbing when you’re chipper. Stop it. I’m going to have nightmares. Genevieve should look it over to be sure there’s nothing magical about the mechanical problem. Back to the dog now.”
“I already told you. She’s an Australian kelpie and apparently they’re good at guiding or whatever. But she’s more than that. He says Star chose me. Like there was something mystical involved and she’s something akin to a familiar.”
He sat back in his chair and looked over at Star a moment. The dog looked back at him steadily. “Will you be her keeper then?” Clive asked.
“Well, isn’t that sort of what a dog owner does? Plus she seems pretty capable of taking care of herself though she can’t use a can opener to get food.” She wouldn’t tell Clive about how a case of some fancy wet food stuff showed up in the pantry between when Carl arrived with Star and Rowan’s arrival at home.
Clive smirked a moment and then shook his head. “Not you, Rowan. I’m asking the dog. You have thumbs to use a can opener, but you need more than one keeper and I suppose I can make allowances for a hairy beast in our yard if that beast herds you away from danger while I’m not around to do it.”
Star barked once and then settled back down, head on her paws once more.
Rowan decided not to argue with the yard comment. Star was going to sleep in the house, naturally. She already had a bed in Rowan’s room and had apparently made herself comfortable in Clive’s as well.
His acquiescence to the dog had lifted her spirits, so she figured she should broach the whole Genevieve thing as her witchy friend was coming over for a meal soon enough and there’d been enough surprises, which he only reacted well to if they were about sex anyway.
As if he’d read her mind, he sighed heavily. “What else?”
“Okay so. Hear me out. Today with Carl, he mentioned you. Said there was dark magic on you. Connected to Lyr. And since you’ve had trouble accessing his memories and stuff when you’re usually immediately able to, he’s obviously right. Genevieve is a witch and does witchy stuff and she can check you over to see what’s going on.”
Clive said in his exceedingly polite and yet super condescending fashion, “I don’t need that. It’s only been a few days. Each time I take memories it’s a different process. A witch doesn’t need to explain a Vampire’s gifts to him. I know my power.”
It had been a week by that point since they’d killed Lyr, a super old Vampire with lots of magic tricks up his sleeve. Clive had bested him in battle and in doing so, he’d used his particular set of gifts to tap into Lyr’s memories.
Or rather, he’d attempted to.
Vampires were hugely vain. Obsessed with rank and power and where they stood in relation to everything else in their orbit. It was the bane of Rowan’s existence, but she understood it to her core. Had been raised deep within the Vampire culture and many of those things had been drummed into her.
So Clive, the Vampire Scion of North America, super feared, respected and powerful predator, was not going to easily accept his Vampiric gifts not working to his expectations. That lack of results had Clive pacing and snarling and pretending it wasn’t even that big a deal. As if she didn’t know him and his perfectionist ways better than anyone else.
Rather than engage, Rowan continued as if he hadn’t spoken. “She just got back to Las Vegas earlier today so she’s coming over here shortly to look at the new house