Blood and Blade (Goddess with a Blade #6) - Lauren Dane Page 0,81
said anything at all. A year ago I wouldn’t have.” She kept walking because when she was hungry she was twice as bitchy.
Elisabeth was there in the kitchen like an angel of mercy. She pointed to the table. “Sit. I put together a quick salad for you to eat while I finish dishing up the pasta I made.”
“Thank you,” Rowan told her as she sat, tearing into the surprisingly hearty salad full of chunks of tomato, cucumber, red onion and feta cheese. It didn’t hurt that the bread to go along with it appeared to be fresh pita Elisabeth had probably made herself.
Clive, not to be deterred, sat across from Rowan and glowered at her.
“Look, I didn’t say some sort of confrontation. I texted you that a very powerful witch and I were having a parley with the Dust Devils. I told you the turnoff. I even texted you when we left that all was well,” she said.
The aforementioned pasta was linguine with pesto and grilled shrimp and it was ridiculously good.
“You take me with you when you rush off into the middle of nowhere to have battles with witches or Devils,” he said, biting off each word like it was bitter.
“No, I really don’t. I mean, sometimes that happens and I appreciate the backup. But most of the time it doesn’t. You have your own job. I have my own job. If I need backup I take it. And I did. In this case it was Genevieve. You’re a Vampire. I need you for Vampire shaped problems. You’d have been useless tonight with this crazy ass witch we dealt with. On the other hand, if you’ll stop tantruming now, I can tell you what happened.”
He had the audacity to snarl at her. She simply rolled her eyes and kept eating until he calmed down and asked, nicely, what had happened.
Sort of nicely.
Rowan caught him up with the earlier part of the day, the finding of the aliases and the land deed and the decision to drive out to Patrizia’s to see what they could see.
“You should have waited.”
Rowan made a shushing motion, tapping her fingers to her thumb. Very close to his face. “Okay, I can see there are some misperceptions I need to clear up. I understand that you want to come with me when I’m in the field. That’s sweet and adorable. But I work in the field. My job is inherently dangerous but—as I said—I was with backup. I nearly always travel with backup these days. You have a job. I trust you to do it even though if I were there with you, I’d be beating the shit out of Vampires to get them to obey. You’re not my partner in some Starsky and Hutch sort of way. I mean, I’d kill in some vintage clothing and a cool car, but we each have work responsibilities that don’t involve the other most of the time. I cannot, no, I won’t deal with this sort of thing every time I go out to work.”
His mouth firmed into a line and he didn’t say anything else while she finished up her dinner and took her dishes to the sink to rinse them and put them in the dishwasher.
She went outside with Star for a few minutes until Clive joined her.
“I’m sorry. I worry about you,” he said.
“I know. I worry about you too. It sucks. We’re both strong people but for whatever reason that puts a target on our backs. I keep you updated. That’s more than I’ve done with anyone else. Ever.”
He took her hand. “I know. That means a great deal. I hate it when you’re out there and I know there are powerful beings trying to kill you at every turn.”
She laughed. “I hate that too. But I’m hard to kill. You know that for a fact.”
“Don’t let yourself get killed, Rowan. I mean it. I will be exceptionally vexed if you do.”
“Not that! Vexed? Totally outside your normal reactions.”
He harrumphed. “Tell me the rest of what happened. Please.”
Rowan told him about how they’d found the place warded and that Genevieve had torn a big hole for them to drive right up to the front door through. She told him about the battle and how Genevieve had kicked ass with the help of the ambient magic in the air. And she told him about Patrizia and Lyr and the former’s belief that the latter was going to rule over humans with her at his