Blood and Blade (Goddess with a Blade #6) - Lauren Dane Page 0,9

scratch behind her left ear. “You’re very wise. Watch for trouble,” she said to the dog and then she looked up to where Elisabeth and Betchamp stood with David. “You as well.”

They nodded in response, which Rowan found reassuring.

The witch turned back to Clive and motioned him closer. “I need you open to me. When I start this spell, you’re going to want to use your defenses to keep me out. Don’t. I can get past them but Rowan would be mad at me because it might hurt. I give you my word that I will do you no harm. I want to help you and if the sage says there’s a problem, there is. It could end up hurting Rowan or your Vampires and I know you don’t want that so let’s get this over with.”

It was the right amount of casual and serious and Clive walked over to Genevieve in a way that told Rowan despite his reservations and ego, he trusted Rowan with his life. That was love and it washed over her, settling some of her agitation and worry.

She and Star would keep watch. There were guards patrolling the property too, who’d come at her call or at the first signs of trouble. Rowan let that course through her veins, that surety that Clive would be safe, so he could feel it too via their bond. If she was calm and assured, he would be too. Hopefully.

* * *

Genevieve held out a small knife she’d pulled from her bag. It caught the light of the waning moon. “Your blood is where your magic is concentrated. The blade’s edge is silver—I need your blood to run freely long enough to read it—but the pain will only be momentary.”

Clive forced himself to be still and let Genevieve take his hand, turning it so his wrist was up. Her magic washed over him, purposefully. Controlled. In a way that his own magic did not react. Though that was something he had to work on.

Rowan’s dog stared at him; the expression on her face led Clive to believe Star knew what he was thinking. That was uncomfortable to say the least. Uncomfortable enough that he didn’t see Genevieve’s knife edge until it had already broken his skin and the silvered tip stung, fighting against the natural coagulant in his blood.

The scent of it, rich and powerful, hung in the air as Genevieve continued on, speaking in that way she had. The lyrical aspects to the spell were nearly poetry, even if he only understood a few of the words she spoke in ancient tongues.

The only way he could keep himself from going on the defense was to open himself up to the fascination he had about magic and how this witch used it. He had to remind himself she was helping.

Genevieve wore a faraway expression. Not blank. She clearly saw something, interacted with something he couldn’t outwardly sense. That galled him a great deal. He should have been able to tell there was some bad magic working to keep him from being able to access Lyr’s memories.

Star yawned hugely, growling as she finished. Clive knew it was her canine way of telling him to get out of his feelings and let the witch do her magic to make him better.

Genevieve’s hand and finger movements shifted, changed as she stepped close enough to touch him. She ran her hands over him from head to toe, the incantation changing as she did.

A sharp tingling rode the surface of his skin in the wake of her touch. Not quite painful but impossible to ignore. He coughed, attempting to clear his throat.

They were in the desert after all and it was breezy. The sand and dust tended to irritate his throat on the worst of the days. But the tingling began to migrate from all over his body straight to his chest and then his throat.

Rowan moved to look at him closer. To examine and be assured he was all right. Clive held on to that as he continued to cough, the tingling turning into a burn in his throat. His wife would kick the ass of anything daring to mess with him and he knew it.

She stepped next to Genevieve, which no one seemed to have expected. The witch continued her spellwork after a slight pause and a quick look.

The wash of magic was all Brigid though and when Rowan turned her head to meet Clive’s gaze, it was Her looking at him