Blood and Blade (Goddess with a Blade #6) - Lauren Dane Page 0,99

up to the other side safely.

Once they did, Rowan fitted her thigh holster, making sure it was snug but not so tight it impeded movement, the extra magazines were already tucked into her pockets. Her blade was still at her back, but in addition, she’d added several iron blades, tucked in around her waist and at her wrists.

Her hair was already pulled back into a tight braid she’d tucked into the back of her shirt.

A breeze hit and the scent of death wrapped around her senses and squeezed so hard she nearly gagged.

She wasn’t the only one. David hid his face behind his arm, Genevieve looked nauseated and Vanessa breathed shallow through her mouth. The Vampires didn’t appear overly bothered. But they were around dead things often enough that she supposed they were used to it.

Later, once they’d survived this, she’d tease Clive that he could get snippy about a person wearing perfume but apparently dead bodies were okay.

“There’s something up there to the north of the house,” Genevieve pointed. Rowan couldn’t see what she meant, but that didn’t make her any less certain that her friend knew what she was talking about.

“Is that where he is?” she asked.

“No. Not right now. He’s in the house and he knows we’re here.”

That had changed from just moments before but Rowan had known they’d get discovered at some point.

The front door slammed open so hard it knocked the shutters off one of the windows. The light from inside backlit him, lending an even more sinister air.

“Who dares come onto my land?” he yelled out.

“Your land? Give me a break. This isn’t your land. You stole it from the humans who are the true owners,” Rowan replied without moving from her place in the shadows.

Not that it mattered because she found herself picked up by an invisible hand and thrown back onto the dirt and scrub bushes.

The air rushed from her chest as pain woke up her system.

That really fucking hurt.

She picked herself up, dusting off the sand and plant matter.

“Guess I hit a nerve,” she said. “What’s the matter, is your credit really bad so you can’t get a loan to buy your own house?”

Somewhere nearby Clive cursed and it cheered Rowan immensely.

He came down off the porch and Rowan got a far better look at him because Genevieve had done some sort of spell to light the area up. He was, to be blunt, the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen in her entire life. Tall, at least six six, maybe even closer to seven feet. She’d been expecting long, flowing hair, but his was short but held a little bit of a curl in the blondish red tone.

Brigid roared to the surface and Rowan let her, trusting that it was for the best.

To her left Clive moved up with Patience on his other side. On her right, Genevieve stood and at her feet, Rowan sensed the power rushing to Genevieve’s call.

“What do you call yourself, Faerie?” Brigid’s voice came through Rowan’s mouth. There was a slight edge of compulsion in it that Rowan hadn’t felt before.

“I do not owe you my name. Especially when I’ll be dining on your bones for dinner.”

Rowan drew one of the iron blades and threw it as hard as she could at the Fae. He shifted to the side but it still grazed his biceps. He hissed and turned his attention back to Rowan, stalking across the empty space between them toward her.

She pulled her gun and managed to fire off three shots before he caught up to her. She ducked the giant fist that came her way and ended up nearly tripping, barely managing to keep her feet at the last minute before he was on her again.

This time he was knocked back when Patience and Clive hit him at the same time, taking him to the dirt. All Rowan could see were teeth and nails as they shredded the Fae.

Within a few breaths though, their enemy had tossed both Vampires away and regained his feet.

She knew at least two of the three shots had hit him so why wasn’t he dying or hurt or whatever Faeries did when they were shot with iron bullets?

“Why won’t he fucking die?” she asked Genevieve.

“Oh, he will. But it’s going to take more than a few iron bullets because our friend here is full of stolen magic and it’s keeping him strong enough to fight it off.”

Genevieve sent three successive bolts of power at him. He moved