At Blade's Edge (15 page)

Genevieve gave a brief nod and sat back.

Rowan took the reins again. “The question was, does the Conclave know Roth has been buying spells on the black market and hiring out through them to kill people?”

Roth started screeching but Rowan didn’t care.

“Do be quiet so the question can be answered,” Susan snapped.

“You can’t tell me what to do,” Roth hissed at her.

Brigid burst to the surface hard and fast, Her magic swirling all around Genevieve’s. “Silence!”

The room froze at the sound of the otherworldly voice, but they all shut up, and that was fine.

She receded, but not entirely.

Rowan cleared her throat. “I’ll kill you myself before anyone here makes a move to stop me,” she told Roth. “Shut your fucking mouth while the question gets answered.”

“The problem of the black market is not new for us. Or for you or the Vampires or humans, naturally. When you have rules, you have those who feel it’s necessary for all sorts of reasons to resist those rules.” Genevieve waved a hand and the jingle of her bracelets seemed more ominous than merry.

“Other than Summerwaite, who is biased, have you heard these charges from anyone else?” Hilary was desperately holding out hope. But she’d tied herself to a douchewagon and he was going to weigh her down to the bottom of the sea.

“What the Conclave knows and how we know it is none of your concern unless we make it so. Under the terms of the Treaty, and because this creature does such damage to the oath I too, have taken to uphold it, I shared with you what you need to know. Roth Wesslyian has met with and engaged the services of the magical black market and those things he purchased were meant to harm and kill.” Genevieve shrugged.

“So you’re saying you won’t answer where you heard that?” Hilary pressed.

“Oh for Goddess’ sake!” Rowan threw her hands up. “Roth is guilty. He’s been paying for spells on the black market. It’s here in his own fucking notes. I can even show you dates and times he left the country to deal with the sorcerers in person. He’s sold out his own people. This ends today.”

“There’s a process to be adhered to,” the Speaker said.

“Bollocks to that,” Susan said. “The process is quite loosely defined. The facts have been shown. We’ve known there were problems. While we’ve been in this meeting, a series of programs has been running through our internal network to identify anyone else who may have been selling out Hunter Corp. to the highest bidder.”

“Is this a coup, Susan? Have we come to this?” the Speaker said.

“We came to this a long time ago. You’ve been ignoring it at the expense of those you should have been protecting.” Susan’s voice was hard.

“One more thing I’d like to share, if I might?” Genevieve interrupted.

The Speaker indicated she go on.

“I can tell you that Roth Wesslyian was given a spell to protect himself and his paramour’s daughter during the last meeting of the Joint Tribunal with the Vampires. He believed this magic would exempt him from the working of the Vampire-Witch Enyo. I can also tell you that the sorcerer who sold him that protection was given other instructions. The protection was ineffective, was it not?” Genevieve asked Roth.

He paled so much Rowan wondered if he’d have a stroke and rob her of the chance to kill him.

“No. No. That’s not how it...that’s not...” Roth stuttered to a halt.

Rowan continued, “They played you. Like you thought you were playing me and mine. But it didn’t work and you went extra bonkers. What’d they tell you? That Enyo used a slightly different working and that’s why your protection wasn’t effective?”

From the way he jerked back, Rowan knew she’d hit home.

“They sold you out, just like you sold me out. Just like you sold out those Hunters you got killed. I’m sure you have a great explanation for it, but I don’t give a shit what it is.”

Hilary came at her again. “Now see here, you can’t just come in from time to time and proceed to take over and tell us what to do.”

“I can and I will,” Rowan told Hilary. “The way it looks to me is that Roth, Hilary, and at least three others here have been giving information to the sorcerers.”

“I had to!” Roth burst out. “They were blackmailing me, I had to do it or they’d kill me.”

“Just tell the truth,” Genevieve crooned lazily.

“I will. I promise. It’s not what you all think.”

Rowan rolled her eyes as he just made an oath to tell the truth to a powerful witch, who most assuredly turned around and bound him with his words to do just that.

“You’re a fool,” Hilary whispered at Roth.

Chapter Fifteen

“We know you did these things. There’s more than enough evidence. What we don’t know is why. Why did you do this, Roth?” Susan asked.

Hilary had given up trying to protect Roth from himself, but she wasn’t going to go down without a fight when it came to her own problems.

If Rowan hadn’t moved quickly enough to get between Hilary and Roth, Hilary would have knocked him out to shut him up. Or worse.

“That’s not going to happen,” Rowan told her, shoving her back into a chair.

“We can help.”

Rowan looked up at two field Hunters she’d worked with on and off over the years. A married couple she knew was very much on her side.

“Great. If she tries to move, you’re free to stop her however you please.”

“This is highly unacceptable,” the Speaker said. “This level of violence is unnecessary.”

“This isn’t even a four. We’ll be at a ten before we’re done here,” Rowan said.

“This isn’t how we do things.” Philhemenia was getting worked up and Rowan was losing her compassion for it by the second.

“You’re fucking right.” Agitated and unwilling to hide it, Rowan rounded on the Speaker. “The way you’ve been doing things has been getting people killed. So I vote we stop doing things that way. Now, a question was asked and I want Roth to answer it. I will knock anyone out who gets in the way another time.”

“Because we wanted to be in charge.” Roth spoke the words as if he’d been hanging on to them for dear life.

“Too bad you never bothered to learn anything about all the others we work with. Then you’d have known you should never promise to tell a witch as powerful as Genevieve the truth. You made an oath when you did that.” Rowan moved so her back was to a wall and she could keep an eye on everyone else.

“I didn’t know I was helping Vampires with that spell,” Roth snarled.

“They didn’t know either. But they’re dead now for their betrayal.” Rowan blinked slowly at him. “You did know it would hurt other Hunters there, and the human staff. And you did it anyway.”

“How long have you been doing this?” Susan asked him.

“Two years.”

“He has rights!” Linus bellowed. Rowan had a feeling Linus had been involved, and the way he acted just then only made that a surety.

“He doesn’t and neither do you, so shut up.” Rowan shook her head at those around the table. “This isn’t a democracy. You all knew it going in just like I did.”

David showed her the notes he’d written down. Sighing, she looked around the table. “Roth, was Hilary working with you from that time?”

Before Hilary could say anything, her mouth was covered. Linus looked toward the door and Rowan tipped her chin his way. “You think you can get through me, old man?

He dropped his gaze.

“She recruited me,” Roth said.

Rowan wished she could laugh.

Celesse swore in French and Susan growled.

“What about Linus here?”

Shaking as he tried not to say anything, Roth’s
yes
seemed to explode from his mouth.

Rowan also named two other people, though none as highly placed at HC as Roth and Hilary were.

Rowan turned to Genevieve. “Thank you for coming in. Your assistance was very helpful.” It was time for her to go now that they’d gotten the evidence and would be discussing private Hunter Corp. business she didn’t need to know about.

“You know where to find me, should you need my assistance.” With a nod, Genevieve left the room and Rowan got back to her questioning.

* * *

Ninety minutes later, after incriminating evidence found on multiple computers and in the homes and offices of several Hunters had been added to everything else, Rowan took a deep breath. She’d come to the end of her presentation. But it wasn’t the end of the problem.

“The only way to handle this is to vote and sentence these conspirators now,” Rowan said, hoping her exhaustion didn’t show. The weight of
years
of betrayal made her back hurt and her head ache.

Roth, Hilary, Linus and another Hunter had done these things to people they looked in the eye the next day. How could you live with that?

Rowan only knew she couldn’t and they shouldn’t be able to either.

“There’s only
one
way to handle this.” Rex was the one who spoke this time.

“You can’t mean that,” one of the other partners spoke up.

“What do you propose?” Susan demanded. “These people worked side by side with us every day and for years they sold us out to our enemy. They tried to start a war they would never have to fight. They took everything they pledged to protect and they tried to destroy it. Death is the only punishment. It’s defined in our charter.”

Roth paled and stood but someone shoved him back.

“You’re not a barbarian like she is, Speaker! You can’t let this happen.” Hilary thought she had an ally in a high place. But she had no real idea, still after all these years, that Rowan would kill her no matter what anyone else said.

“You’ve made your bed, Ms. Sams.” The Speaker shook her head. “I don’t like this,” she told Rowan.

“Yeah? Well neither do I. And neither did the people who are dead because of these assholes. Don’t put this in my lap. This has been happening right here in
your
house. Unabated for years now. You all love to push the inhumanity of this fucking job off on me because you don’t have the ovaries to do it yourselves. Which is why Hunters have died and why things need to change.”

Rowan hadn’t quite finished the movement to grab the hilt of her sword when Brigid took over so fast and hard, the muscles of her legs just sort of quit working and she went to her knees.

The room went silent for just a moment right as the scent of black powder hit her.

“Down!” Rowan managed to shout, pushing out as much of her power as she could.

The air seemed to rush away and then back with so much force Rowan knew it wasn’t a gun she needed to worry over, but a bomb of some sort.

She reached out, grasped the leg of the Speaker’s chair, yanking it so the woman toppled right as sound, heat and pain pushed away everything else.

Seconds ticked by and all Rowan could do was hope not to die because she knew Clive would be pissed off.

Holding on tight to that essence inside, that bright, burning energy that made up the whole of who she was, Rowan was already planning her next several moves.

Though a few bones had been broken, Rowan managed to lever herself to her knees, blade in her right hand already, trying to ascertain the threat. The air scalded her lungs with acrid smoke and heat. Blood spiced all those things, but most of the bodies appeared to be moving.

David rushed over to her. “
Déesse!
” He took part of her weight, avoiding her broken bits the best he could to help her to her feet.

Relief made her nearly as dizzy as the pain had. Thank the Goddess he was all right.

She used that relief to get her mouth working again and take control. “Lock this place down. No one leaves until I say so. Shoot them in the face if they try you.”

David nodded, grabbing a few of the able bodied before rushing from the room.

“You can’t lock down. Emergency services will arrive shortly. There was an explosion. They’d have been called.” The Speaker managed to get herself upright to lean against the wall.

Rowan didn’t put her weapon down to get a chair for Philhemenia. She’d have to manage herself.

“We’ll work under Protocol Exodus until we can no longer do so,” Rowan told the Speaker.

Protocol Exodus meant they were at war. They’d work to hide this breach from the humans. Involving them would be dangerous to Hunter and human alike.

“What happened?” Rowan demanded.

Susan limped over. “When it was clear they were going to be executed, Roth started to say something. Hilary turned to him. She looked panicked. Then you just fell so I shifted my attention. Rex shoved us both down when you yelled.”

They looked at where Hilary and Roth had been seated. The Hunter who’d been guarding her had been thrown back against a marble column and lay, broken, at its base.

“That is not on you,” Susan told Rowan. “There’s plenty of guilt to go around. But this isn’t your fault.”

“In fact, I think whatever you did after you yelled at people to get down actually saved us all,” Rex said. “Not a spell, but a shove of energy is what it felt like. You pushed back.” Rex indicated the wall behind Hilary’s remains. “Looks as if your power deflected the impact of the bomb.”

A little something for the win column, Rowan supposed.

“Where’s Linus?” she asked after scanning the room, matching up the few dead bodies to their various bits. There’d be time for grief later.

“Celesse found him trying to get out the window in the loo. He’s no longer a problem. Next step is a cleaner because we don’t need the cops down our throats on this.” Susan knelt in front of the Speaker. “Madam Speaker, can you walk or do you need medical assistance?”

“I’m sure I’ll need it at some point. But for the moment, I can be of use if someone helps me into a chair.”

“Put her in a rolling office chair and have one of the Hunters we trust roll her around to give orders,” Rowan said and Susan nodded. “Let me call in a crew.”

The Dust Devils were feral out in Las Vegas. Bikers, long haul truckers, and the like, they rolled through the desert soaking up excess magic to keep things balanced.

She wouldn’t have called upon them back home for this. She had other ways to dispose of bodies there.

Wherever Devils settled and the ways and types of magic they gathered were different, they were all a great deal like magical carrion.

Rowan reached out to one of her contacts who said there’d be two men in gray suits at their back door in less than five minutes.

“We need to be Hunter Corp. right now more than we ever have,” Rowan told the room and those assembled in the hall. “I know there are those among you who don’t want any part of the next iteration of our existence. I know, too, simply feeling that isn’t the same as being what Roth and Hilary were.”

She paused to cough long and hard as her fucked up left lung began to heal. Rex handed her a wet handkerchief and rubbed his hand up and down her back until she got herself together.

She nodded her thanks his way. As the burn faded, so did the damage done by the explosion.

She’d be sore and her wrist, femur and two fingers had been broken and would take more than a few minutes to get better and the time between where she was then and full health was going to be painful.

“Sorry about that.” A cup of tea was pressed into her free hand.

David held up splints and a sling. “Drink some tea while you rally the troops and I get your arm dealt with.”

“Glad you’re healthy enough to be bossy,” she told him softly.

A sip of tea first, and she felt like a woman renewed after. “So this answers my
Is there anything tea can’t make at least a little better
question. You don’t know shit about Mexican food, but tea makes up for a lot of sins.”

The atmosphere eased a little. Celesse gave Rowan a small smile and a nod of encouragement.

“If you want to leave Hunter Corporation you may do so and be held harmless. Naturally, you’d undergo memory wipe and relocation, but I won’t hold anyone here.”

She tried not to hiss as David taped her finger into place.

“What is this new future?” someone called out.

“Nothing so radical as doing what one is supposed to do, don’t you think?” At blank looks, Rowan went on. “Hunter Corp. is supposed to keep the balance. Our job is to enforce the Treaty. Our job is not to be starting war. Because that upsets the balance. Do you all see where the hell I’m going with this?”

Rowan took in the room as David adjusted the sling and stepped back. “Can I treat the cuts on your face?”

She frowned, about to bark at him to go away until the movement sent gritty glass digging into the open wounds on her forehead and cheek.

“Fine. Hang on a sec, everyone.”

His smile was so small only she would have seen it.

He kept it quick, knowing if he didn’t she’d shove him off impatiently so she could keep talking.

“War is coming, ladies and gentlemen. I can feel it deep in my gut. You can turn away from that but I can’t. Hunter Corporation can’t. Vampires are strong. They have money and long lives and so much more power than humans like Hilary and whoever she was working with understand. To wait a century or more for the perfect opportunity for vengeance is an art form to them. Humans can’t fight that. Hunter Corp. can’t fight that.

“And now the magic practitioners have resurfaced. The black market was known to us and like Genevieve said, known to them too. But the magic we dealt with in Prague and Venice, the spells Hilary and Roth purchased, that’s troubling. The Conclave is not something we understand well enough. But from what I can tell, they’ve got their own insurrection. Like we did and still do. Like the Vampires do. We can’t win on two fronts and we desperately need the Treaty in place. We need
one another
. Without the help we received from the magic community in Venice and the assistance Ms. Aubert has rendered, Hilary would have managed to convince this body to declare the Treaty null, which would have brought a metric ton of trouble onto our heads.”

Balance.

It came back to balance over and over. Which sort of sucked because balance took patience and Rowan hated patience.

“Hunter Corporation upholds the Treaty. We will be out in the field keeping our attention on known threats as well as investigating possible problems. It’s what we did originally and it’s what we need to do now. We aren’t going to poke and prod anyone into war. That’s not in our mission statement. I don’t know all the particulars. I hope we can all work together on developing the details. We no longer have room at the table for people who only got the job because their parents had a lot of money. Everyone here is talented and smart and dedicated. If you’re not willing to put those skills to use in the service of Hunter Corp. and the Treaty you can—and should—go.”