"And how many are meeting here at this meeting?"

"Three."

"Those are?"

"Treaty, which is this one, the main committee that sets future agendas, decides what will be heard at the next Joint Tribunal as well as the controlling subject matter of the current one. It's the predominant committee. The Nation has a Companion Committee. That's the one meeting after dinner this evening. There's also a Rules Committee, which writes sample amendments to the Treaty and any ancillary material the Joint Tribunal will sign or agree upon. And a Leadership Committee. The Leadership Committee is a joint one, staffed with the top two Members from the Nation and from Hunter Corporation."

She looked to Roth. "Agenda-setting meetings have been taking place for the last three months. These were open to all junior and full Partners in Hunter Corporation. I should know this because several of them were standing room only. And you were at none of them. We enabled people to phone in, to connect in via video conference and to submit questions and comments via mail, hard copy, interoffice mail and email as well as voice mail. Again, I did not see any from you.

"Members of this committee have spent a great deal of time and energy to set this agenda. They have worked above and beyond their normal workloads at Hunter Corp. to do this. Their effort is incredibly important to me and to the Joint Tribunal in general. The things we discuss here are not whim, but set because we have a limited time to get our issues heard and decided upon by the main body. We do not simply add things to the agenda as if we're all sitting at a coffeehouse talking about a book. We have an agenda that was set by members of this committee more than a month ago."

He narrowed his gaze her way, but she turned her back on him and moved to the first slide and began to talk about how they'd present their amendment to the Treaty.

The discussion was spirited, and she did not ever recognize Roth though he raised a hand to speak more than once. Once she'd not only shut him down, but underlined the importance of the efforts and time of those on the committee, she knew they'd solidly be on her side.

"I'm on my way to the Rules Committee meeting now with this sample language. I'll see you at dinner and then the meeting afterward." She gathered her notes; though of course David would have taken better ones, she liked to jot down her thoughts and impressions to go over later.

Celesse met her at the door to walk with her. "I had an interesting conversation last night after dinner with Tahar Emaleh. He's talking like he's on the fence, but I got more of a sense that he was inclined to just let the changes go forward than play games over it. But he indicated there was some staunch opposition."

"I think there's another player-"

"I didn't have the time to ask to have my issue heard," Roth interrupted as he approached them.

Celesse huffed. "Roth, we're a bit busy at the moment, as Rowan explained."

"I told you I could meet with you right before dinner. That's all the time I have for last-minute things."

"Isn't that convenient?"

Rowan hated people who thought they were super clever when really they weren't. Roth seemed to be a member of that tribe. Also, he was pulling that s.h.i.t men sometimes did with women. Their automatic attempts to a.s.sume leading any subject, discussion or whatever. Patronizing bulls.h.i.t.

"Nothing about your sudden arrival and insistence on bringing personal bulls.h.i.t into incredibly important negotiations is convenient. I have a job to do. I'm here to do it."

"From what I understand, I hear you're here to threaten people."

She kept walking to the room where her next meeting waited. She turned and blocked the door with her body after David and Celesse went inside. "I'll be with you in a moment." She turned back to Roth.

"I will not allow you to derail important meetings with this bulls.h.i.t. Don't come for me unless I send for you. Now, if you'll excuse me, we can continue this talk about your girlfriend's daughter when I'm not on my way into a meeting. You're free to check the papers I filed yesterday regarding her behavioral infractions and my response to them in the meantime if you wish."

She closed the door in his face and started her meeting.

Clive didn't bother to hide the way he looked for her as he entered the dining room. But she wasn't there. Probably cornering a Vampire making a case for this amendment to the Treaty.

"Perhaps a trip toward the library might net you results," David, Rowan's valet, said quietly as he pa.s.sed.

Before he knew what he was doing, he'd left the room and sauntered in that direction, listening carefully. David had a way about him. Clive approved of the protective nature of his and Rowan's relationship. It went both ways, clearly. Rowan dealt with him with an openness and affection Clive rarely saw from her. There was a softness, a trust that felled him.

Clive scented her before he caught sight of her. Oranges and clove. Sweet and spice.

He smiled but then heard she was speaking with someone.

"You are in over your head, little girl."

"Are you done now?"

Clive paused, shifting to fit himself in a corner alcove, using his power to pull shadow around him and watch the interchange between Rowan and this human male.

"You cast your lot with the wrong people. Or animals, in this case. You've made a powerful enemy in me." The human eased closer to her, intending to menace, but Rowan wasn't susceptible to such threats.

She pushed closer, getting right in his face. "Doesn't look so powerful from where I stand. By that I mean, where I stand as the Liaison to the Joint Tribunal. Looking at a man who is...not."

"You're a fool. I'll end your position with Hunter Corp."

"What I am is someone who dealt with bigger predators than you before I was five years old." She stepped back and gave him a look filled with derision and loathing. "You're nothing to me. Your girlfriend's daughter is a moron. She shouldn't have the job she only has because her mom is banging a dude with some pull. This is my job. I earned it at an age when you were still getting spankings from your friends at private boys' school. You go ahead on and try to remove me, but you stay the h.e.l.l out of my way during this Joint Tribunal or it'll be me who ends you."

"Stupid wh.o.r.e. You got a little taste of Vampire c.o.c.k and you think you're clever." He grabbed her upper arm, and before Clive could move to intervene, she'd spun, broken his hold and pushed him against the door face-first, his arm bent high enough to pull the shoulder out of the socket if she pushed much more.

She pressed her mouth to his ear, and the weight of her body kept him in place. "This little girl will f.u.c.k your s.h.i.t up if you ever touch me again. Understand something, weakling. You have no ability to take me on. I am stronger than you. I am smarter than you. I have more power from places you could not begin to imagine. I will crush you before you register I was coming for you. My lot has been cast since my birth. I don't have a side, I have a path. Do you understand what that means?"

His face grew redder as she continued to hold him there.

"Working at Hunter Corp. is a job to you. You gather your petty little ducks and think that makes you powerful. This isn't just a job. This is my f.u.c.king destiny, and you have nothing, no amount of power or influence, that can sway me from that. I pity you that you could ever imagine that you could threaten me."

She pushed herself away from him, letting go, her face registering disgust as he sputtered and coughed, flexing his shoulder.

"I'll report you for this!"

"You have fun with that."

She turned her back, and Clive held back a hiss. To turn your back in the middle of an altercation was the lowest insult. She didn't fear anything this male could muster.

Her power shone around her body, golden. Magnificent in its brutality and darkness. He fisted his hands to keep from reaching for her. Desire so sharp and overwhelming it seemed to drown his senses filled him up to nearly overflow. She was perfection.

"I have business to attend to, so don't get in my way." She didn't walk away. No, she sauntered. Click. Click. Click. Click. Towering heels sounded on the marble floors.

Clive stayed where he was as the human picked himself up and grabbed his phone. "It's Roth Wesslyian. I've just been attacked by Rowan Summerwaite with no provocation. I want her fired, and I want her arrested."

Clive's incisors lengthened as an urge to maim this pathetic wretch coursed through him.

"What do you mean?"

Clive sharpened his attention to listen in on the other end of the conversation.

"I mean, how on earth do you think we're going to arrest her there, at his Keep? What did you do to her?"

"Nothing! I told you she attacked me without provocation. I came here to protect Julia's daughter, who she threatened just last night, and she tried to choke me."

"Roth, do pull the other one. She's a mongrel, absolutely. She's a violent, vulgar cretin, but she is not p.r.o.ne to attacking without provocation. Besides, if she'd have wanted to choke you, she would have."

"Have you so little faith in my ability? I'm perfectly capable of defending myself from a slip of a girl."

"She's got a G.o.ddess inside her. She was raised by the Vampires. She's absolutely a killing machine. So no, I have no faith in your ability except that I do believe in your ability to push her into reacting to whatever you said or did. You're supposed to stop this amendment, not protect your girlfriend's daughter. Keep it together, Roth."

"I want her fired. If you fire her, she can't do anything here. It'll put everything off by at least six months, until the next Joint Tribunal, and by then the Vampires will have done something else stupid."

"I don't have the support to fire her. She's a full partner, which means we'd need eight of ten to vote termination. She's a partner and obviously would vote against that. The Espys would vote against, that's three. And she has support beyond that. We don't have the votes."

"Celesse."

"Celesse is not going to vote to fire her. Celesse may get tired of her antics, she might disagree with her methods at times, but she's one of Rowan's most consistent supporters. Think, Roth. For heaven's sake. If you can torpedo this amendment, you weaken her. She'll have to spend all her time hunting Vampires, and every time she does there's paperwork. Her life will be filled with useless minutiae. We don't need her fired, she'll be stripped of her power if we handle this right, and we'll be done with this game with the Vampires. The entire point of your presence should be to throw a wrench in this meeting and stop that amendment. Nothing else matters."

"You're afraid of the Espys."

"You should be too, Roth. For all Celesse taught her, Rowan truly came into her own when Susan became her trainer. Never, ever underestimate them. Susan Espy is a brutal, vicious killer, and Rex has a political mind that people will write books about someday. And he can kill you with his bare hands and not spill his drink. Don't you know anything about the people you work with? Can you be so ignorant?"

"Valerie-"

"Enough about that twit. I've wanted to punch her in the face more than once, so I can't expect Rowan to sit idly by while Valerie f.u.c.ked everything up there. Get to work and stop with this squawking."

"b.i.t.c.h." The human shoved his phone in his suit coat pocket and stalked away.

Clive came out of the shadows and headed toward the dining room.

Chapter Eleven.

She should probably feel guilty that satisfaction coursed through her after the little incident with Roth. It shouldn't be acceptable that it pleased her to knock a human being around. A coworker even.

Acceptable or not, it cheered her up. Oh, she wasn't so naive as to think Roth wouldn't try to get her fired or use his considerable power within Hunter Corp. to get her disciplined.

She'd do her job. She hadn't lied when she'd told Roth she had a path. The cost of failing to get this amendment through wasn't just the lack of a way to deal with this new problem, but a destabilization to the Treaty in general. And the relationship between Hunter Corp. and the Vampire Nation would suffer. Eventually bickering would lead to skirmishes that'd lead to war. The Vampires were too powerful to be let off a leash, and Hunter Corp. had too many loose cannons with G.o.d complexes to not be held accountable by the Treaty.

It wasn't so much that she had a foot in both worlds, though that was true to a certain extent. But that she didn't belong in either world completely. She was not a Vampire, though she thought like them. And she was not a human, though she fought for them and defended them. She was something other.

Within her belly, She stirred. Approval filled Rowan then, and she realized Brigid had wanted her to understand that all along. Sages and G.o.ddesses and their d.a.m.ned need for mystery. Couldn't anyone just tell her what they needed her to understand up front?

"Ah, Petal." Theo approached and took her arm, leading her into the dining room. "You've been a naughty girl, I hear."

She stifled a laugh. "It's a terrible flaw, I'm afraid. Who spilled my secret?"

He paused and then smiled, catching her up in the beauty and brilliance of it. He patted her arm, letting her disentangle from that charisma. "I do miss your humor. No one around me likes to joke much."

Yeah, well, you never knew if he'd laugh or beat you b.l.o.o.d.y, so she got why that was.

"Someone from Hunter Corporation, I can't remember his name. Frankly he seemed rather unimportant and silly. He claimed you'd threatened one of your coworkers. Then he wanted to register an official complaint that you'd been seated to my right."

"He...said this to you?" She might have to reevaluate Roth's level of b.a.l.l.siness.

"Of course not. He's an odious rodent. He mewled to one of my people about you. If you wish to eviscerate him and leave him for the small mammals to eat, your secret is safe with me."

She choked back a laugh, but couldn't prevent a quick grin. "I'll keep that in mind. Mainly, though, I think I'll go about my business and ignore him. He and I had a meeting recently. I underlined my position."

"I do hope you made him bleed. Recht reports that your skills are exemplary. Not that I had any doubt." He held up a pa.s.sing server. "Mulled cider. It's chilly." He handed her a mug and she took it with her thanks. It reminded her a lot of her childhood, the non-scary part anyway.

"It's been some time since I've seen you in battle. The aftermath in Las Vegas was rather stunning. I should like to see it for myself the next time."

"I'm making a rather concerted effort not to kill or maim anyone during this meeting. I already have heat from the human you speak of for threatening one of my employees." It was their refusal to understand and accept the way Vampires saw the world that made them dangerous, these people in Hunter Corp. who wanted to be rid of the Treaty.

They thought if Hunter Corp. repudiated the Treaty, it would be easy to dominate Vampires. But those who held that belief were never field Hunters. They never faced Vampires in any sort of combat or dealt with them regularly. They did not understand how Vampires thought.

That ignorance and hubris would kill countless humans before it all ended. Hunter Corp. existed to serve as a defense between Vampires and humanity. It was frivolous to talk of war like it was an easy thing. War had to be avoided and the way to continue to do it was to amend the Treaty and move forward. They didn't have to like each other. Hunters and Vampires just had to remember the cost if diplomacy failed. And she'd do everything she could to stop that from happening.

"I have a rather low opinion of the Hunter Corp., Rowan. This is internal silliness and it should never be exposed to anyone in my camp. It weakens your position. I find myself of two minds. It's good to see your opponent weakened, but not when your opponent is your daughter. I expect you to handle this creature."

She nodded as a wave of power flowed over her. "Understood."

"Good. I did manage to find a place for him at the table. Down at the very far end with all the a.s.sistants and such." He sniffed his disdain and then froze before slowly turning toward the main doors.

The sound he made in the back of his throat made the hair on her arms stand up.

He muttered in the old language about usurpers and she wondered just who the very old female Vampire who'd walked in at Victoriana's side was. Her power rolled out before her like a bank of fog. Chilly and sticky.

Almonds. The scent wasn't Theo's. This was fringed by something heavy-sweet, like night-blooming jasmine. Rowan hated night-blooming jasmine.

Clearly she was old. Far older than Victoriana and far more powerful. "A compatriot of Flavius's, perhaps?" And that other player she'd been wondering about, no doubt.

Theo turned to her. His eyes were lit with anger, lines around them on a usually flaw-free face.

He didn't deny it with a shrug. "More dangerous than that fop ever was. Don't let your guard down, Petal. This one is a serious threat."

"Is she part of the Blood Front?" Rowan probably held back the lip curl, but it was in the words.

He paused and then laughed. "I do agree that the name is quite absurd. She is the Blood Front."

The two female Vampires headed in their direction. "Stay with me here, Petal. I'll do the introductions. And then you should do your homework."

Theo stood taller, going very still and regal. She breathed though her nose, letting the G.o.ddess take over a little to keep from being caught up in the flood of power he pumped out. Rowan didn't look at him, knowing he'd be too beautiful. Too everything.

Just then, Clive approached from the left and she latched on gratefully. His gaze flitted over to the approaching Vampires, and then he situated himself on Theo's other side, giving Rowan a long look and the breath of a smile.