Steal the Day (13 page)

I felt compelled to speak. She’d answered my questions, but I refused the only one she’d asked of me. “It depends, you know, on why you’re sleeping with a person.”

“I wonder because I know nothing of the physical. I only have experience with the spiritual. I always wondered. You think you don’t love Devinshea, yet still you enjoy mating with him.”

“I care about Dev,” I pointed out, not wanting to admit anything even to myself. “I really do. I enjoy sleeping with him because it feels good. He’s a very skilled lover. There’s nothing that can take your mind off your troubles like a man who plays your body like a fine instrument, and Dev is good at that. It’s good to feel close to someone.”

“And what is it like with your Daniel?”

I blinked back the tears that sprang up. I took a deep breath before I answered her as honestly as I could. “I don’t know what Heaven’s like, but I would bet it feels like that.”

Felicity smiled and took my hand briefly. “It’s all right to be scared a while longer, Zoey. Things will play out as they are meant to. You’ll find your balance, all three of you. Your path is set. Now go and take care of your lover. As I said, he needs you tonight more than he’ll admit. My earlier actions have brought back bad memories for Devinshea.”

I glanced over at Dev, who frowned as the bartender passed him another beer. When I looked back, Felicity was gone.

Dev walked through the crowd when he realized I was alone again. “What did she say? You look sad. I could have her thrown out if she hadn’t vanished into thin air.”

I shook my head. “I’m just thinking. The good news is we have a job.”

“Tell me about it later,” he demanded, taking my hand. “Let’s go upstairs.”

I let him drag me along, thinking about Felicity’s words, when a young woman ran from the dance floor and threw herself at my feet. She was maybe twenty and Hispanic. Her dark hair was tangled, and she had a cut on her face. Her eyes were wide with desperation.

“Please, help me,” she said, trying to take my hand.

Chapter Nine

I looked down at the woman at my feet and back up at Dev, who shrugged. I had no idea why she’d come to me, especially when there were big strong men all around, and she obviously needed defending. “Is someone coming after you?”

“In my club?” Dev looked through the crowd, his eyes seeking a threat. He found his predators as two big werewolves made their way across the floor. They had their target in their sights.

“My name is Angelina Hernandez, and they are trying to take me from my master,” Angelina said quickly, her voice shaking. “I beg of you, mistress, don’t let them. They will kill me, and I have no wish to leave Justin.”

“Justin, as in the Vampire Justin?” I had only recently met Justin and already he was a pain in my ass. And since when did people start calling me mistress?

She nodded, huddling closer to me. “Yes, ma’am. I called him, but he’s not here yet. Please help me. You owe me protection. I was told I would be protected.”

“I told you those new vamps were trouble,” Dev muttered as the big bad wolves were upon us. I was grateful to see that several members of the security team were already behind us. Dev held out his hand and one of the bouncers pressed a shiny semi into it. Dev checked the clip as he looked up at the wolves. He obviously knew the two men, but they didn’t seem friendly. “Hello, Mitchell. Do we have a problem here?”

“Not at all, Quinn,” the older of the two wolves spat. He was roughly fifty but powerfully built. He was just the tiniest bit past his prime, silver showing at his temples. “I’ll just take my bitch and be out of your way.”

“I don’t think the girl wants to go with you.” Dev understated the situation.

The girl in question cowered behind me. She was obviously a wolf, making her faster and stronger than little old me. I wondered if maybe my reputation had finally exceeded my ability. It had always been a goal of mine to be considered a tough chick, but this might be pushing it. I didn’t even have a gun, and she acted like I was solid protection against two werewolves.

“She belongs to the pack.” The younger man stepped up. I pegged him at twenty-five, but he looked so familiar. I would have sworn I’d seen that face somewhere. “You have no right butting into pack business, Quinn.”

“I have every right when pack business messes with my business. You all know the rules.” Dev looked at the two wolves with distaste. “I don’t allow young females to be abused in my club.”

“I no longer belong to the pack,” Angelina insisted from behind me. “I belong to Justin, and he belongs to me.”

Justin needed to get his butt down here because I didn’t want to deal with a lover’s quarrel. My mind made a sudden leap. There was something about the word “belong” that made me think. “Angelina, did you make a blood oath to Justin?”

“Yeah, the stupid bitch sure did.” Contempt flavored every syllable Mitchell uttered. “All because she didn’t want to mate with the male selected for her. Normally we would cast her out, but she’s of breeding age. We’ll punish her, and she’ll serve the pack.”

Yeah, I bet she would serve the pack on her back or however the hell they did it. “Angelina, were you forced into the oath?” I had to ask. It wouldn’t be the first time it was forced on a woman.

“Absolutely not,” she said vehemently. “I chose Justin. We were matched by the king, but I didn’t have to say yes. He told me it was my choice. I love Justin. Please don’t let them take me, ma’am.”

And that answered the question of why me, and why I was suddenly being called ma’am and mistress. Of course, Daniel decided it was a good idea to start matching up vampires and stray wolves. Nothing bad could ever come out of that. No wonder all the vamps were coming to Dallas. Daniel was busy playing pimp. As was custom, the vampires offered their servants and lovers protection. This protection came from all of Vampire, and not merely the one being served or loved. Angelina had looked around, and I was the closest thing to a representative of Vampire she could find. She’d been smart to find me because I might not be a Good Samaritan, but I would be damned if I let some girl be dragged off and raped. I also knew the rules. “If she took an oath, then she no longer belongs to the pack. She belongs to Vampire, and I will call the Council in if you push me.”

I really wouldn’t. I hated the Council, but everyone feared them so I would invoke that name whenever I could. I would, however, make Daniel clean up his own damn mess. Hubby and I needed to have a talk.

“Look, you stupid bitch, it isn’t any of your concern.” The younger wolf was beginning to get on my nerves.

Mitchell stepped toward me, menace in his dark eyes. He was intimidating, his face all hard plains and stark lines, his body built on solid muscle. “Wyatt, don’t talk to the pretty lady like that. She doesn’t know who she’s messing with. I’ll explain it to you, sweetheart. Stay out of our business, little human. You might be Quinn’s plaything, but he can’t be with you twenty-four seven. He’ll tire of you sooner rather than later. If you screw with the pack, we’ll have to assume you want to be messed with, darling. I don’t think you’ll like how I mess with you. I won’t be as pretty as Quinn there, but you’ll know I’ve had you. I like it rough.”

I kind of expected this would be a good time for Dev to roar his indignation or shoot someone, but when I looked over, he was merely rolling his eyes with disdain. “Oh, Mitchell, you’re such an ignorant man. Don’t keep up with your son’s circle of friends, do you?”

Mitchell looked confused and shot a look at the younger wolf. “You talking about Wyatt? What does she have to do with Wyatt?”

“I was talking about your other son, Neil,” Dev replied. “You know the one who took a blood oath to protect Daniel Donovan and everything that belongs to him, including his wife, Zoey.”

Mitchell had the good sense to go a little pale at the mention of my hubby. “You mean the vampire everyone is talking about. This is his wife?”

I was too stuck on the fact that this asshole was the man who’d put Neil through such hell. He was the one who’d tossed him to the street and allowed him to be abused by the pack. Neil had suffered and sold himself because this man couldn’t handle his natural biology. Now I knew where I’d seen Wyatt’s face before. I saw it every day on my friend.

Dev was still talking as my rage started to boil. “Yes, she’s married to the vampire, who will probably kill you when he finds out you threatened to rape his wife. He’s tolerant when it comes to me, but I doubt he’ll let you into our little ménage.”

“Dev.” I didn’t dare say anything else because I didn’t want to give anyone notice of what I was about to do. I held out my hand, letting him know what I wanted.

He sighed because he knew exactly what I was going to do, and he also knew it would probably cause trouble down the line. “Any way I can talk you out of it?”

“None.”

He slapped the gun in my hand and before that no good, backwoods, homophobic, raping son of a bitch had a chance to move, I aimed and fired. A surprisingly high howl cracked through the room. Mitchell fell to the floor, big hands covering his now defunct private parts.

I stood over him even as Albert showed up to hold back Wyatt. “That was for Neil. If you ever come near me again, I won’t stop shooting. I swear I’ll fill you so full of silver, you’ll bleed metal. My only regret is that eventually your dick will grow back. But I bet it hurts.” I handed the gun back to Dev and gestured to Angelina, who seemed much surer of herself now. “She belongs to Vampire. We do not give back what is ours. We do not share what is ours”—Dev cleared his throat—“unless we really want to, and we won’t share with you. You don’t have to worry about my husband, Mr. Roberts. You mess with Angelina and I will hunt you down.”

I turned to find Angelina holding on to the long-delayed Justin.

He held his girlfriend close but looked awfully impressed with me. “I would threaten him, but it would probably look silly after what you just did. I think you just cured me forever of companion fascination.”

“You want to explain to me what’s going on, Justin?” I asked as the Roberts family was being escorted off the premises. There was a very efficient cleaning crew already swabbing up the blood so no one went all blood lusty.

Justin frowned. “Mrs. Donovan, as frightening as I find you I…”

I could finish the sentence for him. “You are way more scared of Daniel. Well, I’ll take this up with him and trust me, he should be afraid of me.”

Dev was watching me, his foot tapping impatiently. “Are you done? Is there anyone else you would like to maim?”

“Not anyone who’s here,” I replied honestly.

“I would really like to get to the sexually deviant portion of the evening.” Dev took my hand and led me through the crowd and up the stairs.

He blew past several employees who wanted to talk to him and told the bouncer at the bottom of the stairs that he wasn’t to be disturbed for the rest of the night. By the time he slammed the door of his office, he was in a state. He pulled me to him, ours chests bumping with the force. He tangled a hand in my hair, his lips moving on mine. I might have been intimidated, but I remembered what Felicity had told me. Something about the way her magic had worked on him brought back bad memories. The way he was devouring me now made me think those memories must be beyond bad.

When he finally let me come up for air, I pulled back just a little. “Dev?”

His breath moved his chest in a steady, deep pace, a sure sign of his arousal, but he let me go and walked around his desk. He threw his body into the chair and ran a frustrated hand through his hair. “If you don’t want to be here, there’s the door, Zoey. I’ll have the driver take you home.”

“I didn’t say I wanted to leave.” He was so testy. Dev was my good-time lover. We laughed and teased and played. I guess if I was honest, that was what he really was to me. He was a playmate. I hadn’t seen this side. “I just thought maybe we should talk about what happened.”

I thought it was just a funny little episode. We’d all been caught at one time or another in some form of magic, but this was serious to Dev.

His green eyes were dark and that sensual mouth turned down. “I don’t want to talk, Zoey. I want to fuck. I want to bend you any way that pleases me and make you scream when you come. I want you soft and sweet and entirely submissive to me. If you can’t do that, then walk away and I’ll figure something else out. If you hadn’t already unmanned the local werewolf alpha, I might have been able to start a fight.”

So much anger and pain. It was right there, etched on his gorgeous face. He’d never shown this much of himself to me. I know there are many women who would have walked out, determined to not be used by another to forget their troubles. But I knew when my lover really needed me. I made my decision. He didn’t need to talk tonight. He needed something else. He needed to know I was here for him.

I drew my shirt over my head, tossing it to the side. He sat back in his chair, just a little of his rage dissipating and turning into desire. Slowly, so he couldn’t miss the show I put on just for him, I pushed my jeans away, toeing off my shoes and standing in front of him in nothing but my undies and bra.