Steal the Day (16 page)

“Chad, if my servant is damaged, I’ll be angry.”

“I understand.”

Neil rolled his eyes at Daniel but looked at Chad with a welcoming smile. “I’m hard to damage, honey. You don’t listen to him. You do your worst. I promise I’ll like it.”

Neil took his hand and started back into the house. They walked by and before they managed to open the door, they were kissing, eating each other’s mouths, hands finding new places.

Daniel fell to the ground, exhausted by his efforts. His chest heaved as he tried to calm his own emotions and relax. I’d just witnessed the birth of a new vampire. It had been a brutal and powerful experience. It deserved the quiet contemplation Daniel was giving it.

I’m not a contemplative girl. All I knew was the whole ritual thingie was over, and we could fight again because Chad’s turn had interrupted a very important ass kicking.

I walked over to my prone husband and straddled his waist, falling to my knees so I was over him. He looked up and his hands went to my waist. A slow, sexy smile crossed his face, telling me he completely misunderstood my intentions. I made them clear by using my thumb and middle finger to thunk him strongly on the forehead.

“You’re a dumbass.” It was so obvious.

He’d just performed a ritual that was sacred to the Council. If they found out, he would be declared an outlaw and hunted. It was more than Daniel’s life on the line. If Daniel was declared an outlaw, I would be sold to the highest bidder, Neil would be without protection and at the mercy of his temporarily castrated father, who probably wasn’t in a good mood. And Dev, well, Dev would be righteously killed. Then there was the question of a bunch of baby vamps Daniel had apparently decided to lead into I didn’t know what. I had questions, and he was damn sure going to answer them.

“Oww,” Daniel said, rubbing his head. He flipped me over and my back was hitting the ground as he loomed over me. “I know, Zoey. You don’t have to point it out. I’ve had a rough night. I need a drink.”

He got up but not before hauling me along with him. He stalked off toward the kitchen, leaving me no choice but to follow.

Daniel was opening a bottle he pulled from the refrigerator. He always kept a supply of blood at my place. It wasn’t mine since he had gone through his stash a couple of nights ago.

“Neil’s?” I asked, wondering who else had been donating. I wasn’t jealous or anything. I really wasn’t. I sat down, ready to talk.

He laughed as he placed the thermos in the microwave, setting the timer. There’s a reason blood should be at the proper temperature. It tends to coagulate otherwise, and that’s just gross. Daniel pulled a shot glass out of a cabinet and set it down on the table. He poured a shot from the warm thermos and drank it back like we used to shoot tequila when he was alive.

He sighed and poured another, quickly downing it. “That’s the stuff. I have no idea whose blood this is, but they drank a shitload of Scotch before they donated. You can buy it at the club. It’s strictly black market. Sorry, Z, but I could use a buzz.”

“I’m so glad you’ve found a way to get a little fucked up since you’ve managed to fuck up all of our lives. Hey, before the Council cuts off your head, do you think they’ll let you have a little O pos with vodka?”

Daniel took another shot. “Just ask your questions, Zoey. I promise I’ll answer truthfully.”

I felt the smallest amount of sympathy for him. His blue eyes were tired, and though his face hadn’t changed in six years, for some reason tonight he looked older. I decided to start with the simplest question. “How did you know Chad was a vamp?”

“You mean beyond the fact that he was obviously gay but couldn’t resist you?”

“Yes, beyond that.” He would definitely have to do better.

He sighed. “Fine. You know how I can feel when a new vampire rises?”

Somehow Daniel could feel the moment when a human began the transition to vampire. He could sense it and where it was happening. It gave the Council time to intervene before the vampire started destroying everything around it. It was a very rare talent and it had kept Daniel alive according to Marcus. “Yes, but I thought you could feel it at the moment of death, not before.”

“When I was hauled back to Paris earlier this year, some of the Council members had certain experiments they wanted to try on me. The last king who rose was able to sense latent vampires. Even though the vampire walks and talks in a human body, there are subtle differences. So they wanted to test me. You see the DNA, like all DNA, runs in families, but it skips around a lot. The Council keeps genealogical records that would make the Mormons look like amateurs. Thousands of years of family records from each vampire and still they can’t tell who will rise and who will just rot.”

Daniel paused, and I knew we were going to get to the nasty part of his tale. “What did you have to do, Danny?”

Another shot and the talking seemed to get easier. “Fuckers brought in a hundred men from all over the globe. They just took them off the street, away from their families and their lives, all because they had the misfortune of being the direct descendants of vampires. They told me to find a latent vampire, one they could turn while he was vital to swell our ranks, to regain our power. I couldn’t. So they killed them all and brought in another hundred. This time there was one guy, a guy from Greece. He had two kids. He cried anytime I got near him, but he was different. I can’t put my finger on it, but I knew.”

“Did they make you kill him?”

“Oh, yes, Zoey. He’s why I strongly advocate strangulation,” Danny said with a bitter laugh. “He rose and the Council took him. Obviously they just had me kill him, not take him through the actual turn. He doesn’t care about his kids anymore. He was the only one I could find, and they killed the rest. I guess there was press about the missing people, so they stopped. I’m supposed to investigate the names they send me and, if I find one, send him to the Council.”

The implications chilled me to the bone. “They’re building an army.”

“Yes.”

I shook my head, more than a little confused. “They let you keep Justin?”

“They don’t know about Justin, Z. They don’t know about William or James or Jean-Marc or Bryan. Now they don’t know about Chad. Luckily I’m the only one left who can feel when a vampire rises. I have Marcus to thank for that.” Daniel poured another shot. I wondered how I was going to get a drunken, two hundred twenty pound vampire to bed because he looked like he was shooting for pass-out drunk.

“So you found all these guys and they just let you kill them?”

Danny shrugged a little. “You don’t understand what it’s like, Z. Chad could explain it better. I never met a vamp when I was alive. Something inside Chad recognized me. The vampire part of me called to the same part of him.”

“That sounds a little hot,” I joked.

Blue eyes rolled, but he smiled at me. “I don’t know if it’s because I’m stronger than other vamps, but I don’t have much trouble convincing them. That sounds horrible. I’m convincing them to die, but if I don’t the Council will figure out something else. I need them, Z.”

And those men would likely have lived out their lives and been put down by the Council when they turned during their old age. Daniel had offered them their birthright. I couldn’t complain. The way I understood it, persuasion didn’t work on latent vampires.

I looked for the problem with the scenario. It didn’t take me long. Just because no one else could feel when a new vamp rose didn’t make him safe. “They trust you? That doesn’t sound like the Council, Danny. They have to have someone watching you.”

Danny giggled. There’s no other word for the sound. Yep, the liquor was working. “They absolutely have a spy. He sends in a report every week on my activities and has ever since I came home. He’s been writing his little reports for almost three years. You wouldn’t believe the file he has on me. They think they’re so smart. He made his oath to me six months ago. I approve every report he sends out.”

There was only one vampire it could be. “Michael.”

Daniel nodded. “Yes. And Alexander knows. He doesn’t know about all of it, but he knows enough. He’s more afraid of me than he is the Council. Michael was willing. He came to me. Marcus came to me.”

I caught my breath. Marcus was a Council member, one of the oldest vampires walking the Earth. “Marcus Vorenus made a blood oath to serve you?”

“Yes,” Danny said quietly. “He’s not as bad as you think, Z. He’s been a good mentor. He doesn’t want the Council to succeed any more than I do. They’ve waited centuries for their weapon. They learned their lesson with the last king to rise. They had a plan this time. My training was unique. It was developed to completely break my spirit, to make me a vessel for their will. Most vampires are trained for no more than a year, but they kept me for three. They would have kept me longer if Marcus hadn’t taught me how to fool them. He taught me to act the part. I have to appear to be what they need. I’m the weapon they’ll use to subjugate the other races, to build our ranks, to make the Earth plane our feeding ground.”

The room was silent. I thought about what Felicity had said earlier. If Daniel hadn’t come to me that night, their plan might have worked. The Council wanted to upset the balance, and the only thing that stood in their way was Daniel. He took another shot and now his hand was unsteady. I reached out and covered it with my own. He sighed and turned it over, weaving our fingers together. He was so alone.

While the rest of us were living our lives, he was planning a war.

“I’m going to have to sacrifice one of them, Z.” His hand tightened around mine. “They’re pressing me. It’s been months since I started this project, and so far I’ve delivered nothing. I can’t have them getting suspicious. It would out me and Michael and all of us. I’m going to have to send one of them to the Council. I’m not ready to start a war yet. I would lose.”

A fierce practicality came over me. “Then you’ll pick the strongest, and he’ll be our spy.”

Daniel nodded. “I believe my blood will hold. I don’t think they will be able to turn him if he’s strong.”

“Promise me something, Danny.” Rage and fear curled in my gut, fighting for precedence.

“Anything, baby.”

Rage won. “Promise me we’re gonna kill them all.”

Daniel’s smile held not an ounce of humor. “Oh, yeah, baby, we’ll kill ‘em all.”

* * * *

Two hours later, dawn was near. I knew everything now, and I wouldn’t sleep a wink knowing what was coming. Daniel, however, didn’t have the choice to sit up and worry. I managed to get him to his feet, steering him toward the third bedroom where Daniel stayed when he slept here.

“You don’t want to do that, Z.” Daniel laughed as if I’d done something hilarious.

There was a whole lot of moaning from behind that door and something that sounded like a howl. He was right. I really didn’t want to interrupt that. Unfortunately, Neil and Chad were in the only light-tight room in the house. “Where am I supposed to put you?”

Daniel smiled and raised his eyebrows suggestively. “Baby, I can think of a few places where I would fit just fine.”

I rolled my eyes but had to laugh. He always got horny when he was drunk. “There’s a body bag in my closet.”

It was sad but true. Most girls’ closets were full of shoes and sweaters, and I had a body bag.

Daniel protested, but I got him to my room and sat him down on the bed. I pulled out the heavy bag and laid it out on the right side of the bed. It was habit. For years I’d taken the left side and he’d slept on the right. I still slept on the left side. I unzipped the bag and turned back to my husband, who was trying and failing to get out of his shirt. I pulled the soft cotton over his head and kneeled down to work on his jeans. He threaded his hands in my hair and pulled back, forcing my face up. He looked down at me, his face flush with desire. I closed my eyes and let him kiss me, his lips molding mine softly, his tongue seeking entry. It felt like forever since he’d been this close. My skin lit up the minute he touched me.

He groaned as I opened my mouth beneath his and let him fill me. My hands found the hard muscles of his chest, and I couldn’t help but remember the last time we’d made love. He pulled me up and pressed me close with one hand as the other started to explore, trailing down my neck toward my breast. Gentle and smooth, Daniel treated me like I was made of glass, precious and fragile. It was so different from the sensations Dev pulled out of me.

I pulled away, pushing against his chest. Daniel dropped his arms and sat back, a hollow look in his eyes.

“I’m sorry. I thought…I don’t know why I thought that. I had too much to drink. God, Zoey, I can still smell him on you, but I didn’t care.”

I sat back against the closet, and didn’t even try to stop the tears that came. It was so fucked up. I loved Danny, and I just realized that there was a part of me that was starting to love Dev. Anything I did, any way I went, I hurt someone. Anything I chose would break my heart.

“Don’t, baby.” Daniel kneeled down and pulled me into a hug, settling me on his lap. “Don’t cry. I won’t push anything. I won’t mention it again. Just don’t cry, Zoey.” He held me for a while but dawn was coming, and it didn’t care that I needed his arms around me. “I have to go to bed, Z. I hate that. I pray every dawn that I’ll wake up and I’ll turn over and you’ll be next to me. I’ll tell you about the really crazy-ass dream I had and we’ll laugh. I’ll get up and go to class, and we’ll graduate and get married. We’ll have kids and yell at ‘em and cry when they leave home. We’ll spoil our grandkids, and we’ll be happy.”

I thought about it all the time. I dreamed the same dreams. My head rested against his chest. “It’s a nice thought, Danny.”

“It’s a comforting lie. I’m never gonna wake up.”

He kissed my forehead and lay down in the dark, heavy plastic that would protect him from the sun. I forced myself up.

“That life is dead, Danny. It’s gone,” I whispered as I started to zip up the bag. “Until we let it go, we can’t move on. We have to find a way to move on.”

He nodded, but I could see the dawn stealing his strength, his life. His eyes were closing. “I love you, Zoey.”