Steal the Day (6 page)

Oliver laughed, an ugly sound. “Halfer wouldn’t dare try to contract with Felix. It was a weakness that left Felix vulnerable. He was always too concerned about the beings on this plane, and it cost him mightily.”

Felicity placed a hand on Oliver’s shoulder. “What Oliver is trying to say is Felix was kidnapped by Halfer and taken to the Hell plane where he is being held and, I fear, tortured.”

“Do not fear it, sister. Fear the unknown. Avenge what we know is happening,” Oliver swore. “Felix is being tortured by the demon. There is no other reason for him to have been taken from us. The demon is feasting on his blood. He’s is gaining strength by draining our brother.”

“So you want us to get Felix when we pick up Sarah,” I surmised. “Not really seeing the upside for us. I mean, I’m sorry about your brother and all, but it’s going to be hard enough to get one person out of Hell. If I start trying to fill a truck and cross the border, I’m going to get caught. I mean, in this case, one really is easier.”

“And how do you mean to get to the Hell plane?” Felicity asked.

That was something that had figured itself out. In one of those wonderful coincidences, this was the year that demon kind and the Vampire Council renewed their treaties. Like anything involved with the two tribes, there were many rituals that took place as the contracts were renegotiated. There was a particular clause that would come up about uninitiated companions, and I really hoped they called it the Zoey Clause. Apparently after several days of arguing, all the demons and all the vampires got together to party. The party was held on the Hell plane, since reality didn’t really have to come into play there. It was a no-holds-barred free-for-all, and this year Zoey Wharton would be attending.

“Let’s say I have an invitation,” was all I offered.

“Of course, the vampire king would be invited to the ball,” Felicity reasoned. “It’s a way onto the Hell plane, but once you’re on there, how do you intend to navigate?”

And so the blonde woman neatly summed up problem number one with my whacked out plan. Hell isn’t some city laid out with neat roads and street signs. And I was pretty sure that no GPS would lead me to the building where Lucas Halfer was most likely to house his bitches.

“I haven‘t figured that one out yet.” I was open to suggestions.

She leaned forward, the shaft of light that seemed to follow her illuminating her face. “What if I told you I know of a particular artifact that will help you find your way around the Hell plane?”

I would probably dance around like an idiot doing that whole “the roof is on fire” thing. To Felicity, I merely gave her a cool, “I would be interested in such an artifact.”

“It is called the ‘Revelation.’ It’s a very odd piece of jewelry.” Felicity leaned close to me as though she wanted only me to hear. I could have told her she could whisper straight into my ear and the boys would have heard her loud as day. Instead I leaned in because I wasn’t going to burst her bubble. “It was fashioned by an alchemist to find his true love.”

“You mean the guys who thought they could turn everyday metal into gold?”

Felicity laughed and pulled back. “They didn’t think, dear. They took objects and fashioned them into gold and other precious things. This particular alchemist worked in Italy during the Renaissance. He met a woman and fell in love, but she was different. She would change form on occasion, and he needed a way to find her without using his eyes.”

“She changed forms?” Several options floated through my brain. There were many creatures that could change form and many creatures who would be more than willing to take a human lover.

“A shifter?” Neil leaned in like a child eager for a bedtime story.

“Nothing so common, little wolf,” Felicity said, and there was a certain amount of affection in her voice. She actually reached out and touched his hair, ruffling it like a loving mother. “This creature loved the alchemist, but it went against her responsibilities to be with him. Though it tore out the heart she didn’t realize she had, she forced herself to hide from him. He was in her charge, you see, but as sometimes happens, he was more beautiful than the others. He made her wish she was alive in that way.”

“So he made some jewelry and found her?” Daniel asked tersely. I made a face at him. It wasn’t his kind of story since no one had mentioned laser guns or spaceships shaped like fireflies.

“Ignore him,” I said.

“The alchemist was clever, like you,” Felicity continued. Behind her I saw Oliver roll his eyes. He might not like Daniel but they had a lot in common. “He knew that if he was in danger, his love would appear to save him. He threw himself from a bridge, and right before he drowned, she came. As he clutched her, he managed to steal a single strand of her hair. He kept it hidden. It was still in his hand when she vanished later. It was this single strand of hair that the alchemist used to fashion the Revelation.”

“So the dude took a trophy and it’s supposed to get us through Hell?” Daniel asked.

“Do I need to give you the same speech she gave Ollie back there?” I shot back. “Feel free to wait in the car if we’re boring you with details. I’ll call you when the killing starts.”

Daniel tossed up his hands in submission. “I just don’t see how a piece of some chick’s hair is going to guide us to Sarah.”

“It won’t,” Felicity said. “It will, however, guide you to Felix. Well, not you, Mr. Donovan, but rather your companion. It actually won’t work at all if you’re around.”

“You’re impure,” Oliver pointed out, malice dripping from his words. “Too much demon in your blood, vampire. The Revelation will only work on the purest of souls.”

Neil burst into laughter, to my everlasting regret. “You’ve got the wrong girl. Pure? Do you have any idea what she did for those shoes? Let me tell you there was nothing pure about it.”

I kicked him solidly with my twelve hundred dollar torture devices before returning my attention to Felicity. “What do you mean it won’t work around Daniel? And why will it guide me to Felix?”

Felicity shot Oliver a nasty look before explaining. “It won’t work around your mate because Oliver is right. He is part demon, as all vampires are. The Revelation was fashioned to find a very particular creature. The alchemist was careful and put in certain safety features. One of these features is the amulet doesn’t work when too close to demon kind. I am afraid your husband’s blood is too strong. You’ll also find it won’t work in close proximity to your wolf friend.”

Daniel shook his head, anger evident in the straight line of his jaw. He didn’t like to be reminded of his close DNA relationship to demon kind. “Well, then you’ve wasted our time. I can promise you I’ll never allow my wife to walk into Hell without me. It will not happen. I might be willing to let her go with Neil, but I won’t allow her to go alone. Besides, you seem to have forgotten that Hell is sort of full of demons, so I don’t know how that’s going to work.”

“The Hell plane isn’t some city,” Felicity countered. “It’s actually quite large and the population is spread out. There isn’t a demon on every corner. I assure you it will work on the Hell plane. But not if you’re close to her.”

Daniel shook his head. “You can take your amulet and shove it up your ass. Let’s go, Z.”

He took my hand, and I was willing to let him because like I said earlier, alone gets you killed in the regular world, much less on the Hell plane. I cared deeply for Sarah, but I wouldn’t be much help to her when I got caught trying to navigate Hell with a magical compass.

“It will work around the faery.” Felicity’s words echoed through the church.

Daniel kept walking, but I stopped. I turned and ignored Daniel’s muttered curse. “It’ll work if I’m with Dev?”

“Devinshea Quinn is pure enough for the Revelation to work.” She looked almost sad, like she hadn’t wanted to reveal that piece of information. I had a feeling Dev was her last resort. She would have preferred I’d gone alone.

“Again, I’m not understanding the definition of pure,” Neil said, shaking his head in confusion.

“Why Dev?” I didn’t understand her version of pure either. Dev was absolutely the filthiest man I’d ever met, and I meant that in a very affectionate way.

She stepped forward. “You and Devinshea are closer to what the Revelation was meant to find than the others. The amulet will work, and Devinshea can be your guard. It is a solution that should satisfy your vampire.”

“You don’t understand my definition of satisfaction, lady,” Daniel shot back. “I told you it’s me or Neil. I don’t trust anyone else. I’m not sending her in there with some douchebag lothario who’ll get her killed because he has no idea what he’s doing. How is he supposed to help? If I need a fucking DJ, I’ll call Dev.”

“He would die for her,” Felicity said quietly.

“He still might,” Daniel swore.

Daniel was missing several points of the conversation due to his emotional outburst. I wished Dev hadn’t come up, but if he was the solution then I would deal with it. It was time to bring the conversation back to business. “How does the amulet find Felix?”

“The amulet will point the way to where Felix is.” Oliver stepped up. He seemed to be giving his sister time to recover. “The amulet is worn on a chain by a pure soul. When used properly, it will light the way to the one you wish to find.”

“But the one we wish to find is Sarah,” Neil pointed out.

Felicity nodded. “I believe she is with Felix. From our reports, she is housed in the same area.”

“What are you not telling me?” I asked because she was suddenly blank.

“I believe your friend is being used to torture my brother,” she said quietly.

My stomach took a dive. The thought of Sarah, who loved men and having fun and dying her hair silly colors, being twisted into something evil killed me. It had already taken longer than I planned. I was worried if I waited too long, what we found wouldn’t even resemble the girl we’d lost. I was running out of time and options.

“So Dev and I could use the amulet to find Felix, and Felix should lead us to Sarah.” If that was true, and I had no reason to believe this Felix was going to lead the way to the woman who was torturing him, I still had other things to deal with. “I still have problem number two.”

Problem number two was even worse than problem number one. If I was good enough to bust Sarah out of Hell, there was nothing I could do when Halfer found us, and he would find us. Her contract was iron clad. There was no clause that stated she could go free if her crazy-ass friend managed to bust her out. Halfer would simply show up and drag her back, and no one would try to stop him.

“I can take care of that,” Felicity said.

“Great, and how will you do that?” Demon contracts weren’t easily broken. They were almost never broken. It was far easier to find a creative way to fulfill the contract, but Sarah had already lost at that game.

“Trust me,” she said with a glowing smile. “I will see her redeemed if you bring our brother back to us.”

“Bullshit,” Daniel spat with a deep cynicism that had become a part of his core. “They’re cons, Z. They can’t redeem her. They’re playing us. It’s a simple setup. ‘Hey, we’ve got this magic amulet that will solve your problems but it won’t work if you keep your muscle around you.’ They’re trying to cut you off from your major resources. They’re trying to get you into Hell with only Dev as a backup. Now they claim they can break a contract? What does that sound like to you?”

I knew what it sounded like. It sounded too good to be true, and too good to be true usually went really bad.

“They’re working for Halfer,” Daniel reasoned. I was inclined to agree with him. If Halfer knew a weakness of mine, it was that I got impatient and was willing to try some crazy things. He also had a definite beef with me. “If he can catch you on the Hell plane, he has us right where he wants us. These two are nothing but cons, pure and simple.”

“You insect!” Oliver shouted, his fair face turning red with rage. “How dare you? I could extinguish you with a thought, yet you insult me?”

I rolled my eyes because Danny’s beast was already close to the surface, and Oliver was waving that red flag. Daniel’s fangs had popped out, and his hands were twitching like he needed to wrap them around something. His eyes were already bleeding blue.

“You should start thinking then, asshole,” he growled, but held his position.

Oliver squared off like he was ready to go ten rounds with Daniel. “Do you understand how it pains me to stand in the same space with you, nightcrawler?”

I got close to Danny. Felicity took up the same position next to her brother. Oliver might talk a good game, but I was betting Daniel was meaner, and he’d been itching for a fight since I walked in the door earlier tonight.

“Oliver, please,” she begged.

But Oliver plunged on. His eyes seemed to darken, proof he wasn’t human. “You disgust me. All of you. If it were up to me, I’d send you to the Hell plane myself. You belong there, you perverted animal.” That was said to Neil, who shrugged because he really couldn’t care less what anyone thought of him. Oliver turned back to Daniel. “Blood sucking, junkie low life. You did not wish to be Halfer’s attack dog, but you are the Council’s assassin? How many innocents have you sent to their deaths, but you dare to stand before my glory?” He turned to me. I sighed because I’ve found, when running down a litany of sins, you usually save the best for last. “And you, you’re the worst. The blood that runs through your veins is pure, yet you whore yourself to the demon.”

That was when my gun made an appearance because I was betting this was just his opening salvo, and Daniel was about to blow. I eased the Ruger into my fist, clicking off the safety. I didn’t really care if Daniel killed Oliver Day, but later on he would feel bad about it, so I might have to put an end to this little battle.

Oliver didn’t seem impressed by my firearm. “You could be so much more, but no, you choose a life of crime. You steal from those weaker than you. You can’t even be faithful to your demon husband. You have to whore yourself to another man and your husband stands by. Does he know the things you’ve done with the faery? The things you never let him do to you?”