Steal the Day (7 page)

“Daniel,” I said, knowing as the word left my mouth I could do nothing to stop him.

Daniel closed in on the other man. He didn’t bother with a weapon. He wanted to feel the flesh tear and smell the blood run. Daniel roared as he reached his target, the sound visceral and all encompassing. I nearly closed my eyes because I didn’t want to watch as he killed my only path to success.

Then, just as he was about to tear Oliver Day apart, he went flying backward, hard and fast. I watched helplessly as his body flew past me. He was flung across the sanctuary and smashed into the wall, the wood giving way and cracking under the force of his impact.

“You want to know what I am?” Oliver asked as I started to back away, the gun in my hand forgotten.

I suddenly really didn’t want to know. I had an idea now, and it scared me more than any demon could, but Oliver was no longer playing with us. It was like the air in the room rushed to be around him as his wings unfurled. I had an awful glimpse of righteous wings and monstrous rage. Then there was nothing but the thought that I had to get to Daniel. The light was blinding, and it was starting to fill the church.

Here in this old structure, in the middle of the night, the dawn was coming for him.

Yes, this was the part I’d been waiting for. This was that moment of the evening when we started to run for our lives.

Chapter Five

Daniel was already trying to get to his feet when Neil and I started to sprint toward him. I could see blood running down his forehead, a stark red arrow shooting down his face. It was just sheer luck the wooden panels hadn’t pierced any important parts of him.

Neil was faster, but I did my damnedest to keep up. The light coming from the angel followed us like a tidal wave, threatening to crest. I ran faster to try to get to Daniel before that light did. I wasn’t sure the light wouldn’t hurt me, but I knew damn well it could kill him. Neil hit Daniel and knocked him to the ground where he should have stayed if he had any sense. Given the fact that Daniel had just angered an angel from the Heaven plane, I doubted he had any real sense at all.

I heard Felicity yelling at Oliver to stop, but it didn’t seem like he was in the mood to listen.

Neil rolled with Daniel, who finally seemed to understand the danger he was in and was willingly letting Neil maneuver him toward the relative safety of the pews. It didn’t offer a ton of cover, but we couldn’t make it out the door. I felt the minute that light hit my back. It didn’t hurt per se, but I was filled with it. It scared me more than anything I have felt before. That light was real and had mass and motion. I closed my eyes because they didn’t seem to work anymore and leapt toward Daniel and Neil.

“To your left, Zoey,” Neil screamed because a loud hum had filled the room until it was bursting with the sound.

I twisted as hard as I could to my left and hit Daniel’s big body with a thud. From here, we had a little cover. I could see Neil as he tried to shield Daniel with as much of his body as he could. Though Neil was strong, he was small-framed and Daniel was not. Even as I tried to cover the parts Neil missed, I could feel my husband’s flesh charring, the smell sickening to me. Daniel gritted his teeth and shoved his head into my shoulder in an attempt to keep his eyes.

I covered his head with my hands. I’ve never held onto anything the way I held onto Daniel, but it wasn’t working. That light was finding its way into everything. I could feel him coming apart in my hands, his skin burning beneath me. His face was in my neck, and I had the horrible feeling that this was the way I would lose him. I would hold him so close to my heart, and he would fall apart until there was nothing but ashes in my hands. There was nothing I could do.

“Feed.” Neil looked over Daniel’s body into my eyes. I squinted, trying to see. “He needs to feed. His body will try to heal itself if he can feed!”

I pulled Daniel’s head away, alarmed at how weakly it fell back. Neil was right. It was our only shot. If we could just keep him alive through the onslaught, his body would heal eventually. “Danny, you have to feed. You have to feed now. Do you understand? No bullshit. Don’t you leave me like this.”

He let his head slump forward again, but I felt his fangs trying to find a good place to penetrate. With flawless accuracy, he found his sweet spot, and I felt him bite down. For the first time, it hurt. All I’d ever known from the feeding process was pleasure. The blood was entwined with sexual energy until the two didn’t exist without the other. When Daniel fed, we made love. It had never been different until tonight.

I winced against the pain but held him to me. Tears pricked my eyes, the pain was so bad, but I wouldn’t let go. He began to draw against the vein, his strength steadying. His hands tightened on my waist. His will was back and though his flesh continued to char, I knew he would make it. Me, that was another story. I was used to donating for the cause, but he was drawing heavily off me, and I couldn’t keep it up forever.

“Are you all right?” Neil shifted, covering Daniel’s burning arm. “I can pull him off. He won’t like it, but I can feed him, too.”

Neil was very sure of his physical strength, but I doubted he’d ever tried to get between a dying vampire and his companion. He had no idea what was going through Daniel’s mind as he drew the blood from my body into his. In these times, I wasn’t his friend. I wasn’t the girl he’d grown up with and loved and explored everything with. I was
his
. I was a possession, and he would allow no one to take what was his. He would surely kill Neil if he tried to move me. There would be no thought behind the act. Daniel would regret it later, but he was one large ball of primal instinct right now.

“No, I’m fine.” I forced myself to say the words even as I felt myself weakening.

And then just as quickly as that righteous light had flooded our world, it winked from existence.

Neil sprang up, giving us cover. Daniel took one last long drag from my neck, but this time it started to resemble something like pleasure. He was back in some semblance of control. He let his head fall back, his eyes rolling to the back of his head before he closed them. Even though his flesh was still burning in places, he looked blissful, like a man who’d had his first full meal after days of starvation. He reached up to touch me, but his hand fell back, exhausted.

Neil held a gun in his hand, one of Daniel’s. I’d never seen him with one before. I sat up and pulled Daniel’s head into my lap, smoothing back that sandy hair of his while he shook slightly. I tried not to think about the agony in my neck. I could feel the blood continuing to trickle out and knew when I looked in the mirror I wouldn’t see the twin delicate holes he left when he was careful.

“Look, bitch, I have no idea if this will do anything to you, but I am willing to try.” Neil’s voice was harder than I remembered it ever being. He held the gun properly, and I wondered if Daniel had trained him.

Felicity Day approached, her feet moving with caution. She looked very apologetic, and I did not give a shit.

“You stay away from him.” I pulled my own gun, hoping I wouldn’t have to hold it steady for too long. It wouldn’t do any good, anyway. I doubted an angel could be taken out with a bullet. I knew that, but my empty gesture made me feel better. I felt very vulnerable with a half dead vampire shaking in my lap and nothing but useless metal between me and that light.

“I do not mean him harm. I am so sorry Oliver did that. Please believe me. I didn’t come here to harm any of you.” Felicity held her hands out as if to prove she wasn’t armed. It didn’t make me feel better since apparently she could call the freaking sun to her defense.

“Then I’d hate to see it when you mean to do damage,” I muttered as Daniel tried to wrap himself around me. This was one of those times when I was everything to him. His higher brain stopped functioning as every cell of his body concentrated on healing what was burned. I smelled like home to Daniel. I smelled like healing and safety. He wrapped his arms around my waist, and I pulled him close.

Felicity took in the scene, and instead of disapproval, I saw a longing on her face as she watched us. “I’m truly sorry. If I had any idea my brother would react like that, I would never have allowed him to accompany me. You have to forgive him. It is his nature to be judgmental. He serves a particular function, and with Felix away, he has lost his balance.”

“I really don’t care about the whys or the wherefores, lady. I will not help you. You’ll have to find someone else.” And I would have to find another way because I wouldn’t put Daniel in that position again. Had I known what we were walking into, I wouldn’t have even taken the call.

“But there is no one else,” she said beseechingly. “It must be you.”

“Too bad.” I had no sympathy for her. I could still smell Daniel’s charred flesh. The burns were trying to heal themselves, but I feared he was going to need more blood. He’d made himself vulnerable by cutting back on his intake. He would need to gorge himself if he wanted to heal. Felicity Day’s problems were no longer any concern of mine.

“I can help.” She took a tentative step forward.

My arm shaking, I raised my gun. “You touch him and I’ll find a way to kill you. I will be very clever, and I’ll make sure it hurts.”

“All right.” She backed away, her face a mask of worry. “I’ll contact you again. I’ll find another mediator. You won’t find anyone else who can help you as I can.”

“Don’t bother. I won’t take the call.”

“You will, Zoey,” she said with serene certainty now. It made me nervous, as if she had figured out something I hadn’t yet. “I’m the only one who will help you. I’m the only one who can answer your questions. You want to know what you are and why. I’m the only one who can make you understand.”

She turned and walked down the hall and, in a blink, she was gone. One minute her petite figure was walking away, and the next there was nothing.

I let loose a pent-up breath and stared down at Daniel. He was breathing, but it was a shallow thing, a shaky rattle of his chest. “We have to get him out of here.”

Neil clicked the safety on the gun and shoved it in his pocket. He walked over to us, his eyes searching the church for more trouble. “He needs a doctor, Z. He’s not the only one. You’re very pale. Your lips are almost blue.”

“I’m fine,” I assured him, the world around me swimming a little. “Just get Daniel to the car.”

Neil grunted as he lifted Daniel’s two twenty frame. He moved quickly and was back for me before I managed to get to my feet. My hands shook, a combination of blood loss and adrenaline.

“Stop there, sister.” Neil swept me up in his arms. “No more walking for you. Hey, those shoes held up nicely.”

“I’m never wearing them again.” I sighed, letting my head rest against his shoulder. Neil smelled clean and like all the really good parts of a Dillard’s men’s fragrance counter. He would take care of things now, and that was a good feeling. I didn’t exactly lose consciousness. I kind of drifted as Neil drove. I heard him make several calls. One was to Michael House. He was to bring the rest of Daniel’s supply of blood to my father’s house. The next call was to my father, Harry Wharton. His house was closest, and as much as my father annoyed me on occasion, he was good in a crisis.

Neil was cool and collected as he drove through the streets of Dallas. In no time at all, we pulled up to my father’s large home in North Dallas. I opened my eyes and saw the house was lit from what looked like every room. There was a dark Council-issued Benz out front. Michael had beaten us here.

It was Michael who opened the back door of the Audi and hauled out Daniel. “What the hell happened to you, man?” he asked under his breath.

He tossed Daniel over his shoulder and started for the house.

I heard my father curse as he passed Daniel. “Neil, you better start talking. I want to know what happened to my daughter and my son-in-law.”

Neil opened the door, and I stubbornly tried to get out on my own. It didn’t work. My legs felt like Jell-O.

Neil picked me up. “She’s fine, Harry. She just lost a lot of blood. We need the doc to look at her after he sees Daniel. If we can get enough blood into Daniel, maybe he can help her.”

“From what I just saw there might not be enough blood in the world to help our Daniel,” my father said, jogging to keep up.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, suddenly perking up. “He was fine back at the church. He was healing.”

“He just needs more blood. Your father likes to exaggerate.” Neil entered the house and walked straight to the living room. He settled me on the plush leather couch and my father’s assistant, Christine, was there to wrap a blanket around me. She was dressed for bed in pajama bottoms and a T-shirt. I didn’t like to think about where she was sleeping. She was a year younger than me, but she was also my father’s girlfriend and a fairly decent witch.

She pressed a mug of something warm in my hands. “It will help until the doctor gets here.”

I didn’t ask what it was because I didn’t want to know. It was bitter, but I felt warmer. I forced myself to sit up, looking for Daniel. He was a few yards from me. I could see him through the door that led to the kitchen. Michael and Neil were both trying to hold him down, but his big body bucked and convulsed. Michael cursed as he tried again to force Daniel to the floor. I suddenly found the strength to move, throwing off the blanket.