Steal the Light (Thieves) (36 page)

Daniel walked up behind us but he simply folded his arms across his chest and shook his head. I suspected he’d told Dev that this wouldn’t work.

I pulled my hand back. Of all the people I’d dragged into this awful situation, it was Dev I was most regretful about. I could feel for him. But my history with Daniel trumped everything. I loved him. I wanted these last moments with him. “Dev, I’m sorry, but there is no way out of this. You can’t do anything. If you try, you’ll probably get hurt.”

He shook me a little. “You can’t mean to just sit here and wait for Halfer to come for you.”

“I’m so sorry I brought you into this. I never meant to hurt you. But I’m going to stay here and wait for him. The Light of Alhorra is gone. I’m not going to spend my last hours running like a rat trying to get off a sinking ship. If you had three hours left on Earth, how would you spend them?”

Dev shook his head in disbelief, his eyes sliding to Daniel. “I hope you’re right about this. I’ll do the first part, but I’ll die before I let the second bit happen.” He turned back to me. “You’re making a huge mistake, Zoey. I care for you. When you wake up to what he is…to what this whole perverted thing with him is, you call me, but I won’t stand here and watch him lead you into Hell.”

Dev stormed out of the room, and I wished I could have called him back, but he would never understand. Daniel and I were different. I wasn’t his property. He loved me long before his turn, and he loved me now. Whatever happened between other vampires and companions, it didn’t touch us. It didn’t define us. I was his partner. He would never treat me as less.

The door slammed behind Dev and Daniel lifted me into his arms and carried me into the big bedroom. We were in full agreement on how to spend our final hours together. I let the conversation with Dev go, and I let the day go, and I let whatever was going to happen tonight go, and lost myself in loving him.

He carried me to the bedroom, sinking on to me as we fell to the bed. We got out of our clothes, needing to be skin to skin. He stared at me, his eyes catching mine and holding them.

“I love you, Z.” It had taken five years for me to hear “I love you” from Daniel again, but each word was sweet.

“I love you.” I couldn’t hold those words from him if I tried. My whole body lit up as Daniel pressed me down. We nestled together, chest to chest, legs tangling, mouths merging, feet tickling.

He promised he would take care of me, and I knew it was a lie. There wasn’t anything he could do, but I also knew I would hold those words like a shield against the things that would happen. I had made my choice. I’d chosen that baby over both of us, but I needed to. She didn’t really belong to us, and I had to send her away. Summer. Our almost child.

Daniel kissed me, long and slow. His fangs grazed my neck, his hunger a palpable thing.

“Please.” I wanted him to feed. I was already caught in his power. There was a part of me that hoped he would take it all. His fangs pierced, sweet pleasure coursing through my veins. He could take it all. I would float away as Daniel fed and fed. It would be a pleasant way to go. I would just hold him and give to him and fade away.

“Stay with me.” He pulled away all too soon, his words warm on my skin. “Stay with me until the end.”

He opened a hole on his chest, just above his heart and cradled my head as I leaned over to drink. That blood took me to a different place, a better place. Maybe Dev was right, but in that moment, I didn’t care about addictions or reason. I wanted to fade away, to ride that blood and never look back.

“My companion. My precious blood.” Daniel kissed me after I’d had my fill. He laid me down and covered me again, his cock finding its home.

It was over too soon.

I didn’t cry until he told me it was time. I didn’t want to leave him. It was so fucking unfair. I just got him back, and now I would lose him again.

“Shh, Zoey,” he whispered, strong hands stroking my hair. “It’s going to be all right. I won’t let anything happen to you. I’ll take care of it. Trust me. This is the way it is between us now. I take care of you. It’s my right, my duty.”

But there was nothing he could do. And I still wasn’t sure he wouldn’t be forced to go with me. I intended to argue that I was the leader of the crew. I’d made the deal. I’d pay the price.

He dressed me in a clean shirt and jeans I suspected Neil had provided. We’d spent hours alone together, but Neil had been shopping. I was distinctly zombie like. I had one goal and that was to not let Halfer drag me kicking and screaming. If I did one last thing on this plane, it would be to get out with some shred of dignity. Daniel held my hand and led me out to the living area where Neil and Sarah sat on the couch. She looked like I felt.

“No Joe?” I asked.

She shook her head. “I wanted to be here.” She looked up at Daniel, and I knew it took courage to face him. “I’m sorry, Daniel. I had my reasons, but I will do whatever I can to take care of her down there.”

Daniel just stared her down, but to her credit, she didn’t flinch.

“Someone’s coming.” Neil breathed deeply as there was a knock at the door. “Not demons. Vampires. Is the cavalry here?”

“Don’t expect help from them.” Daniel shook his head as if he’d been expecting this.

“Help from who?” I looked at him for some explanation, but he simply opened the door.

“Hello, Marcus,” Daniel said with a deferential nod to an impeccably dressed man who looked to be in his thirties. He was dark haired and impossibly attractive.

“
Buona sera
, Daniel,” Marcus said with a frown, his eyes narrowing in obvious impatience.
“Che guaio sei tu in presente?”

“È niente Sono incapace verso riuscire.”
Daniel responded. “Please, can we speak English? My Italian is rusty.”

I didn’t know his Italian existed.

“Of course, how rude of me,” Marcus said politely. Daniel stepped back and allowed him to enter. He was followed by three more men, all of them dressed in suits and stunningly attractive. What I didn’t find attractive was the coffin they carried between them. “Your Italian is rusty because you don’t use it. I assume your French is even worse.”

“So the Council sent you?” Daniel stared at the coffin. The vampires set it in the middle of the room.

“It could have been worse.” Marcus shrugged, an elegant movement of strong, broad shoulders.

He wasn’t as tall as Daniel, but he had a distinctly hawk-like presence. Of all the vampires in the room, even I could tell that he was the oldest. Power radiated off him. And he looked at Daniel like a father annoyed at his wayward son.

I didn’t even know the name Marcus, but Daniel had a deep relationship with him. Daniel spoke Italian and French. Daniel was important.

Daniel was a mystery.

“I don’t see how this gets much worse,” Daniel grumbled.

“They could have sent someone else,” the Italian vampire shot back. “They wanted to send someone else. I had to pull many strings to arrange this. We are only here to observe, Daniel. I am not even sure what it is I am supposed to observe. Would you care to fill me in?”

But Daniel was busy watching the other vampires. “Touch her and I’ll have you in that coffin, Ivan.”

It was then I realized all of the vampires were looking at me. I felt like I had in the elevator with Michael, except times three. Every eye was focused on me. I couldn’t miss the fact that their fangs were out. Predators. I was in a group of hungry predators and I felt like prey. I walked over to Daniel and slipped my hand in his.

“Ragazzi,
dove sei tuo maniera
?” Marcus commanded, and the vampires stepped back, but they didn’t take their eyes off me. “I apologize, Mrs. Donovan. They forget themselves around a lovely companion. Your light is extremely bright. I forget myself as well. I am Marcus Vorenus, Daniel’s patron. I wish I were meeting you under better circumstances. Daniel should have had you properly presented to me in Venice, but he is not one to play by the rules.”

Mrs. Donovan? And what rules? And why did people keep referring to how bright I was? I didn’t feel bright. I felt as dumb as a post.

Then I was just scared. The air around me cracked, and the room filled with the smell of brimstone. The demon was right on time.

Halfer stood in the front of the window, immaculate in his suit and tie. His human form was perfect in every way except for the red cast to his eyes. He smiled broadly and clapped his hands together. “Excellent, we’re all here. Let the negotiations begin.”

Chapter Twenty-Four

It occurred to me as I stood there that I didn’t understand what was going on. I looked around the room and everyone with the exception of Sarah seemed to be in the know. They might not know everything, but they were comfortable enough to not look confused.

Daniel placed himself in front of me, so I was forced to crane my neck around his body to be able to see what was going on. Neil made his way to Daniel’s side, but I noted he didn’t stand beside him exactly. The stance seemed practiced, as though where he stood mattered. There was some form of ritual going or protocol happening that I didn’t understand.

Lucas Halfer was the only one in the room with a smile on his face. It was the self-satisfied smile of a man who knew he held every ace in the deck. I felt distinctly underdressed. All the vampires were as immaculate as Halfer. And why did I need a cadre of vamps to witness my descent?

“Danny, what’s going on?” I asked, trying to get a good look at Halfer.

“Be quiet, Z. I told you I would handle it. All you have to do is be quiet.” Daniel didn’t turn to look at me, but his hand reached back and squeezed mine.

“We are here as you requested, Lucas,” Marcus said shortly, ignoring mine and Daniel’s domestic squabble. “Would you mind explaining why we are here?”

“Just to be clear, you’re here representing the Council. You are not here as Daniel Donovan’s patron,” Halfer clarified.

Marcus nodded. “I represent the interests of the Council and am directed to speak for them.”

I peeked around Daniel. Marcus approached Halfer and the two squared off like really well-dressed boxers just before the bell rang.

“Excellent,” Halfer said cheerily. “Then let me get down to business. Zoey Wharton, I see you there hiding behind your big, strong, dumb vampire. Do you have the Light of Alhorra for me?”

I tried to step forward, but Daniel held me back. “No. It’s gone.”

“Now that’s too bad,” he replied softly. “I seem to remember we had a contract.”

Marcus stepped forward, his face flushing. “By the terms of our laws, you are not allowed to trick any of vampire kind into one of your contracts. It is an old law, and you do not want to break it. The Council will not stand for it.”

“Marcus, I believe you will find it is not as simple as that.” Daniel’s voice was grave.

“The contract is with me, not Daniel.” But they weren’t listening. They were arguing with Halfer and doing it in multiple languages.

I breathed a long sigh of relief. If what Marcus said was true, then Daniel was safe. He wouldn’t be dragged to Hell with me. It was enough. Daniel would live.

But I still had a whole bunch of questions. This was all about me, and I still had no idea why the Vampire Council was so concerned about it.

The way I understood it, demons and vampires at one point in the distant past had worked together. The demons, being demons, screwed everything up, and there was a war. It was costly on both sides because it was fought entirely on the Earth plane, where vampires had the advantage. To end the war and the bloodshed, they wrote several contracts that rule all interactions between the species.

The word “contract” was slung around enough that I realized I was in the middle of a legal battle.

“Silence!” Halfer commanded, and the room fell quiet. “What is the Council’s objection to my contract with Miss Wharton?”

“You know what our objection is.” Marcus stood closer to the demon than I would have been comfortable with. “You have no right to make a contract with Mrs. Donovan without a representative of the Council present.”

Halfer smiled that shit-eating grin of his. “Oh, but Marcus, she wasn’t Mrs. Donovan at the time.”

Marcus was silent for a second and whirled on Daniel. “
Idiota!
You promised me you would perform the ceremony when I allowed you to return here. You were to perform the ceremony and make it legal, or you gave up all rights to her. She should have been brought before the Council and placed with another master if you chose not to bind her to you. I trusted you.”

“I did perform the ceremony.” Daniel’s voice was low, and I strained to hear him. “Last night.”

“Obviously, and from the way this room feels, you probably did it again tonight,” Marcus said, shaking his head. “It was too late.”

“What ceremony?” I was really sick of being talked about like I wasn’t here.

Marcus ran a hand through that pitch black hair of his, disturbing his perfect image. “The marriage of a companion to her master. He took your blood and you took his. You are married under our law and protected under our rules. Unfortunately, Daniel’s stubbornness has cost you greatly. You were not married when your contract with the demon went into effect. You are on your own. There is nothing I can do for you.”