Steal the Day (Thieves 2)

by Lexi Blake

  He loomed over me, invading my space. “Oh, I’d have killed you, bitch.”

  “Shut up, both of you,” the Dark Lord of Hell said. Though his voice was quiet, it seemed to reverberate along the floors and across my skin, creeping like an army of insects. “You’re acting like five-year-olds fighting over a toy. Brixalnax, it has been brought to my attention that you had an angel captured and tortured on this plane. Is this true?”

  Halfer straightened up and got his pride on. “Yes, My Lord Lucifer. It’s true. I captured the angel myself. I brought him to my palace and had him on the rack. He’s been screaming for me, My Lord. I bound his magic and have taken sustenance from his blood.”

  “Ewww,” I muttered under my breath.

  “This one thought to steal the angel from our plane,” Halfer accused. “She thought to take what belongs to Hell.”

  “I didn’t ‘think it,’ Halfer. Do you see your angel?” I asked sarcastically, looking around. “I don’t think so. Angel boy has left the building, and I held the door open for him.” I laid it on thick because if I was spending the rest of eternity in this place, I wanted to get my bile and vitriol out before I was too tortured to be me anymore.

  “Mrs. Donovan,” Lucifer said through clenched fangs. “You are exceedingly annoying.”

  I shrugged because it wasn’t the first time I’d heard that.

  Halfer bowed again. “She is that, My Lord. I shall handle her. Allow me to take her back to my palace, and I assure you she’ll pay for her crimes on this plane.”

  I was about to say something really brave with my trademark sarcastic zing when Lucifer turned those ancient eyes on the demon. “And who is going to make you pay for your crimes, Lord Brixalnax?”

  And my mouth closed because there are some things that do not require comment.

  Halfer stopped, his body primed with tension. “My crimes?”

  Lucifer regarded him with obvious distaste. “Yes, Brixalnax. Do you really think you were able to capture an angel? Only one demon has ever captured an angel before. It was long before your petty existence began. Would you like to know how that turned out?”

  I raised my hand. “I totally would.”

  Lucifer Morningstar utterly ignored me. “The angel allowed himself to be captured, and he created havoc down here. Your angel was almost surely a spy. Do you think I have no plans I would like kept from the enemy? Do you think I plot and commit atrocity after atrocity so you can fall into an angel’s trap and screw everything up?”

  I decided to hold my tongue and attempt to look very non-threatening, but inside I was totally pointing and laughing. Oh, I was probably still going to be tortured for eternity, but it looked like old Brix would be there beside me. I certainly wasn’t about to point out that Felix allowed himself to be captured for love rather than tactical reasons.

  “I was very clever in my capture,” Halfer argued, trying to find a way out of this situation. “I came upon him unawares.”

  “He is never unaware.” Lucifer scowled. He was really good at scowling.

  Halfer’s eyes narrowed to black slits. “How can you know that, My Lord? You were not there.”

  “I know that because I was an angel, you idiot.” Lucifer’s eyes brimmed with red fire. They were endless, those eyes. They seemed to get bigger with every word he said. “We’re only safe from their awareness on this plane, yet you offer one room and board. Then when the angel escapes, you choose to break our contracts with the vampires by killing a companion. You killed a companion, a soft, fuzzy little blood bucket. How is that supposed to help anything?”

  “You don’t know her, My Lord,” Halfer explained hurriedly. “She looks like a bimbo, but she’s actually quite formidable in an obnoxiously lucky way.”

  I could have argued that luck had nothing to do with it. I could have proclaimed that I was a badass who killed when I needed to and had beaten back not one, but two of this plane’s bad boys. I could have said all those things, but I was far too busy making my hazel eyes really wide and doe-like. I gave Hell’s leader my best “I’m not quite following this conversation” look.

  Lucifer waved off that line of thinking. “Bah, her only value is to the vampire master she feeds. The vampires are serious about their precious blood, and even a weak vampire could cause trouble between demon kind and vampire kind, but you had to kill the bloody Nex Apparatus’s companion. Do you have any idea what he was about to do to you? He is pivotal to everything that’s about to happen on the Earth plane, and you turn him against us?”

  “I did not know of your plans, My Lord.” Halfer got to his knees, his head bowed.

  “And I did not realize you required a daily update in order to follow my rules.” There was a certain finality to his words as though judgment had already been passed. “I’m not going to kill you, Brixalnax. I’m going to let Mr. Donovan handle it. Perhaps if he’s busy hunting you down, he won’t turn his rage on my smaller soldiers. I cast you from Hell, Brixalnax.”

  Halfer’s head came up. “My Lord, I have served you for centuries.”

  “And you failed me today,” Lucifer replied with no mercy. “You’ll wake up on the Earth plane and your powers will be diminished. You may keep your strength and your present form, but I suggest you run because I have no doubt there will be an angry vampire on your heels. If I were you, I would hope Mrs. Donovan survives.”

  “I’m alive?” I asked, finally piping up because I was pretty damn sure I was dead. I’d felt the enormous loss of blood, and I knew I had stopped breathing. I’d done the whole “watching my body from above” thing.

  “Even now your husband is attempting to revive you. I can’t promise you it’s going to work, but shoving your soul back into your body may be the jolt of energy you need.” The Lord of Hell, Lucifer Morningstar, rolled his eyes and waved his hand. “Now be gone, you annoying children. I’ve spent enough time on your foolishness.”

  Lucas Halfer looked at me with hate in his soon-to-be mortal eyes. I knew without a doubt he would be coming for me. “I’m going to kill you, bitch.”

  “Not if I kill you first,” I replied, and then I was shoved back into my broken body.

  I came to myself in a roar of pain, but I barely managed a whimper. I went from feeling perfectly fine to horrific agony all in an instant, and the forceful change caused my body to jerk. I struggled to open my eyes as I tasted blood on my lips. It was that rich, velvet of Daniel’s. I forced my tongue to lap it up.

  “That’s right, baby,” Daniel said, his voice past desperation. He held his wrist to my mouth, and I felt his tears hit my forehead.

  I was lying with my head in his lap, and I could feel the blood running down my cheeks. Later, I understood that Daniel had been trying to get me to take the blood for several minutes with no luck. It ran out of my mouth, and Marcus had tried to get him to give up. Daniel simply opened his wrist over and over, refusing to admit that I was gone.

  “Drink, Zoey,” he whispered, getting his head as close to mine as possible. “Come back to me. Don’t you dare leave me.” His free hand caressed my face as though to reassure himself that I was still warm and alive. “I’m so sorry I left you. Please forgive me.”

  I heard Marcus sigh over me. His skin was pale. He seemed to have given Dev a fair amount of his blood. “Your faery prince lives, cara. He’ll be tired for a few days, but he lives. We were not so sure about you. You seemed very dead when the demon disappeared and Daniel was finally able to look after you.”

  “Welcome back, Mrs. Donovan.” Louis Marini looked down on me with dispassionate eyes. I was sure every vampire at the ball was watching as the dreaded Death Machine wept over his wife’s body. I feared we had made a terrible mistake. “You are stronger than I expected. It’s been a most revealing evening. It’s good to know that the Council’s greatest weapon has at least one weakness. I bid you good night.”

  He walked away, and I realized that we’d just handed him a mighty weapon.

  * * * *r />
  Two hours later, Daniel eased into the suite’s large Roman-style bath with me in his arms. My body still felt all limp and noodley, but I didn’t care because I was with him and Dev was alive. Daniel had been forced to hold me all the way from the ballroom to the hotel while Marcus carried Dev because he was in and out of consciousness. Dev was asleep on the bed, but Daniel had decided my skin was still chilly and needed warming up.

  He sank into the heat of the water, and I groaned with pleasure.

  “Is that better, baby?” He eased me onto his lap. The hot water reached his chest and covered me almost all the way to my neck. I rested my weary head on his broad shoulder.

  “Warm.” I sighed. Daniel’s blood was working in my body. The weariness I felt was almost pleasant. In this case, the very cessation of pain was pleasurable.

  Marcus knelt beside the tub. I was too tired to protest the fact that I was naked. “The prince is recovering. He’s awake and can walk, but he’s weak. He needs rest but he will heal. You’re going to have to feed her more blood. Are you sure you can handle it by yourself?”

  I smiled up at the Italian who I was very happy with at the time. Dev was alive because Marcus saved him. “Oh, Marcus, are you offering to join us and feed me yourself? That is very self-sacrificing of you.”

  Marcus returned my smile. “Cara, this is a sacrifice I would willingly make.”

  Daniel hugged me. “No, I can do it. I feel perfectly fine. I’ll take care of my wife. I hear Marini refused you when you could have saved her.” Daniel had assumed Marcus would take care of me while he fought Halfer. It never occurred to him the head of the Council would refuse to save a companion.

  “Yes, Daniel. He’s dangerous, and she’s on his radar now.” Marcus stood up, straightening his clothes. “I will leave you to seek my own bed, but I’ll call later to see how our troublesome queen fairs.”

  Marcus left, and we were alone. Daniel rubbed my back with his hands and rocked me. I might have been the one who technically died, but Daniel was the one in shock. He was still shaking, and I wondered if maybe we should have taken Marcus up on his offer.

  “Are you all right?” I asked after a long silence.

  “You died, Zoey,” he said, his voice unsteady. “I felt it. You were fucking gone. You died because I was so pissed off I left you there. I left you all alone with no one but Dev.”

  We had to get one thing straight. I wasn’t going to let him take this out on Dev. “You can’t blame Dev.”

  His head shook. “I’m not blaming Dev, Z. Dev did what he had to do. From what Marcus said, Dev died, too. I’m blaming myself because none of this would have happened if I hadn’t lost my temper. I got both of you killed.”

  I had played my part in this fiasco. I had to own up to it. “I let Felix take Neil. He even warned me I would pay for it, and I still did it. You were right, Danny. I did what I wanted to do. I didn’t think about anything else. That one mistake could have cost Dev his life.”

  “Why didn’t Dev freaking stop you?” Danny asked.

  “Have you tried to stop her?” Dev stood in the doorway, his skin pale.

  I looked up and was rewarded with Dev’s very much alive face. He was past tired and disheveled, but he’d never looked better to me. He’d shed his bloody clothes and stood there in a pair of jeans. His torso was smooth once more, with no hint of the massive damage that had almost taken him from me forever. I told myself I would have to send Henri Jacobs and Marcus big old thank you gifts if I could figure out the vampire equivalent of a cookie bouquet.

  “It happened very quickly, Daniel,” Dev explained in a somber voice. “It wasn’t like she looked to me for guidance.”

  “I’m sorry.” I wished he would come closer. I wanted to put my hands on his skin.

  “It wasn’t your fault, Dev,” Daniel said firmly. “I wouldn’t have been able to stop her, either. She’s impulsive, but she thought she was doing the right thing.”

  “I’m sorry.” I didn’t like the look on Dev’s face. It was altogether too sober for a person who had just cheated death.

  “I’ll have to disagree with you, Dan. It was my fault. I couldn’t protect her.” Dev leaned against the door. “I managed to make myself a piece of cannon fodder. That bought her roughly twenty seconds while he gutted me.”

  “He’s a demon,” Daniel pointed out. “He’s going to be stronger and faster than you. That’s why we hire muscle.”

  I held a hand out to him. “Dev, please just come here and kiss me.”

  “I don’t think that’s such a great idea, Zoey,” Dev admitted, finally getting to what I’d been afraid of since he walked in the room with bleak eyes. “Look, I’ll find your muscle, Dan. I think we can assume Halfer will be back. She needs you a hell of a lot more than she needs me. You can protect her. I can’t. I’m going to stay here in Vegas for a while. The two of you should stay at Ether when you get back to Dallas. It’s better protected than either of your places, and she’ll be more comfortable. The staff knows how to keep an eye out for her. I think you should go with two bodyguards, at least, when you’re not with her. Weres are best.”

  “What do you mean you’re staying here?” I forced myself to sit up.

  Dev ignored me, preferring to speak to Daniel. “I’ll put every investigator I know on tracking down Halfer. You’ll get daily updates. If you need anything from me, just call.”

  “Why are you leaving me?” I hated the way my voice caught. “Is it because I got you killed?”

  “No, Z,” Daniel corrected with a frown. “He thinks he got you killed, and he’s being a self-sacrificing idiot. He blames himself for the fight we had before I stalked off. He thinks if he hadn’t come between us in the first place, we wouldn’t have had that fight and I wouldn’t have left you. What he’s not counting on is the fact that we fought before he came around, and if he leaves, we’ll still fight. It’s our nature. Dev, she still would have let Neil go even if you hadn’t been here. I still would have stormed out, and then she wouldn’t have had those twenty seconds.”

  “I still think it’s best if I took myself out of the equation,” Dev said softly.

  “Can we not make any decisions tonight?” Daniel sounded as tired as the rest of us. “I don’t want to fight anymore. Look, if all the shit at the ball made you want to pull out, then fine. Stay here in Vegas, and Z and I will manage on our own. I won’t blame you. This probably won’t be the last time someone tries to rip your guts out if you stay around us. But if you’re doing this because you think I won’t protect her if you’re here, then get the fuck over it, man. Don’t break her heart like that. Just get in the tub and help me keep her warm, and we can make decisions when we get home.”

  Dev looked torn, and I held my breath. I knew this was a moment between the men, and I would only confuse things. “Are you sure?”

  “Yes. It’ll be dawn soon. I hoped the magic would last longer than one night, but I can feel myself getting tired already. I don’t want her cold because I’m too stubborn to share.”

  He still hesitated, and I knew it was my turn to sway him. “If you don’t get in this tub with me, Devinshea Quinn, I won’t tell you the story of how I met Lucifer Morningstar.”

  Dev’s eyes went wide, and I felt Daniel tense beside me. “Seriously?”

  “Get in the tub and find out,” I dared him.

  His jeans hit the floor, and he was in my arms as I told my tale.

  Later, just before dawn, Daniel carried me out to the big bed. He laid me down in the center and crawled in beside me. Dev was on the other side, wrapping his arms around my waist and tangling our legs together.

  When Daniel died with the dawn, I was still warm and happy.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  “Will Felicity and Oliver be all right?” I looked at Sarah and Felix who sat across the table from me.

  We were sitting together enjoying a glass of wine after a perfectly delightful meal. Felix was certainly making good on his promise to
try the whole eating thing. He’d had a full three course meal and sampled what Sarah and I ordered. The good news for Sarah was Felix had also tried the gym and found it satisfying.

  “Another of my kind will be assigned to assist them.” Felix’s hand brushed his wife’s. His left hand was sporting a gold band that matched Sarah’s. “It will be difficult, but they’ll find their balance. It’s not the first time this has happened. It won’t be the last.”

  It had been difficult for me to find my balance since we’d returned from Nevada. The four days since Daniel, Dev, and I boarded the plane without Neil had been trying, to say the least. Daniel and Dev had explained to me that they wanted time to think about how best to handle our situation. I couldn’t exactly argue with them. I was the one who screwed everything up, and it still weighed heavily on me.

  I was living at Ether as Dev had discussed, but he wasn’t staying with me. He slept in his office, and Daniel stayed at his apartment during the day. I spent my nights in the grotto or in the club. When I left the confines of Ether, it was with at least one of my two new bodyguards. Zack, the bartender from Descent, had offered his services and already made his oath to Daniel. Dev was right about the cash and power. Zack was constantly excited about the new strength he had gained in taking the vampire blood. Lee was Zack’s brother. He had yet to make an oath, but Zack was working on him.

  “Still no movement on the love front?” Sarah asked, looking at me sympathetically. She had been my go-to girl for whining about how much I’d screwed up my love life. Even though she and Felix were deeply involved in their honeymoon period, she took time out to listen to me cry.

  “Nope. Dev and Danny have been working every night on whatever the hell it is they work on. They have some big meeting coming up with a couple of vampires, and it requires a whole lot of talking apparently.” And left no time to deal with our situation, which was becoming unlivable for me. I would rather we all just fought it out. It would almost be easier to deal with two breakups than to live constantly wondering when they were going to break my heart.