by Lexi Blake
“I got her shot, Dan.” They stared into each other’s eyes, saying more than words could.
Daniel nodded and let his forehead find Dev’s, both his hands holding Dev’s neck. “No, you didn’t. I know you and I know Z. She was trying to protect you. She’s fierce. You got her out and that’s what counts. That is all that counts to me, Devinshea. She’s safe and so are you.”
Dev nodded, his hands on Daniel’s waist, and I just wanted to scream at them to hug each other already and maybe exchange some saliva. I moved in because they seemed stuck. The minute I was close, both their arms were around me and they seemed to relax.
“Was the explosion really cool?” Daniel asked with an easy smile.
“Yeah. It was something to see.” Dev sat down on the couch, leaving plenty of space for Daniel and me.
Daniel leaned over, kissing me senseless. “Are you all right, baby? Did Dev get the bullet out okay?”
Dev went a little green at the thought. “You will not leave us alone again, Daniel. I didn’t enjoy playing the field medic.”
Daniel grinned. “I won’t leave you alone again because you do all the fun stuff when I’m not around.”
“Well, if you had been around, I would never have gotten the chance.” Dev said, relaxed as we sat beside him. “You would have flown up and grabbed the thing with one hand and sent it into the ground.”
Daniel’s eyes lit up, and he gave Dev a big eager smile.
“I’ll tell Zack to make a note,” Dev agreed and I could already see how that experiment was going to go. Bell Helicopter might be getting a strange order in the near future.
“Daniel, that crash was huge,” Marcus argued, obviously shocked at Daniel’s attitude. “We did what we could, but I can’t guarantee that there wasn’t video or photos taken. This could be a real problem.”
“Marcus told Dev you were pissed off,” I explained to Daniel.
His blue eyes heated up with anger. “I was. I still am, but certainly not at Dev. I’m pissed off at this Order thing. They shot you.”
“They were trying to kill Dev. It was a head shot for him, but I just took it in the shoulder instead.”
Daniel shook his head. “You’re going to kill me someday, baby.” He turned to Dev. “Tell me you got some of the fuckers.”
“Many of them,” Dev admitted. “I also kept one alive for you. I thought you’d like to have a word.”
Hugo nodded. “The soldier is being held by my employees in the basement. He’ll be quite unconscious for a while yet, Your Highness.”
“Tomorrow is soon enough to deal with him.” Daniel sighed and held me tightly. His voice was low and weary. “Hugo explained to me about the Blood Stone.”
“Danny, I’m so sorry,” I whispered.
“What?” Dev asked, his face worried. He’d been left out of this particular loop, and Marcus took the time to fill him in. He told Dev about how the Blood Stone worked and I watched my faery’s face fall. “And we gave it to him.”
“I gave it to him.” Guilt gnawed at my insides.
Daniel shook his head. “We gave it to him, Z. This isn’t your fault. We all went after that stone and we left you alone to deal with Marini when he showed up.”
“It gets worse,” Hugo said in his clipped accent. “I got a call from your butler earlier this evening, Mr. Quinn. He says Marini attempted to raid the club. He has declared Daniel an outlaw and claims rights to the queen. At this point, he’s only claiming that you belong to the Council, but that won’t last for long.”
We couldn’t go home. I felt my heart start to race at the thought. He was backing us into a corner. He was really going to go through with it. He was going to try to kill Daniel and take Dev and me as his playthings.
“Calm down, Z,” Devinshea said soothingly. “We knew this would happen eventually.”
“He called the entire Council tonight for a vote on your status,” Marcus concurred. “Niko and I were forced to agree with him. We’re outnumbered, Your Highness.”
Daniel waved off that worry. “Of course, Marcus. You do what you need to do to escape detection for now. Tell Niko I understand.” Daniel was a practical man. It did us no good for our allies on the Council to out themselves, but I could see he was upset by the turn of events.
“Was Albert all right?” I didn’t want to think about the ramifications of what Daniel’s status meant for all of us.
Hugo chuckled slightly. “Apparently there was a plan in place. I was told the club is in something called lockdown mode and that the local werewolf alpha has brought the Dallas pack in to defend the place. Marini wasn’t ready for such a vigorous defense.”
Dev nodded. “The new alpha’s wife recently had twins, thanks to my goddess and me. When I asked him to watch after things, he was more than willing to help out. Of course, I didn’t expect him to have to handle a siege, but he was Special Forces trained. Marini will have his hands full with him.”
Marcus shook his head. “Marini has already figured out you fled. He’s returning to Paris this evening until he can discern where you have gone. We all must be very careful. We’ll be closely watched. As soon as your mission here in England is done, you’ll be moved to New York where you’ll stay with Henri Jacobs while we gather our forces and decide our next move. If needs be, I’ll hide you on Poveglia. It’s an island off Venice. It’s very isolated and closed to tourists. I have a small villa on the island that you can stay in.”
It struck me that we were really on the run now. I took a deep breath because I didn’t want to cry in front of Marcus and Hugo. I needed to keep it together for Daniel’s sake. He was already looking far too serious.
“Your Highness, do not worry.” Hugo interrupted my thoughts. “This isn’t the first time a king has been forced into hiding. This is the way the game is played. It’s not even the first time Henri and I have aided a king on the run. We both hid Charles II before we managed to smuggle him out of the country and into France.”
Daniel looked over my head at the vampire. “I appreciate everything you have done, Hugo. Please pass on my thanks to Henri. You’ll have to forgive me, though. It is the first time I have lost my wife’s home. I find the feeling unsettling.”
“Daniel, we knew this could happen,” Dev said reassuringly. “Everything is in place for us. We have a network of supporters willing to help us. We planned for this.”
“I lost your home, too, Devinshea,” Daniel said bitterly. “Shouldn’t you be more pissed off?”
“I’m not angry,” Dev said quietly, trying to get Daniel to look at him.
I stood up. This was rapidly turning into a discussion that was not for public consumption. “Gentlemen, I thank you for everything you’ve done for us tonight, but the king is tired and needs to rest. We’ll retire for the evening and see you tomorrow.”
Daniel allowed me to take his hand and lead him out of the room. It was time to discuss this privately. More importantly, it was time to comfort my husband. He’d had several shocks tonight. Daniel didn’t handle change well. Dev said his good nights and followed us back up to the guest suite assigned to us.
Daniel was silent as he sat down on the bed. I looked back at Dev, who seemed as concerned as I was about Daniel. I didn’t like the hollow look in his blue eyes or the way he quietly let me slip his jacket off and then pull his T-shirt over his head. Dev walked into the bathroom, and I heard the shower running.
“Baby, I need to get your pants off if I’m going to get you in the shower,” I said, trying to pull him up.
He ran a hand through his hair. It was a gesture he always used when he was frustrated, and I knew what was coming. “No. I’m really tired, Z. I’m going to have Diana set me up in one of the smaller rooms so I can get some sleep and not disturb you and Dev.”
I looked up and saw that Dev was back in the room, and his face had flushed with anger. This was what Danny did when he felt guilty. He ran. He might not be running very far, but I wasn’t about to let him get
away with even a short jog away from us. We had moved past that and he needed to be reminded. Forcefully, if necessary. I wasn’t above manipulating him to get my point across.
“Let me get this straight, Danny.” I looked down on him. “Dev and I went through hell today. I got shot. Dev got searched in places he was really sure no one would ever search. We’re on the run and without a home and you want to sleep by yourself?”
Danny was suddenly deeply interested in the floor. “I’m just tired. You and Dev will sleep better by yourselves anyway.”
“I won’t,” Dev said and I saw that he was itching for a fight. I knew what he was thinking. Danny didn’t respond to sympathy. He needed a swift kick in the ass from time to time. “I don’t know about Zoey, but I feel vulnerable sleeping in a strange vampire’s home. But really, Daniel, we wouldn’t want to disturb you with the possibility of us needing you. Feel free to sleep wherever you wish. I’ll take care of our wife as I always do.”
Now Danny’s blue eyes were heating up. “Do you think I like being at other people’s mercy any more than you do, Dev?”
“I’m not the one pulling away, Daniel,” Dev pointed out. His voice went low. “I’m not the one who has stayed away. I’m not the one who won’t talk about it.”
I went completely still because I was suddenly fairly certain that they weren’t talking about what had gone on today. Something had happened between them while we’d been in Faery. It happened when they went off by themselves right before my miscarriage. When they returned to me, there had been a distance between them. Even after we were back together, I would still catch them at odd times, staring at each other when they thought no one was looking. Something was sitting in between them, and I had been very patiently waiting to find out what it was.
I had a suspicion and it made my heart ache.
“Don’t you dare bring that up here and now,” Daniel said, his eyes drifting away.
Dev growled his frustration and began to pace. “Of course not, Your Highness. Fine. It doesn’t matter and it never did. Let’s talk about what does matter. Let’s talk about our wife. Let’s talk about the fact that you’re leaving me alone to take care of her yet again. Why do I have a partner in the first place?”
And just like that I got really frustrated. Daniel stood up and got into Dev’s space. I was tired of the posturing and that shower sounded really good to me. While they faced off, I got out of my clothes. I let them fall wherever and didn’t care that they would get wrinkled.
“I’m not pulling away,” Daniel snarled. “I’m a little fucked up because we’re on the run and it’s my fault. Z got shot and it’s my fault. The club is under lockdown and it’s my fault. Forgive me if I want to give y’all a little time to get over being pissed at me.”
“There’s only one problem with that scenario, Daniel,” Dev said, his voice rising. “I wasn’t pissed at you until you pulled this shit.”
I sighed as they started to yell at each other in earnest. I was tired. I was worried. I was needy and not a little bit scared. We were on a path and there was no way off of it now. Maybe there had never been a way out since the instant Daniel died in that car accident all those years ago, but it was settling in on me now and I could use a little comfort. I needed their arms around me, telling me we would stick together, but the boys had opted for another form of stress release. I was on my own. I thought I might point that out to the boys. They had told me not to go off by myself, and I didn’t want to make them worry.
“Don’t be an asshole, Dan,” Dev yelled and I was pretty sure the whole house could hear us. So much for keeping it private.
I put a hand on both their arms, gaining their attentions. “I’m going to go take a shower, okay? That hot water is going to waste and I’m tired and spent way too much time in a police station to feel clean.”
There was a long pause as they both stared down at me.
“You’re naked,” Daniel said, proving he was good with the obvious.
“That’s usually how one takes a shower, Danny,” I replied. “Dev, you said you brought along all sorts of necessary items, right?”
Dev’s eyes were on my breasts, the prior fight seemingly forgotten. It was nice to know that after all the times I had slept with these men, I could still stop them in their tracks by taking my clothes off. “Yeah, I brought along everything we could need. Marcus sent some of his people out to get our luggage. Luckily the Order left our clothes and personal items behind. They took my weapons cache though. Fuckers.”
“Good,” I replied evenly. “If you wouldn’t mind finding something that would aid in the masturbation I intend to do in the shower, that would be great. You know, whenever you and Danny get through with your fight would be fine. I’ll make do with a couple of fingers until then.”
I gave them both an innocent smile and walked off to the gorgeous shower I had spied earlier. I wasn’t surprised by the silence in the room as I left.
The shower was luxurious, like the rest of the house. It was bigger than most bathrooms, with natural-looking tile and a rainfall shower head. The hot water felt like bliss against my skin, and I thought about how nice it would be to be made love to and then crawl under those crisp, clean sheets and sleep between the two men I loved more than life. I could close my eyes and for a while nothing would matter because I was with them. I sighed and let my hand slip between my thighs. I smiled when I felt a warm hand covering mine.
“Did you find something to help me with my problem, Dev?” I asked, knowing exactly who was behind me.
His erection was already firm against my backside, and I leaned into it as his strong hand gently started to rub my clitoris. His voice was soft and warm against my head. “You don’t need anything but me to help you with that particular problem, lover.”
I frowned. “Did Danny leave then?”
“No,” Daniel said and I turned, following the sound of his voice. He stood in the door of the shower, still in his jeans. He’d ditched his shoes and my mouth watered at the sight of his cut chest and perfect abs. His jeans hung low, and I could see he was extremely interested in the proceedings, but he made no move to join us. He was so hot, with the singular exception of the sadness in his eyes. “I’m still here, Z. Dev just gets his clothes off faster than anyone I’ve ever seen. It’s his superpower.”
“She was naked, Daniel,” Dev explained, his hands molding my breasts now. He delicately rubbed my nipples, getting them very stiff. “It’s rude to leave her alone like that. Don’t act like I’m the crazy person in this scenario. We haven’t gotten even an inch inside her for days. Tell me why you’re not naked and trying to find a way in?”
“I don’t switch gears the way you do, Dev,” Danny said, his eyes getting hot as he watched us. He might not switch as fast as Dev, but he was getting there. “I’m still a little upset about losing our home.”
“We haven’t lost it.” I tried to keep my voice even but Dev was playing around with his tongue in my ear and that always got me hot for some reason. I tried to focus on the problem at hand. I had two ears and only one of them was being playfully nipped. I had gotten used to a certain amount of symmetry when it came to lovemaking. “It’s still there. We just can’t go back for a while.”
“What if we can never go back, Z? What if we get this thing off my heart, but I can’t beat Marini because he’s full of the old king’s blood?” Daniel asked seriously. “What if I die while some thousands-of-years-old wizard is playing around with my heart? What if I lose one of you?”
Dev stopped what he was doing and his arms went around my shoulders. He hugged me tightly against him. “Daniel, we can’t know any of those things is going to happen. If we can’t go back then we’ll make a new home. If we seriously believe you can’t beat Marini, then we make a run for Scotland and the Unseelie sithein. We can live there for the rest of our lives quite happily. If you die under the wizard’s hands, and I intend to make sure you do not, then I will haul Zoey off kicking and screami
ng to the same place. As for losing one of us, if that happens then you have to go on. If I die, then you have to take care of our wife.”
“And if we lose her?” I could see the unshed tears in Daniel’s blue eyes. It was his worst fear, and I knew right now it seemed so close.
Dev’s hands tightened further around me. “Then we will have some work to do, my friend. But none of these scenarios is aided by any of the three of us sleeping alone. We don’t need time apart to think, Daniel. We need time together.”
Daniel’s sadness changed to great longing, and he walked into the shower not bothering with his jeans. He walked up to me and took my face in his hands and kissed me for all he was worth. He wasn’t subtle or seductive. He shoved his tongue in my mouth and didn’t try to hide his fangs. His fingers wound in my wet hair, holding me in place for his mouth. I let my hands roam across that muscled chest of his. I heard him moan when I let my tongue graze on his fangs just enough to draw blood.
“God, Z,” Daniel groaned when he let me up for air. “You’re everything to me. I live off your blood. I fill my every sense with you, your scent, your taste, the sound of your laugh. I can close my eyes and see every inch of you. You can’t blame me for being worried about losing you.”
It was the way Marcus had talked about Venice, his city, his home. I was Daniel’s home and he hadn’t lost me. The club was just a place, and while I might miss it, I was home as long as I had Danny and Dev. “I love you, Danny,” I said against his lips as I stretched up to kiss him. “As long as we’re together, everything is going to be all right. We stick together, baby. That’s all we have any control over.”
“It was the whole reason we came together in the first place,” Dev said from behind me. “We’re stronger together than we are apart.”
Daniel’s smile was wistful as he remembered that night they told me we were going to be a threesome. “I thought we did it because we both wanted to fuck Z, and it was either do it together or we could kill each other.”
Dev laughed. “Well, you have to admit that the one left standing would have to deal with a very angry Zoey.”
