by Lexi Blake
“No,” I said through the tears that were running wildly down my cheeks. The world seemed so quiet now. It had been so loud before and now it seemed to narrow to just me and Lee. I knew Dev was there and the vampires looked on, but they didn’t seem to matter much right now. I reached for Lee’s hand, holding it. “You can just run. I’ll be fine, Lee.”
He coughed and it was a wet, ugly sound. “I could never run.”
“You could be free.” I was willing to promise him anything if he would live. “You could just run and you wouldn’t have to look back. You always wanted to roam. You could roam. Zack is safe with Danny, and Dev will take care of me. You just run.”
“Ah, darlin’,” Lee said with a little smile. He managed to make his arm move and his free hand cupped my cheek lovingly. “I’d never leave you. I’d never leave Zack. I love you. I never loved anything but the two of you. It was enough, Zoey. It was enough.”
“I love you,” I cried, pulling his head into my lap. I cried shamelessly and smoothed back his curly hair.
“Devinshea,” Lee growled but his voice was getting weaker and Dev had to lean in.
“Yes, Lee.” Dev was quiet and solemn.
“You take care of her,” the wolf said.
“I promise,” Dev replied. “And Lee, thank you. For everything. We couldn’t have asked for more.”
In the dim light, I could see Lee fading, his energy, his life force waning. “Take care of Zack, Zoey.”
I nodded and felt his chest heave as he tried to breathe. “I will. He’s my brother now.”
His chest rose and fell with a rattle. A great smile came across my wolf’s face, as though he had seen something amazing. He stared past me and his voice was filled with wonder. “Now, that’s something I didn’t expect…”
The light went out of his brown eyes and Lee was gone.
I held him to me but there was nothing left and I could feel it. It was just a body in my hands. Whatever spark had been Lee was lost to me now.
“Prince, I need you to bring Zoey.” Louis was talking but it seemed distant as I cried out my grief. “We must leave now. You’ll be permitted to come with us if you promise to behave. If you step out of line I will be forced to kill you, and I don’t think Zoey can handle any more grief today.”
“I just want to be with her,” Dev said. “You’ll find me very helpful, I promise. I can help her transition if you let me.”
“Bring her, then,” Marini said. “You will be left alone in the boat until we reach France and then the new rules go into effect. You have until then to get her under control. This isn’t how I wanted the evening to go. Allons-y.”
Dev pulled me up and I felt boneless as he hoisted me into his arms. He gathered me close and I could feel his shock at the events of the last few minutes. He rested my head on his shoulder and I glanced back.
Lee’s body was still there. It wouldn’t rise again. He wouldn’t growl at me and tell me not to pet him. Neil was gone, dragged somewhere by a demon we never should have trusted in the first place. Daniel and Zack were on the run, and I didn’t know how badly Danny was hurt. I hadn’t even gotten to tell him good-bye.
Dev carried me onto the vampire’s boat. As the boat pulled from the dock, I heard the thud of a helicopter in the distance. Dev’s message had gotten to Sir Ronald, but it was far too late for any of us.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Dev held me tightly against him as we heard the lock click into place. There would be two guards on the door should I try to pick the lock. We’d been escorted to the boat and then forced to climb down a small ladder to get to the locked room that would be our quarters for the trip to France. We’d been told to expect that we wouldn’t make our destination before morning and then we would be in lockdown while the vampires slept. There were several large human slaves willing to do their master’s bidding, so Dev settled on the narrow cot and held me close.
I just cried for the longest time. I cried while we entered the boat and I cried while Louis explained to Dev that I was his to take care of for the night. We could stay together until we reached the Paris stronghold. After that, Louis would decide when and where and how we could be together. I cried when Louis locked the door behind him after destroying both of our cell phones so there was no way Daniel could track us. Dev held me, saying nothing beyond how sorry he was. I cried until I fell into a fitful sort of sleep in Dev’s arms. When I woke up, Dev was still awake. He was staring into space, but I could see his mind was working.
“Can we?” I gestured to my mouth, silently asking him if it was all right to talk. I didn’t know if the room was secure.
“No bugs,” Dev said. “And the guard on the door changed about an hour ago. I think it’s day, so no vampire ears.”
“Do you think Danny’s all right?” I asked, my voice hoarse.
Dev looked down, his eyes tender. “Yes, my wife, I believe he is. I believe that Zack got him away, and the Order will find them. They’ll take him to headquarters and he will heal. When he’s strong enough, he’ll come for us.”
“Neil?” I could still see him being dragged away. God, I might never be able to get the horror of the night out of my head.
“I don’t know, Zoey,” Dev answered, his forehead furrowing with worry. “He’s very clever and he has skills Stewart doesn’t even know about. He thinks Neil is just a pretty face. Neil can use that to his advantage. If anyone can get away, it’s Neil.”
He let a few moments go by as I knew we were both thinking about Lee, who hadn’t gotten away. We’d left him there because there wasn’t anything else we could do, but now I wondered if the Order had found his body. Had they taken his body so Zack could bury his brother? How was Zack feeling? Was he angry with me?
“Zoey?” Dev was treating me very delicately, but I could tell he wanted to talk. Dev would want a plan going in, and he wouldn’t feel comfortable until we agreed on one.
“Yes, Dev.” I tried to sound stronger than I felt.
“We need to talk about what’s going to happen when we get to Paris.” He held my hand in both of his and rubbed, trying to bring some feeling back into my body.
“I have to fuck Marini.” I said it out loud because it was real and it was going to happen.
Dev’s face fell, but he nodded slowly. “My goddess, I don’t see a way around it. If I can think of anything, any way…”
I stopped him cold. “Stop thinking, Devinshea. I lost Lee today. I have no intention of losing you, too. We can’t fight Marini. There’s too many of them, and Marini is just as strong as Danny when he’s on the Blood Stone. Fighting him gets me nothing but hurt. He’s already proven that he’ll hurt me to get what he wants. I can’t have him knocking me around.”
Dev’s hand went down to my stomach, and he touched me gently. “Goddess, he could hurt our baby.”
“Babies,” I corrected him. “It’s twins. Don’t ask me how I know but I know. How is he going to react to me being pregnant?”
“He can never know, Zoey. We have to keep it a secret. Daniel will come for us. It might take him a few weeks, maybe a month, but no longer than that. You won’t be showing even with twins. We can’t tell anyone. Not even Chad.”
“All right.” I placed my hand over his. Chad would do his best to protect us while we were in Paris, but he was too unstable to be trusted with information like this. “I have to protect the babies and I have to get that Blood Stone back. How do I get Marini to trust me?”
I didn’t like to even think about getting close to the bastard who’d killed Lee, but I had to think about Dev and Danny and our babies. Fighting Marini would just cost us all. If I was going to steal from him, it would be so much easier if he wasn’t watching me suspiciously twenty-four hours a day.
“Louis, Zoey. We must call him Louis from now on,” Dev corrected. “It’s more intimate and we need for him to feel close to us. You know, we’re going to have to play a part and it won’t be pleasant. We need to get our stories stra
ight, my wife, and we cannot deviate from it. The first and most important lie is this. We never really loved Daniel. He took you, forced you to be his companion. You loved him when he was a human but he changed when he turned. He was cruel at times and convinced you all other vampires were much, much worse than he was.”
“They are,” I pointed out.
“Of course, my wife, but we must get Louis into a position where he wants to convince you he isn’t a vicious killer.” Dev ran his fingers soothingly through my hair. “I will work on him. I know what he wants deep down.”
“You know what he wants sexually.”
Dev turned my head up to face him. “Don’t think that doesn’t matter. I can tell a lot about a person from their sexual needs. How they want to treat their partners and want to be treated says something about them, and not always what you think it does.”
It was a serious subject for him. He’d told me once that when he had met me, he knew from the moment he met me how to seduce me. “So what does Louis want from us?”
I hated the fact that I had to use “us.” Louis had made it plain he found my faery prince very appealing. I wouldn’t be the only one dealing with Louis’s advances.
Dev seemed to be relieved I broached that subject so he didn’t need to. “He’ll want us both, my goddess. I’m not looking forward to it but I can handle it and I can handle him. I’ll convince him to take his more violent impulses out on me.”
“Dev…”
“Shhh.” He put a finger to my lips. “I can take a lot of damage. The vampire blood in my system will stay around for a long time. My body was built for sex of all kinds. I’ll turn on my magic and I won’t notice the pain. What Louis will want from you is softness. He’ll want you to be Zoey, but he views himself as your savior. He wants you to want him. Don’t overplay your hand, though. It must be convincing. Follow my lead. This is a game of sex and seduction. I know how to play.”
“Or we could not play at all,” Bris said, taking over suddenly. His deeply green eyes were practically begging me. “I’m sorry I could do nothing to save Lee. I’m still very weak, but in a few days I’ll be back at my full strength. I can get you out of this situation, my goddess. When we get to Paris, I will call all things green to our side and we’ll escape.”
“You could get me back to the Order?” I asked even as I knew I would refuse him. I needed to stay close to Marini if I was going to get that stone. Daniel needed me to steal the stone back and take away Marini’s advantage.
Bris sighed. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. I’ll take you someplace safe.” He placed his hand firmly on my belly. “The babies need safety now. There are two and they’re male. I can protect them. I can ensure that they develop properly. Zoey, one of these boys is the fertility god that Faery has been waiting for. It’s a second chance to have the child we lost.”
“This baby is Devinshea’s,” I pointed out to the god.
“This baby is ours. This child is yours and mine and Dev and Daniel’s, as the last one was. My goddess, I’m not trying to trick you. I love the children as I love you. I do not care who the children’s biological parents are.” He frowned suddenly and pulled away from me. “The wizard got to you as well.”
I sat up and touched him again, pulling him into my arms this time. “No, My Lord. I still trust you. You have to forgive me. It’s been a long day and it isn’t over. I can’t let you take me away. I have to steal that stone and I can’t do it if I’m hiding with you. We need you, now more than ever. You can give Louis something he wants.”
Bris nodded. “My magic.”
“I know it seems wrong to use it in this way…”
He laughed briefly. “It isn’t wrong to use everything I have at my command to aid my goddess and my host. I’ll do everything I can to protect you and distract the vampire so you can do your job. But, my goddess, once we have the stone…”
“Oh, Bris, once we have the stone I give you full permission to get me the hell out of there any way you can,” I assured him.
He pulled me close and we lay down on the small cot together. I let my head find his chest and listened to his heartbeat. The events of the day were a drag on my soul, and I felt so old in that moment.
“My goddess, I am so sorry about the wolf.” Bris tugged my chin up. “He was a good man.”
I nodded, feeling the tears well up again. “Bris, you know so much. Can you tell me something?”
“I can try.”
“Where did he go?” I asked a child’s question because it was the one I had wondered since the moment I felt Lee slip away from me. One moment he had been there and the next he was somewhere else.
Bris sighed deeply. “Zoey, I am a creature of the Earth plane. You may call me a god, but I’m not all-seeing. I think that’s a question better asked of the Heaven plane, but I do know this. I’ve lived long enough to have met the same souls many times. Our journey does not end with death. We have many chances. Your wolf will get another chance and perhaps this time will be easier on him.”
I rested my head again and hoped that wherever Lee was, he wasn’t alone.
* * * *
I was roused a long time later from a blissfully dreamless sleep when the door to our small prison opened. I looked up blearily, slightly confused at where I was. I felt Dev look up, raising his head. We were cuddled close together on the narrow cot, most of my body on top of Devinshea’s.
Louis Marini walked into the small room, and it was illuminated only by the light outside in the hall. I wondered briefly where he’d slept but figured they probably had coffins in the hold for the vampires.
“Interesting.” Marini stood over us, an imposing figure. He’d changed from his all black battle wear to more carefully chosen clothes. He wore black slacks and an olive sweater. The olive color did nice things for his skin, and I knew he had spent time getting himself ready for this meeting. Dev was right. He was more invested in us than he would be in simple possessions. “I rather expected to find the two of you in a more compromising position.”
Dev’s arms tightened around me. “That wasn’t what she needed last night.”
Louis nodded at Dev. “She was very upset by the death of her wolf. She cared for him?”
“I loved him,” I corrected the vampire. “He was like a brother to me.”
Louis’s sensual mouth turned down, and I could see he was considering how to handle me. “I am sorry, then. He was right, though. I could not allow him to live. He was not a practical creature. He would have fought and fought until I had to put him down. The prince here is much more realistic. Now up, both of you. We’ve reached our destination and night has fallen.”
I got up, trying not to look too hard at the vampire. Dev got up behind me and tried to put his arm around me.
“No,” Louis said harshly. “If you want to touch my companion, you will ask permission.”
Dev held his hands up. He took a step back from me, a bitter expression on his face. “I understand. You don’t need to explain anything to me. Daniel warned us how it would be if we thought to run to you.”
Louis’s eyes flared with that last comment. Dev was playing his role and I did my best to look downcast as I nodded, agreeing with him. I stood by myself, allowing the cold to seep in and not trying to hide the shiver that ran across my skin. Marini had a lot to learn about taking care of a companion. We had been offered nothing to eat or drink and the cot was spare, with only one thin blanket that did nothing to fight the biting chill. I probably looked pathetic, but it might work to my advantage.
“What did Donovan say about me?” Louis asked, his dark brows meeting in consternation.
Dev frowned and shook his head. “We had a fight when we realized what he was doing. Neither Zoey nor I thought it was a good idea to try to take over the Council. Daniel hid his plans from us. When I discovered them, it was quite a fight. I threatened to take Zoey away and Daniel…I won’t even go into what Daniel did to me. When I recovered, he expla
ined the way it would be if we attempted to seek shelter with you. He said you would never allow us the freedoms he granted us. Daniel could be a brute but he allowed us to remain together, so we stayed and took his abuse.”
Marini had the good sense to look confused. “I was under the impression Zoey loved Daniel.”
“Zoey loves me,” Dev said fervently, but even in this I could see his carefully planned actions. “She played the part of Daniel’s faithful companion because he would have killed both of us if she hadn’t.”
“I offered to take her away,” Marini replied, suspicion in his voice. “She has known for a long time I would take her from Donovan.”
“I didn’t believe you would accept me. I convinced her to stay. I thought you would take Zoey and kill me at the first opportunity. I’m still not sure you won’t do it, but we didn’t have much of a choice.”
“Devinshea,” I said suddenly and even to my own ears I sounded very weary. Marini was suspicious and I needed him to believe. I only knew one way to make a vampire trust me. He would be more easily swayed under the influence of my blood. “It’s no use. Daniel was right. Vampires are all the same. Now, I can sense that Louis is very hungry. You didn’t bring Rose?”
I had thrown him off with talk of food. I was sure he’d expected me to put this moment off as long as I could. “No.”
“If you could leave us, Dev,” I said. “I would rather do this privately.”
Dev’s face was haunted and I knew that was no act. “All right, Zoey.” He turned to Louis. “I assume there are guards outside I can surrender myself to while you…”
Louis went and unlocked the door. He ushered Dev out and I heard him talking to someone. “Please take the prince to the galley. Order the slaves to prepare a meal for him and my companion. She’ll join him shortly. David, he’s a guest. I’ll be angry if he is harmed.”
I breathed a sigh of relief. Goal one was accomplished. He wouldn’t hurt Dev. Now I had to make sure he didn’t hurt me. The door closed and was locked again, and I was alone with my new “master.”
