by Lexi Blake
“You have a date.” A smile crossed my father’s face. “That’s wonderful, darling. I mean, it would be wonderful if ya didn’t have all of demon kind trying to eviscerate ya.”
“I like the positive attitude, Dad. Now I would like to get this one date in before my inevitable death.”
I picked up my dress and walked into my bedroom, glancing at the clock on the wall. I didn’t have much time before my date was supposed to pick me up. I looked at myself in the mirror and smiled. Sarah had done a damn good job. I looked polished. I looked like a woman about to go on a date and not make an idiot of herself.
The door opened behind me, and Daniel let himself in. He stared at me for a moment. “I think it’s wonderful. The date, I mean. It’s far past time for you to start seeing someone.”
It took everything I had to keep my face neutral when his words cut so deeply. I was glad I had decided to do this for myself and not to make Daniel jealous. It was so obvious that wasn’t going to work. Ingrid was wrong. There was nothing left between us except his need to see me safe. When he was sure I was secure, he would leave, and I wouldn’t see him again.
“Yes.” I agreed, not looking at him. “I should have done this a long time ago.”
He paced a little, walking from the door to the window and back again. “It’s what I want for you. It’s what I’ve always wanted for you.”
“That’s not true. Once you wanted something else.”
“Things change.” Daniel stopped at the window, staring out. “Now I want you to find a nice man and settle down. I want you to find someone who can give you a good life.”
“You mean a normal life.”
“Yes, a normal life where you don’t have to worry about demons or the police or any of this. I want you to be far away from this world.”
“And if I don’t want that?”
“Of course you do,” Daniel replied stubbornly. “You’ll see. You’ll find someone, and this will all seem like a bad dream.”
I’d had enough. “It’s good to know you have it all planned out, Danny. Now leave. I need to get dressed because the white knight who is going to sweep me off my feet and take me away to tract housing in suburbia should be here any moment. God forbid he finds me in jeans and a T-shirt.”
Daniel crossed the room and opened the door but couldn’t resist one parting shot. “It’s for the best. You’ll see.”
I sank onto my bed and told myself he wasn’t worth crying over. I’d done all the crying over Daniel Donovan I was going to do in this lifetime. My pride asserted itself suddenly. There was no way I was walking out there and letting him know I was hurt.
I slipped on my dress and found it to be an excellent form of armor. The jersey hugged my body in all the right places. The V of the bodice was deep and showed more of my ample cleavage than I normally would, but I had to admit the girls looked damn good. The bra Sarah had forced me to buy pushed them to the perfect place.
I slipped into the stilettos and admired the way they made my legs look. It had been forever since I dressed up and now I realized I needed this. No matter what Daniel said, there was power in transformation. I was determined to enjoy myself. If Daniel no longer wanted me, then it was far past time to get my butt out there and discover someone who did.
“You look beautiful, girl.” My father was waiting as I closed the bedroom door behind me. “You’re going to make such a lovely corpse when the demon murders ya.”
“Thanks, Pop.” It was likely the most optimism I would get out of him.
“OMG.” Sarah clapped her hands together. “You look so freaking hot. He’s not going to know what hit him. I told you that dress was perfect.”
Daniel walked up to me, and there was something in his eyes. He smiled almost sadly. “You don’t look beautiful, Zoey. You are beautiful. He’s a lucky man, your date.”
“Thank you,” I managed.
A knock at the door saved me from further emotional turmoil. I really hadn’t meant for everyone I knew to greet my blind date. He was going to take one look at this group and run for the hills no matter how great my boobs looked. I was about to yell at everyone to hide in the bedroom when Sarah swung the door open wide.
There was no further discussion as the entire room went silent and stared at the man who stood in the doorway. He managed a smile that told me he was used to such a reception. The whole room was quiet for a moment until Daniel chose to break the silence.
“Oh, hell, no.”
Chapter Five
He was gorgeous. I mean past gorgeous, and moving on to god-like, fall-to-my-knees beauty. And he was shining. He was tall and dark and everything good in the world and my heart opened to him.
I’m pretty sure I actually drooled.
There was nothing in the world except him. He was everything I could ever have wanted, and he was standing right there. All I’d had to do was reach out and take him. I was just about to do that when Daniel stopped me in my tracks.
“Oh, hell, no.” It was the most human thing to come out of his mouth in years, and I managed to turn away from the gorgeous, shining man in the doorway long enough to look to him. I was shocked out of my madness by the sight of Daniel. His normally dispassionate face was suddenly full of indignation.
“If you think there is any way in hell I’m letting you walk out that door with him, you are so wrong,” Daniel said, sarcasm dripping from his mouth.
“Hello,” the shining man said, his voice just as sexy as his glorious, lean body. “I’m looking for Zoey.”
“I’m Zoey!” I actually held my hand up so there could be no way he could mistake who I was.
Sarah frowned. “I’m Sarah. You don’t want her.”
I was about to argue with that statement, but Daniel took me by the shoulders, forcing me to look only at him. “He’s not human. Can I ask you a serious question, Zoey? Do you know any humans? You should try it sometime. We live on a planet with like three billion of them. They’re everywhere. But when you decide to jump back into the dating pool, can you be troubled to find one? No, you have to pick some idiot Fae who can’t handle his magic.”
“You don’t know he can’t handle his magic.” I knew there was no way the lovely, shining man meant to be so very lovely and shining, but I was determined not to let Daniel win this one.
“He’s glowing like a firefly, Z,” Daniel pointed out.
I would have started in on Daniel if Sarah hadn’t chosen that moment to take the term “jump his bones” literally.
“See.” Daniel pointed to the doorway. “This is what happens when people don’t respect magic. I’m surprised he managed to make it here without being torn apart by rabid females.”
I turned to see the my sweet friend mauling the hell out of our guest. She was trying to pull his shirt over his head, and I caught a glimpse of what looked to be a spectacular six-pack. And all that hotness was supposed to be mine. Mine, damn it.
My first thought was to tear her pretty pink hair straight out of her head, throw her to the ground, and take her place. She was messing with my man, and I had to put a stop to that.
“You get off him, Sarah!” An unholy rage took root in my gut.
Sarah turned to look briefly at me. Her eyes were darker than usual. She tightened her hold on her prey. “Stay away from him. He’s mine. Can’t you see how much he loves me?”
“He loves me!” I screamed. I believed it. The magic he was using surrounded me with the deep belief that the shining man and I were meant to be together.
The man was trying to walk backward as though he could get away, but he found himself against a wall. “Uhm, you should really get down now.”
No one was listening to him.
“If you take a step toward him, I swear I will turn you into a toad, Zoey,” Sarah promised.
“Bring it on, bitch.” I snarled and started toward her. I found my path blocked by Daniel’s strong arms.
“Listen, Xena, as much as I’d love to watch some gir
l-on-girl action, I’m going to have to pass.” Daniel forced me to turn toward him again. “Snap out of it, Zoey. You can fight this. Let me help you.”
By “let me help you” Daniel meant to trade one magic for another. He put his hand behind my neck and gently pulled me into his arms. I fought him, struggling against his strength, but it was no use. The pull of the Fae’s glamour was strong, but Daniel was stronger.
“Zoey, look at me.” There was no sarcasm left in his voice. The sound coming out of his mouth was smooth and so seductive. I remembered the way it felt to be taken over by Daniel, and that feeling was far stronger than any little glamour. I looked willingly into his blue eyes as his irises grew until the whole of his eyes seemed to bleed to that deep sapphire color. I felt a calm take over and knew the glamour had lost its hold. The last time Daniel had performed this magic on me was right before he’d folded me in his arms and let his fangs find the vein in my neck on the night he rose.
“Are you all right, now?” Daniel’s question broke the spell.
I took a deep breath, banishing my need to beg him to continue. “I think so. Give me your jacket.”
“What?” Daniel asked, distracted again by the drama playing out in my living room. “Oh, look, he wasn’t smart enough to limit it to females. I think your dad is about to cry.”
I turned to find my father on his knees.
“I always knew the shining ones would return.” My father looked at the man with a worshipful fever in his eyes. “Prince of Ireland, I offer myself to your service. I am a man of small talents, but they are yours to command.”
This had to stop. Making certain not to look at the glorious, shining man, I forced myself to focus on Daniel. “Look, you might be immune to magic, but I’m not. Give me your jacket.”
There are certain tricks to dealing with faery magic. They don’t work all of the time, but there are a few things a person can try. I don’t know why they work only that they have been passed down through the years. With simple magic, like the glamour the shining man was using, turning a piece of one’s clothes inside out will usually do the trick. His magic, while strong, wasn’t cohesive. I would never have been able to break Ingrid’s spell with such simplicity.
As for Daniel’s magic, well, when Daniel got me locked in, I was his until he decided to let me go.
He shrugged out of his jacket, and I turned it inside out. The minute I had it on, I could breathe, and my need to murder Sarah faded. I turned to the man and was able to see past the magic. Devinshea Quinn was roughly six feet five inches tall with stark black hair and emerald green eyes. I only knew his name and the fact that he was Ingrid’s friend. Well, and I knew he couldn’t handle his magic.
Even being able to see through the spell, he was still hot.
“You need to turn down the glamour, buddy.”
The faery was struggling with Sarah, but managed to look my way. “Is it too much?”
Daniel snorted loudly.
I ignored him. “That depends. Do you normally get strange females rubbing themselves all over you when you walk into a room?”
He shook his head as he tried to put a hand over Sarah’s seemingly curious mouth. “Not normally. It sounds more fun than it really is. It’s actually quite disturbing. Could someone give me a hand with her?”
“Oh, I’ll give you a hand,” Daniel offered. “I know how to turn that sad-sack porno magic off for you. Let me go find a nice piece of wrought iron. After I shove it in your belly, you won’t have that problem again.”
“Daniel!” Despite the terrible way the evening had begun, I really didn’t want to waste all that makeover time. And the last thing I needed was to spend the rest of the evening listening to Daniel say “I told you so.”
“Fine.” Daniel pulled Sarah off. She sobbed in his arms. “I’m taking her to your bedroom until you get him out of here and then we’ll talk, Z.”
My father was prostrated on the floor singing some Irish song.
“I’m so sorry.” The faery closed his eyes and seemed to concentrate for a moment. The glow dimmed to nothing.
Yep, still wretchedly way-too-out-of-my-league hot.
“We should hurry.” I grabbed my purse.
A smile crossed his face. That smile didn’t need magic to make my heart pound. “You’re still interested?”
“Well, I’m definitely interested in avoiding a lecture.” I took his hand and made my escape.
* * * *
Two hours later, I walked beside Dev out of the upscale restaurant he’d taken me to and took a deep breath of the night air.
“I know I’ve said it a couple million times already, but I really am sorry about what happened back at your place.” Dev gave me an apologetic smile that actually made my heart skip a beat. He attempted to smooth down his white dress shirt. The shirt had been immaculate at the beginning of the night, but I found it endearing now. The slight messiness made him somehow more approachable.
“It’s all right.” I stared up at him and prayed I didn’t have a dippy look on my face. “I mean, it’s not like anyone died.”
“That’s looking on the positive side of things.” The grin he gave me showed perfect white teeth and an incredibly sensual mouth. “I like an optimistic view.”
It was easier to be optimistic after a fabulous dinner and a couple of drinks. I could laugh about the event now, though at the time it had seemed like a scene out of a really black comedy, if said black comedy had the potential in ending with a juicy bloodbath.
“I just can’t believe Sarah actually jumped you like that.” I didn’t mention that only Daniel’s quick thinking had saved me from a similar fate. “She’s going to be so embarrassed in the morning.”
He winced. “Yeah, well, that was completely my fault. I was just trying to make a good first impression.”
“Oh, you made a first impression, all right. Even my dad was impressed.”
“Don’t remind me. He’s never going to forgive me.”
It felt good to tease him. Dev Quinn wasn’t a man who took himself too seriously. “You’re kidding, right? You’re like a prince of Ireland. I never would have thought my dad was stuck in feudalism. Are you really Tuatha Dé Danann?”
The Tuatha Dé Danann was a mighty group of Fae who led the second settling of Ireland. They were legendary, and there were still groups in Ireland who worshipped them. Apparently there was at least one man in America who did as well.
“If you believe my mother, then yes, but who really knows? Most of the Fae I know claim kinship with the great tribes of the past. Well, I’m just glad you were smart enough to combat my mistake. I don’t think your father would enjoy serfdom.” Dev’s face flushed slightly.
I stopped teasing and reached for his hand. “It was a little mistake. Everyone does their own version of it. I was trying to do the same thing with the dress and makeup and the…presentation of certain key body parts.”
Dev laughed, a throaty sound that reminded me I had female parts that still functioned. “I very much appreciate your presentation.”
“I enjoyed yours as well,” I agreed. “Especially once you toned it down slightly.”
The valet pulled up in Dev’s black Audi A8. I walked to the passenger side, but Dev raced in front of me.
“Please, let me,” he said as he opened the door. “I’m going to take you to one of my favorite places in the world. You’re going to love it.”
I got into the car as gracefully as my dress would allow, and Dev shut the door with care. In a moment, we were driving into the night.
“I’m really glad you knew the trick with the clothes,” he said, returning to our previous discussion. “I don’t know what would have happened if you hadn’t.”
“I can guess what might have happened.” Daniel might have found his piece of iron and shoved it in a couple of creative places. Faeries are sensitive to iron, and given Daniel’s own “sensitivities,” I thought he might have been a bit more diplomatic. Daniel forced me t
o sell a lovely set of silverware because the sight of it disturbed him. Now I wished I’d at least kept the steak knives.
Dev turned, and his eyes were wide with questions. “Yeah, what was up with the big scary vampire? Is he your brother or something?”
“I just work with him,” I muttered, not wanting to go into it. “Don’t worry about him. He’s not very friendly. I’m really sorry I had to hit you with all those people. I didn’t mean to have a greeting committee with me. They just sort of showed up.”
“It’s all right. I think it’s great you have a bunch of people who care about you. Trust me. It’s better than the alternative.”
“The alternative being?” I asked out of curiosity.
“The alternative being completely cut off from your family and friends because they don’t approve of your lifestyle choices.” His mouth was set in a firm line as he made a right turn.
“Did that happen to you?” I was surprised. The Fae tended to bond strongly. Their relationships were passionate and family units were close.
The lights of downtown danced all around us. Though there were hundreds of people on the road and walking around the city streets, I felt like Dev and I were the only ones who mattered. There was a sweet intimacy to being next to him and talking about his past.
His hands tightened on the steering wheel. “I should just get that out on the table to start with. I’m the black sheep of my family. My mother no longer speaks to me. My father died a long time ago. My brother does what Mother tells him to. I am formally an outcast, so if you’re interested in Fae life, there’s not a lot I can do for you. The only ones of my kind who still speak with me are Ingrid and her husband.”
“Wow, did you burn a forest down or something?” I asked, thinking of the worst crime a faery could commit.
“No, it’s much worse. I chose to leave the sithein and move to the city.”
“You live here permanently?” Faeries usually can’t stand to be surrounded by concrete and steel. It bothers them on a fundamental level. They can visit if they need to, but they never stay for long.
