by Lexi Blake
“I can shave if you want.” His eyes slid away from mine.
“No, I like it. It’s sexy.” I let my thumb rub against his cheek. I loved touching him. It made me feel connected, grounding me here.
Emerald green eyes fastened on mine, that slow, sexy smile crossing his face. “Then I’ll grow a beard if you like. I usually shave twice a day. I forgot today. I was busy setting up the computers.”
“Why do you shave twice a day?”
Dev looked at me seriously. “They don’t have facial hair, the Fae that is. My family and their people, they don’t have any body hair. When I hit puberty, it was just the exclamation point that shouted I wasn’t a full Fae.”
“Well, I think it’s incredibly sexy.” I sat up. He looked so sad that I impulsively kissed his rough cheek.
His expression changed in an instant from melancholy to distinctly wolf-like. I found myself on my back with Dev pinning me down gently, his chest against mine. His weight was a delicious anchor. “That Sarah is a smart girl, but she got a few things wrong.”
I felt myself flush. “You couldn’t hear us! I unplugged the ear pieces. How did you listen in?”
“Did I fail to mention I can read lips? Well, I can, and she’s right, you should definitely sleep with me.” He laughed as he lowered his lips to mine in a sweet, quick kiss. Far too quick for my tastes. “But she’s wrong about it just being a good time. I’m serious about this relationship.”
I wanted to believe him. I so wanted to believe him. “I don’t think we’ve known each other long enough to have a relationship.”
“Call it what you want. I’m not your good-time guy. I’m just your guy.” He kissed me again, this time lingering over my mouth and making me tremble. His tongue foraged deeply in my mouth, rubbing against mine in a way that went straight to my pink parts. His hand stroked my curves under the pants I was wearing. He came up for air and pressed his forehead against mine. “We need each other, Zoey. You’ll see that. I’m not like that vampire. I won’t try to keep you in a cage. I know the supernatural world. I can show you amazing things. I want to show you the world, not keep it from you.”
“He’s just afraid I’ll get hurt.” I was uncomfortable talking about Daniel with Dev.
“He’s afraid he’ll lose control. Don’t get me wrong, Zoey. As vampires go, Daniel is all right. But he is a vampire, and they’re all the same. He wants to dominate everything around him. His instinct is to kill or control. He’s protected you by telling the Council you’re his companion. It’s a good thing. No other vampires will bother you, but if I thought he was trying to make you a real companion, I would stake him myself.”
I pushed away from him and scrambled to sit up. “How can you say that?”
Dev sat back, his eyes wary. “I can say it because I know more about that world than you do. I deal with a lot of vamps at my clubs. There’s a reason he’s kept you apart from that world. Some part of Daniel has managed to cling to his old life in a way I’ve never seen in a vampire. He remembers that he loved you once, and he wants to protect you.”
“What’s so bad about being a companion?” For so long I wanted nothing more than to be that for Daniel. It seemed like such a nice thing to be.
Dev looked at me like I was a naïve child. “Zoey, a companion isn’t like the vampire’s wife. She’s the vampire’s possession. She’s required to obey her master. Legally a vampire can kill another vampire for even touching his companion in a sexual way. The Council would sanction the killing. They tend to kill anyone who tries to take their companions. Then there’s the fact that the companion can legally be executed if she strays.”
“Daniel would never do that.” It seemed there was a lot I didn’t know.
“Yes, he would,” Dev said with a sympathetic surety. “He knows he would and that’s why he’s stayed away. The bond between vampire and companion is twisted, and Daniel doesn’t want that for you. He wants to see you safe. He knows how dangerous the Council can be to a woman like you.”
“What does that mean?”
“You’re special, Zoey. I don’t completely understand it. Albert picked up on it.” He frowned a little. “But Daniel is trying to be reasonable. I actually admire him for it. He knows something you don’t. The Daniel you knew died long ago. This is just an echo, and before too long, it will be gone and all that will be left is vampire.”
“He wants to meet the dawn.” It was the first time I mentioned it to anyone, and the minute it was out of my mouth, I wished I hadn’t said it. It felt like a betrayal to talk to Dev about this.
“They’ll never let him.” He didn’t seem surprised at what Daniel wanted to do. He just seemed certain that no one would allow him to do it.
“The Council? But the Council helps vampires who don’t want to live.”
Dev nodded and proceeded with caution. The way he was handling me made me wary that worse revelations were sure to come. “It’s true that the Council helps old men meet the dawn, but I assure you they’ll do whatever it takes to ensure that Daniel Donovan continues to walk the night. He really hasn’t told you anything, has he? Daniel is important to the Council. He’s practically royalty.”
I stared at him. It wasn’t true. What he said went against everything I knew about the vampire world. Age was prized over youth. The young were merely tolerated. “Why is he important? He’s so young that he doesn’t have any power. Only very old vampires have real power.”
I watched as Dev decided what he wanted to say next. “The day after I met you, I asked Albert to work up profiles on your whole team. Don’t get pissed off. You would do the same thing if you had my resources.”
I frowned but let him continue because he was right. I would totally have hired a PI to dig into his background if I had the time and the money. As it was, I had only the resources to Google him and take a look at his Facebook page. “What did you find out?”
“I found out a lot of things. I found out that Neil lived on the streets for five years before your father took an interest in him and introduced him to you. Sarah has some unsavory connections. Her mother was heavily into black magic before she died. You’re a talented thief who secretly reads romance novels.”
I threw a pillow at him. “How the hell did you find that out?”
“I didn’t need a Pl for that. I snooped. You leave them on the window sill in your bathroom because you read while you soak in that tiny tub of yours. I have a gorgeous antique claw foot tub at my place, by the way. There is more than enough room for two.”
I ignored the invitation. “And Daniel?”
The flirtatious look on his face fled. “Daniel Donovan is the single most powerful vampire to rise in the last thousand years.”
I was speechless for a moment. That was the most ridiculous thing I had ever heard. “Daniel isn’t powerful. He can barely function as a vampire.”
Dev shook his head. “You don’t understand vampires, Zoey. The newly risen vampire always kills the first time he feeds. It’s why the Council swoops down like vultures the second they locate a new vamp.”
“Daniel didn’t kill. Daniel has never killed,” I stated.
Dev’s green eyes widened. “Oh, he’s killed all right, but not because he lost control. He had exquisite control from the moment he rose. A normal vampire takes hundreds of years to gain a single power. Some vampires have the power of persuasion. Some have incredible speed. They all have strength, but it is markedly more significant in some. Some can shape shift or call an animal. Some vampires even gain the power of flight after a thousand or so years.”
“So if Daniel lives a long time, he might be able to fly?” I wondered exactly where he was going with this. I knew Daniel was fast and strong. I guessed he was a fast learner.
“Daniel could fly the night he rose,” Dev said. “Vampires tend to have one or two powers after hundreds or thousands of years of living. Daniel had them from the moment he became a vampire.”
Tears sprang to my eyes as h
e spoke. He was lying. He had to be. Daniel would never keep those things from me. If this was true, then Daniel was farther from me than I ever imagined. “Daniel can’t do those things. He would have told me.”
He looked at me and there was sympathy in his green eyes. “Zoey, there was some discussion among the Council about executing him. There are some today who still believe it is the best course of action. Some members of the Council see him as a threat. It was only his ability to predict when a new vampire would rise that kept him alive. He’s the first in thousands of years with the ability, and the vampires need it. With the way the news covers murders these days, the vampires need forewarning to stay secret. Daniel gives them that warning. Some vampires wanted to place him at the head of the Council. There was talk of a crown. The vampires haven’t crowned a king in the last millennium, but it was discussed when Daniel rose.”
My mind spun. Dev had just turned my whole world upside down. “That’s insane. He’s…he’s Daniel. He likes science fiction and computers. He’s not some vampire king. He’s a nerd, for god’s sake.”
“I’ll let you read the dossier. I’m sorry, Zoey. I knew you didn’t know the whole story, but I never thought he’d kept you completely in the dark.”
He put a hand on my shoulder, and I moved away.
“Zoey, don’t blame me.” Dev’s green eyes were sad. I was sure he wanted to go back to the intimacy we’d been trying out earlier, but I just couldn’t. “I didn’t lie to you.”
But he’d been the messenger. “I know. I just need to think.”
“All right. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for any of this to hurt you,” he explained with a deep sigh. “I actually came in to give you this.”
He handed me a small packet. I looked at the bag in my hand. It contained dry herbs.
“Albert made it for you,” he said. “It’s for a dreamless sleep. I figured you needed it after whatever the demon did to you. You need rest, Zoey. You have to be at the top of your game if we’re going to pull this off. I’m going to go back out and make sure the surveillance is working. Take this and get some rest. When this is over, I’m going to take you on a trip, and we’ll get rid of those nightmares. We’ll go anywhere you like, sweetheart.”
He kissed me on the forehead, and I looked at the packet in my hand. I should have gone straight to the toilet and flushed it down. Who knew what was in those herbs? I’d known these people for so little time that there was no way I could trust them. So why did I walk to the bathroom and fill a glass with water? Why did I pour the packet into the water and watch it dissolve? Why did I swallow every last drop? Why did I trust that man so much?
I made my way back to the bed and didn’t really care if I’d taken a sleeping potion or poison. Either way, I was going to sleep, and for a while, I wouldn’t care about anything.
I sank into the sheets as blissful oblivion took me.
Long before I wanted to, I was jarred awake.
“Zoey,” Neil was saying as consciousness slowly drifted back. “Something is wrong. We have to go now. If we’re going to do this job, we have to do it tonight.”
Chapter Fifteen
It took everything I had to ignore Daniel as I walked into the living area of the suite. A million questions ran through my mind, but now wasn’t the time.
The whole living area was set up as a command center. There were three different computers throwing off low lights and humming quietly. The computer with the largest monitor showed the surveillance feed from the downstairs suite.
Neil talked to Daniel in hushed tones as I walked over to the monitor.
There they were. Our marks. Two men and one woman. Definitely Fae. They had long, elegant bodies and moved with sure grace. The men were dressed in khakis and polo shirts of varying color, but they tugged at the clothes as though the fabric bothered them. The female sported a brunette ponytail and wore a skirt and button down blouse.
A male with long, sandy blond hair and the female sat facing the open window. The bugs were obviously working as we could hear them plain as day. They spoke quietly in some language I couldn’t understand. The last man paced in and out of the camera’s range. He was the tallest, and if I had to bet, he was the blond one’s brother.
“Do we have any idea what they’re saying?” I kept my eyes on the screen, studying the marks.
Dev walked up behind me and pressed a mug of coffee into my hands. My mind was still foggy from sleep and the potion. The mug felt warm and solid.
He put a hand on my back as he leaned in and looked at the monitor. “I know what they’re saying, most of it anyway. They’re speaking Gaelic. It’s not exactly what my mother’s people speak, but it’s close enough. Fun fact: the Gaelic language is a derivation of ancient Elvish.”
“Thanks, professor.” Daniel took up position on my other side, trapping me between him and Dev. “Could you cut the trivia and tell her what they said?”
Dev ignored the bait and slid into the seat in front of the monitor. He pointed to the female. “This one seems to be the leader. She’s been telling the other two what to do. If I had to guess, the men are bodyguards. I think the word they used was escort, but I can’t be sure.”
“Did you get a shot of the box?” I asked.
“Yes.” Daniel bit the word out.
I finally looked up at him. Usually, right before a job there was a sort of calm that settled over Daniel. It was the same way for me, rather like an actor about to go on stage. We were nervous right up until we were about to go on and then we realized that we knew our lines and it was all going to be all right. The night before a job there was tension, but there was also excitement, even for Daniel. He liked to pretend that he did this just to keep me out of trouble, but he liked the rush, too.
But I could tell from the way he held his body that he wasn’t looking forward to the curtain going up on this particular performance.
“All right, is it in a safe or did they trap it?” I really hoped the answer was the safe. It was so much easier to deal with a nice, predictable safe than to have to figure out the Indiana Jones crap.
Dev pointed to the screen. “See, it’s right there.” He indicated a large box sitting on the coffee table.
I leaned forward to get a better look, and Dev obliged me by zooming in on the object. It was a large, rectangular box with ornate carvings. I couldn’t see a place where the lid to the box would come off. It looked like a single block of wood. I supposed that was where the whole part about "only those with the purest of intentions could open it" came in. This was the box described in the files. It was just sitting there. It was right out in the open. They weren’t even looking at it.
“Awesome, huh?” Neil still wore his hotel uniform and the contacts that turned his normally blue eyes brown.
In our line of work, we took a few precautions. Our disguises weren’t Mission Impossible good, but we did try to cover the major bases. The goal was to not be seen at all, but the reality was in a fight or flight situation, the only thing most people remembered was hair color, eye color, and size or shape. There wasn’t a lot we could do about size or shape, but the rest could be fixed. Neil’s hair was black tonight and tomorrow it would be a chestnut brown.
I looked around Neil and noticed Daniel was frowning at me. We shared the same concern. It wasn’t right. They should protect the box. They should guard the box. It was sitting in the middle of the room like a big old cupcake with a note saying “please eat me.”
Things just weren’t that easy.
Dev tapped the screen. “They just sat it down and haven’t touched it since. There’s a problem, though. I heard them talking about moving the box tomorrow morning at dawn.”
“I thought the box was scheduled to be moved two days from now,” Sarah said as she came in the room. She adjusted her short blonde wig and looked oddly normal in black tights and a black sweater.
“They talked about that, too,” Dev said. “It was a little confusing but they were talking about
the veil being its thinnest in two days, but the leader thinks he can get through it tomorrow morning in the in-between time.”
“The veil between worlds?” I asked.
Dev turned the chair around. “Yes. There are Fae tribes who travel this way, or so I’m told. It’s complex, but there are times when the dimensional walls are thin, and if you know when and where, you can move through one plane and into another. Apparently the veil will be thin somewhere close to here starting tomorrow morning.”
It was how the Fae had left the Earth plane millennia ago. There were some who theorized that the supernatural beings on Earth were creatures from other planes that had gotten lost and adapted. If these faeries were trying to cross dimensions then it only made sense that they would try it during one of the in-between times. The story went that the veil between worlds was always thinnest at dawn and dusk, when the night and day changed places and all things were, for that brief time, possible.
It explained why the Fae had moved up their timetable. It explained why Daniel decided we needed to move now. It didn’t explain why that damn box was sitting in the open looking so ripe for the plucking.
I couldn’t help but let my gaze go back to Daniel.
“Something’s wrong,” he said, reading my mind.
“Definitely.”
Neil and Dev argued the merits of the easy job with Sarah while Daniel and I managed to meet in the middle of the room.
“It’s too easy,” he said quietly.
Nothing was that easy in our line of business. We weren’t opportunistic thieves who broke into convenient houses and hoped that the owners left valuables lying around. We spent months planning jobs because the things we stole were the things an owner protects. Items of arcane value tend to be obsessively guarded. When we stole an amulet of protection a few years back, we had to go through three layers of wards, countless locks, a pit bull, and a safe. We made ten grand off that job, but here was a million dollars sitting in the open, waiting for the taking.
