by Lexi Blake
“Z, I never slept with her.” Daniel was talking as fast as he could. “I swear I never touched her except to feed. I had to eat. That’s what this place is for, but I didn’t even feel her up or anything. There was no funny business going on.”
“He was a gentleman because he loves me,” Stacy continued. “Tell her about all the nights we sat up talking, Danny. Did you know he used to take me with him when he went on assignments?”
“You did what?” I growled at my husband and tried to bring my heel down on Dev’s toe. He was far too used to my moves as he avoided the four-and-a-half-inch stiletto with ease.
My husband had the good sense to stay a couple of feet away from me. “It was only a couple of times, baby. I had to go kill some people in really rural places. It was easier to pack a lunch than find one in the field.” He frowned at Dev. “You don’t have to look so damned amused.”
“Oh, I assure you it is entirely necessary,” Dev returned. “I’ve dreamed of this day, Dan.”
“You never take me on assignment.” I tried to push Dev’s arms down. It was no use.
Stacy had the audacity to put her hand on Daniel’s shoulder.
Daniel stepped away quickly. “I don’t take you with me because it’s dangerous, baby. I love you so much. I’d never put you in harm’s way like that. God, I do everything I can to keep you safe.”
Stacy rolled her eyes. “That’s not you talking, Danny. That’s the addiction. You fought it off once before and I’ll help you do it again. You don’t need her. She’s been nothing but trouble from what I’ve heard. She isn’t even a good companion. I was good for you. I took care of you. She gets you in trouble. And she’s far too short for you. I certainly didn’t expect her to be so pudgy.”
“Let me go, Dev,” I snarled.
“Oh, thank the heavens.” Marcus’s rich voice was filled with amusement as he leaned against the wall and watched—which apparently is something he really likes to do. “I worried after the earlier events of the evening that Zoey would be far too embarrassed to misbehave. I see I was mistaken. Don’t listen to her, cara. You’re stunning and she knows it. Daniel might be attracted to your shine above that body of yours, but I believe Mr. Quinn will attest to the fact that there is nothing pudgy about you.”
“Zoey knows how I feel about her body.” Dev loosened his grip.
“I’m pretty damn attached to her body,” Daniel corrected. “I think I proved that earlier tonight.”
Marcus shifted his stare to Stacy, and the affectionate look on his face vanished. “As for you, Miss Sears, if you ever treat Mrs. Donovan in that fashion again, I will see you turned out. She is your mistress yet you insult her. You’ll remember your place or I’ll be forced to show you. Make your apologies.”
Her head was down now and her eyes averted. “I’m sorry, master.”
“Not to me. To her.” Marcus gestured my way.
“Please accept my apologies, Mrs. Donovan,” she said quietly, and I realized this wasn’t the first time she had been forced to humble herself.
“Of course,” I returned, and Dev finally let me loose.
“Miss Sears, try to stay out of Mrs. Donovan’s way for the rest of the night. And you should definitely keep your distance from her husband,” Marcus ordered.
The blonde walked away, a sheen of tears in her eyes.
I turned on my husband and pointed at him. “You have a lot of explaining to do. I believe that you didn’t sleep with her, but that girl is obviously in love with you. She was hurt. You should have told me about her and don’t throw Dev in my face because I never hid him from you.”
“How can you hide him from me when he’s always on top of you?” Daniel asked, still seemingly confused by the entire episode.
“I’m not always on top,” Dev replied. “I often enjoy being on bottom. I like the view.”
Daniel had gotten good at ignoring Dev. “Z, I had no idea she thought that about us. I swear I just needed someone to talk to, and she was a good listener. Hell, most of the time I was talking about you. I never said anything to make her believe she was more than a friend.”
“I’ll have her reassigned,” Marcus said with an imperious wave. “I won’t have her causing trouble. The last thing we need is our slaves wreaking havoc. I warned you about getting too friendly with them, Daniel.”
“Slaves?” I asked, my voice tight.
Daniel grinned at his patron. “I’ll leave you to the explanations. I have to set up.” He kissed me hard and quick. “Stay out of trouble, Z.”
As I watched him disappear down the hall, I had a feeling that wasn’t going to be easy.
“Come, cara.” Marcus offered me his arm. “You can rail at the injustices of our world in the parlor.”
“So slaves?” I let Marcus lead me down the hall.
Marcus shrugged. “Of course. Did you expect vampires to run the club? We have human slaves to do menial labor.”
“By menial labor he means all labor,” Dev pointed out helpfully.
“How exactly does one become a slave?” I was pretty sure I didn’t want to hear the answer, but it was like a car accident.
Marcus stopped and looked at me like I was the most naïve of children. “One is born a slave, Zoey. It isn’t difficult. The slaves mate and create new slaves. I believe the modern term is ‘renewable resource.’”
I felt my blood pressure rise. “Marcus Vorenus, that is the most horrible thing I have ever heard. Are you telling me you’ve enslaved entire generations of humans so you don’t have to worry about payroll?”
“Well, not me personally,” Marcus replied. “It’s the way of our world.”
I made the horrible mistake of looking into one of the rooms we were standing near. It was small, but there were two females and one male sitting on a leather couch. They were wearing little in the way of clothing. There was a desk where a man sat with a large book in front of him. Alexander Sharpe stood in front of the desk.
“I’ll take the blonde,” he said in his crisp British accent. The man at the desk signed out Alexander’s dinner and the poor blonde found herself on the creepy vamp’s arm. Alexander nodded at me. “Good evening, Mrs. Donovan. I’m surprised Daniel brought you here. He always swore he would never bring his precious blood to a place like this.”
“Sharpe.” Marcus acknowledged the Brit. “Mrs. Donovan is here at Louis’s pleasure. Daniel isn’t happy about it. I would advise you to make her stay as pleasant as possible or he’ll be unhappy with you, too.”
“We couldn’t have that now, could we?” Alexander said enigmatically as he ushered his dinner up the stairs.
I shook off the need to shower again. I felt that way every time I found myself in the same room as Alexander. “So that girl—who may or may not survive the night—is a slave, and her parents were slaves before that.”
Marcus nodded. “Yes, Zoey. How did you think we filled positions? Did you think we held a job fair? All the humans here are slaves in one form or another. They were either born into slavery or chose to enter it because they wished to serve Vampire. Ms. Sears was born a slave. She grew up in a vampire household and proved to be intelligent and organized. She was trained to run a business and was promoted to manager of this club. Now she will be demoted to blood slave. I warned Daniel he should feed from all of them so as not to show favoritism.”
“Please don’t, Marcus.” I didn’t want to give a crap about her but an unwanted sympathy was creeping in. “Don’t demote her. It’s Danny’s fault. I don’t really blame her. If I had to live like she does, I would have fallen for the first decent man to come my way, too.”
“You’re too kindhearted, cara,” Marcus said. “She’ll cause trouble.”
“Maybe she’ll start a slave uprising and I can join in,” I replied tartly.
Marcus shook his head Dev’s way. “Who does she think runs her household? Who does she think cooks her meals and cleans the rooms of her home?”
I slowly turned to lo
ok at Dev, who was doing the running-two-fingers-across-his-throat thing to tell Marcus to cut it out.
I smiled up sweetly at my lover. “You pay Albert, right?”
“Of course,” Dev replied, lying straight through those perfect teeth.
“Albert’s a slave?”
“Not at all, my love.” Dev took one of my hands in his. “Albert is family. Just because I bought him at an auction doesn’t make him any less a member of our little family.”
My mouth fell open, and I just stared at the two of them.
“Fae society is full of slaves,” Marcus pointed out.
“That is a complete lie,” Dev returned. “We don’t consider them slaves. They’re serfs and vassals. It’s a completely different thing.”
“Yes,” Marcus murmured. “It is different because you use different words. The result is the same. Zoey, you’re surrounded by slaves. It’s a fact of the world you live in.”
I poked Dev in the chest. “You’re going to free Albert the second we get home. You’re going to offer him a generous salary, medical and dental, and a 401k.”
Dev smiled smoothly. “Of course, darling. I’ll throw in some vacation time as well.”
“Do you always just give in like that?” Marcus asked.
Dev shrugged. “Absolutely. It’s so much easier than arguing. I’d spend hours with her pissed at me and I’d only give in anyway, so I make my life simpler and just lay down in the beginning. When I first met Zoey, I promised I would lay down for her anytime she liked. I keep my promises.”
Just as I was about to start walking again, Chad came down the stairs. He looked nothing like the sweet, smart lawyer I’d met a year before. He was like sin on two legs. His hair was longer, framing his handsome face. He wore tight black leather pants that showed off his lean physique to spectacular advantage. His white shirt was half opened, revealing his sculpted chest. This Chad was a rock and roll god.
“I’d like to speak to Zoey for a moment, Marcus,” Chad requested with a slight smile.
Marcus glanced around to see if anyone else was noticing the exchange. “All right, but be careful. You’re not supposed to know her.”
Chad took my hand and led me quickly up the stairs and to a bedroom. He shut the door behind us and sighed. “How are you doing, Zoey?”
“I’m all right.” I waited for him to ask me the question I didn’t want to answer. “Are you okay?”
He shrugged. “It’s nothing I can’t handle. I’m turning out to be quite the spy. I’ve gotten close to Marini. He’s taken with my talents. It’s about to get bad, Zoey. You have to warn my master. Marini is doing things behind his back that Marcus doesn’t even know about. In the last few months, he’s ordered the executions of three powerful werewolf alphas in Europe. He’s intensely interested in subjugating the wolves as they were when the vampires were powerful. He believes he can do this by putting Daniel in a corner. He’ll work on the wolves in Europe and then force Daniel to bring the American wolves in line.”
“Daniel will never allow that to happen.” We’d known Marini had plans, but I’d hoped they were years away. Vampires were known for taking their time.
“Ah, but Marini believes he knows the key to forcing the Nex Apparatus to do anything he wishes,” Chad said quietly, looking at me.
I let my shoulders slump forward. I hated the fact that I was Daniel’s only real weakness. “I’ll let him know.”
The vampire nodded. “He has plans for you, Zoey. He has plans that you can’t imagine. Watch your back around him. Marini believes Daniel’s love for you will be his downfall, and what he saw tonight didn’t change his mind about it.”
I felt my face go beet red. “God, Chad, please tell me you were only there for a few minutes.”
He grinned. “That would be a lie. I’m afraid I’m back to envying you your men. When did they get so friendly? When I left, Daniel still growled every time Dev walked in the room.”
“Vegas,” I admitted. “We’ve been living together for about seven months. Just how long were you there watching us?”
“Long enough. Seriously, Zoey, that was the hottest thing I’ve ever seen. I would have given just about anything to take your place in the middle of that sandwich. I really did think Marcus was going to lose control. He’s crazy about you. That magic of Dev’s is pretty amazing. It felt like I was feeding, but I didn’t need blood.”
Well, at least now I could participate in Dev’s ceremony knowing I’d already performed in public. I shook my head.
“Now I can get to the real reason I needed to see you.” Chad gestured toward the small door that probably led to the bathroom. “You can come out now, baby.”
The door opened, and Neil walked out looking perfect and healthy and whole. He smiled at me, and I immediately teared up.
“Neil,” I said, my voice catching. He grinned and held his arms open. I ran into them and caught only air as my body passed through the illusion. I searched around and then back at Chad, who was frowning at me. It was just a trick. “That was mean, Chad.”
“That was necessary to find out just how bad the situation is,” Chad replied, his voice hard. “I wanted to know if you’ve turned on him. He isn’t answering his phone. Marcus told me what happened. My master used his power to make Neil a slave.”
“Daniel was trying to protect us all. Neil was beyond upset when he found out you were the spy. Please understand, Chad. We were going onto the Hell plane with only Neil as backup, and he threatened to walk.” He’d been halfway out the door when Daniel turned on that power for the first time. “Daniel was desperate. He would never hurt Neil.”
“I doubt that, Zoey.” Chad sat down on the bed and studied me for a moment. “You don’t see the ruthless streak in Daniel. You never have. How did Neil get away—because I assume he got away. He isn’t dead, is he?” The last question was asked calmly, with Chad’s voice perfectly controlled as though he was only interested in the answer in an academic fashion.
“I let him go. I went behind Daniel’s back and freed him.” I neglected to add the part about Neil’s absence leaving me and Dev vulnerable to Halfer’s attack. “He ran. I tracked him down, but I can’t get him to meet with me, yet. I’ll get him back, Chad.”
“See that you do, Zoey,” Chad said. “I didn’t sacrifice myself to have my lover treated this way. I expect him to be happy and whole when I return.”
“I promise.” I was a little afraid of this Chad. He was colder, infinitely harder. I hugged my arms to my chest because the room seemed chilly. “I love him, too. I want him back.”
Chad shook his head, and suddenly he was himself again. He stood and pulled me into a hug. “I know you do, Zoey. I knew you would be the one looking for him. Tell him I love him when you succeed in finding him. Now let’s get you back down to Dev. Stay close to him. Marini would just love to get you alone. He’s been talking about how sweet you taste ever since the ball.”
I frowned but let Chad open the door. I exited, leaving the vampire behind, my mind filled with doubts and worries.
Chapter Twelve
Marcus and Dev were waiting for me when I returned. Dev looked at me curiously, as though sensing my mood. He helped me down the last two steps, but I knew we wouldn’t be talking about what had happened with Chad until we were alone again. I liked Marcus, but preferred to let the boys decide when and if to tell him anything. I’m not a spy. They tend to know when to talk and when to keep their mouths closed. Those are two lessons I never learned.
Marcus led us into a room that looked nothing like a parlor. It reminded me of the VIP section of a gentlemen’s club complete with half-dressed attendants. The lights were low, creating a decadent atmosphere.
I immediately spotted Louis Marini holding court in the center of the room. He lounged back on a chaise, and when he caught sight of me, he gestured us over with an imperious wave of his hand.
I caught my breath as Marcus led me to the head of the Council. Louis Marini was t
he oldest vampire who lived in society. There were rumors that older vampires still existed, but they no longer lived among the humans. In vampire society, Louis Marini was practically a king. Unfortunately, he lacked the DNA necessary to crown himself. He would have been a handsome man, but there was a hardness to him that left me cold. His hair was dark brown, his eyes nearly black, and there was something vaguely reptilian about them. He was dressed in slacks and a black T-shirt that hugged his well-formed chest. As we approached, I realized there was a girl huddled next to him.
“Mrs. Donovan, I see Marcus has already sought you out,” he said in a deep voice that sounded amused and annoyed at the same time. “I swear when you’re around he becomes a sad little lapdog begging for your affection. Did he wait by the door so he could catch you as you entered?”
“I can’t help but follow a beautiful woman around. When I no longer wish to I shall stake myself, for there will be no reason to walk the night,” Marcus replied gallantly, pulling me down with him onto the opposite chaise. It was large and plush, and Dev settled himself on the other side of me, his arm going negligently around my waist.
“Prince.” Louis acknowledged Dev with a satisfied nod. He took in every inch of Dev’s well-dressed form. “I was pleased to see you again. I feared after the events of the ball, you would return to your sithein. It’s good to see our Nex Apparatus hasn’t frightened you away from vampire society.”
“Oh, I think you’ll find I don’t scare so easily. It takes more than a couple of stab wounds to the gut to deter me from a lover I’m enjoying. I find Daniel to be a perfectly pleasant reason to stay in your society,” Dev replied smoothly.
“Obviously,” Marini said with an intimate smile, and I wondered which of the numerous sex acts he’d witnessed he was thinking of. It made me want to turn away, but I forced myself to remain calm. “Our Mr. Donovan seems to think he’s your master.”
