Steal the Night (11 page)

“Collateral damage, my lover,” he said coldly. “They’ll be better off in the long run.”

I turned to look at Daniel, who didn’t seem shocked at Dev’s plan of action. He shook his head at my naïveté. “He’s as blood thirsty and possessive as I am. He just comes in a softer-looking package.”

“Does she expect us to allow this transgression to pass?” Dev’s face flushed, his words coming out in a harsh grind. “He held her down. He drank from her. He would have taken her if... What the hell happened? Who else was in that room? I couldn’t see anyone.”

“It was Bris,” I said quietly. “He couldn’t say anything, obviously, but I know it was him.”

“Remind me to thank him for that once he reintegrates.” Daniel motioned for Dev to sit down beside us. “But Z is right. We can’t just go around blowing shit up. You can end up on some serious watchlists for stuff like that.”

Dev sank down, letting the flamethrower gently find the floor. “Human laws. I find them very confining. Why do humans make all these lovely weapons if they are just going to outlaw their use?”

“It’s a mystery,” I allowed.

“I have to get this thing off my heart.” Daniel’s shoulders dropped.

“Yes, you do,” Dev said and I heard the relief in his voice.

Daniel nodded Nim’s way. “All right, Nim. Tell me what to do.”

“Well, first we have to find a demon to help us out,” Nim told him.

My vampire turned to me and his face fell when I smiled weakly. Daniel was back to holding his head in his hands. “No. I hate that fucker.”

Stewart might not be thrilled with his welcoming committee.

Chapter Seven

Daniel and I stood outside the small bookstore on Greenville Avenue. It was a quiet little place that was easily missed since it was beside a sex shop with super-bright neon lights that promised every type of condom known to man. An insistent thud of music came from the small clubs all up and down the street. The spring night was slightly cool and pleasant on my skin.

“Where the hell is he?” Daniel glanced down the sidewalk as people moved past.

“I don’t know,” I replied tartly. “Maybe he had to clean up after someone trashed his club.”

“Yeah, Z, he’s doing that cleanup himself,” Daniel said sarcastically. “He‘s wielding a broom right now. Dev is so hands-on. You weren’t there, baby. You were up talking to Harry, getting us a place to call a demon. He had like twenty maids working less than ten minutes after he made a call. It’s like he had a plan in place just in case I went berserk.”

I didn’t doubt that. Dev was a big planner. He always thought ahead. It wouldn’t surprise me if I discovered that Dev kept a playbook in his office for things like Daniel going into a rage and destroying half the club. I chose not to mention that to Daniel. He had felt bad enough when he’d finally gotten his beast under control.

Once we all decided that we were going to deal with Daniel’s heart problem, we didn’t want to wait to get started. Dev and Zack made our travel arrangements and Christine and Nim were working out the long-distance rates for our little call. Midnight was approaching and we’d divided up the list of things we needed for the ritual. Lee and Zack were at my father’s with Christine and Nim, making sure the place was secure while the witches drew the circle. Daniel, Dev, and I were getting the proper herbs and…stuff I wasn’t sure I wanted to know what it did. Neil was out getting Stewart a little gift because one doesn’t call a demon without having a thoughtful gift on hand. It tended to piss the demon off if he got nothing out of the experience.

So we were in the doorway of the small used bookstore that acted as a front for a creepy weird witchcraft store waiting on Dev, who’d had a mysterious errand he had to run. I let the music from the club across the street flow over me. The Granada was a renovated movie theater and it reminded me of my all-too-brief time in college with Danny. We’d gone to a few clubs to see friends of ours play. We’d been young and in love and he’d been human. Sometimes I felt like that time happened to a different person.

Daniel slung an arm around my shoulders and tugged me close. He kissed my forehead. I glanced up and he was watching the young people walking by. They were chatting and laughing, and many of them were half drunk. They were enjoying their lives.

“You should be doing that, Z.” Danny’s voice was melancholy as he watched the men and women stroll down the road. “You should be running around on a Saturday night partying with your friends and having a good time. You shouldn’t be trying to call a freaking demon so you can go find another one.”

I grinned up at my husband. “Danny, how old do you think I am? I’m twenty-eight. Don’t get me wrong. It’s not exactly retirement home time, but I hardly think I’d be out clubbing every night. If I wasn’t getting ready to call a demon, I’d probably be studying for a job.”

He shook his head. “I was just thinking of what you and Dev would be doing if I wasn’t around.”

Wrinkling my nose, I gave the question a little thought. “Well, I would probably be on the run from vampires who want to munch on me or make a quick buck selling me to older vampires who would munch on me. As for Dev, he’d be dead because he was trying to stop the vampires who wanted to munch on me.”

“I would be, lover.” Dev snuck up behind us. “Daniel and I are the only ones allowed to make a meal of you. I would have proven that point tonight had anyone allowed me to use my flamethrower.”

He was incredibly dapper in black slacks and a snowy white dress shirt that was open at the throat. He walked with the supreme confidence of a man who knew he looked damn good and the people he loved were going to approve. I also knew what his errand had been.

“Thank god, you cut your hair,” Daniel said with a sigh of relief.

“You cut your hair.” I couldn’t help but pout a little because I really liked his long, thick hair. I liked getting tangled up in it and brushing it for him. Though I had to admit the current long, sort-of-spiky look suited him perfectly. It was the type of style that seemed messy but actually had taken a lot of work to get just right.

“Harry told me to and since I am now the good son, I chose to honor his request,” Dev said with a satisfied smile.

Daniel shook his head. He’d talked to Dad earlier in the evening and seemed relieved that he finally knew what was going on. I never realized how hard it was for Daniel to keep secrets from his father-in-law.

Daniel walked up to Dev and inspected him, walking around to see it from every angle. He reached up and his hand found the back of Dev’s head, running his fingers through the thick hair there. He playfully tugged at it. “See. That’s perfect. It’s just long enough I can pull it and get you in the right position to take a bite.”

Dev grinned at me, and I was sure he liked the look on my face. I greatly enjoyed it when the boys teased me. “That was my plan, Dan. I know how important having a firm grip is to you.”

I wasn’t the only one interested in the boys’ little flirtation. The crowd on a Saturday night on Greenville isn’t the most conservative group. They were young and decadent and a whole lot of them weren’t anything close to straight. Men and women alike watched my husbands with covetous eyes. I couldn’t blame them. I often drooled when they walked into a room.

They were two opposite visions of hot masculinity. Daniel was big and broad, with thick golden hair that was perfectly overgrown. His eyes were a deep blue and I loved the way his cheeks dimpled when he smiled. He looked dangerous in jeans, a T-shirt, and a leather jacket. He wasn’t a guy you messed with.

Dev was the modern man. He was unashamedly metro and put a great deal of thought into his clothes. His hair was so black, in the right light you could catch a hint of blue. His eyes were emerald green and he had the most beautiful face I’d ever seen on a man. He was slightly taller than Daniel but his build was smaller. He was built more along the lines of a swimmer or a surfer, where Daniel looked like he could take on the Cowboys offensive line and win. What am I saying? He would definitely win.

“Now I won’t mistake you for our wife when I’m drunk off my ass.” Daniel smiled at his partner.

“Yes, I don’t have boobs, Dan,” Dev pointed out seriously. Something caught his eye and his face lit up. “Oh my, their condoms have flavors.”

“Oh, no.” Daniel groaned and put an arm around Dev’s waist to drag him away. “Don’t let the fertility god into the sex shop, Z. We’ll lose him. He’ll never come back out.”

Dev laughed as he allowed Daniel to playfully drag him away. He put out his arms like he wanted to embrace the store. “But Daniel, they have toys. We need toys to get our wife hot.”

No, they didn’t. They just needed to do exactly what they were doing because I was getting plenty hot and already wondering how long this whole demonic call was going to take. I was ready to head back to the penthouse and play with my toys.

“She’s hot enough as she is.” Daniel’s voice got low but not so quiet I couldn’t hear every word. “I think if I bit you right now, she might let us take her in the alley.”

I sighed at the thought.

“Perv,” Daniel said affectionately, releasing our fertility god and kissing me firmly.

“Hey, I want in on that.” Dev growled and stole a kiss, too.

“You got in on that last night,” Danny teased. “I’m not drinking anymore. I miss out on all the fun. And when we get this whole crappy business thing over with, I intend to go home and watch that little sex tape the two of you made last night. It’ll get my mind off the other one.”

Dev’s smile was slow and sexy. “You’ll find it amusing. Our wife was very domineering. She was sweet and bossy. We should let her tie you up.”

I was suddenly very aware that we were in public. “Guys, people are watching.”

“So?” Daniel playfully touched the tip of my nose, letting me know he thought I was being silly. “Let ’em look. They don’t know us. How did you think this was going to work, baby? Did you think we’d take turns playing your husband when we’re in public? Is the other one supposed to be the third-wheel friend?”

“Not going to happen,” Dev assured me, shaking his head. “We have to play enough games. If I want to kiss you, I’m going to. Dan feels the same way. If we receive stares because of it, I’ll assume the people staring would love to be in my place. Now kiss me.”

Even in my super-cute Dolce and Gabbana booties with four-and-a-half-inch stilettos, I still had to go up on my tiptoes to plant a kiss on his mouth. Sure enough, I heard whispers. I was going to have to get used to it.

Dev turned back to the problem at hand with a longsuffering sigh. “So instead of the very interesting looking sex shop, I get to spend my evening in a smelly old bookstore.”

“It doesn’t seem fair, does it?” Daniel opened the door and started inside.

Dev and I followed. The owner was not a big fan of proper lighting. The whole place seemed to be in a deep gloom. There was a musty, unused feel to the space, as though it had been sealed off and forgotten. It seemed very small and the stacks of books almost claustrophobically tight. Anxiety started to build in my gut, and I had to take a deep breath. I forced myself to move further inside when all I wanted to do was get back to the street. Even the little bell that rang sounded ominous to me.

“Wards.” Daniel pointed at a place high on the wall in front of us. There were small drawings there. To an outsider, I’m sure they seemed like some arcane form of decoration, but they served another purpose. The whole shop was warded against interlopers. It explained the feeling I had. There was something telling me that this was not a good place. I needed to leave. It was an excellent security system for supernatural stores that didn’t want human traffic. The human would never realize anything was weird about the place. They would just have an overwhelming urge to leave.

“It must be for humans only because it’s not bothering me at all.” Dev stepped up to the small counter with an old-school cash register on top. It wasn’t completely in the technological dark ages, however, since I saw a credit card machine behind the register.

There was a shuffling from the back. “I’ll be with you in a second,” a feminine voice said.

“No hurry,” Daniel shouted back as his cell phone rang. He pulled it out of his leather jacket and frowned at it. “It’s Marcus, thank god.” We’d been trying to get in touch with him for months, ever since we returned to the Earth plane, but he’d been on some sort of retreat. Daniel hit the answer button and placed the phone to his ear. “Hey, Marcus…” He pulled the phone away from his ear as it started to scream at him. “Damn, man, you don’t have to yell.” I watched as his face turned stubborn. “
Calmatevi! Non parlate cosi,
Marcus.”

Dev shot me an amused look. “He always looks so weird speaking foreign languages. I like how his Texas accent makes Italian seem so down home.”

Daniel continued his argument, spitting out a litany of Italian. It was one of the things that surprised me about Daniel’s Council training. He could now speak Italian, French, and Spanish. Vampires caught on to languages very quickly.

An elderly lady entered the store from the back room. She was small and withered, with steel gray hair that surrounded her head like a football helmet. She was far past the age of a flirty girl, but her eyes still lit up when she caught a look at Dev. “Hello. How may I help you this fine evening, my Fae friend?”