Steal the Sun (10 page)

Dev frowned beside me. “You slept with Marcus Vorenus?”

Miria smiled brilliantly. “Yes. That was his name, I believe. He was a beautiful man from Rome, if I recall. So gallant. He knew how to treat a lady.”

“Well, you and Zoey should swap stories,” Dev said with a pout.

Marcus Vorenus was Daniel’s patron, and he had zero problems with flirting with me. He’d let me know that he was more than willing to accommodate me in any way I needed. Daniel tended to roll his eyes and wave it off. Dev pretty much hated the guy.

“I’ve never slept with Marcus,” I protested. Dev and Marcus were polite to one another, but Dev still hadn’t forgiven Marcus for trying to kill him. He also didn’t like the fact that Marcus referred to him as Lancelot.

“Not for lack of trying on his part,” Dev replied shortly. “He is always trying to get into my wife’s pants.”

“I never liked that vampire.” Padric clasped a hand on Dev’s shoulder in sympathy. “Vampires shouldn’t be able to walk about in the daytime.”

“It makes it harder to stake them,” Dev replied with a nod.

Miria leaned toward me, ignoring the men. “You should have him give you gifts. He gave me the loveliest jewels. Once he gave me a ruby the size of my fist. He said it brought out my eyes.”

There was more talk but I didn’t notice. A ruby the size of her fist. Yeah, that pretty much summed up the Blood Stone. Inside I was shaking my head. I should have known Marcus would be behind everything. I was being forced to work for Louis Marini because Marcus needed to steal jewelry for his mistress.

Or was there something else behind it? If that jewel was important enough, he might have stolen it to get it away from Marini. I still wasn’t sure that the jewel didn’t have some sort of magical property. What better place to hide something than another plane? Miria later closing the mounds would only be a problem if he planned on using the gem himself. Marcus and I would be having a long talk the minute I hit the Earth plane and got cell phone coverage again. He had some explaining to do.

“I’d love to see the jewels Marcus gave you sometime,” I heard myself saying. I’d been told my mother-in-law might know something about the jewel. If she could just hand it over, my job would be so much easier.

Dev stiffened slightly beside me as he followed my logic. He’d read the file from Marini as well. “Yes, that is an excellent idea. Zoey loves fashion and jewels. You should show her your collection.”

Miria nodded. “Of course, though Padric forced me to give the Blood Stone away. It was my favorite. He pouted until I relented. I gave it to a woman in town. She had done me a service.”

Well, that answered one thing. The Blood Stone was here in Faery. I could do the job.

“Zoey,” Lee said, suddenly stirring. He started down the hall back toward the ballroom. “Something’s wrong. Come on.”

Dev took my hand and we ran in behind Lee. Dev didn’t question him. There was no way I would ask him what was happening. If Lee told me something was wrong, I would follow him. His instincts were that good.

We reached the archway that connected the gallery to the ballroom and I saw the problem. There was a huge crowd standing to the side of the dance floor. The band had stopped playing, and every single person was trying to get a good look. Dev forced his way in, and I realized the crowd was surrounding a single body.

I watched as Zack picked up the unconscious man.

“Daniel!” I yelled even as someone was calling for a healer.

My heart took a nose dive, and Dev ran for his partner.

Chapter Six

Thirty minutes later, we were comfortably settled into our room, having left the drama of the ballroom behind us. There were still a ton of people milling about outside our room waiting for the latest gossip, but it was easy to forget about them now that we’d shut the door. It was hard to forget how scared I’d been though.

“I didn’t faint,” Daniel growled from his place on the big bed.

“Let’s call it a manly loss of consciousness,” Felix offered.

“Dude, he fainted. Just like the southern belle he is. He had a fit of the vapors.” Dev sounded more like himself than he had all day. He smirked down at Daniel, but I knew he’d been worried, too. He’d taken Daniel out of Zack’s arms, preferring to carry his partner himself. He’d carried Daniel all the way to our rooms and called for a healer. He’d been holding my hand when Daniel woke up.

Now they were back to their normal, deeply masculine relationship.

“Fuck you, Dev,” Daniel shot back. But I noticed he didn’t try to get off the bed. Daniel laid back in our enormous bed and let his head rest against my breast. I cuddled him. It was what he’d asked for the minute he woke up. His skin was pale against the red of my dress. I stroked his hair and he snuggled down. It had been like this when Danny was alive. When he wasn’t feeling well, he turned into a baby who needed an enormous amount of attention. “It’s your fault. You made me get in that stupid coffin.”

Dev held his hands up in complete confusion. “I did everything I could to make that coffin comfortable for you and all you can do is complain. Do you know how hard it was to get the lighting installed so you could read your comic books? People don’t typically put lighting in coffins, man. Besides, you’ve been out of the coffin for hours. How is this related?”

“I don’t think it is.” Sarah looked Daniel over. Sarah had taken charge of the room, immediately ordering Zack about and generally keeping everyone calm because she seemed so competent.

We were waiting on the Fae healer who lived in the village. Padric had sent a royal guard to fetch the man. In the meantime, Sarah had ordered everyone to keep the noise down and to make Daniel comfortable.

“What do you think it is?” I asked Sarah.

Daniel didn’t get sick. It wasn’t part of the vampire experience to get weak and faint. No matter how Felix wanted to play it, I agreed with Dev. Danny fainted. One minute he’d been standing up and talking and the next he hit the floor. If that wasn’t a faint, then I didn’t know what was. Zack had been shadowing his master and said Daniel had grown even paler than usual right before he passed out. Luckily Zack had caught him before he hit the floor.

Sarah gave me a long look. “I have my suspicions but you won’t like it.”

“Just tell me.” The last thing I needed was to play guessing games. If something was wrong with Danny, I needed to know right away.

“Why don’t we talk about it alone?” she said quietly in a way that made my heart pound with terror.

What could be so bad that we needed privacy to discuss it? We weren’t the most private of people. Our crew tended to witness everything in our lives. When we fought we usually had an audience. Even when we did…other things, we sometimes learned someone had been watching. If Sarah thought we needed privacy, it must be bad.

I was about to insist she just spit it out when Declan walked in the room with a tall, thin man carrying what looked to be an old-fashioned medical case. The healer was a faery with long brown hair who looked around the room, his eyes finally fastening on Daniel.

“This is the vampire?” he asked, looking Daniel over.

“Yes,” Declan said with a sigh. “This is the weak vampire. My mother and brother insist that you save him. However, if you allow him to expire, I will make sure there is something in it for you.”

“Declan!” I wasn’t sure he was joking.

He shrugged and moved away, letting the healer sit down with his patient.

“What are your symptoms?” No one had taught this particular healer bedside manner. He frowned and his words came out in a flat, couldn’t-care-less tone of voice. I supposed it fit, since he more than likely didn’t get to practice his profession often. Faeries tended to not get sick. This healer would mostly be used to dealing with injuries.

Daniel was silent so I spoke up. “He was tired earlier today and then after dinner he passed out.”

“I will ask the obvious,” the healer began, sounding completely uninterested. “When was the last time you ate?”

Dev took that one. “About thirty minutes before we went in to the banquet. Zoey was busy so I fed him. He took the normal time. Daniel doesn’t gorge himself but he gets a decent meal. I haven’t eaten anything strange, if you’re wondering. I had two ales at Ross’s but it’s nothing he couldn’t handle.”

“I couldn’t even taste the alcohol,” Danny complained.

Dev rolled his eyes. “Sorry. Someone tried to kill our wife and then I forgot about our drinking binge. I’ll try harder next time.”

“Do you have any other symptoms?” The healer began what appeared to be a routine checkup. He examined Daniel’s eyes and ears and even made sure his fangs were functioning properly.

“No. No other symptoms. I’m just tired. It’s not a big deal.” Daniel suffered through the exam, but he didn’t like doctors. He hadn’t liked them when he’d been alive. He had to be near death before I could get him to make an appointment.

“Danny, you have to tell him everything,” I insisted.

Dev started to look concerned now. He knew when Danny was lying, too. He sat up and paid attention. “Yes, Dan, you do have to own up. You shouldn’t be sick. If it’s something serious then we need to deal with it now. Maybe there’s something here you could be allergic to.”

“Could he have been poisoned?” The terrifying idea hit me as I contemplated the events of the day. I held Danny even closer as I thought about someone trying to kill him. They tried to take me out. Maybe they would go after Danny next.

The healer shook his head. “Prince Devinshea is the only one you fed from today?”

Daniel nodded. I was sure he’d been planning to make a meal of me later on tonight, but we hadn’t gotten there yet.

“And you are feeling fine, Your Grace?” The healer turned his attention to Dev.

Dev shifted up in the bed. He moved next to me so he could place his arm around my shoulders. I felt better having both of them close. “I’m perfectly well. I admit there was some nausea when my mother was hitting on my wife and then my partner. It welled back up when she discussed her sex life with Marcus, who I hate, but I doubt that has anything to do with poison. The only antidote is years of therapy.”

That got Danny’s attention. “Your mom did Marcus?”

“Lay back down, invalid.” Dev ignored him. “Everything I ate before dinner was prepared by my butler’s own hand. There is no risk of contamination. I didn’t feed him after dinner.”

The healer listened intently. He seemed much more interested now that he thought he was dealing with something more than an anorexic bloodsucker. He took Daniel’s wrist in his hand. A vampire’s heart pumps when their blood is up, though slower than a normal human’s. He counted for a moment. “His pulse is fine for a vampire. I know of no poison that would not kill the prince before it could contaminate the vampire’s system. How do you feel now?”

“Fine,” Daniel said shortly. His eyes were stubborn, and I knew he was hiding something.

“Daniel,” I ordered, forcing him to look up. “You tell this doctor the truth right this second. I am not going to lose you because you’re a stubborn ass.”

“It’s nothing,” he insisted and dug in.

Dev got up and took charge of the room. I looked around and pretty much everyone we knew was there. Lee, Zack, and Neil stood at the end of the bed with Felix. Sarah sat on the end of the bed. Declan and several members of the royal guard were waiting by the door.

“Out,” Dev commanded. “Everyone who does not sleep in our bed needs to wait in the outer rooms. That includes you, Neil. I’m certain Zoey will tell you the tale before she shares it with anyone else. Go about your business. Sarah, you may stay, please.”

“Why does Sarah get to stay?” Neil never liked being out of the loop.

“Sarah is our group’s healer,” Dev explained. “Whatever the healer decides Sarah will have to administer. She needs to know what is going on.”

Sarah and Neil exchanged a long look, and I knew they had been talking about something. I just wished I knew what Sarah was thinking.

When the room had cleared out, Dev turned back to Daniel. “Everyone is gone. Sarah won’t mention it. I’m sure healers have an oath or something. Please tell us what’s going on.”

Daniel sat up and ran a frustrated hand through his hair. He looked flustered and a little emotional. It made me worried.

“Danny, please,” I practically begged.

“Okay, Z,” Daniel finally said. “But it’s not a big deal. It’s just been going on a little longer than I might have let on. I’ve been feeling…the only word for it is drained, I guess. I’ve felt that way for a week, maybe.”

“Wow.” Sarah shook her head, and she had those lines on her forehead she got when worried. “Z, how much did you eat today?”

I wasn’t sure how my daily caloric intake would help anything, but I thought about it. “Not much. I had a half a cookie but I just wasn’t hungry. Maybe it was the traveling, though I usually love road food. There’s no Dairy Queen here, so that might explain it.”

I liked Dairy Queen. My stomach rumbled at the thought of a nice-sized Blizzard. I hadn’t eaten much.

“What does Zoey’s appetite have to do with this?” Dev asked. “Please focus, girls.”