Steal the Day (39 page)

Sebastian continued to speak. “I have been asked to explain the nature of tonight’s exhibition. As you all know, our numbers fade with each passing decade. We were once an army of blood seekers, feared and worshipped as gods. We now must hide in the shadows as humanity has ravaged the Earth like a plague. Every vampire is precious, yet many choose to meet the dawn rather than walk the night in an aged body. We can no longer wait idly by for our brothers to rise. We must find them. We must turn them when they are strong. We must build our army once more. This is the task set by the Council for the
Nex Apparatus
. Tonight he has brought our first solider, discovered in the prime of his life and brought over successfully to walk the night.”

There was a gasp that went through the crowd as Chad was revealed. He looked much as he had that first night. He was disheveled and savage looking. He screamed and howled his rage as he tried to break out of his cage.

“He hasn’t fed for almost four days,” Dev whispered in my ear. “It was necessary to emulate his recent turn. This way they believe Daniel killed him, but did not feed Chad his blood. The Council will feed him their own ancient blood and treat him as a normal vampire.”

“What if their blood turns him?” I asked quietly.

“It won’t,” Dev said with a surety I certainly didn’t have.

Louis came forward, his large body moving with elegant authority. “You have exceeded our expectations, Daniel. He is a prime specimen. Can you do this again?”

Daniel bowed slightly, showing deference to the head of the Council. “I seek them nightly, sir. You’ll have your army. I’ll see to it.”

Louis waved his hand, and Chad was rolled out screaming and beating at the bars of his cage. I watched in complete horror, wondering what made Daniel think this could work. Chad was so far gone I doubted he even had a speck of Daniel’s blood left in him. He was wheeled straight by Dev, Neil, and me. I almost looked away, but I forced myself to memorize Chad’s face. He was just one more mistake we’d made.

Then amid his howling rage at the world that denied him blood, he looked down briefly and winked at me.

In an instant, he was all scary fangs and creepy eyes again, and I knew Daniel was right. Chad would be everything we needed him to be. He would fool them all.

As Chad was carried away, the head of the Council praised his assassin. “Mr. Donovan, all of vampire kind is in your debt. I would offer you gifts, but what I had planned to give you, I see you no longer need.” Louis glanced at Dev and me, smiling knowingly. “If I offered you your choice of the human lovers we brought with us tonight, you would turn me down, would you not?”

“I am content with the blood in my bed, sir,” Daniel admitted.

“As would we all be, Mr. Donovan,” Louis continued. “We will have to be content with congratulating you on a job well done and perhaps you will find a satisfactory sum in your accounts in the morning. For the rest of the night, we celebrate. Mr. Donovan, you have leave to enjoy your lovers. Please feel free to use the rooms. Anything the three of you require will be provided.”

Louis motioned once more and the band began playing again. The Council members moved forward and congratulated Daniel. Louis Marini started to walk my way, his destination plain.

Dev tensed behind me. He whispered directly in my ear. “I was hoping to avoid this. Zoey, he is probably going to bite you on the wrist. Just take it. He has the right. Please don’t fight it.”

Marini’s dark eyes seemed vaguely reptilian to me. “Mrs. Donovan, Your Highness,” he held out his hand, and I realized I was supposed to put mine in it.

I forced myself to move my arm, offering my wrist. Unlike the other high-ranking vampires I’d met who bent over and lightly kissed my wrist, Marini pulled it to his mouth. He let me see his fangs, and I felt a tiny sting as he penetrated the vein lightly, his tongue sweeping across my wrist to lick up the blood he’d drawn.

I looked up and saw that Marcus detained Daniel, making sure he didn’t note the exchange between myself and the head of the Council.

“You are exquisite, Mrs. Donovan,” Marini said with a sigh. “I have rarely tasted your like. My own companion pales in comparison.” He stared at Dev with a dark look in his eyes. “Your Highness, if you become bored with our assassin, please consider giving me a call. I find you quite stunning. I would offer the same to you, Mrs. Donovan, if it didn’t go against our laws. Perhaps someday it will not. I must admit, I find it rather distasteful that a six-year fledgling has the sweetest blood here, no matter what he can do.”

Marini walked away and it took everything I had not to pick a fight with that asshole.

Dev was right there in my ear, playing the savvy politician. “It won’t do Daniel any good. It would only get him killed, and we would probably be put in the vampire equivalent of a brothel, and I don’t want to go to a brothel. Well, not like that. If you’re interested, I could arrange a tour.”

“Stop it, Dev. We’re not going to a brothel.” I watched as Daniel made his way to us. I put the encounter with Marini out of my mind because I had a job to do. “It’s time to get serious.”

Taking my hand, Daniel placed a lingering kiss on my lips, and I enjoyed the brief, strong feel of him. For the longest time, Daniel had been the rock I clung to, and it was nice for a moment to be able to hang onto him again.

“Are you ready?” he asked.

I nodded and turned my lips up to Dev’s. He played his part and only slipped me the briefest of tongues. It was very subdued for him. Daniel led the way this time as we formed a little train making our way to the back of the ballroom. I could feel Lucas Halfer’s eyes on me the whole time.

The hallway that led to the privacy rooms was dark, and I wondered what was going on in those rooms. It was so quiet, I commented on it.

“The rooms have noise inhibiting magic on them,” Daniel answered. “Otherwise it could get quite loud.”

Demons aren’t known for being the tenderest of lovers. I realized there were also a lot of unattached vampires who brought their human lovers with them. The term lover, it should be noted, is one I use loosely. While some vampires might enjoy a human and treat them well, the truth is, most are used for sex and blood. When the vampire gets tired of the human, they’re passed around or simply vanish, never to be heard from again. I was certain whatever was going on in those rooms was probably loud, and I was grateful for whoever put the wards on the doors.

Daniel headed for the first available room, but I held him back. He turned and gave me a questioning look.

“I have to find the right room.” I wondered why Stewart had thought I would magically know which room he was in. I looked around, hoping he’d left a note or something. At the third door, I knew where that cheeky bastard was.

I stopped in front of the door numbered sixty-nine.

“Excellent,” Dev said as he opened the door and entered. “My lucky number.”

Stewart was sitting in a chair beside an enormous bed. “I thought you would like it, you naughty faery.”

After Neil was in, Daniel closed the door. “What the hell is he doing here?”

“He’s here to help.” The explanation sounded ridiculous to my own ears.

Dev threw his big body in the middle of the plush bed. He exhaled and looked at me with an invitation in his green eyes.

“Seriously?” I asked him. How could he think about that now?

“Help, Z? He’s here to fuck everything up.” Daniel pointed to Stewart, his head shaking in disapproval.

Dev gestured to some writing on the walls. The walls of the room were decorated with wards and spells, each drawn with what I seriously hoped wasn’t blood. Paint. Maybe demons liked paint. “Those are lust spells, sweetheart. Lust wards. I have no control over it. Can’t you feel it?”

Stewart was putting his two cents in. “I saved her when we were in Arkansas, Your Highness,” Stewart said to Daniel. “Ooops, are you undercover? Do you have a code name?”

“You didn’t save her. You were the reason she was in danger in the first place,” Daniel replied.

“Come on, Zoey, I don’t think I’ll be able to go through with this mission unless I give in to those spells. It’s really quite overwhelming.” Dev laid back, patting the bed beside him. “I’m so hard right now I can’t breathe.”

“Dude, we’re trying to deal with a demon,” Daniel pointed out, ignoring Stewart to complain at Dev. “How horny can you be?”

“Tell me you haven’t thought of what we could do to her? This is a big bed, man, and I bet those drawers over there are just full of toys we probably can’t get on the Earth plane. How many times can we make her come?” Dev asked. “You can’t feel that? Really? Listen, if you’re not interested, why don’t you deal with the demon, and I’ll do what I do best. I’ll handle Zoey.”

Stewart nearly bent over with laughter. “Those are very weak lust spells. They’re really only there for decorative purposes. His magic is all sex, isn’t it? Funny.”

Stewart stopped, and I could tell he was thinking. I didn’t like it when Stewart thought.

“Daniel, he’s the only one who can get us through the right door.” I hoped Stewart would follow me and leave Dev alone. Once I got him out of this room, he would go back to normal, which for Dev was still sex obsessed but not spell struck. “He’s helping us because it hurts Halfer.”

“He really is a sex god,” Stewart said thoughtfully, looking at Dev who had grabbed my hand and was starting to suck on my fingers. “You would think an actual sex god would be interested in the very beautiful bodies in the room. I mean, this meat I’m in gets paid millions for his body. The king over there is terribly hot in a dark, violent way, and don’t forget my poor little zombie puppy. God, just looking at him makes my mouth water. Yet our Green Man only has eyes for the girl.”

Daniel exhaled a frustrated breath as Dev started to tell me all the things we still hadn’t done. He jumped up and put a quick fist through the charm on the wall that controlled the lust level.

Dev stopped and shook off his previous haze. “Thanks. Umm, I guess the underworld has found my weakness. I tried so hard to hide it.”

Stewart just kept talking. “Even the girl here has thoughts about her own sex. Yes, I can pull out that little fantasy about Angelina Jolie. I can make that happen, Zoey. My point is one as dedicated to sexual pleasure as the faery should be into all kinds of things, not just boring heterosexuality.”

“I’m a fertility god,” Dev responded, his tone flatly stating he wanted out of this conversation. He hopped off the bed and straightened his clothes. “You aren’t fertile, so I’m not interested.”

Stewart’s face spread into that Cheshire cat grin he got when he wriggled something out of your mind you didn’t want him to. “Poor little mortal. That must have really hurt to so set you off men, as deviant as you are.”

Dev turned on the demon. “Stay the fuck out of my head.”

“Leave him alone,” I told Stewart.

Stewart shrugged. “All right, but I warn you it might come up later.” Stewart turned happily back to Daniel. “Now, Your Highness, I have a few suggestions. I’m more than willing to help your queen and her…what should we call him? Assistant? Social secretary? Official royal fuck buddy? Never mind, we can come up with some suitable title later. The point is, I’m willing to give her everything she needs to make her way through the plane. I’m giving her the key to the bloody city here. I promise she’ll get there, do her job, and come back in one piece. All I ask is a few minutes of your time.”

Daniel rolled his eyes and looked at me. “You’re really going to leave me here with him?”

“I’ve done everything you asked of me tonight,” I said quietly. “I kept my mouth shut as you and Dev played me like your little pawn. Yeah, I’m going to leave you here with him.”

Daniel put his hands up in defeat.

Stewart clapped and opened a bag that had been sitting on the dresser. “All right, companion, I have a few exciting items to make your stay on our plane a little more survivable. This is a little charm that will keep demons from seeing you though you shouldn’t really worry about it until you get to Brix’s. Hell is vast and we don’t really mull about in it, you know. You should be able to use your little prize quite easily until you find the palace.” He passed the items to Dev and me and handed me a small key and a glass ball. “This will get you into Brix’s little pleasure palace, and when you open the door, smash the globe so any assistants he has in there will sleep for a while. It only works on demons, so your friend will be fine.”

Daniel crossed his arms over his chest. “Why don’t you just lead the way, Stewart? If you led the way, I could go with her and she wouldn’t have to rely on that amulet.”

Stewart shook his head. “Oh, no, I can’t get caught with my hands in the cookie jar. They actually cut them off if they catch you. The horrible part is the itching when they grow back. It’s really terrible. Don’t worry about it, Zoey. If they cut your hands off, you’ll just bleed out and die.”

“I feel so much better,” I said sarcastically. “Could you please get the door? We can’t be gone forever.”

Stewart held a hand up to the wall and a door appeared. He looked at me and the smile was gone. “You’ve been here, companion. You know how personal this can get. You know that it isn’t a land as you would know it. It’s something more, something personal. Don’t get lost in memory. Follow the amulet. Ignore what goes on around you.” Dev stepped toward the door, ready to go in behind me. Stewart turned to my lover. “Whatever you do, try not to think about it, Green Man. Think about something other than what they did to you. Otherwise, you might walk straight into it all over again. I wonder how she’ll feel about her paragon of masculine sexuality when she sees you like that. Don’t you?”

Dev’s face clenched as he tried to ignore the demon.

I took his hand. “Devinshea, there is nothing I could see that would make me turn from you.”

“That might be the most naïve thing I’ve ever heard you say, lover,” Dev said bitterly. He opened the door. “Let’s get this over with.”

I held his hand and walked into his nightmare.