Steal the Light (Thieves) (17 page)

The door to the study swung open, and Dev walked in. He looked perfect in his dark suit and sunglasses. He pulled the aviators off his face and looked straight into me with his unnaturally green eyes. They seemed to glow with some inner fire, and for a moment, I was lost in them. If I’d thought that last night was just the aftereffects of his spell, I was wrong because I felt his pull and knew it had nothing to do with magic and everything to do with him.

He strode to the center of the room and stood before me. I was acutely aware of the state of my person. I was still wearing the dress I wore the night before, stained and ripped and wrinkled. I’d washed off my makeup, but had failed to apply more. And then there was the arrowroot concoction I could still feel clinging to me. I looked ridiculous, and he was a god. I wanted to hide, but there was nowhere to go.

“I need you to tell me the truth, Zoey.” His voice was raw. He looked through me like the answer I gave him would determine our relationship. “Let me warn you, I will know if you’re lying. Are you planning to steal a faery object?”

My heart started to beat quickly. I wanted to lie. I didn’t want him to look at me with contempt and anger. I wanted him to like me, maybe love me. I felt tears pooling, but they had nothing to do with anger and everything to do with regret as I answered. “Yes.”

“Good,” he said, his voice hard and bitter. “I want in.”

Chapter Eleven

Two hours later, Dev entered the kitchen with a hesitancy that told me he wasn’t certain of his welcome.

He stopped a few feet away, his hand on the counter. “You won’t regret letting me in, Zoey.”

He was right to be concerned. I wasn’t particularly happy to see him. I also wasn’t particularly surprised. He’d let me know that he wasn’t going anywhere until I acquiesced to his demands. I have to admit I had a couple of little fantasies the night before where he tied me up until I gave him what he wanted, but not once had what he wanted been a career in crime. I tried to explain the problem to him, but he wouldn’t listen. No amount of tough talk would get through to him. It appeared this situation rubbed some raw wound in Dev, and he wouldn’t listen to reason.

And he wouldn’t give me that name without my agreement.

“Oh, I already regret it.” I turned my attention back to the herbs I was cutting. Sarah had left with an exuberant Christine to pick up some things we were going to need, and she’d stuck me with busy work. Now that we knew the name, we could call the demon. Apparently herbs were involved. “It’s not like you left me much of a choice.”

He hadn’t left me any choice at all. With the money gone, my one and only option was to push through and do the job.

In order to do the job, I needed to talk to Halfer. I could have tried calling the number he’d left again, but if he picked up this time, he would have a decisive upper hand. I needed his true name, and I needed to call him to me. It wouldn’t make him any less dangerous, and it was likely to make him royally pissed, but it was the only way I would have any real idea of what I was dealing with.

To know a demon’s true name is a powerful and dangerous thing. It’s powerful because the person who knows the demon’s name has a certain, though limited, amount of power over the demon. With a demon’s true name, a person can call the demon and the demon is forced to take that meeting. The demon can’t claim prior engagements or call in sick. He or she simply gets pulled into the spell if it’s cast properly. Upon finding himself suddenly in a protective circle not of his choosing, the demon promptly discovers he’s become some human’s bitch. That’s the powerful part. The dangerous part is when the demon breaks the circle, and the demon always, always, always breaks the circle. It might take a while, but the longer it takes, the more the demon wants to punish whoever called him.

The key to calling a demon is to not get carried away with the powerful part. My quest was to get information out of him, not to make him my attack dog. He was a businessman, and as long as I treated him with a proper amount of respect, I believed I was going to come out of this with my body parts still attached. I was thinking of it as an impromptu business meeting.

But I couldn’t get this meeting on the schedule without the proper name. Albert had come through, but he had chosen to give his boss a powerful bargaining chip, and I caved. It didn’t make me happy, though. Dev could force his way on to my crew, but he couldn’t make me like it.

He smiled a slow, sexy smile that spread across his face like a blanket of charm. I tried to not let my insides go all warm and gushy at the sight of that smile. “I know you have your doubts, but I promise to follow orders. You’ll find me a good soldier.”

I set the knife down and turned to him. “Which just points out what you don’t know. There is nothing at all military about my crew. I picked them because they can think for themselves. In the field, you have to be able to think and change the plan. There’s a great deal of creativity that goes into an enterprise of this nature. This isn’t war, Dev. It’s an art form that takes years to perfect.”

“See, I’m already learning.” He leaned against the counter and looked at me seriously. “I’m not without my talents, you know. I’ve been on my own for a long time. I know how to survive. I think you’ll find me a quick learner. I can be valuable to you, Zoey.”

There was something in the way he said “I can be valuable” that made me think I wasn’t the one he was trying to convince. I thought about what I’d learned about Dev. It must have been hard to be an outsider in such an insular world. In the human world, if a kid didn’t fit in with his family, he usually found some group of kids he did fit with. There was always some outcast who understood his pain. It hadn’t been like that for Dev. He was a mortal in a world of the eternal. His mortality was anathema to his peers. He would have no value to his family. He would have no way to prove that he was worthy.

I turned back to my work because I thought the last thing he would want to see in my face was pity. Men have a thing about that particular emotion that women don’t. Women know that there’s something comfortable in the eliciting of sympathy. We complain to our girlfriends about everything from a boyfriend’s flaws to uncomfortable shoes, and when they pity us, they share our burdens. Men don’t see it that way. They just see the weakness, so I turned away.

“We’ll see.” I applied the knife to some sort of smelly green herb.

There was more than one reason that I didn’t want Dev involved in my professional life. Beyond the fact that he was a complete novice and therefore a liability, there was the simple truth that I wanted him for myself. I wanted to explore what we’d started the night before. It was uncharted territory, and I really wanted to map it. He hadn’t even kissed me yet, and I really wanted him to kiss me. I was the novice when it came to relationships, and I was more than willing to follow his lead.

But if he worked with me, then I had to change gears and view him as something else. I had to be professional. I had to be his boss.

I had to review the facts and be as honest with myself as possible. I’d never dated anyone but Daniel. I’d had one relationship, and it had been a deep and loving one. I didn’t know how to do casual. The night before I felt a real connection with Dev. Maybe it had been one way. Maybe he hadn’t felt that connection, or it hadn’t been important to him. He was willing to throw it away to pursue some sort of revenge.

“I’m really glad I’m not thyme right now,” he said, watching me pulverize the herbs.

“Why don’t you go and see if you can help Neil.” I needed to think, and it would be so much easier if he was in another room. This close to me, I could feel his warmth and smell the soap he used, and it made me want to press myself into him. It had been so long since I’d had the solace of another body against mine that the loss of the possibility made me want to cry.

“No, I think I need to be right here doing some serious damage control.” His voice was breathy. He reached out and laid his big hand across my arm, stopping my motion. “Zoey, please tell me why you’re crying.”

I hadn’t realized I was, but now I felt the tears brush my cheeks as they journeyed down my face. “I…it’s just been a rough day.”

“And I made it so much worse.” He let his hand slide up my arm in a comforting fashion. There was nothing overtly sexual about his movement, but my skin was singing everywhere he touched.

I pulled back abruptly because I knew if I let it go, I wouldn’t be able to pull back later. I needed that touch. I needed someone to want me, but now it couldn’t be him. He was part of the crew, and there were good reasons to not get sexually involved with members of your crew. “Stop, Dev. If you wanted to date me, you should have stayed out of the business part of my life. We need to keep this professional.”

His laugh was deep and rich and infectious. “Oh, Zoey, there is absolutely nothing professional about the way I feel about you. I want to be with you in every way possible and part of that is being in your world. Don’t get me wrong. I have other reasons for wanting to do this particular job, and one day I promise I will explain, but don’t doubt that I have every intention of being with you.”

“That’s a problem, Dev. I don’t have romantic relationships with people I work with,” I stated as flatly as possible.

He just stared at me.

“I’m not with Daniel. I haven’t been with Daniel for many years. Our relationship was over years before I started to work with him.”

“But you have feelings for him,” Dev pointed out needlessly.

Feelings didn’t begin to cover it. “Of course. We were going to get married. I loved him. I love him. I can’t stop, but we’re not together. There are…complications.”

“He’s a vampire with a chip on his shoulder, and you’ve been too stubborn to let go.” Dev summed up the situation neatly. “Last night after the cleanup, I did a little research. I know all about it, but I’m willing to take the chance. If I thought you could be happy with him, I wouldn’t stand in the way, but I don’t think he’s going to change. It goes against the nature of vampires. You wouldn’t be content in that world. I think I can provide you with a happy alternative. I don’t know what’s been wrong with the guys you’ve dated since Daniel left you, but you should know that I don’t intend to follow the pattern, whatever it is.”

I stared at the thyme lying there on the cutting board and hoped he would move on. He didn’t.

“There have been other men?” Incredulity crept into his voice.

My silence was my answer.

“Zoey.” Dev gently cupped my chin and turned me toward him. I felt so naked and naïve in that moment. I wished I could run, but my pride forced me to stay. “How many men have you been with, sweetheart?”

I was twenty-five years old. It was ridiculous, but I had only one answer, and it was a true one. There had been no high school fumblings behind the bleachers, no college experimentation. There had been only Daniel. I’d given myself in love and longing, and he was gone from me as surely as if he was dead. I couldn’t stop the tears, and I wished in that moment that I could claim a hundred lovers. “One.”

Dev smiled softly, but he was so serious that I knew he was handling me with care. He gently brushed away my tears and came close to me. “Know this, Zoey Wharton, I will take care of you. I have every intention of having you, and when I say have, I mean fuck, but in the sweetest way possible. I will fuck you and love you and after, I will hold you. You won’t regret letting me have you, sweetheart. I will make sure you are satisfied in and out of our bed. I vow this.”

It was as serious a promise as a Fae could make. “Are you always this way with your lovers?”

His chuckle was rich with amusement. “No, I don’t normally pledge my devotion before I’ve even kissed a girl. You’re different. Most of my lovers want my body. They want simple pleasure and kindness and maybe a gift or two. But you need more. You need commitment before pleasure, and if that’s what you need, then I’ll give it to you. I want you, Zoey. I don’t think you understand how much.”

I took a deep, steadying breath. I wasn’t sure I could believe him, but I wanted to. He was close now, and I could feel the heat coming off his body. My heart started to pound with anticipation, and I really wished I had been able to put on some makeup. I’d found a pair of jeans and a tank top I kept in my old room, but there was no makeup to be found, not even a tube of lip gloss.

“It’s too soon.” My voice was barely above a whisper as I let my eyes take him in. God, he was beautiful. It was a masculine beauty, but there was no other word for it. His eyes were sensual and greener than any mere human’s. His dark hair was thick and slightly unruly. Last night it had been perfect, but this afternoon it looked lived in. I preferred the more casual Dev. And those lips…

I looked down to avoid staring at them. I was barefoot. I barely came to the middle of his chest without heels. He took my arms in his hands. I shivered slightly, but it had nothing to do with cold. He pulled me into the cradle of his body and held me there.

“I think you’re wrong,” he murmured. “I think it’s the perfect time, Zoey.”