Steal the Night (32 page)

“Stay close,” he said in a too-loud voice.

Daniel was just crawling from the small but substantial crater his body had created. I watched as one clawed hand dug into the earth and then a black boot came over the edge. Daniel swung himself up and appeared none the worse for the wear. He brushed dirt off his leather jacket and his eyes immediately sought us out.

Dev gave Daniel a thumbs-up as he held my hand and led me around the bodies of the soldiers on the ground. The humans hadn’t been prepared for Daniel’s play. They were alive, but some were unconscious and the ones closest to the impact had their eardrums completely shattered. Dev had his SIG Sauer out ready to shoot anything that started to move toward us. He wasn’t in a good mood, and I got the feeling he was more than willing to use that gun in his hand at the first sign of a threat. I felt Lee at my back and his gun was out as well.

There was shattered glass all over the place, and I could see that one of the buildings had slightly caved in on itself. The soldiers who had previously been targeting me from the roof were lying in the grass.

Daniel walked through the wreckage, seeking his target. He used the toe of his boot to turn over the soldiers on the ground, but didn’t see the face he was looking for. Some of the soldiers were starting to stumble to their feet, but they were still disoriented and not at all ready to fight it out.

Daniel finally located Ronald, who was struggling to get to his feet. The thud of a helicopter filled the world. The helicopter moved quickly and it didn’t wait to land. The men began to come off the chopper, dropping to the ground from ropes secured to the aircraft. They hit the ground and ignored the devastation around them. They were professionals and immediately locked onto us.

“Drop your weapons!” they yelled, walking aggressively toward us.

Daniel hauled Ronald up by the nape of his flak jacket. He’d been far enough from the epicenter that his eardrums seemed intact, but he was dazed as the vampire pulled him to his feet.

“Get back,” Daniel warned in a growl as he used the Order’s leader as a human shield. He moved toward us and shoved Ronald’s body at Dev. “Take off his head if they shoot at us.”

“With pleasure,” Dev replied, his voice sounding more normal. The vampire blood in his system was already working to heal the wounded tissue in his ears. He held Ronald close to his body, an arm under his neck, and pressed that SIG Sauer into his temple with a certain amount of malicious glee. “How do you like being used as a human shield, Ronald? Did you think for a minute we would let you get away with pointing a fucking gun at our wife’s head?”

“Dev, we’ll gut him later, man. For now, we need him alive.” Daniel turned out to be the unlikely voice of reason.

I was stuck between Lee and Neil as we watched the soldiers from the helicopter advance on us. Daniel moved to the front of the party and I got nauseous at the thought of what could happen. He was making himself an enormous target, and they really did have silver bullets.

“You can’t win,” Ronald said. “They’ve already sent for more reinforcements. We’ll have you surrounded and this time we’ll have air support. The minute the vampire takes off, we’ll see if he can handle a surface-to-air missile. There’s nowhere to run, Mr. Donovan.”

“We’ll come up with something,” Dev swore.

Daniel didn’t look so sure. Ronald was taking advantage of his obvious discomfort.

“You’ll probably survive, vampire, but your companion will likely not,” Ronald said reasonably. “I can assure you that Mr. Quinn won’t survive. He’ll go down in a hail of bullets. Do you want to be responsible for the deaths of the two people you supposedly love, Mr. Donovan?”

The whole time he was talking, more and more guns were trained on us. More and more soldiers surrounded us.

“Shut up, Ronald,” Dev said, his voice a harsh grind. He pushed the gun in tight against the man’s skull. “Daniel will get us out of this and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

“I will get us out of this, Devinshea,” Danny promised. He looked over at me, his face grave. He stared for a moment and then turned his blue eyes back to Ronald. “You will allow Devinshea to leave with my companion and there will be no reprisals. He’ll take her to a
sithein
.”

“Daniel.” Dev shook his head.

“No,” I shouted. I was pretty sure he wasn’t going with us, and I wasn’t leaving him behind.

Daniel didn’t look at me. He focused every ounce of his will on Dev. “Dev, you promised me. You promised me you would take her kicking and screaming if you had to. Ronald is right. I might be able to get away, but I could never live with the cost. Fighting Marini was dependent on getting what we needed from Merlin. That’s not going to happen. The time has come to cut and run.”

Dev cursed but his shoulders slumped in defeat.

I stepped forward even as we were completely surrounded. They formed a circle around us. “Do I get a say in any of this?”

“No, baby,” Daniel said sadly. “None of us gets a say. Will you think about it, please? If you stay and fight, Dev and I will die to protect you and so will Lee and Neil and Zack. If you go to the
sithein
, then they live.”

I squeezed my eyes shut at the unfairness of it all. Daniel knew where to stick the knife in.

“You’ll allow my companion and partner to go? I’ll submit to the chains and the coffin and I’ll submit to whatever punishment the Order has for them, but I will be the only one punished,” Daniel offered.

“Mr. Quinn isn’t allowed to come back to this plane.” Ronald gave his own amendment. “If we get the slightest hint that he’s returned, all of our bets are off and we will hunt your companion down.”

Daniel nodded. “They’ll live in exile.”

“I agree then.” Ronald made his deal. “To show I’m a fair man, I’ll allow the wolves to go as well.”

Zack laid his gun down, bringing his hands up. “I’m staying with my master.”

“Zack, you will go,” Daniel commanded.

For the first time since he became Daniel’s servant, Zack shook his head at him. “In this, I cannot obey you, master.”

Daniel nodded and my love for Zack shot straight through the roof. Daniel held his hands in the air. “Devinshea, let him go. It’s time.”

“Damn it,” Dev cursed as he let Ronald go. When he turned to me, I could see the raw emotion on his face. He hated what he was doing. He wanted to stand and fight, but he’d made a solemn vow and would never break his word to Daniel. He walked back and took my hand. His face was set. “Come along, my goddess.”

I tried to pull away, panic starting to take over. “We can’t leave him here, Dev.”

Dev shook his head. His face was pale, his eyes older than before. “We have to. I meant what I said, wife. Kicking and screaming if necessary. Lee? Neil?”

“I’ll come with you,” my wolf vowed and I couldn’t imagine how hard it would be leaving his brother behind.

“I’ll go for now,” Neil said, but he had commitments to his lover, too.

I was shaking as I looked back at Daniel. His face in the morning light was so beautiful as he stared at me. “I love you, Z. Always have, always will. You and Dev go make those babies.”

I started to cry as Dev led me away. I turned as Ronald demanded Daniel disarm. There were two men walking forward with long, thick strings of silver rope that would hold my husband and burn into his flesh.

“Mr. Donovan,” Ronald’s voice was all business again. “I see the sword on your back. Carefully take it out and set it on the ground.”

Dev cursed again and I heard him sigh because I wasn’t complying. I wanted to get to Daniel. Dev swept me up into his arms and started to walk away. I couldn’t stand it. We would get on a boat that would take us to Scotland and I wouldn’t see Danny again. I wouldn’t see my home plane again. I might have those babies, but they would never know their other father who would have loved them so much. I struggled in Dev’s arms to try to get one last look at Danny as his hand pulled Excalibur from its sheath and the sword glittered in the morning light.

“Oh my god,” I heard Ronald swear.

Everything seemed to still as Daniel held that sword and then one by one every soldier in the area dropped to one knee, head down, right fist over their hearts.

“Dev, stop. You have to stop.” I practically screamed at him because something was happening. Something amazing.

“You should stop, Quinn.” Lee had turned, his eyes taking in the scene. Neil stood beside him.

“What?” Dev asked, turning to take in the scene. He set me to my feet as we heard Ronald’s reverent voice.

“My liege, the Order of Galahad is yours to command.”

Chapter Twenty

“Is the coffee to your liking, Your Highness?” the soldier asked. “I could try to find some cream if you like or perhaps some sugar?”

It was surreal. One minute Dev was hauling my ass to another plane because we’d worn out our welcome on this one, the next minute we were being given the freaking keys to the kingdom. It had been an hour since that dramatic scene had played out and our whole world had changed.

“Black is fine, thank you.” I was lucky they’d been able to find coffee at all. “If you wouldn’t mind seeing to the needs of my guards?”

“It would be my honor, ma’am.” He scurried off to look through the rations the soldiers had been carrying.

I sat back, taking in everything that had happened. Daniel stared intently at all the action moving around him. After Excalibur had been drawn, everything moved very quickly. The soldiers had lain down their weapons and sworn fealty to the very surprised new head of the Order of Galahad. We’d been escorted into one of the buildings that had survived Daniel’s crash down and the highly efficient soldiers quickly set up a command post and did their best to make the king feel comfortable. I reached across the table we were sitting at and placed my hand over his. He glanced up and a brief smile touched his lips.

“You should be thrilled,” I said quietly.

He sighed. “Baby, there was a part of me that was relieved when I thought it was over. You and Dev would have been safe.”

I frowned at him. “Well, suck it up, Your Highness. Fate isn’t letting you out of this so easily.”

He shook his head and refused to let go of my hand. “Don’t be pissed at me. I’m adjusting.”

The door opened and Dev walked in, looking nothing like the reckless man who had wanted to take on everyone on the island not so long ago. He’d cleaned up and was polished and in control once more. “I found someone with proper skills. He believes he can make a fairly decent Eggs Benedict from what he found in the rations and got from some of the locals. There’s a shower in a small room on the second floor some of the ferry captains use when they get stuck on the island. It’s worse than a motel but it will have to do.”

“I’m sure we’ll survive, Devinshea,” Daniel murmured, slightly amused at Dev’s distaste. “We’ve slept in worse places.”

Dev agreed. “The soldiers are bringing in Nim and the other one, but the giant ass who tried to kill our wife wants a word with you before I execute him.”

Daniel laughed outright at that one. “Please send him in, Dev. I would hate to refuse the final request of a condemned man.”

Dev walked back out to bring Ronald James in and I turned on my husband. “You are not going to execute that man.”

Daniel grinned, sitting back in his chair, looking every bit the king. “I’m not, baby. Dev is going to. Really, you should take it up with him.”

“Oh, I will.”

Dev hauled Ronald in, dragging the poor man by the front of his flak jacket. “Say whatever you need to say to the king, Ronald, and then get ready to kiss your ass good-bye.”

I stood and Dev got a stubborn expression on his face. “You aren’t killing him, Dev.”

“Oh, yes I am, my goddess.” He walked around the table to go toe to toe with me. Though he towered over me, I felt not a bit intimidated. “You aren’t talking me out of it this time. He almost got you killed and he felt no remorse about potentially blowing you away.”

“Yes, I did,” Ronald interjected. “I believe I said at the time I regretted the need.”

“You shut up,” Dev spat before looking back at me. He traced the line of my jaw with his thumb and I felt a hint of warm magic pulse along my skin. “Besides, I have Bris back. I don’t think you’ll be cutting us off any time soon and if you try, I’ll persuade you otherwise.”

I took a step back. “I promise you, Dev, if I decide to cut you off nothing you or Bris do will sway me, and you’re forgetting something very important in all of this. We need him.”

“Give me one reason we need this asshole.”

Daniel took that one. “How about the fact that we just acquired an army located on the very continent where we have to fight Marini and a good portion of the Council? Did it occur to you that a show of force against Marini might get us out of this war with minimal bloodshed? It would make us look less like barbarians to our new army if we don’t immediately execute their leader.”

Dev huffed and shook his head before dropping my hand and taking his place at Daniel’s left-hand side. He sank into his chair, a sullen pout on his lips.

“And don’t you think about going behind my back,” I warned husband number two as I sat at Daniel’s right. “You will not be arranging a handy accident, is that understood?”