Steal the Night (45 page)

“Run, Dev,” Daniel ordered.

Dev was on his feet and running for me, but Marini was behind him and he was now just as fast as Daniel. He caught my faery prince and tossed him aside like a child’s toy. Dev hit the ground an impossible distance away and he stayed down. Just like Daniel, he wasn’t anywhere close to full strength and he didn’t have Bris to call on.

But Marini was at full strength, a king’s strength. He stared at Daniel, a predator stalking his prey. Daniel was stark white in the moonlight, his energy obviously expended. Despite Daniel’s efforts, the vampires still heavily outnumbered us. Marini approached Daniel, and Zack was at Danny’s back.

“Come along, Daniel. This will all be over within a few hours,” Marini promised.

Daniel stared at me, his face a mask of agony. I shook my head. He had to let me go. He had to live to fight another day. If he allowed them to take him to Paris, he was dead and everything crumbled.

“You’ll let me take Dev?” I asked, hoping and praying Dev was still alive.

Louis turned. “Yes.”

I tried my nonchalant shrug. “Then let’s go, Louis. I’m tired and I need a bath. Please collect the prince and don’t put me anywhere near the traitor. You have to know I didn’t understand what Daniel was doing until a few days ago. He dragged me and Dev into this. We aren’t disloyal, Louis.”

I needed him to trust me and that meant I had to betray Daniel.

Daniel’s eyes flared and he growled my way. He had a part to play. “You bitch. Do you remember what I promised would happen if you did this to me?”

I nodded through my tears. He hadn’t promised me anything about this particular situation, but he had made me a promise. He would always come for me. Always. He would always love me no matter what happened. I would always be his.

Daniel was saying good-bye for now. He was going to run. He was honoring me by trusting me to survive, but he would come for me when he was strong enough.

“Take the traitor,” Louis ordered.

There was a report of gunfire and Lee covered me quickly, taking us both to the ground. When he let me up, I could see that both Zack and Danny had been hit. Daniel was bleeding, his chest covered in it. Zack had fared better. Of course, he also hadn’t recently had his heart ripped out of his chest.

“Zack, you get your master out of here,” Lee ordered.

“But…” I heard in his voice he didn’t want to leave his brother behind, but Daniel was still and unmoving as Marini reached down for him.

“Now, Zack,” Lee ordered in best badass alpha voice.

Zack threw the Mantle of Arthur over his body as he covered his master. In a flash both disappeared.

“Où sont-ils partis?”
Louis asked, searching the ground. He was enraged that his prey was getting away.
“Trouvez-les!”

I didn’t need a translator for that one. Every vampire in the area started looking for Daniel. Lee changed quickly and then his massive roar filled the night. He was giving Zack a chance to get Daniel out. He howled as every vampire turned to him, noting the new biggest threat against them.

I took the chance to run back and get to Dev. The ground beneath me seemed to shift as I ran through the grass to get close to him. I prayed Zack was getting Daniel as far away as possible. My heart stopped as I saw Dev’s body on the ground. He lay face down in the grass. I hit my knees and touched his back, praying for the rise and fall of his chest. It was there and it was steady enough. Now I just needed to convince Lee to run and everything would be fine. Well, everything would be completely fucked, but Louis would be satisfied with me. He would be too busy trying to find Daniel, and Lee could slip away.

I leaned over and kissed my faery prince. He stirred and turned his face to look up at me. “Zoey?”

“It’s all right, baby,” I said soothingly. “Daniel got away. We’re going to have to…”

“Go with Marini,” Dev finished. He pushed himself up but it was a struggle. “Zoey…” I read the fear in his eyes. He knew what Marini would want.

“Don’t you do anything that could get you killed. I already set the stage,” I said as I stood up.

I heard the loud sound of a lot of guns going off at once, and my head turned to where I’d left Lee. I could only see what was happening in the shadows the moonlight cast on the ground. There was a great dark figure in the middle of smaller ones. The wolf fought so valiantly, but he was alone and there were so many vampires. They were taking their rage out on my wolf. Complete terror took over and I knew I had to get to him. I had to stop them before it was too late.

I started to run even as Dev yelled for me to stop. I ran as fast as I could because he was alone and he didn’t want to be alone, not really. He never had. It was a perverse kink of his nature that led him to solitude, but he wanted to be loved. He deserved to be loved.

I ran as fast as my legs would carry me because those gunshots wouldn’t stop. The wolf howled and lashed out but the vampires didn’t fight fair. They surrounded my wolf and shot at him from every angle. I watched in horror as his body twitched one way and then another, as though the hail of bullets wouldn’t let him fall to the ground, wouldn’t allow him respite from the pain.

“Arrêtez!”
I heard Louis screaming as I ran straight for my wolf, not thinking about the fact that the vampires were still shooting.

Dev screamed his own warnings behind me, but I was only thinking about getting to Lee. The vampires ceased shooting and the night was quiet. I only stopped when I really looked at him. Then it took everything I had not to run from what they had done to my bodyguard, my protector, my friend.

His body was covered in blood. There wasn’t an inch of him that hadn’t taken some kind of damage. I moved forward and fell to my knees, trying to figure out which part of him to cover. I needed to stop the bleeding. It was happening far too fast, and it was coming from everywhere.

“
Chère
, it’s too much,” Louis said from above me. “The bullets were silver, every one of them.”

I heard Dev struggling behind me, trying to get to us, but the vampires held him back.

“You may let the prince go,” Louis said imperiously. “I think he will behave himself now.”

“Oh, goddess,” Dev breathed.

“Please, you can save him,” I begged, holding onto the leg of Louis’s pants. I beseeched him. “He needs blood.”

The air beneath me spun as Lee’s body changed.

“Won’t work, darlin’,” he said and even as he spoke he was spitting blood.

The damage had looked bad on his wolf body, but it was devastating to see it on his human form. Blood seeped from every hole, and they were everywhere. The poisonous metal had entered his bloodstream in so many places. His chest was a mottled mess.

“Please,” I said, looking down at my wolf. He was pledged to me. He was mine, and he was dying. “Please take the blood, Lee. I need you.”

He smiled sadly. He was a realistic man. “They can’t let me live, Zoey. I can’t let them take you. If they brought me back, I’d just try to kill them all over again.”

“No,” I said through the tears that were running wildly down my cheeks. The world seemed so quiet now. It had been so loud before and now it seemed to narrow to just me and Lee. I knew Dev was there and the vampires looked on, but they didn’t seem to matter much right now. I reached for Lee’s hand, holding it. “You can just run. I’ll be fine, Lee.”

He coughed and it was a wet, ugly sound. “I could never run.”

“You could be free.” I was willing to promise him anything if he would live. “You could just run and you wouldn’t have to look back. You always wanted to roam. You could roam. Zack is safe with Danny, and Dev will take care of me. You just run.”

“Ah, darlin’,” Lee said with a little smile. He managed to make his arm move and his free hand cupped my cheek lovingly. “I’d never leave you. I’d never leave Zack. I love you. I never loved anything but the two of you. It was enough, Zoey. It was enough.”

“I love you,” I cried, pulling his head into my lap. I cried shamelessly and smoothed back his curly hair.

“Devinshea,” Lee growled but his voice was getting weaker and Dev had to lean in.

“Yes, Lee.” Dev was quiet and solemn.

“You take care of her,” the wolf said.

“I promise,” Dev replied. “And Lee, thank you. For everything. We couldn’t have asked for more.”

In the dim light, I could see Lee fading, his energy, his life force waning. “Take care of Zack, Zoey.”

I nodded and felt his chest heave as he tried to breathe. “I will. He’s my brother now.”

His chest rose and fell with a rattle. A great smile came across my wolf’s face, as though he had seen something amazing. He stared past me and his voice was filled with wonder. “Now, that’s something I didn’t expect…”

The light went out of his brown eyes and Lee was gone.

I held him to me but there was nothing left and I could feel it. It was just a body in my hands. Whatever spark had been Lee was lost to me now.

“Prince, I need you to bring Zoey.” Louis was talking but it seemed distant as I cried out my grief. “We must leave now. You’ll be permitted to come with us if you promise to behave. If you step out of line I will be forced to kill you, and I don’t think Zoey can handle any more grief today.”

“I just want to be with her,” Dev said. “You’ll find me very helpful, I promise. I can help her transition if you let me.”

“Bring her, then,” Marini said. “You will be left alone in the boat until we reach France and then the new rules go into effect. You have until then to get her under control. This isn’t how I wanted the evening to go.
Allons-y
.”

Dev pulled me up and I felt boneless as he hoisted me into his arms. He gathered me close and I could feel his shock at the events of the last few minutes. He rested my head on his shoulder and I glanced back.

Lee’s body was still there. It wouldn’t rise again. He wouldn’t growl at me and tell me not to pet him. Neil was gone, dragged somewhere by a demon we never should have trusted in the first place. Daniel and Zack were on the run, and I didn’t know how badly Danny was hurt. I hadn’t even gotten to tell him good-bye.

Dev carried me onto the vampire’s boat. As the boat pulled from the dock, I heard the thud of a helicopter in the distance. Dev’s message had gotten to Sir Ronald, but it was far too late for any of us.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Dev held me tightly against him as we heard the lock click into place. There would be two guards on the door should I try to pick the lock. We’d been escorted to the boat and then forced to climb down a small ladder to get to the locked room that would be our quarters for the trip to France. We’d been told to expect that we wouldn’t make our destination before morning and then we would be in lockdown while the vampires slept. There were several large human slaves willing to do their master’s bidding, so Dev settled on the narrow cot and held me close.

I just cried for the longest time. I cried while we entered the boat and I cried while Louis explained to Dev that I was his to take care of for the night. We could stay together until we reached the Paris stronghold. After that, Louis would decide when and where and how we could be together. I cried when Louis locked the door behind him after destroying both of our cell phones so there was no way Daniel could track us. Dev held me, saying nothing beyond how sorry he was. I cried until I fell into a fitful sort of sleep in Dev’s arms. When I woke up, Dev was still awake. He was staring into space, but I could see his mind was working.

“Can we?” I gestured to my mouth, silently asking him if it was all right to talk. I didn’t know if the room was secure.

“No bugs,” Dev said. “And the guard on the door changed about an hour ago. I think it’s day, so no vampire ears.”

“Do you think Danny’s all right?” I asked, my voice hoarse.

Dev looked down, his eyes tender. “Yes, my wife, I believe he is. I believe that Zack got him away, and the Order will find them. They’ll take him to headquarters and he will heal. When he’s strong enough, he’ll come for us.”

“Neil?” I could still see him being dragged away. God, I might never be able to get the horror of the night out of my head.

“I don’t know, Zoey,” Dev answered, his forehead furrowing with worry. “He’s very clever and he has skills Stewart doesn’t even know about. He thinks Neil is just a pretty face. Neil can use that to his advantage. If anyone can get away, it’s Neil.”

He let a few moments go by as I knew we were both thinking about Lee, who hadn’t gotten away. We’d left him there because there wasn’t anything else we could do, but now I wondered if the Order had found his body. Had they taken his body so Zack could bury his brother? How was Zack feeling? Was he angry with me?

“Zoey?” Dev was treating me very delicately, but I could tell he wanted to talk. Dev would want a plan going in, and he wouldn’t feel comfortable until we agreed on one.

“Yes, Dev.” I tried to sound stronger than I felt.

“We need to talk about what’s going to happen when we get to Paris.” He held my hand in both of his and rubbed, trying to bring some feeling back into my body.