Steal the Night (59 page)

Three was my lucky number. The safe swung open and I sighed in satisfaction. “Well, just so you know, I expect that it will be a boring job. I intend to be very dull for a long time. I just want to be at home and raise my little hoodlums. Your most exciting job would probably be escorting the boys and me to ‘mommy and me’ classes.”

“Where the boys will aggressively pursue all the little girls and make their parents terribly uncomfortable,” Neil added.

I tried not to think about that. I peered into the safe. “Wow.”

“Wow?” Neil climbed onto the chair next to me. “Wow. That’s a lot of cash.”

The thief in me really wanted to pull out that cash. It must have been at least a hundred grand. It was Louis’s war chest. I wondered if Niles and Elof knew their boss had all that cash at his disposal when they were struggling.

“We’ll come back for it later,” I promised. “Three-way split.”

“Are you serious?” Trent asked.

If he was going to hang around, he should get used to how things worked. “Hey, you were a good lookout. On this crew we split the take evenly. Remember that in the future.”

He smiled, and it softened his face, making him look younger. “I’ll remember that, Your Highness.”

I pulled out the Blood Stone. “Hello. It’s nice to see you again.”

Neil retrieved the fake out of his pocket and replaced it carefully, having noted the way the original had been sitting. “I think that’s right.” He looked longingly at the cash. “Good-bye, lots of little Benjamins. Soon you’ll have a new home. I’m going to take such good care of you.”

I sighed because Neil would spend that cash as fast as we made it. It was his nature. “Let’s get out of here. I need to get back and look like someone who didn’t just crack a safe.”

Closing the door, I reset the dial and pushed the painting back into place. I glanced around the room and was satisfied that we hadn’t left a trace. I stashed the stone in the front pocket of my jeans. Daniel was coming. I only had to wait another few hours or so and my husband would be here. Both of them.

Trent pulled me down, putting his mouth to my ear so he could whisper. “Shh. Someone’s in the outer room.”

“Oh, god,” I replied softly. “I left the light on. It should have been off. Louis would never have left it on. Who is it?”

Trent breathed deeply and he and Neil looked at each other. “Shifter,” they said at the same time.

My heart seized because that meant one thing and one thing only. If that was a shifter, he knew we were here. He would be able to smell us.

The door to the office opened and the shifter who worked in the dungeons stood looking at us with a smile on his narrow face. He was lanky to the point of skinny and his eyes were little black beads. “Trent, I always suspected you were a plant. Guess we get to see who’s stronger now.”

I felt Trent sigh against me as he moved me back. “Easy job, huh?”

I let the wolf put himself between me and whatever that shifter was going to turn into. “I did say the easy part came when we got back to Dallas.”

“You stay back, okay?”

“Aye, aye, captain.” I didn’t have a weapon of any kind and I doubted the three days I lasted at kickboxing class were really going to come in handy now.

Trent used his strong legs to kick the other man back into the living area. It was a much bigger space, but the shifter was already changing. His clothes ripped around him and the air was heavy. Trent’s change was quick. Though he started after the shifter, his massive gray wolf was charging by the time the other guy took his form. I’d been wrong about the snake. He was a huge, gross-looking lizard thing. He looked primeval, with dead, black eyes and a slithering tongue.

I was actually a little grateful for the lizard. Normally I’m of the firm belief that shifters should really only shift into other mammals. It makes sense to me. Humans are mammals, so I expect something warm blooded to try to kill me when I have to face down a shifter. When they turn into snakes or lizards or birds, it tends to freak me out. Not a one of them has ever turned into a giant frog, which I might find kind of funny. I have yet to see a giant spider. I think insects and arachnids are too hard. I think I’d just run from a huge spider. But while the lizard made my stomach churn, it also didn’t make a ton of noise. A lion or panther would have roared and brought everyone down on our heads.

“Is that supposed to be a komodo dragon?” I asked, looking back at Neil. I would warn Trent not to let it bite him because their mouths were icky. I’d seen that in a documentary once. When I got a good look at Neil, I took a shocked step back.

His eyes were red and it seemed a little like he was caught in an in-between stage of his change. His features were distinctly wolf like, but his face still had human form. He was Neil…and he wasn’t.

“Sweetie, are you okay?” I was slightly horrified by what he was becoming. I didn’t leave him. Something instinctive inside told me to hold my ground. Running might get whatever was inhabiting Neil to chase me, and I didn’t want that to happen. I didn’t want him thinking I was prey.

“I’m fine, Zoey,” Neil replied, his voice deeper than normal.

“No, I don’t think so,” I breathed back, all the while listening to the brawl going on right in front of us.

Trent was fighting quietly and methodically. He was exceptionally well trained and it showed as he went straight for the lizard’s underbelly, trying to turn him over so he could use his claws on the soft flesh there. The lizard managed to get one of Trent’s legs into his gross and probably full of all kinds of bacteria mouth, and I heard Trent groan as the lizard bit down.

When I glanced back at Neil, I noticed something strange. Under the white fabric of the polo he was wearing, I could see the odd tattoo on his body had started to glow. I reached out to touch it and when I did, my fingers singed even as the fabric started to burn.

“Oww,” I hissed, pulling my hand back.

“Both?” Neil was staring at the fight ahead of him, but there was nothing of my friend in those red eyes.

“I don’t understand.”

His eyes narrowed and finally found mine. “Where is my master?”

I didn’t like the sound of that. I thought quickly. Neil was a wolf and I had to hope that whatever was riding him now still had contact with that essential part of his being.

“I am your master,” I said, making my voice as firm as possible. It was the tone I used when I wanted someone to obey me.

“Both?” He gestured toward the room and indicated the combatants.

My blood chilled as I realized what he was asking, and I wondered what the hell Stewart had done to my friend. Neil wanted permission to kill them both. I doubted a lecture from me about world peace and passive resistance would be taken well. He might question my status as his master. “Just the lizard thing. The wolf is a friend and must not be harmed.”

He nodded and then he disappeared. I didn’t know if he moved so fast I couldn’t see him or if he did something wicked cool like teleport, but one minute he was beside me and the next he was straddling the lizard, his clawed hands around its neck. Trent seemed surprised by the sudden entrance of another person in the fight and he backed off.

There was a horrible crunch and then the lizard’s neck bent at a weird angle and the body just stopped. It fell to the floor, deflating quickly. When I looked back up to Neil, he seemed confused to be standing there.

“Z?”

I rushed over as Trent was changing back into his human form.

“Neil, are you all right?” It was a stupid question to ask but the only one my lips seemed capable of forming.

“How did I get here?” He dropped the lizard’s head and stared down at his hands. “I was talking to you and then…then I was standing over this thing.”

“Good thing, too,” Trent said. “That damn lizard had a hold on my leg and he wasn’t giving up. I hate lizards. Give me a freaking panther any day. I’m gonna see if Marini has anything I can wear in those closets. Me walking around naked with a lizard corpse might draw attention. We need to clean up here.”

While Trent took his naked self off to find clothes, I held Neil’s shaking hand. “Stewart did something to you. That tattoo glowed and burned my fingers. Take a look at your shirt.”

The fabric was burned in the shape of the tattoo. He shook his head. “Why didn’t I hurt Trent?”

“I told you not to,” I replied. “Look, we’ve been down here for weeks and this is the first time it’s happened, right?”

Neil took a deep breath and nodded. “I’ve been fine the whole time, Z. After waking up in the field, I’ve been normal except for the weird ink on my chest.”

“Then we have to assume that whatever is happening only happens when you feel really, really threatened.”

“Or when I think you’re threatened,” Neil added.

“So we just stay calm and keep the adrenaline down, and when we get out of here we’ll figure it out.” I set about righting the living room. The fight had knocked down some lamps. I wasn’t sure I could save the couch, but I managed to get it back into position. It would pass a cursory inspection.

“Man, I had heard you were kind of weak in the physical department,” Trent said as he walked out of the bedroom dressed in slacks and a button-down. He quickly went about picking up the remnants of his former clothes. Even though the end game was at hand, we didn’t want to tip Marini off that we’d been here. “But there was nothing weak about that performance. That was pretty damn awesome if you ask me.”

Neil looked at me while Trent started to pick up the corpse, and I knew this was a secret we would keep between us.

“Well,” I said brightly, “I suppose when you’re a vampire king everyone looks a little weak.”

“I guess so,” Trent answered, picking up the corpse. “I’m gonna take this and shove it in the catacombs. Why don’t you head back to your room and I’ll meet you there? We can wait for Donovan’s signal together. He better hurry his shit up, though. I don’t want to have to get through another night here.”

Neil and I carefully relocked the doors after taking inventory of the apartments and erasing all evidence that we had been there. The walk back to our rooms was a quiet one.

“Z?”

“Yeah?”

“I don’t think I’m going to be able to stay calm for the fight,” he said.

I was worried about that, too. There was no way that thing wouldn’t come out when we took on two hundred vampires, their supernatural servants, and everything else they could throw at us. It had worked to our advantage in this case, but I worried what would happen in the chaos of a battlefield. I couldn’t risk that Neil would harm our allies.

“I don’t want to hurt someone I care about. I couldn’t handle it.”

“I’ll figure something out,” I promised.

* * * *

Two hours later, we’d been waylaid by the cooks, who were freaked out about having to prepare a meal for her Royal Highness Queen Miria and a party of Fae. I could have told them I didn’t think that dinner was going to happen, but I played my part and discussed the dietary preferences of the Faery contingent. I was tired and it was almost dark as Neil, Trent, and I made our way back to my rooms. My edge of anxiety was verging now on full-blown panic as I knew the time when Danny would make his push was coming at us with the speed of a steamroller.

“Neil, why don’t you come with me?” Trent asked. “I got some weapons in my room. We need to move them in here so when the time comes we’re not caught off guard.”

Neil checked his watch. “We better hurry. Sunset is only fifteen minutes away. I don’t want her alone after that.”

“Agreed,” the wolf said. “We’ll do it in ten.”

I entered my rooms alone and thought about how I couldn’t wait to get one of those weapons in my hand. I hated feeling completely vulnerable, and it would be good to have even a little piece of metal to put between me and Marini. As I closed the door behind me, I wondered if I shouldn’t have gone with Trent and Neil because the minute the door shut, I felt a hand around my waist, pulling me up against a hard masculine body that seemed very glad to see me. Before I could scream, the other hand slapped across my mouth.

“You don’t want to do that, Your Highness.”

Chapter Thirty-Seven

“You idiot,” I hissed once Danny let me go so I could turn around and properly kick his ass. “What the hell are you doing here? Don’t you know it’s almost dark?”

His dimpled grin was one of the most beautiful sights I’d ever seen, and I threw myself into his arms despite my irritation that he seemed to be in his enemy’s stronghold with no backup.

“I’m well aware of the time, Z,” he said with his slow Texas drawl. His voice covered me like a well-loved blanket. He held me so tightly I thought I might crack. “It’s long past time for me to come and get you out of this hellhole.”

“I missed you, too,” I whispered into his chest.

“You have no idea how much I missed you, baby.” Emotion choked his voice. He kissed my forehead and made his way down to my lips. “I love you so much, Z. Do you have any idea how proud I am of you?”

“He…” I couldn’t quite say the words, but he knew what I meant.

Danny cradled my head in the palms of his hands. “You’re my wife. I don’t care what he did. I don’t care what rituals he performed or what you were forced to say yes to. You belong to me and Dev. You picked us. He can claim you all he likes, but you’re mine.”