Steal the Night (6 page)

“Just go.” The last thing I wanted to hear were words of devotion. He didn’t care about me. He was under the influence of my blood. I’ve come to accept that Daniel loves me, but even Daniel was so much more affectionate right after a feeding. “You had me, now go.”

His fangs made another appearance. I should have remembered that vampires don’t handle rejection well. “I haven’t even begun yet. You’re forgetting there’s another thing a vampire wants from a companion.”

My stomach churned as he lowered himself on top of me. I didn’t have the strength to even push back. My body felt useless, a futile thing.

He used his weight to force my legs apart, and I could feel his lust pressed against me. He was so heavy I couldn’t breathe. He leaned over and licked my neck as he started to shove his hand under my shirt. I felt his fingers pinch at my breast when he suddenly groaned and rolled off me.

“Merde!”
Marini cursed and I scrambled away as he held his head. I saw that a hardback book had somehow hit him.

Marini was on his feet, looking for the threat when the paperweight on Dev’s desk flew across the room and hit the vampire squarely on the forehead. I managed to sit up and started to back away. I wasn’t sure exactly what was there, but it seemed pretty damn friendly to me.

“Que s’est-il passé?”
Marini screamed as another assault began.

I strained, but I couldn’t see anyone standing back there. A pen from Dev’s desk became a flying weapon, attempting to lodge itself in Marini’s neck. He batted it away.

I made some shit up, my mind working when my body wouldn’t. “Security measures, Marini. You should go. It’s a poltergeist, and it won’t stop until you’re gone.”

Marini snarled, but another book flew his way. He was looking for something to kill but just couldn’t find anything. There was no one else in the room. He loomed over me as he grabbed his jacket. “Don’t think this is over, Zoey. I would advise you to keep our little affair between the two of us. I would hate for Daniel to become…troublesome. I will contact you soon and Zoey…the next time I’ll have you in my territory and on my terms. You should think about what I said before. We do it the easy way or we can do it as hard as you like.”

He turned and stalked out the door.

I tried to get to my feet, but I stumbled and fell back down, my cheek hitting the carpet. I needed to get up. I needed to lock the door, push the desk against it, anything to keep him from coming back. I cried, tears making it hard to see. God, I needed to figure out what the hell had saved me, but then I knew. A warmth enveloped me and I knew who my savior was. I cried at the sweetness of it.

Even without a body, Bris had found a way to defend his goddess. I wasn’t sure what I’d done to earn such devotion from him, but I was so grateful for it.

“Thank you, My Lord,” I whispered as that warm air surrounded me like a blanket. It enveloped me and gave me strength. He couldn’t speak, but I thought he was trying to tell me something. He wanted me to get up. He wanted me to get out of here. I was still vulnerable, and Bris had likely used all of his stored energy on his assault. He wouldn’t be able to help me again. There was time to cry later. For now I needed a safe haven.

I struggled to my feet and knew just where to go.

Chapter Four

I knocked on the door to apartment 1021. I glanced behind me every now and then, expecting Marini to show and try to take me away. My heart had settled a bit, but my anxiety was still high. After I’d cleaned myself up a little, I’d snuck into the residential area of the building, praying Marini wouldn’t come looking for me. According to Roman, he’d left, but my hands still shook.

I was startled when the door opened abruptly, and Lee appeared with a gun in his hand and a sheet wrapped around his lean waist.

“What the hell is going on, Zoey?” He took a deep whiff of the air and stalked out into the hallway, looking up and down. “Son of a bitch, where is he?”

“Gone.” I was pleased that I managed to speak with something of a calm tone. “Can I come in? I need to talk to you.”

Lee nodded and stepped back inside. “Sit down. I’ll be back in a minute.”

I got my first look around Lee’s apartment. It was nice, or it would be if anyone gave a damn. Like the other apartments in the upscale building, it had lovely hardwood floors and modern, clean lines. Dev had rehabbed the building when he bought it and it reflected his good taste.

Unfortunately, this particular unit also reflected Lee’s tastes. There was an old, well-used recliner and a couch that had seen better days. The only thing new in the entire living area was a large screen TV Dev had delivered and installed as a bonus for the work Lee had done while we were in Faery. Of all the wolves I’ve known, none of them had Lee’s senses. Even with Daniel’s blood, Zack couldn’t touch Lee’s hypersenses. He’d managed to track me across two
sitheins
while riding an eddy wind. If he hadn’t, I would have been executed, so the TV was well earned.

I sat down on the couch and heard Lee talking to someone in what I knew had to be his bedroom. I sighed. I’d interrupted something interesting. I stood back up. That hadn’t been my intention. “Lee, I’ll just go home. It’s fine. We can talk in the morning.”

“Sit your butt down, Zoey,” he yelled out. “I’ll be there in a minute.”

A woman stumbled out, still buttoning her shirt. I recognized her. She was a local wolf, a friend of Angelina Hernandez’s. “Hey, Julie.”

She smiled at me and stopped briefly. “Hey, Zoey,” she managed before Lee started pushing her toward the door.

“No, ladies. No girl talk,” Lee said firmly. “Good night.”

Julie frowned at him as he hustled her out the door.

“I’m sure he’ll send flowers tomorrow,” I said, all the while shaking my head in a negative fashion because that was so not going to happen.

Julie frowned. “If he wasn’t so good in bed I would…”

Anything Julie might have said was cut off by the slamming door.

“You’re a terrible boyfriend,” I said with a sense of awe.

He frowned down at me. He’d put on jeans and a wrinkled green T-shirt. “I’m not her boyfriend, Zoey. We were discussing some security problems she’s been having.”

“At three a.m.? Naked? Was she having a security problem in her vagina?”

An irritated growl preceded his response. “Well, you seem to have a security problem at three a.m.”

He had a point. “I lost the Blood Stone.”

“Damn it,” Lee cursed. “When did Marini show up? And why the hell do I smell him all over you? Stand up, Zoey.”

I knew what he wanted and I didn’t want to go through it. I couldn’t. “No, Lee. I’ll just tell you, okay? He caught me alone and he bit the shit out of me. It wasn’t his little greeting this time. It was a full-on feeding, and he gorged himself.”

“What else did he do?” The question ground out of his mouth. He went perfectly still, not even blinking.

There was no use in lying to Lee. We’d made a deal a while back. I trusted him and told him everything, and for the most part he followed my orders. I hoped the second part would hold up because I had a big favor to ask of my wolf. “He tried to rape me, Lee.”

“Tried?”

Nodding, I sat back down and attempted to get comfortable. “Bris showed up and went through a whole poltergeist impersonation. He threw stuff at Marini until he got off me.”

“He’s kind of a badass.” Lee relaxed slightly. “Are you all right?”

“I think so.” I was happy he stayed calm. I needed that from him. “I’m a little weak, but I’ll be okay. How’s the wound?”

He touched my neck, running his fingers along it and then leaning in to get a whiff. “It’s already gone. I can smell it though. He did a number on you. Are his fangs bigger than Donovan’s? Those puncture wounds must have been big.”

“I wouldn’t let him pull me in,” I explained.

Lee smiled slightly. “Of course you didn’t. So where were the boys while you were getting assaulted?”

This was the part I didn’t want to tell Lee. Lee Owens was only ten years older than I was, but he felt like a father figure. He was going to be so pissed. “They were asleep. I didn’t want to wake them up.”

Lee cursed under his breath. “Tell me they didn’t try the thing where Donovan nearly drains the faery to see how drunk they can get.”

“Okay. I won’t tell you.”

“Idiots,” he said. “I suppose you have a good reason you didn’t call me.”

I had to make him understand. “Lee, he was going to corner me. There was no way around it. If you’d been with me, how were you going to take care of five vampires? That fight would have destroyed the club, injured a bunch of people, and probably killed Danny when Marini got pissed enough to push his little eject button. I took care of it. I doubt you would have deterred him tonight. Even if you had, it’s just postponing the inevitable.”

There was a tightness to his eyes as he stared at me. “You think he’ll be back?”

“I know he’ll be back.” I shivered, thinking of the way he stared at me before Bris had begun his assault. “He thinks he deserves me. He thinks I’m his right or something. God, Lee, the worst part was when he told me how much he wanted me. He sounded like he was talking to his girlfriend. He practically begged me to love him.”

“Before or after he had that blood of yours?”

“Right after, of course. He told me he wanted to be my slave. He looked like he loved me.”

Lee pulled me around to face him. He knew exactly what bothered me about the whole situation. “That doesn’t mean Donovan doesn’t love you, Zoey. He feels the same way about you when he doesn’t feed. I might not like the son of a bitch sometimes, but I don’t doubt for a second that boy is devoted to you. Maybe it’s stronger because you’re a companion, but he would lay down his life to protect you. That’s not about blood.”

I felt my eyes start to water as everything really started to hit me. I wished so much I could be one of those people who just shoved their emotions down and moved on, but no matter how much bad crap happened, I still cried. I still wanted the safety of arms around me. “He told me I wouldn’t tell Danny and Dev about our little affair. He’s not going to stop. He’ll come back until he gets what he wants.”

Lee seemed to be at a loss for what to do with a crying female on his couch. I realized I was being ridiculous. This wasn’t Lee’s job. He was my bodyguard. He shouldn’t have to listen to me whine. I took a long breath to try to banish the urge to really let loose. I almost had myself under control when he reached out and pulled me into his arms. He seemed uncomfortable at first, but determined.

“You go on, darlin’,” he said in a rough western accent. “You cry it out. You deserve it.”

Well, then there was no stopping me. I cried and cried, not caring at all that I was getting his shirt wet or that my nose was probably running. I let it all out, the fear, the hurt, the awful feeling of being completely vulnerable. There was nothing I could do against the man. If Bris hadn’t managed to use every bit of strength he’d been saving up, I would have been his victim and he would have pretended we were lovers.

In some ways he’d managed his rape. He’d done something to me only Daniel had ever done before. I was sure Daniel would see it as a crime. Feeding was an intimate thing between us. It was something I would probably never do with anyone else if given the option. I hated the fact that he was running around full of my blood. I was sure it played into his demented fantasy that I was meant for him.

After the longest time, I was all cried out. I just let my head rest against Lee’s shoulder and felt comfort from him patting my back.

I finally sat up and sent him a self-deprecating smile. “Sorry. I bet you didn’t think that was part of your job description.”

His chocolate brown eyes were full of some emotion I wasn’t sure I could name. “This isn’t just a job for me, Zoey. I never told you this, but I think you know I had to raise Zack, right?”

“I know your mom died when Zack was a kid.” Lee rarely talked about his past. Hell, Lee rarely talked at all, but I knew he’d had a rough childhood.

Lee nodded. “I was seventeen and Zack was six. Mom was killed one night coming home from work. My dad, he drifted in and out. I think he loved our mother. He wanted her enough to knock her up twice. He would ride through Vegas and Mom would get excited and then he’d be gone again. I know why now. I got the urge to roam when I was thirteen. Mom wouldn’t let me and by then Zack had shown up. Anyway, when she died, I had the option of taking care of Zack or sending him to foster care. You have no idea how much I wanted to take that second option. I’m not proud of it but damn, I wanted to be free. I wanted to roam and not be tied to anything.”

“Because you’re a lone wolf.” For the first time, I realized that there was more than just super-senses and strength associated with the condition.

“My instincts make me want to push people away,” Lee said quietly. “I want to be alone. Even when I was a kid and we would run with the pack I would find a way to break away and spend the full moons on my own. I thought about running a thousand times. But I forced myself to stay with Zack and I never regretted it. I looked at that kid and just knew that I would fight my every instinct to make sure he was safe. He was my pack. I only felt that way about one other person my entire life.”