Steal the Day (Thieves #2)(109)

I heard Marcus sigh over me. His skin was pale. He seemed to have given Dev a fair amount of his blood. “Your faery prince lives, cara. He’ll be tired for a few days, but he lives. We were not so sure about you. You seemed very dead when the demon disappeared and Daniel was finally able to look after you.”

“Welcome back, Mrs. Donovan.” Louis Marini looked down on me with dispassionate eyes. I was sure every vampire at the ball was watching as the dreaded Death Machine wept over his wife’s body. I feared we had made a terrible mistake. “You are stronger than I expected. It’s been a most revealing evening. It’s good to know that the Council’s greatest weapon has at least one weakness. I bid you good night.”

He walked away, and I realized that we’d just handed him a mighty weapon.





Two hours later, Daniel eased into the suite’s large Roman-style bath with me in his arms. My body still felt all limp and noodley, but I didn’t care because I was with him and Dev was alive. Daniel had been forced to hold me all the way from the ballroom to the hotel while Marcus carried Dev because he was in and out of consciousness. Dev was asleep on the bed, but Daniel had decided my skin was still chilly and needed warming up.

He sank into the heat of the water, and I groaned with pleasure.

“Is that better, baby?” He eased me onto his lap. The hot water reached his chest and covered me almost all the way to my neck. I rested my weary head on his broad shoulder.

“Warm.” I sighed. Daniel’s blood was working in my body. The weariness I felt was almost pleasant. In this case, the very cessation of pain was pleasurable.

Marcus knelt beside the tub. I was too tired to protest the fact that I was naked. “The prince is recovering. He’s awake and can walk, but he’s weak. He needs rest but he will heal. You’re going to have to feed her more blood. Are you sure you can handle it by yourself?”

I smiled up at the Italian who I was very happy with at the time. Dev was alive because Marcus saved him. “Oh, Marcus, are you offering to join us and feed me yourself? That is very self-sacrificing of you.”

Marcus returned my smile. “Cara, this is a sacrifice I would willingly make.”

Daniel hugged me. “No, I can do it. I feel perfectly fine. I’ll take care of my wife. I hear Marini refused you when you could have saved her.” Daniel had assumed Marcus would take care of me while he fought Halfer. It never occurred to him the head of the Council would refuse to save a companion.

“Yes, Daniel. He’s dangerous, and she’s on his radar now.” Marcus stood up, straightening his clothes. “I will leave you to seek my own bed, but I’ll call later to see how our troublesome queen fairs.”

Marcus left, and we were alone. Daniel rubbed my back with his hands and rocked me. I might have been the one who technically died, but Daniel was the one in shock. He was still shaking, and I wondered if maybe we should have taken Marcus up on his offer.

“Are you all right?” I asked after a long silence.

“You died, Zoey,” he said, his voice unsteady. “I felt it. You were f*cking gone. You died because I was so pissed off I left you there. I left you all alone with no one but Dev.”

We had to get one thing straight. I wasn’t going to let him take this out on Dev. “You can’t blame Dev.”

His head shook. “I’m not blaming Dev, Z. Dev did what he had to do. From what Marcus said, Dev died, too. I’m blaming myself because none of this would have happened if I hadn’t lost my temper. I got both of you killed.”

I had played my part in this fiasco. I had to own up to it. “I let Felix take Neil. He even warned me I would pay for it, and I still did it. You were right, Danny. I did what I wanted to do. I didn’t think about anything else. That one mistake could have cost Dev his life.”

“Why didn’t Dev freaking stop you?” Danny asked.

“Have you tried to stop her?” Dev stood in the doorway, his skin pale.

I looked up and was rewarded with Dev’s very much alive face. He was past tired and disheveled, but he’d never looked better to me. He’d shed his bloody clothes and stood there in a pair of jeans. His torso was smooth once more, with no hint of the massive damage that had almost taken him from me forever. I told myself I would have to send Henri Jacobs and Marcus big old thank you gifts if I could figure out the vampire equivalent of a cookie bouquet.

“It happened very quickly, Daniel,” Dev explained in a somber voice. “It wasn’t like she looked to me for guidance.”

“I’m sorry.” I wished he would come closer. I wanted to put my hands on his skin.

“It wasn’t your fault, Dev,” Daniel said firmly. “I wouldn’t have been able to stop her, either. She’s impulsive, but she thought she was doing the right thing.”

“I’m sorry.” I didn’t like the look on Dev’s face. It was altogether too sober for a person who had just cheated death.

“I’ll have to disagree with you, Dan. It was my fault. I couldn’t protect her.” Dev leaned against the door. “I managed to make myself a piece of cannon fodder. That bought her roughly twenty seconds while he gutted me.”

“He’s a demon,” Daniel pointed out. “He’s going to be stronger and faster than you. That’s why we hire muscle.”