Steal the Day (Thieves #2)(14)

“It will work around the faery.” Felicity’s words echoed through the church.

Daniel kept walking, but I stopped. I turned and ignored Daniel’s muttered curse. “It’ll work if I’m with Dev?”

“Devinshea Quinn is pure enough for the Revelation to work.” She looked almost sad, like she hadn’t wanted to reveal that piece of information. I had a feeling Dev was her last resort. She would have preferred I’d gone alone.

“Again, I’m not understanding the definition of pure,” Neil said, shaking his head in confusion.

“Why Dev?” I didn’t understand her version of pure either. Dev was absolutely the filthiest man I’d ever met, and I meant that in a very affectionate way.

She stepped forward. “You and Devinshea are closer to what the Revelation was meant to find than the others. The amulet will work, and Devinshea can be your guard. It is a solution that should satisfy your vampire.”

“You don’t understand my definition of satisfaction, lady,” Daniel shot back. “I told you it’s me or Neil. I don’t trust anyone else. I’m not sending her in there with some douchebag lothario who’ll get her killed because he has no idea what he’s doing. How is he supposed to help? If I need a f*cking DJ, I’ll call Dev.”

“He would die for her,” Felicity said quietly.

“He still might,” Daniel swore.

Daniel was missing several points of the conversation due to his emotional outburst. I wished Dev hadn’t come up, but if he was the solution then I would deal with it. It was time to bring the conversation back to business. “How does the amulet find Felix?”

“The amulet will point the way to where Felix is.” Oliver stepped up. He seemed to be giving his sister time to recover. “The amulet is worn on a chain by a pure soul. When used properly, it will light the way to the one you wish to find.”

“But the one we wish to find is Sarah,” Neil pointed out.

Felicity nodded. “I believe she is with Felix. From our reports, she is housed in the same area.”

“What are you not telling me?” I asked because she was suddenly blank.

“I believe your friend is being used to torture my brother,” she said quietly.

My stomach took a dive. The thought of Sarah, who loved men and having fun and dying her hair silly colors, being twisted into something evil killed me. It had already taken longer than I planned. I was worried if I waited too long, what we found wouldn’t even resemble the girl we’d lost. I was running out of time and options.

“So Dev and I could use the amulet to find Felix, and Felix should lead us to Sarah.” If that was true, and I had no reason to believe this Felix was going to lead the way to the woman who was torturing him, I still had other things to deal with. “I still have problem number two.”

Problem number two was even worse than problem number one. If I was good enough to bust Sarah out of Hell, there was nothing I could do when Halfer found us, and he would find us. Her contract was iron clad. There was no clause that stated she could go free if her crazy-ass friend managed to bust her out. Halfer would simply show up and drag her back, and no one would try to stop him.

“I can take care of that,” Felicity said.

“Great, and how will you do that?” Demon contracts weren’t easily broken. They were almost never broken. It was far easier to find a creative way to fulfill the contract, but Sarah had already lost at that game.

“Trust me,” she said with a glowing smile. “I will see her redeemed if you bring our brother back to us.”

“Bullshit,” Daniel spat with a deep cynicism that had become a part of his core. “They’re cons, Z. They can’t redeem her. They’re playing us. It’s a simple setup. ‘Hey, we’ve got this magic amulet that will solve your problems but it won’t work if you keep your muscle around you.’ They’re trying to cut you off from your major resources. They’re trying to get you into Hell with only Dev as a backup. Now they claim they can break a contract? What does that sound like to you?”

I knew what it sounded like. It sounded too good to be true, and too good to be true usually went really bad.

“They’re working for Halfer,” Daniel reasoned. I was inclined to agree with him. If Halfer knew a weakness of mine, it was that I got impatient and was willing to try some crazy things. He also had a definite beef with me. “If he can catch you on the Hell plane, he has us right where he wants us. These two are nothing but cons, pure and simple.”

“You insect!” Oliver shouted, his fair face turning red with rage. “How dare you? I could extinguish you with a thought, yet you insult me?”

I rolled my eyes because Danny’s beast was already close to the surface, and Oliver was waving that red flag. Daniel’s fangs had popped out, and his hands were twitching like he needed to wrap them around something. His eyes were already bleeding blue.

“You should start thinking then, *,” he growled, but held his position.

Oliver squared off like he was ready to go ten rounds with Daniel. “Do you understand how it pains me to stand in the same space with you, nightcrawler?”

I got close to Danny. Felicity took up the same position next to her brother. Oliver might talk a good game, but I was betting Daniel was meaner, and he’d been itching for a fight since I walked in the door earlier tonight.