Steal the Day (Thieves #2)(39)

Daniel took another shot. “Just ask your questions, Zoey. I promise I’ll answer truthfully.”

I felt the smallest amount of sympathy for him. His blue eyes were tired, and though his face hadn’t changed in six years, for some reason tonight he looked older. I decided to start with the simplest question. “How did you know Chad was a vamp?”

“You mean beyond the fact that he was obviously gay but couldn’t resist you?”

“Yes, beyond that.” He would definitely have to do better.

He sighed. “Fine. You know how I can feel when a new vampire rises?”

Somehow Daniel could feel the moment when a human began the transition to vampire. He could sense it and where it was happening. It gave the Council time to intervene before the vampire started destroying everything around it. It was a very rare talent and it had kept Daniel alive according to Marcus. “Yes, but I thought you could feel it at the moment of death, not before.”

“When I was hauled back to Paris earlier this year, some of the Council members had certain experiments they wanted to try on me. The last king who rose was able to sense latent vampires. Even though the vampire walks and talks in a human body, there are subtle differences. So they wanted to test me. You see the DNA, like all DNA, runs in families, but it skips around a lot. The Council keeps genealogical records that would make the Mormons look like amateurs. Thousands of years of family records from each vampire and still they can’t tell who will rise and who will just rot.”

Daniel paused, and I knew we were going to get to the nasty part of his tale. “What did you have to do, Danny?”

Another shot and the talking seemed to get easier. “Fuckers brought in a hundred men from all over the globe. They just took them off the street, away from their families and their lives, all because they had the misfortune of being the direct descendants of vampires. They told me to find a latent vampire, one they could turn while he was vital to swell our ranks, to regain our power. I couldn’t. So they killed them all and brought in another hundred. This time there was one guy, a guy from Greece. He had two kids. He cried anytime I got near him, but he was different. I can’t put my finger on it, but I knew.”

“Did they make you kill him?”

“Oh, yes, Zoey. He’s why I strongly advocate strangulation,” Danny said with a bitter laugh. “He rose and the Council took him. Obviously they just had me kill him, not take him through the actual turn. He doesn’t care about his kids anymore. He was the only one I could find, and they killed the rest. I guess there was press about the missing people, so they stopped. I’m supposed to investigate the names they send me and, if I find one, send him to the Council.”

The implications chilled me to the bone. “They’re building an army.”

“Yes.”

I shook my head, more than a little confused. “They let you keep Justin?”

“They don’t know about Justin, Z. They don’t know about William or James or Jean-Marc or Bryan. Now they don’t know about Chad. Luckily I’m the only one left who can feel when a vampire rises. I have Marcus to thank for that.” Daniel poured another shot. I wondered how I was going to get a drunken, two hundred twenty pound vampire to bed because he looked like he was shooting for pass-out drunk.

“So you found all these guys and they just let you kill them?”

Danny shrugged a little. “You don’t understand what it’s like, Z. Chad could explain it better. I never met a vamp when I was alive. Something inside Chad recognized me. The vampire part of me called to the same part of him.”

“That sounds a little hot,” I joked.

Blue eyes rolled, but he smiled at me. “I don’t know if it’s because I’m stronger than other vamps, but I don’t have much trouble convincing them. That sounds horrible. I’m convincing them to die, but if I don’t the Council will figure out something else. I need them, Z.”

And those men would likely have lived out their lives and been put down by the Council when they turned during their old age. Daniel had offered them their birthright. I couldn’t complain. The way I understood it, persuasion didn’t work on latent vampires.

I looked for the problem with the scenario. It didn’t take me long. Just because no one else could feel when a new vamp rose didn’t make him safe. “They trust you? That doesn’t sound like the Council, Danny. They have to have someone watching you.”

Danny giggled. There’s no other word for the sound. Yep, the liquor was working. “They absolutely have a spy. He sends in a report every week on my activities and has ever since I came home. He’s been writing his little reports for almost three years. You wouldn’t believe the file he has on me. They think they’re so smart. He made his oath to me six months ago. I approve every report he sends out.”

There was only one vampire it could be. “Michael.”

Daniel nodded. “Yes. And Alexander knows. He doesn’t know about all of it, but he knows enough. He’s more afraid of me than he is the Council. Michael was willing. He came to me. Marcus came to me.”

I caught my breath. Marcus was a Council member, one of the oldest vampires walking the Earth. “Marcus Vorenus made a blood oath to serve you?”

“Yes,” Danny said quietly. “He’s not as bad as you think, Z. He’s been a good mentor. He doesn’t want the Council to succeed any more than I do. They’ve waited centuries for their weapon. They learned their lesson with the last king to rise. They had a plan this time. My training was unique. It was developed to completely break my spirit, to make me a vessel for their will. Most vampires are trained for no more than a year, but they kept me for three. They would have kept me longer if Marcus hadn’t taught me how to fool them. He taught me to act the part. I have to appear to be what they need. I’m the weapon they’ll use to subjugate the other races, to build our ranks, to make the Earth plane our feeding ground.”