Steal the Day (Thieves #2)(4)

A large red demon stood at the bottom of the stairs, dressed in an elegant suit. He tipped his horns forward in acknowledgment. Albert. Dev’s all-in-one, go-to demon. He acted as Dev’s butler, his bouncer, and his second in command. “Mrs. Donovan.”

I was going to try pleasantries but simply snapped my lips shut and started to walk around him. At one point, I thought Albert and I could be friends. Now, he just viewed me as the harlot who was leading his precious master down the wrong path. Seriously, no one can be as judgmental as a demon. They really do know their sin.

“Zoey,” he called out as I tried to get around him.

I turned because he hadn’t called me by my first name in several months. “What do you need, Albert?”

“A moment of your time.”

“If you’re going to give me another lecture on adultery, you can save your breath. Daniel and I have an open marriage.” The open part wasn’t Daniel’s idea, but then the marriage part hadn’t been mine.

Albert ignored me. “Did my master discuss our worries with you?”

“He mentioned something about new vampires in Dallas. I think he wants me to figure out where they came from.” I had to strain to hear him over the noise. I was sure he could hear me. Sometimes it’s difficult to be the only human in the room.

“Yes, we’ve had several new vampires in the club.” Albert raised his voice and inched closer to me when he realized my difficulty. I was happy for the heels because Albert was at least seven feet tall. With the extra four inches, I was all the way up to five eight.

“And Dev said they had been seen with werewolves?”

Albert nodded. “Several of them were seen with weres and shifters. The two-natured were all female, and the vampires were all male. It did not seem like a business relationship.”

Curiouser and curiouser. If vamps and weres didn’t typically do business together, then they really didn’t have relationships. It was more about the weres than the vampires. Vampires have no problem coupling up with anything they find attractive, and were blood is particularly rich. If a vamp could get a pretty were to agree, I was sure the vamp would be thrilled. The werewolf, on the other hand, would be outcast. “Do you have any idea how many new guys we’re talking about? One? Two?”

“I have reports that state at least five new vampires have taken up residence in our city,” Albert explained.

My eyes widened at that bit of news. I really had been spending too much time alone if I hadn’t heard about that. Since we lost Sarah, our witch and my friend, in the last job we’d run, I’d spent a lot of time restoring my house. I’d retreated from the world, but it seemed to move forward just fine without me. “Five vamps have moved into town? There are eight vampires in residence? Can the city even sustain eight vamps for long?”

“You aren’t hearing me, Zoey,” Albert said. “The vampires haven’t moved here. They rose here. Or if they didn’t have their turn in our fair city, then they got here as quickly as they could. None of the vampires appears to be over thirty human years old, and I suspect that is their true age. These are new vampires. I am almost certain of it.”

I shook my head at the thought.

My husband had an awful lot of explaining to do.





Chapter Two





I steered the Audi through downtown traffic, glad that I could make it to Daniel’s with a blindfold on because I wasn’t thinking about the drive. It was difficult to concentrate on anything except what Albert and I had discussed.

Why was the Council sending new vamps to Dallas?

It didn’t make sense. Vampires are very rare. In the course of a decade, maybe five will rise. Almost all of these vampires will be located in the First World. The genetic mutation that causes vampirism seems to be more prevalent in males of European descent. Advanced medicine and health care in the wealthier societies have had an effect on vampire society. In the past, many would die on the battlefield or from disease. Now they mostly died of old age. Old age and vampirism is not a good combination. The thought that five new vampires had risen, and that they had died as young men, was too much of a coincidence.

If such a thing had happened, the Council would certainly not send their precious new fledglings to the same city as Daniel Donovan for training. Quite the opposite. The Council would try to make damn sure Daniel didn’t taint them with his outlaw presence. It was only because of his patron’s influence that the Council hadn’t written an order of execution on him about seven months ago. They should be glad they hadn’t written out that order because Daniel wouldn’t have met the dawn quietly. He would have gone down—if they could take him down, and that’s a big if—in a blaze of glory.

Daniel is the vampire who scares the shit out of the other vampires.

Albert had to be wrong about the vampires being new. It just didn’t happen. If the Council had sent the vampires, then they were here for one reason and one reason alone. They had come to f*ck with Daniel.

I pulled the Audi into the parking garage of Daniel’s building, parked and started for the entryway.

“Mrs. Donovan,” the doorman acknowledged as he held the door open for me.

I smiled briefly. I couldn’t get used to the deferential treatment I got whenever I entered vampire society. I’m a companion. It’s the vampire word for wife, dinner, and addiction all rolled into one. Apparently the only thing rarer on the Earth plane than vampires are companions. No one has ever explained to my satisfaction just what it is about me that makes me a companion. There’s something in my blood that makes a vampire stronger, smarter, faster than a vampire without a wife. The flip side is the vampire is completely addicted to companion blood. Even though Daniel and I weren’t living together as man and wife, I donated blood every week to feed him. Many people would love to see Daniel Donovan in a permanent grave, and though I was trying to live apart from him, I could never be the one who made that happen.