Steal the Day (Thieves #2)(78)

“I had to witness a young girl get sold and raped in front of an adoring crowd.” I put my two crappy cents in.

“I lost a hundred grand,” Dev admitted.

So it had been a shitty night all around. “This town sucks.”

Both men looked at me, not amused by my pun.

“Well, it does,” I grumbled because at least tonight it really did.





Chapter Twenty





“So what happens to her now?” I asked Kimberly the next day.

We were sitting in one of the hotel’s restaurants. Kim had been patiently answering my questions for the last thirty minutes as we enjoyed lunch. Our version of lunch occurred as most people were enjoying dinner. We were a nocturnal lot.

“They call it the honeymoon period.” Kim seemed to be treating this conversation as an intellectual lecture. There was very little emotion in her voice. “For the next month, she’ll be held in her rooms, first here until the meetings are completed, and then in London where Adam lives. She’ll be under his persuasion and will feed him daily. She’ll take his blood and do all the other things that go along with it.”

Sex. It was a part of the bonding process. For Daniel and me, it had been an extension of our previous relationship. We’d made love when we were both human, and he certainly hadn’t needed persuasion to get me into bed. What must it have been like for Kim, who’d never met Henri before she’d been forcibly married to him? “I know this is painful, and I apologize. I just don’t understand the process.”

Kim’s brown eyes slid away from me. “I can’t imagine what it was like for you. I’m sure the Council’s Nex Apparatus was brutal to say the least. I joke about how hot he is, but he scares every one of us. I heard he killed Paul last night.”

Damn straight he had. “Paul was an ass. Paul deserved killing. Daniel isn’t brutal.”

“I think Paul would disagree. You haven’t been in society. Do you know what he’s done? He killed twelve vampires on his own with his bare hands in the arena. They kept sending them in, and he kept killing them. The Council was finally forced to concede the battle to a fledgling. It was the most horrific thing I’ve ever seen.”

“Should he have let them kill him?” I asked, getting a little annoyed. “Whatever Danny has done it was to survive. He might be brutal in a fight, but he has to be to survive and protect the ones he loves. He has never hurt me. He would never lock me up to train me or force me to comply.”

Kim sat back and looked at me seriously. “I’m sorry if I offended you, but you have to understand the way the majority of vampire society feels about your husband. If you want me to explain how things work, you have to be willing to hear things that won’t make you happy.”

That was fair. I had to respect her for stating it in plain terms I could understand. “I love Daniel. It’s hard to hear how people view him. Please continue.”

I looked over at the bar where Neil sat with some fruity drink. He was talking to the bartender, who was naturally a hottie, but I knew all I had to do was whisper and he would be at my side. Neil had been a very good bodyguard/shopping buddy. He’d even kept his promise to Dev, forcing me to buy some of the filthiest lingerie I’d ever seen. I just wondered if I was ever going to get a chance to use it.

“It’s been almost a thousand years since anyone saw that sword Daniel carries,” Kim explained. “Henri practically shakes when he sees it. It’s the official weapon of the Council’s Death Machine. Henri wasn’t around for the last Nex Apparatus, but the way he talks about it, it’s a little like the vampire version of the boogeyman.”

That gibed with what I saw around the group. Everyone, even the oldest of the vampires, looked on Daniel with a deep suspicion.

Kim looked around as though trying to figure out who might be listening in. She leaned over. “Before they presented the sword to Daniel, there was talk about changing the Council. Some vampires had formed the opinion that the Council is corrupt and dangerous. The more modern of the men wanted a say in the way the Council is run. That all shut down with the arrival of your husband.”

Daniel explained this during one of his conversations with Dev—one of the conversations I’d managed to stay awake during. There was discontent among the vampires at the way the Council controlled every aspect of their lives. Before they could organize, Daniel was designated as the official executioner. He was scary enough to have quelled that probably destined to fail rebellion.

“It must be strange for everyone to be so afraid of a fledgling.” I kept my mouth shut about Daniel’s plans. Like I said before, I tended to sleep during the lecture portions of my time with Daniel, so I wasn’t about to play politics.

Kim laughed at that. “He isn’t considered a fledgling anymore. The arena test put that term out of everyone’s mind. Daniel is a king. It’s the term they use for a vampire whose talents exceed what a vampire should have. As far as I know, Daniel is the first king in a thousand years, since the last time that sword was seen. Of course, the last king actually took power and the crown. Daniel seems content to use his gifts in other ways.”

“What happened to the last king?”

“Ask Marcus Vorenus,” Kim said mysteriously. “From what I understand, he is the one who dealt that king the killing blow.”