Steal the Light (Thieves #1)(15)

My first thought was to tear her pretty pink hair straight out of her head, throw her to the ground, and take her place. She was messing with my man, and I had to put a stop to that.

“You get off him, Sarah!” An unholy rage took root in my gut.

Sarah turned to look briefly at me. Her eyes were darker than usual. She tightened her hold on her prey. “Stay away from him. He’s mine. Can’t you see how much he loves me?”

“He loves me!” I screamed. I believed it. The magic he was using surrounded me with the deep belief that the shining man and I were meant to be together.

The man was trying to walk backward as though he could get away, but he found himself against a wall. “Uhm, you should really get down now.”

No one was listening to him.

“If you take a step toward him, I swear I will turn you into a toad, Zoey,” Sarah promised.

“Bring it on, bitch.” I snarled and started toward her. I found my path blocked by Daniel’s strong arms.

“Listen, Xena, as much as I’d love to watch some girl-on-girl action, I’m going to have to pass.” Daniel forced me to turn toward him again. “Snap out of it, Zoey. You can fight this. Let me help you.”

By “let me help you” Daniel meant to trade one magic for another. He put his hand behind my neck and gently pulled me into his arms. I fought him, struggling against his strength, but it was no use. The pull of the Fae’s glamour was strong, but Daniel was stronger.

“Zoey, look at me.” There was no sarcasm left in his voice. The sound coming out of his mouth was smooth and so seductive. I remembered the way it felt to be taken over by Daniel, and that feeling was far stronger than any little glamour. I looked willingly into his blue eyes as his irises grew until the whole of his eyes seemed to bleed to that deep sapphire color. I felt a calm take over and knew the glamour had lost its hold. The last time Daniel had performed this magic on me was right before he’d folded me in his arms and let his fangs find the vein in my neck on the night he rose.

“Are you all right, now?” Daniel’s question broke the spell.

I took a deep breath, banishing my need to beg him to continue. “I think so. Give me your jacket.”

“What?” Daniel asked, distracted again by the drama playing out in my living room. “Oh, look, he wasn’t smart enough to limit it to females. I think your dad is about to cry.”

I turned to find my father on his knees.

“I always knew the shining ones would return.” My father looked at the man with a worshipful fever in his eyes. “Prince of Ireland, I offer myself to your service. I am a man of small talents, but they are yours to command.”

This had to stop. Making certain not to look at the glorious, shining man, I forced myself to focus on Daniel. “Look, you might be immune to magic, but I’m not. Give me your jacket.”

There are certain tricks to dealing with faery magic. They don’t work all of the time, but there are a few things a person can try. I don’t know why they work only that they have been passed down through the years. With simple magic, like the glamour the shining man was using, turning a piece of one’s clothes inside out will usually do the trick. His magic, while strong, wasn’t cohesive. I would never have been able to break Ingrid’s spell with such simplicity.

As for Daniel’s magic, well, when Daniel got me locked in, I was his until he decided to let me go.

He shrugged out of his jacket, and I turned it inside out. The minute I had it on, I could breathe, and my need to murder Sarah faded. I turned to the man and was able to see past the magic. Devinshea Quinn was roughly six feet five inches tall with stark black hair and emerald green eyes. I only knew his name and the fact that he was Ingrid’s friend. Well, and I knew he couldn’t handle his magic.

Even being able to see through the spell, he was still hot.

“You need to turn down the glamour, buddy.”

The faery was struggling with Sarah, but managed to look my way. “Is it too much?”

Daniel snorted loudly.

I ignored him. “That depends. Do you normally get strange females rubbing themselves all over you when you walk into a room?”

He shook his head as he tried to put a hand over Sarah’s seemingly curious mouth. “Not normally. It sounds more fun than it really is. It’s actually quite disturbing. Could someone give me a hand with her?”

“Oh, I’ll give you a hand,” Daniel offered. “I know how to turn that sad-sack porno magic off for you. Let me go find a nice piece of wrought iron. After I shove it in your belly, you won’t have that problem again.”

“Daniel!” Despite the terrible way the evening had begun, I really didn’t want to waste all that makeover time. And the last thing I needed was to spend the rest of the evening listening to Daniel say “I told you so.”

“Fine.” Daniel pulled Sarah off. She sobbed in his arms. “I’m taking her to your bedroom until you get him out of here and then we’ll talk, Z.”

My father was prostrated on the floor singing some Irish song.

“I’m so sorry.” The faery closed his eyes and seemed to concentrate for a moment. The glow dimmed to nothing.

Yep, still wretchedly way-too-out-of-my-league hot.

“We should hurry.” I grabbed my purse.