Steal the Light (Thieves #1)(19)

“Thanks, Tom.” Albert touched the cup placed in front of him. Like me, he seemed to be eschewing alcohol. He turned back to me. “He doesn’t have a lot of friends, you see.”

“I don’t know.” I glanced around the club. “He seems to be extremely social. He gave me some sob story about being an outcast, but there are a good number of faery creatures here tonight.”

“Oh, they come to his clubs,” Albert acknowledged. “They use the facilities and come to him for protection when they need it, but have you seen a single one of the creatures greet him tonight? Have you seen him have a pleasant conversation with one of his own kind?”

I hadn’t, and I had to admit my heart softened slightly. In the last hour, only his staff and my friends had actually spoken to Dev. When we’d first seen Daniel, I had worried that he had come to force me to go home with him. Several scenarios had played out in my head, each brutal and ending in an increasingly violent death for my date. What had happened had been much worse. Daniel had been pleasant and had acted completely surprised that we were here. He had been friendly, not a term I used when referring to Daniel, and offered to buy us a drink. He had introduced Skank Ho as someone named Chardonnay or Chablis. She giggled a lot and generally made my brain hurt.

“Well, he seems to be having fun now.” I wasn’t sure which hurt worse, the fact that Dev had dumped me to watch sports with Daniel or that Daniel would purposefully ruin my date.

Dev and Daniel sat in the VIP room pointing and shouting at the screens. Well, Dev was shouting and Daniel was showing his displeasure in more refrained, supercool vampire ways.

“Perhaps he’s simply trying to fit in with your friends. I’m a little surprised you’re not with the vampire.” Albert blinked as he looked at me. “You’re quite vibrant.”

I didn’t feel vibrant. I felt dull and useless. Even Neil deserted me after half an hour of trying to pull me out of silence. For some reason, Neil had decided I wasn’t being friendly enough to Skank and had betrayed me by befriending the enemy. I can’t think of why he did this, but he started referring to me as “Bitchy Smurf” and had ignored my bitter comments. Neil and Skank Ho had been in a deep discussion about who was screwing whom in Hollywood, and I had excused myself to go to the restroom.

“Somehow I doubt it,” I replied. “I think he found something more interesting than me. Look, this whole evening was a mistake.”

I should have taken Daniel’s advice and tried dating a nice, quiet IT guy. The truth was Dev was so far out of my league, we weren’t even playing the same game. I liked nerds. I always had, and I probably always would. I preferred going to the movies or staying in and watching bad sci-fi TV to the fast lane. I had never been one of the cool kids, and if I was honest, I hadn’t really liked them in the first place.

Daniel had been quite the nerd before his turn. He was a hot nerd, but a nerd all the same. Sometimes girls in school would decide to hit on him, but after ten minutes of Daniel discussing World of Warcraft, they would decide his hotness wasn’t worth the trouble.

The truth was, Dev would be horrified if he knew who I really was. He thought I was this cool chick who happened to be a master thief. The reality was I was a complete geek who just happens to be a master thief.

Dev had an entire world I couldn’t ever fit into. I lived in a cheap apartment in a crappy part of town and shopped for clothes at discount stores. This club was something out of Hollywood. The crowd was fast and the music was cutting edge. I could enjoy it for a night, but I just couldn’t see myself as a fixture.

“I don’t believe it was a mistake. At first I was a bit worried you were a companion who had run away from her vampire master. But you haven’t, have you?”

Master? Yeah, I wasn’t going to ever call Daniel that. “No. Daniel and I used to be friends. Now we’re just business partners.”

Albert nodded as though my answer had pleased him. “Then this was not a mistake. You must forgive my employer. He grew up with a brother. They were very close. I believe he misses male companionship greatly.”

“Well, he’s getting plenty of it tonight.” The coffee was doing its job, helping to banish the slight buzz I had gotten from the cosmopolitans I had downed at dinner. I’d quickly realized on Daniel’s arrival that further alcohol would probably result in me crying in a bathroom somewhere.

“It shouldn’t reflect on his interest in you,” Albert said. “He was excited about his date with you. He doesn’t date often. He’s become selective in the past few years.”

I turned to the halfling. Despite the demonic nature of his body, his eyes were blue and strangely human. It was disconcerting, and I had to wonder how much of him was human. Did appearances deceive? He looked like he could rip me in half and greatly enjoy feasting on my intestines, yet he was staring at me with understanding in his soft eyes. How hard would it be to have a gentle soul trapped in a monstrous body?

“I appreciate the talk, Albert, but I think it’s time I called it a night.” I tried not to think further on Albert’s situation. I had plenty of my own problems to worry about. “Could you have someone call me a cab?”

“I wish you wouldn’t. He will be devastated when he realizes how he has treated you,” Albert said quietly.

“It was a mistake to go out in the first place.” I would have to call my own cab. I pulled out my phone and hoped I could get a decent signal. “I’m in too much hot water to be playing around like this. I need to focus on the job at hand, not my sad love life.”