Steal the Light (Thieves #1)(30)

Daniel kept to the shadows. “I thought you would be more upset. Did they not tell you, baby? Wow. I thought for sure they would call you. This is going to be a little difficult to explain. First off, the car is totaled, and I know this sounds bad, but that’s actually the not so bad part.”

“Why would I be upset to see you?” I asked, though I was actually getting a little antsy. Shouldn’t Daniel obey me in my dreams? It was my fantasy, and I wanted everything to be perfect. I stood up to get closer to him, but I saw him retreat from me. “Damn it, Danny, I don’t know how much time we have. I could wake up any minute, so please get over here. Don’t make me chase you. I don’t think I could handle that right now.”

“Zoey, this isn’t a dream. I know you’ve had a shock, but I need you to come out of it now. I need you to help me figure this out. Everything is weird now. You glow, baby. I don’t know why you glow.”

“There’s nothing to figure out,” I said soothingly. “You’re back, and I’m happy. That’s all I want to feel now. This is my dream.”

Daniel stepped out of the darkness, and it was my turn to retreat. “If this were a dream, baby, would you bring me back like this?”

I was startled out of my fog. He was really standing in our living room. He was really alive. He really had fangs. Long and white, they emerged from his mouth, caressing his bottom lip.

“Holy shit, Danny, you’re a vampire.” I walked toward him. My initial shock fled, replaced with an amazing sense of wonder. I felt a smile spreading across my face as I reached up to feel his skin against my palm. His eyes were a little strange and there were those fangs, but it was my Daniel, and he was alive…well, he was here. I wouldn’t argue with it. I knew a bit about vampires. I knew how they could rise, and I had just won the f*cking lottery. “I just saw you at the morgue. Were you pretending? You seemed really dead to me.”

He pulled me to him, and I felt his sigh of relief as our bodies fit together. This was where I belonged, wrapped up in him, his scent filling my brain. His hands moved on my back, pulling us closer together. His little dance with death hadn’t slowed him down. His hips moved a bit, rubbing his erection against me. This was a deep intimacy I no longer took for granted.

Daniel’s lips pressed against my forehead. “I woke up about an hour ago. I was on a table, turned out to be an autopsy table. Let me tell you, CSI makes that shit look glamorous. It was horrible. They cut my chest open. I had to…push it all back together. Luckily, they hadn’t actually started taking stuff out yet. Surprised the autopsy guy, though.”

I only got about half of what he was saying. I was too busy letting the truth of his return wash over me. I understood the process of becoming a vampire. I also knew how rare it was, and it was even more surprising it had happened while Daniel was so young. I let my head nuzzle into his chest and heard…

“Your heart is beating.” It was the most glorious sound I’d ever heard.

He gave me an embarrassed smile and didn’t even try to hide his fangs. “I kinda ate the autopsy guy. He’s not dead or anything. Maybe a little anemic and god, he tasted horrible. I’m only feeding on chicks from now on. They have to taste better.”

I hadn’t exactly liked that guy. He’d been a bit of an ass, but the enormity of it all hit me in that moment. Daniel had been dead. Dead. Gone from this Earth. I’d begun the process of mourning him. Hell, I’d thought about joining him.

The tears I’d feared would never come burst forth in a tidal wave.

Daniel stopped cracking wise and swept me up, hauling me against his chest. He carried me to our bed and held me while I cried. He talked, but there was nothing like sarcasm in his words now.

First, he told me how the car seemed to come out of nowhere, and he’d only had enough time to think about me and how much he would miss me and us, and to wonder in that final moment who was going to take care of me. He told me how confused and scared he’d been when he’d first stirred. He told me how the hunger had coursed through him and the horror of realizing what he needed to do. He told me the only thing that got him through it all was the need to get back to me, to our home, to our life.

And I cried. I sobbed because I had lost him and I had no idea how to live without him. He was my world, the steady hand that held mine. I’d known him since I was a child, drawn to him even before I understood what it meant to like a boy. He’d been my friend, my boyfriend, my only lover, my everything, and then he’d been gone.

After the longest time, my tears subsided. We were lying together on our bed, the piece of crap bed we’d bought at a garage sale, our legs tangled together.

“Z, please forgive me.”

There was nothing to forgive. “I don’t care, Danny. You’re here. It’s all that matters. I don’t care about the vampire thing, but we need to talk about the Council.”

I wasn’t totally stupid. I knew the Council trained vampires.

“I don’t know, Z. I don’t know exactly how it works. I can only promise that if they take me away, I’ll come back for you. If they make me move, we’ll go somewhere new. We’re going to be okay.” He nuzzled against my hair. “This doesn’t change a damn thing. I want you more than ever. Baby, you have to tell me. Am I a monster?”

He couldn’t think that. He was Daniel. My love. “If you’re a monster, then you’re my monster.”