Steal the Light (Thieves #1)(55)

Dev shook his head. “You don’t understand vampires, Zoey. The newly risen vampire always kills the first time he feeds. It’s why the Council swoops down like vultures the second they locate a new vamp.”

“Daniel didn’t kill. Daniel has never killed,” I stated.

Dev’s green eyes widened. “Oh, he’s killed all right, but not because he lost control. He had exquisite control from the moment he rose. A normal vampire takes hundreds of years to gain a single power. Some vampires have the power of persuasion. Some have incredible speed. They all have strength, but it is markedly more significant in some. Some can shape shift or call an animal. Some vampires even gain the power of flight after a thousand or so years.”

“So if Daniel lives a long time, he might be able to fly?” I wondered exactly where he was going with this. I knew Daniel was fast and strong. I guessed he was a fast learner.

“Daniel could fly the night he rose,” Dev said. “Vampires tend to have one or two powers after hundreds or thousands of years of living. Daniel had them from the moment he became a vampire.”

Tears sprang to my eyes as he spoke. He was lying. He had to be. Daniel would never keep those things from me. If this was true, then Daniel was farther from me than I ever imagined. “Daniel can’t do those things. He would have told me.”

He looked at me and there was sympathy in his green eyes. “Zoey, there was some discussion among the Council about executing him. There are some today who still believe it is the best course of action. Some members of the Council see him as a threat. It was only his ability to predict when a new vampire would rise that kept him alive. He’s the first in thousands of years with the ability, and the vampires need it. With the way the news covers murders these days, the vampires need forewarning to stay secret. Daniel gives them that warning. Some vampires wanted to place him at the head of the Council. There was talk of a crown. The vampires haven’t crowned a king in the last millennium, but it was discussed when Daniel rose.”

My mind spun. Dev had just turned my whole world upside down. “That’s insane. He’s…he’s Daniel. He likes science fiction and computers. He’s not some vampire king. He’s a nerd, for god’s sake.”

“I’ll let you read the dossier. I’m sorry, Zoey. I knew you didn’t know the whole story, but I never thought he’d kept you completely in the dark.”

He put a hand on my shoulder, and I moved away.

“Zoey, don’t blame me.” Dev’s green eyes were sad. I was sure he wanted to go back to the intimacy we’d been trying out earlier, but I just couldn’t. “I didn’t lie to you.”

But he’d been the messenger. “I know. I just need to think.”

“All right. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for any of this to hurt you,” he explained with a deep sigh. “I actually came in to give you this.”

He handed me a small packet. I looked at the bag in my hand. It contained dry herbs.

“Albert made it for you,” he said. “It’s for a dreamless sleep. I figured you needed it after whatever the demon did to you. You need rest, Zoey. You have to be at the top of your game if we’re going to pull this off. I’m going to go back out and make sure the surveillance is working. Take this and get some rest. When this is over, I’m going to take you on a trip, and we’ll get rid of those nightmares. We’ll go anywhere you like, sweetheart.”

He kissed me on the forehead, and I looked at the packet in my hand. I should have gone straight to the toilet and flushed it down. Who knew what was in those herbs? I’d known these people for so little time that there was no way I could trust them. So why did I walk to the bathroom and fill a glass with water? Why did I pour the packet into the water and watch it dissolve? Why did I swallow every last drop? Why did I trust that man so much?

I made my way back to the bed and didn’t really care if I’d taken a sleeping potion or poison. Either way, I was going to sleep, and for a while, I wouldn’t care about anything.

I sank into the sheets as blissful oblivion took me.

Long before I wanted to, I was jarred awake.

“Zoey,” Neil was saying as consciousness slowly drifted back. “Something is wrong. We have to go now. If we’re going to do this job, we have to do it tonight.”





Chapter Fifteen





It took everything I had to ignore Daniel as I walked into the living area of the suite. A million questions ran through my mind, but now wasn’t the time.

The whole living area was set up as a command center. There were three different computers throwing off low lights and humming quietly. The computer with the largest monitor showed the surveillance feed from the downstairs suite.

Neil talked to Daniel in hushed tones as I walked over to the monitor.

There they were. Our marks. Two men and one woman. Definitely Fae. They had long, elegant bodies and moved with sure grace. The men were dressed in khakis and polo shirts of varying color, but they tugged at the clothes as though the fabric bothered them. The female sported a brunette ponytail and wore a skirt and button down blouse.

A male with long, sandy blond hair and the female sat facing the open window. The bugs were obviously working as we could hear them plain as day. They spoke quietly in some language I couldn’t understand. The last man paced in and out of the camera’s range. He was the tallest, and if I had to bet, he was the blond one’s brother.