Steal the Light (Thieves #1)(6)

Sarah smiled indulgently at her friend. “You don’t need a makeover, gorgeous. You also don’t understand the nature of a demon contract.”

Neil ran a hand through his curly blond hair and sighed. “I understand that the last job we pulled, I got silver shot up my ass and we barely cleared ten grand a piece. I’m sick of mass transit. Do you know what a packed bus smells like to a werewolf? Have you ever had super smell on a 105 degree day? August is intolerable for me.”

“Hell is hotter, buddy,” Sarah said.

Neil rolled his eyes. “It’s not like we sold our souls. At least I didn’t sell my soul. I sure didn’t give Zoey permission to sell it, and I don’t think Daniel has a soul to sell.”

Daniel, who had been silently brooding up until now, turned his seriously blue eyes on the werewolf. “Laugh all you like, Chewbacca, this is serious. By accepting that money, Zoey signed a contract. She might not have actually put pen to paper, but trust me, there is a record of the deal in some accounting office on the Hell plane, and it is binding. It doesn’t matter that Halfer didn’t properly represent himself. This is the way they play it in Hell. It’s a classic demon trick. He offered far too much money for the job and Zoey took the bait.”

“Don’t blame it all on me, Danny.” I turned on him, slamming my beer down. “You were there. You looked at that briefcase like it was an open-all-night blood bank.”

“Well, I could really use a new bed.” Daniel ignored my outburst. “The one I have right now is crappy, and I have to spend twelve hours a day in a dead stupor in it. Do you know what kind of a crick that can put in your neck? I was thinking of getting a Tempur-Pedic. The other vampires say they are really undead friendly.”

Vampires are very concerned with comfort. I suppose it’s because they live so long in a single body that they become somewhat preoccupied with pampering it. The myth of the vampire hunting in the shadows is just that—a myth. Most vampires wouldn’t be caught dead in a dark alley. They prefer the comforts of hotels and beautifully decorated homes.

The sunlight thing is true. Something about the disease makes the flesh susceptible to ultraviolet light. Despite what Hollywood will tell you, Daniel’s heart beats just fine as long as he keeps his blood volume up. I vividly remember laying my head against his chest and hearing the sound of his heart beating the night he rose. His skin is only a little colder than a human, though it gets icy if he doesn’t feed properly. Garlic doesn’t bother Daniel at all, and he can certainly see himself in a mirror and have his photograph taken, though he’s not too big on the latter. The Council advises against photography as the picture can be found years later and questions would almost certainly come up.

I turned to Sarah, who seemed to always have a perpetually amused look on her face. Sarah was barely twenty-three, but she always seemed so much older despite her fashion sense and ever-changing hair. This month it was cut into a pixie-like bob and dyed hot pink.

“Would you like to complain about your supernatural powers to the mere mortal?” I asked, bitterness creeping into my voice. It wasn’t easy being the only human in the group.

“Nope. No complaints here,” Sarah said with a hint of a smile. “Although, since we’re stuck, I think the best thing to do is donate the money to charity. Let’s get some good karma out of this. Given the way half this crew lives, might I suggest PETA?”

The boys managed to groan in unison.

I shook my head, adamant in the belief that I could find a way to fix this. There had to be a way out. I hadn’t spent any of the money. As long as we didn’t spend a dime, maybe we could finesse our way out. “We’re not touching this money. There’s no way I’m taking this job.”

“You already took the job.” Sarah shook her pink head in a sympathetic fashion.

“There’s no way out, Z.” Daniel pondered the money quietly for a moment, and the rest of us waited as he thought.

After a brief silence, he stood and closed the briefcase. “We do the job. There’s nothing else to do, so we do the job professionally and with absolutely no emotion. Emotion is where the demon will try to trip us up. I have no doubt that Halfer wants the object, but he won’t turn down the opportunity to screw with us in the meantime.”

It wasn’t what I had hoped for, but I knew deep down that Daniel was right. Demon contracts were not something one just got out of by saying “I want a mulligan.” We would need to tread carefully, but if we played our cards right, we might survive intact and be richer for it. Demons liked to play the “win either way” scenario. If we succeeded, he got his object. If we failed, he got our souls to munch on for all eternity. We were trapped, and the only way to get out was to plow our way through.

“Fine.” I resigned myself to the task at hand. I pulled out a thick manila folder and slapped it on the table. “Then we should get down to business. I’ll read through the material the client gave us. Sarah, find out whatever you can about this Light of Alhorra. Daniel, see if you can find out anything about Halfer. This object is apparently going to be housed at a downtown hotel, so we need to see if we have any contacts who can get us inside. We’ll need security information and possibly one or two of us should take a job there.”

“How about me, boss?” Neil was the only one of the four of us pleased with the outcome of this meeting. I could see license plates dancing in his eyes, and I was betting they weren’t attached to an economy car.