Steal the Light (Thieves #1)(61)

Stewart rolled someone else’s brown eyes and sighed. “You don’t have to sound so disappointed. Not all of us can do that thing Brix does. It’s impressive, but do you understand the kind of will it takes to completely dominate a human? Even now I can hear this miserable piece of meat screaming in our head. It’s distracting, but I persevere. And I can do things Brix can’t even think about.”

Neil growled at the demon.

“Now that’s just rude.” The demon gave him a coquettish frown. “And here I’ve tried to be so pleasant. Vampire, call off your dog if you want him to live. Don’t think I won’t do it because the truth of the matter is I’m really more of a cat person.”

“Neil, you should change now,” Daniel ordered.

There was that rush of power that always filled the room when Neil changed forms and then he was back to his human body and in all his glory. One minute he was a beautiful wolf, and the next he was a gorgeous man. Neil was utterly lovely. He was smaller than Daniel and Dev, but perfectly formed. His hair had changed back to his normal blond and it curled over his ears.

The demon stopped, his eyes widening, and I would have sworn there was just a hint of drool. "Goodness, and by goodness I mean badness. I take back what I said about cats. You look scrumptious, puppy.”

Neil shrugged but gave no obvious emotion. “I get that a lot.” He picked up his clothes from the floor as I turned my head, trying not to blush. I just was never going to get used to random nakedness.

“Please don’t. Not on my account.” The demon practically purred like the cats he purported to love.

Neil laughed, though it held no humor, and I turned again just as he was pulling his white dress shirt on. He left it and the top button of his pants open for effect, showing off his perfectly cut chest. He smiled his best male model smile. “It’s not on your account, Stewart. It’s totally on hers.”

The demon gave me a tsk tsk sound. “Humans and their odd morality. Here you are, little girl, stealing an important thing from these seemingly pleasant faery creatures, but god forbid you see a very lovely penis. I really have no comprehension of your people.”

“Right back at ya, buddy.” I started to slowly shuffle my way backward as the demon seemed to be closing in on me.

Stewart stopped his stalking of me long enough to look at Daniel and Dev. “And the two of you are panting after her? Someone is going to have to explain that to me. At least I can somewhat understand the vampire. She has that special blood you crave. She can make you strong. But you, faery, explain the fascination the human girl holds. I can see she’s vaguely attractive, but she’s certainly not in your league. Yet you fear for her. Even now I can feel your anxiety for her. You really hope that I don’t break her. You and the vampire would exchange your lives for her pathetic human one. It doesn’t seem like a fair trade to me.” He looked between the men and then suddenly turned to Neil, frowning. “Not you, too, puppy. I thought better of you.”

“In a heartbeat.” Neil crossed his arms over his muscled chest. “She’s my friend. I’ll do what I need to do.”

Stewart looked back at Dev as though waiting for an answer.

“I haven’t slept with her yet,” Dev said bluntly.

I shot Dev the dirtiest look I had in my repertoire. He shrugged and smiled sheepishly. I forgave him because I knew what he was doing. He was trying not to give the demon any emotion. It was already apparent this Stewart was an empath. He thrived on emotion, the nasty kind. We needed to stay as unemotional as possible, or he could use it against us. The menace was heavy in the air. All it would take was for one of us to panic and he would have us.

And my panic was only inches from the surface.

“And she’s the vampire’s whole world,” the demon said quietly as though he truly pitied Daniel. He studied Daniel for a moment. “But she doesn’t give you what you need, does she? You’re Vampire. She is obviously a companion. I can barely look at her, she’s so bright. It should be easy, but nothing is easy for you, is it? Everyone on the Hell plane is concerned with you, Mr. Donovan. You’re different, and different in the vampire world is bad. You could say you’re the talk of the town. So when I found out you happened to be involved with Brix, well, you understand I had to learn what was going on. And I had to find out why he wanted that box.”

“Do you know what it does?” The longer I could keep him talking, the more time Daniel had to recover from being shot forty times. I glanced at him, waiting for some sign of what he wanted me to do. I planned the heists. Daniel got us out of hot water.

Stewart never took his eyes off Neil. “Not a clue. I just know that if he wants it, I have to keep it from him. That really won’t do.”

Dev raised his pistol and tried to fire. Stewart turned to him, and with a simple flick of his wrist, the pistol flew across the room. Dev looked down at his empty hand dumbly and then back to the demon. The demon smiled before flicking his wrist a second, more decisive time. This time it was Dev who flew across the room. He hit the far wall face first and slid down.

I tried to run. I tried to get to him. I needed to make sure he was all right, but Stewart was standing before me with one hand held out, and I found that movement was impossible. I couldn’t get a single muscle to comply. My feet felt nailed to the floor, my hands at my sides. I had to concentrate just to breathe.