Steal the Light (Thieves #1)(66)

His eyes flew open. “What? What tiger?”

There was a sudden roar, and Daniel’s mouth dropped open. I took the opportunity to push harder against his broad back. “Yep, that’s a weretiger. Stewart brought kitties to the party, so if you don’t want to watch me become tiger food, you’ll get your ass in that car.”

“I hate you sometimes, Zoey,” Daniel said sullenly as he struggled to his feet. “I’m tired. I want to die. I can see the light, but does Zoey Wharton let me walk into the light? Hell, no. She has to go and find a tiger to piss off.”

“It’s florescent, Danny.” I draped his arm around my shoulder. It hung there limply as he started to shuffle. “I seriously doubt the light of the universe is florescent.”

He didn’t walk so much as fall into the car. I pushed his feet in and slammed the door. I got into the front seat and punched the gas.

“Hey,” I heard from the backseat. “When the hell did I get a sunroof?”

I turned on to the street and was about to whip out some witty comeback when suddenly there was a body in the seat beside me. It was a big, hulking body dressed in an expensive suit, and I couldn’t help the short scream that escaped my lips.

“Did I surprise you?” Lucas Halfer asked.

“Damn you,” I said under my breath as I got it together and turned left. I needed to get to Daniel’s club. They would be able to help him. I would take him home, but I couldn’t be sure that Michael and Jack the Ripper would be both in residence and willing to help. The club was required to help.

“You’re several millennia too late for that, dear,” Halfer said smugly. “I see you have the Light of Alhorra. I congratulate you on a job well done.”

“No thanks to you. You could have warned me I was getting into a freaking demon turf war.”

“Them’s the breaks, kid. When you steal for a living, you should count on coming in contact with all sorts of unsavory characters.” Halfer gave me a smirk as he motioned to the back seat. “Your vampire is worse for the wear.”

Daniel had gone utterly silent. His body didn’t move.

“I don’t have time to play these games with you. I have to take care of Daniel. Take the bag and go.” I tried to shove the backpack at him as I took the ramp to the freeway. I say tried to, as the pack hit the passenger side door and fell uselessly to the floor. It went right through the demon’s body, which flickered slightly as the object passed through.

“No can do.” Halfer shrugged. “I’m afraid this is a call, not an in-person meeting. I have a few things I need to take care of at home before I can collect my package. Nem…well…let’s just say the little prick you met earlier tonight, has been wreaking havoc down under as well. I can’t leave just yet, so I placed this intimate little call. Protect the box. I’ll take possession at one a.m. tomorrow. Don’t worry about the location. I can find you wherever you are.”

A horrible thought struck me. “Can Stewart find me?”

There would be no place to hide.

Halfer chuckled a little. “Not unless the two of you have a contract.”

“All right.” I glanced down at the clock. It was just after midnight, so all I had to do was play keep-away for twenty-four hours and some change. I took the exit I needed. I was close to the club. I just hoped I could get them to come to the car because Daniel probably wasn’t walking far.

“He’s near death, and not the temporary kind.” The demon looked into the back seat and shook his head. He looked almost concerned. “You don’t have long at all. He needs blood.”

“No shit. I’m trying to get him someplace where I can get just that. I didn’t think to keep a spare bag of blood hanging around, though now that I hear myself saying it, I probably should have.”

The demon ignored my panic-tinged rantings. “If you’re thinking of taking him to the vampire club, you should know it’s the first place the other one would have thought of, too. I know it’s the first place I would look for you.”

“You mean Stewart has men there?” The question came out of my mouth as a desperate plea. Please don’t let the club be compromised. I pleaded silently with whoever would listen. I needed to get Daniel someplace filled with people who knew what the hell they were doing.

Halfer struck me down with a laugh. “If by Stewart you mean my demonic version of Single White Female, then, yes, Stewart has men there. You’ll have to try again, and don’t say your father’s house because that would be location number two on his list. You’ll find Daniel’s place difficult as well. Stewart may be a prick, but he usually has all of his bases covered. He managed to hide his involvement in this enterprise from me until tonight. I tortured some really close friends because of the false trail he laid out.”

Dad’s place had been my next brilliant idea, but what the demon said made sense. Stewart struck me as a guy who would have a plan. Cutting me off from resources was a logical step if he couldn’t take me out at the hotel. Panic welled like bile in my belly. I had nowhere to go and no one I could trust to know what to do. Daniel was dying in the back seat. I was going to fail him. I was going to be driving around and around I-35 when Daniel expired because I couldn’t come up with a way to save him. I was out of options.