Steal the Light (Thieves #1)(71)

I didn’t mention the make-out session in the kitchen, and I certainly didn’t point out that he had plans for me. Those plans didn’t mean a damn thing now, so there was no reason to say anything.

“I’m actually kind of hoping it’s the faery.” Daniel turned from the window and walked toward me. He smiled despite the seriousness of the conversation. He put one knee on the bed, and I found myself on my back again. “I would really like to eviscerate him.”

“Danny!” I protested as he started to kiss his way toward a nipple. “He hasn’t done anything. You can’t kill Dev.”

He sighed as my nipple puckered under his thumb. “Watch me, Z. I find out he’s working with either one of those demons and I will…is there a word for slicing someone open, draining them of all their blood and then, because I sure as hell wouldn’t touch it, letting it run out into the street for the rats while I piss in it? I can’t think of a word. I’ll have to make one up.”

I groaned, a mixture of pleasure and annoyance. I tried to sit up, but he really was an immovable object. “Dev isn’t working with demons.”

“There are too many coincidences.” Daniel kissed my breast in short, sweet assaults against my skin. “The first guys had a damn keycard, Z. They knew where we would be and when we would be there. They let us do the work, and then they came in to claim the prize. The only reason your soul isn’t speeding away somewhere is Stewart decided to use some dumbasses. Someone is working with the enemy, and if it’s not Dev then it’s Sarah. God, I love your breasts. I missed your breasts. Hello, breasts.”

I smacked him lightly on the head to get his attention. He looked up and pouted.

“Be serious for two seconds, Danny. It can’t be Sarah, and before you bring it up, it’s not Neil, either.”

“I know it’s not Neil and your two seconds are up.” He settled himself between my legs. He’d already recovered from our earlier activities and was definitely ready to play again. “We can deal with this later, baby. Sun’s going to be up in a couple of hours, and I’m feeling a little hungry.”

I put out a hand to stop him. “Tempting. First, how can you know it’s not Neil? I sincerely suggest you think before you lie.”

He did. Daniel took a moment before he answered, and I found myself vaguely offended.

“Fine.” He rolled off me, helping me sit up so I was facing him on the bed. “No more secrets, then. Neil can’t betray me. He made a blood oath to me two years ago.”

“What?” It came out louder than I actually intended.

“See,” Daniel said, pointing my way. “I knew you were going to be pissed.”

“What the hell is a blood oath?”

“It’s an oath and there’s blood and then he can’t betray us,” Daniel said as though he hoped that would satisfy me. I stared. It was my default move when he hesitated. I stared with arms crossed, and he knew I could keep it up for a long time. He caved. “Okay, fine, but you won’t like this either. When I first came back, I knew I didn’t want to bring you into my world. I thought it was too dangerous for you, but I needed to bring someone in. What you have to understand is…well…it’s like this…how can I put this and not have you hit me? A vampire needs minions.”

I frowned. “I am so not your minion.”

“That’s the point, Zoey. I didn’t want to make you a minion but a vampire needs…people, a crew, call it what you want. Most vampires have a couple of people around them or they’re considered weak, and a weak vampire is…"

“…an unsafe vampire,” I finished for him, wondering for the first time how hard it was to be Daniel. There was obviously a whole political level I hadn’t thought about before. “So you needed people. Why did you pick Neil?”

Daniel settled back, obviously satisfied I wasn’t going to walk out. “Your dad found Neil. You know that, but what you don’t know is he found Neil for me, not you. Your dad understood how dangerous it was for me to be completely alone, so he looked around. It was just a happy coincidence that we needed muscle for the crew. Neil was a street kid and a weak-ass werewolf when we met. He had his ass handed to him almost nightly by the local pack. I’ve never gotten the entire story about his parents, but they were wolves, too, and I guess they were all right with what the pack did to him. They kicked him to the street a long time before. He was going to die, Zoey. They were going to chew him up and spit him out and laugh the whole time. He had one choice if he wanted to live. So he took a blood oath, and in case you hadn’t noticed, those wolves don’t bother him anymore. He’s still an outcast. Now they turn their back on him because he ‘betrayed’ his kind. But they don’t bother him.”

“He takes your blood.” I said it out loud so it was real to me. A blood oath required the taking of blood. Neil took Daniel’s blood into his body and had for as long as I’d known him.

“At least once a week,” Daniel confirmed. “It’s mutually beneficial. Wolves normally hate vampires, so it enhances my reputation to have a wolf beside me. It looks like I’m strong enough to force him to do my bidding, but I don’t even try. I can call Neil, but I certainly don’t have a weird mind-control thing over him. God, I wish. He’s a shitty minion. I think he memorized my credit card number because I apparently spend a lot of money at someplace called Aéropostale. I don’t know what that is.”