Steal the Light (Thieves #1)(76)

I pulled that small, sweet baby in close and tried not to sob into her shoulder, so great was the emotion that swept over me. Dev, I’m sure, thought I was overwhelmed with disappointment at the thought that Daniel tricked me, but I knew something Dev didn’t. I looked up at Dev through watery eyes. “Not once in all our time making love did I think of a baby. It never crossed my mind, Dev.”

“Then what…” Dev closed his mouth when he hit on the answer.

Daniel wanted the baby. Daniel wanted a baby with me so much that his desire had filled the box and caused the change. We could have many of the things we dreamed of when he was alive. We could be together. We could love each other. But we could never have the babies we dreamed of. I knew that the baby I held in my arms was something magical and didn’t belong to me, but in some small way she was mine and she was Daniel’s, and I had to do right by her.

“I need to get her home.” I wiped my eyes with my free hand. “Will you help me?”

“What do you mean?” For the first time since he’d walked into the room, he seemed unsure of himself. “Halfer wants that child. You have to give her to Halfer, or he’ll take you. If you don’t give her up, your contract is broken.”

“I need to find the faeries,” I said, smiling sadly. Those faeries were going to be pissed. I could only hope they would let me live long enough to explain who she was. “They can take her to where she belongs. They can take her where Halfer can’t touch her.”

Dev was silent for a moment. “Are you telling me you’re willing to go to Hell for some faery child you don’t even know? Please think seriously about this, Zoey. If you do this, you’ll go to Hell, and there is no coming back.”

“I don’t have to think about it.” I was going to give her back before I knew where she’d come from. Knowing she was a piece of Daniel’s desire did nothing but make my will stronger.

Dev frowned as he studied the child. “Do you really think Daniel is going to let you do this? He’ll move heaven and earth to make sure his prize doesn’t get taken away. You’re saying you can make that decision for both of you?”

“I’m saying that I know Daniel Donovan, and I know what decision he would make.”

Dev came close, and before I could do anything about it, he kissed me. Even having experienced what I had last night with Daniel, I have to admit Dev’s kiss was sweet. He put his forehead to mine, and I felt a connection. “I wish we’d met some other time, some other place, because you’re really one hell of a woman, Zoey Wharton. While the thought of helping out faery kind goes against my nature, if you want this, I will help you. I’ll do it because it pleases you.”

He took a small step back.

“She didn’t make any mistakes.” I looked into her big green eyes as she tried to eat my hair. I pulled it out of her mouth. “She was just waiting to go somewhere and be something good. She didn’t ask for me to steal her. The truth of the matter is I’m not a good person, Dev. I’m a thief. If I got the chance to do things differently, I probably wouldn’t because it’s all I know. So don’t waste any tears on me. Let me do my good thing before I go out.”

I didn’t realize we weren’t alone. I was caught up in the emotion. It was a mistake I’d been making over and over again since the day I met Lucas Halfer. When I saw Sarah come through the door, I knew I’d made the same mistake again. I really should have listened to Daniel because he was right about one thing. Someone on our crew had betrayed us.

She stood in the doorway with her pink bob and sad eyes, and she held a gun which she pointed straight at my head.

“I’m so sorry, Zoey,” she said. “But I’m not going to be able to let you do that.”





Chapter Twenty-One





I remember vividly the day I met Sarah Tucker. I’d known Neil for a couple of months, and we’d run two small-time jobs together. They were what I like to think of as starter jobs, or auditions. They were little jobs for chump change that didn’t involve much risk. I certainly didn’t want to go into a big, dangerous job with someone I didn’t know, but Neil had been a natural. I realize now that the strength and agility were a gift from Daniel, but the inherent knowledge of what to do and when had come from Neil himself. It was fine with me and Daniel and Neil for several months. We were comfortable and happy. Then we were offered thirty thousand dollars to steal an amulet for a witch. It was a good wage, and we needed the money. We found ourselves quickly out of our league as the amulet was protected magically.

It was then that Neil mentioned a girl he’d met at a club. Her name was Sarah, and she was a witch.

In my world, witches tend to come in two varieties – the “crazy bitch” kind and the “bunnies, kitties, duckies” kind. The first you really don’t want to mess with because they WILL cut you. The second tend to love nature and be concerned about their karma banks. While crazy bitch witch might not have any problem with stealing, she also probably doesn’t play well with others. Someone on the crew will more than likely try to kill her. The white witch usually doesn’t want to have anything to do with thievery as they expect it to come back on them threefold.

Sarah was different. I knew it the minute she walked into the restaurant with her electric blue hair and bright smile. There was nothing of the pretentious “I am one with the goddess crap” I’d come to expect from the witches I’d known. Witchcraft was just part of her world. She had grown up with it all around her.