Steal the Light (Thieves #1)(9)

“Greetings to Zoey Wharton, you are a welcome guest,” Halle said as I ducked under the bridge. “It has been far too long.”

I smiled. Halle was sweet and always had kind words for me. Of course, he also liked to eat small house pets, but I wasn’t a poodle, so I felt fairly safe. His wife was infinitely more complex, but I didn’t see her at the moment. I held out the wine and chocolate. “I come bearing gifts for a friend.”

Halle’s dark eyes widened as he took the gifts. He took a deep whiff of the bag containing the chocolate. “Your gifts are always much appreciated, Zoey. Are you alone tonight, or is your vampire with you? He is welcome. I promise there will be no further incidents.”

The last time I’d brought Daniel with me, Halle had had some friends visiting. Needless to say, they had not appreciated a vampire surprising them. It was rather like inviting a lion to a party thrown by twelve antelope, though these antelope had weapons and weren’t afraid to use them. “No, Daniel had other things to take care of tonight. And you have to stop referring to him as ‘my vampire.’ He isn’t mine. I just work with him.”

Halle shook his head as he sat by the fire. “I will never understand human relations. One minute you have a mate, the next they die and the relationship is over. We never let a thing like death keep us from our mates. And Daniel made it easy by rising. It should have been simple, but you humans make things difficult. I know. I have watched many of your reality shows.”

“It wasn’t my choice, Halle,” I said, wanting to get off this subject as soon as possible. Trolls like gossip almost as much as they like a nice roast dachshund.

Of course, trolls could be as tenacious as any hound dog. “Have you tried to talk to Daniel? I’ve heard the transition can be difficult. He did not know he was a vampire. Perhaps he simply needs time to adjust.”

There was good reason Daniel hadn’t known he was a vampire. Vampire lore has been carefully cultivated by the Council in a successful propaganda campaign. The Council has made the public believe that vampires are a myth like the Greek gods or a fifty cent cup of coffee. They have hidden the fact that anyone alive today can be a vampire. There’s no way for a person to tell until after death has occurred. Vampirism is a genetic disease carried by the parents as a recessive gene. The child lives a perfectly normal life until death, and then the vampire gene reanimates the dead tissue after a few hours. The new vampire rises after the disease takes over, and then as long as the vampire has a good supply of blood, he can go on indefinitely.

Yes, I could certainly see where it had been a shock to Daniel’s system, but it hadn’t done me any good either.

“He’s had years, Halle. He was with the Council for three and he’s been home for two.” I took a deep breath and found I simply couldn’t stop. I wouldn’t be able to talk about this with my father. He was too close to Daniel. It didn’t seem fair to talk about him to Neil and Sarah. So Halle, who had watched over us both many times, seemed my best bet. “He told me tonight that the Council approved of me as his companion.”

Halle clucked a bit and shook his head. “Dearling, you don’t know what that would mean.”

But I did. I’d talked to a few people and patched together what I could. In the vampire world, there are two types of women. There are blood dolls and there are companions. It’s the vampire equivalent of a one-night stand versus a long-term, happy marriage. A companion is a woman who serves as wife, and more importantly, dinner. The blood a vampire needs on a day-to-day basis is small. One person can feed a vampire and never suffer ill effects if said vampire isn’t a greedy bastard. Due to the passionate nature of the vampire, most select a companion and mate for the life of the human companion. The vampire sharing small portions of his blood elongates the companion’s life. It keeps the companion young, but in the end, the human body breaks down no matter what you feed it. Vampires without a companion, or who find themselves apart from their companions, use blood dolls. These are women who work at the clubs and make themselves available to vampires for a late-night snack. I like to think of them as convenient, Council-approved whores.

“I understand what it means to be a companion, Halle. And I understand that Daniel is being stubborn.”

Halle took a long breath, an odd weariness stealing over his features. “There is so much you don’t know. Vampires are secret creatures. Even I don’t understand everything about them. Ingrid and I have steered clear. To know vampire secrets is to court the Council’s wrath, but I know that a companion is something a vampire guards zealously. And I’ve heard rumors about true companions. I don’t like these rumors. Daniel is right to keep you off the Council’s radar.”

I didn’t know what he meant by true companion. True or false, I would have taken any title just to be close to Daniel again. But three years of waiting for him followed by two years of a Daniel I barely knew had worn me down. And I hadn’t come here to talk about Daniel.

“Is Ingrid around? I have a couple of questions about an object I’m hoping she’s heard of.”

Halle ran his fingers through his thick hair in an attempt to smooth it down. “She should be back any moment. She went walking. She will be pleased to see you.”

Halle was wearing a large T-shirt and sweatpants, and he attempted to smooth the wrinkles out of his clothes as well. Trolls were very aware of their mates and always attempted to look their best. It was hard, though. Trolls like Halle looked mostly human, but there was always one piece of hair that no matter what they did to it or how much product they tried on it, always stuck straight up. Then there was the tail…