Steal the Night (Thieves #5)

Steal the Night (Thieves #5)

Lexi Blake



Chapter One





Neil howled his pain to the world, the sound chilling my soul. I turned, my weapon in hand. Too far. The distance between us was too great. There was no way I would ever be able to get to him in time. I stood on the blood-stained floor, looking at my trusted friend, and there was nothing I could do to save him. He would fall beneath the strange creature, and I would never see him again. It was sad because our adventures felt as though they had just begun.

If only we hadn’t gone into the dungeon. We’d been too trusting. We should never have listened to the wizard. He’d promised us great treasure if we only managed to get through the dreaded dungeons of Darkmoore Keep. We ignored all the signs that foretold our doom. The five of us had laughed mightily at the old woman who pleaded with us not to continue on. She warned us, but we were young and arrogant. That treasure could make our reputations and our fortunes would be set. We’d been so sure of our strength. It was going to cost us now.

At least one of us would fall.

The enormous creature screamed his rage and Neil tried valiantly to raise his sword and vanquish the foul beast. Beside me I felt Dev attempt a spell. He called forth his magic and sent it slamming into the huge bear-like creature trying to take our Neil from us. Nim wept at the unfairness of it all. She sent an arrow into the monster’s torso, but that only made it angrier. Zack threw a knife and it hit the beast in the leg, but it barely noticed. His odd, beaked face opened and emitted a sound of pleasure as he tore into Neil’s flesh and his blood began to spill out upon the floor.

“OMG!” Neil shrieked, pulling me out of my imagination. “I would never be killed by anything called an owlbear. What the hell is that anyway? That’s the stupidest thing I ever heard.”

“Dude.” Daniel’s head fell back, his exasperation obvious. It wasn’t the first time he’d gone over the rules to the game. “You missed your saving throw. You’re dead. You needed a ten and you rolled a seven. You died in the dungeons because the owl bear ate you while protecting its treasure.”

Neil frowned and looked down at the offending die. “I don’t want to be eaten by a weird thing.”

Dev giggled. “After all the crap you eat, it’s fitting.”

Neil turned on Dev. “You were supposed to use a spell and save me. What kind of mage are you?”

“A drunk-ass one,” I posited, which once again sent my husband into a fit of laughter. I attempted to stare him down, but I don’t think he cared.

“He can’t roll either.” Danny seemed to be even more drunk than Dev. “This is the worst campaign I’ve ever run. Dev sucks. He’s not even following the storyline. He just keeps f*cking around with his mini.”

Dev looked up, his gorgeous green eyes mischievous. He had taken the miniature that represented my character and put it in some very tawdry positions with his own. “I want to know when my character gets to f*ck Zoey’s character.”

“I told you, man. It’s not that kind of game,” Danny explained like he’d been through this a thousand times. “Seriously, do you think I’d invite Neil and Zack along if we were playing sex games with our wife?”

“Our characters don’t have sex?” Nim asked, her lips curving into a naughty little smile. “That is disappointing.”

Danny gave the thousands-of-years-old nymph a drunken smile, his dimples on full, heart-stopping display. “Sorry. You know we like to keep those things a little more on the private side.”

Dev sighed. “I can’t get Dan interested in public sex. There’s even a club here in Dallas. He won’t let us go.”

Dev and Daniel continued arguing about someplace called Sanctum, but my brain was somewhere else. Two months had passed since we left Faery, and every day I worried a little more. We’d come home to Ether and settled back into the penthouse. Dev and Daniel agreed to take two weeks to get our lives back in order before we decided on what to do with the Blood Stone I’d found in Faery. Time runs differently in a sithein and though we spent roughly six weeks on Dev’s home plane, a full nine months had passed on the Earth plane. Time always moves more slowly there, but sometimes it’s a couple of days longer and sometimes whole months can pass. Dev had to dive back into his businesses and Daniel had to make his contacts aware he was back at home.

It was supposed to take two weeks, three tops, they promised me and then we would head to England. Nim had left the Faery plane in order to lead us to Merlin’s tomb. It turned out she was the legendary Nimue, who had imprisoned the wizard Merlin. She’d also been known as Vivienne, the Lady of the Lake from Arthurian legend, and she’d decided Daniel was the next warrior worthy of carrying the sword Excalibur.

Nim was sure Merlin could help. We were hoping the old guy would be happy enough to be freed that he would be willing to solve Danny’s little problem. The only trouble with that scenario was the fact that Nim was having trouble remembering exactly where she had stashed “the old goat.” Apparently the British Isles had changed a little in the past millennium.

The waiting made me anxious. There was a small device on Daniel’s heart. It was filled with silver and if Louis Marini wanted to, all he had to do was press a button to kill my vampire. I only knew about the device because Marini was using it to blackmail me into working for him. I’d completed my first assignment. The Blood Stone Marini forced me to steal from the Faery plane was secure in the safe in Dev’s office. After numerous Internet searches and questioning everyone I could safely question, I still knew very little about the jewel. I could call Marcus Vorenus, Daniel’s patron and a Council member, but he wasn’t answering his phone. It was starting to drive me a little crazy.