Steal the Night (Thieves #5)(108)

“Won’t let what happen, wolf?” Myrddin asked innocently as he walked in the room. “Is there a threat I should know about?”

Nim and Zack walked in behind the wizard. Zack had gone hunting while Nim had prowled around, looking for edible vegetables in the gardens. The kitchens were woefully understocked.

“There are many threats to my queen’s welfare,” Lee said, baring his teeth in a sure show of dominance. “Don’t worry about it, though. I always take care of them, even when they seem to be friends.”

Nim’s eyes widened, as no one could mistake that threat. “Okay, so Zack found some rabbits for supper and I have managed to put together a nice salad. If you like we can all go downstairs for some food. We need to keep up our energy.”

I glanced back at the beds where my husbands lay.

“They won’t be awake for hours,” Myrddin said.

“I don’t know about hours, but someone said something about food,” Dev said, his voice shaky.

I flew across the room and was in his arms before he could take a breath. I covered his face with “grateful he was alive” kisses.

Dev laughed but even that was a tired sound. “You’re happy, my wife? I feared you wouldn’t be over your fright. The experience was a bit more intense than any of us bargained for.”

I kissed him firmly on the mouth. “I’m ecstatic you’re alive.”

“Daniel is fine?” His green eyes wandered until they saw our vampire laid out on the bed beside him.

Nodding, I reached out and held his hand. “The device is gone and his heart is fine. He hasn’t woken up yet but he’s taking blood. He just needs rest and so do you. You’ve been through a lot. I’ll go downstairs and make you a plate and I’ll feed you myself. Don’t move, Dev.”

He smiled lazily and leaned back against the headboard. “Well, my loving wife, with you as my nurse, I may never move again. I might be in desperate need of a sponge bath.”

I smiled down at him. “I’ll see what I can arrange.”

I tucked him back in and turned to see the wizard looking warily from me to Lee. Smiling brightly, I walked past him and headed down to the kitchens. My husbands were alive. I could allow the wizard a little more life, but his days were numbered.

“Will you be joining us for dinner?” I asked him as we all started down the stairs.

“No,” he replied. “I must think for a while. Now that the king is on the road to recovery, I believe things will happen very quickly. I have a feeling that big events are upon us, and I need to decide how to handle them.”

“Shouldn’t Daniel decide?” I wasn’t able to stop the question from leaving my mouth.

“I must make sure he understands all the possible outcomes,” Myrddin said mysteriously. “I have found that when playing chess, it’s important to think many moves ahead. You must anticipate your opponent’s next move and decide your strategy accordingly, even if that strategy requires some rather odd maneuvering. I will think on it. Good evening.”

Somehow, I was pretty sure he wasn’t really talking about chess.





Chapter Twenty-Six





It was forty-eight hours before Daniel was up and walking. I spent that whole time taking care of Dev, who was the biggest baby about having his heart reach critical mass and come minutes from exploding. He needed someone—that someone being me—to hold his hand. He was too tired to feed himself. He was scared at night and had nightmares and needed me to hold him while he slept. When he mentioned he was too tired to have sex but really needed it and a blow job might be helpful to Daniel because he fed off sexual energy, I just laughed at him.

After that he found the strength to pin me down and take full advantage of the fact that he didn’t have to wear that little piece of dreaded latex. The funny thing was he was right. Daniel woke up about an hour later, his head throbbing and in desperate need of a fix. After a little play time with me—and he got the blow job I wasn’t about to give Dev because his heart had actually come out of his body—he was ready to get out of bed. I had been eating like a horse, anything Nim cooked, because the last thing I needed was to get weak and have Danny’s body try to take up the slack, so I was sure I wasn’t dragging him down.

“Is that a good idea?” Dev asked as he walked in front of Daniel down the stairs toward the main floor of the crystal castle.

Daniel growled a little. “Dev, I’ve been in bed for days. I’m fine. I’m not going to get better if I don’t get up and move around.”

“Well, I felt terrible for days,” Dev said, backing down the stairs. I’m not sure what he intended to do beyond be something Danny fell into if he lost his balance.

Danny’s dimples came out. “That’s ‘cause you’re a wimp, Dev.”

I threw my hands up and moved passed them. “I don’t think it helped that I was so freaked out I promised him anything. I fed the man for a day and a half and rubbed his feet because he said he couldn’t feel them because the operation had screwed up his circulatory system.”

Daniel held his hand up and Dev smacked it. “Nice, Dev,” Daniel said. “I should have thought of that. All I managed to get was a blow job.”

Dev shook his head. “I overplayed my hand and asked for oral too late into the game. She was tired from all my other requests.”