Steal the Night (Thieves #5)(122)

“You weren’t his companion,” was all I could say.

“But he seemed to care so very much for you.”

Robert’s old eyes were wise as he stopped his charge. “Rose, dear, it occurs to me that if Mrs. Donovan is to survive this, it’s probably best she plays to the master’s desires. I’m certain the master doesn’t want to hear of her great love for another vampire.”

Rose laughed, a sweet youthful sound. “Of course. That’s very silly of me. I don’t suppose Louis would take very well to Zoey crying over Daniel. It makes me wonder why he allowed the Prince to come along.”

She looked up to Robert for guidance, and I realized the older man acted much like a father to Rose.

“Vampires feed off sexual energy. I have told you this, little one,” Robert explained academically. He turned to me. “Your prince is also a priest, correct?”

“Yes, he’s a High Priest,” I replied.

Robert nodded as though I had confirmed something he had suspected for a very long time. “The rumors are that the sexual energy given off by a faery priest is amazing. It could feed a hundred vampires, make them stronger and capable of doing things they could not when they haven’t fed from the energy. I believe the master wishes to experiment. He believes the Nex Apparatus became stronger once he took the faery prince to his bed.”

I sipped my tea and didn’t comment on that. My mind was going in new and disturbing places. Daniel didn’t begin to daywalk until the day after he, Dev, and I came together. The effect had been quick. The next day Daniel saw the sun for the first time in years. Dev’s power had gotten supercharged since then. With Daniel feeding from Bris’s energy, he no longer needed a daily dose. He walked during the day, free from the restrictions of a normal vampire. He still wasn’t as comfortable as a natural daywalker like Marcus, but he would get there. Would a fertility ritual have the same effect on Louis Marini?

“Mrs. Donovan?” Robert asked and I had the feeling he had been attempting to get my attention for a bit.

“Yes,” I said, pulled from my thoughts.

“It’s late.” Robert stood and lent me his hand to help me up from my chair. “I apologize for my earlier rudeness. My only excuse is my affection for Rose. I’ve been her servant since the day she walked into the catacombs. She’s very dear to me as I have watched her grow. The knowledge that she will be someone else’s responsibility soon was discomforting. I’ll attempt to make your stay here comfortable, but I must go and find other rooms for Rose. It will be dawn soon and we must all be in our beds.”

“Will Louis check?” I asked, suddenly not wanting to be alone in this strange place.

“No, probably not,” the servant admitted.

“Then, please, stay,” I asked. “I would rather not be alone.”

Rose reached over and took my hand. “I’ll stay with you. Come along and I’ll show you our bedroom. Perhaps Louis will allow me to stay until he figures out what to do with me. I can show you things. I can help you. No one ever notices me so they don’t bother to hide things from me. You’ll be surprised at what I know.”

“Do you know about the Blood Stone?”

Robert’s wise eyes narrowed. “Yes, madam. We know of the stone. The vampires were very excited when it was recovered. It was when the master called to say he had the stone that they began to seriously talk about a war against the Nex Apparatus. They say it makes Marini a king.”

“Temporarily.” I looked down so they didn’t see just how interested I was. “I’m merely curious.”

“It’s important to him,” Robert said seriously. His mind seemed to be working overtime. “He would keep it close to him during the night.”

Rose smiled, the act lighting up her face. “But not during the day. He would put it in the safe.”

My eyes filled with tears because twenty-eight years of my life came into focus with one simple phrase. Everything I had suffered through had brought me to this place. The universe, god, fate, whatever you wanted to call it, had carefully moved me into this position and I knew what I had been born to do. I was a thief. I had sat at my father’s knee and learned how to do one thing.

It wouldn’t be strength or superpowers that won this war. It would be me and the sweet science my father had taught me.

“Rose, I’m going to need to know where that safe is.”





Chapter Thirty





“He put you in a jail cell?” I asked, shocked at the sight of Dev behind bars. I’d spent the day sleeping in a comfortable bed, but Dev had been tossed into a cell.

Dev shrugged and sat up, his eyes eating up the sight of me. “I’ve been in worse jails, lover. In my rankings of incarceration holding cells, this is really just below that little town in Montana I got arrested in. They served pie. It was damn fine pie.”

I walked up to the cell and put my hands around the cold bars. “I don’t want to know how many times you’ve been arrested, baby. It would shock me. It makes me think Neil is right about…”

I almost said our babies’ bail fund but I caught myself. I couldn’t say anything else because of the hulking werewolf who stood in the background. He was enormous, taller than Dev, and was at least two fifty, all of it pure muscle. He’d come to escort me down for my thirty minutes with my husband. He’d introduced himself as Trent, but I kind of thought of him as traitor. I wondered how a werewolf could work for a man like Marini, who was trying to subjugate his entire race. As I’d walked around the Council stronghold this afternoon, I’d seen that there were a lot of wolves and shifters who’d been lured with money to betray their brethren.