Steal the Night (Thieves #5)(136)

“I need to get him out of there and take a look at him,” I said quietly. “He needs food and water.”

The vampire’s dark eyes were calculating. “I think not. The faery’s body didn’t seem to move Donovan much. He killed another two of my vampires while you slept and he stole Rose. I was going to use her as payment to a loyal subject. Now I have to come up with something else. This one was his servant. Perhaps his death will mean something to the king.”

“He won’t care,” I lied quickly. “He and Neil haven’t worked together for a very long time. Neil turned his back on Danny and Danny won’t forgive him. He only lets Neil stay around because he’s my pet.”

Louis laughed, a nasty sound. “Of course. So I get to be the bad guy once more. It seems to be the role you have me cast in. You blame me for the prince’s death and now it seems I am cruel even to your little pets. I don’t think I can win with you, companion. Perhaps it’s time I cut my losses.”

Some big part of me panicked at that thought. He could do it, and I had always known he could. He could decide I was far too much trouble and slit my throat and toss me on Daniel’s doorstep, but I doubted he would do it himself. He would let one of the guards do it because no vampire would waste what I could give them. Then again, the sun had only been down for a few minutes. He must have run to find me so quickly. I had to gamble that he was trying to get the upper hand.

Pushing down the bile that threatened to rise at the thought of what I was about to do, I stood. Neil whimpered at my feet and it was a sad, pathetic little sound. I glanced down and I could have sworn that wolf winked at me. He knew what I had to do and he would play his part, too.

I walked up to Louis and got close enough so I knew he could smell me, hear my heart beating in my chest, see the pulse quickening at my throat. My voice was slow and the words honeyed. “If you’re going to kill me, Louis, please make it quick. I would prefer not to suffer. I haven’t done anything to you but give you my blood, my body. I think I deserve a quick death.”

I stood there as he watched me like a hawk watches a fluffy bunny right before she becomes dinner. His eyes told me he wasn’t thinking about how to kill me anymore. “If I allow the wolf to live, what do I get, companion?”

“Louis, you don’t have to negotiate with me,” I replied, my voice soft. “I’m already yours.”

Louis looked around and realized the two guards were listening to everything we said.

“Out,” he barked and the shifter and Trent walked away, closing the door behind them. I knew in that instant that I had him. If he didn’t want to look weak in front of his employees, then he wasn’t really thinking about killing me.

The vampire walked around me and toward the cage where Neil lay. He regarded the wolf seriously. “He doesn’t look like he’s doing well.”

“Yes,” I explained. “He isn’t on vampire blood and he wasn’t the strongest wolf to begin with. As you can see, whatever Stewart did to him has weakened him further. Oh, Louis, he isn’t a threat to anyone.”

He stared for a moment and seemed to come to a decision. “If I allow him to join you in your rooms, you would vouch for his good conduct?”

Neil’s tail started thumping and I nodded my head vigorously. “I promise. He’ll be good. I’ll be good. I’ve lost so much. Please, just let me have this one thing.”

The vampire’s hands found my shoulders and he held me carefully. He glared down at me, the full extent of his will my way. “No more grieving, Zoey. I’m sick of tears. You’ll do your job. You will warm my bed and you will do it willingly. You just laid beneath me the last time. I found it unsatisfying. I want your passion. I want what you gave to Daniel.”

He wanted me to make passionate love to him when my husband probably hadn’t even been buried yet. I knew Daniel wouldn’t send his body back to the sithein. Dev belonged on the Earth plane, where he’d been happiest. He belonged with us. We would be the ones who would truly mourn him. We deserved to keep his body close. Daniel would send him back to Dallas where we could see where he was buried, where I could take our children to visit.

“Zoey,” Marini’s voice startled me out of my thoughts. “I said no more tears.”

I felt the wetness on my face and brushed it off my cheeks. “I’m sorry.”

“The pain is still fresh,” Louis conceded, and his eyes were softer now. He crowded me and his hands found my waist. He pulled me close and one hand reached up to tip my chin toward him. “Give me what I need, companion. I’ll be good to you. I’ll make you forget.”

He could never make me forget my faery prince. He could never take his or Daniel’s place, but I went up on my toes and placed a tentative kiss on his lips, pretending all along that they were Danny’s.

Louis swept me up into his arms and he carried me out of the dungeons. He instructed the shifter to feed my wolf and settle him into my rooms comfortably. He practically ran the rest of the way to his apartments. Several vampires tried to stop and ask him seemingly important questions about the war going on all around us, but Louis was horny and didn’t seem to care that his world was falling apart. I was satisfied with the annoyed looks I caught on the vampires’ faces as Louis brushed them off. It was another way I could screw with him.