Steal the Night (Thieves #5)(153)

“Yes, those days before Chad convinced me he drained Dev and I was a widow were really thrilling for the both of us.”

Daniel groaned. “I’m sorry about that. I didn’t know. I thought Chad would tell you what we were doing. But I did hear something about a little incident in a jail cell.”

“He doesn’t have any discretion at all, does he?”

“Not an ounce. He said it was hot. He claims to have made very creative use of the space,” Danny said and I felt his grin against my skin. “So you can see, I obviously deserve a little alone time with my gorgeous wife.”

“And how did you get here?” I asked suddenly because the question popped into my head. I was so happy/pissed off to see Daniel that the fact that he was daywalking hadn’t occurred to me. “Shouldn’t you be just waking up?”

A very interesting thought struck me. Daniel could daywalk when he fed from the sex magic Dev gave off. It was easy for Danny to feed because he was usually in bed with us when Dev started up his mojo, but I hadn’t been around for almost an entire month. Daniel should be back to sleeping in the day unless… “Have you boys been playing some games while the wife was away? There better be video or I’ll be very unhappy.”

Daniel’s whole body shook with laughter. “There’s no video, baby. Bris can do that thing where he focuses the magic and kind of pumps it straight into my body through his hands.”

“Pretty nice, huh?” I’d seen Bris do it once before. Bris’s version of supercharged magic came out as one long orgasm.

Daniel’s hands came up to fondle my breasts. He sighed. “It was pretty awesome, and it’s kept me strong for days.”

I leaned back because Danny wasn’t going to let me up so I might as well enjoy his attentions. “So no playing around at all?”

“I’m not going to lie to you,” Danny said quietly. “I was damn glad to see him and we’ve been terrified. The truth of the matter is I’m used to sleeping with the two of you. It was hard to sleep by myself so when Dev came back, we shared a room. It made it easier for us to run through all the horrible scenarios of what was happening to you here. It made it easier for us to comfort each other.”

I so wanted to watch that. “Just so you know, you’re going to need to comfort Dev again.”

Danny chuckled. “I suspect we’ll do just about anything you want us to, baby. We get out of here and we’re going to be your slaves. Anything you want, I’m going to make it happen.”

“I’ll hold you to that,” I replied, happy that they had each other. “I wasn’t alone, either. I had Neil.”

“I’ll need to hear that story soon, Z,” Daniel said, turning my head toward him. He kissed me, our lips playing softly across each other. “I was glad to hear he got away. I’m sitting Neil out of this one. Trent will join us, but Neil is going to hunker down in a room with some of our more vulnerable allies and hide until it’s all over. I don’t know how much his time on the Hell plane took out of him, and he isn’t on vamp blood. I don’t want to risk losing him.”

That was fine with me. I didn’t want to risk losing him either.

“You’re sitting out, too.” Daniel’s blue eyes were serious and his mouth turned down like he expected a fight out of me.

I had done my part. I didn’t need to wield a sword. “Absolutely, Danny. Just tell me where I should sit and I’ll do it.”

Daniel let out a relieved breath. “Marcus will come for you when it starts. He’s going to try to get you off the battlefield, but if he can’t he’ll hand you off to Padric and a phalanx of Fae guards. You do what Padric tells you to.”

“In this instance, I will,” I promised, but I didn’t want him thinking he’d gained the upper hand. “Why am I going to be on the battlefield in the first place? Wouldn’t it be easier to just ship me back to London?”

I felt him tense and then he was on his feet, setting me lightly on the ground. “It’s going to be all right, Z. You just follow my lead and everything’s going to be okay.”

Daniel walked into the bedroom and quietly shut the door behind him. The look in his eyes as he closed the door promised he would defend me if he needed to.

The outer door swung open and Louis entered. He scowled at me for a moment before taking a deep breath and plunging in.

“I’m not going to apologize for last night, Zoey,” he said, folding his arms across his chest as he regarded me with dark eyes. “You can’t be surprised I was upset by your pregnancy. I don’t believe you when you say you didn’t know. I think you’ve known all along and that makes me suspicious.”

My heart was pounding. I kept expecting Marini to walk to the door and open it and proceed to call everyone in the catacombs down on Danny’s head. I tried to play it cool and reason with the vampire. “I find it hard to believe you could hold something against me that happened before I became your companion.”

“Do you realize what this means for us, Zoey? Do you understand the insane demands the prince’s relatives are making?”

No, but I was curious. I knew that after Dev had left me he’d joined his mother and Padric in the Council room where the negotiations had run all night long. Dev wanted to make sure Marini didn’t get another chance to beat the crap out of me. I wondered what kind of insane demands “Declan” had made last night. “I’m sure my brother-in-law was difficult, to say the least.”