Steal the Night (Thieves #5)(75)

“I’m holding you to that.” We could make babies, too.

“It’ll be good, Z,” Danny promised, but I didn’t like the sound of his voice. It was the tone we use when we want something to be true but don’t think we’ll actually get there. I use the same tone every time I promise myself I’ll lose the ten pounds that would put me in a size six.

Danny sounded like a man who didn’t think he had a future.

We drove the rest of the way in near silence, each of us caught in our own fears. Mine played out over and over again in my head. I was going to lose them both, and it would be my fault. I would fail at whatever I was supposed to do. All my friends and family would suffer because some idiot at the Fate Office made a terrible clerical error when they assigned this shit to me. I didn’t want to be a nexus point. I didn’t want to play with fate or have some grand-ass destiny. I wanted to go to Hawaii with my two hot guys and make babies and be as ordinary as we could possibly be.

I felt Neil’s hand slip into mine, and he squeezed it reassuringly. I leaned into my BFF and rested my head on his shoulder. I had to give whoever had chosen me as this nexus point some props, though. If I had to face all of this crap, at least I had the best friends a girl could ever want surrounding me.

“Whatever happens, Z,” he vowed, “I’ll be there with you.”

The miles passed silently and I knew that I couldn’t ask for more than that.





“Wake up, baby,” Daniel said from the front seat.

I opened my eyes just as the sun was coming up. I stretched as Neil sat up beside me.

“Are we there?” Neil yawned behind his hand.

Daniel nodded shortly. “We’re at the docks. Dev is making sure the captain he hired has everything ready for us. Lee’s trying to get you some breakfast.”

“How far away is this island?” I asked as I got out of the car and caught sight of the coastline. It was stark and from here I could see the island we were trying to get to. Even though it was spring, there was no doubt these waters were cold and the morning air left me chilled. I pulled the sweater I wore tightly around my shoulders. There was a mist on the water and it wasn’t hard for me to believe that island in the fog held some serious secrets.

“It’s only two miles.” Daniel adjusted the sword he was carrying. We wouldn’t be seeing many people from here on out, so Daniel put Excalibur in a sheath along his back. He shrugged into a leather jacket, but he could easily pull the sword with one hand if he needed to. “We’re in someplace called Porth Meudwy. We’ll travel by boat across St. George’s Channel to Bardsey.”

“I thought it was Ynys Ennli.” Neil got out of the car, joining us.

“That’s the original Welsh name.” Daniel repeated the information Dev had told them. I’d heard them talking about it while Neil and I tried to sleep. “Long ago Christians renamed it Bardsey. It means the Island of the Bards.”

“Why didn’t you say so?” Neil asked, irritated as he watched Lee and Zack approach. “That’s so much easier to say than the other way.”

“He’s gotta show off those vamp talents and that brain of his.” Lee passed out the coffee and little packages of pastries. “Sorry, this is all I could find. What I wouldn’t give for a 7-11 right about now. Come on. Dev says the boat’s ready for us.”

I wished I hadn’t downed that coffee fifteen minutes later as the small ferry started across the channel. The boat listing in the heavy waves. It was not doing great things for my digestion.

“Come here, my goddess,” I heard Dev say and he gestured me over to where he and Daniel stood. They didn’t look as green as I felt.

Daniel grinned as he pulled me into the circle of his arms. “You’ve gotta see this, Z.”

I stared down into the waves where Daniel was pointing. I took many a deep breath before I finally realized what those shapes moving through the waves were. They followed the boat and I counted twelve just on this side alone. At first I thought they were dolphins and I grinned, but then one turned. She rolled her body over and I was shocked by the human face solemnly looking up at me.

“That’s a real, live mermaid.” I’d never seen one before. I thought they were extinct or pure myth.

“Yes, it is,” Bris said, taking over suddenly. He leaned his tall body over the bow of the ship, and I had a heart-stopping moment as he placed his hand close to the water. He let his fingers graze the surface and the mermaid smiled a watery smile and allowed her long fingers to brush his before turning back over to swim with the school.

Lee, Zack, and Neil had come over and were staring into the water.

“You can’t eat them,” I growled at Neil because I knew that look in his eyes.

He pouted. “But I like seafood.”

Bris was amused at our exchange. “I wouldn’t try it, little wolf. They look lovely and docile, but they’ve plagued these waters since men first thought to take to the sea. Can you hear their song?”

I listened closely and discovered that the sound I thought was merely waves against the side of the ship had a rhythm and lilt that nothing natural could produce. Once I knew to listen, I could hear the mermaids’ song. It was haunting but also warm and welcoming.

“Are they dangerous?” Lee was always looking for a threat.