Steal the Night (Thieves #5)(8)

“That is lie number two,” the vampire said forbiddingly. “Keep this up, Zoey, and the night won’t go well for you.” My frustration must have shown through because the vampire reached out and took my hand. “Come and sit. Perhaps a drink will allow the truth to flow more freely from your lips.” He called over the bartender. “Vodka, I believe.”

The bartender nodded. He knew me and what I liked. I gave the shapeshifter a look that tried to convey my comfort with the current situation. If I’d been talking, I was sure Louis would have pointed out lie number three.

“So, Zoey, where are Daniel and Devinshea this evening?” I hated the way he said my name. It was intimate and spoke of a relationship we didn’t have and I didn’t want. I preferred our previous formality.

I was going for honesty on this one. The last thing I needed was Marini thinking Danny and Dev were out doing something subversive. It was the one time they weren’t. “They’re indisposed.”

I said that last word with a certain emphasis to let Marini know they were doing something naughty.

“Truly?” Marini asked, not hiding his surprise. “They didn’t invite you to their little party? I find it hard to believe my Nex Apparatus is upstairs f*cking his lover while his wife is down here with me.”

I shook my head. “I don’t think they’ll be doing anything like that this evening. Dev finally managed to get drunk enough that he passed out before he got to the good stuff. Danny passed out long before Devinshea.”

Marini laughed long and loud. “You sound very much like a harried wife. So Daniel discovered that little vampire secret. It’s very hard, you know. The person who donates must have an unusually high capacity for liquor. If, say, I wanted to use your blood to get that sweet high, you would be dead from alcohol poisoning before I could even taste the liquor. Your faery prince must have a legendary tolerance.”

“Yeah, well, he doesn’t have much tolerance for blood loss,” I muttered.

“Your husbands have been very naughty boys,” Marini said, and he stopped to gauge my reaction. I opened my mouth to protest but he stopped me. “Think carefully before you react. I wouldn’t like another lie to pass those sweet lips of yours.”

“Yes,” I said finally. “My husbands have been rather obnoxious tonight. I fear it will be even worse tomorrow.”

“So your faery prince is not so disengaged as he wanted me to believe.” Dev always played the idle, negligent lover around Marini. “I heard of the pagan rites performed at the werewolf gathering last year. Should I offer congratulations? I’m not so sure. You’re Vampire property. I don’t know how much I like you being tied to Faery. It could cause trouble down the road.”

I was very sincere in my response. “I assure you, I married Dev for love. I don’t want to be tied to Faery. And Dev and his brother are fighting again, so I wouldn’t expect that the Seelies would even care if anything ever happened to us.”

It was true. When we left Faery, I was tied to a tribe, but it wasn’t the Seelies. King Angus of the Unseelie had allied himself with both Dev and Daniel, but I decided not to mention that little tidbit.

The vampire weighed my words and pinned me with his dark eyes. He finally nodded and sat back, crossing one leg over his knee. “I believe you, chère. You’re very young and foolish, all three of you, if you believe it will work in the end. The prince should have been kept as a lover and nothing more. Daniel will regret it. Perhaps not. Perhaps he will regret other things.”

He let those enigmatic words hang as the bartender brought me an icy cold martini just how I liked it, with two plump olives. I took a long sip as Chad came to sit beside me.

“Mrs. Donovan,” he greeted me. “Or is it Quinn now?”

Well, at least I knew who told Marini about my marriage. It would have been nice if he had kept that to himself. “In the vampire world it’s easiest to be Mrs. Donovan.”

“Of course,” Chad said flatly. “Daniel’s claim is the one we recognize. You can play house with the faery all you like, but no vampire will recognize his claim on you.”

“Though I wonder how being married to the luscious Zoey would change the prince’s mind should anything happen to Daniel. In the past, he has been adamantly against belonging to a vampire. I wonder if he would follow his pretty little wife should she require another vampire master,” Louis pondered. “He might simply think he could find the nearest sithein and hide her from us.”

Chad tsk tsked that suggestion. “That wouldn’t do, master. She’s far too sweet to let her rot away in some Faery mound with a man who could never truly appreciate her. Speaking of appreciation—where’s that little werewolf who follows you around like a lapdog?”

I was startled at his tone. I turned to see Chad looking perfectly serious. I wanted to slap him and ask him why he would talk about his boyfriend like that. Instead I turned away, for once finding it easier to look at Marini. “He’s upstairs.”

“Mr. Thomas was very pleased with the hospitality he was shown in Colorado when he brought you the information on that assignment I had for you,” Marini explained. “He said the little wolf was very…accommodating.”

“I thought they got along pretty well.” I would have to keep this conversation to myself if I wanted it to stay that way. Neil wouldn’t like to be referred to as a lapdog.