Steal the Night (Thieves #5)(84)

“Trust me, the last thing I would want if we found Summer would be to leave you. I have no intention of having the women outnumber me.” Daniel tried to smile at Dev, but he seemed to avoid his eyes.

“Why do we need Stewart?” I asked Nim.

“Because he’ll be able to see the veil better than I will,” Nim admitted. “And I need his blood along with the sword to wake Myrddin. The wizard is the child of an incubus and a devout woman. I need something from each plane to call to him. Excalibur is a gift from the angels and Stewart here…”

“Came straight from Hell,” I finished for her.

“Our prophecies have all pointed to the next king being the one to free the wizard from the prison,” Ronald interjected after a short silence. “The question becomes what is the Order to do if the wizard is supposed to walk free? It has been our quest to ensure it didn’t happen.”

“Until such time as he was truly needed,” Nim corrected. “That time is now. The Order is still necessary. The Order was comprised of the Knights of the Round Table who survived Arthur’s final battle. The Order’s main objective has been to guard the wizard’s sleeping place, but its true mission is and always has been to support the King of the Sword. You are his knights, an honor passed down through the generations. The time has come again and the Order will stand behind Excalibur.”

Ronald put a hand over his heart and bowed his head. “We will do anything the King needs.”

Daniel chuckled, but there was no real humor in it. “Don’t offer the impossible, Sir Ronald. My little war isn’t going well. I’ve been declared an outlaw by the Council. I’m on the run and unable to go home. Even now, my vampires are going into hiding.”

“Hugo is making arrangements for Justin, Jean-Marc, and the others to meet us in New York. We need to regroup.” Dev seemed calmer now.

“But Your Highness, there’s no place more secure than our headquarters,” Ronald replied. “We have no affiliations with any vampire and we’re heavily fortified. If your intention is to raid the Council’s home base, then you need to be close to Paris. We have everything you need.”

“Except our allies,” Dev pointed out. “We need to bring the wolves and the Fae with us if this is going to work. We need a united front.”

“Agreed, but perhaps the Order is more capable of handling our exile than an endless procession of borrowed homes until we’re finally ready,” Daniel mused. “Louis wouldn’t think to look there and it would keep our vampire allies’ hands clean until the battle.”

“I can have everything ready for you,” Ronald promised. “I’ll begin working on it immediately. As I said, your knights stand ready to provide you with anything you need.”

“Do you know what I need right now? I drove all night and if I can’t meet with the wizard until nightfall, then I would like to rest,” Daniel said pointedly. He stood and took my hand. “Devinshea, can I trust you to not kill the head of our knights?”

Dev frowned. “I suppose so.”

“Good,” Danny said shortly. “Then do what you do best and organize our exile. I’m very hungry. You’ll join us when you’re done?”

“It’s a small bed, Daniel,” Dev pointed out.

“Then we’ll have to cuddle. We will not have separate rooms. Not here and not at the headquarters. We stay together. Always,” Daniel said over his shoulder as he led me away. “And Stewart, leave Dev alone. Go find Neil and bug him.”

“Absolutely, Your Highness,” Stewart said with a grin. He was out the door in a flash.

“That was mean,” I complained as I followed Daniel up the narrow stairs.

“Neil still couldn’t hear the last time I saw him,” Daniel pointed out. “Deafness will make Stewart infinitely more tolerable.”

Daniel pulled me up the last two stairs, and before I knew what was happening, his mouth was on mine, devouring me. His tongue plunged in, dominating mine. I let my hands sink into his hair, loving the silky feel of it. I’d almost lost him. I’d thought I had. I’d almost lost him and I let that wash over me because he was still here and still in my arms. Pure emotion drove me as I held him close, every cell in my body responding to him. He was my husband, my first love. I couldn’t remember a time when I didn’t love Danny.

I kissed him with everything I had. I didn’t care that there was an army downstairs. There was only me and Daniel.

He pulled my legs up and around his waist and then my back was up against the wall. He pressed his body against me, grinding his erection on my pelvis. I lit up, pleasure flaring along my skin.

“God, I need to be inside you, Z,” Daniel groaned against my mouth. “I don’t want any of this. I didn’t want to be the freaking king, much less this. I just wanted to be your husband. That’s all I ever wanted.”

I wound myself around him, holding him tight. “I know you don’t want it, baby, but we need you. You’re the only one who can do this.”

He was the only one who could save us all, the only one who could bring everyone together.

Daniel opened the door to the tiny bedroom. He walked us inside, seeming to not feel my weight at all. We fell against the double bed together.

“And I need you,” Daniel said, his eyes dark. “Take off your clothes for me. Don’t be a queen. Don’t be a nexus point. Don’t be a companion. Just Daniel and Zoey, okay? Just for a little while.”