Steal the Sun (Thieves #4)(23)

I couldn’t stop the startled burst of laughter that came from my throat. There was only one vampire she could possibly be talking about.

Dev frowned beside me. “You slept with Marcus Vorenus?”

Miria smiled brilliantly. “Yes. That was his name, I believe. He was a beautiful man from Rome, if I recall. So gallant. He knew how to treat a lady.”

“Well, you and Zoey should swap stories,” Dev said with a pout.

Marcus Vorenus was Daniel’s patron, and he had zero problems with flirting with me. He’d let me know that he was more than willing to accommodate me in any way I needed. Daniel tended to roll his eyes and wave it off. Dev pretty much hated the guy.

“I’ve never slept with Marcus,” I protested. Dev and Marcus were polite to one another, but Dev still hadn’t forgiven Marcus for trying to kill him. He also didn’t like the fact that Marcus referred to him as Lancelot.

“Not for lack of trying on his part,” Dev replied shortly. “He is always trying to get into my wife’s pants.”

“I never liked that vampire.” Padric clasped a hand on Dev’s shoulder in sympathy. “Vampires shouldn’t be able to walk about in the daytime.”

“It makes it harder to stake them,” Dev replied with a nod.

Miria leaned toward me, ignoring the men. “You should have him give you gifts. He gave me the loveliest jewels. Once he gave me a ruby the size of my fist. He said it brought out my eyes.”

There was more talk but I didn’t notice. A ruby the size of her fist. Yeah, that pretty much summed up the Blood Stone. Inside I was shaking my head. I should have known Marcus would be behind everything. I was being forced to work for Louis Marini because Marcus needed to steal jewelry for his mistress.

Or was there something else behind it? If that jewel was important enough, he might have stolen it to get it away from Marini. I still wasn’t sure that the jewel didn’t have some sort of magical property. What better place to hide something than another plane? Miria later closing the mounds would only be a problem if he planned on using the gem himself. Marcus and I would be having a long talk the minute I hit the Earth plane and got cell phone coverage again. He had some explaining to do.

“I’d love to see the jewels Marcus gave you sometime,” I heard myself saying. I’d been told my mother-in-law might know something about the jewel. If she could just hand it over, my job would be so much easier.

Dev stiffened slightly beside me as he followed my logic. He’d read the file from Marini as well. “Yes, that is an excellent idea. Zoey loves fashion and jewels. You should show her your collection.”

Miria nodded. “Of course, though Padric forced me to give the Blood Stone away. It was my favorite. He pouted until I relented. I gave it to a woman in town. She had done me a service.”

Well, that answered one thing. The Blood Stone was here in Faery. I could do the job.

“Zoey,” Lee said, suddenly stirring. He started down the hall back toward the ballroom. “Something’s wrong. Come on.”

Dev took my hand and we ran in behind Lee. Dev didn’t question him. There was no way I would ask him what was happening. If Lee told me something was wrong, I would follow him. His instincts were that good.

We reached the archway that connected the gallery to the ballroom and I saw the problem. There was a huge crowd standing to the side of the dance floor. The band had stopped playing, and every single person was trying to get a good look. Dev forced his way in, and I realized the crowd was surrounding a single body.

I watched as Zack picked up the unconscious man.

“Daniel!” I yelled even as someone was calling for a healer.

My heart took a nose dive, and Dev ran for his partner.





Chapter Six





Thirty minutes later, we were comfortably settled into our room, having left the drama of the ballroom behind us. There were still a ton of people milling about outside our room waiting for the latest gossip, but it was easy to forget about them now that we’d shut the door. It was hard to forget how scared I’d been though.

“I didn’t faint,” Daniel growled from his place on the big bed.

“Let’s call it a manly loss of consciousness,” Felix offered.

“Dude, he fainted. Just like the southern belle he is. He had a fit of the vapors.” Dev sounded more like himself than he had all day. He smirked down at Daniel, but I knew he’d been worried, too. He’d taken Daniel out of Zack’s arms, preferring to carry his partner himself. He’d carried Daniel all the way to our rooms and called for a healer. He’d been holding my hand when Daniel woke up.

Now they were back to their normal, deeply masculine relationship.

“Fuck you, Dev,” Daniel shot back. But I noticed he didn’t try to get off the bed. Daniel laid back in our enormous bed and let his head rest against my breast. I cuddled him. It was what he’d asked for the minute he woke up. His skin was pale against the red of my dress. I stroked his hair and he snuggled down. It had been like this when Danny was alive. When he wasn’t feeling well, he turned into a baby who needed an enormous amount of attention. “It’s your fault. You made me get in that stupid coffin.”

Dev held his hands up in complete confusion. “I did everything I could to make that coffin comfortable for you and all you can do is complain. Do you know how hard it was to get the lighting installed so you could read your comic books? People don’t typically put lighting in coffins, man. Besides, you’ve been out of the coffin for hours. How is this related?”