Steal the Sun (Thieves #4)(95)

Daniel shook his head. “I’m with the wee folk on this one. I thought we agreed on AC/DC. I hate the Black Eyed Peas.”

“Only because you don’t dance,” I said, wiggling around. He wouldn’t even dance with me at Ether. He claimed vampires didn’t have a sense of rhythm, but I’d seen plenty of vampires make idiots of themselves on the dance floor. The good news was Dev moved like a dance-floor god.

“I don’t know what your problem is. I like it,” Tully said cheerfully. “I especially like the way it makes her jiggle.”

“I’m getting cranky again, Z.” Daniel glared at the faery.

“Yes,” Lee said, putting a tankard to his lips. “It’s beer. Nice.”

“Ya bastard,” Lefty said, or maybe he was Righty. I had trouble because they were dancing around each other. “That’s me ale.”

Lee took a long swallow. “You should try it, Zoey. It’s some good stuff.”

A good ten minutes passed in sociable music and dancing. I gave the beer a try and pronounced it delicious. Tully sat down with a tankard of his own, still swearing he had no idea what we were talking about.

“Three wishes,” one of them said.

Both of the leprechauns looked like they were tiring. The music I’d put together for the occasion was all dance music, with fast beats. They didn’t have the option of waiting for a nice slow song. Their legs would go until they fell off.

“Not a chance.” I hoisted the tankard to my lips.

It was an old ploy. When the leprechaun got caught, he offered his captor three wishes to set him free. But they liked to play fast and loose with their wishes. It always seemed like a good deal, but it would go bad in the end. For example, if you requested a nice chicken sandwich you would probably find yourself with a case of salmonella poisoning. It wouldn’t hit until the leprechauns were long gone, but they were little cons to the end.

“Come on,” the other pled. “There has to be something you want.”

“Yes,” I agreed. “I want the Blood Stone.”

“God.” Daniel groaned from where he sat on a tree stump. “Please just give her what she wants. I think Beyoncé is next. I can’t handle Beyoncé.”

“I’m with Donovan,” Lee injected. “This is cruel. We should just kill them. I’ll get a good scent trail on them and we’ll find their hiding place. It might take longer, but anything’s better than having to listen to whatever the hell is coming out of that stereo.”

“They’ll never break,” Tully said surely. He looked at his cohorts. “Stay strong, boys. I know these human machines. It will run out of power soon.”

“Easy for you to say, Tully,” one of them panted, his legs moving.

Neil danced around and put his hands up because he considered himself a single lady until someone put a ring on it. He pulled out my spare, fully charged battery pack. We planned for all contingencies. “Three more hours! We haven’t even gotten to Lady Gaga yet, Z. I can’t wait to take a ride on her disco stick.”

Daniel went paler than usual. “Please, just let me beat them until they talk. I didn’t do anything wrong. Why are you torturing me, baby?”

“I give up,” one of them said.

“Oh, thank the goddess,” the other cried.

Tully cursed, but accepted it with a rueful shake of his head. My hand hovered over the pause button. Daniel and Lee each caught a dancing leprechaun and then the forest was quiet again.

“I miss Ether,” Neil pouted.

“I know you do.” I sympathized. I looked at the little cons. “Spit it out or I’ll bring out the big guns. I have show tunes on this puppy. Who wants to listen to Legally Blonde, The Musical?”

Daniel pulled his leprechaun up and gave him a full view of his fangs. “If you make me listen to musicals, I’ll kill you myself.”

“It’s in a cave on the mountain closest to the door between the sitheins,” the one Danny was holding spat out.

“There goes two damn years of work.” Tully cursed into his ale. He looked bitterly up at me. “I was going straight. I was. I was getting out of the game with that money.”

“Sure you were,” I said sarcastically. Once a con…

He grinned. “Nah, I wasn’t. I was gonna steal it myself. You’re probably saving me a ton of trouble. They can be right mean when you cross them.”

Neil frowned at our talking leprechaun. “A mountain is a big place.”

“It’s in a cave,” he said. “About halfway up on the Seelie side of the mountain. It’s in the cave at the back. We hide all our profits there.”

“If you’re lying…” Daniel started.

“Yeah, yeah,” the one in Lee’s hand said. “You’ll track us down and kill us with those fangs of yours.”

“Nope,” Daniel said with a ferocious smile. “I’ll let her have you.”

I smiled brightly and waved.

“Couldn’t ya kill me instead?”

I pulled out one of several bags of coins Declan had been gracious enough to put in our gear. It was what the leprechauns loved—gold. “For your trouble, gentlemen. This is more than the stone is worth. And I have no intention of taking anything but the Blood Stone, so you’re coming out on the heavy end of this particular deal. Good luck.”