by Lexi Blake
I swallowed and really wished Danny was here being interrogated instead of me. I stalled a little. “Henri Jacobs?” He was the only vampire I knew who lived in New York and was loyal to Daniel.
“I met him and his wife through a mutual acquaintance,” Dad acknowledged. “They were eager to be nice to the queen’s father. I had to smile and pretend I knew what the hell they were talking about. Tell me I heard wrong. Tell me Danny isn’t a king and god, girl, tell me he ain’t the fucking Nex Apparatus. Do you know what that is?”
“Death Machine.” It was the traditional name for the vampire who scared the shit out of the other vampires. “It isn’t his fault, Dad. He can’t help his DNA.”
Dad’s fists came down on the table and everything jumped. “No, that ain’t his fault, but the rest of it is. He should have told me. I knew something was wrong when they kept him at the Council for so long. He assured me he was fine when he came back. Do you think I would have sat back and let them turn Danny into an assassin? I’m not helpless, girl. I got some serious contacts.”
“No amount of money would have worked, Dad,” I explained. “I promise you there was nothing any of us could have done. Danny did what he had to do to survive. They knew he was a king. He couldn’t hide it. You couldn’t have done anything to help him.”
“Why did they let him live?” Dad asked, shaking his head and sitting back.
“The head of the Council thought he could have his cake and eat it, too. He kept Daniel at his side for three years, training him to be a good little death machine. When Danny was obedient enough, he was allowed to come home. He’s been working for them ever since. Just before Daniel’s turn, there was a lot of talk of a revolution. There was a faction of the vampire world that believed the Council had become corrupt. Daniel was a control measure. Once the Council appointed a Nex Apparatus, the underground disappeared.”
“And what makes the Council believe they can control Danny?”
I explained about Marini’s various control measures from threatening me to the device on Daniel’s heart. I watched the blood drain from my father’s face.
“What’s Devinshea’s part in all of this?” Dad asked the question like he didn’t want to know the answer. He’d never liked Dev. He didn’t understand our relationship and would have preferred Dev had never come on the scene.
“Dev is the one who kept Danny from getting himself killed and me sold to the highest bidder.” Some good might come from this. I just might be able to get my father to understand just how important Dev was to both myself and to Danny. “Before Dev started advising Danny, he wasn’t playing things smart. Now I realize how close we came to everything blowing up in our faces. Dev took over the political aspects of Danny’s bid. He got us the wolves and he negotiated the alliance with King Angus of the Unseelie.”
“He really is Miria’s son, then?”
“For all the good it did him,” I said bitterly.
My father was quiet for a while, and I let him contemplate everything I’d said. He ran a hand through his thinning hair and seemed older than usual as he leaned forward. His voice was low as he asked, “What happened? Dev is a Seelie. Why is the alliance with the Unseelie? Don’t blow sunshine up my ass, girl. I want to know what happened. You and Danny…you’re the best things I ever did. Don’t lie and don’t block me out because you think I’m an old man.”
I shook my head. “It isn’t like that, Dad. I never kept it from you because I didn’t trust you or I didn’t think you could handle it. Danny didn’t want you to know because he was afraid of what you would think. It was hard for him to even tell me. Your opinion is so important to him.”
“I could never think badly of Danny,” he said. “He’s like my son.”
“Yes he is and he wants you to be proud of him. Some of the things he’s done, he isn’t proud of.”
“He did it to survive,” he said, shaking his head like the thought of anything else was insane. “Now what happened to you on the Faery plane?”
I decided I owed my father the full truth and so I told him. I told him about the troubles between the two tribes and how the traitors on each side had worked together to cause a war. I gave him the entire story with the singular exception of my brief foray into sexual servitude. I hesitated to tell him about one part, but decided to go ahead. He was my father. He should know.
“Dad, I need to tell you that I had a miscarriage while I was in Faery,” I said calmly. It hadn’t really been a true miscarriage. It had been a spell that caused me to lose my baby.
My father went pale, his eyes widening. “You were pregnant? You didn’t tell me you were pregnant?”
“I didn’t know until we were already there,” I explained quickly. “It was over before we came home.”
His voice was barely above a whisper as he absorbed that news. “I hadn’t…when Danny turned I gave up on the thought of having grandkids. I didn’t realize you were planning on having a family like that, Zoey.”
I blushed because I was thinking of the night we conceived our son. “It wasn’t planned. It happened on the night Dev and I got married.”
My father was very firm in his opinions about that. “Those were pagan rites, girl. They won’t be recognized on this plane.”
“You recognize my marriage to Danny.” My wedding to Daniel had been even less recognizable as a wedding than the rites Dev and I had performed. At least the bride’s permission was needed in the pagan rites. The vampires did not require my opinion.
“I do,” he said. “But you ain’t getting pregnant by Daniel. You start bringing kids in and you need to protect them. Are you planning on moving to Faery with the prince?”
Well, that answered one question I had about why my dad didn’t like Dev. If my father had been sitting around wondering when the man was going to pack me up and cart me off to another plane, it explained a lot.
“We’re not going anywhere. This is our home, Dad.” I reached across the desk and covered his hand with mine. “You have to understand. Dev has nothing to go back to. The Seelie nobles refuse to recognize him because he isn’t a full Fae. We made the deal with the Unseelie because they wanted a high priest and Dev’s fertility powers are useful to them.”
“His fertility powers were useful to you, too,” he said with a small smile. “So you and Dev want to have babies, then?”
“No,” I corrected him because he needed to understand. “Dev, Daniel, and I want to have babies. I know you don’t approve of our relationship, but we’re happy together. Maybe it isn’t normal, but nothing about us is normal. We love each other. We’re committed to each other. We’re going to have a family together and I want you there, Dad. You’re the only grandparent our kids are going to have. Danny doesn’t have parents left, Mom couldn’t care less, and Miria won’t be around.”
A long smile crossed my dad’s face. “That’s a whole new generation’ll be needing to learn a profession, the way I see it.”
I didn’t point out that with Dev’s money, our kids wouldn’t have to work a day if they didn’t want to or that Dev would probably be teaching them how to run his businesses. The truth was Dev would find it amusing that his kids could crack a safe, and Daniel would be teaching them any number of criminal talents. If my dad wanted to pass on his knowledge to his grandbabies, I wouldn’t object. He’d been my teacher and a damn good one.
My hand was suddenly caught between both of his as he got deadly serious. “You’re my girl. Those boys can do whatever you let them, but you’ll always be my girl. Don’t shut me out. I want to know what’s going on and I want to help.”
I had to smile. “You were the one who told me never to mix business and family.”
He brought my hand to his chest and placed it over his heart. I could see he was very emotional. “You never learned that, girl. It’s the one lesson I taught you that I’m glad didn’t stick. And this ain’t business. This is war. I want to know everything.”
I nodded and sat back. This
time when I talked to my father, I told him everything from the very beginning.
* * * *
Dad’s eyes were curious as we walked down the stairs a half an hour later. “So that slip of a girl sitting on my couch really knew King Arthur?”
“Yup,” I said. “More importantly, she knew Merlin, who can help Daniel with his little heart problem.”
Letting out a deep breath, my father regarded me seriously. “Don’t think that wizard is someone to be taken lightly. There’s a reason he was called Merlin Satanspawn. He was part demon and that might have been the better part of him. You be careful around him.”
There was a brief knock on the door and when it opened, Dev walked in. He was dressed in an immaculate suit and tie. His green eyes lost their light when he saw me with my dad. His mouth turned down and he strode to the stairs, his stance much more arrogant than before. He was ready for a fight.
“Hello, Harry,” he said evenly, but there was an undercurrent to his words. He was waiting for the rejection he always got from my dad. “I just finished a meeting and I came to pick up my wife.”
“Wife” was said with a nice bit of challenge.
My father shook his head as he stared at Dev. “She ain’t your wife. Not by the laws of this plane, and if you’re going to knock my girl up, one of you better be marrying her legally. As Danny’s death certificate is on file, I’m thinking it’s gotta be you, Dev.”
The arrogance was gone in an instant, replaced with a look of shock. “You want me to marry Zoey in the human fashion?”
“Well, I ain’t talking about a white, frilly wedding, boy. Ten minutes at the courthouse will do. If you’re willing to put a baby up in her, then you better be willing to sign a paper that says you’re responsible for her.”
“I don’t need him to be responsible for me, Dad.” My father was, for the most part, a modern man, but sometimes he went back to the Middle Ages.
Dev ignored me. He looked like an eager puppy who had just realized he might not get kicked this time. “I am. I mean, I will sign the papers, of course.”
“All right, then,” my dad said, looking Dev over and coming to a decision. “Come on up then, son. I’ve got a nice bottle of Irish whiskey that needs opening. I’ve heard you can handle your liquor. That’s a talent I can appreciate. We need to talk about that hair, though. It makes you look like a girl, son. You’ll be needing a haircut before we go to the courthouse.”
Dev started walking up the stairs, following my dad, who was going on about the joys of a buzz cut. He stopped as he reached the step I was standing on. “Do you think the whiskey is poisoned, my goddess?”
I’m pretty sure he was only half joking.
I shook my head and leaned over for a little kiss. “No, baby, he just realized he’s probably getting grandkids out of our arrangement. He really wants some rugrats to corrupt.”
“My sexual prowess wins everyone over in the end.” He ran after my father, and I only hoped he didn’t let Dad cut his hair.
Christine stood at the bottom of the staircase wearing a pink button-down and a pair of khaki shorts that came to her knees. She looked like a suburban housewife about to call everyone down for dinner. The brilliant smile on her face immediately put me on edge.
“Dear god, what does she want to do?” I asked, looking at Neil, who walked up behind her.
He made the universal sign for insanity. “Well, what do you think, Z?”
I knew what her favorite thing to do was. Most women liked shopping or having lunch with friends or going to the spa. Christine liked calling demons. “We have to call up Hell why?”
“It’s the only way, Zoey,” Christine said with no small amount of glee. “I’ve given it careful consideration and this is the only thing I can come up with. Tell Dev I’ll need that magic of his.”
I walked past her and into the living room.
“Tell her no, Zoey,” Lee said before I even sat down beside him on the couch.
“I don’t really know what I’m saying no to, yet.” I wasn’t sure what ringing up a demon would do for us.
“You’re saying no to inviting a demon to kill us all,” Lee supplied helpfully. “That crazy witch is acting like calling up the demon is like looking up movie times on the Internet.”
Nim crossed one leg over the other and sat back. “It might work. At least it will be faster than digging up half of England.”
Neil threw his body onto the seat next to me. “Christine thinks a demon will be able to locate the old guy a lot faster than a witch. She says demons can sense other demons and should be able to get us pretty close to where the prison is. We could go over to England and hope Nim remembers something or we can call up a demonic GPS and know where the hell we’re going. I don’t suppose Nim stashed him under Harrods, huh?”
“I doubt it was anywhere so fun, sweetie.” I turned my attention to my other wolf, who was already frowning. “Come on, Lee. Do you have a better idea?”
“Yeah, we all just shoot each other,” Lee offered sarcastically. “It’ll be faster and way more pleasant than the disemboweling we’ll all get on the Hell plane when the bugger gets loose. Have you asked yourself something, Zoey? Why would this random demon want to do your bidding?”
“Because he isn’t random.” I had one and only one option on who to call. He was the only demon whose name I knew and that was a requirement. At least he was a known quantity. “And he owes me a favor. Danny and Dev killed his biggest rival, so maybe he’ll be…I was going to say grateful but that doesn’t seem right. Maybe he won’t do that thing where he rips peoples’ throats open.”
Neil was already groaning. “I hate Stewart, Zoey. He always comes on to me and then he sics something big on me when I turn him down.”
“Unless you know some other Hell lord who owes us big time, I suggest you put on your best manwhore clothes because you’re the bait, buddy,” I explained, patting him on the shoulder reassuringly.
“I hate being the bait,” Neil replied with a pout.
The trouble was he was really good at it.
Chapter Six
“I don’t think Daniel is going to be happy with this plan, sweetheart.” Dev turned into the parking garage about an hour before the sun went down. He seemed to think Daniel would object to working with Stewart, the demon. It might have had something to do with the fact that the last demon I’d had a working relationship with had killed both me and Dev, and done his damnedest to take out Danny, too.
“Then he can come up with a better one.” I wasn’t sitting on my ass any longer. If Stewart was our best hope for finding Merlin’s prison, then I was willing to take the chance. “I want that thing off his heart. We need Daniel able to fight Marini because he’s closing in. Marini wants the two of us in Paris next month.”
Dev guided the Audi into his reserved spot. “Why? What are we supposed to do there?”
“There’s some sort of meeting. We’re supposed to entertain the Council. Marini wants to witness a fertility ritual. He was impressed with what he heard about our wedding ceremony. He’d like an encore, Dev.”
“That is a sacred ceremony,” Dev said, obviously outraged at the thought. “It is not an entertainment. Why would I perform fertility rites for a group that can never hope to have children?”
“Because they can feed off that magic. Marini wants to feed like Daniel.” I tried not to shudder as I remembered how he’d last fed.
“I feed Daniel because he’s my partner,” Dev said. “I feed Daniel because I care deeply for him. I would never willingly allow another vampire to feed off of what is essentially the passion and love between the two of us. Daniel is a part of that. Marini is insane if he thinks I’ll allow a sacred ritual to be perverted for his curiosity.”
“It isn’t curiosity.” I opened the door to the car and got out. I started toward the elevator. At least the club would be quiet at this time in the evening. The only person who might be there was Zack, who went over the security tapes
every day. “It’s jealousy. He wants whatever Daniel has.”
Dev stalked behind me. He was pulling at his tie. “How did Marini even know about our marriage?”
“Chad.” I was worried about our spy. He’d seemed…wrong somehow.
The elevator closed and began the descent to Ether. “Why would Chad have said anything about that?”
“I don’t know, baby. Have you talked to him since we got back?”
“Daniel’s spoken to him,” Dev replied. “He didn’t seem concerned. Marini is quite taken with his talent. Chad was asked to stay on after his training was done. He thought it was better to not arouse suspicions by denying the request.”
“He could have given Neil a call,” I muttered.
“I can’t tell you why he neglected that. We agreed that he could ask about Neil since they could have met in Colorado, but he had to treat him as an acquaintance would. He didn’t ask about him last night?”
I grimaced as I remembered the previous night and how Chad had mentioned Neil. “You guys need to clue me in on this stuff. He did ask about Neil and now I can see where he was coming from. At the time, I just thought he was being a typical vampire asshole.”
Dev laughed lightly as he shook his head and gave me a look that told me I was hopeless. “Should he have gently asked about his true love in front of Marini? He needs to protect Neil and the only way he can do that is to treat him as though he doesn’t really matter. Neil can be a quick hook-up, but anything more is dangerous. Hey, they didn’t actually hook up last night, did they? Shit, I forgot to warn Zack.”
“Warn Zack?”
His eyebrows rose suggestively. “Zack runs through the security tapes every afternoon. Sometimes he catches a show like the one we put on in the office last night. I’ve started trying to warn him so he can skip that part.”
That wasn’t the only show he was going to see, and there was no way I could intimidate him into keeping my meeting with Marini to himself. If Zack saw that tape, he would take it straight to Daniel.