Steal the Night (Thieves)

by Lexi Blake

  “I’m sure you’ll find living in Dallas very amusing,” I murmured.

  The wizard’s smile was infectious. “I’m looking forward to it. It sounds like a very interesting place, and I look forward to getting to know our little court. But first, we should fix your husband’s heart trouble. Nimue, have you finished the purgative?”

  “Everything is ready,” she said, taking a deep breath. “I have all the before and after elixirs prepared. I also prepared the bed for Daniel and a recovery room, though he’ll be much more comfortable if we get him back to civilization as soon as possible.”

  “Why? Daniel heals very quickly.” The idea of Danny struggling physically startled me. It wasn’t something I’d had to worry about since his turn. He’d never had so much as a cold. He’d been weak during my first pregnancy due to our connection, but other than that, anytime he was injured all he had required was blood to be back to fighting strength very quickly.

  “This isn’t a traditional surgery, Zoey. This is a whole lot of magic to deal with, and it’s going to make Daniel very ill. He’s going to be weak for a while,” Nim explained, making my stomach churn. I didn’t like to think about a weak Daniel.

  “How long?” Daniel asked, his voice tight.

  Myrddin waved off the worry. “You’ll need a week or two to recover, Your Highness. A month at the most. That’s all. When you do recover, your heart will be as strong as it ever was.”

  “We’ll consider it a small vacation, Dan,” Dev said reassuringly. He seemed to let go of the tension from before. “We’ll move into the Order’s headquarters where we’ll be perfectly safe. Justin and the others will join us there. I talked to Justin before we came here and he’s bringing along your emergency supply of blood so you can gorge on companion blood. That should quicken the process. We need time for our allies to gather anyway. It won’t hold us back. It will give us time to figure out exactly how we should use our forces.”

  I saw Danny and Dev exchange a brief nod and knew what they were thinking. It would give them time to figure out if I was pregnant. If I was then I would be sitting out the last battle. I wouldn’t argue with them. I didn’t want to endanger our babies any more than they did. My reckless days were coming to an end.

  “All right,” Daniel agreed. “Where do you need us?”

  “Daniel, if you would take your place on the table.” Myrddin nodded toward the narrow but long table Nim had placed on the raised circle in the center of the room. I could see symbols painted on the circle and the matching ones on the ceiling. The circles were perfectly in line. “Unfortunately, Devinshea, I need you to take the purgative.”

  Dev sighed as Nim passed him the small metal cup. He took a sniff, his nose wrinkling. “I suppose it does what the name implies.”

  Nim nodded and handed him a bucket. “You’re going to need it. There’s a small room right over there, if you’d like some privacy.”

  He stopped in front of me, pulling me close. “Everything is going to be fine, Zoey. We’ll fix Daniel’s heart and then we’ll figure out where to go from there.”

  His eyes met mine and I knew he wasn’t going to allow the wizard to pull us apart. He would fight to keep Daniel. He kissed my forehead.

  Dev already looked a little green as he walked into the room. I tried to follow because I could at least rub his back or put a cold rag on his neck, but he didn’t want any help. When he came back after what seemed like the longest time, he was shaky and his skin had turned a pale white. He had discarded his shirt and shoes.

  “I believe I have sufficiently purged,” he stated quietly.

  Nim handed him a second cup. “For strength.”

  “Because you’ve just taken all of mine,” Dev replied sarcastically. He sniffed this one as well. “Do you make anything that tastes good, Nim?”

  She thought about it for a moment. “I make a mean piña colada.”

  Dev growled but downed the entire drink. I reached up and held his hand. After a moment he seemed steadier. “I’m ready.”

  I was glad Dev was ready because I wasn’t. I followed him, his hand squeezing mine as we made our way to the platform. I walked onto it with him. Daniel lay on his back, but he smiled up as I came into view.

  “Hey, baby.” Daniel took my other hand and placed it over his heart. “It’s going to be fine, Z. I love you.”

  I leaned down and pressed my lips to his, fighting back tears the whole time. “It better be.”

  I got back up and kissed Dev while he made me the same promise.

  “Your Highness, it’s time,” Myrddin said quietly and I could almost believe he cared about us.

  He held his hand out to help me down. I touched them both one last time before allowing the wizard to lead me away.

  Lee, Neil, and Zack were crowded together.

  “Lee,” I heard Dev say, “if anything goes wrong…”

  “I know what to do, Dev,” Lee replied.

  “Even if it’s both of us?”

  “Especially if that happens,” Lee promised. “She’ll be fine. I’ll make sure of it. We’ll disappear and no one will ever find us.”

  Dev nodded and then Myrddin was staring at me. “I apologize, but this is too many people. Could we please bring it down to two? I understand that you need to be here and I’m willing to accommodate you.”

  “Zack will stay as well,” I said, much to Neil and Lee’s surprise. “You won’t be able to get him away.”

  “No, you won’t,” Zack said stubbornly.

  Of the three wolves, Zack was the only one who truly loved the men on that table. Lee tolerated them. Neil was their friend, but Zack had a true connection. I wasn’t about to toss him out because Neil would be better comfort for me.

  “Excellent,” Myrddin said. “I was going to suggest the same thing.”

  I felt Lee press something cold into my hand. One of his semiautomatic pistols. I palmed it and liked the weight in my hand. I shoved it in the back of my jeans and pulled my shirt over it. He nodded as he left, and Neil made me promise to get him as soon as it was over.

  Then there was nothing left to do except get to it. My stomach turned over as the wizard and Nim made their final preparations.

  “Devinshea, you must keep your hands on Daniel,” Myrddin instructed Dev, who immediately pressed his palms on Daniel’s shoulders. “No matter what happens, you must stay in contact with the king. Do you understand?”

  Dev kept his hands on Daniel’s shoulders. “I understand. I won’t fail.”

  “No matter what,” Myrddin warned. “If you let go, even for a moment, he will die.”

  “I will not let go.” Dev’s green eyes met mine and made me a promise. He would never let go. He would die before he failed.

  “Where do you want me?” Nim asked.

  Myrddin pointed to the other side of the circle. “You’re out of practice, Nimue. Are you sure you can handle this?”

  Nim’s violet eyes flared. “I can handle anything you throw at me, wizard. Don’t forget who won the last fight we had.”

  “I will never forget that, Nimue,” the wizard promised, his voice silky and smooth. “Then we begin.”

  Simultaneously, both Nim and Myrddin threw their arms out as though they could embrace the circles, and I felt a strange wave of energy roll across me. Zack was suddenly at my back, his hands coming up on my shoulders. They were there for comfort but also to pull me back at the first sign of any danger. With Lee gone, Zack would consider me his first priority, even above Daniel. My safety would be paramount in his master’s mind, so Zack would make that his job. There was a loud hum and then a crackle in the air as a long tube of blue light seemed to advance from the bottom of the circle. It made its way slowly up toward the top, like water filling up a cylinder.

  Myrddin was murmuring something, but I didn’t recognize the language. It wasn’t Latin. I suspected it was older than that. This was magic like I had never seen before. It filled the room and seemed to be searching for some
thing. It flowed from the wizard and I could feel it move about like a living thing, seeking a place to strike. Zack pulled me back against his chest when I felt the tendrils brush against us. There was a tingle where it touched me, but it quickly realized I was not what it was looking for and moved on.

  There was a crack and a pulse as that magic found what it wanted. It hit Nim with impressive force and I saw her stagger a bit on the impact. She breathed through what looked like no small amount of pain and her violet eyes went a deep purple as Myrddin’s magic invaded her body. The blue tube of light shot up the rest of the way to the ceiling and there was a sucking sound, like it had sealed itself off.

  I suddenly heard the sound of rival thuds. One was quicker than the other but both kept a steady beat.

  “Excellent. The stasis chamber is well established. I believe Nimue can hold it on her own.” Myrddin turned to us, his eyes sparkling with excitement. He reminded me of a child with a new toy. He walked to the basin and washed his hands carefully, like a surgeon. When he returned, he carried a tray that he placed on a table next to the stasis chamber.

  “So this stasis chamber will help Dev keep Daniel alive?” My voice was shaky because it was all happening so fast.

  The wizard’s head bent to his task while he answered me. “Yes, it takes the king and Devinshea out of this reality and into a more suitable one for the required surgery. It’s a small slice of a more magical plane that I keep in touch with. It makes certain things possible that wouldn’t be on this plane.”

  I didn’t understand entirely, but I had visited several planes and knew there were many I couldn’t name or even conceive of.

  “Are we hearing their heartbeats?” Zack’s hands were still on my shoulders, though I think they were more for comfort than anything else. Zack and I had fought and argued over the years, but we were family.

  “Yes, wolf.” Myrddin stood now and flexed his fingers. “It will tell me how much time I have. The king’s is the slower beat. A vampire’s heart beats much more slowly than a regular human, while the faery’s beat is slightly faster. I need to monitor them closely so I know when to put the king’s heart back in.”

  “What?” I couldn’t have heard him correctly. He said he would have to put Danny’s heart back in. That would necessitate him taking it out.

  Rather than answering, he shoved his hand through the blue light of the stasis chamber and reached into Daniel’s chest. Like his hand moved through thick mud, he had to shove just a little, but then he was wrist deep inside Daniel’s chest and after a second’s work, he pulled out his heart. It pumped in his hand.

  The wizard’s smile was triumphant as he held the heart up. “See, I told you it was simple.”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  “Zoey, don’t try anything,” Zack whispered urgently into my ear.

  “He pulled Daniel’s heart out of his chest.” My hand was on the gun Lee had left me.

  “That would be my point,” Zack explained. “Do you know how to get it back in?”

  I hated it when Zack made sense. “Of course I don’t know how to reattach a heart, but I know enough to know we shouldn’t have let some freaky wizard pull Daniel’s out. He’s holding his heart, Zack.”

  Panic threatened to overwhelm me. I looked to where the wizard bent over his tray, his fingers working rapidly. He kept moving from the heart to the small set of tools he’d unrolled prior to ripping my husband’s heart from his chest. He moved with a weird grace, his hands flowing effortlessly as he worked. Perhaps that should have given me some comfort, but I couldn’t get over the sight of Daniel’s heart pumping in the wizard’s hand.

  “It worked out in Temple of Doom, right?” Zack asked.

  “No, Zack,” I muttered back. “That dude died.”

  “Well, maybe he wasn’t a vampire,” Zack offered.

  I sighed heavily and told myself I wouldn’t yell at Zack. I was going to try to remain calm and not think about the fact that Daniel was lying on the table in front of us without a heart in his chest. I moved forward slightly and I could see Daniel plain as day. He laid on the table, his big body still. So very pale, but I could see his chest moving up and down with each purposeful breath. It was a forced motion, not free and easy like a normal breath would be. There was thought and effort attached to each one, and my eyes moved toward the man behind each lungful of air Daniel’s body was taking. Dev’s eyes were closed, his head down as he concentrated fully on bodily functions that should come naturally. I saw the fine sheen of perspiration that coated his body, and every now and then a tremble would start in his hands and move all throughout his limbs.

  “Is it just me or is Dev’s heart rate increasing?” Zack’s brown eyes watched Dev carefully.

  I listened and he was right. Every second that went by, Dev’s heart beat just a little faster.

  “Are you all right, Dev?” I asked quietly, not wanting to disrupt his concentration.

  “He cannot hear you.” Myrddin poked at the small silver device on the front of Daniel’s heart, testing it. He used forceps and tried to pull it off but it was stubborn. “Once the monitor became audible, Devinshea and the king became locked in the chamber.”

  I walked up to the wizard, Zack following hard behind. I peered down at the heart, trying to think of it all as a surreal dream. It resembled a strange piece of meat, not that piece of my husband that held his love for me. It just pointed out to me that what we loved about others was something completely intangible. I loved Daniel’s soul, but it needed a place to stay and it would be forcibly evicted if we didn’t get his heart back in his body.

  “Dev’s heart rate is increasing,” I pointed out.

  The wizard stopped briefly. He listened, turning one ear up into the air and holding his body still. “Yes, you’re right,” he replied and then went back to poking and prodding.

  Zack and I exchanged exasperated glances.

  “Is that normal?” I asked, trying to keep the frustration out of my voice.

  “I have no idea,” Myrddin admitted.

  “How can you say that?”

  “Well, I’ve never actually done this before.”

  “Then what made you think that this was a good time to start?” He was experimenting with Daniel’s life, and he’d pulled Dev into it as well.

  “I decided it was a good idea because otherwise the king would die once your enemies get close enough to set off this little device.” Myrddin had a small magnifying glass and he inspected the metallic implant closely. “This is actually quite ingenious. I’m very much looking forward to seeing what the humans have come up with. They’re so sadly lacking in magical skills, but their ingenuity never fails to amaze me.”

  “I’m glad you’re looking forward to technology but can we get back to the fact that you have Danny’s heart in your hand and Dev’s is speeding up rapidly?”

  It was. I could hear the throb of Devinshea’s heart picking up the pace.

  “It’s only to be expected,” Myrddin replied simply. “His body is working double time. It was going to struggle, though the faery seems to be deteriorating faster than I expected. Perhaps Daniel’s vampire body required a stronger balance. Oh well, if it gets worse, I’ll need you to be ready to take the faery’s place, wolf.”

  Zack breathed a big sigh of relief, and I knew that sitting on the sidelines was killing him. He would much rather be in that chamber with Daniel than standing out here having to watch and wait. “Why don’t I just go in now? I don’t mind. I think you’ll find I’m strong enough for both my master and myself. Let Devinshea rest.”

  I was kind of all for that plan. I didn’t like the way Dev was shaking. His skin was getting pale and I saw how his fingers had tightened, like he was worried about losing his hold on Daniel. Zack was stronger than Dev. He always had been. Zack might not be an alpha, but he was a predator, and when you combined that with a steady dose of vampire blood it made for one tough wolf.

  “You’ll get your chance, wolf,”
the wizard murmured.

  “When?” I asked.

  “When the faery’s heart explodes, the wolf can jump in and take his place.” The forceps were back in his hands. “Be quick though. The king will have very little time once the faery dies.”

  I staggered back and Zack had to catch me. The only thing that kept me from throwing myself bodily at that fucking wizard was the fact that Danny’s heart was literally in his hands.

  “I swear to everything I hold dear that if my husband dies in that chamber, I will find a way to kill you,” I said between clenched teeth because I knew exactly what he’d done. “You let Dev go in there because you knew he wouldn’t refuse to help Daniel. You knew he would do anything and everything you asked because he loves me and he loves Danny. You sent him in there knowing Zack was a better choice.”

  “And why would I do that, my queen?” He sounded merely interested, not shocked or insulted by my accusation. He poured a solution of something over Daniel’s heart and grunted at the result.

  I stepped forward. “You would do it to get rid of your rival. You know that Devinshea is Daniel’s closest advisor. He’ll be able to talk Daniel out of things you want him to do. You won’t be able to control Dev.”

  The wizard chuckled. “I assure you, if I wish to control the faery, I will. It won’t be hard. It’s all about knowing what someone wants and needs and giving it to them. Those men in that chamber, they both want something. Daniel wants to know he’s not alone. He’s terrified that he’s ill equipped for the job he must do. He looks to me as Arthur did. He can lean on me. Devinshea is looking for a father figure. Even with the fertility god inside him, he wants to prove he belongs. He wants so much to be a part of Daniel’s inner circle. I can provide both with the attention they seek. Trust me. I will be invaluable to Daniel’s knights. It isn’t Devinshea who concerns me, Your Highness.”