Steal the Night (Thieves)

by Lexi Blake

  “You can’t control Bris. Is that what the problem is?”

  “There are many problems I have with an ancient deity having control over one so close to the king,” Myrddin admitted. “Look at how he reacted to me. He gave me no chance, merely began spouting the worst tales of me. He has hidden his agenda to everyone. He allowed you to let yourself believe he was interested in your husband when the truth of the matter is, he was always after you. He wants you and he’ll do what he has to do in order to get you. In the end he’ll destroy Daniel and Devinshea to get what he wants.” Myrddin shook his head and turned back to his task. “Or at least that’s the way it seems to me. The fertility god will be troublesome, but I would never attempt to get at him through Devinshea.”

  “That’s not the way it looks to me.” Anger and fear warred inside me. That beat was getting louder. The strain on Dev’s heart was obvious now. The rhythm was fast, and sometimes it would get erratic for a time before settling back into a quick but steady beat. He was failing and it would only get worse.

  “Go, Zack, get Dev out,” I said firmly. “Take his place and keep Daniel alive.”

  Zack was on the task immediately.

  “I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Myrddin said calmly.

  Zack hit the wall of light that marked the boundary of the stasis chamber and was thrown back a good ten feet. He smashed against the wall on the opposite side and fell to the floor unconscious.

  Myrddin shook his head ruefully as he glanced down at the wolf. “I told you. Now there is no one to take the faery’s place if he fails. I’ll have to work quickly.” His dark eyes found me and they narrowed, and for the first time I believed fully this man had ties to Hell. “I suppose I could be content with Devinshea’s condition if the god inside him were to cause no more trouble.”

  I was in a corner and now I didn’t even have Zack to back me up. I was the only thing standing between Dev and his heart exploding. “And how am I supposed to convince him to let you have your way?”

  “Like I said before, I’ve found it’s only a question of discovering what a person wants and giving it to them. The fertility god wants a loving goddess. You won’t find the task unpleasant, dear. I think you’ll like serving the god. Bear him a few children, pass them off as the faery’s, and make certain you spend plenty of alone time with the god. I’ll let you know when I need Bris’s attention focused elsewhere. I don’t do this for my own good, but rather for Daniel’s. He’s my charge and my only focus. If you have objections to this plan then I can merely wait and hope Daniel survives without a balance. It’s possible. He’s strong.”

  There were angry tears pricking my eyes as I glared at the wizard. “You won’t get away with this. I’ll tell Danny exactly what you said.”

  “And I will deny that I meant it that way, dear.” He lounged against the table looking altogether too comfortable. “I’ll tell Daniel that I was merely speaking aloud, trying to work through some problems with the queen, who I have come to greatly respect. I need your counsel if I’m to understand. I don’t know why the queen would take things so out of context, unless she is jealous and perhaps overly emotional. Can you think of anything that happened today that might make you overly emotional, dear?”

  My heart stopped. They wouldn’t. He couldn’t know about that. Not even our closest friends knew what had happened earlier today. “Besides watching you rip my husband’s heart out?”

  He chuckled, the sound sickening to my ears. “No, dear, I’m talking about the three of you trying to make a babe. Given that the faery is a fertility god, I would say the odds are high. Conception happens very quickly when fertility magic is involved. It can be very draining for the female. I will point all of this out to Daniel when you make your accusations. The queen will need her rest, you know. We wouldn’t want anything to upset her delicate condition. Don’t look so surprised. Daniel already feels our connection. He wanted to share his news with me.”

  “Bastard,” I snarled. He would use my condition and our babies to lock me out. He would convince Dev and Daniel that I needed to be protected, and it wouldn’t take much. They already wanted me coddled and sheltered. I was running out of options. Zack was still out. I caught sight of Nim. “Nim will tell them what she heard.”

  The room reverberated with laughter as the wizard passed a hand in front of Nim’s unseeing eyes. “Child, she lost consciousness when she took hold of the chamber.” A strange, brooding look came over the wizard’s face. “If I really wanted revenge I could just leave her here like this, her body forever in this state, unseeing, unhearing. It would be fitting.” He turned back to me. “Do we have a deal, Your Highness? That heartbeat is getting faster and faster. There’s not much time left.”

  The sound made my soul hurt. Dev’s heart was straining to keep up with the demand and it was going to burst soon. His heart would fail and now there wasn’t even Zack to save Daniel. It was everything I had feared it could be. I would lose them both.

  “Tick tock, Queen Zoey. Time is running out,” Myrddin said in a weird sing-song. “Lose them or save them. It’s up to you.”

  “I’ll do what you ask.” I made my deal with the devil, but I was going to find a way out. I wasn’t about to let this man have my husbands. I would go along for now but he’d made an enemy of me, and I promised myself I would be a formidable one. “Save them.”

  His smile was charming and he walked back over to the tray. “It would be my pleasure.” He pulled the device off the heart and it exploded, sending liquefied silver everywhere. Myrddin squeezed the heart gently and silver poured out of the arteries. He doused it in a solution and within a minute pronounced it clean.

  “That was all?” I hissed the question. “You knew what you were doing the whole time?”

  He walked to the stasis chamber. “Of course, dear. I might not have performed the magic before but I knew what I was doing. There’s very little magic I can’t master quickly. I needed the extra time to spend with you. While I was working on Daniel’s heart, I thought I’d work a little on your soul, Queen Zoey. I know who holds power and who doesn’t. I think we’ll make a good team. You’ll see. We’ll make Daniel a great king.”

  As Dev’s heart reached a staccato crescendo, the wizard shoved his hand through the blue light and carefully pushed the heart back into Daniel’s chest. His hand disappeared. I could see him moving and shifting until he was happy with the placement and he gently pulled his hand back out. The flesh closed as the wizard’s hand retreated.

  I stood there, completely helpless, watching Dev fail, hearing his heart getting ready to explode. There was nothing I could do except pray that it would be over soon, hope that the wizard would be satisfied with my promise and let Devinshea live through this. I bit my lip as the pounding of Dev’s heart began to make one long sound, the beats so close together I could barely tell there was any time at all between them. I watched as his face tightened with the strain, and there were tears squeezing out of his eyes as he realized his time was almost up. He wouldn’t be able to hold on much longer, and it would cost him everything.

  Then just like that I heard the most beautiful of sounds. Slower, so much slower than Dev’s, Daniel’s heart began to beat. Dev’s hands came off Daniel’s shoulders and he slumped to the ground, every bit of energy he had utterly expended. His heartbeat tapered off rapidly but then it found a natural rhythm and though my faery prince didn’t move, I could hear the glorious beat of those two hearts making a time and music of their own.

  “You see, Your Highness,” Myrddin said with a completely satisfied look on his face. “I always manage to do what I promise. You should remember that when dealing with me in the future. Your husbands are both alive and I suspect you will find them very grateful to me. Tell them what you wish, but I’ll be able turn it to my advantage. Or you can keep your bargain with me and we can handle them together. I don’t have to cut you out entirely. I would rather you were my partner in helping the king. He needs us both,
you know.”

  I nodded numbly, all the while thinking that this time I was going to let Lee rip out his throat. I would wait until the time was right and I couldn’t be accused of anything. I would come up with some scenario that made Lee seem entirely innocent, but my wolf was getting let off the leash. He’d been wanting to kill someone for me for the longest time, and it looked like Christmas was finally here. I’d held him back when he wanted to do in Declan Quinn, but I wasn’t going to play around with Myrddin. The wizard made Dev’s brother seem like a helpless infant. Lee would rip the wizard to shreds and I would be waiting with a hose to clean his fur and a big bag of beef jerky for a job well done. I smiled at the thought and was very pleased when the wizard seemed disturbed.

  “Your Highness?”

  I gave the wizard my biggest, wide-eyed stare. “I’ll do what you think best, Myrddin.”

  That really made him uncomfortable. “Somehow I doubt that. Call your guard back in. We’ll need help moving the king and Devinshea to the recovery room.”

  I called to Lee as I always did when I needed a strong arm, and in seconds he was at my side.

  * * * *

  I sat in the middle of the two beds and waited. It had been several hours since the successful end of the operation, and Dev had woken briefly. He’d managed to choke down Nim’s elixir and promptly slipped into a deep sleep, but not before I’d seen Bris’s emerald green eyes staring up at me. I knew he’d been there lending his host every bit of strength he had. I’d leaned over and kissed him softly, whispering my thanks. The ancient god had looked satisfied and let his host’s body get the rest it needed.

  Daniel had been still as a corpse. He was in that deep, dark sleep most vampires suffered through every day. Daniel had both companion blood and Dev’s magic to feed from. When he was well he slept more normally, like a human would. We were able to rouse him if needed and he would sometimes toss and turn in his sleep. Myrddin had explained it was just an effect of the deep healing his body was attempting to do. To prove to me Daniel was all right, he’d asked Zack to feed his master. Zack had been more than willing to donate. He’d been slightly sheepish at getting knocked on his ass by something as scary as blue light. He’d opened his wrist, and the sight of Daniel’s mouth opening to get that blood mollified me. If he was feeding, he was healing.

  Lee turned from his place at the window. Night had fallen and he was watching the half moon. I wondered if he was thinking about roaming. I knew it was always there in the back of his head to wander. How hard was it for my wolf to stay with me?

  “When can I kill him?” Lee asked abruptly.

  I’d filled Lee and Neil in the minute we were left alone. I’m not good at keeping things to myself. Lee had thought eviscerating the wizard was one of my more brilliant ideas and wanted to follow through at the earliest convenient time.

  “When the time is right, Lee. We have to be patient and we have to be careful.” I walked over to where he stood and Neil joined me. I kept my voice low. I didn’t think Daniel would be listening in, but you never could tell.

  “I don’t like patience,” the wolf admitted.

  Neil crossed his arms. “We have to take a page out of the boys’ playbook. They do a damn fine job of keeping things from our side of the family. They do it to protect us and stuff, I get that. We’re assassinating Daniel’s mentor for the same reason. If you think about it, Z, it really is an act of love.”

  “Not for me,” Lee shot back. “It’s an act of violence, and I’m looking forward to it. I hated that fucker from the first moment I saw him.”

  I decided not to point out that was kind of Lee’s reaction to ninety-nine percent of the people he met. He couldn’t help it. It was his nature. “We have to be very quiet about it. Danny is already under his spell or whatever you would call it. I don’t want to put Dev in the middle of this so we’ll leave him out. We can’t mention it to Zack. As much as I trust Zack, he’ll tell Danny. The only person we can trust with this is Bris.”

  Neil frowned.

  “What?” I sighed because I knew that look. It was the one he got when I had a stupid idea and he didn’t know quite how to tell me I was an idiot. It was a look he only got when the situation was serious because otherwise he had no trouble telling me how dumb I was.

  “Zoey, you’re walking a fine line here,” Neil said. “You have to be careful with Bris. I know he looks like Dev, but he isn’t Dev. He’s a whole other person…deity thing and working with him behind Danny and Dev’s back…”

  “You don’t have any problem with my working with you and Lee,” I replied.

  “We don’t sleep with you, honey,” Neil pointed out. “Think about it. Girl screws fertility god, all the while plotting the death of her husband’s close advisor. It all sounds very noir. Those never end well, Z.”

  “I’m not cheating,” I said firmly.

  “As I said, fine line,” Neil allowed. “If Myrddin has his way, you’ll be having Bris’s kids behind Dev’s back…front…oh, I don’t know. It’s all very confusing.”

  “I won’t be doing that at all,” I threw back at Neil. If Daniel could run around telling people we’d just met then I could certainly tell the two people closest to me. “I’ll be having Dev’s baby.”

  “I’m sure one day…” Neil’s voice tapered off. His eyes went wide. “Did you let Dev touch your bits without a glove?”

  I couldn’t help but smile, remembering just how good that had felt. “Yes, we did. We decided that we’d waited long enough so we’re trying.”

  Lee put a hand on my shoulder. “Darlin’, you don’t try having a baby with a fertility god. You let him do his thing and then you’re pregnant. If Dev did the deed then we have to consider you pregnant, Zoey.”

  “Lee, we just tried this afternoon. We don’t know anything yet. His swimmers are probably still floating around in there looking for an egg to attack.” Unless Myrddin was right and conception backed by fertility magic occurred faster than a normal pregnancy. My last pregnancy had symptoms very quickly. Before I even had a chance to pee on a stick, Daniel’s body was taking over because I was so tired.

  “No,” Neil said, shaking his head. “He’s got Olympic gold medalist sperm, Zoey. They’re fast and they’re damn accurate, and if they can’t find an egg they’ll just walk up to your ovaries and coax a few out. How many times have you had sex with Dev without a condom before?”

  “Once.” And I’d gotten pregnant. Of course it had been the night of Dev’s ascension and there had been powerful magic involved. It was entirely possible that without such crazy fertility magic that it could take longer. Maybe.

  “Case closed, so I’m with Lee on this one,” Neil said, suddenly going into organization mode. “We’ll need to work with the Order and get you everything you need.”

  I expected Neil would be planning a gorgeous maternity wardrobe and redoing the condo to allow for a tasteful nursery.

  “We’ll need a Pilates instructor and a new chef because I don’t think Albert does healthy,” Neil said. “We need to fight Dev and Daniel on this. Trust me, they’ll be stuffing chocolates down your throat and giving you ice cream at two a.m. It’s my job to make sure you can get back into those size eight dresses. You’ll thank me in the end.”

  I punched him soundly.

  “All the more reason for me to kill the bastard now, Zoey.” Lee brought the conversation back around to his favorite subject. “If you let him, he’ll use your baby against you. I won’t let that happen.”

  “Won’t let what happen, wolf?” Myrddin asked innocently as he walked in the room. “Is there a threat I should know about?”

  Nim and Zack walked in behind the wizard. Zack had gone hunting while Nim had prowled around, looking for edible vegetables in the gardens. The kitchens were woefully understocked.

  “There are many threats to my queen’s welfare,” Lee said, baring his teeth in a sure show of dominance. “Don’t worry about it, though. I always take care of them,
even when they seem to be friends.”

  Nim’s eyes widened, as no one could mistake that threat. “Okay, so Zack found some rabbits for supper and I have managed to put together a nice salad. If you like we can all go downstairs for some food. We need to keep up our energy.”

  I glanced back at the beds where my husbands lay.

  “They won’t be awake for hours,” Myrddin said.

  “I don’t know about hours, but someone said something about food,” Dev said, his voice shaky.

  I flew across the room and was in his arms before he could take a breath. I covered his face with “grateful he was alive” kisses.

  Dev laughed but even that was a tired sound. “You’re happy, my wife? I feared you wouldn’t be over your fright. The experience was a bit more intense than any of us bargained for.”

  I kissed him firmly on the mouth. “I’m ecstatic you’re alive.”

  “Daniel is fine?” His green eyes wandered until they saw our vampire laid out on the bed beside him.

  Nodding, I reached out and held his hand. “The device is gone and his heart is fine. He hasn’t woken up yet but he’s taking blood. He just needs rest and so do you. You’ve been through a lot. I’ll go downstairs and make you a plate and I’ll feed you myself. Don’t move, Dev.”

  He smiled lazily and leaned back against the headboard. “Well, my loving wife, with you as my nurse, I may never move again. I might be in desperate need of a sponge bath.”

  I smiled down at him. “I’ll see what I can arrange.”

  I tucked him back in and turned to see the wizard looking warily from me to Lee. Smiling brightly, I walked past him and headed down to the kitchens. My husbands were alive. I could allow the wizard a little more life, but his days were numbered.