“Hey, sweetheart, I just thought of something,” Dev laughed, looking up at me. “I haven’t done it in a jail cell. Well, not in the U.S.”
Faeries can handle their alcohol. They can handle a substantial amount of it. Don’t try drinking a faery under the table because he’s still going to be sitting there long after you fall out of your seat. Hard-core drugs, on the other hand, are a completely different story. It had been three hours since the police found us huddled together surrounded by corpses, and if Dev had sobered up any, I couldn’t tell.
The Bristol County Jail was so small it only had one holding cell, so Dev and I had been placed in the cell together. It was better that way because Dev was very difficult to handle. This was a police force that was built to take care of the occasional drunk and perhaps citizens who refused to acknowledge the annual burn ban. It was not ready for mass murder. The entire police force had answered the call. One sheriff and two deputies had shown up, guns drawn, and the two deputies promptly began throwing up. At least the sheriff had been able to hold it together.
I ran my fingers through Dev’s thick hair, the softness soothing me. “We don’t have time to check anything off your list, baby. Daniel will be here soon.”
He sure as hell better be. It had already been far longer than I expected to wait. Daniel should have been here busting open the freaking bars and getting us the hell out of here. I’d already been booked on suspicion of multiple homicides. The fact that I was covered in blood didn’t help my case. It also didn’t help that the police knew all the victims, but I was an outsider.
I wore an overly large jumper because the police had taken my clothes. Evidence. I wasn’t supposed to leave behind evidence. The sheriff was on the phone calling larger cities in an attempt to get an actual crime scene unit to the farm. From what I understood, the local vet served as the county coroner, and he was on a fishing trip.
I’d given an alias for my name, and Dev was incapable of giving them anything. I’d been through processing and had everything taken from me. Knowing the Revelation was in some evidence room was just one more problem I didn’t need. I was going to have to pay a visit to that little room before I left. To top off my trouble, I heard the sheriff calling for someone to take the male to the hospital. I really didn’t want that to happen, hence my wanting Daniel to hurry the hell up. It was time to blow this backwoods town before the feds showed up, and they were going to show up.
“I am looking for Sheriff Jones.” A familiar voice was speaking quietly.
I checked the clock. Three a.m. I was going to kick Daniel’s ass for making me cool my heels this long. Even as it was he hadn’t come in person. He’d sent Chad. I scooted out from under Dev’s now sleeping form and walked to the bars. I had to strain, but I could see Chad looking very professional in a suit. His face was flat, and he looked pissed to be pulled out of bed to have to deal with this shit. There was a man beside him, but he was in sweat pants and a T-shirt. I pegged his age as close to fifty. He yawned as he stood beside Chad.
“I’m the sheriff,” a gruff voice replied.
Chad held up a handful of papers. “Sheriff, these are the three lawsuits I am prepared to file. One is against the county, one against the police department, and the last one names you personally for the wrongful arrest of my clients, Katie Johnson and Devon Finn. They’re the victims of an awful cult, and yet they’re sitting in your jail cell not getting the medical attention they deserve. They were victimized first by your citizens and then again by a corrupt police force.”
“Corrupt?” The sheriff stared at Chad and then looked away. He shook his head as though trying to clear it.
“I’ve already spoken to Judge Laurence who instructed the district attorney’s office to look into the matter.” Chad kept talking but that wasn’t all he was doing.
I could feel the power he was pushing around the room. To the inexperienced, it would feel like the room was getting overheated. It was like a small voice in the back of their head imploring them to do the right thing. It was the very persuasive power of a vampire. It could be used for anything from getting a little blood and a little sex, to persuading a victim to sign over their life savings. Chad was just a baby, but he was already incredibly impressive. He might never be the strongest or the fastest vampire, but he wouldn’t need to be. He could talk people out of what others would take by force. In the vampire world, it was a talent to be highly valued.
“Howard, is this true?” The sheriff looked at the papers, appearing to read them briefly, but even from my vantage point I could see they were blank. They wouldn’t appear that way to the sheriff. He was seeing what Chad wanted him to see.
“I have no idea what you were thinking, Sheriff.” The dude in pajamas seemed to be the district attorney. “It’s obvious those two are the victims. Do you want to make us look like a bunch of small-town idiots? This is going to be a big case. This is going to make the national news, and we’re all going to look like bumpkins.”
Chad nodded. “I’ve already contacted the national news networks. Several major reporters are on their way here even as we speak. This is big news, Sheriff. Two tourists almost become the victims of a local cult. Trust me. Every media outlet in the country is going to cover this story. The question is do you want to be the officer who helped the victims or the one who tossed them in jail?”
The sheriff straightened up, smoothing down his wrinkled shirt. “Really? You mean like CNN?”
Chad nodded. “If you let my clients go now, we’ll do the show from the station with you looking like the hero who rescued them. Otherwise, I’ll be standing outside the station with a protest group talking about the largest lawsuit this county has ever seen. I can make your career, Sheriff, and I promise you I can break it. It’s your choice.”
Dev and I were processed out within fifteen minutes. We were in the van and on our way before anyone thought to ask for credentials.
“You are damn good, Chad,” I said as he steered the car onto the road that would take us to the cemetery.
Chad smiled at me in the rearview mirror, obviously satisfied with a job well done. “You think that was a tough crowd? You should have met my law professors.”
I sat in the back of the van with Dev draped across me. He sighed happily in his sleep. Chad turned into the cemetery. I hated to break it to him, but the job wasn’t over yet. “We have to go back.”
“Not going to happen, Zoey. I have orders. We stay here until Daniel and Neil get back.” Chad got out of the van. He opened the back door so we could talk face to face.
“You don’t understand. I had the item in my hand. It’s in the evidence locker at the jail. I can sneak in and get it. I just need you to pull some vampy mojo on the desk clerk.”
Before Chad could give the multitude of reasons why that was a bad idea, Daniel landed at the edge of the cemetery. He wore all black, from his denims to the duster that billowed around him as he landed with a thud. The ground shook as he hit it. Normally Daniel floated gently, so I knew that sound was meant to get my attention. He looked straight at me as he landed, his mouth a flat line with just the tiniest hint of fangs to let me know he was pissed off. His boots thudded across the dirt, stirring dust in his wake.
His hand came up, a glint of metal shining in the moonlight as he tossed the Revelation my way. I reached up and caught it. The little piece of jewelry hummed in my hand.
“See, Zoey,” Daniel all but snarled at me as he advanced. “I still know how to steal.”
I placed the Revelation around my neck as I eased out from under Dev. This was obviously a conversation that required me to stand toe to toe with my husband. I scrambled out of the van before he could force me to stay inside and lose the chance to stand up to him. “What the hell is that supposed to mean, Daniel?”
Neil ran up the road in wolf form. He took his place next to Chad, who absently stroked his lover’s fur. He was busy watching Daniel and shaking his head in surprise.
“What it means, baby, is it’s time for you to hang it up.” Daniel loomed over me. The trouble with going toe to toe with Danny was the crick I got in my neck from staring up at him. “Let’s talk about how you fucked up tonight. First, you went into a situation with no intelligence whatsoever.”
I felt my face start to flush with anger. How dare he? I’d been through hell and he wanted to lecture me? “I didn’t have any intelligence because you were too busy playing politician to do your job, Danny. You had one job to do—check out that farm. But no, you got too caught up in your own plans to consider the job you were hired to do.”
“Hired? You want to treat me like a hired hand, baby, you better pony up some more cash because you pay shit for all the crap I have to do to save your ass.” Daniel looked over my shoulder toward the van. “Hey, Quinn, get out here because I have a few things to say to you.”
“Leave him alone, Danny.”
“Is he asleep? He fell asleep after getting you arrested?”
“Don’t you blame him. He fought like hell. They drugged him. We were both drugged and carried out of the B&B. We were taken to the farm after I found the Revelation. I found it, Danny, not you. I had it in my hands when those witches came for me. I might have been a little more on my guard if you had done the reconnaissance. If I’d known I was walking into a killing field, I might have taken that bitch a little more seriously.”
Daniel held me by the shoulders. “Maybe if you hadn’t been so hot to take your boyfriend on a job, you would have had adequate backup. You need to make a choice, baby. Do you want to be a pro or do you want to get a cozy house in the suburbs and start spitting out Dev’s illegitimate children?”
“Jesus,” I heard Chad sigh under his breath.
“How dare you?” I screamed because just saying it didn’t express my rage. It was welling up inside me, all the pressure and terror of the night forcing its way up like a champagne bottle begging to be uncorked. I could handle it one of two ways. I could let him hold me while I cried or I could vent that rage at him. He’d chosen path number two, and I didn’t even feel a hint of guilt for following him.
“I dare because I’m the idiot who had to watch you fuck everything up, Zoey,” he yelled right back. “Did you think I wasn’t watching? Do you think I didn’t try to get to you? I tried to fly to you and got hit with some ultraviolet light laser shit. Damn near took my head off. I tried everything I could. I couldn’t get to you, but I saw every mistake you made, babe. You were just asking to get killed, and it was because you were going to do anything you could to save that idiot. You had a chance to run. You had a chance to get away, but you sat there with him. You let them take you.”
“I couldn’t leave him.” I knew what I should have done. Danny didn’t need to tell me.
He shook me lightly. “Yes, you could. You could have done your job, which was to get the item and get out. We could have gotten him later. You were reckless and stupid.”
He forgot so easily. “Like I was when I didn’t leave Oliver to fry you?”
“That was me, Zoey. It was different.”
“No, it wasn’t,” I said very clearly. I wasn’t thinking. He pushed my buttons and I reacted. “It wasn’t different at all.”
Daniel stopped, and if he’d taken any blood that night, it didn’t show in his face as he went stark white. “What are you trying to say, Zoey?”
I threw my hands up. I shouldn’t have gone there. I tried to backtrack. “This is why my father never worked with the same crew twice, Danny. Neither did your dad. The rules don’t apply when you care about the people you work with.”
Daniel wasn’t buying it. “That’s not what you meant, Z. I can see it in your face. I saw it when you went to him after that demon let you go. Why did he let you go, Zoey? What the hell did you promise him? Screw that. Just tell me why you didn’t run. Just say it. Say it!”
“Because I love him.” I shook a little as I said it, but he left me no choice.
Daniel’s fangs popped out, his claws lengthening. For a split second I was afraid of him, but he took his anger out on a large tree, shoving his fist clean through it. He stood there shaking with emotion, and I started to come down from my volcanic rage. It was like this between me and Danny sometimes. We pushed and pushed until something broke, and we had to put us back together. I just didn’t know how to fix it this time.
“It doesn’t change how I feel about you, Danny.” It was a stupid thing to say, but it was all I had.
He laughed, a nasty, bitter sound. “It changes everything, Zoey. I love you and only you. My whole life it’s only been you. I’ve never even slept with anyone else. Even while you fucked him mindless, I was faithful because I knew you would come back to me. No, there weren’t any hookers, baby. I spent that money protecting the new vamps. I spent it building something to protect you. I was willing to wait for you because he might have your body, but I had your heart. Now you tell me you love him? Maybe your love isn’t worth what I thought it was.”
It no longer mattered that there were other people watching because I couldn’t stop the tears. All I could see was years of my life, years of my love, being tossed away. “Guess that whole ‘I’ll fight for you’ thing didn’t last very long, did it? After everything you did, Danny, all the lies, all the times you pushed me away and told me to move on because you didn’t love me anymore, and you want to end it this way? By telling me I wasn’t worth it? Fine. That’s what you want, fine.” I took a second to breathe through the pain, but there was something else I needed him to understand. “I wouldn’t take back a minute of it, Daniel. Not a minute. Not even this one. Now we do this one last job and then we can be done. I’ll even leave the city after we get Sarah back. I wouldn’t want to contaminate your power base.”
Daniel was finally calming down. His claws retracted, his shoulders slumped, and he sighed as he looked at me. “Zoey, I’m not doing this job with you. I’m sorry for what I said before. You took me by surprise, but I shouldn’t have said what I did. That being said, I won’t take you with me to Vegas. If I learned anything tonight it’s that you’re not up to this. You can’t be unemotional or professional. You’re going to get yourself killed, and I won’t be a part of that.”
“You owe me this,” I stammered, shocked that he would threaten to torpedo my operation. He knew how important this was to me.
“No,” he said implacably. “I need to keep you alive. That’s what I owe you.”
“I’ll find another way, then.” I felt like he’d punched me in the gut. How could he take away my best option to save Sarah? It didn’t matter what she’d done. She was a part of our crew. We didn’t leave our crew behind.
He shook his head, his jaw a stubborn line. “You need an invitation to that ball, Zoey. I assure you, you won’t find another vampire willing to escort you.”
A dumbass, stupid, likely to get me killed plan went through my head. “Who said I was going to ask a vampire, Danny? I believe the demons will be looking for dates, too.”
Daniel stopped cold. “You wouldn’t dare.”
“If you can say that and mean it, then you don’t know me at all.” I stared at my husband, my first love, and let him feel my will. I’d never let him tell me what I could or couldn’t do. I hadn’t done it when we were together, and I would be damned if I let him do it after we broke up.
Daniel’s blue eyes widened. “Who the hell was that in the field, Zoey? What did you do? What did you promise that demon in order to save Dev?”
Because I was no longer interested in answering his questions, I turned away and started to go back to the van. I was already thinking of all the things I would need to do when I got back to the city. I was going to have to call Stewart to me in order to arrange an invitation to the ball. It would be hard because my witch was in Hell, but Christine would help me. The good news was with Danny out of the picture, I could leave my lover out of it as well. I could protect Dev by running the job alone. He wouldn’t like it, but he wouldn’t have a choice. I had the Revelation. I could get Sarah out myself.
Daniel pulled me around. He wasn’t taking the silent treatment well. “Tell me, Zoey.”
“It was Stewart,” I told him because he would probably find out anyway.
“Shit.” Daniel slapped at the van, his hand denting the metal.
I pushed at his chest because he was crowding me, but it didn’t do any good. Until Danny wanted to move, I was trapped. The only weapons I had were words. “I would think you would be thrilled. According to Stewart, the demons are all rooting for you. You have a real cheerleader in our old friend. He wants to get in your good graces, Your Highness. Would you like to know how he thought he could really please you?”
Daniel’s eyes strayed to Dev’s sleeping form. “I have never…”
I hit his chest because I could see in his eyes that he had thought it. He’d thought about someone doing that job for him so he could get the benefit and not pay for the crime. He would never say the words out loud, but it had clearly crossed his mind. “How long, Danny? How long until one of your minions decides to move up the ladder by killing Dev?”
I could see Daniel was upset by the thought. He shook me lightly by my shoulders. “I have done everything I can to protect your lover. I could have killed him many times over, but I allowed myself to look like a pathetic chump while you worked out your angst. Don’t you blame me for this. You’re the one who brought him in. And don’t you dare blame me for wanting him out of the picture. You know how I feel about you. Do you think it’s been easy watching you with him? I want to rip his heart out every time he touches you. You’re mine, Zoey. You’ve always been mine.”
“Then you should have taken me with you to Paris.”
The night after Daniel and I performed the ritual that made us man and wife, he’d been carted off to answer to the Council for his actions concerning Lucas Halfer. I was his companion and I was told there was a seat on that plane for me, but Daniel had forbidden it. He took Neil and left me behind to wonder about his fate. I would have followed him anywhere in that moment. I would have faced anything. I would have accepted our marriage and never thought to even speak to Dev again. I would have been his faithful wife and done the job Stewart said I was born to do. It was Daniel’s rejection that caused me to seek Dev out, but I couldn’t go back now. I realized now that moment when he looked up at me and said “I forbid it” had broken something in me. I was no longer sure it could be fixed.
Daniel’s face fell, his eyes nearly pleading. “I wonder if you’re ever going to stop punishing me for that. I was protecting you.”
Weariness threatened to take over my system. This was an argument that never seemed to end for us. “You do an awful lot of that, Danny. Maybe I didn’t want to be protected. Maybe I wanted to be your partner not your possession. You don’t trust me. Now that I’m standing here, I realize that you’ve never trusted me. The whole time we’ve been working together you’ve been indulging me. You’ve just been waiting for me to make a mistake so you could shut it down.”
“I trust you, Z.”
I sniffled a little, finally coming down from my anger. Only a stark sadness was left. “No, you don’t. When you came back and we decided to try the whole friendship thing out, you promised me no more secrets. That was a lie. You didn’t tell me about the little army you’re gathering until I forced you to. You’re always going to do it because you need to protect me. Because you don’t trust me to be able to handle your world. What you need from me, what you want from me, is sex and blood and the joy of ownership. You want a queen by your side, but you want her to be a pretty plaything.”
Daniel shook his head and tried to pull me into his arms, but I shoved a hand between us to keep my distance. “That’s not true, Zoey. I don’t see you that way. You’re my whole world. Everything I do is for you. Everything I’ve done since I was eight freaking years old has been with you in mind.”
My heart ached as he brought up our past. “You think I don’t remember? You think I don’t remember when we were so much more than this? I was your best friend. I was your lover. You wouldn’t have thought to keep secrets from me. We were partners. When we built something, we did it together.”
Daniel ignored the distance I placed between us and pulled me to him. I stood in his embrace wanting to return it, but if I gave in now, I would become what he wanted. I would be his sweet companion to be coddled and protected. Maybe I could have been that at one point in time, but I was a different person now.
Daniel held me as if he was afraid to let go, but I just stood there. “This is stupid, Zoey. I was angry and scared out of my mind. I was watching the whole time. I watched those witches die, and I just knew you were next. Then I watched them arrest you. We’re both tired and angry. Neither one of us means a damn thing we’re saying. We’ll pick up the conversation when we get back to Dallas.”
He took a step back, but I couldn’t look at him. I heard him walk over to the boys who’d sat silently while Danny and I had blown up eighteen years of our lives. I suppose it would have been politer for them to have walked away, but it wouldn’t have mattered. They still would have heard everything.
“Come on, Chad. We’re going to fly home,” Daniel ordered quietly. “It’ll be faster anyway.”
I finally looked over at them. Chad was shaking his head and Neil remained in his wolf form, a gorgeous arctic wolf at Chad’s side.
Chad’s eyes widened. “I’d rather drive. I don’t really like heights.”
Daniel straightened his duster, buttoning it up. “You’re strong, but you’ve only been a vampire for a week. You can’t be trusted around her.”
“I’m not the one with control issues around your wife, tonight, Master,” Chad said solemnly. He knew that there was no arguing though, and he knelt down to hug Neil. The wolf thumped his tail and licked his lover’s face. “See you soon.”
Daniel turned and our eyes met again. “I’ll call you tomorrow, and we’ll go somewhere and talk. I meant what I said about Vegas, but we can talk about finding alternatives. This isn’t over, Z.”
But it was, at least for tonight, as Daniel put an arm under Chad’s shoulders and they were gone. I slumped to the ground, my back to the van. Neil came to sit beside me and nuzzled my neck. He licked my face until I put my arms around him and let him comfort me.
“You can change back, Neil. I’m not going to yell anymore.” Sometimes Neil stayed in his wolf form to avoid arguments, but I wasn’t angry with him.
Neil thumped his tail twice for no.
I looked down at him and realized what was wrong. “You can’t find your pants, can you?”
One thump confirmed it. I sighed. “Come on, then. We have a long drive ahead of us.”