Steal the Moon(15)

“When did Dev cut his hair?” I made no effort to hide my fascination. Even in the awful florescent light, Declan’s hair shone. I found myself thinking about what Dev would look like with all that hair. It would cover me like a blanket when he laid on top of me. I would get tangled in it when we cuddled together. It was so black it almost looked blue.

“He used a knife to butcher it before he left the sithein.” Declan lowered his head silently, giving his assent for me to touch him. I let my fingers run through the thick, silky fall of his hair. It was truly his crowning glory. “It was then I knew he meant to leave.”

“You’re beautiful, Declan,” I said because he was and it was polite in Fae society to compliment someone on their looks. “Your hair is the sexiest thing I’ve seen in a long time.”

He gave me an arrogant grin, bowing slightly. “Thank you, Zoey. And I think your breasts are completely succulent. If I had found myself with more time the other night when I shot the undead creature, I had planned on getting them in my mouth.”

“Nice,” I replied with a shake of my head because faeries were also big on the over sharing. “How many guns do you want? I always try to carry at least two.”

He shook his head. “I do not carry such weapons. They are not honorable.”

He turned and showed me that he wore a long, ornate bow on his back along with a quiver containing arrows—a traditional Fae weapon. It was also pretty much crap in the urban field. A longbow worked well when you had the high ground against an army, but I preferred bullets. They were quick, did their job, and I didn’t have to notch one every time I needed to fire. There were other reasons I didn’t like the bow as a weapon.

“You know what’s not honorable? Shooting a hostage in the belly with an arrow. It hurts like hell going in and that is nothing compared to the way the sucker feels when you have to shove it out through the back. I’ll take a bullet wound any day of the week. That weapon there isn’t honorable. It’s barbaric.”

“You have had this happen to you?”

“Oh, yeah,” I assured him. “Just ask your brother about it. He was tied up at the time, but I’m sure he remembers the experience. He was quite impressed that I managed to shove the whole arrow out the back and I only passed out once.” To be honest, I was pretty hopped up on vamp blood at the time or I would have been dead, but I didn’t need to tell Declan that. I suddenly remembered we were alone, and I had some unfinished business to take care of. “Declan, this is for Dev.”

I hauled my fist back and put every bit of strength I had into breaking his nose.

The Gaelic started flying, and I suspected it was not a flurry of polite words. There was an odd rush of energy against my skin, and I suddenly found myself shoved against a row of shelves with a knife at my throat. I was held firmly in place by a large male with long white hair who had not been in the room thirty seconds before. Declan had been serious about the fact that I couldn’t see his guard. The new guy’s pale eyes told me he would slit my throat in an instant and probably enjoy the experience. So this was what passed for a bodyguard in the Fae world. I was suddenly glad for Zack.

“Padric, release her,” Declan ordered, holding his nose.

I’d drawn blood. That made me happy.

“She attacked you, Your Highness.” Padric proved he had an excellent talent for stating the obvious. I stayed really still because that knife was starting to cut into my throat just the tiniest bit. “I cannot allow the insult to pass.”

“You can and will obey me,” Declan ordered, his temper on a short leash. “Do you think I cannot handle one small female on my own? I am a warrior of the sidhe. Now let her go. This is my brother’s mistress, for the goddess’s sake. If you harm her, he will never come back with us. You know how he is about his females.”

Padric looked me up and down, and I could tell he found me wanting. “I do not understand your perverse interest in human females. They seem so breakable and short.”

I was, compared to Padric. He had to lean down to hold the knife to my throat. I hoped it caused a crick in his neck. Of course at barely five foot four, I was short, period. If Dev didn’t like me to wear four-and-a-half-inch heels, I would reach the middle of his chest. I only barely made it to Daniel’s shoulders. That day I was wearing flats, and Padric loomed over me.

“I do not require your understanding,” Declan declared, and Padric finally let me loose. “You are ordered to remain hidden until such time as I call you. Is that understood?”

Padric nodded and was suddenly gone. I looked around but there was no sign of the big scary Fae and his knife that I could still feel at my throat. I would love to have known how he pulled the invisible trick though. Something like that would come in handy when running a job.

“You will explain.” Declan had managed to wipe himself clean of the blood, and I could see now his nose wasn’t actually broken.

I didn’t pretend to misunderstand. I remembered the episode Dev and I had experienced on the Hell plane like it was yesterday. Dev and his brother had been barely seventeen when they were sent to the Unseelie sithein for a bit of torture their mother had decided should be part of their education. Dev was the mortal of the two but he had handled it so much better than his immortal brother. “You left him. You left him to the mercy of those Unseelie monsters to save your own hide, and I promised him I would beat the crap out of you if I ever met you.”

Declan laughed. “Now I see why my brother finds you so amusing. He would enjoy the idea of a woman defending his honor.” His eyes turned serious. “I remember that day well. I was ashamed of my fears, and I lashed out at the brother who had sacrificed to save me pain. I have not forgiven myself for that day, so if you choose to hit me again, I assure you it will be a drop in the bucket compared to what I owe him.”

It meant something to me that he was willing to own up to what he’d done. Ingrid had said there was always two sides to the story. I was willing to listen to Declan.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” I said. “I have one more thing I need. It’s in the kitchens and then we hunt down this bitch.”





Chapter Seven





Declan turned out to be a complete baby when it came to mass transit.

He whined about the people, the smell, the metal. I wasn’t sure what he thought a train should be made of, but he really didn’t like the metal. In the end, I had to get off the train and hail a cab because I was sick of his whining. It made me wish Dev had bought me that Porsche. I’d left my own crappy car on the farm for Justin and Angelina to use. I could have used the limo, but I thought that might be conspicuous in the neighborhoods where I was going.

I settled into the cab, and Declan quickly opened the window, pressing his face out of the vehicle. He sat as close to the fresh air as he possibly could. I gave the driver the first address on my list and was happy to learn he didn’t speak a whole heck of a lot of English. That would make it easier to talk to Declan freely without the cabbie calling the loony bin on me. I’d done all my research the night before and found ten possible locations for the aswang’s workplace. There were a couple of Filipino markets, six restaurants, and two butchers. I was going to try the butchers first as all the legends claimed this was the aswang’s chosen profession during the daylight hours.

“Why would the undead creature wish you harm?” Declan asked as though he was trying to get his mind off the fact that he was encased in two tons of steel.

“I tend to piss people off.” I rifled through my printouts. “I think someone hired the aswang. I’m not its normal prey. It tends to feed off of corpses or newborn babies. It leaves an effigy behind to take the place of its victim.”

“What have you done to anger people? Did you refuse their suits?” Declan asked because he probably couldn’t think of any other reason someone could be angry with a female.

“Well, I’ve narrowed it down to a couple of people. It could be the local werewolf alpha. I shot his balls off a few months back. They’ve probably grown back by now, and he could be looking for some revenge. There’s always Lucas Halfer. He’s a demon. I managed to get his dumb ass kicked off the Hell plane. I’ve killed any number of people whose relatives could be out for revenge. I even considered Cecilia, that vampire Dev slept with. She was hot to get him back, and I don’t doubt for one instant she might try to take me out to clear the way.”

Declan smiled with the memory. “Yes, I remember her. She was quite terrifying. I still cannot believe he got into bed with that. He had nightmares about it for weeks. I was surprised to discover him in another vampire’s bed.”

“Well, Daniel’s bite is quite the experience.” I looked out the window, wondering briefly if I would ever get to watch that sight again. I really loved to watch the two of them together. They were so freaking hot. Maybe it made me perverse, but I wanted to watch them, craved it kind of. I had some very specific fantasies. “It’s totally different from Cecilia. It was Danny’s bite that brought Dev’s magic back.”