Steal the Moon(21)

As I breathed in the early evening air, I wondered if my apartment was still available. There had been no voice mails on my cell when I checked after we burned the aswang. I’d expected Dev to leave a flurry of angry “get your ass home” messages, but there was absolutely nothing.

The silence said a lot.

“You are not enjoying your cat?” Declan asked, his voice not unkind.

“It’s great. I’m just worried about going home. What the hell do you mean cat?” I sat straight up and looked down at my beef soft taco with sour cream and guacamole.

Lee took a big bite of his fourth taco. Werewolves can really pack it away. “It’s definitely cat. You were right about this place. This is some damn fine cat. I’ll have to bring Zack here.”

“It can’t be cat, guys.” They had to be playing a joke on me. “People in the regular world don’t eat cat.”

“Trolls do.” Declan gestured toward the taco stand. I stared back at the perfectly human-looking husband and wife team who’d sold me tacos for the last five years. They bowed when Declan looked their way. I’d been surprised that they refused to allow Declan to pay them. “See, they know their future king.”

Declan got up and excused himself to get another lemonade, which he thought was the greatest invention ever.

I set my taco down. I really hoped Taco Bell wasn’t run by trolls because I was going to have to stop somewhere on my way home. I was still really hungry.

The ground in front of me shook as Daniel landed on the lawn. He was wearing a Superman T-shirt, which I found ironic, and those dimples came out as he smiled down at me.

“Hello, Z,” he said, his drawl satisfying something deep in my soul. “You’ve been a very bad girl. Dev has pulled out a good portion of that hair of his. If I don’t get you home soon, he’s going to be bald, and I don’t think any of us wants that. What’s he going to do with his spare time if he’s not fixing his hair?”

I frowned. “I don’t know if I want to face Dev, even though I was totally in the right on this one. I killed the creature and got the info I needed. Lucas Halfer sent her, by the way. He’s sending out the troops apparently.”

Daniel cursed and sat down beside me, his hand sliding over mine. It felt so good to have him next to me. “Damn it. I’m sorry, Z. It didn’t seem like a big deal last night. It’s been quiet, and I guess I didn’t want to admit that anything could be wrong. Are you okay?”

I nodded, enjoying being close to him. Danny and I had fought a lot, but we always put it behind us. “With the singular exception of really needing a shower, I’m fine.” I twisted around to put my feet in his lap. “And these are now my official zombie-killing shoes.”

“Zombies?” Daniel asked with an expectant smile.

“That was some fucked up shit,” Lee admitted as he got up and shook the grass off his jeans. “Zoey, I’ll be in the club at noon tomorrow. If you need me before then, just call. Don’t go running off on your own, okay?”

I saluted my new BFF.

Daniel shook his head, his face going grave. “Sorry, Lee. Dev fired you. He was adamant. You didn’t follow direct orders. No more bodyguards for her without a blood oath to me.”

“Quinn can fuck himself,” Lee said with an arrogant grin. “I take orders from Zoey. As for the oath to you, you can fuck yourself, too. You haven’t given me any reason to tie myself to you, Donovan. I’ll make an oath when I find the leader I want to dedicate myself to. I don’t think it’s going to be you.”

Daniel looked up at the wolf, and there was only the slightest hint of anger in his eyes. “Understood, Lee. Feel free to remove yourself.”

I rolled my eyes at the alpha-boy fight. “I’m happy with Lee, Danny. If you put Zack on my ass, I’ll just tranq him again and run off on my own. Lee and I made a deal. If he’s my bodyguard, I promise not to try to give him the slip.”

Shaking his sandy head, Daniel gave the wolf a hard look. “If you get my wife hurt, I swear I’ll kill you myself.”

“I’m sure you’ll try,” Lee muttered. “I think I’ll be going before the real fight starts.” Lee gave me a nod and I heard him say, “Good evening, Your Highness,” as he walked away.

Declan walked up, giving the wolf a regal nod of his head as he exited the park. He stared down at Daniel, whose face flushed at the sight of the future king of Faery.

“There’s two of him?” Daniel’s eyes widened.

“He told you he had a twin,” I pointed out.

“I thought it was a fraternal thing.” Daniel stood up. He stared at Declan like he really didn’t want to believe it. I probably should have mentioned it. I’d seen Dev’s twin before in a Hell plane vision, but Dev didn’t really like to talk about him. I’d kept it to myself, figuring if Dev wanted to talk to Daniel about his brother, he would.

“Nope, they’re identical.” I joined him, scrambling up. “He’s the one who saved me last night. It’s why I thought I was with Dev.”

Declan bowed slightly as he introduced himself. “Vampire, I am Prince Declan Quinn, future king of Faery. I did indeed save the fair Zoey from the beast, though she has yet to offer any real payment for the deed. I have had to steal kisses from her all day as she selfishly refuses to give them.”

“And they have the same taste in women,” I pointed out with a sigh.

I thought Daniel would laugh and have a good joke about me having to put up with not one but two horny faeries. I kind of thought he would roll his eyes and treat the prince like an obnoxious child. I’d gotten used to my husband being somewhat good natured about other men sometimes looking at me. Dev had helped him get over the crazy maniac vampire jealousy thing.

It had been a long time since Danny had gone a little crazy, so I didn’t expect his fangs to pop out to violent lengths as he reared his fist back and sent the prince flying through the air. His completely over-the-top reaction reminded me that the extremely possessive nature of Daniel Donovan was not something to be messed with.

Declan hit a tree with a nasty crack, but he popped back up, weapon in hand. Before we could move, he’d notched the arrow, drawn it back, and released it. There was a whizzing sound and then a thunk as it slammed into Daniel’s leg.

“Guards,” Declan yelled. “The vampire only. Do not harm my brother’s mistress.”

Suddenly the park was filled with warriors and weapons, and a couple of freaky flying things with big teeth. I stared at the flying creatures because they greatly resembled manta rays with their long spiked tails. They didn’t need water though. They moved through the air with a menacing grace that took my breath away. Those tails slapped around with audible cracks and came at Daniel even as two large Fae bore down on him with broadswords.

Declan stood in the back of the fray with Padric in front of him, and he managed to slam several more arrows into my husband’s body.

I found a place away from the fray because the truth of the matter was this wasn’t a fair fight. So I made myself comfortable. There were only eleven of them, including Declan, and they didn’t even have guns. Daniel moved faster than my eyes could track, but I was able to see how the Fae fell one by one under his claws and teeth. He reached up and pulled the Unseelie creatures straight out of the air, slamming the two into each other with a mighty crunch before kicking them against a tree.

I just sat and watched, comfortable with the fact that Daniel wouldn’t really kill Declan. He would enjoy the fight, but unlike my boyfriend, these Fae were immortal. Danny could take out all of his frustration on them and other than a nice long healing process, they would turn out okay. I thought about tossing Danny one of the knives I had strapped to my thigh, but just as I was mustering the will to get up and do it, I noted that he’d wrestled one of the long swords away. He used it to skewer a tall faery with blond hair. He’d already incapacitated half the small army.

While Danny was working through his problems, I was still worried about Dev. I pulled out my phone and checked my e-mail. Other than some Nigerian prince who really wanted me to help him smuggle money out of the country, there was nothing. Dev hadn’t even written me a single freaking e-mail, and I usually got five or six from him a day. There was at least one every day with an attached photo that I couldn’t open in public, but today I got nothing. How pissed off would Daniel be with me if his chief advisor left us because he was so sick of dealing with my crap? I found myself hoping the fight would last a little longer so I could avoid Dev.

There was no such luck as Danny stuck the sword into the last fighting Fae and began to move on Padric and Declan.

Declan watched Daniel with serious eyes even as Padric gave a great shout and leapt forward to protect his king. He looked pretty scary to me as he sprang through the air with a warrior’s cry and an upraised sword, but Daniel just punched him in the face with all of his might and the Fae flew backward. When he hit the ground, he didn’t get back up.

Daniel’s eyes were stark, his claws long as he stalked the faery prince, who now had the good sense to realize he was in real danger. Still, even with death staring at him, he was curious.