“So Danny gets all freaked out about you dying and tries to get Dev to take you someplace safe before you can die.” Neil neatly summed up the story with a shrug. “Well, I was his servant for years. I heard many a dumbass plan to force Z into a cage where she would be safe, and she would never have to know all the creepy stuff he wanted to do to her.”
I smiled, thinking about the night before. “Well, he’s decided to do all the creepy stuff to me now. Once I got it through his thick skull that I wasn’t playing that game, he suddenly wasn’t so hot for Tamara, who better get herself out of my house.”
“Yeah,” Sarah said, starting to soap up my hair. “I’ve got a hex for that bitch, too.”
“We might be using that one,” I said under my breath. “Okay, Neil, so you’ve been around Vampire Daniel for a long time. Explain to me why he thought I couldn’t handle the freaky vamp stuff?”
“Do you want his reasoning or the actual truth?”
“Hit me with both.”
“In Daniel’s mind you’re far too sweet and innocent to ever handle his darker impulses,” Neil offered. Lee snorted because he’d seen some of my own dark impulses. “He has you on a pedestal. You’re his darling, beloved princess who shouldn’t be bothered with the bad crap the world has to offer.”
“But I seek that crap out,” I replied because god knew I did.
“I didn’t say it made sense. Think of it this way, Z,” Neil offered, trying to make me understand. “Daniel died. That in and of itself is horrible and traumatic. Then he rises and figures out he’s this monstrous thing. He finds the girl he loves and all of a sudden she glows like an angel and when he tastes her blood for the first time, it’s so sweet and makes him feel so good and then she’s gone. He spent the next three years being tortured and made into a death machine. All he wanted that whole time was to get back to you. You were this perfect light for him. He would have done anything to keep you safe. Then you run off with Dev.”
I groaned because put like that, it seemed like a crappy thing to do.
Neil shook his head. “I can see now that Dev is necessary, Z. Daniel would never have accepted you as a partner without Dev. He would have taken you as a companion and hidden you away from everything, but he wouldn’t have been able to handle the real you. Dev forced that issue.”
“It doesn’t hurt that he trusts Dev to take care of you.” Sarah opened the dreaded canister and started to rub that sand into my back. “Daniel can do what he needs to do without being worried you’re on your own.”
“All right.” I accepted his explanation. “And what’s the real reason?”
“So if Daniel thinks you can’t handle the truth then the real reason is this—Daniel can’t handle the truth,” Neil stated bluntly. “The things he wants to do, he’s afraid you’ll never forgive him for.”
Sarah laughed, a sweet sound. “Yeah, I’m living, breathing, not in Hell being tortured proof of Z’s ability to forgive.”
“He’s fighting his nature,” Neil said. “He’s going to lose.”
I thought about the look on his face last night when he cleaned the blood off of me. He enjoyed killing the wolves and he’d definitely enjoyed playing with me afterward. “I think he lost that battle last night.”
“It’s the best thing for all of you,” Neil said. “You and Dev can handle Danny’s freaky stuff. If any two people in the world can embrace the sexual dark side, it’s you and Dev.”
I turned to look at Neil as Sarah scrubbed my scalp. “So, Neil, when you and Chad used to…”
“Make mad, passionate, earth-shattering, award-winning love?”
“Yes,” I allowed. “Did he do weird things to your neck?”
Neil threw back his head and laughed. “Daniel’s coming out of his shell, girlfriend. You have no idea. Chad would just sit and lick my neck for hours. I think it’s their version of TV. He would do this thing where he scraped his fangs…”
“…and drew a little blood and licked it up?”
“Yup. He got a hard-on every time I got a paper cut. I got a whole lot of paper cuts while we were together.” Neil sniffed the air deeply. “God, Z, sometimes I can still smell him.”
I heard Lee growl deep in his throat, and despite his promise to himself to never see me naked again, he came out from his hiding place. He started to circle around something as he scented the air and growled.
Neil joined Lee, though his senses were not as good now that he was weakened.
I frowned as I watched the wolves circle something that wasn’t there. Sarah stood beside me, waiting to see if we were about to be attacked, but I knew our visitor just liked to show off. I would have covered myself up, but this visitor didn’t care about boobs and hell, he’d seen them in action. “Chad, you might as well come out. Lee won’t care that he can’t see you. He’ll tear a hunk out of your invisible flesh just as fast.”
Chad appeared between the two wolves. Lee still growled but Neil took a startled step back. I could guess what he was thinking. The Chad who stood before him was a completely different person than the one he’d loved. Chad had been a straightlaced lawyer who tended toward slacks and button-downs. His hair had been stylish but conservative. The vampire who looked at Neil like he was going to eat him alive was a dominant sexual being in leather, his hair running long.
“Lee, it’s all right,” I said quietly. “He belongs to Daniel.”
Chad bowed to the wolf. “Daniel Donovan is my master, wolf. If you protect that which is his, you’ll have a care with me.”
“Yeah, I only give a shit about Zoey,” Lee replied, letting Chad know he wasn’t impressed. “I couldn’t care less about Donovan or his property.”
Chad arched a dark eyebrow curiously. “Interesting.” He bowed to me. “Good job finding him, Zoey. I knew you would do it.”
“I didn’t do it for you.” I went back to washing my hair. I had a ritual to get to and Dev would have my ass if I was late. “Did you bring the stuff from Marini?”
“I did,” Chad replied. “I gave it directly to my master.”
“That was for me.”
“It’s for my master to decide,” Chad said solemnly. “I serve him, Zoey. I follow his orders.” He turned to Neil, who was still staring at his boyfriend. “Hello, my lover. You’re far too thin.”
Neil rolled his eyes, his expression bitter. “You walk out on me and the first words out of your mouth after you get business out of the way are to complain about my looks. Nice. That’s makes everything so much easier.”
Chad pinned Neil with his gaze. “I wasn’t complaining. I was worried, Neil. I told Zoey to find you for me.”
“If there is one thing on this planet that I am certain of, Chad, it is that Zoey loves me,” Neil said quietly. “She would have found me whether you gave a damn or not. She wouldn’t have stopped.”
Chad seemed unsettled by that announcement. “I had a job to do. I’m doing this for you, Neil. I haven’t sacrificed myself for my own pleasure. I did this to protect you.”
Neil glanced my way and we had a moment of pure sympathetic connection. He looked back at Chad. “You love me enough to sacrifice a year of your life, but not enough to take five minutes to discuss the decision with me. Perhaps we’ll speak on it further when you return from the Council.” Neil turned his back on Chad and walked to the water’s edge, picking up a big fluffy towel on his way. “Come on, Z. We need to start on that hair now. We only have until midnight and it’ll probably still be damp.”
Sarah had scraped off the top layer of my skin, so I supposed I was ready. I let Neil wrap the towel around my body and rub the soft material over me. Chad watched his lover help me through angry, slitted eyes.
It was now me under the glare of Chad’s dark stare. “You think to take him from me?”
There was that good old vampire jealousy. I folded the towel under my arms. “I’m not taking anything from you, Chad. This is totally your fault. You should have talked to him. You should have treated him like a partner and not some piece of property that would just sit at home and wait for you.”
Suddenly Chad was in my face, his fangs twin threats. “He is mine. I will not allow you to take him.”
Lee was ready to pounce, but I held him off with a wave. If I couldn’t handle one vampire who was blood oathed to my husband then I didn’t deserve my title. I stared Chad directly in his dark, scary eyes. “You will back off now, Chad Thomas. You forget yourself. Neil belongs to me as you belong to me. My husband is king and I’m your queen, or do you deny me?”
Put like that, he could do one of two things. He could back his ass down or he could break from his master. Chad wisely chose to back his ass down.
Chad took a smart step back, lowering his head in a deferential gesture. “Forgive me, Your Highness. It’s easy to forget. You don’t hold yourself apart. Of course, I don’t deny you. I’ve merely missed my lover. Please accept my apologies. We do belong to you.”