The dinner conversation revealed a lot about Chad Thomas. I couldn't remember the last time I'd met an actual, plain old ordinary human guy. If I met a human in any capacity beyond talking to someone while in line at Starbucks, they were usually in the life. They were thieves like me or looking to hire one. They didn't sit and talk openly about their lives. They didn't talk about their careers as lawyers or how much they liked dogs. Neil was particularly happy with that last tidbit Chad had dropped. If he'd been a cat person, that might have been a deal breaker.

Neil stood up, gathering plates. "Let me go grab dessert."

I glanced at the clock, and my heart sank a little bit. I shouldn't have expected anything less. It was almost a full hour since the sun disappeared. Part of me hoped Daniel would come out as soon as he was released. He was, undoubtedly, locked in his apartment sulking. Or maybe he'd found those cheap hookers he'd talked about.

"Wow," Chad said, his brown eyes widening. "That looks like it hurts."

My hand flew to the scarf I'd tied around my neck. Without Daniel's blood, I healed like an everyday person, and the holes he'd left were transitioning from horrifying to merely disgusting. My fingers quickly redid the knot, and I blushed as I tried to find a good excuse. What was a reasonable explanation for the black and blue monstrosity that was my neck? There wasn't one so I gave him a creative piece of c.r.a.p that should let him know it wasn't his business. "Bugs, man they get big out here in the country, don't they?"

"That's a bug bite?" He leaned forward, trying to get a better look.

"Oh, yeah, and let me tell you those suckers hurt," I replied with a smile as Neil brought forth the raspberry cheesecake.

He'd barely set it down when the front door slammed open. Daniel stalked through the doorway carrying four long boxes on his shoulders. It was way more than even a built man like Danny should be able to carry. He put them in the entryway and walked back outside without a word. It took less time than it should for him to be back with more.

I had to catch his attention or he might scare our guest, who wasn't used to super speed. "h.e.l.lo, Danny."

He caught sight of the three of us and stopped, finally letting his senses tell him what they should have told him long before now. "We have company?"

"This is Chad," Neil said and introductions were made.

"Nice to meet you, Chad," Daniel managed. "I have some more boxes to bring in. Don't let me interrupt your dinner."

Chad's eyes were wide as Daniel turned. Oh, yeah, no question about it now. He was gay. "Who was that?"

Neil didn't seem bothered by the fact that Chad was nearly drooling. "That's Zoey's husband, Daniel. If you think he's hot, you should meet her boyfriend. I practically stop breathing when he walks in a room. He's s.e.x on two legs."

I gave Neil my best "you're going to die later" stare and got up from the table to follow Daniel outside. Stepping around the boxes littering my foyer, I made my way to the front yard.

"You bought my flooring," I said with a happy smile. He was here, and he wasn't telling me to stay away. It was progress.

"Yeah, well, turns out Visa works at Home Depot and hand-sc.r.a.ped hardwood is supposed to be good at alleviating the gut-gnawing guilt I feel at nearly draining my wife." His eyes slid away, but there wasn't any bitterness in his words, just a sheepish regret.

"You don't take the same lessons from these episodes that I do." I picked up his tool box from the back of the truck he was driving. He'd traded in his Benz for a truck after I'd pretty much destroyed it earlier this year. The truck was more useful anyway. He ducked into the cab and came back with a small thermos. I didn't have to ask what it was.

Daniel handed me the cup of the thermos. He held it out, and I could see he was hoping I wouldn't fight him on it. "And what do you take from the times when I nearly kill you?"

"That you never do." I took the cup and drank it down. I didn't have any desire to spend weeks waiting for my neck to heal. I tried not to sigh with pleasure as I felt the blood start to work. I suddenly wasn't as tired as I'd been before. "That you always find a way. We always find a way."

I untied the scarf around my neck, feeling the smooth skin there.

Daniel stopped on the porch and smiled, leaning the last box against the wall. "All right, Pollyanna, we'll play it your way. Maybe it's time to trust ourselves. Did I bother to thank you for saving me? You know, I'm supposed to be this big bad vampire, but I get my a.s.s saved by a girl an awful lot. What does that say about me?"

"That you're fortunate in your choice of companions?"

He leaned forward and kissed me swiftly. This time I didn't really try to get away. "I am that, Z. Now, I need to go pull up that G.o.d-awful carpet of yours. Who installs lime green carpet?"

"You don't owe me anything, Daniel." I might have saved him once or twice, but it didn't even start to equal the tally sheet he'd run up saving me.

He held up a hand in protest. "You let me work this out my way. You said I'm not allowed to run and hide, and I'm not allowed to act like an a.s.shole to cover up my guilt. So I'm left with installing flooring. Besides, after the last couple of days, I need to do something manly, baby. I was stuck in some h.o.m.oerotic nightmare where dudes held me down and forced me to feed from another dude."

I couldn't help laughing. Vampirism was forcing Daniel to look at his s.e.xuality in a whole different light. "Neil's very effeminate," I pointed out. He was. Sometimes he stole my underwear.

"Not helping, Zoey." Daniel walked back into the house. He was moving furniture around when I followed. He looked over at me and slowly stripped off his T-shirt, revealing that magnificent chest of his. It was ripped and tapered into a six-pack that made my mouth water. He shrugged, satisfied I'd noticed. "I know you like a show with dinner, baby," he said, then went back to his work.

"So that's your husband?" Chad stood beside me, watching the way the muscles of Daniel's back bunched. I couldn't blame him. It was an enticing sight.

"That's him." I let my gaze slide down to Daniel's very nice backside.

I saw he wanted to ask about my boyfriend, but he was far too polite. "Well, Neil said we should retire to the back porch. It's a lovely night. He would like to serve dessert al fresco. He's making coffee. He said he'd be out in a minute."

Chad held his arm out in a courtly gesture, and I allowed him to lead me through the house toward the back door. I loved my backyard. There was no fence, just two acres of land lush with trees. It made up for the commute I had to make into the city. It was peaceful and I felt a calm out here that I could never get in Dallas. I'd taken particular pains to make the back porch of my st.u.r.dy old farmhouse inviting. There was an entire set of plush patio furniture to lounge on while I watched the sun set or rise, and I tried to do at least one of those a day. But what I loved more than anything else was the antique porch swing Daniel had refinished and installed. I let Chad lead me to the swing and contentedly started to rock.

"Hey, what happened to the bug bite?" Chad asked, leaning forward to inspect my now perfect-looking neck. "It's completely gone. That's amazing. How did you do that?"

I hadn't really thought about that when I'd downed the blood Daniel handed me. All I cared about at the time was clearing up my bruise and not having Daniel feel bad every time he looked at me. This was why we didn't date everyday humans. In the course of one evening, we'd had to hide or explain away too many odd incidents. As I looked at Chad, I knew what Neil wanted but I wasn't sure it was ever going to work. Neil was a werewolf. He couldn't hide that forever, and I was pretty sure he didn't even want to.

"Yeah, I took some Benadryl," I lied. "Clears it right up."

Chad shook his head and sat back. He looked out over the porch and into the night shrouded trees. "This place is strange. I guess I lived in the city too long. I'm not used to all the nature. I decided to move out here after my parents died. It's so cutthroat in the city. I wanted something more laid back, you know?" He looked up as though surprised he was talking so much. "Sorry, I'm completely dominating the conversation. You're very easy to talk to, Zoey. Odd, but easy to talk to."

I was glad he found me easy to talk to because that way I didn't have to talk back. There was a brief lull, and I wondered where the h.e.l.l Neil was. How long did it take to make coffee? I tried to continue the small talk. "I like the whole wide open s.p.a.ces thing. I lived in a tiny apartment for too long. I like the fact that I can come out here in the morning and there's usually a fluffy bunny jumping in the yard."

"It's not so much the fluffy bunnies I have a problem with." Chad looked out into the night, his eyes narrowing as though he was trying to spot something. "It's the larger wildlife that kind of freaks me out. Did you know there are wolves out here? If I didn't know better, I would swear I'm being stalked by a big white wolf. I've seen it three times when I'm jogging. It's weird. It looks almost intelligent."

Oh, it wasn't intelligent. That white wolf was really stupid, and Chad was lucky Neil hadn't come up and humped his leg. I was going to have a talk with my roomie about not freaking the locals out. This was the country, and the locals had shotguns. They probably had torches and pitchforks, too. I was thinking about all the weapons the locals might use on us when Chad suddenly reached out and stroked my hair.

"G.o.d, you're beautiful." He stared at me, and there was a languid heaviness to his words. I was stunned as Chad leaned over and pressed his lips against mine.

"You trying to take on a third, sweetheart? Or would he be our fourth?" a very sarcastic voice asked from the back door. Dev stood there, looking down on us with a predatory smile. He had on his black slacks and a form-fitting T-shirt. It was what he wore when hanging out at Ether. I stood up as quickly as possible and realized the situation was even worse than it looked because Daniel and Neil were watching, too. Dev, of course, couldn't let a bad situation be bad. He had to go for really awful. "Seriously, little boy, you can't handle her. You have no idea the exotic things she likes, and quite frankly, her schedule is a little full as it is."

Chad looked horrified. Neil looked hurt and Daniel...well, Daniel looked curious.

"I have no idea why I did that." Chad's eyes shifted between me and Neil. "She's not my type. I don't like girls. I'm one hundred percent gay. I have been my whole life." He looked Dev up and down. "G.o.d, you're the boyfriend aren't you? That's my point here. I don't want to do her. I want to be her doing you."

"That's not what it looked like from here," Neil said bitterly as he turned with his coffeepot and stalked back into the house.

Chad sat back on the porch swing and let his head fall to his hands.

I tried to go after Neil. Dev stopped me. "He won't want to talk right now, sweetheart. Don't make it worse."

"I didn't do anything." It wasn't my fault the new guy decided to be bi-curious.

Dev rubbed a hand on my shoulder. "I know you didn't. I wasn't accusing you. You would never do anything to hurt Neil. Now, that one over there obviously has control issues."

"Yes, he does." Daniel's eyes hadn't left Chad since the whole incident had begun. "Zoey, Dev needs to talk to you, and I think you should go with him. I can handle things here. Don't worry about Neil."

"You want me to go with Dev?" Daniel never wanted me to go with Dev. Daniel would come up with a thousand excuses for me to not be alone with Dev.

"Absolutely," he replied. "Dev said he has a line on a paying job."

"And you don't want in on the conversation?"

Daniel smiled, but it was a distracted thing. "Hey, we're working on trust, right? I trust you to make the right decision. So go, spend the night in the city and get us a job. Those hookers aren't getting any cheaper."

I let Dev lead me away while Chad tried to figure out what had gone wrong and Daniel...I think Daniel was trying to figure out Chad.

Chapter Eight.

I glanced around Ether, trying to figure out which of the women was my potential client. Dev had chosen to be difficult during the drive from my house to his club. He'd evaded my questions about the client, saying only that he thought she was legit. Dev dealt with enough people who weren't legit to know what he was talking about. The nightclub industry isn't known for its upstanding business practices in the human world, and it's probably worse in the supernatural world. Dev's staff dealt with numerous incidents on a nightly basis.

The bartender shook my Cosmo into a c.o.c.ktail gla.s.s, and I accepted it with a grateful sigh. No one stood out as I surveyed the club.

Dev came up behind me and placed a possessive hand on the small of my back. "Relax. She'll be here."

"I wish you had found out more about this mysterious client. I don't like going into things blind." Blind had nearly gotten Daniel killed just a few days before.

He settled in close to me, his lips against my ear. "Hey, it's not like last time. You're here. There's a whole staff ready to watch your back, and I promise I won't let anything nasty happen to you. Well, not anything I am not directly involved in."

"Could you be serious for two seconds?" He hadn't been there last time. No well-trained staff could have handled the angels.

"Look, you said you wanted a job. I found you a job." Dev let his hands make soothing circles across my back. "You'll have to forgive me if I didn't have her fill out a questionnaire when she called. Next time, I'll know better. Now let's talk about my payment, sweetheart, because I didn't do this out of the kindness of my heart."

He whispered something truly filthy in my ear that made me want to forget about the client and Neil and Chad and everything that was going on and head straight up to the grotto. Since Dev had come into my life, I'd started to rely on mind-blowing s.e.x as a distraction from everyday woes.

"She called you?" I asked, his words finally penetrating through a haze of l.u.s.t. "Not the other way around? I thought you heard something through the grapevine and made a call to her."

"No, she called me out of the blue." He bent down and laid a proprietary kiss on my neck. "She said she needed a mediator. That was the word she used."

"What was her name, Dev?" I asked, even though I was pretty sure I knew what her name was. She'd told me she would try again. I was just a little shocked at how fast she'd come back.

He thought about it for a moment. "I don't remember. I should remember her name, shouldn't I? I'm sorry, I might not be as cautious as you but I should remember her freaking name. Did I write it down somewhere?"

I turned and reached out, taking his hand. "It's not your fault, Dev. It's what she does. I bet she called you right before you left to come and get me."

He shook his head in confusion. "I remember telling her I couldn't help out until tomorrow. I had a meeting with some vendors tonight. I must have canceled. I don't remember doing it though. Why would I do that? I need to renegotiate my liquor contracts. I wouldn't just cancel."

Angelic influence made vampire persuasion look like child's play.

I looked around the club and, sure enough, there she was. She sat at a table watching Dev and me with a hopeful look on her face. Felicity Day was wearing an approximation of club clothes, but even with a short skirt and flouncy top she looked out of place-like a brilliant shaft of light on an otherwise cloudy day. I had to suspect the effect was for me and Dev alone, as everyone else completely ignored her.

Dev's eyes followed mine. His arms drifted from around me, and he simply stared her way. "Wow, she's beautiful. She is really beautiful."

He couldn't take his eyes off her, and I rolled mine. She was playing those games again, but I wasn't buying it this time. I wasn't sure if it was because I had recently taken Daniel's blood or perhaps it wasn't as strong the second time around, but I could control myself around her more easily this time. Dev seemed to be having some trouble. "You aren't going to be very helpful, are you? Why don't you go and do whatever it is you do. I think I have to take care of this on my own."

I picked up my drink and stalked across the bar to Felicity's table. "I said no."

She gave me a sad smile. "Please sit and talk with me, Zoey."

"I'll talk with you." Dev sank his lanky frame into the chair and stared at Felicity with his head in his hands. He looked like a twelve-year-old with a crush. It was odd to see Dev so open. "Can I get you anything? I own this place. I can get you anything you want. I own a lot of places."

"Dev, it's a glamour." It was at least the angelic equivalent of a glamour.

Dev nodded, a s.p.a.cey grin on his face. "Yes, she's very glamorous. I'm glad you see that." He looked up at me and there was suddenly a pathetic sympathy in his eyes.

I got a bad feeling about what he was going to say next. "Don't say what you're about to say. You're going to feel stupid about it later, so just keep your mouth shut, babe. This really is a glamour."

Dev wasn't listening to anything but the magic Felicity was working. "I love her, Zoey. I know this is going to hurt you, but we have to break up. I've enjoyed the time we've spent together, but I've found real love now. We're going to get married. I hope you can be happy for us. I really want us to stay friends."

It took everything I had not to burst into laughter. He looked so sweet and earnest that I really wished I could pull my phone out to capture and replay the moment over and over again. Instead, I just nodded. "Yeah sure, Dev. I completely support your new relationship with a woman you barely talked to on the phone. Maybe I can be a bridesmaid."

"That would be great." He sent a swoony look back at his beloved.

Felicity had the grace to look embarra.s.sed. "I forgot about that. I'm really sorry. I'm afraid it just comes naturally." The light around her dimmed visibly. "That should take care of it."

Dev shook his head as if to clear it. He looked around. "Did I just break up with you?"

I grinned. "Yes, I'm very sad about it. I'm devastated."

"What the h.e.l.l was that?" Dev's face hardened.

"That was an intense angelic glamour. It's a little more powerful than the stuff you can do." Dev had a plent.i.tude of magical power, but his control was c.r.a.p. Sometimes the things he tried went haywire.

Dev's eyes found the angel, suspicion plain there. "I was ready to do whatever she wanted. I would have left you and gone wherever she wanted me to go. I would have left you here and anything could have gotten to you. You wouldn't have been protected. I made promises, and I would have just tossed them away to follow her around."

"It's all right, Dev. I knew what was going on. I didn't take you seriously."

"I'm really sorry." Felicity bit her bottom lip, her eyes apologetic. "I did use my influence to get you to bring Zoey to me because this is important and time is running out. But I am sincerely sorry that you were caught in it this time. It wasn't my intention. I can only blame the imbalance."

"I don't care. You can get the h.e.l.l out of my club," Dev said, nearly snarling. "This is a neutral place and that means no magic. No weapons and no manipulative magic."

Felicity proved that angels could flush and she turned to me, tears in those seemingly innocent eyes. "Please, Zoey. I really need to talk to you."

I shrugged. I didn't like the way she manipulated people either. Dev took the rules of his club very seriously. The only weapons allowed in the club were safely tucked away in his office and in the armory he kept locked away in case of trouble. "You heard the man. You aren't welcome here."

"I'll have a bouncer show you the door." Dev stood, his hand coming out to grip my own as he pulled me with him.

We began to walk away. I hoped she would get the hint and haul her a.s.s back to Heaven. Throbbing dance music beat through the air around us, but I could plainly hear Felicity over the chaos.

"Zoey, I can pay you two million dollars."