dirty with the enemy. But beyond the powers of lust, Dev can call all things green to his aid. It might sound like a minor power, but it can freak out a bad guy when the trees start attacking or they find themselves wrapped up so tightly in rose bushes they can’t breathe. And what that man can do with poison ivy would make most baddies think twice about facing down my honey.
“We have very different definitions of the word safe, Your Highness. There seems to be nothing at all safe in this time. And I don’t trust those camera things. They can easily be manipulated by anyone who wished to trick us into believing Devinshea made it home. Certainly a man closely associated with the royal family shouldn’t be moving about after midnight by himself. There are any number of factions who would love to take down someone so close to the king. Devinshea’s unique nature alone makes him a target.” Myrddin was a handsome man who appeared to be roughly in his mid-forties. He was a man frozen in the prime of his life, with wavy dark hair and chiseled good looks. He was also crazy judgmental most of the time. He turned my way and I could feel all his judgey goodness focus on me.
“His unique nature also makes him hard to take down,” I replied.
“Dev is a badass.” My bestie always backed me up. Neil was one of the few people who knew how I felt about the wizard. He and Sarah understood. I’d left Zack out of my “We Hate Myrddin” club because he was far too close to Daniel.
“I’m sure Devinshea’s powers are formidable,” Myrddin said in that passive aggressive way of his. “But anyone can be overwhelmed, and Devinshea would be an excellent hostage to any number of forces that would seek to influence the king. He should be guarded at all times, as should the queen.”
A chill came over me as I realized how Myrddin could use this incident against me. I don’t like politics, but I’ve learned over the years how to recognize when someone is manipulating a situation to force me into a corner. Guarded at all times also meant watched at all times. It meant putting me in a position where I couldn’t make a move without Myrddin knowing.
“He wasn’t far from the Council building and I know he made it back here,” Daniel argued, but not in that crazy, “I’m going to rip your throat out for questioning me” alpha-vamp way he would with anyone else who suggested he didn’t properly take care of his precious blood.
That’s what he calls us, Dev and me. We’re Daniel’s lovers, spouses, partners. We’re his everything and he’s ours.
“Danny talked to him. He called Dev as he was entering the building, so we know he made it.” I remembered it vividly, though at the time it seemed like nothing more than a normal domestic situation. Lee had left his tablet downstairs in Danny’s office and I knew he would want it the next day. I’d asked Danny to have Dev pick it up on his way to the penthouse.
Devinshea wouldn’t have gone back out into the city without telling us. Never. He wouldn’t have up and decided to take an impromptu trip or decided that it would be cool to head up to an Oklahoma casino. He wouldn’t have tried some new bar or hooked up. If he’d been needed down in Ether, the nightclub he ran, he would have texted Daniel to let him know he wouldn’t be coming up to the penthouse yet. Dev was always thoughtful. There was no question in my mind that something bad had happened.
And every minute we didn’t find him was another minute he was taken further away from me. The fact that the security cameras hadn’t gone wonky until after Dev had made it inside raised all my alarms. Something bad had happened to him here in the building where Myrddin had so recently taken up residence.
“Have you called in the Nex Apparatus?” Myrddin asked, and it seemed to me he was taking over this meeting in a way he shouldn’t. But then that was what he did around Daniel. He took over in small ways, never enough that he couldn’t hedge if called out about it, but enough to sway any conversation the way he wanted it to go. “I understand it’s her…what did you call it?”