Daniel lumbered to his feet and growled low in his throat at Jeffrey. I chuckled and looked around, noticing most of the people who had been out here fighting were long gone, including most of Jeffrey’s friends.
Figures.
"Now," I wiggled my finger. "You know who I am. You know what I can do. I could wiggle one little finger and have a tiny, but probably important part of your body, fall right off. Would you like that?"
"No!" He squeaked, grabbing his crotch.
"Or would you like to spend all of eternity bald?"
His eyes were wide. "Not my hair!"
"Or maybe just shrink you to the size of an ant and keep you in a jar," I tapped my chin like I was really thinking of what cruel thing I should do to him.
"What do you want?" He moaned helplessly. "I'll go. I won't bother you again."
I smirked unkindly at him. "You know what I want to know."
He stared at me in confusion.
"Where the hell is Bryan?" Carol shouted from behind me as Beth yanked her back.
He scrambled to his feet. “Okay. I did take Bryan. But it was just supposed to be a joke, just a good time! I never thought it'd get all of you so riled up.”
Daniel growled again and took a few steps forward.
Jeffrey held up his hands, his voice so high it could've been a young girl's. "I'll give you whatever you want."
"You murdered Quillan and blamed Bryan for it!" Carol shouted, jabbing her finger toward him.
“I didn’t kill Quill, I swear. I really liked that guy. I’m sad as anyone he’s dead," he pleaded, but I wasn’t sure I believed him.
My eyes narrowed, and I pointed a finger at him too.
He went absolutely white. "I swear it! And this thing with Bryan wasjusta joke. Cause he’s such a douchebag, you know?”
Carol strode forward and grabbed Jeffrey’s shirt in her hand, yanking the hulking guy down to her level. “Take me to him,” she said through her teeth. “Now.”
He looked at me and Daniel.
I smiled coldly. "You heard the lady."
TWENTY-TWO
Emma
Jeffrey immediately agreed,both saying that he’d take us to Bryan immediately, and nodding and bowing. It seemed he was like every other bully, confident and jerky until he faced a bigger, stronger opponent. And, apparently, our groupwasbigger and stronger in his eyes because the big bad vampire was now like a little boy, nervous about being in trouble.
Daniel made a noise. If rolling his eyes had a vocal sound to accompany, that would’ve been the sound he made. He turned back toward the building before shifting back to into himself. Beth rushed forward with his pants, while Carol brought his shirt and shoes. I tried very hard to focus on the fact that Bryan was safe, and we were all going to go get him, and not the fact that Daniel's butt was amazing, and that all my friends were getting a front row seat at seeing him naked.
It wasn't exactly my favorite thing, but if he could handle me going on a non-date with a vampire, I needed to handle this.
“I’ll drive,” Daniel growled as soon as he had clothes on.
Carol, Beth, Deva and I crammed into the back seat while Jeffrey sat with his back pressed against the passenger door, his gaze glued on Daniel. It would've been funny if I wasn't so dang tired.
“You know,” Carol said, leaning forward from her spot between me and Beth. “Of all the people in this car, I’d hazard to say Daniel is one of theleastdangerous.”
When Jeffrey jerked his gaze to the back seat, Carol sat back with a smug expression on her face. Each of uswasincredibly dangerous in our own ways. Daniel was physically intimidating and terrifying, especially to the vampires with their delicate skins and heads just begging to be separated from their necks. But my friends and I had all sorts of magic between us, a significant amount of magic. There was no telling what we could do if we put our minds to it. What we could accomplish. We’d only just begun to tap into what we were capable of together as a team.
