Gabriel turned his back to the girl and ruthlessly resisted the urge to rub away the pain that throbbed just above his heart. The flesh on his chest was tight and hot as images of his past flickered like a candle’s flame in the back of his mind. He prayed the girl had not been marked as he had. To this day, he bore the brand of his master, the sign of a true slave.
He continued down the shadowy alley between the cells, the girl’s feet softly padding behind him. The people slowly joined them, one by one.
Gabriel frowned as they came upon the only empty cell. He paused and peered inside. A picture of a young woman was taped to the cold handle of the cell.
“What is this about?” he demanded.
The mortals cringed; some threw their hands up protecting their faces in anticipation of a blow. Gabriel sighed and tugged at his short hair. His tone had been sharp, but he would never lash out at them. He knew too well what they had been through.
The girl tugged on his shirt. “That’s the one they talk about.”
112
“Is she here somewhere?”
The girl wet her cracked, chapped lips and answered, “No.”
“Did they take her?”
“She was never here.”
Gabriel shrugged off the oddity. He needed to lead the group to the emergency stairwell. As he turned away from the cell, rays of white moonlight danced across the photo, drawing his attention once more.
He froze, the air punched out of his chest as ruthless chills attacked his nervous system. He felt as though he had fallen through the ice of a frozen lake. His heart hammered as he slowly lifted his hand, his fingers gently brushing the photo.
Those eyes. He had never seen anyone with electric violet eyes.
They seemed to glow and they pierced his soul. Gabriel swallowed hard as he studied her delicate features, his gaze lingering a moment on her lush, slightly parted lips. She was looking over her shoulder, brushing aside her long, thick, deep red hair. His gut twisted and his fingers began to tremble against the photo as realization pulled him even further beneath the icy surface.
She was going to be their next victim. This was to be her cage.
Gabriel roared and ripped the photo from the cell. The humans behind him cried out in fear, some glanced back towards their chambers.
“Do you know when they will kidnap her?” he barked, his fangs long, his eyes no longer translucent green, but pure, murderous black.
“No, they never spoke of…they keep records. They document all the…” The girl dropped her head and massaged her temples as if she was trying to force herself to remember. “'Findings'. That’s what they call those they plan on taking. I remember when they brought my mother and me here. They had a folder full of pictures and documents.
One man said they had been watching us…for a long time.” The girl’s sniffle tore at Gabriel’s heart. He hoped to God that Silvie was strong enough to remove all her terrible memories.
He needed to focus on the task at hand. Thrusting his rage aside for later, he spun about and headed for the emergency exit.
“We’ve got to get moving. We haven’t much time. For those of you who are having second thoughts and are considering returning to
113
your cells, it will become your tomb. Explosives are being set as we speak and this warehouse will be reduced to rubble.” With a swift kick, the bolted door swung open and he led the way down the winding stairs, the skittish humans close on his heels.
Once on street level, he busted the sealed emergency door open ushering the people from the building to a line of waiting vans.
The sound of footsteps pricked his ears and he dipped his head back into the stairwell. Gannon was coming down with his group. He clapped the vampire on the back as he passed.
Their mission had been a success. Gabriel wished he had time to stick around to see Ven’s face when he arrived, but they had a few more places to hit.
“All set. The office was swept clean and no casualties.” Gannon gave a short laugh, “On our side, anyway.”
“Everyone out?”
Gannon nodded and glanced down at his watch. “We made it out with time to spare. The last van is leaving, we should―”
“Go if you wish. I want to see this place burn.” Gannon waved the van on, deciding to stay with his friend. He was not about to leave Gabriel alone; they had been a team for the last almost hundred and fifty years and that was not going to end tonight.
His eyes flickered back to his watch and narrowed as he caught sight of the photo in Gabriel’s hand.
“What’s that?”
Gabriel handed him the picture. “It was taped to the door of an empty cell.”
“Shit,” he whispered as chills broke out across his skin, “she is stunning.”
Gabriel grunted in agreement before reclaiming the photo and tucking it safely into the inside breast pocket of his black leather jacket.
“We need to find her.”
“Find her? What makes you think Ven doesn’t already have her?”
“That cell was meant for her.”
“Gabriel, I don’t think―”
114
“Do you have any idea what they will do to a woman like her?
She won’t just be a bleeder, having her blood taken from her against her will. She will be a sex slave, sold to the highest bidder, and you can bet that vamp will be a twisted bastard.”
Gabriel’s hands curled into fists, his nails biting into his palms, his arms shaking. Blood dripped from his fists, giving color to the pure snow. His eyes slowly faded to black, his fangs bursting from their sheaths, and hate radiated from his every pore.
He knew exactly what would happen to her once she was in their custody. It would be the same that happened to him centuries ago.
Images of his past clouded his mind. He had been captured in battle, then forced to watch as his enemies cut down his people, burned their village, and repeatedly raped his wife before finally cutting off her head. He had stood proud on the auction block though his body was scarred and bleeding. Perhaps the scent of fresh, young blood had drawn the sadistic Lady Sideth to him.
Gabriel ruthlessly shoved his memories back into the darkness where they belonged.
“We should move across the street.”
Gabriel said nothing, simply turned and stalked across the street to crouch behind the cars once more. Gannon followed, silently counting down the seconds before the blast blew out the windows, sending shards of glass cascading down to sprinkle the snow-covered street below. Flames engulfed the building, greedily consuming the slave warehouse.
The heat of the fire seeped into Gabriel’s cold bones and soothed his soul. His fangs retracted and his eyes flickered back to their light green. He pulled his cell phone from his pocket and hit the speed dial. As he waited for the other line to pick up, the sound of sirens pierced the air.
“It’s done.”
115
The shrill ring of Dimitri’s cell phone shattered their peaceful conversation.
Dimitri’s charming smile vanished, replaced by a stern, unrelenting stare. His fingers wrapped around the plastic noisemaker, his thumb brushing over the face of the touchscreen as he answered the call. He said nothing as he placed it against his ear and, for an instant, his eyes flashed a glowing, unholy white. He placed the phone back on the coffee table before taking up his glass.
“What was that about?” Kerstyn asked once Dimitri finished off his water.
He looked up, his eyes locking on hers. Kerstyn held back a gasp. His gaze was cold, unfeeling, and she knew she was looking into the face of death. She ignored the voice in the back of her mind that told her to run. Instead, she stayed seated on the living room floor and inched closer to him. She could feel the heat and malicious power radiating from his body. She placed a hand on his bicep, the muscle flexed beneath her touch as his hand fisted.
“Business,” he said, his voice deep and thick.
“Bad news?”
“Quite the opposite in fact.”
His voice was even and smooth despite the sharp, hard look on his face. Something pure evil lurked just beneath the surface. Her flight response was going off like a fire alarm in her head, but she did not move. She knew Dimitri would not lash out at her, but what about the vampire? Silvie had warned her to be cautious. Her heart told her he would never intentionally hurt her, her brain was telling her to run until her legs gave out.
Like I would be able to out run him,
she thought.
116
Violence. Brutality. A caged demon existed within him, was part of him and for the first time Kerstyn was beginning to doubt his ability to control the natural instincts that belonged to a vampire.
Cruelty. Bloodlust. She could see the restraints cracking beneath the pressure.
Swallowing her nervousness, she asked, “Then what’s with the homicidal glare?”
Kerstyn watched as the shadows faded and his charming smile returned. He was undeniably handsome when angry, deathly gorgeous when his vampire side paid a visit, but he was deliciously sexy when he smiled. His diamond eyes danced with smoldering crystal flames. The malevolent tension that had filled the room vanished. She knew he had drawn the negative energy into himself and unease pricked her flesh.
“I apologize. Business of this nature tends to bring out―”
“Your dark side,” she finished with a light laugh as she picked a piece of pepperoni off her pizza, then popped it in her mouth.
He nodded and pushed his plate aside, his appetite gone. His stomach knotted and cramped, not from the greasy yet tasty pizza, but from what was to come.
Everything was working just the way he had planned. The attack had been successful and Gabriel was able to evacuate all the humans from that benighted warehouse. Silvie was currently working on erasing their memories and replacing them with a pleasant past.
Tonight, everything was set into motion and there was no stopping Fate. This would be his last evening of peace.
Dimitri took a deep breath, the air warming his lungs.
After a long debate with himself, he decided to take Silvie’s advice. The Shaw witch had insisted that he tell Kerstyn about Ven.
The traitorous vampire would be coming to Las Vegas in a few short weeks and Kerstyn needed to know the dangers that awaited her. She deserved to know what was headed their way. If they were to have a true future together, he needed to be honest and open.
How much should he tell her? What exactly should he say? He closed his eyes and dropped his head. God, how he wished he had someone to whom he could turn, someone he could ask for advice.
Dorian was the only king to have found his mate and he surely experienced the same dilemma, but, for the moment, Dorian still believed him dead.
117
Should he confess all? Should he lay bare his black soul and reveal all his sins? If she knew what he had done, would she turn from him? If she knew that vampires existed because of him, would she flee?
He ran an unsteady hand through his hair. Never had he experienced such emotional turmoil. His heart begged for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, but his instincts screamed at him to keep his mouth shut. He did not want to lose her. He could not lose her.
If only she knew of our true relationship
, he thought.
If she
knew we were destined…maybe she would accept me…maybe she could
look past all the evil that surrounds my soul.
Dimitri shook his head and allowed another deep breath to heat his lungs. He needed to hear her say everything was going to work out, that Fate did not hate him as he believed. That she would live through this month and stay with him for all eternity.
“Earlier, in the kitchen, you had said nothing was wrong, but I’m willing to bet that there is something seriously wrong.” The sound of her sweet, musical voice dragged him back from his dark thoughts.
“That call had nothing to do with monetary business.”
“Vampire stuff?”
He nodded.
“Bad vampire stuff?”
Dimitri nodded again.
Kerstyn used one of the paper napkins that arrived with the pizza to wipe off her hands. Once she was done, she turned her body sideways so that she could face him.
“Do you recall the way everyone was looking at me when we entered Dark?”
Kerstyn nodded. She would never be able to forget the way Dimitri had walked through the club. His shoulders squared with defiance, his eyes cold and challenging. Menace had burst from him like a hot wave of air. The vampires in the club had been shocked and terrified of him.
“As if I have come back from the dead,” he said, using her phrase from that night.
118
She nodded and then gave him a quick once-over. “You look incredibly good for a guy who just crawled out of a coffin.” His smile was dazzling. Heat flushed her cheeks as her pulse jumped with passion.
“I have never crawled from a grave, but you were right. I have recently come back from the dead.”
A frown creased her brow as she watched his smiling lips slowly turn down in a harsh line.
“What do you mean?”
“Four hundred years ago I faked my death.”
Shock wrapped its cold fingers about her throat as she struggled to draw in a breath.
He took up the wine bottle resting next to the pizza box and filled her empty wine glass with the lush, red liquor for her. She silently thanked him with a nod as he handed it over.
“So, you faked your death,” she said after taking a sip of the wine.