Dark Mate (MATE series) (4 page)

His body reacted as though it
had just been zapped by a bolt of lightning at the thought. He
jerked and gasped, every nerve sizzling with need as his blood
pounded violently through his veins.

Gabriel staggered down the
wide curved staircase of his mansion, shaking the image of Eva out of
his head. He had come this far. He had become a Master vampire, and
he was so near, so close to finding her.

Vonetta.

Vonetta was his betrothed, his
love. It was Vonetta. It had to be Vonetta. Vonetta Imotez was his
mate, not...Eva Stone.

Gabriel stood at the foot of
the stairs and turned in a slow circle, taking in the entire
sprawling mansion and forcing his thoughts back on track. No human
would sway him and distract him. He couldn't falter, not now. He
had survived. He had prevailed. He had avenged Vonetta. He had
destroyed his Master, and his entire vile coven.

The mansion was now his. It
had belonged to his Master, but since he destroyed the old vampire,
he was now the new Master vampire. When he defeated and destroyed
his Master, everything that belonged to the Master—his powers,
his properties—passed to Gabriel.

That was how a lowly vampire
became a Master vampire. By killing his Master.

Gabriel smiled thinly. He had
no regrets killing his Master. He only regretted not being able to
kill him sooner. If he had, perhaps he would not have lost Vonetta.

Gabriel blinked rapidly in the
darkness, and as he turned around, he saw the walls of his mansion
fade away. Flickering shadows closed in to create a prison, a cage
around him.

In a flash, he was back in the
dungeon, lying in a pool of blood, blinking through the bars of his
cage.

With each blink, his vision
sharpened until he could see perfectly well in the darkness.

He opened his eyes wide and
looked around, looking out of his cage at the world with his new
vampire eyes. He had just risen, as a new, hungry vampire.

Gabriel pushed himself up on
his knees and raised his hands to his mouth. His palms were red and
sticky, and he could smell blood. Human blood.

The blood was all over the
floor of his cage. Making wild, frenzied animal sounds, Gabriel
started lapping greedily at the blood. He licked all the blood off
the floor, and growled. He was still hungry, so very hungry.

He looked up and met Vonetta's
wide, unblinking eyes.

She was lying on a stone slab
beside his cage, her body naked and covered with blood.

Blood!

Gabriel lunged towards her,
slamming hard against the bars of his cage to get at her. But she
remained out of his reach. She wasn't dead. He could hear her heart
pumping, and her blood smelled rich and fresh.

Her eyes stared straight at
him, but there was no love in her eyes. He saw only disgust,
contempt and pure, unadulterated hatred.

Gabriel stared down at his
hands, suddenly aware of what he had just done. He reeled back in
horror and revulsion. He made a strange keening noise and doubled
over, retching violently.

What was he? He was no longer
human. But...what had he become?

He was now a vampire. He was
worse than an animal. He was a monster, an abomination.

And the blood...all the blood
he had just swallowed...

He saw the answer in her
hate-filled eyes.

That was her blood.

Her blood, in his cage.

Gabriel gasped, and he spun
back to the present.

He stared down at the ground,
expecting to see blood. But the marble tiles beneath his feet were
gleaming and spotless.

He raised his head and looked
all around him. He was in his mansion. Not in a cage in the
dungeon.

“
Vonetta,” he
choked out. “I will find you.”

She might have hated him then,
but she would understand now. She was like him now.

Gabriel closed his eyes and
took a long, painful breath. He would not give up. All these years,
he had never given up on her. He could sense that she was near.
Vonetta was right here in New Moon City. That was the reason he had
come to this crazy, confusing city, where humans had the license and
authority to hunt rogue paranormals. He had been surprised to learn
that the head of the PAC Enforcement Unit was a human. Jett Riley
was the one who had given the order. He had ordered his Enforcers to
hunt the rogue Master vampire down and destroy him on sight.

Gabriel's lips curled. Let
them come. Even with that fearless and formidable Jett Riley leading
the manhunt, they wouldn't be able to stop him. Nothing would stop
him from finding her.

Gabriel strode to the door,
but just before he faded to mist, he turned round and glanced up
towards his bedroom door.

A name formed on his lips.
His breath caught sharply at the realization that it was the wrong
name.

Scowling, he marched to the
spare bedroom downstairs and yanked the wardrobe open. He pulled on
a pair of black cargo pants and t-shirt, and as he stabbed his feet
into his boots, he let his angst and his anger simmer to a boil.

He would find Vonetta and they
would make up for lost time. They would have all the time in the
world.

Vonetta was his mate. She was
a vampire now, like him.

She wasn't a weak, sniveling
little human.

At the front door, Gabriel
glanced up towards his bedroom. That female could hear his thoughts
and tempt him like no other.

No, it wasn't the blood bond.
There was no blood bond between them!

He knew that some humans had
psychic abilities and dabbled in witchcraft or some other forms of
black magic.

Maybe she was one of them.
There were demons in New Moon City. She could have made a pact with
one of them. Of all of them.

Gabriel ground his teeth. If
she had offered them her body in exchange for some strange, psychic
power, he would hunt every one of those cursed demons down and tear
them to shreds.

And he would torture that
infuriating female in his bedroom, break her and crush her.

Then he would kill her.

Kindness and mercy had no
place in his world. He had been caught, tortured and turned against
his will because he had stopped and shown kindness to a stranger.

No, not kindness.

Weakness and foolishness.

He should have listened to
Vonetta. She had urged him to keep going, to ignore the crying child
at the side of the road.

Ignoring her entreaties, he'd
stopped his cart and approached the small, seemingly helpless child.

And for that one moment of
weakness, he'd paid a terrible price.

That was no child.

It was a vampire.

One of the Master's servants.

Because of his stupidity, his
folly, they had been captured by the Master.

He had been too weak.

But no more.

He would never be weak again.

He had survived, only because
he had finally learned to be as cruel and cunning as his Master.

Only the cruel will survive.

Gabriel turned to face the
white double doors, and repeated her name, this time with vehemence.

In a flash, he transformed
into a column of mist. The mist swirled and lingered for just a
heartbeat in the air before rushing away from the mansion, leaving
just the softest whisper of her name in its wake.

Eva gave the bedroom door one
last kick and stomped to the bedside table. Picking up the plate of
sandwiches, she aimed it at the door and let fly a string of curses.
Just before she hurled the plate with all her might at the door, Eva
stopped and pulled back abruptly.

She lowered her hand and
glared at the plate of dainty triangular sandwiches. At an insistent
growl from her stomach, Eva set the plate down and grabbed a
sandwich. Why waste good food? Besides, she needed to keep her
strength up. She needed all her strength and wits to fight that big,
bad vampire.

Eva sat on the bed and began
to cram the sandwiches into her mouth. In a few minutes, there was
nothing but crumbs on the plate. She leaned back against the
pillows, chewing the last mouthful of buttered bread, ham and cheese.
With food in her tummy, she felt stronger and calmer. Being mad and
scared never did anyone any good. As she gulped down the cup of
bitter lukewarm coffee, she began to formulate a plan.

She looked round the bedroom.
The bedroom was spacious, and the furniture all looked like expensive
antique pieces. The desk, the chair and the bedside tables looked
solid and heavy. There was no way she could lift or break any of
them.

Gabriel had taken away all her
weapons. She couldn't fight him, not physically. He was too strong,
too fast.

Eva drained the rest of her
coffee and set the empty cup down. She got off the bed and scooted
to the bathroom door. Maybe she could find something useful in
there. A razor, a pair of scissors, or even a broom. Anything she
could use to beat that evil vampire back would be good.

She pushed into the bathroom
and saw that the shower was still wet and filled with an alluring,
rich scent. She looked around quickly. There was nothing on the
polished marble vanity top, not even a mug and a toothbrush. The
bathroom was clean and bare. No cabinets, no bottles and toiletries
lying around.

Annoyed and disappointed, she
backed out of the bathroom and surveyed the bedroom again. Marching
to the desk, she tried the drawers. They were all locked. Damn.

Quickly, she walked over to
the curtains, and with a grunt, she pulled the heavy drapes back.

Her eyes widened in
astonishment and anger. She glared at the expanse of blank wall
behind the curtains and spat, “Shit!”

There were no windows in the
room. She couldn't even see if it was night or day outside.

She backed stiffly away from
the wall to stop her fists from flying towards it. Punching the wall
would achieve nothing. Nothing but bruised and bleeding knuckles.

She needed to hurt him. Not
hurt herself.

Think, Eva, think!

What can you do to get out
of here?

Taking a deep breath, she
spoke out loud, hoping to get a better perspective of her own
predicament, “I am locked in a room. I need to get out. To
get out, I need a key. A key,” she repeated slowly.

She let her eyes dart all over
the room before she shook her head. He wouldn't leave the key here
in the room with her. He wasn't stupid.

Eva looked at the bed, then at
the bathroom door. She remembered his intense look of yearning as he
stood staring at her. She remembered how his body had felt against
hers, as he crushed her to him possessively and misted her here. She
had felt his huge, throbbing erection as he grabbed her, the hunger
in his eyes raw and searing.

He had wanted her, with every
fiber of his being. It had terrified her, and...excited her.

Eva's hands trembled as she
twisted the corner of her rumpled t-shirt. When Gabriel grabbed her,
holding her fiercely in his arms like she belonged to him, a whole
wave of powerful, conflicting emotions had slammed into her. Her
entire body had shivered with terror, anticipation, confusion, and a
strange, overwhelming need. She had...wanted him. Her body had
reacted to his, becoming aroused and ready, even though her mind
screamed at her to fight him, and fear him.

And Gabriel seemed to have
sensed her arousal. It had made him even madder and scarier. He
looked almost crazed with lust and hunger. His eyes and nostrils had
flared the moment her need exploded low in her belly. He seemed to
know that her body was ready and aching for him, her moisture pooling
uncontrollably between her thighs.

Eva squeezed her eyes shut,
and was immediately tormented by the images of their bodies pressed
together, his hands gripping her waist and his lips brushing against
her neck. She could see his glistening, muscular body, and began to
shiver when she remembered his erection stabbing into her belly.

Eva stifled a cry and pushed
her hand between her legs, trying to ease the agonizing ache. She
bit her lip so hard she could taste blood.

What the hell was going on
with her?

Why was she lusting after the
malevolent rogue?

She should hate him, not want
him. She could not, would not, let him take her.

This was pure madness. She
would not sleep with the enemy.

She would rather kill...

Eva's eyes flew open on a
shuddering breath, and she blinked her surroundings into stark focus.

No, she would not kill
herself. She would kill him. And if sleeping with the enemy could
get the job done, why not?