I wouldn't mind, but the staircase isn't my preferred place to make love to a woman
. She could hear the faint mocking tone in his words and flushed even hotter.
"Would you stop that?" she snapped.
"Sorry." But he didn't sound it. "When you project such clear and detailed images, it's very hard to ignore." They got to the bare landing and Gabriel reached around her to try the doorknob of the door to the left.
Rose stopped breathing as his arm brushed her breast.
Ye gods, woman, get a grip. He is so not for you.
And yet, what they could do…
Hell! He can hear me!
Biting her lip, she focused on the tiny pain, working hard to keep her thoughts to herself.
Gabriel rattled the doorknob again.
But the door remained stubbornly closed. Rose backed toward the staircase to get some breathing room. Standing so close made her entirely too aware of him, his scent, his implacable strength. Retreat seemed like a good idea.
Gabriel frowned at the door, then knocked hard enough to rattle the glass. "Damn it, Justin, open up."
Something in the air shifted slightly and she shivered. Even Gabriel tensed and faced her, muttering beneath his breath. A noxious smell drifted toward them. She sneezed and looked down the staircase.
A small, misshapen creature in a brown cloak flowed up the stairs, showing glistening teeth. Its thin, long arms ended in stubby fingers with wicked claws that reached for her.
Fear and panic tumbled in her head.
Protect Gabriel. Save Gabriel. I can do this.
A cry built deep inside her as the nightmare came closer.
Heedless of her battered body, her energy surged as the nightmare came closer and she let loose a warrior’s cry. Grabbing both hand rails of the staircase, she kicked out at the thing with her feet, knocking it back a few steps. A sharp red pain radiated up her legs and she yelped.
Mother of God that hurt! Is it made of cement?
* * *
Gabriel plucked her off the stairway and shoved her behind him with a little too much force. He winced at her cry of pain when she landed against the far wall, but kept his focus on the demon coming at him.
He should have known better than to come home. He shows up here, and of course there’s some girl reaching out to him telepathically. A girl, moreover, whose power drew demons to her without effort.
Even he felt the draw of her power, every bit as much as this lesser demon coming toward him. Gabriel hungered for her, his demon blood yearning to taste her.
"Stay back, as far as you can go," he ordered her. If the demon got past him, she was dead. An old memory, better left buried, was jarred loose, and his breath caught.
No.
He wouldn't be the unwitting cause of yet another girl's death.
Gabriel swung but the demon evaded his punch. It sprang at him, striking with surprising speed, sinking its teeth into Gabriel’s upper arm and winding its long arms around his torso. With an oath, he wrapped his good arm around the demon’s head and gave it a sharp jerk, snapping its neck and ripping the teeth from his flesh. Poison sped its way through his system. He dropped the demon and staggered back to lean against the wall.
Lifeless, the creature tumbled back down the stairs to land in a pile of rags and bone at the bottom of the stairway. Great. He’d have to dispose of the carcass before the place opened or there’d be mass hysteria.
Gabriel turned to check on the woman. She lay sprawled against the far wall where his shove had landed her. Her summer-blue eyes were big in a classic oval face, coppery curls surrounded her pearly skin. Her eyes and her mind were clouded with pain and questions.
Her power pulled at him, and yet she looked so much like Satine that a part of him wanted to recoil. Energy crackled in the air between them. Did she know that she called to his kind?
"What the hell
was
that? " she demanded. “Aw, man. You’re bleeding.”
Gabriel checked his arm and grimaced at the blood flow.
"It was a demon." He went to her side and scooped her up in his arms. "I know you're in pain," he said before she could object, and going to the door he knocked again.
“Demon? Yeah, pull my other leg.”
Gabriel frowned at the visceral tug brought about by the feel of her body against his. Holding her gave him a jolt of energy, clean and pure, a hit straight to the veins. No, she wasn’t like Satine. That didn’t mean he trusted her.
He took a deep breath and her scent clouded his mind. Yeah, okay, so his mating instincts were now jumping up and down like crazy. His attraction to her didn’t matter. The sooner he put her in his brother’s care, the better. He shifted her weight to his good arm and pounded again on the glass. "Damn it, Justin."
"Put me down." She squirmed in his arms. "Oh come on. Enough. Put me down."
"As I saved your ass, you can damn well be gracious about me taking care of you."
"You killed it, didn't you?"
"Yeah."
"I should have protected you. I'll do a better job, I promise. You can count on me. Now put me down." She actually seemed to believe what she was saying.
"No one has protected me in years." He read the trust on her face with dismay. He'd much rather she was scared of him.
She shrugged and looked away.
Gabriel eyed her warily. "Why are you here?" He slid into her mind and met a maelstrom of thought, a snake pit of pain and fear that bit at him.
She sighed. "You're in danger. I'm here to save you. And yeah, totally aware how stupid that sounds, considering you're carrying me and all."
"Just–don't talk. Keep your thoughts to yourself and do not talk. Justin, I know you're in there. I can smell you."
The door opened abruptly. Gabriel tensed. It had been years. What would he say? How could he begin to explain such a long absence?
After one comprehensive glance at both Gabriel and the woman, Justin yawned and opened the door wider, letting the sound of reggae music out into the hallway. "You're early. Or is it late? At any rate, you sure know how to make an entrance."
Gabriel looked at his brother and didn't move. "Still dressing in bayou chic, I see. I don't think I could have found an uglier Hawaiian shirt if I'd looked with both hands."
Justin glanced down at his purple and orange flowered shirt with the green monkeys and sniffed. "This is the So Cal Surfer Dude Dress Code, man, Hawaiian shirt and board shorts. Some of us prefer color, unlike your assassin chic." He gestured to his brother's clothing and shook his head, his brown dreadlocks bouncing.
"So Cal by way of Jamaica, mon," Gabriel retorted. "The worst of both worlds."
"Yeah yeah. You waiting for an engraved invitation? Come on in.” He gestured toward the woman in his arms. “Who is she?"
Gabriel walked into the office. "I don't know."
"Would you put me down? I can walk. With help," she amended. "Not to mention, hello. Here and listening."
He ignored her and looked around the sparse reception area. "You got a couch in this place?" The walls were white, the carpet industrial gray. The office felt chilly, and not just due to air conditioning. "Gregor chose the color scheme. Am I right? "
Justin led the way down a narrow corridor. "Well, you know our brother. Cool and controlled. Watch your head," he warned, ducking into the first office on the left. "This place wasn’t built for people as tall as us. Go on, all the way down the hall to the left." The island music came to an abrupt stop.
Gabriel found the right room and, ducking under the doorway, went directly to the black leather couch in the corner of what looked like a conference room. He bent and put the girl down gently.
Her fiery hair curled madly to her shoulders and her tee shirt and jeans blended into the black leather, leaving her arms and face a contrast of startling white.
His brother joined him by the couch.
Gabriel frowned as he looked at the girl. He reached for her chin, studied her, ignoring her startled "Hey!"
The superficial resemblance to Satine still made him leery. Red hair, blue eyes, yes, but life shone from this one. Satine was death. This one – Rose, she’d said – had a completely different energy signature. Still…he sighed and turned at last to face Justin. "Well?" He waited for his brother's judgment.
“Damn it to hell. Blood?” Justin took his brother’s arm. “Give me a minute.”
Gabriel turned so the girl couldn’t watch. “Do it.”
Warmth emanated from Justin’s hands, closing the wounds with a dance of blue light. “There’s poison at work.”
“I’ve handled worse.” It hurt like a sonofabitch, but he’d live.
“Damn it, Gabriel. What’s going on? Tell me everything," Justin ordered, and sank down into a chair.
"That's it? No recriminations, no yelling, no telling me how I broke Dad's heart?" Gabriel kept to his feet, not yet able to relax.
Justin shrugged. "Guilt trips? Not my style. Fill me in. Ten years is a lot to catch up on. Start with her."
"Yeah, start with me." The redhead wrapped her arms around her knees. Her wary gaze darted from Gabriel to Justin. "I'm Rose Walters. I've been sent back from the dead to save Mr. Studly there." She gestured to Gabriel.
Justin smothered a startled laugh.
"Not that I did a good job just now,” she added. “Some warrior chick I'm turning out to be. Oh, and there’s this thing at the bottom of your staircase. It was really smelly.”
“Smelly?” Justin’s eyebrows rose.
"It was an Uupka demon.” His brother didn’t look impressed with the foul addition to his stairwell. “Should I have let it kill her? Fine. Tell me where you want me to dump the demon, and I’ll do it." He felt ten again, after batting a baseball through the kitchen window.
"You don't have to dump the demon. I just asked."
"And I told you." Gabriel paced the length of the conference room and back, trying to catch his breath. There were too many people in the room, damn it. Family and togetherness had all been left behind years ago. He never should have come home. Not after all this time.
“Tell me why you two are here. If you want me to help, I’ll need some details.”
“I don’t know why she’s here,” Gabriel declared. “I’ve been headed this way for a while. Two nights ago it became imperative that I come home.” He turned back to Rose. "Don't change the subject. You're here to save me from what, exactly? It's time to explain."
* * *
Rose licked her suddenly dry lips. "I’m to prevent your death, I guess." She looked from Gabriel-the-arrogant to the other man, just as devastatingly attractive in his colorful wardrobe. They had to believe her. She had nowhere to go, nothing else to do in this world.
"You
guess
?"
She glared at him. "Looking at you, yeah I’m kind of wondering what the hell I’m doing here, too. In the meantime, my ankle hurts. Hell, my whole body hurts. I’ve been walking for hours. Can I get some aspirin or something?" She looked from one man to the other. “Well?” These big guys talked about demons as if it were
normal
. What’s wrong with this picture?
"I'll take care of it." Justin knelt at her feet and took her injured ankle in both his hands. "So tell me, what will happen if Gabriel here ups and dies?” His hand warmed against her foot. “This shouldn't hurt, but if it does, give a holler."
Rose bit her lip and struggled to keep still. A pale blue light flowed from Justin’s hands into her ankle, soothing the throbbing there as energy tingled along her skin and sank deep. She sighed in surprised relief as the pain disappeared.