"Getting involved with smart, stubborn and sexy women."
Maggie looked at him steadily. “Not even you would push a woman who said no.”
Justin held her gaze for a moment, coldness stealing through his veins at her words. “Who said anything about
us
getting involved?” He left the room without a backward glance.
* * *
The sun shone in on them. Gabriel stirred first, stumbling out of bed to look for his clothes.
He heard Rose shift on the bed. She yawned. “Morning.”
“I don’t want you to take any risks today,” Gabriel warned. He pulled on his shirt and jeans and studied the rumpled woman in the huge bed. He’d spent all night worried about her. His patience had worn thin.
“That’s a fine way to start the day.” Rose pulled the sheet from her face and gave him a lazy smile. “I won’t if you won’t. Stay here with me today. Let’s play house.” She stretched. “I feel fantastic.”
“You look fantastic. Get dressed.” He bent and picked up her tee shirt and tossed it to her.
She sat up and the sheet fell away, leaving her naked. She looked her question, one eyebrow raised.
Gabriel swallowed hard. “I can’t.”
“I disagree, you most certainly can. Come sit over here.” She patted the bed beside her.
Gabriel took a couple steps towards the door. “No, really. I can’t. Look, I’ll never forget last night. Every part of it is emblazoned in my memory, and for that I am grateful. But we’ve got a job to do. We can’t afford to get distracted by a personal attachment right now.”
Rose’s steady gaze made him uncomfortable. “Maybe later?”
“Maybe later.” His relief at her understanding was short lived.
“Or maybe never. That’s what you really mean, isn’t it? Once you get your soul back, you won’t need me to keep your demon in check. You’ll be gone faster than a thought.” Her eyes, her voice, remained cool, calm.
Gabriel’s very heart shook. “You don’t know that. Neither one of us can see into the future. We don’t know how this will end.”
Rose reached for her tee shirt and put it on. “We don’t know, that’s true. Could you pass me my underwear and my jeans? However, we have right now. And right now, I want you to know that I will fight for you, for us. I don’t know how it will end. Neither one of us may survive, which makes right now even more important.” She pulled on her panties, snapped up her jeans, and moved to where she’d left her shoes the night before.
“We’ve got a lot to do. We can’t get distracted. We can probably take Satine out, but Vlad is older, trickier, scarier than Satine,” he protested. “Mephisto almost killed me the last time we met. Can’t you understand? Distraction is the enemy here. We’ve got to stay at the top of our game.” Gabriel felt his reasoning waver under her narrow-eyed scrutiny. He was right. He had to be right, or the last ten years of his life weren’t a sacrifice, a penance for Marianne’s life. His last ten years meant nothing.
“I’m not going to stop loving you just because we have a lot to do,” she said. “I’ll do what I have to in order to survive. You’ll do the same, because that’s how you’re made. But I’m telling you now. When we get through to the other side of this, then you’ll have to deal with me because I won’t just let you disappear.”
Exasperated, he folded his arms across his chest and shook his head. “I don’t like it. I don’t like it one bit.”
Rose rounded the bed, stood on tiptoe and kissed his cheek. “I know. But I’m done asking permission. You go check on Justin, and I’ll help down in the kitchen.”
“You’re not going anywhere today, Rose,” he called after her. “You’re staying right here.” She didn’t bother to answer him.
Gabriel stared out the window, feeling his heart, as well as part of his soul, now resided with Rose.
Rose walked into the kitchen to find Maggie staring out the window over the sink, a bowl in one hand and a spoon in the other.
"Hey."
Maggie turned to Rose. "Hey. Want coffee? It's almost ready."
"Awesome. Looks like you've got food well in hand."
"I've got muffins coming up." Maggie hefted the bowl and gave the batter a few more strokes with the wooden spoon. "And there's a strata in the oven. It's good, you'll like it. Spinach, potatoes, cheese, eggs. Almost better than sex."
Rose grinned and stretched her hands above her head. "Nothing could be better than the sex I had last night. Absolutely nothing. Damn stupid tribred." She opened a cupboard to grab a mug.
Maggie snorted. "Those sentences don't go together, chica. Care to explain?"
"He wouldn't touch me this morning. Gave me a lot of mumbo about keeping our lives free of distractions, meaning any sort of relationship. The idiot." Rose poured coffee and sat at the counter, watching as Maggie moved with her usual economy of motion, filling the muffin cups.
"I know. That's just one of the downsides to getting involved."
"Coffee's good." The heat of the cup warmed her hands. Rose watched her friend for a few moments. "What's wrong?"
Maggie brushed a curling strand of hair over her ear and shook her head. "You got a few hours?" Finished, she slid the muffin tin onto the bottom shelf of the oven.
"According to the cave troll upstairs, I'm sequestered here. I've got all day." Rose studied her as she set the table. "You look like hell, though. You've got dark circles under your eyes and a pinched look, as though your head hurts. Was the couch that uncomfortable? I think we have more beds coming today."
"Oh for Pete's sake." Maggie closed her eyes, muttered a few words, and lightly touched the skin beneath her eyes. She took a deep breath, expelled it, opened them again and turned to Rose, her head at a questioning angle. "Better?"
Now she looked fresh, rested, and ready for the day. Rose nodded admiringly. "Good work, sister. Can you teach me that spell? I'll bet it comes in handy."
"It's just a quick glamour. Sure, I'll pass it along. What's going on with you? Sex so good it was bad?"
Rose stifled a laugh. "He thinks he's going to kill me. I can’t be too concerned about it, you know? I trust him not to kill me.”
“Trust is important.”
“I love him, Maggie. He says he can’t let himself love me back. Which really sucks.”
Maggie reached across the countertop and gave Rose’s hand a squeeze of sympathy. “You’re right. It really sucks.”
“I shouldn’t have dumped on you. But why is he pushing me away? Is it just because he’s afraid I’ll self-destruct or that he’ll kill me?”
“He’s a man. Who knows what makes him tick? But you're a Soul Chalice, too. I for one am not worried about what Mephisto or his fire demon powers could do to you. I think your Soul Chalice powers, whatever they are, will be more than a match for him."
A timer dinged and Maggie moved to the oven. "Strata's done. The muffins will need about ten more minutes. If the world is turning as it usually does, the men should be walking down the stairs any minute."
Rose's stomach rumbled. "It smells divine."
A clattering from the stairs had Rose grinning and Maggie rolling her eyes. "Right on time."
They heard Gabriel's deep tones, Justin's more musical voice, and the soft hint of the bayou in Kellan's as the Caines gathered at the bottom of the stairs.
Maggie caught Rose's eye. "Before we're interrupted, just tell me this. Do you have any sort of plan? To get the rest of his soul back?"
"Sort of. I still have some parts to figure out, but I’ve got the basics. Not that he cares.” Rose rested her forehead on the counter. “I don't know if I can do this, Maggie."
“We'll help. I swear we'll help you, Rose. Don't you dare believe that you're alone in this mess.” She cleared her throat, turned and brought out plates. "Would you mind setting the table? I believe the hordes are about to descend."
* * *
Gabriel waited at the bottom of the stairway and watched Kellan and Justin come down the stairs, Justin moving slower than normal.
"So, you let a bunch of vampires jump you. Pansy," he said. "Lucky for you, someone's been cooking. Kel, what did the good doc say?"
"He should be all right, but if he starts pissing blood we're to take him back. Oh, and she's going to need to expand her operation if we keep getting our asses kicked."
Gabriel snorted at that. "Write the lady a check." They made their way into the kitchen. Gabriel’s stomach growled.
"What's cooking?" Justin winked at Rose.
"Strata. Muffins. Coffee. Sit and eat and enjoy." Maggie shooed them all to the big, scarred table in the corner of the room. The pan sitting in the middle of the table steamed gently.
Silence fell as they all ate. Rose got up to refill coffee cups, including her own, aware of the unspoken messages flying behind her as she returned the pot to the counter.
"Stop worrying. I'm fine, really. I got lots of sleep, and the good doc gave me the green light." Rose smiled at everyone. "So there's no need to treat me like glass, okay? Justin’s the one who tangled with vamps last night, not me."
"I’m fine.”
"Let me throw out what I found last night about spirals." Maggie's words drew all eyes to her. She held Justin's gaze for a moment before looking at Rose beside him.
"Go on."
Maggie folded her hands on the table. "I found the spirals, traced them to a small village in Mexico with deep roots in Santeria and the Catholic Church. They are blessings at the most basic form, as you can see here." She gestured to the spirals surrounding them. "Blessings, ease of sleep, love of family, these are basic, core values to be shared among family and friends."
"And all this time I just thought it was weird wallpaper," Kellan said.
"But, blessings." Gabriel looked encouraged. "That's good, right? A good thing."
"All the spirals in the house move counter to the spiral that contains the demon. The spirals here are giving. The one on Rose is a containment spiral, or a keeping spiral." She turned to Rose. "It's my belief that Maria Therese saw that a demon was hitching a ride on you. She forced it into the reverse spiral, the only thing she could do to save you from it taking you over immediately."
"Sorry," interrupted Rose. "But you're wrong about Maria Therese and Mephisto. She asked, he said yes. The spiral is there, but it's not to contain him on me. It's to prevent us from removing him. He can leave by his own free will, but nothing else will force him away."
Everyone at the table fell silent. Rose shrugged. "See, I had this weird dream yesterday. Maria Therese told me she sent the demon to me in order to give me the strength I would need to keep Gabriel's soul safe."
Maggie took a breath. "Okay, new information. I won't dispute what you've said, but the demon could also be the price you paid for returning to life. If you hadn't agreed, you might have died in the hospital for good." Maggie shrugged, apologetic.
Rose grew pensive. "Here's how I see it. I was slated to die a messy death. Then, on a beach north of here, Gabriel had his soul stolen. Kind of like a cold war spy, I get activated to go in and help out hey-presto, just in the nick of time." She looked at their faces as they sat around the table and spread her hands wide. "So here I am. Not who I was before I died, but not yet who I will be after this is done." She paused, took a breath.
"Look. I don't know what will happen when I confront Satine. I do know that I'm the only Soul Chalice around, the only one who can actually rescue Gabriel's soul, and my own I might add. Frankly? I’ll be lucky to survive the fight with Satine long enough to give Gabriel's soul back to him.