Then there was the nightmare. She murmured in her sleep, her fear and pain palpable. He wanted her to trust him, to let him share her fear, but she would only stare at him with those chocolate eyes, their liquid depths full of pain and doubt and anger.
Since she wouldn’t speak to him of it, he did the only thing he could to warm her and bring the light back into her beautiful eyes. Her body never turned him away, and he was desperate for her. She hadn’t protested when he sipped from her more often than his body required. He was careful to not take too much but he craved the connection, and she seemed to need to give something of herself.
When the nightmares had come over the last two nights, he only pulled her into the shell of his body, whispering to her and merging his mind with hers to soothe her while she slept, his anger and frustration slowly burning him alive.
“Gabrial. I hope this is important. You have not been gone from here long enough to forget the hours we keep.”
Gabe turned around to cast a look at the man who had sired him. His father’s long hair flowed freely over his shoulders as he tightened the robe. He still looked strong and powerful. The beast inside Gabe seethed and raged. It wanted answers.
He
wanted answers.
He raised a hand and ran his finger over the stone medallion, so much a part of who he was for so long. Right now it felt heavy and he swallowed hard beneath the burden.
His father’s green gaze shifted, deepened as he followed the movement of his fingers.
“Gabrial?”
How many young girls had he deposited in Triumvirate-funded homes to be raped and burned and terrorized? Had he been the one to abandon Kel in that place years ago? He didn’t want to think his father could be that cold, but he had to know. What kind of rules had he sworn to uphold as House marshal?
“Where do the elders send the crossbreed children?”
“Crossbreeds? You woke me in the middle of my rest to ask me about crossbreeds?” His father’s voice was rough, his irritation evident.
When Gabe said nothing, his green eyes steady and remote, the Ferrar doyen sighed and sat on the corner of his desk to fold his arms across his chest. “We find foster homes for the females and the males remain until they reach adulthood. Even half Sanguen males require blood for survival and must be taught the rules of our people. Why these questions, Gabrial?”
“What of Triumvirate homes?”
The doyen snarled in disgust. “We would never place a child in one of those places. The children that manage to survive to adulthood become depraved and risk exposing us to the humans.”
Gabe turned back to stare sightlessly out the window as his father’s casual words echoed in him, his fingers fisting around the medallion.
The children that manage to survive to adulthood.
How had Kel managed?
“Gabrial, its well before noon. What is the purpose of these questions? Does it pertain to your investigation? The elders grow anxious at your continued preoccupation with this issue and I grow weary of blindly reassuring them. There have not been any further disappearances in our region.”
“Yes, Father, there has,” Gabe said, turning back to meet his father’s gaze. “A twelve-year-old from a Triumvirate home was blooded and left dead in a park six days ago.”
Gabe felt the weight of his father’s stare, his doyen’s stare. Ever patient, his father carefully controlled his emotions and reactions. Liam was studying him, analyzing the situation. Was the fire that burned in Gabe visible to his father? Could he see his torment? Did he wonder?
With a sigh, Liam speared his fingers through his hair and walked to an overstuffed leather chair and sank down. He motioned for Gabe to do the same.
“Is there a connection to the previous disappearances?”
“The blood sample Incog recovered from the scene where Karl died trying to buy it was a match to the girl.” And the only concrete link between them. Kel’s blood dealer was their only other real lead and he had all but disappeared.
“The source your cousin was trying to purchase was a twelve-year-old crossbreed girl. You believe he was proctoring for someone from our House?” When Gabe nodded, he came to his feet and paced to the window but paused a good foot from the glass. “I am unsure what to do with this information. The elders will not welcome it. They will argue that Karl was unaware of what he attempted to buy. They will claim he was a victim of the dealer. Your grandfather included.”
“The elders’ denial of the truth does not make it any less true,” Gabe shot back and rubbed a hand down the back of his neck. “Some bastard in our House will continue to prey on little girls while being protected by the elders.” He would never risk Kel’s life by bringing her to his House, and he could not leave her, even if Kel would be willing to consider coming back to the House that had brought such pain down on her. That she could even tolerate their blood bond and willingly invite him into her body each night was miraculous. He would not ask her to come here.
“Gabrial, the elders have earned their position in this House and as long as you are a member of this House you will respect their authority.”
Gabe came to his feet to face his father. They glared at each other for a long, tense moment.
He had been raised to breathe and eat and bleed House tradition and rules, groomed from birth to be the House marshal and eventually the House doyen before retiring to the position of elder, while his children and grandchildren filled the ranks behind him. He rarely questioned his upbringing, accepting and protecting the traditions of his House with honor and integrity. Yet he could not obediently stand back as the elders blindly protected some sick bastard while he made a mockery of every sacred law his House was built on.
Not even for his father. His fingers instinctively reached up to touch the outline of the medallion. It felt hot against his skin, and he wanted to rip it from his neck and throw it at his father’s feet. He clenched his fist. The struggle between his House loyalty and his need for Kel was tearing him apart.
Doyen Ferrar eyed the fist and cursed. “I will see what I can discover.”
Gabe gave a curt nod, dropping his fist to his side. “Thank you.”
The doyen waved his hand as he retreated to the recessed door that led back to the personal suite of the House doyen. “I intend to get what sleep I have left to me this morning.”
“And Father,” Gabe called. When his father turned to raise an exasperated brow he continued. “This House did send a crossbreed child to a Triumvirate home fifteen years ago and I intend to find out why. And who,” he added dangerously, his tone leaving no question as to what he would do with the information. “This House must answer to that crime.”
Gabe shimmered without waiting for a response from his father. He needed Kel, to feel her heat on his skin like the rays of the sun, to surround himself in her scent and let her witty sarcasm melt the ice that had hardened in the pit of his stomach.
KEL FELT LIKE someone had used her as a battering ram. Every spot on her body ached. She even thought that Raife had cracked one of her damn ribs. And she felt wonderful as the heat of the water in the training room shower cascaded over her sore muscles. She ran her tongue over her bottom lip and smiled when she could no longer feel the split where Raife had delivered a solid elbow to her face. The best part of it was that her wounds would all heal before she even finished her shower and Raife would wear his for a couple of days, at least.
They were going to meet up for lunch to bounce ideas off each other about their individual cases before heading back to work. Gabe should return from the meeting with his House doyen by this afternoon. Then they were going to interview the families of the other missing girls again in hopes of finding something that was initially missed.
Gabe was growing on her even if his vegetarian diet wasn’t. She liked the solid feel of him, both physically and mentally. When he was near her, he seemed to hover inside her, his mind merged with hers. He didn’t push too hard but his presence was there, like the comfort of a hand at the small of her back.
And his scent, now that the initial craving for the bond was assuaged, was a warm, spicy tease. She could discern the barest nuance of difference in his scent when he went from total concentration on their case to the beginning of awareness of her. His arousal was palpable. It was a spicy heat that could elicit an equal reaction in her. Being professional and getting any work done during the day was a trial. More than once they shimmered back to her apartment, crashing wherever they landed in a twisted mess of limbs.
Even now her memory of his delicious scent was strong enough to make her body ache in a way that had nothing to do with Raife’s poor attempt to spar with her. She felt the kiss of the hot water roll over her shoulders and wrap her body in heat, like his scent. The very thought made her ache. She couldn’t get enough of him. She hadn’t actually craved his blood since the first time, but he’d assured her she wouldn’t crave it for a while yet. It didn’t stop her from sinking her claws into him when he came over her. She loved the feel of that hard body covering her, pressing inside her. Closing her eyes, she palmed her own breasts to ease the sudden ache.
“Kel.”
His low, raspy voice spilled over her, and she spun with a gasp.
Gabe stood there in the shower room dressed in yummy leather pants and a tight black cotton shirt that hugged and cupped every muscle of his chest. His gleaming blades peeked out from inside his knee-length jacket and Kel had to admit she found that nearly as arousing as his chest. His green and gold eyes seethed as they trailed down over her naked body, the sexy fall of his blond hair coming to his shoulders. His golden brows lowered in a dark frown.
“What have you done to yourself, woman?”
“For God’s sake, this is the women’s shower room, Gabe.” Kel ignored his growled question and glanced from left to right. “Do you often make it a habit to pop up in women’s restrooms? How’d you shimmer in here anyway? I know you didn’t burglarize this one from my brain.”
His eyes seemed to devour her. “You have bruises.” His fingers reached out to feather lightly over her rib cage.
Kel frowned at the flickering intensity of his eyes, linking her fingers with his. “Yeah, Raife got a lucky shot. How’d you get here?”
His gaze slowly moved up her body to meet hers, and she was struck by the raw emotion there. “I can follow you wherever you go, baby. Whenever you need me, I will always be there. I promise this.”
He sounded so serious, so solemn that she frowned. “Ferrar, what’s going on?”
Within a single blink he had shimmered closer, the shower slicking his hair to his face, those glowing green and gold eyes boring into her. She reached up and framed his face in her hands. “Gabe?”
“Your nightmares come from my House.” His voice was ragged. “I would never ask you to return to such a place.”
Heart stuttering in her chest, she shook her head. She couldn’t let him make promises she would never hold him to. “Gabe, don’t. Not now.”
He shook his head and dropped his forehead to her shoulder, arms pulling her naked body into his. Her arms automatically lifted to him, hands caressing the clinging material over his back. He felt so solid and hot under her hands. The harshness of his pain rolled over her, and she sucked in a quick breath.
“I’m sorry my House was responsible for this pain.” His lips moved over her shoulder, tongue tasting the drops of water from her skin. A shiver ran over her, rippling over her, making her nipples peak painfully against his chest. A small rumble ran through his big body as the heat of his mouth sought out the aroused flesh of her breasts. The first shock of heated contact made her body jerk with a cry as he sucked her nipple deep into his mouth, the razor edges of his fangs rasping over her, drawing blood. That flash of heat ran up her spine and over her scalp, tingling and tightening her skin with a pleasure she had come to crave.
Her engorged flesh slid from his mouth with an erotic little popping sound that made the muscles low in her belly tighten and that rush of heated cream to make her body ready for his. One hand slid over her damp skin, down her hip and thigh to the back of her knee. She couldn’t help but gasp as he jerked her leg up and hooked it over the handle of his blade. She felt a slight twinge from her healing rib, but it quickly turned to pleasure as his fingers blazed a path down her spine to the dark crevasse between the cheeks of her ass. His touch was light and teasing, making her inner muscles tighten in frustration around the aching emptiness that filled her.
“I crave your heat,” he whispered against the swell of her breast. “So hot. So tight.”
A breath of air hissed from her parted lips, and she let her head fall back as one thick finger slid through her slit, pressing lightly at the entrance to her aching pussy. Her hips gave an involuntary jerk, seeking a deeper touch.
“I will never allow you to hurt again.” His finger slid deeper, flirting with the tight ring of muscles that contracted eagerly around him. It drove her wild, that teasing, shallow penetration. Again and again he teased her as his lips moved down the damp slope of her breast to her aching nipple. His fangs plunged into her flesh around the taut peak and he sucked hard. Kel jerked on a cry as she immediately began to flow over the edge of passion but he pulled away from her, lowering her leg from his hip. He took a step back and lowered his hands to the zipper of his wet leather pants.
Kel’s eyes hungrily followed his movement and she wet her lips in anticipation as the dusky head of his cock sprang free from the supple material. Her body throbbed with a need so strong her knees trembled. “Gabe, I need –”
His lips stopped her words as he breathed against her open mouth, tongue flicking against her own. “I know, baby. I can give everything you need. Always.” He lifted her up and pressed her against the wall, sliding effortlessly into her hot, slick body.
With a low sound of pleasure she wrapped her legs around his hips and arched into him, luxuriating in the sense of fullness that his body could bring to her. It felt so good, that hard press of him deep inside her and the soft fall of the water running over them.