Those large chocolate eyes blinked up at him, and the angry expression slowly melted away from her elfin face as she lifted a hand to touch his bearded cheek. “Gabe, this can work.”
Turning his face into her hand he pressed his lips to her palm. “The thought of you in that sick bastard’s hands for even one second makes me crazy.”
“Let him capture me. You can use the blood bond mojo thing we’ve been rocking to find me and we got him. No more girls will suffer.”
Gabe’s eyes caressed her face, fixing on that impertinent little diamond in her nose. “There are too many variables out of my control. If anything went wrong…” He closed his eyes and shook his head as a tremor made his big body shudder. “No. It’s out of the question.”
Dr. Tanner knocked on the door.
Gabe cast a glance over his shoulder at her before stepping back and running his hand through his hair again.
Dr. Carlie Tanner was a tall blonde with legs that came to her armpits, but Gabe didn’t give her so much as a second glance. The woman he had was more than he could handle as it was.
“Let’s have a look-see,” the Elemental said as she lifted up a corner of the pressure bandage to peer at the wound. “Just as I thought,” she said as she peeled it completely away. “Almost completely healed. I envy you Guardian types for your ability to heal so quickly.”
Gabe met Kel’s dark eyes as she leaned forward to let the doctor peer at the exit wound.
“Perfect,” Dr. Tanner announced brightly as Kel leaned back again. “Since you are here, Marshal, I would like to get your permission to confer with Dr. Mahoney on your medical file.”
“Medical file?” Gabe groused, dragging his eyes from Kel to focus on the young, chipper blonde.
“Yes, I have been doing some research on the blood disease that is common to your people. She believes your response to Agent Sheridan’s blood may give me some answers for helping to find a cure.”
Gabe’s expression grew darker. “Her blood can be shared only with me.”
“Not mine,” Kel snapped. “Other crossbreeds.”
Dr. Tanner nodded with a bright smile. “Dr. Mahoney has some interesting theories of what exactly is occurring that I would like to explore. I would like to share mine with her as well. With your permission, of course.”
He would have agreed to almost anything to get the blonde doctor out of the room but he asked several questions about who would have access to the information. It concerned him that his new abilities might become common knowledge. It was bad enough Kel had their serial killer craving her blood, but he didn’t want others who wanted to be stronger coming after her as well.
When the doctor finally declared she could leave, he hovered over Kel. She met his eyes squarely and there was a stubborn tilt to her little chin that said she wouldn’t be swayed. She was just as dedicated to finding their perp as he was, but he was fed by that dark drive to protect her. He would have to move quickly to ID the bastard if he wanted to keep her safe. He knew just who to talk to.
“GABRIAL FERRAR. YOU look just like your old man.”
Norton Guillard had been his father’s partner during his time as marshal. There had been a difference of opinion between him and the elders while Gabe was away at college, and Norton had left the House and made his way out in the human world. He worked as a private investigator now, with a family of his own. If anyone was willing to discuss the past openly it would be Norton.
Gabe shook the man’s hand with a smile. He’d always liked Norton.
“How is that stubborn old bastard doing? I heard he ascended as doyen last year.”
Gabe nodded with a smile.
“That means you’re the official House marshal. Always thought you’d be a damn good one. But then that’s probably why you’re here, huh? Official business?”
“More like unofficial business. I need to know what you remember about the disappearance of that girl about fifteen years ago.”
Norton’s face hardened as he scratched his clean-shaven chin. “You talked to your old man about this yet?”
“Yes, he thought the girl’s previous House leaders were responsible. He was reluctant to even give me that much. I think it might be connected to a string of disappearances that have happened over the last several months. The elders are pushing for me to close the case.”
Norton sighed and sat back down in the executive chair behind his desk and folded his hands over his chest. With his closely cut hair, clean-shaven face, and barrel chest he looked more like a retired drill sergeant than a Sanguen.
“I imagine they are.”
Gabe sat down, shifting his blades forward underneath his jacket. “I knew there was more.”
“Let me guess; your investigation led you back to the House and the elders shut you down so fast you had whiplash.” When Gabe narrowed his eyes, the old Sanguen nodded. “Thought so.”
“Damn.” Gabe pushed his hands through his hair. “I’m not going to like this, am I?”
“Probably not. The little girl’s name was Kellinda Mackinaw. She was a real doll, biggest brown eyes you’ve ever seen.” Norton smiled. “She was maybe thirteen and a sweet kid. Her mom, on the other hand, was different. I don’t think she was quite right.” He tapped his temple. “Her old man took care of her and asked Liam to watch over her when he died. He wouldn’t have given up searching if the elders hadn’t given the order. Liam believes in the authority of the elders, always has.”
Gabe looked at him as realization struck. “But you didn’t. That was why you left the House. You continued to work on the case and the elders cast you out.”
Norton’s nod was slow. “I looked for a long time but the girl was nowhere to be found. It was a damn shame.” He reached up and adjusted a photograph on his desk. Gabe could see the image was of a smiling blonde woman, a boy of about six or seven years old, and a young teenage girl. His family.
“My father said the mother committed suicide.”
Norton’s eyes jerked to his and held them for a long searching moment. “You know what you’re getting into, boy?”
“This man has tried to kill me twice, Norton. He killed one twelve-year-old girl and may be responsible for the deaths of at least four others that have gone missing. Now he may be targeting my mate. I think I’m already into it.”
Norton sighed and shook his head. “The mother was found dead in her cottage not more than two or three months after the girl disappeared. The elders closed the case two days later. Said that the new leading family of the Mackinaw House had taken the girl and that the mother killed herself from grief.”
“You don’t think so.”
The man shook his head. “The mother’s wrist was slit, sure enough. But I can’t say as that was what killed her.”
“How do you think she died?”
“My sister helped to prepare the body for the ritual burning. She said when they tried to bleed her there was hardly any blood.”
Gabe frowned. “If she slit her wrist she would have bled out at the scene.”
Norton was already shaking his head. “There wasn’t much blood at the scene neither. I should know, I found her. So my question is, where’d all her blood go?”
“Someone killed her and made it look like a suicide,” Gabe muttered, his mind racing. The mother must have known who had bled Kel. She’d taken Kel someplace where the man couldn’t get to her and returned to the House. She probably threatened to go to the elders or at least to the House marshal and the man killed her. But why had he waited so long to start bleeding young girls again?
Maybe he hadn’t. Maybe he just hadn’t been living at the House complex. Who among the Ferrar House had returned to the complex within the last year? He needed to speak to his father again.
Gabe surged to his feet and reached across the desk to shake the man’s hand and thank him for the information. Just as he started to shimmer he paused and rematerialized. Norton had picked up the photo of his family and tapped the face of the teenager. When he saw that Gabe was still there he raised his eyebrows in question.
“Kellinda Mackinaw goes by the name Kel Sheridan now. She still has the biggest brown eyes you’ve ever seen and she’s bloodmate to a man who will die before he lets anyone hurt her again.”
Norton’s eyes slid shut and he sighed with what Gabe thought might be relief. Opening his eyes he nodded his head. “Glad to hear it.”
Gabe nodded and shimmered.
AS SOON AS he uncapped the vial, he knew. The scent had haunted him for fifteen years; no other blood could compare to that first taste. Closing his eyes he let the thick liquid rush over his tongue and down his throat, his body jerking with the impact.
Her blood burned through him, so much more potent than it had been when she was young. She would be a woman now. Her blood was that of a fully matured Guardian, infused with the protein of a Sanguen female. It gave him power, so much more power than those little crossbreeds he’d been bleeding.
And what was better was she was
his
bloodmate. The knowledge made it that much sweeter. Even now the elders deliberated on allowing him to continue on as House marshal. His bond to a crossbreed violated the House laws and the elders would likely banish him from the House. Of course, that wouldn’t be enough. Not even close. As long as that boy still lived the elders could relent, call him back. No, he had to die. Both the marshal and the doyen had to die.
It was so close now. Everything he’d dreamed of. He could be strong and whole. If he drained her he would be more powerful than all of them. He almost laughed. That proud fool, Liam, had argued with the elders on behalf of his son, explaining the effect of the crossbreed’s blood, how it changed him, made him stronger. He’d told them how the House marshal could drink only her, that no other female could sustain him. It made it only too easy. If he bled the little crossbreed, the marshal died, and there would be no one standing between him and the doyen. They would no longer pity him. He’d make them sorry that they’d tried to rob him of what rightfully belonged to him.
Turning, he smiled at the blood dealer. “Bring her to me.”
KEL RECLINED ON the lounge chair outside on her balcony, letting the sun warm her. She didn’t bother to try to get a tan. Her body perceived it as an injury and healed her almost instantaneously. Reaching up, she touched the raised scar on her shoulder. By this evening that would be gone as well. Being ghostly white was a small price to pay.
Adjusting her sunglasses she reached out and grabbed the sweating bottle of water. Gabe would be back soon. He’d gone to meet with his father and promised her a big juicy steak if she would just stay put tonight. She foresaw another argument before morning because she had every intention of going for a jog and walking the girls to school. She had no intention of deviating from her normal schedule.
Kel stretched her muscles with a smile. It was really sad when she relished even the arguments. But then, they always turned out so damn good in the end. Gabe had a wonderful way of soothing her anger.
There was nothing about Gabe Ferrar that Kel wouldn’t eat with a spoon. And she couldn’t sit idly by and allow that bastard to make another attempt on his life. When she’d almost lost him to that ambush she’d been faced with a really uncomfortable truth.
She couldn’t live without him.
He was frustratingly bossy and, at the same time, achingly protective. He respected her ability to kick ass, even seemed to get a certain amount of savage satisfaction from it, but seeing her injured nearly made him wild. What other man would think her skewering a man on his blade was sexy? She didn’t know what force had brought them together but she was grateful.
If there was some merit to the concept of each soul being only half of a whole, then Gabe was her other half. And she was no peach. She knew it frustrated and hurt him that she couldn’t share her nightmares, that she couldn’t open herself completely to him, to trust him. She wanted to and she would keep trying. As long as he didn’t give up on her.
Her cellular phone chimed on the small table next to her chair and she sighed, reaching over to pick it up.
“Sheridan.”
“Kel. You’ve got to get her back. She’s just a little girl. Don’t let him hurt her. ”
Kel’s stomach twisted and her heart slammed against her chest as she jackknifed into a sitting position. “Wait, slow down. Tala, now tell me exactly what happened.”
There was a broken breath and then dead calm. “We were in the back yard and they appeared out of nowhere. They took Madison. Kel, they said you had to come for her. That you knew where to go.”
Kel shook her head. She had to think. Where would Jimmy take the little girl? She didn’t want to see that look of terror frozen on her face, didn’t want to find her body cold and lifeless somewhere. Madison was in such a vulnerable stage of her change. She would be terrified.
Kel stood and pressed her hand over her mouth. Where would they take her? Jimmy obviously thought it was obvious. Some place that Kel would attribute to this case? No, no. This was personal now. It was about her. She’d made it about her. The location would be personal.
She needed to call Gabe.
A thought slithered over her skin and suddenly the sun couldn’t warm her. What if it was only a ploy to get to Gabe through her? What if she was bait for the trap? She had to keep Gabe safe.
“Kel? Kel?”
Pressing the cell phone back to her ear she swallowed hard and fought to keep her voice even. “It’s okay, Tala. I’ll find her. I promise you I will find her.”
But where?
“Gram says to start at the beginning.”
The beginning.
Kel shimmered into the center of the room and turned slowly.
The cottage smelled of must, as though the air inside hadn’t been disturbed in a long time. Dust-enshrouded sheets covered the meager furniture just like they had all those years ago when she and her mother had first arrived on the Ferrar House compound.
The remembered fear was instantaneous and she took a deep breath to gain control, to maintain a separation from Gabe.