Things That Go Hump In The Night (16 page)

Chapter 11 – Full Disclosure

To Gabriel's surprise, Rafe was only five minutes late to the restaurant, probably owing to the fact that their father was waiting for him.

And this was even one of the days when Rafe had morning meetings, which usually ran overtime by at least a half-hour, thought Gabriel as he watched his younger brother push open the heavy doors with their stained-glass panels and stride into the restaurant.

"
Patéras
," said Rafe, grinning as he addressed Jadikira, using the Greek word for
father
. He embraced Jadikira and kissed his cheek. "I'm sorry I didn't have a chance to see you while you were visiting the office—I was stuck in meetings all morning."

"I'm glad you could join us, Rafael," said Jadikira, squeezing Rafe's shoulder. "I was sorry to hear that Michael is still on his vacation, but I expect he will bring his lovely bride-to-be home soon to meet us. Which reminds me, Gabi—" he glanced over to Gabriel "—you know your mother will interrogate me about your lives by phone tonight, so I
do
hope you both have something interesting to tell me."

Rafe shrugged, a wicked glint in his eye. "I'm sure Gabriel has more interesting news than I do. Don't you,
Gabi?
"

"Don't call me that," Gabriel growled as the maitre d' approached to lead them to their seats.

The Salt & Bourbon steakhouse served the most expensive steaks in the city, but they were worth every penny, in Gabriel's opinion.

And he liked the old-fashioned ambiance of the place, with its white linen tablecloths and napkins, banquettes upholstered in deep red leather, and polished brass sconces set against the dark wood paneling of the walls.

"So, Gabriel," said Jadikira when they had been seated and had ordered wine and food. "You intend to take that lovely young woman Nicole as your
philtata
?"

"That's the plan,
Patéras
," Gabriel said, a little uncomfortably. Despite Jadikira's youthful appearance, his father had a singularly penetrating stare, enhanced by his centuries of experience. "But there are a number of...well,
complications
."

They were tucked into a quiet booth, safely away from the other diners, but Gabriel still didn't like to discuss private matters in a public venue.

However, Jadikira had a 6:00 p.m. flight to the East Coast, so this would be their only chance for a family conversation, face-to-face, during this trip.

"What kind of complications?" asked his father.

"She's a shape-changer, but she doesn't know he's a Child of Lilith," Rafael explained, helpfully. "And he's got Mark Aquila training her, but she also doesn't know that Gabriel knows about her. I keep telling him he needs to write a screenplay."

Gabriel glared at his younger brother. Rafael leaned back on the padded banquette and smirked before taking a sip of his wine.

They were interrupted by the waiter delivering their steaks, and all personal conversation ceased for a few minutes as they served themselves from the silver side-dishes of vegetables and doctored their baked potatoes from the tray of toppings the waiter had left for them.

"She doesn't know what you are? Hasn't she yet seen through your glamour while you're making love?" asked Jadikira, finally, with a slight frown on his handsome features. "If she hasn't, that's not a good sign, son. A true
philtata
can always pierce the veil of the glamour once intimacy is achieved."

"Well, ah, we haven't fully made love.
Yet
," said Gabriel, discomfited.

There was a moment of thunderous silence.

Gabriel looked up from his excellent Wagyu ribeye, so tender it didn't need the steak knife, and saw both his father and brother staring at him in open disbelief.

"Tell me you're joking," said Jadikira, dropping into Greek. "You're considering making her your
philtata
, but you haven't fully consummated your relationship with her yet? What are you waiting for?"

Rafe added, in English, "Yeah, anyone can see that woman has the crazy hots for you. And that reminds me—stay away from her cube during working hours, will ya? Every time you drop by for a little chat, she's so distracted afterwards that she makes stupid mistakes. At this rate, you're going to put our release behind schedule."

Gabriel ignored him and focused on his father, who looked genuinely concerned.

"There are reasons," Gabriel said quietly. "I need to take this slowly, but Nicole is very much worth it. Eventually, I'll have to reveal myself and tell her about the Children of Lilith and their
philtatoi
, but not yet. It isn't the right time.”

"I think she already knows something about the
philtatoi
, and that something isn't good. I saw her reaction when she caught sight of my bracelet," said Jadikira.

Gabriel had noticed Nicole's odd reaction earlier, but he had failed to spot the cause of it.

"She recognized it—and it scared her. Badly," Jadikira continued.

"I know something bad happened to her. She hasn't spoken of it in any detail, but there are certain things—" Gabriel stopped, not wanting to reveal too much to his father and brothers. Nicole's secrets were her own. "But if she knows about the Children of Lilith, and one of us is somehow tied to whatever happened to her..."

"Well, fuck," said Rafael. "You mean that her stalker might be a Child of Lilith?" He looked unhappy. "From what Mark said, I thought she was being stalked by another shape-shifter. But if one of our kind is involved—that's some seriously bad shit, right there."

"I agree," said Jadikira. "I think it may be too late to avoid getting your heart broken, Gabi, but the pain will only get worse the longer you and your Nicole keep secrets from each other. You need to reveal yourself to her, and soon."

* * *

Kelly, the HR Manager, handed Nicole brochures and paperwork, one after the other, as she explained Archangel's employee benefits: medical, dental, vision, 401(k), and stock option plans.

On autopilot, Nicole smiled and nodded and signed things blindly.

All she could think about right now was the shocking sight of a red string bracelet around Stephen Jadikira's left wrist.

Her mind felt like it was on a hamster wheel, madly racing around and around, making it impossible to absorb anything that Kelly was telling her.

I have to tell Gabriel everything. Should I turn into a wolf first? Or only do it if he doesn't believe me? Where do I tell Gabriel? Should I take him to a bar? Should I invite him to my place...no, do it somewhere else. I need somewhere to hide if he freaks out and breaks up with me. And how did Stephen Jadikira end up with one of those bracelets, anyway? Did someone kidnap him? How many monsters are out there? How many shape-changers? And who turned Mark into one?

When Nicole returned to her desk, in possession of a thick folder of paperwork and glossy information sheets, she opened Outlook and viewed Gabriel's calendar.

Just my luck—he's booked solid until 6:30 p.m.

She sent him a high-priority meeting request for the end of the day, when he would be alone in his office.

With the next major build deadline looming, there would still be a lot of people in the Archangel offices, but hopefully they wouldn't be interrupted.

The afternoon crawled by with painful slowness.

Nicole forced herself to review the next section of the Archangel 3.0 design spec that Rafe had sent her, though it was hard to concentrate on his concise, elegant approach to building algorithms when her stomach was churning with anxiety.

Nicole had felt too queasy with nerves to eat lunch, and the feelings of dread-induced nausea only grew stronger when her email popped up with a meeting acceptance from Gabriel. 

In two hours, she would have to tell him the truth.

At least he already knows about shape-shifters,
she tried to reassure herself.

But it didn't make her feel better.

Knowing that Mark Aquila was a werewolf was not the same thing as knowing that the woman you were dating also turned furry at intervals.

She hoped fervently that she would be able to convince him that Stephen Jadikira was in real danger.

A new, anxiety-inducing thought occurred to her. Erik's whammy prevented her from mentioning her own red string bracelet. Would it also stop her from telling Gabriel about Stephen's bracelet? In that case, what could she say instead?

At long last—and way too soon—it was time to lock her system, get up, and walk to Gabriel's office. Force of habit made her grab her large purse—she never went anywhere without it.

She tapped softly on the office door and opened it, feeling like she wanted to throw up from sheer nerves.

Gabriel was typing furiously but looked up when she entered. He gave her one of his special smiles, which made her feel warm and admired and even more nervous than before.

In another moment, his expression might turn to revulsion. Or worse—pitying disbelief.

Put on your big-girl panties and deal
with it
, Nicole told herself sternly as she approached his desk.

"Nicole, what's wrong?" Gabriel said.

He stopped typing and gave her his full attention, his expression concerned but inviting.

"I—" Her throat felt dry and tight. She swallowed, and forced herself to continue. "I need to tell you something. I hope you won't think I'm crazy, because...this is
really
important."

She stopped. Her heart was pounding so hard that she could hear it pounding like drum-beats in her ears. Her face felt hot and her knees shaky.

Gabriel waited expectantly.

"It's about your cousin," she said finally. "He's in trouble. Really bad trouble."

Gabriel blinked, as if he had been expecting her to say something completely different. "My cousin? In trouble...
how?"

Nicole tried to say,
Because he's wearing a red-string bracelet.

But she choked on the words, so she said, instead, "Because I know something is controlling him. He's been turned into a—a—
slave
. To a—" She groped for a word that the spell would allow. "Demon."

"And how, exactly, do you know this?" Gabriel asked warily, leaning back in his chair and studying her with his intense gaze.

She struggled to find the words. "Because I
saw
—"

The whammy laid upon her did not allowed to complete that sentence, and she could feel the killer headache poised to descend, so she tried a different tack.

"I can—can
sense
things. I'm a werewolf!" she blurted out, blowing away all of her carefully rehearsed lead-ups to her revelation.

Gabriel smiled warmly, his expression delighted.

Which was so totally
not
the reaction she had expected.

Of
course
he wouldn't believe her. Who would, if someone just strolled into an office and made an announcement like that?

"I can prove it!" she insisted. "I could turn into a wolf right here!"

"I believe you, Nicole. And I thank you for trusting me enough to tell me." Gabriel cleared his throat and looked a little abashed. "But actually, I've known for a while now. Why else do you think Mark Aquila is here to train you?"

"Werewolf Boot Camp was your idea? You...
knew
?" Nicole wasn't sure whether to be relieved or embarrassed.

He'd known? All this time? And hadn't given her any clue that her big secret wasn't actually a secret?

I feel like such an idiot.

Gabriel chuckled. "Werewolf Boot Camp? Have you told Mark that's what you're calling it? With his military background, I'm sure he'd find it funny."

At least she knew now that Gabriel didn't find dating a werewolf to be a big turn-off.

"And now I have a confession of my own to make," said Gabriel softly. "Stephen Jadikira isn't really my cousin. He's my father, but given how young he looks...well, you can see why my family wants to avoid awkward questions. His previous identity was Jason Amestra, an executive for Medusa Shipping Lines."

"But I saw—" began Nicole, knowing that she wouldn't be allowed to complete the sentence.

"I know what you saw," Gabriel said. "A red string bracelet around his left wrist, right?"

Nicole nodded, feeling a stab of pain lance through her skull at hearing the forbidden words. This conversation was not going anything like she had expected.

"Yes, he's human and bound to a supernatural being, but she's not a demon, and it's not slavery, but a long-standing consensual and committed relationship. A marriage." Gabriel smiled wryly. "To my mother."

"Your mother...?" repeated Nicole, struggling to take this all in.

"Since you've been honest with me, I'll be honest with you." Gabriel took deep breath, looking anxious, as if he was gathering his courage. "I'm only half-human, Nicole." He stood up behind his desk and looked at her soberly. "I hope that you'll still find me attractive in my true form."