by Vivian Wood
Hell, even Aeric was managing to look a little stressed, and Aeric barely had visible emotions.
“Don’t talk again until I tell you to,” Rhys said, swooping in before Gabriel could yell at the odd new addition to the Manor staff. “And Gabriel, you and I will go to one place, Aeric and Asher to another. You choose. Either way, we’ll find Cassie, I promise.”
Gabriel rolled his neck, producing several loud pops. He turned back to the scrying mirror and the map spread out beside it. Holding out a hand over the map, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath, centering himself. He splayed his fingers out and kept his mind blank, sweeping his hand in circles, trying to get an impression.
He pictured Cassie in his mind, setting aside his heart-pounding panic about their possible unborn child. Rhys had coached Gabriel to prioritize, so he did. He thought about Cassie in his bed, lying in his arms. He summoned the memory of her scent, vanilla spice. The softness of her skin, the silky texture of her long auburn mane. The tenderness in her beautiful gray eyes when she looked at him, the love he saw written there…
Gabriel fist landed on the table. He looked down and found that his knuckle was squarely atop one of the two choices, a cluster of cemeteries near the Treme neighborhood that experienced equally high volumes of tourism and Kith activity.
“I guess this us,” Gabriel said, glancing up at Rhys. “Aeric, you two go to Metairie Cemetery. We’re going to the St. Louis Cemeteries.”
“Number One or Two?” Asher asked. He looked on the brink of a yawn, which pushed Gabriel over the edge. Gabriel shot him a derisive look.
“If it was that precise, I’d already have saved her without your help,” Gabriel snapped. “I can only hope that should you become a Guardian, I get to watch you go through this with your own mate.”
Asher’s brows shot up and then he scowled, shaking his head as he rose and followed Aeric to the gymnasium to prepare for their mission.
The team suited up in record time, but to Gabriel every minute seemed to drag by with infinite slowness. When he and Rhys were finally in the car, speeding the opposite direction of Asher and Aeric, Gabriel double checked his guns, sword, and wand before closing his eyes and concentrating on Cassie again.
When Rhys and Gabriel were a dozen blocks from the cemeteries, Gabriel started getting quick flashes of emotion from Cassie. Gut-wrenching fear and panic interspersed with a quiet kind of acknowledgement, as if she were close to accepting her situation. Gabriel opened his eyes and pounded the dashboard, startling Rhys.
“She thinks I’m not coming to rescue her,” Gabriel growled. “Fuck me, how can she believe that?”
“Females are not my area of expertise,” Rhys said, staring grimly as he floored the SUV through a red light. “In any event, Cassie will see your face in a handful of minutes. Focus on her, try to figure out which cemetery she’s in.”
Gabriel closed his eyes. As they pulled onto the road that ran between the two graveyards, Gabriel raised his hand and pointed.
“Number One, then,” Rhys said. “Gives me a bad feeling. The third Gate of Guinee is supposed to be there.”
Gabriel didn’t say any more, opening his eyes and watching as Rhys pulled the car up beside the cemetery’s elaborate wrought iron entrance gate. As soon as they climbed out the car, Gabriel nearly jumped out of his skin when a loud pop sounded all too close to him, followed by a shower of sparks. Magic?
“Lads with poppers,” Rhys said, grimacing and pointing to a group of teenage boys fleeing the scene as they disappeared around a corner. The pops, cracks, and bright sparks receded but didn’t fade entirely, so the boys hadn’t retreated very far. For their sake, Gabriel hoped they stayed clear of cemetery tonight. Pere Mal wouldn’t think twice about striking down a human bystander, especially not one as vexing as a boy with firecrackers.
“Let’s move,” Gabriel said, taking off at a trot. If they were lucky, the sound of firecrackers would actually cover Gabriel and Rhys’s approach, allowing them to sidle up to whatever hidey hole Pere Mal was lurking in without being noticed.
When they entered the graveyard, they waded into an endless maze of tall, crumbling brick and mortar crypts, weeping angel statues, and stone crosses of every size and variety imaginable. The cemetery was old but neatly kept, with flowers and gifts laid here and there as tokens of respect to the dead. Gabriel patrolled this particular cemetery regularly, as it was said to house one of New Orleans’ most famous figures, Voodoo priestess Marie Laveau.
Gabriel led the way into the older section of the cemetery. The thought of Marie Laveau’s tomb reminded him of Rhys’s earlier comments about the Gates of Guinee. Laveau's tomb was supposed to be one of the Gates, and Gabriel supposed it would be a draw for Pere Mal, who gathered information through whispers and old scrolls.
It didn’t take them long to find Pere Mal. A few of his usual suited goons were sprinkled in a wide circle, lounging against tombs and keeping guard. As Gabriel suspected, Pere Mal was only a few yards from the supposed tomb of Marie Laveau. Surrounding him were twenty or more men in dark, hooded robes, some sort of ceremonial garb. The men in robes were smaller and less brawny than Pere Mal’s guards, but Gabriel was willing to bet that they were Voodoo practitioners. They could very well be more dangerous, especially standing on a site of such power.
The tomb itself was small, the bricks decaying to the point of near collapse. The whole tomb was covered in tiny chalk Xs, left by hopeful visitors seeking a favor from the renowned Voodoo Queen. The ground around the tomb was knee-deep in flowers and beads and trinkets, plus countless tiny gris-gris sachets.
Pere Mal wore his customary tuxedo and held a fearsome silver dagger. In all the melee of robed men, it took Gabriel a moment to spot Cassie. She was facing away from Gabriel’s position, standing on a raised stone crypt, tied head to foot against a towering stone cross. He couldn’t see her face, but her head sagged to the side. When Gabriel tried to sense her emotions, he came up blank. His vision went red when he realized that she was unconscious, and that Pere Mal had likely rendered her so. His fierce little mate wasn’t much for fainting.
Once he’d ascertained Cassie’s whereabouts, Gabriel noticed a final figure in the picture. A frail brunette in a white nightgown was laid out on the ground, pallid and still as a corpse. After a moment, he saw her chest rise and fall, meaning that she still lived in some sense, though the stranger seemed to be in a coma or worse. Possessed, bewitched… who knew?
Gabriel pulled his wand and his sword, ready to fight his way to Cassie. Rhys’s hand on his shoulder surprised him, and Gabriel looked up at his friend and fellow Guardian with something close to murderous intent. Rhys gave him a hard look and held up a finger, advocating patience.
Rhys pulled out his cell phone and started texting, and it was everything Gabriel could do to remain still. After a few moments, Rhys moved closer and whispered in the lowest possible voice, “We’re vastly outnumbered, my friend. Pere Mal will gut your girl before we get within a dozen feet of her.”
“We can’t wait for Aeric,” Gabriel said. “Pere Mal is going to make his move soon, I can feel it.”
“Let me draw off some of the men first, at least,” Rhys said. “Give us a fighting chance.”
“I’ll need you at my side,” Gabriel said, watching Rhys closely.
“S’okay. I’m going to pay those lads to make a big scene, distract everyone,” Rhys said. “It’s the best we can do at the moment.”
“Make sure they do it from as far away as possible, and then run. I don’t want Pere Mal catching up with if this goes awry.”
“Of course. Do your best, and I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
Gabriel nodded slowly, then waved Rhys on. He waited for several tense minutes, startling when Rhys reappeared behind him on silent footsteps. Rhys pointed in the direction of the front gate, then motioned for Gabriel to be patient. Mercifully, the firecrackers began to crackle all around them moments later.
Pere Mal mo
ved a few feet away from Cassie as sparks, cracks, and pops sounded all around the graveyard. The robed figures and guards drew away to investigate, and Rhys followed them with a look of grim determination on his face. Gabriel focused on Cassie and Pere Mal once more, noting that now there were only two priests remaining to back Pere Mal up.
Sword and wand at ready, Gabriel charged. The second Pere Mal saw Gabriel, he moved back to Cassie and laid the dagger at her throat. Gabriel struck the two men in robes first, firing twin spells that dropped them in their tracks. A soft shudder ran through Gabriel, a kind of carnal knowledge. He didn’t perform spells against people any longer, not since Caroline’s death, but now he fired without flinching.
Anything to save Cassie.
He squared off before Pere Mal, wand and sword at the ready. Pere Mal stood inches from Cassie’s bound form. Her head hung down, the flame-red curtain of her hair obscuring her face. Pere Mal had the nerve to look nearly relaxed as he held the six-inch blade against Cassie’s collarbone, the barest distance from slicing her vulnerable neck.
“Leave now, and I will not pursue you,” Gabriel said. “It’s the best offer you’re going to get.”
Pere Mal threw back his head and laughed, his teeth flashing white in the moonlight.
“You are a fool, Guardian. And too late, to boot,” Pere Mal said, raising his free hand to show Gabriel his watch. “Just a few more seconds. Can you feel it, Guardian?”
Gabriel did feel something. Beyond his muted rage and the icy fear filling his chest, he felt a stirring, a foreboding….
In the distance, church bells rung the hour. Twelve slow tolls, and with each deep sound Gabriel felt energy forming and building around him. The darkness seemed to thicken and gather in a way that made all the hair on Gabriel’s body raise straight up. A metallic scent filled the air, something old and dingy and sour. Gabriel had no experience in this area of magic, but he was nearly certain that Rhys’s words were coming true.
Pere Mal was opening one of the Gates of Guinee, granting himself access to the spirit realm.
“Don’t—” Gabriel started, but it was indeed too late.
Shadowed mist slid from the darkness, rising and taking shape as the final bell tolled. The mist formed crooked, angular creatures of half-shadow, insubstantial yet frightening. There were perhaps a dozen of them between Gabriel and Cassie, and more just out of Gabriel’s focus. He reached out to the closest one and pierced it with his sword. The metal slid right through the spirit, not causing it a moment’s concern.
Though Gabriel longed for something he could fight, he suspected that the creatures could not harm Cassie any more than Gabriel could run them through with his sword. That was something, at least.
“My ancestors,” Pere Mal purred, and the creatures turned to him, creeping closer and closer. A pair of them reached out to Cassie with wicked-looking fingers, probing her unconscious form with evident curiosity.
“Stop this!” Gabriel said, taking another step forward.
“Ah, ah!” Pere Mal warned, pressing the dagger against her flesh until a thin red line of blood appeared. “Not another step, sorcerer. You can stay and watch, of course. We wouldn’t want you to miss seeing your child’s spirit, would we, Papa?”
Bile rose in Gabriel’s throat as he parsed Pere Mal’s words. Before he could sort it out, before he could say another word, Pere Mal clapped his free hand to Cassie’s abdomen and closed his eyes, the gesture affirming Gabriel’s greatest fears.
Papa.
Gabriel swallowed, trying to think of a way that he could strike a blow at Pere Mal, fire a spell at him. Move him far enough away from Cassie that Gabriel could fight him properly without fearing the dagger at Cassie’s throat.
Pere Mal ignored him, chanting a string of words in a foreign tongue. After a moment, light seeped through his splayed fingers, and Pere Mal opened his eyes and grinned.
“Here she is, Papa,” Pere Mal said, slowly pulling his hand away from Cassie’s stomach.
A tiny ball of shimmering white light floated along in its wake, and the second Gabriel saw it his soul lurched. Much like the first time he’d laid eyes on Cass, he knew without a doubt that this thing, this tiny flicker of light, belonged to him.
His child.
“Stay nice and still, Guardian,” Pere Mal warned. “I don’t mind carving your little mate up after the way she betrayed me. She deserves much worse.”
Gabriel’s teeth pulled back in a snarl, but his attention was all on the floating light.
“Mighty ancestors,” Pere Mal said, his voice ringing loudly now. “If you please, guide the new Oracle to her new home.”
Pere Mal pointed to the dark-haired girl laid out on the ground.
“No,” Gabriel whispered, his gaze darting back and forth between Cassie and the flickering light.
To his surprise, the light stopped moving for a moment, then drifted toward him a few inches. Did it… recognize him, somehow?
“Yes, come to me,” he urged, beckoning with his wand.
“Silence!” Pere Mal thundered.
He slid the dagger along Cassie’s shoulder, eliciting a low sound from her, and a slow stream of blood spilled down her body, soaking her white shirt. Pere Mal’s outburst seemed to startle the little floating blob, and it moved toward Gabriel again. A foot, this time; it crept on inch by inch.
Gabriel realized that he had no idea what he’d do with the little light if it reached him. He couldn’t possibly keep it safe out in the open, not without Cassie’s womb to shelter and nourish it. Glancing up at Pere Mal, who was utterly fixed on the light, muttering curses at the gathered spirits, Gabriel knew he needed to take a shot. Something, anything.
The shadowy spirits began to circle around the little light, and Gabriel could wait no more. Summoning every ounce of power within him, he focused all his will on a spell to shove Pere Mal away from Cassie. He held for as long as he could stand, eyes glued on the flickering spirit, and then he released his spell in a bright, arcing beam that sparked and sizzled as it hit Pere Mal square in the chest.
Rhys appeared out of nowhere across the clearing, holding something in his hand. As Gabriel launched himself toward Cassie and Pere Mal flew back, arms flailing, Rhys moved to Marie Laveau’s tomb and began to etch chalk runes across it.
A sucking screech resounded in the air and the shadowed forms of mist drew back, apparently repelled by whatever magic Rhys was working. Gabriel paused when he reached the little light.
“You have to go home,” he told it, cupping it gently in his hands. Careful not to let the light touch his skin, he herded it back toward Cassie’s prone body.
The second the light reached Cassie, it zipped upward toward her heart. It seemed to hesitate, uncertain.
“Go on,” Gabriel urged. “You’ll be here soon enough, I promise.”
The light sunk into Cassie’s skin, and Cassie absorbed it with a gasp. Her head jerked upright, revealing her shocked face.
“Gabe?” she croaked, struggling against the ropes that held her.
“I’m here, darling. Hold still for me,” Gabriel said, sheathing his wand and slicing at her bonds with the tip of his sword.
Cassie tumbled free, limbs paralyzed from captivity, and Gabriel dropped his sword to catch her in his arms. He turned to find Rhys brandishing his sword at Pere Mal, who looked thunderously angry.
“You Guardians know nothing,” Pere Mal spat. “You cannot stop me.”
“Is that right?” Aeric’s voice boomed, louder than Gabriel had ever heard from the man.
Aeric and Asher appeared on either side of Rhys, backing Pere Mal up so he was pinned in on three sides.
“That’s right,” Pere Mal said, his characteristic grin returning. “You might have the future Oracle, but I still have the Third Light.”
He pointed a bony finger at the brunette on the ground, now lying several feet behind him and out of the Guardians’ reach. Gabriel noticed as Aeric stiffened, looking at the wo
man. Aeric bared his teeth, his face contorting as he struggled for control.
“Mate,” Aeric hissed through clenched teeth.
“Don’t worry, little bear. I am doing you a favor, in a way,” Pere Mal said, his tone bordering on conversational. “This one is much more than you could possibly handle.”
Aeric leapt at Pere Mal, sword clattering to the ground. Pere Mal took a neat step backward and leaned down to touch the girl, and in the blink of an eye both of them vanished. Aeric’s arms closed around empty air, a snarl ripping from his chest.
“Aeric—” Rhys started, but his words were lost.
Aeric scrambled to his feet and squared his shoulders. Throwing his head back, he release a bone-jarring, ear-shattering roar that grew and grew until Cassie flinched in Gabriel’s arms, quaking with fear. The sound was impossible, no bear could produce such a noise…
Without warning, Aeric’s body shimmered and rippled, then a blinding flash of light consumed him. Gabriel flinched and blinked, stumbling and dragging Cassie back a step. He felt a supernatural wind waft over his body as his vision cleared, and then Gabriel’s jaw dropped.
Aeric was gone. In his place, unfurling and flapping twenty-foot long wings coated with dazzling, unbelievable gold, was…
A bloody dragon. It lifted into the night sky with effortless grace, and in moments it was out of sight.
Aeric was gone.
Chapter Fourteen
Cassie clung to Gabriel the entire car ride back to the Manor. They hadn’t spoken more than a dozen words to one another; Gabriel was clearly wound too tightly to talk at any length. He’d gathered her up in his arms in the graveyard, holding her so tightly that she could scarcely breathe, and hadn’t put her down for a moment since. For her part, Cassie was exhausted, and content to let her mate covet and protect her all he wanted.
After her scare tonight, being in his arms was the deepest kind of comfort. Her hands still trembled when she thought of all they’d nearly lost, and Gabriel’s touch was the only thing that soothed her restless fear.