“Oh my God, Laycee . . .”
“Like I said, the view from your bedroom window is pretty good.” After repositioning the blanket in her arms, Laycee addressed Gabriel directly. “If crazy vampire bitch could do something like starve another vampire, then there’s no telling what else she’s capable of.” I watched as she unconsciously began to flex her wrist. The same one Katja had broken and Aleksei had fixed. “Look, I know I’m not supposed to know about vampires, and all I can do is give you my word I won’t tell anyone about you, not even Jake”—I felt rather than saw Gabriel smile at her promise—“but please understand I don’t ever want to be that scared again, or have my kids that scared.”
“It’s against the law for a vampire to take the blood of a child,” I told her.
“And what law would that be exactly?” She didn’t try to hide her sarcasm.
“It’s vampire law,” Gabriel said.
“Well, did your vampire law say it was okay for Katja to starve creepy guy—”
“His name was Oscar.” Annoyance made my words sharper than I intended.
I don’t think Laycee was being deliberately disrespectful, but even so. She blinked, and the expression on her face told me our friendship had just received a hairline fracture. It wasn’t huge, it wasn’t a crack or gap or even a fissure, but it was a definite weakness.
“—or rip Rowan’s neck open like she did?” Laycee continued as if I hadn’t spoken. “I don’t think someone capable of doing that really gives a damn about the law, no matter who made it.”
She had a point, and if it were I with an infant in my arms, I would probably be asking the same thing. A small wail suddenly erupted from the pink blanket, and Laycee began shushing and cooing, apologizing to her daughter for upsetting her. Taking advantage of her distraction, I turned to face Gabriel. “Can you really do something?” I asked in a low voice.
He looked down at me, his eyes darkening to a shade that made them unreadable. “Yes, but what you are asking comes at a price.”
“But can it be done?”
“Of course, but—”
“Outside, now,” I said, taking him firmly by the hand and marching toward the door. “We’ll be back in a minute,” I told Laycee, who gave me a distracted wave and occupied herself with Jenna.
“Don’t you want to help her?” I hissed once the door to Laycee’s room had closed and we had the semi-privacy of the hall to talk in. “It’s not like she’s asking anything for herself. This is for her baby.” I put an unfair emphasis on the last word.
Gabriel let go of my hands and put his own on his hips as he dropped his eyes and looked down at the floor. I’d seen him adopt this posture before, usually when he needed me to see his point of view and didn’t want to lose his temper over it. “There are consequences to be considered, Rowan. What you are asking—”
“I’ll pay it,” I said suddenly. “That’s the reason you’re stalling, isn’t it?” He stared at me, his eyes glittering in the low light, his hair shimmering. I saw the tips of his fangs behind his upper lip. “Whatever the cost of this protection you can give, you’re worried that I won’t like it. Well, let me tell you something: Laycee is as important to me as Aleksei is to you. If you could have saved his family— saved his mother, his sisters, and his brothers—wouldn’t you have done it?”
“Rowan, that’s not the same thing.”
“Isn’t it? The specific circumstances might be different, but you can’t tell me the feelings aren’t the same. We’re talking about protecting someone who can’t protect themselves.”
I wasn’t playing fair, but I couldn’t let him turn his back on a helpless child, not when it was in his power to help her. I grabbed hold of his hand and brought it to my mouth, pressing my lips against his knuckles. “Do whatever you need to do, Gabriel, to give Laycee peace of mind. Do it for her. Do it for her baby. Do it for me.”
He stared at me long and hard, and I could feel the conflict within him . . . and knew the moment he capitulated.
“I understand there are terms, and it doesn’t matter what they are. If it’s up to me to pay them, then I will and gladly, I’ll—” The rest of my words were shut off as Gabriel covered my mouth with his, effectively silencing me.
“Don’t say anything else,” he instructed when he finally let me go.
“But you’ll do it, won’t you?” I completely ignored his directive, adding, “You’ll help Laycee and her baby?”
“Rowan—you have no idea what you ask of me!”
“It’s a lot, I know, but . . . please?”
“The consequences . . .”
“Are they really so terrible?” I asked. C’mon, this was a baby we were talking about protecting. How awful could it be to agree to do this? I reached for his hand, holding it and rubbing my thumb across his knuckles. “I’ll do whatever is asked of me, Gabriel, but please do this.”
He twisted the hand I held and pulled me up against his body, kissing me with a fierce kind of desperation. I could feel the pounding beat of his heart, feel the blood rushing through his veins. And when he let me go, he looked strangely grim.
“Thank you,” I murmured as he pulled open the door to Laycee’s room.
Chapter 19
This time Laycee had not freshened her makeup. Instead she was starting to look a little frazzled, a combination of little to no sleep and worry. She began to chew on her lip, smearing what was left of her lip gloss, and for the first time I realized just how scared she truly was. “So . . . can you help my children?”
Going to the end of her bed, Gabriel looked at her solemnly. “What you are asking is not possible for Jake’s older children,” he told her in a voice that carried the weight of centuries. “Such a request can only be asked, and granted, within the first twenty-four hours of birth.”
She sighed with relief. “So you can protect Jenna?”
“You are absolutely certain this is what you want?” Gabriel asked, his voice calm and steady, his focus completely on Laycee.
She shook her head. “No, what I really want is to have a do-over where I know nothing about vampires.”
“But you can’t put the genie back in the bottle,” Gabriel said, giving her a tight smile.
“A genie I might be able to deal with,” she assured him. “But seriously, yes. Whatever protection you can give my daughter is what I want.”
“And you ask this of me with a free will?” She swallowed convulsively a couple of times, and then nodded her head rapidly like a bobblehead doll that was possessed. “Very well,” Gabriel said. “I agree to give your daughter my protection.”
The look he gave me said he was doing this for no one but me.
“Will it be enough?” Laycee asked, her china-doll eyes opening wide.
Gabriel gave a humorless laugh. “It always has been before. Any vampire who gets close to your daughter will recognize my scent and know that touching her in any way will result in his—or her—immediate death.” He raised a brow. “This is all I can offer. Are you satisfied?” Laycee closed her eyes for a moment and then nodded. “And you,” Gabriel said, turning to face me, “are you also satisfied by this agreement?”
“Yes,” I said, wondering why he was asking when he already knew it was what I wanted. “Wait a minute, though.” I put my hand on Gabriel’s arm and asked the obvious. “Just how is this done?”
“With blood, of course,” Gabriel answered, surprised that I hadn’t already guessed this. Nearly all rituals of any importance in the vampire world were bound by blood.
“Okay, but whose blood?”
His dimple winked at me, and now he brushed his lips lightly over mine before saying, “Only mine, sweetheart, no one else’s.”
Oh well, that was okay then. The momentary fear in the pit of my stomach went back to sleep. From the look on her face, Laycee had been given a similar jolt of terror at the thought that Gabriel was going to need her baby’s blood to do whatever he was going to do. I gave her a reassuring s
mile as the sound of rustling silk filled my ears. I turned my head to see Gabriel pulling his shirt free of his pants.
“Don’t tell me you’ve gotta be naked to do this,” I mumbled as he began undoing buttons. Over the years I’d shared a lot of things with Laycee, but I’d never planned on her seeing Gabriel in the buff. I’m a generous friend, not a stupid one.
“Don’t worry,” he said with a teasing grin that would have put an exotic dancer to shame. “I only need to remove my shirt. Skin-to-skin contact is vital.”
“Holy Mary, Mother of God . . .” Laycee murmured from her bed. The fact that she had given birth less than twelve hours ago did not stop her appreciation for a well-muscled torso. “And to think you can see that anytime you want,” she added with enough envy in her voice that it made me preen.
I saw tiny beads of perspiration break out across her upper lip as Gabriel stood by the side of the bed and held his arms out. If Laycee was going to change her mind, now was the time to do it. All she had to do was refuse to hand over Jenna and Gabriel would put his shirt back on and none of us would ever mention this again. And for a moment, I thought that’s exactly what she was going to do. Let’s face it, what mother would willingly put her newborn infant into the outstretched hands of a vampire? And not just any vampire, but an Original Vampire at that. Laycee may have had some hesitation, but Baby Jenna did not.
“Would you look at that?” I murmured, slightly awe-struck. “Not even twenty-four hours old, and she’s reaching for him.”
And it did appear as if that was exactly what she was doing.
A small chubby fist rose up from the cloud of pink, accompanied by a soft cooing sound, and grabbed a handful of Gabriel’s long hair as he took her from her mother’s arms. Cradled against his chest, Jenna lay nice and easy, her small body resting along the length of his forearm. It seemed to me that Gabriel had never looked so big, or perhaps it was just that the newborn looked so tiny dwarfed by his broad chest and massive shoulders.
Holding her in one arm, her small body pressed against his bare skin, Gabriel smiled down at her. She waved her arm and made baby gurgling noises, and I saw his smile widen as she tugged playfully on the strands of hair caught between her fingers. Not taking his eyes from the tiny face that looked up at him, Gabriel murmured to me, “You might want to hold Laycee’s hand.”
I understood the need for his instruction a moment later, because Laycee almost broke my fingers seeing Gabriel drop his fangs. Concerned that she might launch herself at him, I put my free arm around her shoulders and offered a comforting squeeze. Gabriel had assured me the only blood to be used was his own, and I had no reason not to believe him. I watched as he scored his free wrist and then held my breath as he held his hand over the baby’s face.
A single drop of blood, no more and no less, fell with exact precision between the open lips of a tiny rosebud mouth, staining her tongue a brilliant crimson before being absorbed by her own genetic material. Making a single sweep of his tongue across his wrist, Gabriel sealed the wound. Then he pressed his lips against Jenna’s forehead and placed her back in Laycee’s arms.
“That’s it?” Laycee asked. “She’s safe now?”
“Yes. Any vampire will know she is under my protection.”
Gently Laycee passed her forefinger across her baby’s lips, as if worried some of Gabriel’s blood might escape. “Thank you. I can’t ever—oh, holy shit!”
The sudden outburst startled me, and Gabriel, who had been putting his shirt back on, paused for a moment before giving a shrug. Laycee may have had nothing but glowing admiration for his front side, but she was having a completely different reaction at the sight of his back. I knew it wasn’t his tattoos that were responsible for her sudden outburst, but the cruel thick scars that curved along each shoulder blade. She covered her mouth with her free hand, mumbling an apology for her tactless eruption.
Slipping the shirt the rest of the way on, Gabriel pressed his lips against my forehead before saying, “I’ll wait for you down the hall.”
Once the door closed with a soft whoosh, I turned back to meet Laycee’s stare. I hadn’t thought it possible for her eyes to get any bigger, but apparently I was wrong. If she wasn’t careful she’d look like one of those female anime characters. Nothing but eyes and boobs.
“Oh God, Rowan, I’m so sorry. Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Tell you what? About his back?” She nodded, her expression stricken. “I guess I’ve just gotten used to it,” I said with a shrug. “I find his tats very sexy, and I honestly don’t notice the scars anymore.”
It was a lie, but Laycee didn’t need to know that. Just as Gabriel was reminded of what he had once been every time he looked in the mirror, I was reminded every time my hands passed over the ropey, thick scar tissue. And every time I had to force myself to push aside my anguish and despair.
“But they look like . . .” I watched her brows pull together. “It sounds silly, but it’s almost as if he’d once had wings.”
“Yeah I know, I thought the same thing the first time I saw them.”
“What happened to him?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know exactly.” It was kind of, sort of the truth. My memories had been returning, but with no reference point to guide me, they remained a jumble of images. Some were pleasant, some not so much. I couldn’t say on which side my recollections of Gabriel’s cruel disfigurement would fall, but I was inwardly bracing myself for them to be in the not-so-pleasant category.
My sense that I had been a witness to that cruelty was strong, and it explained why I was hesitant about telling Gabriel I was starting to have such recollections. When the memory was complete, and I had a better understanding of my own involvement, then I would tell him. At least that’s what I told myself. Truthfully, I was terrified what such a remembrance would bring with it.
“It’s not something he likes to talk about,” I said, answering Laycee’s question.
“Oh. I’m sorry I asked.”
A sudden wail broke the tension. “I think someone’s hungry,” I said, feeling a smile tug at the corners of my mouth. “Remember to send me pictures, lots and lots of pictures. A daily update would be good.” I slipped out of the room before Laycee had a chance to say anything else.
Chapter 20
I waited until Gabriel slid Francine into her parking stall between Lola the Lamborghini and a Dodge Viper he called Velma. The silence between us on the drive back from the hospital was strained because Gabriel was brooding about something.
“Why is it that all your cars have names better suited to B-movie actresses from the fifties?” I asked in an effort to break the tension. I certainly didn’t want to take this mood of his back to the apartment. God knows the atmosphere up there was sensitive enough with Aleksei opening old wounds while exorcising his past. One slightly unstable vampire with a short fuse was all I could handle right now.
“I liked the era,” Gabriel answered. “Things seemed less complicated back then.”
“Really? No civil rights, no equal rights, substandard health care, and let’s not forget raving paranoia generated by McCarthyism.”
“I didn’t say it was perfect,” he chided gently. “Just that I liked it.”
“I guess you had to be there.”
“Yes, well, you were.”
“You mean . . . in one of those lives I don’t remember?” I stared at him, feeling a sudden dryness in my mouth as he nodded.
If it was his intention to shut me down, he succeeded admirably. I sighed and leaned back on the comfy bench seat. He turned off the engine but kept the key locked so the radio stayed on. Something classical with a piano and violins was playing. It was very soothing, and Gabriel seemed in no hurry to get out of the car. But this could only mean one thing. If we were going to hash out whatever was wrong, then he was going to make me work for it. Which I also took to mean he thought I was somehow at fault. Shit.
“Gabriel?” He turned to look at me, his
face highlighted by the soft glow of the dashboard panel’s lights. Perfect bone structure complemented by intriguing hollows made the breath catch in my throat. It was like seeing him for the very first time and falling in love with him all over again. Except I hadn’t realized I was in love with him then. I put a hand on his arm. “Look, I’m sorry if you feel like I railroaded you into helping Laycee, but it was important.”
“Was it?”
“Of course it was.” If it was important to Laycee, then it was important to me . . . and he knew that. From the other side of the car I heard a grunt and then the soft drumming of his fingers on the steering wheel. I folded my arms, and my irritation began a slow burn. “If you didn’t want to do it, you should have said so,” I snapped.
The hand that had been keeping time on the steering wheel flashed out and caught my chin, forcing my head around so he could look at me. His eyes were dark and furious.
“ ‘Do whatever you need to do, Gabriel, to give Laycee peace of mind. Do it for her. Do it for her baby. Do it for me. ’ ”
Hearing my own voice come out of his mouth was unnerving, to say the least. I had no idea he could imitate me that well. Jerking my chin out of his fingers, I gave him a look of my own. “This is about the stupid consequences, isn’t it? You think I’m going to renege when it comes time to pay the piper.”
“Not intentionally.”
I was insulted by his lack of faith in my integrity. Did he really think so little of me? “I gave you my word, Gabriel. Surely that counts for something?”
“Of course it does.” He sighed. “I’m not worried about that.”
“Then what is it?” I snapped. “You’ve been like a bear with a thorn in its paw ever since we left the hospital.”
“Seldom is our help asked for, at least not so directly or for such selfless reasons. Perhaps this is why words carry more weight with a vampire. Why we do not make promises lightly, nor do we break those promises without good reason.”
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