“Girls, what a lovely surprise this morning,” Paul greeted them with a smile. “Is Gabriel expecting you?”
Carly sized him up, looking past Paul’s designer clothes and success and status. Was he simply enamored of Damon for living a seemingly adventurous life on the other side of the world, or was Paul also under Damon’s control?
We’re not here for that now, Crys reminded her, though her demeanor did nothing to reveal the stress she was managing in her mind. With grace and a gorgeous smile, Crystal nodded to the Tupperware container in her hands. “Gabe’s not expecting us, but we come bearing treats.”
“We’ve been up all night baking for the engagement party tonight,” Carly added, matching Crystal’s grin. “We made Gabe’s favorite cookies, among other things, and wanted to drop some off while they’re still warm.”
“He’s lucky to have such thoughtful friends,” Paul told them. “I’m off to run some errands, but you’re more than welcome to come on in. I believe I heard Gabriel stumbling around the kitchen, but I’m not quite sure he’s awake yet.”
“Thanks, Paul,” Crys replied. “Will we see you at the party tonight?”
“Considering Howard’s asked me to be his best man, I wouldn’t miss it for the world.” Paul held the door open for them, and added, “It’ll be good to spend some time with friends while I still have the opportunity. Have fun now.”
“Thanks,” Carly said as he closed the door behind him. Music blared at the other end of the house, and Carly glanced at Crys before they started down the hall together.
They found Gabe in his kitchen, blasting At The Drive-In, working to get a pot of coffee started. Carly hated that she noticed he wasn’t wearing a shirt. She’d managed to gain control over so many things in her life, but her attraction to Gabe just wasn’t one of them.
“Morning, sunshine,” Crystal spoke over the music. “That coffee will go perfect with the cookies we made you.”
Gabe turned down the volume as he turned to face them, his timid gaze falling first to Crys, then Carly. Carly was expecting him to look away, but he didn’t, something behind his eyes changing as he stared back at her. He was fighting with himself over something, but she couldn’t break past the wall he’d put up in his mind to see what it was.
“Cookies, huh?” Gabe asked.
Carly stole the container from Crys and dared to step toward him. “We made a few different kinds for the party tonight. I thought you might like some while they’re still warm. I know it’s early, but…”
“But we’ve got a lot on our schedule today,” Crystal said. “And we figured you wouldn’t mind an early visit if it involved food.”
Gabe mulled that over for a moment, and took the container from Carly. His fingers grazed hers just long enough for silver sparks to shimmer between them. She feared the phenomenon may incite a negative reaction in him as had happened before, but Gabe kept the wall up in his mind as he kept his senses and pulled out a cookie to take a bite.
“Chocolate chip and walnut,” he said, melting into a smile. “My favorite.”
Maybe this was going to be easier than she thought. Carly felt for the hematite in her pocket and grabbed onto a handful. “We’ve talked about being friends again, but we’ve never really made it there. I don’t know what the future holds for either of us, Gabe, but—”
“But you thought a few dozen cookies would somehow distract me from the fact that you’ve moved the skull?” Gabe’s smile was long gone, and something sinister loomed behind his icy eyes.
I think we should skip ahead to Plan B, Crys telepathed to Carly.
Carly had also intuited that this was going to escalate if she didn’t intervene. So, without speaking, she simultaneously removed the container of cookies from Gabe’s hands and replaced it with several loose pieces of hematite. Electricity crackled between them as Carly closed her hands in around his, pressing the hematite into Gabe’s palms. His eyes grew wide, and, frightened he might fight her, Carly went right for it and moved her mouth to his in a deep kiss.
It was perhaps a stupid move, considering Gabe was a lot bigger than her and had hurt her in the past. But in order to reach the man she knew was in there, the one who’d won her heart, she needed an intimate connection. Carly’s tongue skimming over Gabe’s was certainly intimate.
Now for the rest of Plan B, Crystal reminded her.
Carly forced her thoughts from the depth of Gabe’s kiss to probe the depth of his mind. She now saw plain as day that Damon had established a connection to Gabe via Katia in attempt to penetrate Carly’s thoughts and locate the skull. Carly’s next move was to work backwards and trace that connection from Gabe to Katia to Damon, but it was imperative to do it now—while Damon still thought he was in control.
Carly pushed through the atmosphere of Gabe’s consciousness, through all the things she loved about him, through all the things she didn’t, through to the core of him. And she realized that for the first time, she was finally meeting Gabe Hutchinson. Not the version of him she’d encountered on her first day of school, or the version of him she’d fallen in love with, but the sweet, tender boy he’d been before Damon Phillips had taken a foothold in his mind.
Carly had falsely assumed that Damon had taken control of Gabriel after Damon had arrived in Sterling on Christmas Eve. She was now able to see that that connection had been there much longer, that Damon had established it years ago, before he’d moved away and abandoned his daughter. Like Carly had dreamt of Gabriel in his wolf form, Damon too could see things in his dreams. He had seen Carly coming and used the most powerful of her peers, Gabriel, to try to sabotage her.
Damon didn’t have anything to do with the physical attraction that Carly and Gabe had for one another, but he had managed to use it against them—when Damon implanted in Gabriel’s mind the idea to lie to Carly about his relationship with Esther and force the group to lie along with him. What a silly, stupid secret it had been—but big enough to make their tight-knit group of friends implode.
And Carly had played right into Damon’s hands.
She moved past her frustration, past how easily Damon had driven a wedge between them, and somehow, even past the magnificent feeling of Gabe’s lips on hers. Carly blurred out all that background noise to follow the cord linking Gabe’s mind to Katia. As much as Carly wanted to despise the shifter, she sensed that while she had her flaws, Katia wasn’t any more in control of her mind than Gabe was of his.
Tonight, at the party— Katia’s voice echoed over Gabe’s thoughts but for a moment before being vacuumed away, sucked into oblivion right along with any trace of Damon Phillips.
Carly had wanted Gabe free from any outside controls, free to make his own decisions. Now that he was, she realized she had no idea whom she was kissing. This version of Gabe had been hidden away long before she’d ever gotten the chance to meet him.
Gabriel didn’t seem as caught up in the technicalities, however, his mouth sizzling against Carly’s.
She didn’t want the kiss to end either, but this wasn’t the time to sort through her feelings. Carly squeezed Gabe’s hand over the hematite stones as she forced herself away from him. Their lips had parted, but their eyes didn’t. “Hi,” she said.
Gabriel broke into a smile she’d never seen before, but a smile she understood. She couldn’t wait to get to know him either. “Hi,” he said back.
“Hi,” Crystal spoke up. “Remember me?”
Carly felt heat in her cheeks as she glanced at Crys.
“So,” Gabe sighed, staring down at the hematite stones in his palm as leaned back against the counter. “That… was a lot.”
“Yes,” Carly agreed, doing her damnedest to compose herself. “It was… Did you hear Katia? What she said?”
Gabe’s face blazed red as he ran his thumb along the hematite. That’s right—Katia was still his girlfriend. “‘Tonight, at the party,’” he repeated. “It sounded like she was going to say more, but…” He was still blushing as
he met Carly’s gaze. “She’s not in my head anymore. Neither is he. I can’t thank you enough for that.”
Crys marched over to Gabe and clamped onto his arm, her interrogating gaze piercing right through him. She was taking a good, long look at his mind, needing to see for herself that he’d been freed of Damon Phillips.
Gabe seemed more than happy to amuse his life-long friend. “You know I appreciate your skepticism, Crys.”
Crystal narrowed her eyes as she released him. “I know.”
Gabe’s gaze drifted back to Carly, lingering on her in a way that made Carly want to linger back. “I’ll break things off with her—Katia—before the party tonight.”
“Hold up now,” Crystal advised. “Is that really the best idea? Aren’t you going to make Katia suspicious if you dump her out of nowhere?”
“I doubt she’s missed the fact that she’s not in my head anymore,” Gabe countered.
“But what if she has—missed it?” Carly proposed. “From what I could see, Damon’s using her just like he was using you, Gabe. We don’t know what part she’s actually playing.”
“I’m surprised, Carly, that you of all people are suggesting we trust her.”
“I’m not suggesting trust—the opposite, in fact. Maybe she’s clueless that Damon orchestrated her relationship with you. Or Katia understands your attraction to her was forced, and she’ll be all the more flattered when you still want her without someone telling you to. But you know her better than I do, so you tell me.”
Gabe took a moment to think that over. “For all the time I’ve spent with her, I have no idea what Katia really wants.”
“We don’t have to know what she wants to distract her,” Crystal pointed out. “Carly in a hot dress flirting with her boyfriend is sure to get her riled up. Plus, I’ve seen the way she looks at Abel, so he can help keep her busy. We’ll keep her nice and occupied so we can focus on Damon.”
“And what are we going to do about him?” Gabe asked, looking to Carly.
Carly stared right back at him, letting her thoughts spill into his.
Gabe shivered. “You did move the skull. What did you do with it?”
“You can’t see where it is?”
He swallowed, and she wondered if maybe Gabe was afraid to seep into her mind and look. It scared Carly, too, how close she felt to him after that kiss. “I can’t see anything about the skull’s location,” he confessed.
“Me either,” Crystal added, frowning. “It’s frustrating as hell, but hopefully it means no one else can see where it is.”
“You want to use the skull against him, Carly?” Gabe asked. “We don’t know what it’s capable of.” And after everything we’ve been through, I can’t lose you now.
Carly turned away from him, too weakened by what she was feeling for him to think clearly. She took in a deep breath, slowly let it out. “The skull is my backup plan.”
“And you saw how quickly we had to jump to a backup plan when we got here this morning,” Crystal reminded her.
“And you saw how efficient it was.”
“If the skull’s your backup plan, what’s your actual plan?” Gabe questioned.
“I don’t know yet,” Carly admitted. “Like everything else, I’m hoping my gut will tell me when I get there.”
That didn’t seem to put Gabe at ease. “What time does the party start?”
“Guests will be arriving at six.”
“Everyone’s gathered at Carly’s, looking for Sharla until then,” Crystal said. “Not that we’re going to find her until Damon’s good and ready to give her up.”
“I’ll get dressed and grab a change of clothes for the party, and head out there with you,” Gabe offered. “Another set of eyes probably couldn’t hurt.”
“Thanks,” Carly told him. “It’s good to have you back, Gabriel.”
His gaze darted away. “It’s good to be back with you, too. Feel free to grab a cup of coffee, and I’ll be down in a few minutes.”
twenty-six
“It sounds like it’s filling up down there,” Carly noted as laughter from the first floor below echoed up to her third-floor bedroom. “We should probably head down soon.” She gazed over her reflection in her full-length mirror, studying the gold-toned dress that Sharla had helped her pick out. Sharla’s dress, a cute black strapless with a fluffy tulle skirt, was hanging in the closet in case Sharla for some reason showed up at the last minute. Though, that was doubtful.
There had been no sign of Sharla, not one single trace of her, since she’d disappeared. While Carly had yet to figure out where the hell she’d gone, she was determined now more than ever to find her. Carly had witnessed what Damon was capable of taking from someone, and even if it meant giving up her own life, Carly was determined to make sure Sharla got to live hers.
Crystal finished her primping and turned to Carly. “It’s already been a really long day. Are you ready for all this?”
“I don’t know what I’m ready for anymore,” Carly admitted.
Crystal flashed a small smile. “That was really intense between you and Gabe this morning. That’s got to be a lot on top of everything else.”
“It was just a kiss.”
“You say just a kiss, I say ten-minute make out session. But I suppose it is a matter of perspective.”
Carly cleared her throat, her face red for sure. “We should be downstairs when Damon gets here. I want to feel him out right away, see what we’re dealing with tonight. He might respect the fact that he’s at a fancy party full of humans, or he might not give a crap and blow up the whole thing. I’ll have a better idea of which is more likely once I actually see him.”
“Well, when you put it that way,” Crys replied, leading the way to the door.
Carly was thankful that, even in the darkest times of her life, she had such reliable friends. She closed up her bedroom and walked with Crys downstairs, the foyer already teeming with party guests—faces from town she recognized but didn’t really know.
“There you two are,” Esther said, sliding in between Carly and Crys. “Still no sign of her. Have either of you heard anything?”
Crys shook her head. “Not that we expected to.”
“Still nothing,” Abel spoke from behind them.
Carly turned with her friends to face him, surprised to find Gabe by his side. Gabe’s gaze groped over Carly for a moment, finally falling to the floor as he dipped his hands in his pants pockets. She couldn’t so easily break away from him, not after what had happened between them this morning—not after getting to meet the real Gabriel Hutchinson.
Crystal elbowed Carly, bringing her back to her senses. Now wasn’t the time for distractions, especially considering that Damon and his family were parading through the front door.
Carly locked eyes with Damon, drilled right down to his cold, calculated heart, and suddenly saw exactly what had happened to Sharla.
twenty-seven
Damon’s memory flooded into Carly’s mind in vivid color. He’d been keeping tabs on Carly for months now, figuring Gabriel would be her biggest weakness. While Damon hadn’t foreseen that Carly would bond with his daughter, that Sharla would also become a weakness, he had been quick to exploit the relationship.
Carly couldn’t see what had caused her Jeep to crash, only the moments right after the impact. Sharla hadn’t been wearing her seatbelt and had been thrown from the car—but she never hit the ground.
Damon had stalked them on their trip to Duluth in the form of a hawk, far exceeding the natural flight speed of the bird, and had swooped down from the treetops as he watched the wreck happen. In the blink of an eye, in a cushion of time so minute it would be undetectable to humans, Damon had shifted into his human form, grabbed onto his only daughter’s shoulders, and shapeshifted back into a hawk, carrying Sharla along with him in the supernatural transformation.
Sharla had literally vanished into thin air, but she wasn’t gone. No, she was right here in the room with them—su
pernaturally trapped inside the essence of the man who was supposed to be her protector.
But Damon hadn’t just kidnapped his daughter, he was both holding her ransom and feeding off her energy. And he wasn’t hiding the fact that he was willing to drain every last drop of her if it meant he’d get his hands on the amethyst skull.
You know I won’t hesitate to kill her, or Gabriel, or your father, or anyone else in your life you hold dear. I came here for one reason and one reason alone—I want the amethyst skull. You’ve known it the entire time, the moment you heard my voice, yet you’ve been careless. And that carelessness has led you here—with no other options. Give me what I want or Sharla dies. You have until midnight. We wouldn’t want to disrupt the celebration, would we? Howard and Chandra really have thrown a lovely party.
With that, Damon’s gaze darted away from Carly, and he receded from her mind.
There was no time to think, only act, and she let what Damon had just shown her spill into the minds of her friends. Midnight was hours away, which meant Damon was giving her time. Why was he giving her time?
Legends: Bloodline Book 2 Page 25