"Oh no," she moaned, and turned away, embarrassed and ashamed that he should see her that way.
"Come on, honey. Let's go home." His voice rasped like velvet against her ears. She put her hands up to block it, felt wetness against her scalp. A cigarette in his hand flamed, glowed in his eyes, and he turned into the whip-thin, weaselly-eyed Kevin.
"No! You can't make me. You can't make me!" She flung her hands out toward him, and the power in her gesture had him splayed against the kitchen wall. Fire licked at his feet, followed the outline of his body. She panted with the effort, felt alive. Felt strong.
He held his hands out to her as he changed back into the dark haired, broken angel. "Come, Rose. We need you. We love you. Come home."
Rose shook her head but dropped her hands. The man settled lightly on his feet and the flames faded. Memory scrolled through her, a future she'd yet to see. A face... "Gabriel? Where are you?" She crumpled into a ball on the kitchen floor, sobbing as he dissolved in front of her eyes.
But then strong arms came around her. "I'm here. I'm right here. Come on. Let's go home." She sighed, nestled against him.
* * *
Gabriel opened his eyes, hoping this time he'd managed to pull her from the nightmare, but Rose still slumped against the wall across from him, her eyes tightly shut. Her arms were stretched out to either side and manacled to iron rings low in the walls. Her head hung to the left, her legs splayed out like a doll's, making her look forgotten and alone.
"Gabriel, help me." She twisted, pulled at the manacles chaining her, moaned as the iron cut into her wrists. Blood seeped around the metal, but she didn't wake up.
His heart aching for her, Gabriel looked away. He'd been chained standing up, his legs locked down, too. His arms ached, having had to take all his body weight until he woke up and he could hold himself upright. He didn't know how long they'd been in the dark. The chamber was small and barren, with another handy drain in the floor. Calling upon his demon heritage, he could see well enough in the black, could see the tears on her cheeks.
"She has terrible memories." The male voice came to him out of the darkness, jolting him.
"Why are you having her relive them? Getting your jollies from it, are you?" Gabriel sneered.
The hand came out of nowhere, the force of the slap banging his head against the cement wall. Gabriel tasted blood on the inside of his cheek and moved his jaw to make sure it wasn't broken.
"She killed one of my demons."
"Yeah. A lesser demon. You don't seem the type to get bent about it."
"No demon is without worth. You should understand that, being one yourself."
Gabriel gritted his teeth as a fist plowed into his face, breaking his nose again. He felt the blood spurt out then settle to a slow flow down his lip.
"Such...restraint. Why haven't you changed, broken free of the manacles?" He came within Gabriel's eyesight, looked him over. "You could have."
Gabriel struggled not to respond. The voice flowed over his body like a thousand feathers whispering, caressing him beneath his clothes. He forced himself to keep his focus on Rose. "I haven't exactly been thinking straight. Getting cold-cocked tends to have that effect on me." Gabriel stuck to the truth. This guy spooked him. He could usually feel out vampires, but this big bad? Nothing. Not even a ping on the vampdar.
"Why are you here? What were you hoping to do here?" The big blond moved to kneel down at Rose's side. He lifted her face with an immaculately manicured hand and studied her. "And why did you bring her? She's not much."
Nausea threatened Gabriel as the vampire's hands trailed over Rose. "Don't touch her."
"Oh, does this bother you? Sorry. Tell me, what is your tie to Satine?" He turned to Gabriel, one hand smoothing down the front of Rose's body. She shuddered in reaction, but didn't wake up.
Gabriel stiffened in outrage but kept the anger out of his voice with effort. "She came to me years ago, several times. We had sex. She took my blood. Offered to make me one of you. I said no, thanks anyway, and un-invited her." He shrugged. "Pissed her off some, I guess. That's pretty much it. Where is she?"
"Out. Did you think she would rescue you?"
"I expected her to be here, gloating. Besides, if she's your lover, why would she rescue me?" he countered.
"Good question." The big blond studied Gabriel, looked from him to Rose. "Are you soul-bound to this one?"
Shock had him jerking against his restraints. "Hell, no. I just met her a few hours ago."
"And yet here you are," he mused. "Both of you. Surprising." He moved to Gabriel and put a cold hand against his cheek. "What I don't understand is your refusal to turn demon and save the both of you. Why haven't you? She's in a dark place, and you can't help her unless you change."
"I can be there for her, in her mind. It doesn't hurt her to see me there."
"Ah. You think you might hurt her. Kill her, perhaps?"
Gabriel kept silent.
The vampire chuckled, a sound that held no humor. He moved in closer on silent feet, licked the blood off Gabriel's chin. "Mmmm. Tasty. Simply magnificent." His cold hand stroked down Gabriel's chest. "You just need incentive. Maybe this will help you change your mind. You will be kept here until one of my wolves needs a snack. Then I'll toss her in with the two of you. Which do you think will be safer for your pitiful human? A hungry werewolf, or an angry demon?"
Gabriel could feel the vampire study him, his blond head to one side. He didn't move a muscle.
The blond heaved a dramatic sigh. "Ah well. I guess only time will tell. I should leave. The scent of your blood is…almost irresistible. If I weren't trying to give up men, I might even keep you for myself."
Gabriel shut his eyes. "It's always the same with your kind, isn't it? Sex and blood. Is that why you started the club? Playing with your food before you eat it?"
"And demons are the epitome of restraint," scoffed the vampire, quite close to his left ear, and Gabriel jerked in surprise.
"I guess the answer is boredom,” he replied. "After a couple hundred years, there's not much new to keep my interest. Humans, though, continue to be stubborn, stupid, endlessly fascinating in their quest for the ultimate fulfillment." He shrugged. "It'll do for a distraction. For now, anyway."
"If you ever touch Rose again, I'll rip you into a thousand pieces and burn each one, slowly."
"Like I said. Stubborn and stupid. Bored."
Gabriel didn't answer, and the silence that held heaviness slowly became empty. Minutes passed. Hours. Gabriel thought the vamp had left. Hoped so, anyway. He reached for the thread that connected him to Satine, but it was like wading through a river of mud and never getting to the other side. He slumped against the wall and focused, sweat trickling down his neck, and kept the picture of Satine in his head.
The door to their cell crashed open. "All right, all right. What the hell is the matter with you?" Satine, irritated, stood just inside the door. She wore a trench coat and spike heels and brought the scent of lilies and the night with her. "Oh, my. You have gotten yourself in trouble, haven't you?" She shut the door behind her. “You’re here early,” she scolded, sauntering to where he stood manacled. “What did Vlad do to you?" She reached for his face, to lick off the rest of the congealed blood, but he turned away in disgust.
"Is that his name? Figures.” He shrugged. “There was a…disagreement," he said. “Open these cuffs.”
Satine looked at him with amusement. “You can’t honestly think I’ll free you when I’ve got you where I want you?”
Anger surged through Gabriel. “You don’t want to piss me off,” he warned. His demon prowled close to the surface and he shook with the effort of keeping it controlled.
“Don’t I?”
A low moan came from Rose. Glee brightened Satine’s face as she crossed to the girl. “You brought me a present! How thoughtful.”
“Stay away from her.”
“Oh, I don’t think so. I really don’t think I can do that.�
�� Satine knelt and broke open the manacles and lifted Rose. “Such a pretty plaything.”
Rose stirred in Satine's arms. "Mama?"
Satine looked down and bared her teeth. "Your mama never loved you, brat. She never knew your daddy. Your side of the family has always been white trash, and you always will be."
Rose moaned.
With difficulty, Gabriel held in the rage bursting to be set free. Seeing Rose in Satine's arms beat out killing Marianne Farlane as his worst nightmare. "You like talking trash to an unconscious woman?"
Satine moved so Rose's back was against her front, her arms wrapped around Rose's torso. "I like doing a lot of things to unconscious women," she crowed, and licked the spot where Rose's vein throbbed in her throat. "Mmmm. She's so sweet." Satine sent a sly grin toward Gabriel. "You had her yet? Word has it, everyone in the San Fernando Valley has." She sniffed the air, frowned. "But you haven't touched her, not really. Have you?"
Anger and fear snapped his control and his demon surged against the restraints, snapping all four of them at once. Gabriel lunged for Satine as she dodged. He roared in anger. “Give her to me.”
“You can’t have her.” Satine’s eyes grew wild with cunning. “Unless – give me the rest of your soul, and I’ll give her to you.”
A part of Gabriel stilled–Satine didn’t know Rose held the rest of his soul. If she knew…he shuddered and lunged again.
Satine zipped past him and hovered by the door. “I like my life the way it is. I like bleeding humans and fucking were animals." She licked Rose's throat again as if in comfort. Her voice brightened as she looked at him again. "But I’ll be much more powerful with all of your soul. Give it to me, and then, after we kill Vlad, maybe we can be friends. You're right, you know. I don't need to bring you over in order for you to be helpful." She stroked Rose's breasts. "And we can share her. Keep her as a slave, or have sex with her until her heart stops. What do you say?"
"My soul first."
Her eyes glittered. "Never."
He roared again, a large, guttural cry that sounded as if it were ripped from the very earth. The walls trembled. Satine bit down on Rose's neck and he lunged, grabbing the vampire.
* * *
Rose's eyes popped open at the searing heat in her neck and on her belly. She cried out in confusion and pain, caught in arms of marble crushing her chest. A breath later, huge hands had torn her away. Air rushed into her lungs and fire speared the juncture of her neck and shoulder as she was slammed hard against the concrete wall.
She got a glimpse of a huge creature the color of oak as she struggled to steady herself. She saw the manacles, knew suddenly where the sting around her wrists came from. She turned and watched as Satine dodged his blows.
Gabriel was massive in the small room. His clothes hung in tatters, his back had ridges along the spine, and his hands ended in claws. Fighting Satine, he kept Rose between his back and the wall.
Emotions welled up in her. He cared, at least. If he hadn’t cared, she’d be dead.
Gabriel?
Busy here, he answered, swatting Satine out of the air like a bat hitting a baseball. She flew against the back wall with a sickening crack. Gabriel lifted Rose over his shoulder. Let’s get out of here. She hung on tight.
The door burst open and vampires poured into the tiny room, one of them with a sword. The vamp slashed, advancing, and Gabriel howled as the sword caught him in the side as he turned to protect Rose. He swung a whip and two vampires were suddenly headless, their corpses falling where they stood. Rose wished desperately for a gun, a spear, even a knife. Any weapon to use against these creatures would be better than no weapon.
As Gabriel fought his way to the door, Rose hung on and kicked out at the faces around her, connecting with more than one snarling mouth until both her shoes were covered in blood. Gabriel’s roars, and the whip he wielded, kept the others at bay long enough for them to reach the stairwell. Then they really began to move.
The world sped by nauseatingly fast once they gained the street. Rose shut her eyes tightly and took deep breaths of the fresh, untainted air.
Though he carried her, Rose had never felt so strong. She’d fought back. For the first time in her entire life, when it counted she’d fought back. Exhilaration poured through her. Maybe this second chance at life had a lot of good things in store.
Gabriel slowed down and changed back to his human shape in front of the house. He hustled her inside, keeping her in front of him. “I’ll just go get some pants.”
Rose turned in time to see his well-muscled backside disappearing down the hallway. Grinning to herself, she went to the powder room and stared. Blood had caked down her neck. She swallowed hard, reached for a washcloth, and stared at the blood around her wrists.
Rose met the curious gaze of her reflection. She could do this. Carefully cleaning her wrists, Rose thought back to the nightmare. To the spot after lights-out and before Sara–Satine–bit her. She relived every minute of it, watching as though it were a movie.
She finally noticed Gabriel had been there, trying to protect her even in her nightmares.
When he appeared in the doorway, she’d dealt with her wrists and most of the blood on her neck and shoulder, leaving a wad of toilet paper layered against the slow ooze.
“You okay?”
“Yes.” She fluffed her hair over the wound on her neck and turned to look at him. He’d found a pair of his brother’s blue jeans and a white tee shirt. “Looking good. Thank you for getting me out of there.”
Color washed across his face. “I never should have taken you there.”
“It’s not like I gave you much choice. Did you clean the cuts you got during the fight?”
“Yeah. I’m good.”
Rose led the way back to the living room. The couches were the color of chocolate, deep and plush, piled with jewel-toned pillows. She sank down onto one with a sigh of relief. "Vampires are fucking monsters. Her bite hurt, Gabriel. It didn’t feel good. Why do the books say it feels good? Tortured souls, my ass,” she mocked.
Gabriel remained standing, shifting from one foot to the other as if he didn’t quite know what to do.
She looked at him, really looked, and caught her breath. "It hurt you, didn't it? I can see it." She could, too. Pain swirled around him in shades of purples and reds and grays. She blinked and the image faded, but it was a sight she wouldn't soon forget.
"The transitions hurt, yes. I never want to get comfortable as my demon. I don't want to give it too much power over me."
His restlessness confused her. “Are…are you all right?”
"You saw my demon form. The bronze skin. The claws. The...tail." He looked at her from the corner of his eyes. “It didn’t bother you?”
“No. Did you really think it would? Gabriel.” She looked at him, at his uncertainty, and a part of her melted. “You are still you, even in your demon form. You were guarding me. You prevented Sara, I mean Satine, from getting to me again. She would have killed me. You, in demon form, stopped her.” Tears pricked her eyes and she rubbed them. “Besides, I turned into a fire demon earlier. It didn’t seem to bother you.”
He sighed then and leaned against a chair.
“Oh for goodness sake, sit down before you fall down.” She waited until he sat. “I’ve got to talk, I hope you don’t mind. I’m totally amped. I have so much energy from the fight. Do you change into your demon a lot?”
“Yes. No." Gabriel wiped his face with both hands. "No, not a lot. I've experimented in the past. But it was the first time I'd changed in public. I don’t recommend it."
"There’s the whole shredding clothes thing,” she teased. “What else can you do as a demon? I mean, you were amazing in there, beheading demons with your tail and tossing them into walls.”
"I already know I'm a killer." His voice hardened with self-loathing. "I don't need to do any further exploration."
"I think it’s fascinating. Why don’t you want to explore what you
are? What about it scares you?" Rose leaned forward, curiosity eating at her.
"This is no time for Dr. Phil, Rose." Abruptly he stood and strode to the door. "I can't stay."
"Are you kidding? It's the perfect time to talk, while we’re both hopped up from the fight. Come on, Gabriel. Stay and talk to me. You can't walk out now," she protested, jumping to her feet. "Besides, Justin's not back yet."
Gabriel turned to her and the look in his eyes broke her heart. "I can't stay here. I almost got you killed again. Trust me. You're better off without me hanging around." And he turned and walked through the door.
Rose waited a heartbeat before following him, but even as she opened the front door, she knew. Gabriel was gone.
She trembled for him. She knew he wouldn't be found if he didn't want to be. Her frustration died and with it, the late-spurt adrenalin rush that had been holding her together.
Abruptly her vision blurred and the wound in her neck throbbed. She touched her neck gingerly. The toilet paper she’d put there fell apart under her fingers, wet with blood.
Her mouth set in a tight line as her vision continued to go fuzzy. Sweat gathered on her forehead, trickled down her face. Shit. Maybe she had danced with the meth pipe, after all.
Help. She really needed help. She moved with care to the phone and dialed. An efficient recorded voice spoke. She took a deep breath, struggled to stay calm. "Los Angeles. Magdalena de la Cruz." The number came in a blur. She pressed the right number to have the call directly connected, and listened to it ring again, ridiculously relieved when she heard a sleepy voice.
"Maggie? It's Rose. Yeah. I'm at Justin's house, but he's not here and Gabriel has gone. I need help." To her horror, Rose burst into tears. "Please come."
* * *
Head down, hands in his pockets and with unfamiliar emotions bombarding him, Gabriel trudged the streets of Santa Monica, determined for once in his life to do the right thing. He’d had to leave her before he grew too comfortable. Rose wasn't for him. If he wanted to keep her alive, he had to keep her at an emotional distance. It was just that simple. He had the history to prove it, didn't he?
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