by Alice Bello
~*~
Gabriel stopped with his hands gripping the cool metal of the rail. He was gritting his teeth and seriously contemplating lying to his brother. After all, maybe he was just bluffing. Gabriel hadn’t been with Delia in almost a week.
“I mean, really! I’m the best tracker in the family, probably on the continent, and you didn’t think I’d smell that?”
Shit…
“Is that why you’ve been avoiding me?”
“I haven’t been avoiding you. I’ve been busy—”
“Busy boning a vampire?” Micah’s eyes flashed, the beast in him looking out through his eyes for an instant.
Gabriel shook his head. “I ran into a couple a few nights ago. We fought and—”
“Bullshit! My gift—besides being beautiful and athletic as hell—is my nose. And I smell horny vampire… a female, horny vampire.”
“Micah.”
“So fess up, bro.” His eyes were back to normal—back to just being Micah again. “You know you can trust me with your secrets.”
And Gabriel knew he could, he really could. “But some secrets are deadly.” If either of the families found out about him and Delia, there would be war, and they might both lose their heads.
Micah wriggled his eyebrows. “Danger’s my middle name.”
Gabriel laughed, and it made his chest hurt in a really good way. “I thought your middle name was Linus?”
“You know what I meant.” Micah’s voice was turning into a husky growl.
“And I can’t remember… were you named after Mom’s great uncle, or after the Peanuts character?”
“So are you going to tell me about your undead lady love before or after I kick your ass?”
They looked each other in the eye for a long beat, both no longer joking around. “What do you want to know?”