“Why didn’t my power work on him?” Gabby asked Victor.
He bent at the waist and let out a seething breath. Slowly the wound in his chest began to close. “Kill him!” he cried out with rage.
“Answer me!” she screamed right back.
“He has no answer,” said Michael, “because what I say is the truth. He killed your mother. Then he killed Maggy because she was protecting you.”
Gabby looked to Victor, who stared at Michael with disdain. “He will say anything to—”
“Stop lying to me!” Gabby screamed.
The wound closed up, and Victor stood tall and straight.
“He gave you his blood so that you would not be able to use your power against him,” said Michael in a pained voice. He was ashen. The silver moved through his veins, poisoning him and slowly killing him. “Think, Gabby. If I wanted to hurt you, I could have done so when I had you alone.”
The sword shook in her hand as she slowly lowered it. Her mind raced as she tried to separate truth from lies. She turned to face Victor, who was slowly walking toward her and Michael. “Get out of the way,” he told her.
Gabby thought back over what she had heard. What was it that convinced Gabby of Victor’s guilt? Was it Michael’s words? Was it the fact that Gabby’s gift hadn’t worked on the werewolf?
No, she told herself. I saw it in Victor’s eyes.
Gabby’s heart broke as she pointed her sword at Victor. He stopped inches from the tip of the blade.
“It was you,” said Gabby.
Victor suddenly ducked under the sword and backhanded Gabby so hard that she was thrown through the air several feet. She hit the wall and slumped down beside Michael. His machine gun barked angrily, and Victor reeled back from the attack. The streaking bullets riddled the vampire, but when the gun clicked empty, Victor was still standing.
Gabby fought her vertigo and focused a blast of nullifying power on Victor and unleashed it through her palm.
Nothing happened.
He looked to her with disappointment. Gabby realized that Michael had been telling the truth. Victor hadn’t been feeding her his blood so that they could be together. He had only been doing it so that she would have no effect on him.
Michael was barely conscious. He put a shaking hand on her leg and squeezed weakly. “My blood will counter his,” he said almost inaudibly.
Victor heard him. His black, horned face twisted with rage, and he leaped forward. Without thinking, Gabby smeared her hand on the bloody floor beneath Michael and brought it to her mouth. Fire exploded in her stomach, and she cried out against the terrible pain. Victor lifted her from behind and turned to throw her to the side. Gabby’s mind and body surged with sudden power, and she screamed, grabbing Victor’s head and unleashing every ounce of nullifying energy she could muster.
Victor released her and staggered back. His wings withered and turned to ash, and his skin returned to normal. Victor gave a gut-wrenching cry as his fangs receded and his horns disappeared. He fell to his knees, naked and human.
She brought her katana to bear and stood before him, tears streaming down her face.
“Gabby . . . what have you done?” he asked, staring at his hands in disbelief.
She held him at bay with the silver katana, unable to deal the killing blow.
“Kill him,” said Michael behind her.
Gabby fought to focus through her streaming tears. She couldn’t speak. The pain of betrayal burned bright inside her, searing her heart. She thought of her mother and sister, and the terrible realization that she had slept with their murderer . . . and had loved him.
Victor must have seen a change in her, for he suddenly rushed forward. Gabby cried out and thrust the blade forward, impaling him through the chest. He took in a shocked breath as his eyes went wide with terror and rage. Gabby gripped the blade with both hands and trembled, horrified and sickened by what she had done. There was no satisfaction in her revenge, only sorrow.
Victor fell to his knees, gripping the blade and never taking his eyes off her.
“Finish it,” he said through clenched teeth.
With a cry of rage and sorrow, Gabby withdrew the blade, and in one swift motion, she severed his head.
Chapter 46
Gabby turned from Victor’s corpse and hurried to Michael’s side.
“Roof,” he groaned. “The moon.”
“Freeze!” someone yelled behind her.
Gabby turned to see two guards who had just come into the room.
“Hurry. He is dying. He needs the light of the moon!”
They leveled guns on her, and she tossed the katana away. One guard held her in his sights as the other bent to check on Michael’s wounds. Gabby had hit him in the stomach, chest, and shoulder.
Michael said something, and the guard glanced at Gabby.
“We need to get him upstairs,” he said to his partner.
The two guards carried him to the rooftop with Gabby in tow. They laid him down in the glow of the moon and began working on extracting the bullets. Gabby watched nervously as one radioed for help.
“Is he going to live?” she asked with growing trepidation.
They ignored her. Michael had stopped breathing.
One of the guards started performing CPR as doctors and nurses rushed out onto the roof with a variety of medical equipment. A doctor slammed a big needle into Michael’s chest, and another charged up a defibrillator and yelled, “Clear!”
The machine buzzed loudly, and Michael’s body arched and fell to the ground lifelessly.
“Clear!”
Again the paddles were pressed against his chest, and his body heaved.
“We’ve got a heartbeat!” said the doctor.
Gabby cried with relief. “Is he going to be all right?”
“You need to come with us, Ms. Cross,” said a guard.
“Is he going to be all right or not?”
“Fuck this!” yelled one of the guards, aiming his gun at her head. “She was working with the vamps.”
Gabby froze, knowing that no amount of nullification was going to help her now.
“Michael claimed her as his own,” said another guard. “Lower your weapon, soldier.”
The guard aiming the gun at her looked to be debating blowing her away then and there. Finally he lowered it and turned away, which gained him a pat on the back from his comrades.
Gabby was led back into the building and shown to a room on the floor below the penthouse.
“You can’t hold me here,” she told the guards as they left the room.
One stopped at the door. “You will remain here until Mr. Steele wakes up. For your sake, you should pray that he does.”
The door closed, and Gabby stood staring at it.
What have I done?
She paced the room, her mind racing. Michael’s werewolf blood still coursed through her veins. Her first thought was to try and escape. If Michael didn’t make it, the werewolves would probably kill her.
In her mind, she saw Victor’s face, twisted with hatred and malice. He had used her to get to Michael. He had told her that he loved her and that she was special.
Gabby shivered.
She had made love to the man who had killed her mother and sister. The thought made her sick, and she rushed to the bathroom. When the heaves had subsided, she washed up and tried to get ahold of herself, but she couldn’t stop crying. She wanted to sleep, or die, anything to make the terrible cycle of thoughts stop torturing her.
Had she made a mistake?
She paced the room for hours, going round and round in her head. There was so much that she wanted to ask Michael. Why had her mother chosen him to be Gabby’s guardian? What was Victor’s true involvement with her mother?
Fed up with the hours of waiting, Gabby crossed the room and began beating on the door, insisting that they let her out.
The door opened, and a woman Gabby had never seen before stared at her with an unreadable expr
ession. “Gabriella Cross. I’ve heard so much about you. My name is Juliette Steele,” she said, extending her hand.
Gabby shook the woman’s soft, lithe hand. Like the rest of Juliette’s body, her fingers were long and thin. She wore a smart black suit and heels. Her black hair was braided and curved around her shoulder.
“Steele?” said Gabby, glancing at the woman’s left hand. “Are you his—”
“Sister,” said Juliette with a firm shake.
“How is he?” Gabby asked.
“Stable. Would you like to see him?”
“Yes, please. I’ve been so worried.”
Juliette’s look said I bet.
“Come this way.”
They took the elevator down to the seventh floor and emerged into what looked like a hospital. Gabby guessed that it made sense. A man like Michael Steele could have anything he wanted. Why not a medical center in his skyscraper? He seemed to be the type to get himself into a lot of trouble, and considering the uniqueness of the patients, it seemed like a wise decision.
“Follow me please,” said Juliette, though Gabby was already following her.
They went down the hall to the right, past the reception area. Near the end of the hall, Juliette stopped before a door on the left. The door was closed, but there was a rectangular window with which to see through. Gabby looked inside. Michael lay on a bed, hooked up to an IV drip. To the right, a monitor blipped with his heartbeat and other vitals.
“Why hasn’t his body healed itself? I thought that werewolves could regenerate,” said Gabby.
“We can,” said Juliette. “He has silver poisoning.”
“Poisoning?”
Juliette stared at Gabby, stone-faced. “Victor recruited you to kill weres, and he didn’t even teach you that much? What an asshole.”
“You know about that?” said Gabby, unable to meet her eyes for the shame.
“Michael tells me everything.”
“Will he live?”
“He’s stable. Once the silver is out of his system, he will regenerate. We just have to make sure he doesn’t die before that.”
“Then there will be no lasting effects? It will be as though it never happened?” Gabby asked hopefully.
Juliette saw the guilt in her eyes.
“It depends. There is always the possibility of brain damage with silver poisoning. You got him under the moon quickly, which will help.”
Gabby nervously bit her lip. If Michael had brain damage, he might not remember all the secrets that he held of her mother. She felt a pang of guilt thinking such a selfish thing and reminded herself that a man’s life was on the line.
Juliette watched her closely.
She knows.
“I’m so sorry. This is all my fault. I thought . . . Victor told me Michael killed by family. He made me drink his blood—”
Juliette stood as still as stone, staring at Gabby. After many silent moments, she turned and laid worried eyes on her brother. “If Victor hadn’t told the guard that you were his, you would be dead right now. You led a group of vampires into our den. Dozens of our kind have been killed . . . some by you.”
Gabby tensed, thinking that surely Juliette would spin suddenly and slap her across the face, or worse. The woman’s voice quivered between anger and sorrow, both venomous and forlorn at the same time. “But you killed Victor, and that is your saving grace.”
Gabby let out a long-held breath. “What are you going to do with me?”
“That is for Michael to decide.”
“Then I am your prisoner?” Gabby asked, straightening.
Juliette cocked her head like an interested animal and studied her eyes. “Yes, you are. Your power is too great a risk to have fall into the wrong hands . . . again. As I said, Michael will decide what to do with you. Until then, you will be kept somewhere safe. You cannot remain here. Your power is too much of a threat.” She nodded to the standing guards. “You will be contacted when Michael wakes.”
Juliette turned and watched her sleeping brother once more.
The two guards took Gabby by the arms, and she threw them off angrily. “Don’t touch me.”
The two weres eyed her cautiously. They knew what she could do.
“Follow me, Ms. Cross,” said one, and began walking down the hall.
Gabby followed, with the other guard a safe distance behind. They took the elevator to the basement. A stretched limo and two black SUVs waited, along with a dozen armed weres. They watched her with a blend of hatred, apprehension, and reverence.
Her lead guard opened the limo door, and she climbed inside. The two guards joined her, and the limo followed the lead SUV out of the parking garage. She rode in silence for at least a half hour. The guards avoided her eyes, content to stare straight ahead the entire time.
To her surprise, the caravan traveled to her town and stopped in front of Maggy’s house.
“I’m being kept here?” she asked the guards.
“Yes,” said one of them. “This is the safest place for you right now. Every house and apartment around this one was bought by Lunaris Enterprises weeks ago. We have over fifty armed guards watching the area . . . and the storage garage that you escaped from last time.”
He led her to the front door and let her inside. “Until Michael wakes, you are not to leave.”
Gabby offered a solemn nod.
The guard turned on his heel and left, leaving Gabby alone in her sister’s kitchen.
Chapter 47
Gabby locked the door behind the guard and rushed down to the wine cellar. She studied the many racks against the wall—they didn’t seem to have been disturbed. She lifted the bottle to open the secret door and hurried down the stairs. In the white glowing room, she opened the many hidden compartments and armed herself to the teeth. Now that she knew so much more about weapons, she had a much better idea of what she was looking at. She grabbed a silver dagger, a wooden stake, two pistols, and a variety of corresponding ammo, and lastly, one of the many cell phones sitting on a charging pad.
Strangely, the first person that she thought of was Quip.
She struggled to remember his phone number and tried a few different variations of the numbers that she remembered until finally he answered.
“Talk to me,” he said with musical flare.
“Quip, it’s me.”
A long silence followed.
“Gabby? Jesus Christmas, I thought you was dead. Where are you? What happened?”
“It’s a long story.”
“Can you meet me somewhere?”
Gabby sighed. “Not right now. I’m kind of on house arrest. You know . . . the feds.”
“Feds my ass,” said Quip, scoffing. “It’s Michael Steele’s weres, isn’t it?”
Gabby was taken aback. “How . . . how do you know about that?”
“I know a lot of things. I was your sister’s friend after all.”
“Are you . . . you know . . . human?”
Quip laughed. “Don’t try to turn this around. Tell me what the hell happened to you these last three months.”
Gabby told Quip about everything that had happened after their last conversation—how Victor had taken her to his castle in California, her training, and their affair. She told him all about the attack on Steele Tower and how Michael was now in a coma.
“I’m so sorry, Gabby. I should have told you more when you first came to me,” said Quip when Gabby had finished.
“What are you saying? You knew that Michael Steele was innocent?”
Silence filled the line.
“Answer me!” said Gabby.
“Yes, I knew about Michael. But what was I supposed to do? Tell you that he was a werewolf and had been dating your sister? It’s not like you would have believed me. And your sister worked hard to keep the Otherworld hidden from you. I wasn’t about to go against her wishes.”
“I’m so fucking sick of people trying to protect me,” said Gabby.
“I know. I’m
sorry.”
“Tell me what you know about my sister’s work. I want to know everything. No more secrets.”
“All of that would be better told by Michael when he wakes up.”
“You sound as though you know him.”
“I do,” said Quip. “I was helping him search for you these last few months.”
Gabby was silent. Her mind raced, and she paced the kitchen. “So, what? You’re a werewolf too?”
“No, girl, I ain’t no werewolf.”
“Well, you’re obviously some kind of spy. Riding around with me acting like you’re my friend, all the while keeping tabs for Michael.”
“It’s not like that, Gabs. You came to me at the salon. Remember?”
That was true, but Gabby didn’t trust Quip anymore. As far as she knew, he was lying now as well.
“Gabs. Gabby?”
“What?”
“I’m sorry for not being up front with you before, but like I said, I was trying to do what I thought your sister would want me to do.”
“Yeah, well, don’t do me any more favors.”
“Gabs . . .”
“And don’t call me Gabs. You don’t get to call me that!”
Gabby hung up the phone and threw it across the room. It landed on the couch harmlessly.
She let out a frustrated sigh.
Chapter 48
For three days, Gabby waited for any word about Michael. She didn’t call anyone else. Though she would have liked to let Darb and her father know that she was all right, she didn’t want to explain where she had been.
She spent her days in lockdown working out in her sister’s small weight room and getting to know the weapons and other items in the white room. During the night, she worked on her blog, writing out the entire story of her experiences with the strange new supernatural world that she found herself in.
During the morning of the fourth day, there was a knock at the door. Gabby answered it, expecting it to be the groceries and other supplies that she had insisted the weres get for her.
She opened the door, and her jaw dropped.
“Michael . . .”
“May I come in, Gabriella?”
She stood there staring at the handsome man. Michael was dressed in a gray suit with a red shirt beneath his jacket. He wore no tie and left the top button undone. He looked healthy and strong.
A Cross to Bear Page 17