by Cherry Adair
“Nobody is ever going to hurt you again,” he promised. Then knew that for the lie it was.He was going to hurt her. He had no choice. Hurt her, or be responsible for her death.
He strengthened the protective spell over the castle, over his bedroom, and over his woman. That, coupled with the magic from the others, would keep her safe.
Nothing, and nobody but himself, could get near her.
Then he left the room to go to the lab and build the robot that had started the whole chain of events.
“Wake up, you stupid bitch.”
Eden woke with a vengeance. More from the hand violently shaking her shoulder than from the less-than-loving words. Her eyes flew open to see Gabriel looming over the bed. She’d never seen that expression on his face. Distorted and dark with rage. Her heart kick-started. But not in a good way. With her brain still sleep-fuzzy, she blinked and struggled up on her elbows.
“Gabriel? What—?”
He backhanded her so hard her head bounced on the mattress. So shocked she didn’t have the breath to scream, she saw him through the resulting sparkling silver fireworks obscuring her vision. He pulled back his fist and she managed to roll aside and avoid the hit. Not wasting time or energy demanding explanations, she scrambled to the other side of the bed, cheek hot and throbbing, breath coming in painful gasps.
She flung her body over the side of the high poster bed, then screamed because, God help her, he was rightthere. Waiting for her.
“What the hell iswrong with you?” she demanded as he grabbed her by the upper arm, yanking her body flush against his. His fingers felt like claws of steel digging into her bicep and she bucked and twisted, struggling to get free. He tightened his grip, holding her hard enough to break bones until she stopped fighting.
Sweet breath fanned her face as he grabbed her other arm, and pulled her up on her toes so their faces were mere inches apart. A twinge of memory struggled to surface, then was gone as fear took precedence over everything else.
“Look into the eyes of the man who’s going to kill you.”
She looked into his soulless black eyes. Yes. This was a man who could kill her. But he wasn’t Gabriel. He looked like Gabriel. But, thank you God, he was not the man she loved.
Gabriel. Wherever the hell you are, help!
Dread, like she’d never felt before, saturated her body as whoever this impersonator was tightened his grip until she gasped with pain. She had a thought, and shuddered with sick fear that this might be her one shot at self-preservation.
She held his eyes. “Then kiss me good-bye first.”
It took everything in her not to flinch as he gave her a chilling smile before lowering his head the last few inches separating them. Ice seemed to permeate her body as powerful waves of revulsion buffeted her until she felt physically ill. Eyes open, she stoically parted her lips despite the rising nausea.
Lifting her off her feet by her upper arms, he forced his tongue inside her mouth like an assault weapon. She gagged. He ground his mouth against hers. God, it hurt. She tasted her own blood and the bitter flavor of terror. As he raped her mouth, he grunted his satisfaction.
Keep doing that, you sick bastard. Gabriel? Someone? Anyone?!
Although everything inside her screamed to get this over with,now ! Eden waited for just the right moment. When she knew she couldn’t stand it one more second, when she hoped,prayed that he was totally focused on assaulting her, she bit down on his tongue as hard as she could, at the same time bringing up her knee to strike him solidly in the balls.
He reared back with a garbled scream, shoving her away from him with both hands. They both dropped to the floor. Hard. His screams were animalistic, blood-curdling and terrifying, and made all the hairs on Eden’s body stand up as she tucked and rolled out of his way. Clearly he was too preoccupied with his own problems to notice where she’d landed, thank God.
Face contorted, blood smearing his mouth and chin, he clutched his groin with both hands and was curled up tightly on the floor. Oblivious to all but his own agony.
Not taking her eyes off him, she clawed her way up the velvet bedspread, holding on to the side of the mattress, as she staggered to her feet.
She swiped his blood off her mouth with the back of a shaking hand.GodohGodohGod.
He was screaming almost silently now, clearly in such agony he could barely make a sound.Good. The horrific and terrifying rasping noises continued as he rocked himself back and forth, both hands cupped between his legs, eyes squeezed tightly shut.
Move it,she told herself.Move. It! Now!
When he recovered he was going to kill her. She freaking didn’t have time to stand there enjoying her temporary victory.
Gabriel! Damn it, where the freaking hellareyou? MacBain? Wizards? Oh, God—Anybody?
Frantically she looked around the enormous room for a weapon. Anything she could use to defend herself. The only weapons were the gleaming crossed swords mounted to a shield hanging above the bed. They were almost bigger than she was. God—
How the hell did one defend herself against awizard ? How did one kill something that shouldn’t even exist?
Scared out of her wits, she blinked back the tears induced by his blow to the side of her face. The room danced and wavered as she tried to clear her vision. No. The effect wasn’t just her tear-filled eyes, the figure on the floor was shimmering as well.
Thank God. He was leaving…
No.
He wastransforming.
Now!she thought, light-headed with terror.Hit him with something now! He was vulnerable, hurt, distracted.
His guttural moans were music to her ears. While he was doubled up in agony he wasn’t getting up. But she was pretty damn sure he wouldn’t be incapacitated for long.
Clambering up onto the mattress, she reached up with both hands for one of the enormous swords on the wall. It came off the shield it was affixed to with surprising ease, but the weight of it literally brought her to her knees. The damn thing weighed a ton.
The silver steel glinted gold in the lamplight as she stumbled to her feet. Positioning both hands on the enormous leather hilt, she braced the point on the bed as she adjusted her hands for a better grip.
Years ago, Adam had tried to teach her to play golf. It had been the most boring three afternoons of her life. Now she tried to remember how one was supposed to hold a golf club. Because weight or not, this was all the protection she had. She was going to have to swing at him with all her might.
Gaaaaabriel!
Grimly delighted with the sound of the man still gagging in pain, she hefted the heavy sword, and gave a couple of experimental swings. The sharp point barely lifted from the mattress, but she kept trying. It was all she had.
Now, if she could just figure out how to get herself and the monstrously heavy sword off the bed, and get to him before he got to her, she’d be set.
From her vantage point above him Eden saw that he was gradually uncurling his body.
Stunned, her eyes widened.Oh. My. God.
He hadn’t finished transforming himself. Perhaps being in so much pain impeded the process. But she knew who he was.
His face shimmered and changed but the vengeful black eyes were filled with rage as he saw her poised high above him.
“I’m going to kill you.” The rasp in his voice made the threat even more chilling.
Not daring to blink and terrified out of her mind, Eden adjusted her stance, feet wide apart for balance. He wasn’t going to give her enough time to climb off the bed and come after him. His magic was faster than a speeding bullet. Certainly faster than a woman holding a medieval sword.
Pleasepleasepleaseplease. Gabriel!
Tapping the sword on the bed, she heard the tearing sound as its razor-sharp point ripped a hole in the sheet. Her arm muscles burned with the weight as she choked up on the hilt. Lifting her chin, she gave him a thin smile. “Bring it on.Jason. ”
Mouth smeared with red, black eyes glittered from Ga
briel’s face. Jason Verdine laughed as he finished morphing back into himself, making Eden dizzy at the speed of the transformation. At the speed, God help her, of his recovery.
He spat blood on the carpet at his feet. “You always were a clever girl. Too fucking clever for your own good. How did you know it was me?”
Talking was good. Talking wasgreat. “You’re the only man who’s ever called me ‘babe.’ ” At least he wasn’t turning her into a toad or shimmering her to another location. Or killing her. Yet.
He frowned. “That’s it?”
It pleased her enormously to hear that he was lisping as he talked. His tongue must hurt like hell. She’d tried to bite it clean off. She might not have succeeded, but by the way he was talking, and the expression on his face, he was in a hell of a lot of pain.
Tongue and balls.
She was fine with that.
“I smelled the Sen-Sen on your breath.” She kept eye contact, even though the look in his eyes froze the marrow in her bones. “Now, and earlier, when you pretended to be Dixon.” Her fingers were cramping she was holding the sword so tightly. Her lungs felt constricted. Probably due to the fact that she wasn’t breathing. She was on a knife edge of waiting for him to make a move.
He could just zap the sword out of her hands, but right now she still had it. It was sharp enough, heavy enough to do some real damage if she could figure out how to get to him before he fully recovered. Eden realized that the only thing between her and death was the fact that right now he was apparently in too much pain to move. He was standing, but his upper body was still curved protectively over his groin. But that was going to change. Soon.
How did one go about killing a wizard? She’d never been big on violence, but when it came down to her life or his, she wanted hers.
She shifted her fingers around the thick leather hilt, digging her bare toes into the mattress for purchase. If she jumped off the bed, presuming she didn’t kill herself in the process, she’d be unarmed, because there was no way she could do it without letting go of the sword. It was too long, too unwieldy to be able to hold on to. And there was no way she could climb down off the ridiculously high mattress carrying a four-foot-long sword that felt as though it weighed as much as she did. And was getting heavier by the second.
But if she didn’t take some form of action soon, Jason was going to eventually straighten his hunched body and do…whatever it was he planned to do.
Think. Think. Think! Hey! Edge?! Now would be a good time! Get in here. Please. Get the hell back into the bedroom.“Where’s Gabriel?” she demanded, measuring the distance between them.
“Dead.” Face gray and contorted with both pain and rage, Jason rubbed the flat of his hand gingerly down his groin.
Perspiration stung her eyes. Every muscle in her body vibrated as she gathered herself for his next assault. Her wrists ached, because she was gripping the hilt of the sword so tightly. “No, he isn’t.”
Jason brought up a shaking hand to swipe away the blood staining his mouth. “I killed him.”
He still wasn’t coming any closer, but Eden saw that he was gradually straightening his body as the pain eased. She didn’t waste any more mental energy yelling for help. If Gabriel was capable of being here, he’dbe here. And she had no idea if shouting out a call to all wizards could even be heard.
She remembered in the wizards’ meeting that the rogue wizard could assimilate the deceased wizard’s powers. But, her analytical mind was quick to point out, just because Jason had morphed himself intolooking like Gabriel, didn’t mean that Gabriel was dead.
She shivered, angry at the thought of any harm coming to her love.
She was on her own.
“You might have tried to kill him,” Eden told Jason, watching his eyes, hoping to hell she’d be able to somehow read what he was going to do next. “But you didn’t succeed.”
He tried to straighten a few more inches, grimaced, and hunched again. “How would you know that?”
Was it possible that he was in too much pain to use his powers? Or was he just playing with her before he did something horrifically unspeakable? Eden had no idea. She was just grateful for the reprieve.
“The same way I knew as soon as you walked into this room and raised your hand to me that you weren’t him. If Gabriel was dead, I’d know it.”
“Well, he is. Otherwise, gallant Gabriel would have come rushing to your rescue, don’t you think?”
She glanced over his shoulder and her lips curved in a satisfied smile. “I think you’re a liar, you egotistical jackass. Take a look behind you.”
It was the oldest trick in the book, but he turned his head to look over his shoulder, and Eden swung the sword with all her might.
A split second before it connected with his head, he shimmered and was gone. “Kill you, you fucking bitch!” came through the empty air.
The momentum of the swing, coupled with the weight of the long sword sent her flying off the bed. The heavy weapon went one way, she the other.
She screamed as she was caught and held in a pair of arms that clamped around her body like iron bands. She fought like a madwoman, kicking and biting. “You bastard! Let me go!”
“Whoa. It’s me.” Gabriel tossed her onto the bed, then followed her down, pinning her flailing body with his own, exerting just enough strength to keep her there without hurting her.
His heart was pounding as fast as hers was. Jesus. He’d almost lost her. “Shh. It’s okay. I have you, sweetheart, I have you.”
Eden started punching him about the head and shoulders, tears streaming down her face as she struck out blindly. “I know it’s you, you son of a bitch! Wherewere you? What the hell happened to sticking to me like a w-wet tongue on dry ice?!”
Half-laughing from sheer relief that she was okay enough to fight him, Gabriel buried his face in her tear-soaked hair, hugging her tightly. “Jesus. You scared the fucking hell out of me.”
“Iscaredyou ?” She smacked his shoulder weakly. “I s-scared you?! My God. What took you so f-freaking long? Didn’t youhear me calling you?”
Cradling her in his arms, he rolled to the side, holding her as if she were made of spun glass. “I heard you. I c—”
“Yeah. Yeah. Yeah,” Eden grabbed a hank of his hair and pulled his face closer. “I know. You couldn’t come into the room when he was in your form.”
He gave her a startled look. “How the hell could you know that?”
“Deductive reasoning. You told me you and the others cast a protective spell so that only you could get near me. Ergo he was able to pierce that protection bybeing you. And I’m presuming that two yous couldn’t be in the same place at the same time?”
He rested his forehead on hers. “Yeah. We had no idea that the morphing process was so all-encompassing. He’s not just a look-alike, he’s capable of replicating DNA.”
Her eyes went wide at his statement. For a second he thought she was going to start asking questions as that brilliant mind of hers tried to assimilate and make sense of everything that was happening. Instead she held on to him tightly, and her voice cracked. “From now on, Gabriel Edge, makecontingencies for these k-kinds of emergencies, damn it!”
He cupped her face with both hands, kissing the tears from her cheeks. “I will,” he promised raggedly. “I will.”
She wrapped her arms around him, pressing her face against his throat. “I knew I was going to die. And God—Gabriel—I was so scared,” she whispered hoarsely, her breath hot against his skin. “I’ve never been so damn scared in my entire freaking life.”
For an instant his arms tightened painfully around her in reflex to a terror he shared. He’d honest to God believed the spell he’d cast was invulnerable. A look-alike couldn’t have passed through the barrier. But an exact replica of himself could. And had.
This new wizard was unbelievably powerful to have duplicated him so perfectly, right down to his DNA. The knowledge that one man held that level of power scared the shi
t out of him. Having that evil force close to Eden made him feel feral.
“He was Jason Verdine,” she told him, lifting her face from his neck.
“What?”
“From Verdine Industries. My boss? That Jason.”
Gabriel levered his body off hers reluctantly. “I know who he is. But—”
“Remember when—Lark, was it?—asked about any kind of amulet or jewelry he might have been wearing? He does. It’s some sort of medallion he wears under his shirt,” she told him, sitting up and using a corner of the sheet to scrub her damp face. “I felt it when he grabbed me. That and the Sen-Sen he’s always eating clued me in as soon as he touched me.”