Sacrifice (Crave (Quality))

by Melinda Metz

  Gabriel wondered if he could just leave it behind. Float up, and up, and up, out of the room—and to Shay. All he wanted was to be with Shay.

  Ernst raised his lips. A crimson streak ran from one corner of his mouth. “It’s time. Luis, Tamara, join me in taking the last of his lifeblood.”

  “Slow down,” Shay told her mom. “Gabriel’s close.”

  And he was dying. There was almost nothing left of him in their communion. But love was still there, his love for her. Shay didn’t want to think about what it meant. She wasn’t trying to save Gabriel out of love. She was doing it because it was the right thing to do.

  But she was following his love for her. Following it right to him.

  Quickly, she finished the remaining blood from the cooler. She would need all her strength and power now.

  A sudden spur of pain hit her, making Shay want to yell at her mother to go faster. But that wouldn’t help. They had been winding their way along narrow country roads for the past hour, pulled this way and that by Shay’s communion. She had stopped doubting it now, though. She was certain they were going toward Gabriel. His presence in her mind grew stronger with each mile they covered.

  Shay’s mother brought the Mercedes to a creep on the curving dirt road lined with pine trees. The road was so narrow, and the tree branches so long, that it was like driving through a tunnel. Even during the day, Shay couldn’t imagine that much light made its way down.

  As they rounded the corner, Shay put her hand on her mom’s arm. “Stop. That has to be it.” About three hundred feet away was an old wooden farmhouse. The feelings she was getting from Gabriel emanated from inside. She was sure of it. “Wait here while I go check it out.” Shay climbed out of the car. So did her mother.

  “Mom, no!” Shay whispered.

  “You don’t have a plan, not a real one. Which means you might need me,” her mother said.

  “But you’re not—”

  “I’m not letting you go in there alone is what I’m not,” Mom replied. “I told you, I’m not losing you. I just got you back.”

  This was insane. What was her mother going to do against even one vampire? She had no way to fight or even protect herself. She didn’t realize how much they hated her. She—

  Shay realized that her mother had started walking toward the house. She quickly caught up to her and took her arm. But the soft sound of a footstep on pine needles caught her attention. Shay whirled toward it. Someone was out here with them!

  “Please wait here for just one second, Mom. Just please, okay?” Shay begged. Then she darted between two of the pine trees and into the woods. With her sharp eyes, the darkness wasn’t a problem, but she didn’t see anyone, not even in the distance. She took a tentative step forward. Crack.

  The sound of a twig snapping was loud in the quiet of the woods. She looked up and saw Millie perched on one of the branches of a nearby tree. Their eyes locked, then Millie leaped toward her, the motion more like flying than jumping. She landed a few feet in front of Shay.

  This is good, Shay told herself. I won’t have to fight them all together. She crouched down, tightening her hands into fists. God, she had all this strength, but no experience. She’d never been in a fight. Wasn’t there something about where you were supposed to put your thumb when you made a fist? Kaz used to tell her about it . . . but was it on the inside or the outside? No time.

  Shay hurled herself at Millie, aiming for her knees. That should knock her to the ground.

  Instead, Millie grabbed Shay before Shay even managed to touch her and spun her around, locking her hands behind her back.

  “I’m going to Gabriel. You can’t stop me,” Shay threatened as Millie held her powerless.

  “Fine. I’ll get some blood. If you manage to save him—and, honestly, I don’t think it’s possible—he’ll need it,” Millie answered calmly. She released Shay’s hands.

  Shay turned to face her, stunned. “Why would you help me?”

  “I don’t want him to die,” Millie said simply. “I don’t want to lose another brother just because he fell in love with someone Ernst doesn’t approve of.” Her body stiffened, her eyes taking on a faraway look. “You’ve got to hurry if you’re going to do this at all.”

  Shay realized that almost nothing was coming through the communion from Gabriel. Was he dead? “Where?”

  “Cellar,” Millie told her. “Luis, Tamara, and Ernst. I don’t know how you’re—”

  Shay didn’t wait for her to finish. She raced toward the house, veering back over to the road because it was even faster.

  “Shay!” she heard her mother cry.

  “You stay there,” Shay barked at her.

  She charged up the porch steps. The door was locked. Not a problem. She stepped back a few paces, then kicked it next to the lock, just as she’d done back at the lab in Tennessee. It worked better this time—she only had to do it once, and she was in.

  Shay scanned the room. No stairs. Probably in the kitchen. She found it easily, and—yes!—a door opened to a set of wooden stairs. She clambered down them, taking them three and four at a time, with no idea of what to do when she reached the bottom.

  She skidded to a stop when she reached the earthen floor, what she saw freezing her in place. Gabriel, naked, staked to the ground. Ernst drinking from his throat. Luis drinking from his left arm. Tamara drinking from his belly.

  “Stop!” she shrieked. All three feeding vampires lifted their heads. For the first time, Shay had a good view of Gabriel’s face. His beautiful eyes were open, but they weren’t chestnut brown anymore. They’d turned almost entirely purple, and they were glazed, staring blankly up at the ceiling. A small smile played about the corners of his lips. She couldn’t tell if he was alive or already dead.

  “You shouldn’t have come here,” Ernst told her. Tamara and Luis rose to their feet. Ernst stayed in his position at Gabriel’s side. “What did you think would happen, you foolish little girl?”

  “I don’t care,” Shay snarled. “I don’t want to be alive without him, and I’m not going to stand here and watch you kill him.” Yeah, good plan, she thought as Ernst sneered. But if she and Mom had delayed even a few minutes longer to gather hawthorn or other weapons, they would have been too late.

  “Then we’ll kill you, too. Richard wouldn’t be dead if it wasn’t for you,” Tamara growled. She seemed eager for more blood.

  “No one is killing anyone.”

  Shay turned to see her mother on the stairs, and her blood ran cold with fear.

  The other vampires stiffened, wary. Luis took a step back, away from the human. But Shay’s mother ignored them all, her eyes only on Ernst. Shay had never seen her so focused.

  “You’re Ernst,” her mom said as she took her place at Shay’s side. “Sam’s father. Sam described you well. You—and Gret.”

  Ernst let out a hiss at the name of his dead love. He rose to his feet and strode toward Shay’s mother. Instinctively, Shay moved in front of her, but her mom stepped to the side. She didn’t cower from Ernst. She went toward him.

  “You have blood on your face,” she snapped. “Gabriel’s blood. He’s your son, and so was Sam. You’re stained with your own child’s blood.”

  Ernst gaped at her, stopping in his tracks.

  “Gret would hate you for that.” Shay’s mother lifted her chin and glared at him. “You’re killing her children.”

  “Don’t you speak of her! You didn’t know her. You can’t say what she would feel,” Ernst bellowed, his voice tight with anger.

  “I didn’t have to know her, because Sam did. He told me everything. We told each other everything, before you murdered him,” Shay’s mom retorted. “I know why you started the family. I know why Gret chose to end her life. How can you kill someone for falling in love with a human when you—”

  Ernst let out a growl, his eyes narrowing dangerously.

  “When you did the same thing,” she continued, raising her voice. “Gret was human when you
fell in love with her. She was human when you got her pregnant.”

  “That’s not true!” Tamara burst out. “Ernst would never . . .” Her voice trailed off. Shay knew that Tamara could see the truth on Ernst’s face. Just as Shay could. He looked stricken.

  “What is she talking about, Ernst?” Luis asked. “You’ve always said there should be no secrets among any of us in the family.”

  Shay realized she was holding her breath. Everyone stared at Ernst, even her mother. Shay had never seen Mom so strong before. This small human woman staring down an old and powerful vampire.

  Time seemed to stand still.

  And then Ernst deflated. His furious expression collapsed into one of grief, and his cold eyes filled with tears. Suddenly, he looked ancient, old and tired. “Gret . . . she lost the baby,” he said.

  She got to him, Shay thought. Mom managed to get under his skin.

  “She’s telling the truth? There really was a baby?” Luis said, his voice shaking. “A halfblood?”

  “An abomination,” Tamara put in, staring at Shay.

  “It was . . . it was gruesome. There was so much blood,” Ernst went on. “The baby was dead. I knew it instantly, though Gret kept calling and calling for it. She was getting weaker, paler. I could see her life draining away.”

  “So you changed her,” Luis said. “Just the way Gabriel changed—” He didn’t say Shay’s name, just gestured to her.

  “Yes,” Ernst answered. “I didn’t even choose to do it, not exactly. I simply acted. There was no choice to be made.”

  “But she didn’t want it,” Shay’s mother said. “Sam told me she was haunted, always, until she finally went out into the sun.”

  “She mourned so deeply for the baby. She . . . she blamed me for giving her life, because it separated them. She would rather have died, so they could move on to heaven together,” Ernst said.

  He’s been thinking about this for centuries, Shay realized. I think he’s almost glad that Mom is calling him on it.

  “I gave her children the only way I knew how,” Ernst continued. “We took orphans and raised them in our family. Gret loved me . . . she loved Sam. He was our first son.”

  Tamara’s lip curled with revulsion. “You were in love with a human.” It didn’t seem as if she had heard anything else.

  “Yet you killed Sam,” Shay said. “For doing the same thing you did. You killed your own son.”

  Ernst fell back from her as if she had struck him. “After Gret sought the sun, I needed family more than ever. It was all that mattered to me, that I not lose anyone else I loved.”

  “You were trying to keep us safe,” Luis said, but his eyes went to Gabriel and his voice shook with emotion. He doesn’t know who is right anymore, Shay thought.

  “By killing his own children? That isn’t keeping the family safe,” Shay’s mother protested. She took another step toward Ernst. “You’ve twisted your grief into fear and hatred. Gret loved Sam. You murdered him.”

  Ernst gave a wrenching sob. “You’re right. Gret would hate what I’ve done to Gabriel, what I did to Sam—” His voice broke on the name. “Love was the most important thing to her. She fought to stay with me for as long as she could, out of that love. But her love for the baby was stronger. She wanted to die, to be with our little girl.”

  “You separated me from my father the same way,” Shay said. “By death. I’ll never know him. And if you’ve killed Gabriel, too . . .”

  She turned her back on Ernst. He didn’t seem like a threat to her mother anymore. He seemed broken. Her eyes went to Gabriel. So still. That same small smile on his face. She left Ernst behind and went to him, kneeling to remove the chains from his wrists. No one objected. Tamara and Luis were still staring at Ernst.

  “You’re okay,” she whispered. “I’m here.” But Gabriel didn’t respond.

  “Richard was your son too,” Tamara said to Ernst. “Have you forgotten his death?”

  “He died to save me. It should have been the other way around.” Ernst sounded defeated. Devastated. Shay paid no attention. She freed one of Gabriel’s hands and took a moment to stroke his cheek before she moved on to the next binding. She didn’t notice that Millie had arrived with the blood until Millie pressed the bag into her hands.

  “Is he already . . . ?”

  “No.” Shay ripped it open with her teeth, then gently parted Gabriel’s lips and poured the thick red liquid into his mouth. Most of it spilled back out, staining his pale cheeks. Shay pushed down her fear and tried again.

  Gabriel’s violet eyes didn’t even blink.

  Millie put one hand on Shay’s shoulder. “I don’t feel him anymore.”

  Shay focused on their communion with every molecule of her being. He was there. Just a whisper of a whisper of him, but there. “I do.”

  I feel him because of his love, she realized. He loves me.

  She took some of the blood in her mouth, then leaned down and kissed him, letting the blood run from her body to his. It was as close as she could get to letting him feed from her.

  “Shay. It’s too late,” her mother said. Shay looked up and saw Mom, Ernst, and Luis standing near her. Tamara hovered in the background. She took a step toward them, then backed up.

  “He’s still here. I can feel him,” Shay insisted.

  “No. He’s gone. I killed him,” Ernst said, his face ashen.

  Shay shook her head. She gazed at Gabriel’s face. There was no flicker of life. No recognition. “Come back to me. I love you, Gabriel. I love you,” she told him, realizing it was true. No matter what he’d done, she loved him.

  But his face remained expressionless, his body motionless.

  Shay swallowed down the lump in her throat. How could she lose him now, when she’d finally figured out how she felt? She wanted to have a life with him, but instead, she faced an eternity of life without him.

  Millie let out a sob.

  Shay felt numb for a moment. She’d done everything she could, but Gabriel had suffered the same fate as her father. Dying for love. And Gabriel would never even know that she’d come back, that she loved him. He would die thinking she detested him.

  “Gabriel,” she whispered, leaning down to his ear. There was something Gabriel needed even more than her love. “Can you still hear me? I understand how afraid you were for your family. I know that’s why you told Ernst about Sam and my mom. And I forgive you. I forgive you, and I love you so much.” She kissed him again.

  Tears fell from her eyelashes down onto Gabriel. Tears of absolute joy. He was kissing her back. The movement of his lips was faint, but Gabriel was definitely alive. “Drink,” she murmured against his mouth. She pulled away ever so slightly. “I need you to drink all of this.” She tipped the blood from the bag into his mouth, and this time his throat spasmed.

  “He’s taking it,” Ernst said. His voice sounded . . . reverent. As if he’d witnessed a miracle.

  “And now what?” Tamara demanded, arms crossed. Her voice sounded harsh in the hushed room. “Is she going to bring Richard back from the dead too? And what about that woman?” She jerked her chin toward Shay’s mom. “She’s the one who started this all. Without her, Richard wouldn’t be dead. We’d all still be a family, Richard, Sam, Gabriel, all of us.”

  “She didn’t kill Richard. Gabriel didn’t kill Richard. Shay didn’t either.”

  The words stunned Shay. It was the first time Ernst had spoken her name.

  “That man did. Martin,” Ernst continued, still staring at Gabriel.

  “I’m sorry. I’m the one who told him about your kind,” Shay’s mother said. “I wanted to save Shay. I didn’t know what kind of man Martin really was.” She turned to Tamara. “I’m sorry.”

  Tamara hissed in reply. Lightning fast, Luis reached out and grabbed her by the arm. Tamara spun toward him, fighting to free herself.

  “You won’t attack the human,” Luis told her, holding tight. “There will be no more killing here tonight.”

/>   Tamara stopped struggling, but her eyes went back to Shay’s mother, and they were filled with fury. Luis didn’t release her arm, and Shay felt a burst of gratitude toward him.

  “That bag is gone,” Millie said, pulling Shay’s attention back to Gabriel.

  As Gabriel drained the bag, Millie handed Shay another one. Gabriel still hadn’t registered her presence. She wasn’t even sure he saw the room around him. But he was coming back to her with every swallow of the blood.

  Gabriel’s eyelids fluttered, then closed for a moment. When they opened, he looked at Shay, his eyes clear and filled with love for her. “Shay. I hoped when I died I would get to see you again.”

  “You aren’t dead,” Shay told him. “Neither am I.”

  “I’m sorry,” he said weakly. “About Sam. It’s the biggest regret of my life.”

  “I know.”

  “That was my fault,” Ernst put in. “I was the head of the family. I—”

  “No.” Gabriel tried to push himself into a seated position. Millie had undone the rest of the ties that bound him to the stakes. Still, he had to lie back down. He was too weak to hold himself upright. “I was an adult. I’d been an adult for hundreds of years. It was my responsibility to do what I believed.” He reached up and squeezed Millie’s hand. “The way you did,” he told her.

  With his free hand, he ran his fingers down the side of Shay’s face, brushing away tears. “And you. You came back for me. After everything.”

  “I couldn’t let the same thing happen again,” she said. “Love isn’t supposed to be so tragic.”

  He smiled at her. “You really are so much like Sam. He forgave me too—with his last breath, he told me that.”

  “My mom—,” Shay began.

  The sound of footsteps thundering down the stairs interrupted her.

  Before Shay could even turn all the way around, Martin barged into the cellar. A trio of huge, unsavory-looking guys came down the steps behind him. Unlike Shay and her mother, they’d come prepared. They each held a tranq gun, and Shay was sure the guns were loaded with hawthorn.