Now that we were no longer having sex, I could see him as Nathan once more, instead of the powerful King, and I told him, “I’m so sorry anyone has had to live through the heartache you have, and I’m glad you’ve found a way to rise above it. I can’t imagine how you managed.”
“You have no idea how strong you are, Gabriella. Life handed you a crappy childhood but you’ve risen above it. You have your shit together, so just keep your eye on the plan you’ve set for yourself. Stay in school, and don’t neglect your sexual needs. You can go a few weeks without, but you shouldn’t, and you need to be with someone besides Horse at least once a week — preferably twice a week. I’ll be more than happy to work out a time to be with you once or twice a month, but you need a variety of shifters and we can’t all be predators.” He kissed my nose. “I’ve enjoyed our time together, and in the future I’ll let you come to my house. It may be that you’ll have to meet me late at night, and then we’ll have work and school the next day so it’ll just be a fuck and sleep evening, but I trust you enough to sleep with you beside me, Gabriella, and there are only a handful allowed to do so.”
He curled a strand of my hair around his finger, careful not to pull it. “There’s something else, little bunny, and perhaps it isn’t my place to say anything, but I would advise you to stay in this realm and not go to Faerie for a while. You run the risk of taking the Crown from your Rabbit King — perhaps not this year or next, but whenever you find your true power you’ll have to decide whether to stay here and be happy with the life you’ve created, or return to Faerie and rule your people as Queen. I saw you from a distance when you first returned to this realm, and your energy signature is different enough now, I believe the Rabbit King will see you as a threat. He didn’t before because you weren’t.”
“What’s changed?”
“You’ve fought for your life, you’ve mated with a Bear, you’ve made friends on your own without a trusted loved one overseeing your actions.” He sighed. “And being forced to face the FBI team who traumatized you allowed you to move past the emotions holding you back. You’re growing up, Gabriella.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Four months later
Horse
Gabby was late, and I was worried. She had two night classes this semester, and I hated knowing she was walking around downtown alone after dark, but she insisted she could do it without a bodyguard. She had a different apartment near campus, and we spent most every night together, we just went back and forth from my house to her apartment, depending on our schedules. I had to admit the apartment close to her school and my work was more convenient, but I’d never give up my underground den. I needed the space and the security, the feeling of mother earth all around me.
Gabby has several regular sexual partners, and another three or four occasional ones, now. Her regular partners include a Stallion who works for Aaron Drake, a Swan she met while visiting Sophia, a Leopard she has an English lit class with, the Amakhosi, a Deer who lives in an enclave not too far away, and a Crow. Deer can’t really deal with human society, their nervous systems just can’t handle it, so they live in little communities all to themselves. Aaron Drake set her up with one of them, though, and I was thankful he had because the Deer seemed to smooth her energy out better than anyone else.
She tells me when she has plans with one of them, though, and she’d intended to come to me after class.
I called her cellphone and it went to voicemail. Again.
I couldn’t sit still any longer, so I walked towards her class, hoping to run into her.
* * * *
Gabby
My mind was too busy going over tonight’s lecture on mission-oriented serial killers, and I wasn’t paying any attention to my surroundings. Supremely stupid, in retrospect — considering what I was mulling over I should’ve been jumping at shadows. However, when I smelled the humans and their guns, I didn’t expect them to threaten me. I smell guns on humans all the time and it never means anything.
However, this time, one of them put the cold steel to my head as another grabbed my wrists and pulled them behind my back. My heart beat wildly in my chest as I decided on the best course of action. I have strong legs and can run fast, but my arms were pulled up so high on my back it hurt too bad to consider jerking free — plus, I wasn’t sure I’d survive a headshot. In fact, I was pretty sure I wouldn’t.
Horse has told me not to come home the same way every night, but I hadn’t been thinking tonight and I’d come the shortest way — through a tight alley. The boys pushed me into a doorway and my heart skipped several beats when the door slammed shut behind us. One of them stuffed cloth into my mouth as the other shoved me to my knees and pulled my skirt up. I’d started wearing them for Horse, and discovered I liked the freedom. This one came to the top of my boots, and the thug pushed it over my head before he tried to rip my panties off. The fabric wouldn’t tear as he wanted and it pissed him off, and fear spiked through my veins as I heard him open a knife.
I’m stronger than humans, but since I’m no longer full of only Horse’s energy, I’m back to freeze or flee, and since I couldn’t easily flee, I froze.
My body was ready for sex even though my mind rebelled, and he commented on how wet I was as his cock jammed into me. Thankfully, I must have done it for him and within a dozen thrusts he pushed in and came.
The energy transfer happened even though I didn’t orgasm, and I did what I said I’d never do.
I drained a human.
His power surged through my veins. Dirty, ugly, jealous, hateful energy from a person with absolutely no self-confidence. And yet, even with his distasteful power fueling my own life force, it felt good. It had been his, now it was mine, and I could do with it as I pleased. I stopped pulling it from him just before he was dead, and as the room came back into focus I realized the other human was screaming at me and his gun was once again pressed against my temple. I knocked it away and put my hands on his chest, and drained him, also. I took both of their life forces, and felt my own growing, and growing.
Somehow, I stopped myself just before the second human was dead, too, but in the moments while I took their life force into my body — no exchange here, I fucking drained them — I knew what my father had felt. It could easily be addicting, and part of me wanted to take in the rest of their energy so I’d feel even better, but I turned away from them and straightened my skirt.
I saw my thong on the floor, where it’d been thrown after it was finally cut, and I grabbed it and found my purse before running out the door and down the alley at speeds no human could’ve managed. I ducked into a dark doorway just before I got to the street, and looked around to see if anyone had seen. I didn’t see or smell anyone, so I adjusted my clothes, put the thong inside my purse, and stepped into the street. I pulled my phone from my bag and saw a couple of missed calls from Horse — I hadn’t turned the ringer back on after class. I called him back and told him where I was, and kept walking until he got to me.
He knew something was wrong and picked me up. I rested my head on his shoulder and told him, “He raped me. A human raped me, and I drained him.”
He kept walking but I felt his energy change to worry instead of the repulsion and disgust I’d expected. “You killed him?”
“I stopped just before they were dead.”
“They?”
“We can’t go back. I need to know how they are, but we can’t go back.”
“We’ll go to the RTMC compound so I can call Drake on an encrypted connection.”
“I’d rather call Nathan, and we talk on the phone enough — a call to him won’t look out of place.”
He nodded and kept walking with me. “I smell them on you. I smell your fear, but you’re stronger. I sense their essence in you.”
“I know why my dad did this now,” I whispered.
He was silent, and I added, “I don’t want to do it to others. Not to innocents, but if I knew someone was bad? It would be tempting.
”
Neither of us said anything else until we got to my apartment, and I sat on the sofa and called Nathan.
“I need you. I mean, not the you I usually need, but... crap. Something happened and I need to talk to you in person. Can Horse and I come to you, somewhere? Or would you rather come to me? We’re at my apartment.”
“Are you okay?”
“Physically? Yes. Not sure about the rest.”
“I’ll be there in ten minutes.”
I hung up and went to my bedroom, stripped, and stepped into the shower as scalding as I could stand it. I washed myself several times, and got out shortly before I figured Nathan should arrive.
He and Horse were in the living room when I turned the water off, and I quickly dried and put jeans and a sweatshirt on before going out to them. Someone had taken my clothes from the bathroom floor, and I figured Horse had so Nathan could get their scent.
“Sorry, I thought I’d time it better.”
“No need to apologize, I made good time — and I think a shower was a smart move.” Nathan stepped to me and touched my face. “I can feel their energy in you, and they deserved to die for what they did.”
“Can you find out how they are?”
“I can, but I need to hear the story from you.”
I sat in Horse’s lap and told Nathan about being raped. When I finished, he leaned towards us and held my bare feet in his hands.
“You shouldn’t have been able to drain the other human, Gabriella. You didn’t have sex with him, and neither of you orgasmed. You did something only a Rabbit Monarch can do.”
As soon as he said it, I knew he was right. The Rabbit King can pull energy from any Rabbit, whether he’s having sex or not. No other Rabbit can do so.
“I don’t want to be Queen.”
“Then stay out of Faerie.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Gabby
Nathan wanted us to have alibis for the evening, so Horse and I went out to eat. The idea would be that I’d been in class and then we’d gone out, and I didn’t have time to get raped and kill two people in between.
I hadn’t really taken Nathan’s advice about staying out of Faerie seriously before. I hadn’t been raised there, and wasn’t even an official member of the royal family. Now, though, I wondered, and it sounded as if Horse was thinking of the ramifications, too.
“Would you want the Crown, Gabs?”
I shook my head. “You know what I want out of life. I want to live and work in this realm, and I want to help catch the seriously bad guys. Faerie was a place I visited for a couple of years. This is home. If I’m Queen, I have to live there, and… shit, Horse. I love you. I don’t want to move away from you.”
“If you were Queen you could bring me with you.”
“You’d leave the gun shop and the MC?”
He shook his head and looked out the dark window. “I don’t know, Gabs. I hope I don’t have to decide.”
“So I just won’t go back. Some royalty lives here. Sophia and Aaron are Dragon and Swan King and Queen, and they live here.”
“Most swans live here, less than half choose to live in Faerie,” he countered
And I had no return argument, because all rabbits live in Faerie. Except me. Sophia splits her time between realms because she has subjects in both places.
He reached for my hand across the table. “I don’t want to hold you back, Gabs. If it’s something you want, we’ll figure out a way to make it work.”
“I want to be sure those boys never rape anyone else,” I admitted. “I’m glad I stopped before I killed them, but now, if they rape a human who can’t recover as quickly as me, and who might have lasting damage from the violence and forced invasion, someone who’ll be traumatized by the pain and loss of control and… fuck.” I whispered the last part. “Maybe I should’ve killed them.”
“It’s good you didn’t when you weren’t sure if anyone had seen you with them. You have to know I want to take them apart limb by limb, and I’m guessing the Amakhosi will feel the same, but we have to be smart about it.”
Nathan met us at the RTMC bar after we ate, and he had a vampire with him.
Not just any vampire — The Abbott.
We went into the office with Duke and Brain, and Nathan asked me to tell the group what had happened.
“How are the men I — are they alive?”
He nodded. “They’re in the hospital and they’re both in comas. As far as I’m concerned we should let them waste away in there — unless someone feeds some life force to them it’s doubtful they’ll come back. I had our tech guy wipe all the cameras in the area on the off chance one of them caught the boys taking you, or caught you running away. You’re in the clear and they got what was coming to them.” He smirked. “Both of them had their pants down around their ankles, and I guess one of them fell on the other as you ran out. There are all kinds of questions about what they were doing when they collapsed into comas. The hospital is running lots of drug tests, assuming they were high on the same drug.”
The door opened and Ghost stuck his head in. “Dawg said ya’ll were in here, and that Gabby looked upset.” His gaze met mine. “You okay?”
I looked at Horse and he waved Ghost in. “No, she isn’t, and I’d like you to know what happened. I take it Dawg’s working the bar and couldn’t come with you?”
Ghost and Dawg have turned into good friends. We don’t have sex, we just talk. When Horse is busy or has to work and he wants someone with me, he calls one of them. I usually arrange to be with one of my lovers when Horse is scheduled to work when I’m not in class, but the timing doesn’t always work and he knows I keep my gun with me when I’m home alone, in an effort to keep from being terrified at every noise.
I’d brought up the possibility of having a wolf in my bed, and Ghost had told me he couldn’t fuck one of his best friends’ girls. Wolves apparently aren’t built that way. Dawg once told me if it would help, he’d take part in a ménage if Horse is also present, but so far Horse hasn’t seemed interested, which is fine with me — I’ve grown used to having these two wolves as close friends.
So I sat between Horse and Ghost, and told the room about the men grabbing me, one of them raping me, and then how I’d drained them.
When I finished, The Abbot leaned forward, his eyes kind. “You know who and what I am, yes?”
I nodded because I couldn’t find my voice.
“I monitor the strongest supernaturals in my territory, and tonight, you popped up on my radar in a big way. I’ve known about you, of course, but before you were someone to watch — a little rabbit who might one day find her power but so far had not. The potential was there, and now you’ve fulfilled at least some of it.”
“How do you see her now?” asked Brain.
“A Rabbit who could go to Faerie in a few months — once she’s learned what she can do with her new power — and take the Crown, if she wants.”
“I don’t want it.”
“Your father couldn’t drain a human unless they’d let their shields down during an orgasm. You ripped open the other human’s shields to drain him, Gabriella.” The vampire sat back and asked, “Why did you stop before they were dead?”
“You know who my father was?”
He nodded.
“I’m not him,” I whispered, and then added in a normal voice, “It felt good, but I’m not him. I won’t ever hurt an innocent, and I’m not even sure I want to go around hurting the bad guys.”
“I need you to come to me and put your hand on me and try to drain me. You can’t, but I need to feel what you do, Gabriella.”
I didn’t want to touch the Master Vampire right now, much less attempt to take his power. I tried to change the subject. “No one has ever told me what the legends say about human-born rabbits.”
“Do as I’ve asked and I’ll tell you the stories.”
The five feet I had to walk to him felt like a quarter mile, and I didn’t know what to do whe
n I reached him.
“Put your hands on me and try to fill yourself.”
I nodded and touched one hand to his chest, rested the other on top of his thigh, and sucked his energy in through my palms. Nothing worked, and I remembered how I’d ripped through the shields of the human. I’d been terrified and it’d just happened, so it took a few moments for me to figure out what I’d done.
I tried, but didn’t do it full force, and Abbott put his hands around mine at his chest. “You won’t hurt me, Gabriella. You ripped through the humans’ shields and hurt them, and I know you don’t want to make me mad, but I promise you won’t hurt me. Your terror fueled you and I don’t want to frighten you, but if you don’t do as I ask, I will.”
I tried to remember how it’d felt, but I just couldn’t replicate what I’d done. Fear trickled through my veins and I opened my eyes. Abbott’s gaze met mine, and I heard him in my head saying, “It’ll keep getting worse until you show me what you can do.”
Abbott had once kept me from being afraid, and now he pushed terror into me. Soul crippling terror that made me want to curl into a ball and scream, except his voice was still in my head ordering me to take his power, promising I’d feel better if I did.
He’d been right about my terror fueling my abilities, and I ripped into his shields and sucked him into me. It didn’t work as well as it had with the human, and I didn’t get the same surge, but I got a trickle and I quickly stopped and took a few steps back as the inexplicable terror driving my abilities was suddenly gone.
Now, I was frozen in place by the Rabbit’s fear, unable to move though I wanted to turn and run, my heart furiously beating in my throat as every nerve in my body vibrated.
The vampire’s eyes met the Lion King’s with unspoken meaning, and Nathan reached for me and pulled me into his lap. “Will you let me even out your energy, Gabriella?”
Horse (Rolling Thunder Motorcycle Club Book 6) Page 12