by Folsom, Tina
“Good. It will help. Once I know what peculiar things her parents suffer from, I think I can confirm my suspicion.”
Gabriel leaned forward on his chair. “So you have a suspicion?
What is it?”
Drake simply shook his head. “I can’t say anything so far. If I do without any proof, you’ll most likely just call me crazy.”
“Tell me. I promise, I won’t call you crazy.”
“No. First we need to get information on her parents.”
Gabriel didn’t like it that the doctor kept his suspicions to himself.
“Fine. But there’s one thing I insist on.”
Drake raised an eyebrow.
“Whatever you find, I will be the first you tell. You will not speak to Maya about it. I alone will decide if and when to tell her. I know better what she can take right now. And frankly, I don’t want her to have to deal with anything else right now. She’s too fragile as it is.”
“Fragile?” Drake asked. “She’s a vampire. There’s nothing fragile about that.”
“She isn’t aware of her strength yet, or her urges. She can’t control them. I don’t want anything to upset her right now.”
Drake rose. “As you wish. Who do I send the bill too?”
Gabriel grunted. “What do you want for it?”
“Don’t worry. For this job, cash is perfectly fine.”
Gabriel got up from his chair and walked to the door. “You have my address.”
Before Gabriel opened the door, Drake asked, “Is there anything you wouldn’t do for her?”
He threw a look over his shoulder and glared at the doctor. “Just do your job. My feelings don’t matter to you.” But they mattered to Gabriel.
* * *
Impatiently, Gabriel knocked at the entrance door of the modern home that hugged the hills just below Twin Peaks. The views from the home had to be stunning. Thomas sure had some nice digs. It didn’t surprise him. As a vampire who’d lived close to a century, he, like many of their other colleagues, had accumulated a large amount of wealth.
p. The door swung open and Thomas appeared in the frame, clad only in a towel wrapped around his lower body, skin glistening from a recent shower.
“Sorry, Thomas. I should have called. We can talk later,” Gabriel said.
Thomas waved him in. “Just come in. If you show up unannounced,
I suppose it means it’s important.”
Gabriel stepped into the house and closed the door behind him.
“Thanks. Appreciate it.” His eyes roamed around the great room with its open plan kitchen, trying to avoid looking at Thomas’ half-naked body.
He didn’t know Thomas as well as Samson or Amaury did, particularly since Thomas had never lived in New York and Gabriel very rarely ventured out West. Seeing another man only partially dressed normally didn’t bother Gabriel, but it was different with Thomas. He had no idea what the etiquette was when confronted with a gay man. Did you look?
Didn’t you look?
“So, what’s up?” Thomas asked, seemingly entirely comfortable in his present state.
Gabriel cleared his throat. “I’ve just been to see Drake. Maya is still rejecting human blood.”
Thomas shook his head. “We’ll have to force-feed her if that continues, otherwise she’ll starve.”
“That won’t be necessary. She started feeding from me this morning.”
“From you? She’s craving vampire blood?” Thomas ran his hand through his wet hair, the motion showing off his muscled torso.
The sound of the entrance door opening again made Gabriel turn his head toward it. He recognized Eddie trotting in. Eddie’s gaze first fell on Thomas and lingered there for longer than Gabriel had expected.
“Hey,” he greeted them.
Thomas wiped his hand on his towel as he looked back at Eddie.
“Didn’t know you hadn’t slept here today.”
Eddie shrugged his shoulders. “Time got away from me. By the time I looked, it was too close to sunrise to make it back.”
“Don’t tell me you bothered Nina and Amaury to let you stay.”
Eddie waved him off. “God, no. Those two are going at it day and night – I’d never get a wink of sleep.” He grinned, his young face smirking, dimples and all. “Who knows what my sister sees in him. That guy is just totally overpowering.”
“So is your sister,” Gabriel retorted.
Thomas laughed. “That’s right, buddy. She can keep up with the best of them.”
Eddy shrugged. “Whatever. Luckily, Holly let me crash at her place.”
“Holly?” There was a sharp tone in Thomas’ voice. “You’re dating Holly?”
“Ricky’s girlfriend Holly?” Gabriel asked and raised an eyebrow.
“Ex-girlfriend,” Eddie corrected him. “And no, I’m not dating her.
The woman is a total gossip.”
Thomas seemed to relax and smiled back at Eddie. “What’s she gossiping about now?”
“She was trying to convince me that Ricky was the one who broke up with her, not the other way round. As if I care even remotely. I tell you, I couldn’t wait for sunset to get out of her place. She kept talking my ears full about how Ricky apparently set his sights on some other woman and dumped her unceremoniously. Next time, I swear I’d rather turn to dust in the sun than take shelter at her house.”
Eddie walked toward the door leading to the sleeping quarters of the house. “I’m gonna get some shut-eye for an hour. Is that cool with you?”
Thomas nodded. “Take all the time you need. And take a shower, will you? You smell like a girl.”
Eddie sniffed at his t-shirt and frowned. “Damn Holly, she burns all that incense crap.”
As Eddie sauntered out of the room, Thomas turned back to Gabriel.
“How’s the mentoring going?” Gabriel asked.
“He’s a good kid. And he’s learning fast. In a few months he’ll be able to be on his own.”
Gabriel recognized sadness in Thomas’ words. “You like him?”
“As I said, he’s a good kid.” He paused. “And straight. End of story.” Thomas inhaled. “So, you were saying you needed my help?”
Gabriel cleared his throat. Thomas’ private life was none of his business. “About Maya. Drake can’t explain why she rejects human blood and drinks mine instead.”
“Lucky bastard,” Thomas interjected and grinned. Gabriel knew exactly what he was referring to: the sexual arousal that came with letting another vampire feed off him.
An involuntary grin stole onto Gabriel’s lips, but it died just as quickly. “The doc thinks something is wrong with her. And it might be genetic.”
“What do you want me to do?”
“I need you to get her parents’ medical records. We need to find out if they have any genetic defects. Can you do that?”
Thomas nodded. “Sure. Let me just have a quick word with Maya to get the names and address and we should -“
“Without letting Maya know,” Gabriel interrupted.
“Oh. Okay. I’m sure you have your reasons.”
“I do. Can you do it?”
“No problem. I’ll call Drake when I have the info ready for him.”
“Did you get a chance to talk to Eddie and James about the scent of Maya’s attacker?”
Thomas made a regretful sigh. “I did. But neither of them could pinpoint anything. They said the scent was so faint that it could have been anybody. Besides, she was bleeding so profusely, both of them were just too overwhelmed by the scent of human blood that they paid little attention to the vampire’s. Sorry, Gabriel, that one’s a dead end.”
“Thought as much. Let’s try something else. I figured if she was dating him, he might have called her or she him.” The word dating hurt to even pronounce. Could she really have seen something in that man?
“Can you hack into her phone records, both her landline and h
er cell, and get me a list of everyone she had contact with? Match the numbers up with names. Maybe we’ll recognize someone.”
“Let me see what I can find.”
Gabriel stretched out his hand. “Thanks.”
Thomas grasped it briefly.
“And one other thing. Could you relieve Yvette at the house before sunrise? She needs some downtime.” After the embarrassing encounter earlier in the day, Gabriel was the one who needed some distance from her. He wasn’t keen on facing her right now.
“Let me guess. The women don’t get on.”
Gabriel shrugged. “Don’t ask me. What the hell do I know about women?”
Thomas laughed and padded him on the shoulder. “A hell of a lot more than I do, that’s for sure.”
Thirteen
True to his word, Thomas showed up at the house two hours before sunrise and switched duties with Yvette, who seemed relieved at being able to get out of the house.
After his excursion to see the witch and then Drake, Gabriel had spoken to the editor of the San Francisco Vampire Chronicle and made sure Zane would receive a list of all male vampires in San Francisco.
Now Gabriel stood in the kitchen, gulping down an extra bottle of blood. He would have to feed Maya soon. She hadn’t said anything about being hungry. In fact, she’d practically avoided him ever since he’d returned.
He wondered whether she’d been mad at him when she’d realized he’d taken advantage of her. Unfortunately, he couldn’t know for sure whether she liked him or not, or whether her arousal had been a mere byproduct of the feeding.
Damn, he could still taste her, even now after close to twenty-four hours.
“Hey, what’s going on?” a familiar male voice came from the kitchen door.
Gabriel spun around. He should have heard Ricky come in, but obviously his thoughts were just too far away. Even though Ricky had probably used his key to open the front door, Gabriel should have at least heard the opening and closing of it, or Ricky’s footsteps. What kind of bodyguard was he turning into?
“Didn’t expect you here,” Gabriel answered. Shouldn’t Ricky be at some den of iniquity drowning his sorrows about the breakup of his last relationship?
Ricky shrugged his shoulders. His red hair and freckles seemed to glow. “I just get too bored when I don’t do anything. Heard you might need some help with protecting a new vampire. Thought I’d pitch in.”
Gabriel nodded. He needed all the help he could get. With Thomas busy helping Drake look into Maya’s medical history (a task he was currently performing in Samson’s study), and Zane still out on the reconnaissance mission Gabriel had sent him on, nobody else was available to investigate other aspects of the attack.
“Actually, since Zane is digging through the underbelly of society to get any info on the rogue, I could do with an extra man.”
Ricky grinned. “Guess Zane volunteered for his favorite job again: beating people up. Doesn’t leave the rest of us any of the fun stuff, hey?”
Gabriel only frowned. “In this case, I don’t mind who he beats up as long as he comes up with results.”
“Knowing Zane, he will. So, do you need any help? Need an extra hand guarding the house?”
“No. I’d rather you investigate for me. She knew her attacker and -“
“Well, then I guess you’ve got it under control.” Ricky interrupted and leaned casually against the kitchen island. “Just a matter of finding where the guy is hiding then.”
Gabriel rubbed his neck. “It’s not quite that easy, I’m afraid. He wiped her memory.”
“Bummer, but that’s to be expected, right?” Ricky replied. “So, what now? How’re you gonna find him? What do you want me to look into?”
Gabriel knew there was one avenue he hadn’t had a chance to explore. While the rogue had wiped Maya’s memory clear of him, he couldn’t have wiped everybody else’s, especially if he didn’t know who else knew about him.
“Let’s talk to Maya. I think she can help us on this.” He opened the door to the hallway.
“But didn’t you just say he wiped her memory?” Ricky asked.
“That’s right. But I’m betting only hers.” He stuck his head out into the hallway. “Maya, can you come down please?” He knew she would hear him. Whether she complied was another matter.
When he heard her footsteps on the landing upstairs, he knew he’d have to face her, but he couldn’t pretend that nothing had happened between them.
When Maya reached the foot of the stairs and turned toward him, Gabriel’s breath caught in his chest. His heart pounded against his ribs as if it wanted to reach for her. God, was he in deep shit – there was no way he’d be able to stay away from her for long. She was like a magnet, and he a mere iron nail without an ounce of resistance.
He looked at her face and caught her lower her eyelids as if to avoid his gaze.
“Maya,” he said in a low voice, not wanting anybody to overhear him. What he had to say to her was private. “We need to talk about what happened earlier.”
* * *
Maya took a deep breath. She wasn’t ready to talk to him yet. When he’d hightailed it out of the study with a look of panic on his face, she’d felt more embarrassed in her life than ever before. She’d been ready to fuck him right there on the couch in the study. She’d been ready to devour him not giving a second thought to what he might think about her. But now, what he thought mattered to her. Did he think her easy?
p. “Gabriel, I don’t know what to say,” she stammered. Was she blushing? Could a vampire blush? She hoped not, because if she could, her cheeks would be a deep red, as red as Gabriel’s blood.
There – it was all she could think of: his blood, his mouth, his hands on her, the way his erection had pressed against her. Another hot flush brought her to her senses. She could not turn into a quivering mess as if she was some virgin.
“I want to apologize,” he said. “I shouldn’t have run out like that.”
She waved him off. She didn’t want apologies. What she wanted to know was whether he’d felt something when he’d kissed her, or whether it had just been a typical male reaction. Did he like her? Did he want more from her? Suddenly Yvette’s warning words rang in her ears: a vampire male wanted to bond with a human woman who could bear him children. All she was good for was sex. Was that how Gabriel saw her too?
She cast him a quick glance, but couldn’t work up the courage to ask. “It’s fine.” Then she cleared her throat. “You called me?”
“Yes, will you join us in the kitchen please?”
Maya sensed the other vampire the moment she took a step toward the kitchen. She shook off an uneasy feeling, walked through the door that Gabriel held open for her and forced a smile. The man who was casually leaning against the kitchen counter was a quarter foot shorter than Gabriel. His red hair was slightly curly and his eyes were a dull brown, not the sparkling brown Gabriel’s eyes were. Did she have to compare every man to Gabriel?
Straightening her spine, she glanced at Gabriel, who’d come back into the kitchen behind her and gave him a questioning look.
“This is Ricky O’Leary. He’s the Operations Director of Scanguards, and he’s offered to help us find the rogue.”
Maya stretched out her hand and shook his. “Nice to meet you,” she said automatically. When she pulled her hand back, she felt a fraction of a second’s hesitation from him to let her go. He was looking at her just like that bald vampire, Zane, had.
Damn, did they all see her as fresh meat for sex?
She felt Gabriel step closer to her before he addressed her again. “I think we might have another way to get a lead on the rogue. But we’ll need your help on this.”
“Sure. But I thought you’d already looked at all my memories and found nothing.” What else he needed from her, she didn’t know. If she knew anything else, she would have already told him. She wanted that asshole found more than anybody else.
>
“Yes, your memories. But how about your friends’?” With a cryptic smile he continued, “We need to know which of your friends you might have told about him. See, he wiped your memory, but he can’t know who you told about him. It might help us identify him.”
“Great idea, Gabriel. I hadn’t thought of that,” Ricky praised.
Gabriel put his hand on her forearm. Why did he have to touch her like that? Didn’t he realize that his touch burned her skin like a hot iron?
Had he no idea that one touch by him made her want his hand on every part of her body?
“Maya, can you tell us who you might have told about him? If you were dating him, and then rejecting him, would you have discussed him with one of your girlfriends?”
“There are only two people I would discuss men with: Paulette and Barbara. Those are the only two I was really close to. I’m pretty sure I would have mentioned a date to either one of them. And if I rejected him, and he was some jerk or something, you can be sure that we spent an entire evening over a bottle of wine bitching about him.”
Gabriel gave her a surprised look, but Maya merely shrugged her shoulders. It’s what women did. Didn’t he know that?
Ricky cleared his throat. “Well, that’s great. Why don’t I start with them? Let me have their full names and where I can find them, and I’ll go see what they know. I’m sure, it’ll lead us onto the right track.”
“Good plan,” Gabriel agreed. “Make sure you’re not too conspicuous. We don’t want anybody suspecting anything. If they don’t know what happened to Maya, we don’t want them asking any questions.”
“I’m not an amateur, as you well know. Trust me, I’ll take care of it,” Ricky assured him and looked at Maya. “So, where can I find your two friends?”
She reached for a notepad on the counter. “Here. I’ll write it down for you. Paulette is easier to get a hold off. Her schedule is pretty regular, so at night you’ll probably find her at home.” She scribbled her friends’ addresses on the pad. “Barbara has quite an irregular shift, so if she’s not at home, you’ll find her at the hospital.”