Yeah, I just bet it was. I could only imagine the shockwave our love had sent through the Dark Realm.
“I have had to take steps to ensure such unprecedented behavior never occurs again,” he said with a weary sigh.
It wasn’t in my best interest to know what kind of steps, so I didn’t bother asking, but I felt he had some say in what would become of me now that I was here. In the Dark Realm.
“What are you going to do with me?”
Putting his elbows on the arms of his chair, he steepled his fingers and rested his chin on them. He stared at me for the longest time before finally asking, “Would you really sacrifice all you are for him?” My throat tightened, preventing me from speaking, so all I could do was give a single nod of my head. His expression changed to one of bewilderment. “But . . . why?”
“Because I love him,” I managed to say as my throat magically released itself.
He waved a hand, and everything on the table vanished, including my glass of iced tea. “Love,” he sneered, “is the biggest lie of all.”
“That’s only because you’ve never known it,” I blurted out.
He stood up so suddenly his chair tipped over, and it took only three angry strides for him to reach my side. Grasping my wrist, he pulled me to my feet.
“Are you so sure this love you feel for the vampire can endure? That it will withstand temptation, greed, and lust, and all the other petty vices your kind are so easily swayed by?”
“Yes,” I declared firmly. “If you had ever experienced love, true love, then you would know it can survive all those things and so much more.”
Letting go of my wrist, he took a step back and looked at me, his eyes hooded. “Care to make a bet on it?”
“I—what?”
His question took me by surprise, and I stumbled, catching the edge of the table to steady myself. He repeated himself. I looked out at the garden, seeing the beauty, the grace, the perfection of each leaf and petal. And knew none of it was real.
“Well?”
“You’re not going to let me leave this place unless I make that bet, are you?”
He shrugged. “The choice is yours, Rowan.”
Yeah . . . right. He might not be the Wraith, but they were cut from the same cloth. Tricksters, deceivers, they lived only to play the game.
“Very well then,” I said, hoping I sounded more confident than I felt. “What do you propose?” I had a feeling you only ever got one shot when you made a wager with someone like him, and I needed to make sure I didn’t hang myself prematurely.
Gleefully, he rubbed his hands together. “Let us put this affection you and the vampire feel for each other to the test. Prove to me it is no passing whim, that it can withstand the ultimate trial and endure.”
“What do you consider to be the ultimate trial?”
He seemed surprised that I would ask. “Why, time of course.” “And when I win?”
He chuckled, amused by my confidence. “I will release the vampire from his pledge to the Dark Realm.”
I let out a slow breath and waited for the other shoe to drop. “And if I should lose?” I wasn’t going to, but I needed to know what I was risking.
“The same thing I ask from all who wager with me.”
“You want my soul?”
“Exactly,” he said, grinning at me. His teeth looked very white, and very sharp.
Now that I knew the stakes, I needed to concentrate on the terms. “How much time do you intend to give me to prove my claim?”
“I like you, Rowan, I really do. Throwing yourself into the Void for the vampire! What will you do next?” Apparently he was quite tickled by my endeavor because he spent quite a while shaking his head as he continued to chuckle. When he was done, he asked, “Do you think I am generous by nature?”
“I think it depends on your mood,” I told him honestly.
“Then be thankful I am in a very good mood.” He grinned slyly at me, and I was immediately put on my guard. He was either incredibly confident of the outcome of our wager, or there was something he was counting on my not knowing. Either way I was probably screwed. “I will allow you to set whatever span of time you deem sufficient, but,” he continued, “it must be fixed now. No later extension or deviation will be permitted.”
“I can choose any period?”
This seemed too easy. What if I said I wanted a million years? He was expecting me to, I could see it in his face. There was something I definitely wasn’t getting—and then it hit me! Sebastian and his fluidity of time remarks. He was going to let me set the time, certain I wouldn’t think to define how it was to be measured. I could ask for a million years, but at some point, somewhere, that would be the equivalent of a single day as I knew it. I took a deep breath.
“I want the same amount of time that Gabriel was crucified, and”—I hurried on before he could cut me off—“I want the time to be converted into years as I know them and as they are currently measured in my present existence.”
I had absolutely no idea how long Gabriel had been on that damn tree, or how much longer he would have hung there if I hadn’t answered his call. Sebastian hadn’t known either, but from the amount of blood that had soaked into the ground, I was certain it had been a while. “Agreed?”
“Agreed,” he said, looking decidedly less chipper than a few moments before.
“How will you expect me to prove that our love has lasted?” Somehow I didn’t think he was just going to take my word for it, or Gabriel’s.
“An accounting will be kept.”
“What sort of accounting, and by whom? You?”
I almost laughed out loud at the horrified look on his face. Such a task was obviously beneath him. “It will be as it always has been. Every disagreement you have will be categorized and logged, along with every moment of pleasure. The tally will be kept in a secure place.” Arching a brow, he gave me a long look before saying, “Agreed?”
My antagonist was secretly an accountant at heart. Who knew? The fact he had mentioned disagreement before pleasure was not lost on me, but I couldn’t spot any glaring flaw in the proposal, so I nodded. “Agreed.”
“Then we have a deal,” he declared triumphantly.
I felt the ground shift beneath my feet, and the cold chill that had caressed me earlier returned with a renewed intensity. “Not quite,” I said, holding up a hand. “There’s the small matter of my memory.”
“What about your memory? Has it not been restored?”
“This time.”
The look on his face was a mix of hesitant curiosity. “What do you mean . . . this time?”
“I am still a Promise, right? Still safeguarding Gabriel’s soul?”
“I have no interest in the vampire’s soul!” he snapped.
As good as it was to know that, his declaration made me lose my train of thought for a moment. “Regardless, I’m still a Promise?” I repeated. He responded in the affirmative, and my throat was suddenly very dry. I could really use that glass of iced tea right now. “Can you ensure my memory will not be screwed up every time I’m reborn?”
“What are you saying?”
“I’ve been reborn a lot of times since the witch trials, and I never remembered who or what I was during any of those previous lifetimes. What if it happens again? It seems to me that it might look as though my purpose as a Promise was being compromised, and the rules were being broken . . . again.”
The silence lasted quite a while, or it could have been ten seconds. My perspective was definitely becoming warped.
“Your argument is not without merit,” he conceded finally. “I shall, how you say, level the playing field.” I couldn’t quite comprehend the look he gave me, but I’m pretty sure he didn’t think I was going to get the better of him in any way. And he might have been right. After all, he’d played this game many times, whereas I didn’t even know if there were any rules.
“As a Promise, you cannot be made a vampire. You cannot share the gift
s bestowed or enjoy any of the advantages. Those are always given with a blood price. But because of my predecessor’s eagerness to circumvent the rules regarding your status, I will extend you this courtesy. You will age as does the vampire you are bound to. Your body will not fall prey to disease or infirmity, and you cannot perish at another’s hand. You will continue exactly as you are this moment, until you come to stand before me again.”
“Are you serious?” I blurted out.
“You doubt my words?”
“No, absolutely not.” It was more than I could have hoped for.
“Now do we have a deal?”
I nodded and held out my hand to him. “Sure, wanna shake?”
His eyes turned to pieces of black glass inside his head as he took my hand and pulled me to him. His other arm circled my waist like a band of steel.
“I don’t shake hands,” he said in a voice that made me think he’d stripped me naked and was licking me all over.
“And you’re sure I get to keep Gabriel’s soul?”
“Keep it, lose it, sell it to the highest bidder! I have already told you it is of no interest to me.”
He pulled me closer, allowing me to feel how truly dangerous he was. A tangible presence wrapped itself around me like a shroud, and it was impossible not to feel the hard length of him pressed against me. Raising my hand to his mouth, he brushed his lips across my fingers. A shiver of unexpected desire ran through me. The arch of his brow told me he felt it too, and suddenly I knew if I ever got into bed with him, I would never get out again. At least not alive. He stroked the curve of my cheek, letting the tips of his fingers travel along my jaw and down my neck. I shivered as I felt them float across the edge of the sweetheart neckline, dancing across my cleavage.
And then he kissed me.
I didn’t have to pretend to kiss him back because the moment his lips touched mine I wanted to. His tongue exploded in my mouth with an all-consuming passion, and I did nothing to stop him from taking everything and anything that he wanted. I was so overcome by my own need, consumed by a voracious, destructive hunger created from the darkest places in my soul, that I almost didn’t recognize what was happening when he reached for a piece of me. With a coldness that was brutally ruthless, he shattered me open, stealing down inside and grasping a fragment of my soul. And I did nothing to stop him. Letting it slip through my fingers, I allowed this sliver of my essence to be ensnared by him.
Trickster, deceiver, and . . . seducer.
Satisfied, he withdrew from my mouth, his tongue making a final hungry sweep over my lips. “Now I understand why the vampire lusts for you so,” he told me as his eyes took on a feral gleam.
Breathless and dizzy, I stared at him as the word stupid ran through my head, over and over. I watched as he pulled back his lips from his sharp white teeth and slowly unfurled his long tongue for me to see. There, embedded in the center, was the scrap of myself that he had stolen.
Leaning forward, his lips brushed my ear. “I will expect the rest in due course.”
I pulled myself out of his embrace. I might not have gotten into bed with him, but I’d helped him pull back the covers. And worse, I had betrayed Gabriel with that kiss. In a daze, I looked around. What once had been a beautiful garden was now a parched and barren landscape. The magnificent elm tree had become nothing more than a twisted, gnarled husk, and the rank smell of decay filled my nostrils, making me nauseous.
I searched for any sign that life still existed in this place. But I found nothing. Everything was gone. He was gone, taking with him the token he had tricked me into surrendering.
Tricked you, Rowan, really?
The sound of demonic laughter pounded inside my head, making it throb painfully as the ground beneath me opened.
And I was falling . . . falling . . .
CHAPTER 27
Gabriel was all over me. Hands and lips everywhere, touching, feeling, reassuring himself that I had suffered no injury, come to no harm. Pulling me into his arms, he clasped me to him, his breath harsh and ragged in my ear. His arms were like bands of steel wrapped around me, his hold so tight I thought he might crack a rib. Having just recently been on the receiving end of that experience, I was in no hurry to repeat it, no matter how tempting it might be to test the truth of the demon’s promise to me.
“Gabriel, . . . please . . . can’t breathe!”
He shoved me away with enough force that I stumbled and fell backward.
“Don’t you ever do that to me again!” he snarled, his face a mask of fury as he bent over me. “You don’t go anywhere with that bastard, you hear me? Anywhere!”
I stared at him as he turned away and stomped off a few paces, keeping his back to me. It seemed that even the tattoos down his spine were rippling with undisguised anger.
What the hell? I could understand his rage, empathize with it even, because I know how fear can make even the most mild-mannered of us lash out. But this display of fury was way out of line and hurtful.
“Who are you talking about?” I asked, getting to my feet and brushing dirt off the ridiculous dress I was still wearing. Guess a wardrobe change hadn’t been included in this trip.
Gabriel’s eyes darkened, turning the color of an ocean during a winter storm. “Don’t play me for a fool, Rowan—you know perfectly well who I mean!”
Dear God in heaven! Now it was my turn to let rip a little temper. “Stop being such an asshole, and give me a break, will you? My head’s pounding, I feel like shit, and I’ve just been—”
“SEBASTIAN!!!” he roared. “YOU ARE NOT TO GO ANYWHERE WITH HIM EVER AGAIN—I WON’T ALLOW IT!”
His voice reverberated, almost knocking me down to the ground again. I stared at him, seeing nothing but murderous intent in his eyes. He was being unreasonable and completely unfair. Something I wasn’t about to let go unchallenged.
“Excuse me? You won’t allow it? Where the hell do you get off ordering me around like that?”
“You don’t understand.” He was still furious, but managed to bring his voice down a notch or two. “Sebastian is—”
“The only fucking person who’s actually sat down and told me anything!” I yelled. “What are you so pissed about, Gabriel? That he told me all the things you wouldn’t? Like what being a Promise actually means, and that I have your soul for safekeeping?” I barked out a laugh. “Or are you worried that I’m going to find out that you’ve refused to take it back from me?”
I watched as he folded his arms across his chest, and realized this was the first time he’d ever done that and not made my stomach flutter.
“Yeah, I’m pissed about all those things because they weren’t his to tell,” he said, narrowing his eyes. “But more than that, I’m pissed because he put you in danger by taking you to the Void.”
The breath caught in my throat. “How do you know that’s where he took me?”
He blew out an impatient breath. “Because he told me!”
“He told you he’d taken me to the Void?” I was stunned. Apparently the angel was not only confused about which side he wanted to play for, he was also suicidal. “Why would he do that?”
“Because I wouldn’t give him any ice until he told me what he’d done with you! Personally,” Gabriel continued, “I think he’s been long overdue for a kick in the balls, and I’m damn proud of you for doing it, but you have no idea what these past few hours have been like for me. I’ve been in hell, Rowan.”
Actually I’m pretty sure that’s where I’d been.
“So is that how long I’ve been gone? A few hours?” Funny, it felt like a week at least.
He nodded. “And you should know no one believed whatever was left behind was actually you. Laycee refuses to leave your house until she can confirm with her own eyes that you’re back with us.” The ghost of a smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. “She threatened to deck Aleksei with a cast-iron skillet if he tried to make her leave.”
“Oh Jesus! He’s not going to hurt
her, is he?”
He shook his head. “No. She is very protective of you, which is something he both understands and respects.”
“Katja used her to get me out of the house.”
“I know, she told me. Don’t worry, Laycee will not be harmed because of what happened or because of anything she heard or saw. I give you my word.”
Relieved, I exhaled the breath I hadn’t realized I was holding, and the tension between us vanished as quickly as it had erupted.
“I thought I had lost you, Rowan . . . this time forever.”
His anger crumbled as worry, fear, and grief took its place. I went and stood before him, smoothing a hand across his face as I pushed back his hair. Turning his head, he caught my thumb between his lips and pulled it into his mouth. I felt a sharp prick as his fang punctured the pad, giving him a taste of my blood. It was the reassurance he needed.
“I’m so sorry,” I whispered, “I didn’t know Sebastian was going to take me away. Everything kind of went crazy all at once. You must know that if I hadn’t been so out of it, I would never have left you like that.” He took in a deep breath and released my thumb. “I will never leave you like that again. I swear it.” I needed his understanding more than his forgiveness. He gave me both.
Slowly I looked around, trying to get my bearings. We weren’t in my yard, which was where I had expected to find myself, but like the Void, this was a place we were both familiar with. It was the clearing. Staring past Gabriel’s shoulder, I recognized the terrible crucifixion tree, its thorny branches a testament to Gabriel’s torture. Thankfully the blood that had bathed the ground had long since been absorbed by the earth. All that was left was a dark streak near the base of the trunk.
“In time, that too will fade,” Gabriel said, solemnly. “It has been long enough, and every punishment must eventually end.”
Beyond the perimeter of the clearing the same trees stood as silent sentinels, their twisted limbs and treacherous roots ready to catch the unwary traveler. Not that anyone came to this place without being summoned. Everything beyond the first ring was cloaked in darkness, but I could still feel the cold slicing open my chest as I struggled to breathe, and knew it had not diminished. It merely waited for me to step beyond the protection of the clearing.
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