Gabriel rolled his eyes and sighed, “Simmer down, little boy.”
Jonathon’s eyes burned with liquid, silver, fire. It was molten and hot. Scorching.
“A thought persuader is a vampire with the power to persuade the thoughts of animals, humans, vampires, even vampire hunters,” he said with a thoughtful look at Aleksei, who had now joined the gathering. “Not all thought persuaders can control all of the different groups, some have an affinity over one particular group. But this one seems quite powerful.”
I continued screaming and Jonathon flinched. He looked at me with so much panic in his eyes and expression that I thought he may explode with it.
Jonathon looked back at Gabriel and said, “Isn’t that what you do?”
Gabriel laughed. “Yes, I guess you could say that. Only I’m much, much, more powerful than that,” He said with a glance at my prone form.
Jonathon gulped visibly and asked, “Can you stop it?”
“Of course. This is a piece of cake for me. Now would you prefer for me to toast this guy from the inside out or would you prefer for me to have him join us for questioning?” Gabriel asked, rubbing his hands together.
“Join us? You mean you can not only stop him but you can make him turn himself in against his will?” Jonathon asked, shocked.
“My dear boy, I can make him do anything I want,” sneered Gabriel.
“Than do it. Make him stop torturing her and then bring him here. I’d like to have a word with the fellow doing this,” said Jonathon in a deathly calm. I knew that on the inside he must be battling his rage. Caging it.
My screams were becoming louder and more inhuman as the pain grew stronger.
Jonathon flinched.
And suddenly it ceased.
My body was sore all over and the world around me seemed so foreign. I let my hands drop from my head and saw that my fingers were bent at odd angles that didn’t look natural.
“Kylie,” said Jonathon falling to the ground and holding me close for inspection. Once he was sure I was in good working order he pulled me against him and whispered words of endearment in my ear.
“I thought you may die principessa. And to think, I only just got you back!” He held me so tight I thought I might break as if I were a child’s doll.
“What have we here?” said Gabriel rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet a smile playing on his lips.
Jonathon and I, like everyone else, turned and followed his gaze.
A girl, so young as to be no older than fourteen, emerged from the edge of the trees.
She was very obviously a vampire.
She marched towards us very slowly and in a trance-like way. And then I realized that Gabriel was forcing her against her will towards us.
If I hadn’t just experienced the pain she put me through I would feel sorry for her. I knew what it was like being forced to do something you very much did not want to do but at this moment I couldn’t bring myself to feel any pity for her.
She was so pale as to appear translucent. Her eyes were such a bright silver that they almost seemed to glow. Her long, waist-length hair was so blond it was nearly white. She moved as if she were floating or gliding across liquid. She wore a wispy white dress that may have been a night gown.
Jonathon stood up, pulling me with him, and held me as close to him as he could. It was as if he thought if he held me tight enough I would melt into him and be protected from everything.
The girl came to a stop in front of Gabriel.
Gabriel turned to Jonathon and said, “I’ll have to ask the questions. She won’t reply to you,” and turned back to the girl.
“What is your name child?” Gabriel asker her.
“Millie,” she replied in a high-pitched childlike voice.
“How old were you when you were changed?”
“Eleven years old,” she said, not blinking.
“How long have you been changed?”
“One-hundred and fifty-two years.”
“Who is your master?” Gabriel said, walking around the girl and assessing her.
“I serve no one,” she said.
“Who are you working for?” Gabriel growled.
She didn’t answer.
“Come on my pet. Don’t fight me. Just answer the question. I repeat, who-are-you-working-for-?”
“Her name is. . . Selena,” she said. I could see how hard she was trying to fight answering these questions and I almost felt sorry for her. She was just a kid. Even if she was an undead one.
An intake of breath came from our collective group.
Gabriel looked thoughtful.
“Why has Selena hired you?”
“To penetrate the human girl’s mind.”
“Which girl?”
“I do not know her name?”
“Describe her then,” Gabriel said. His eyes seemed to bore straight through her.
“Dark hair. Green eyes. The one with the curly haired blond vampire.”
“What was it Selena wanted you to do, specifically, with the human girl’s mind?”
“Confuse her thoughts,” the child-vampire Millie said.
“Confuse her thoughts in regard to what?”
“The blond vampire.”
“And what was it to do with the blond vampire?”
“Make her fall in love with someone else.”
I looked at Isaac and he went stone white.
“Do you know where Selena is?”
“No.”
“When did you last see her?”
“A month or two ago.”
“Where did you last see her?”
“Romania.”
“Did Selena mention where she was heading?”
“No.”
“Have you had any correspondence with Selena since you last saw her?”
“No.”
“Were you supposed to meet with Selena again?”
“Yes,” she replied wincing as the words escaped her lips against her will. She was clearly fighting Gabriel’s power with all the strength she had.
“When?”
“When I succeeded in my task.”
“Did she say where to meet her?”
“She said she would find me,” said the girl in a whisper.
Gabriel looked at Jonathon. “Do you have any questions for her that I may have over-looked?”
“No,” said Jonathon.
Gabriel looked back at the girl named Millie.
“I’m going to kill you now. You will not fight me. You will give your life up willingly,” said Gabriel in that same bland hypnotic voice.
“Okay,” she said in her sing-song childlike voice.
Gabriel walked up to her and put his hands around her head. One cupping the back of her head the other her neck as if in a lover’s embrace.
Jonathon tried to shield me so that I wouldn’t be able to see the scene about to take place before me but I was riveted.
Gabriel pulled and her head gave way with a sickening sound like a twig being snapped and paper being shredded. It reminded me of my father’s death by Selena.
He dropped her head to the ground and like the rest of her body broke into hundreds of glass-like pieces.
Before sulking off, Gabriel gave Jonathon a significant look. Jonathon understood.
Jonathon pulled away and stepped towards the girls shattered body. He closed his eyes in concentration. Whirling blue fire broke out along his arms and hands. The fire glowed brightly and bathed him in brilliance. I wanted to shield my eyes but restrained myself.
He walked slowly towards the remains like someone about to do a job that they desperately do not want to do.
He bent down and picked up one of the fragmented pieces. It instantly caught on fire and glittered with blue fireworks.
Within seconds all the remains had turned to ash and the fire gone like a friendly ghost. A light wind picked up the ashes and carried them away.
Jonathon turned away, grabbed my hand, and carr
ied me away from the murder scene and the realization that we were not safe.
Chapter Seventeen: Gabriel
Jonathon kept a tight hold on my hand and strode defiantly into the woods. He walked with a purpose. A purpose that I was unaware of.
“Jonathon?”
He didn’t answer.
“Jonathon?” I said again in desperation.
“What?” he replied not slowing his stride. He was walking so fast that he was dragging me by the arm.
“Where in the hell are we going? We can’t just leave!”
“We’re not leaving.”
“Then where on Earth are you heading in such a hurry?”
“To find Gabriel.”
“Gabriel?” I asked.
“I need to talk to him,” he said snapping his teeth together angrily.
“Talk to him? Talk to him about what?” I cried.
“I don’t really know. But I just need to talk to him,” said Jonathon dragging me along.
Jonathon stopped suddenly and I almost fell to the ground. I would have had it not been for his hand on mine.
We were now standing in the woods. The area around us was so thickly wooded that I was instantly turned around.
Jonathon sniffed the air delicately and veered sharply to the right nearly jerking my arm out of the socket.
“Ow,” I muttered.
“Gabriel! Gabriel! I know you’re here!” Jonathon yelled angrily. Jonathon was so mad that the veins in his pale neck stood out sharply. He reminded me of a pale white version of the Hulk.
“Could you yell any louder?” asked Gabriel jumping down from a very, very, high tree branch. He landed on his feet like a cat, from a jump that would have killed a human. A human like me.
“You have a lot of explaining to do,” Jonathon said.
Gabriel leaned against a tree completely relaxed.
“Gabriel, please explain to me how you’re not an Implanter. I thought you were the only one in the world?”
Gabriel laughed. The laugh was harsh and completely fake.
“My dear child. I am an Implanter where as other vampires like the one we just witnessed are thought persuaders. Essentially our powers are the same. I am just much, much more powerful.”
Jonathon started to interrupt but Gabriel held up his hand to stop him.
“You want to know what makes me more powerful? I can make you do anything I want you to do. Whereas what a thought persuader, like the vampire we just met, can only influence or persuade thoughts in your head that already exist. They are very dangerous but not as dangerous as me. But as far as I know there is no other vampire with my power.”
Jonathon’s eyes darkened. I knew what he was thinking because it was the same thing that I was thinking.
That meant that my feelings for Isaac already existed. True, they had been intensified and influenced but they had been there.
Gabriel understood the look and repeated what I had already concluded.
“Yes,” said Gabriel, “That means she does have feelings for the boy. A thought persuader cannot create feelings or desires unless there is already some kind of connection. But you must understand that once a thought persuader, or an Implanter, gets into your mind they are nearly impossible to resist. You don’t know that they’re in your mind and you can’t help but listen to the whispers.”
Jonathon took a deep breath.
“Thank you Gabriel,” he sighed as if defeated.
Jonathon turned to go but turned back towards Gabriel.
“Gabriel when were you created?”
Gabriel looked thoughtful.
“I’m not sure exactly but somewhere around two-thousand years ago,” said Gabriel.
“Do you know who created you?”
“Yes. His name is Isaiah.”
“Isaiah? As in Isaiah of the Originals?”
“Yes, that Isaiah. I am the first vampire created outside of the Originals. They assume that is why I am so powerful,” Gabriel sighed. “Don’t you already know this? I thought it was common knowledge,” said Gabriel.
Jonathon chuckled. “I did, I just wanted to hear it from the horse’s mouth. You’re an interesting guy Gabriel.”
Gabriel laughed, “I’d say the same for you but your girl is actually a lot more interesting.”
Jonathon eyes darkened and he stepped in front of me.
Gabriel held his hands up in surrender.
“Surely you’ve noticed?”
“Noticed what?”
“She may be human still but her powers are already forming. Can’t you feel them pulsing?” Gabriel asked.
“No,” said Jonathon like someone who doesn’t want to acknowledge the truth.
“I can’t tell you what her power is going to be but whatever it is she’s powerful,” said Gabriel.
Jonathon looked at me and I looked at him. Excitement sparkled in my eyes. Maybe I wasn’t a defenseless human after all. But Jonathon’s eyes did not portray excitement at the thought of my powers. Instead panic glared at me out of his eyes.
“This can’t be happening,” he whispered.
“What?” Gabriel and I asked simultaneously.
“No-nothing,” said Jonathon shaking his head.
Gabriel stared at Jonathon and I could tell that he was reading Jonathon’s thoughts.
An intake of breath came from Gabriel.
“No,” said Gabriel, “She can’t be.”
“I don’t know for sure. But I think so,” said Jonathon sadly. I looked intensely between the two.
“You do realize that if they get wind of this they’ll take her,” said Gabriel.
“I’ll never let that happen. And technically it isn’t her that they will want,” whispered Jonathon.
Gabriel read Jonathon’s mind and nodded.
“If you’re right about this you better be prepared for an even bigger fight than what is to be expected with Selena,” said Gabriel.
“I hope I’m wrong,” whispered Jonathon.
“I hope so too for both your sakes. They’ve been waiting a long time for the prophecy to be fulfilled and if they find out about the two of you they’ll hunt you down. Just know that I’ll do whatever I can to make sure they don’t find out,” said Gabriel.
Jonathon chuckled but I could sense the stress behind it, “You’re actually a pretty good guy, Gabriel.”
Gabriel shrugged. “Don’t tell anybody though. I’ll lose my street cred,” he said laughing.
Gabriel turned to leave and we did the same.
“Jonathon?” said Gabriel.
“Yes?”
“If it comes to a fight later on with them I’ll be by your side. After all, I’ve been waiting two-thousand or so years to take down those bastards. They ruined my life,” whispered Gabriel. With my human ears I barely heard him.
“Thanks Gabriel,” said Jonathon to the night and trees. Gabriel had already disappeared into the darkness. A reluctant predator of the night.
We began the trek back through the dark woods. Now that Jonathon wasn’t on a mission he walked at a normal pace.
“What’s going on, Jonathon?” I asked. I wanted to know what had silently been exchanged between the two.
Jonathon didn’t say anything.
“Jonathon? Please answer me. I am so sick of always being the one out of the loop. Obviously this has something to do with me, please tell me?” I cried.
Jonathon growled and stopped. He turned towards me so quickly that he was a blur. Breath hissed through his teeth.
“I-can’t-tell-you! Do you understand? If I tell you you’re as good as dead! Up until a few moments ago this was only in my head! I haven’t told anyone what I suspect! Not even Patrick! I could be wrong! Oh, God how I hope I’m wrong! I-I,” as words failed him he grabbed me around the neck and crushed his lips against mine.
Breath failed me. Jonathon had never kissed me like this before. Everything disappeared except for the two of us. This moment would have been perfect if it had
n’t been tinged with danger. Behind his kiss I sensed his stress. He was scared. He held me as close as he could and I thought if he could he would hold me like this forever. He broke the kiss and looked into my eyes.
A single tear escaped my eyes, “You’re really scared aren’t you?”
“Terrified,” he said wiping away the tear. “If the time comes where I have to tell you, I will. But for now it’s better if you’re kept in the dark. I don’t want you to have to worry. I’m doing enough of that for the two of us.” He said holding my face in his hands.
“Promise you’ll tell me when the time comes. Promise, me,” I said.
“I promessa,” he said.
He took my hand in his once more and we started walking.
After about five minutes of silence I said, “I’m scared too.”
“I know. I don’t want you to be scared,” he chuckled, “but in the present circumstances I guess it’s unavoidable.”
“Sometimes I wonder if it will ever be over,” I sighed.
“We will kill her, Kylie, don’t doubt that. I will make sure of it even if it means I die in the process. I will risk anything to make sure you’re safe,” he said playing with a strand of my hair. He started walking again.
I cut in front of him forcing him to stop. With my hands on my hips I stared him down. “Don’t even think about going and getting yourself killed for me. Don’t. Just please don’t talk about that. I have had to deal with too much death and murder already the last thing I need is for you to go and get yourself killed. The last death I want to see is Selena’s,” I said pointing my finger at him to further my point.
He put his hands on my arms, “Kylie, I will try my hardest not to get myself killed but you have to be realistic. Selena won’t rest until she takes down as many as she can. There will be casualties. I can assure you. It’s unavoidable. Can you imagine a war with no deaths?” He asked me.
“Just please don’t do anything stupid,” I sighed.
“Do I ever?” he asked grinning trying to lighten the now dark mood.
“Do you really want me to answer that?”
He laughed, “No, I guess not. I probably wouldn’t like what I heard.”
“Probably not,” I agreed.
Jonathon looked up into the sky. “It’s getting dark. We should fly,” He remarked.
Forbidden (Fallen Series Book 2) Page 17
