Demon Soul

by Christine Ashworth

  He could almost feel her hand on his cheek, her sky-blue eyes full of questions, laughter. The doc said Rose was completely healthy. Yet Gabriel had recognized emptiness in her, one that mimicked his lack of a soul.

  A puzzle. Rose was definitely a puzzle.

  * * *

  Upstairs, Kellan checked in all the rooms before claiming the one that had been theirs as kids. His itchy feet didn't seem so ready to walk away any more. He frowned, shook his head and went to shove the windows open to the warm night air, pungent with citrus and eucalyptus. The orchard remained the same, the trees still in the night. He dropped down on the bed. Of course he'd be going soon. That wasn't even a question. He had a horse, and a dog, and his house in the middle of fucking nowhere, Arizona. Of damn course he'd be leaving. They'd get this mess cleaned up and he'd be out of there like a shot.

  Unsettled, he bent to unlace his boots, tossing them under the bed out of habit. He leaned back against the pillows and went through his sleep ritual. Midway through his mental chanting, he chanced to glance at the ceiling, the design there clear to his demonic eyes. Following it like he would a picture of a labyrinth, the painting shifted, calmed him, until his eyes grew heavy and peace soothed his restless heart.

  There was something familiar about that design. Something... Breathing in the scented air, Kellan slipped into a dream where dogs barked and owls kept a watchful silence.

  Chapter Twelve

  Gabriel prowled the neighborhood where Rose stayed with Maggie, waiting for dawn. He’d waited this long, he could surely wait until dawn to connect. He'd left his brother fast asleep and had run to her. The moon had set and that absolute dark before dawn settled in.

  Time was growing short. With the absence of his soul, his other, less human senses were gaining in strength and his Fae instincts, few though they might be, were almost screaming with urgency.

  A noise had him looking up to the balcony of Maggie's apartment. Rose came out, leaned against the railing and looked to the sea.

  Gabriel knew her frustration as he knew his own. His original plan dissolved as he vaulted up to catch himself on the railing of the balcony. Joy and need both pulsed through him as he caught her scent.

  Rose gasped and whirled about, pressed her hands to her mouth. Finally registering Gabriel, she wrapped her arms around the robe she wore, her eyes flashing in the dim light.

  "Took you long enough. I’m going crazy here. Aren’t you?”

  "I stayed away longer than I’d meant." Gabriel grimaced as her shoulders tensed up. Sighing, he dropped from the railing to the balcony and held out a hand to her. "I’m not used to needing anyone. Not for years."

  She twined her fingers with his. "I’m beginning to understand that." Her words were quiet in the pre-dawn. "You meant to push me away. But it doesn't matter." She turned her face up to his, her blue eyes like lasers, pinning him to the spot. "Apparently this need thing works both ways. Your soul has been aching for you. It’s kept me awake and edgy. I’ve needed you. I’ve been calling you for hours.”

  “I’m here now.”

  “I want you to consider something very carefully. If we don’t manage to get the rest of your soul back, if I can’t give you your soul back, then our future is tied together. Do you understand that?”

  He'd rather face a dozen J'aadt demons than this small woman with her talk of the future. "I'm too old for you. Too dangerous. I've killed. I'm not good enough for you."

  Her eyes flashed again. A lesser man would have quailed. Gabriel stood there secure in the knowledge of being right, knowing that she deserved so much better than someone like him. A murderer.

  "I'm a drug addict and a whore," she said succinctly. "I've done my share of stealing. I've given my body to men who never knew my name in exchange for the drugs they could put into my veins. But then I died. I changed." Rose moved toward him and put one small hand on his broad chest.

  He felt that touch clear to his missing soul. Almost holding his breath, his gaze met hers. Flinched from what he saw in her eyes, even as it warmed him.

  "Gabriel, I can't do anything else than protect you. I feel this is the reason I'm here, and everything that went before brought me to this place, this time. Everything else brought me to you. Whether or not we have a future together? I don’t know. But I don’t want to rule it out, either, just because you’re scared."

  "I don't want this." He searched, but words were beyond him. A helpless little sound escaped from his lips. "Rose."

  She smiled a little, her eyes finally warming. "It's okay. I'm scared, too. You do what you need to do. Whatever happens with Satine, I'll be here waiting for you. We’ll figure out what comes next together, okay?"

  His arms came around her then, lifting her off her feet to bring their faces to the same level. Gabriel searched her eyes. They were clear, holding no secrets. Her heart shone freely, and it took his breath away.

  She wrapped her legs around his waist, took his face into her hands as he adjusted his hold. "Kiss me," she whispered. "While we have this time together."

  He obeyed. Her lips were like satin beneath his, warm and alive and opening to him. His senses spun and his grip on her tightened. His control wavered.

  Gabriel broke their kiss and leaned his forehead against hers, taking a deep breath. Drawing in her scent, the delicious fragrance made him yearn. Every part of him grew hard as stone.

  This sprite, with her flaming red hair and Soul Chalice abilities had captured his heart like no other. Enticed him like no other. Her hands urged him to take her mouth again, and he forgot the reasons to deny her.

  Her body grew warm against him. Her scent rose up to wreathe his brain, turning his thoughts muddy. He needed.

  Urgency thrummed through him. Gabriel turned, pressed her back against the wall and, as his mouth ravaged hers, slid his hand down the front of her robe. Her skin was heated silk against the roughness of his fingers, her body wonderfully responsive.

  Rose's hands spread across his chest, those strong, capable hands hot against his cool skin, sparking fires of need wherever they landed. Gods.

  "Rose?" The door beside them opened. "Oops. Sorry." It shut. Maggie went away.

  Gabriel stilled, one of his hands curved on her bottom, the other on her breast, his mouth a whisper from hers. His eyes opened and he looked into the smiling blue eyes of the woman who had captured him.

  "Now there's timing for you," she said, her voice husky with need and laughter.

  "Gods. Are you all right?" Carefully, he lowered her to her feet, closed her robe in front.

  Rose sighed. Taking his face in her hands, she kissed him. Gabriel felt his own heart overflow, a painful burgeoning of emotion, but he kept his hands fisted at his sides. She broke the kiss and looked him in the eye, exasperated.

  "I didn't realize being a tribred meant you were slow on the uptake. I'm fine," she emphasized, "if sexually frustrated. But let's understand each other, Gabriel. I will have you. You will have me. This— you and me—was meant to be. Maybe we’re only for the short term, maybe for longer. I don’t know and it doesn’t matter right now, but I will have you at some point." She kissed him again. "Now, come on in and have some coffee." She opened the balcony door.

  Fabric fluttered above him. Going on instinct, Gabriel pushed Rose into the kitchen and whirled. A vampire. Terrific. “Stay inside!”

  The male was young, thirsty. He hung on a pine tree branch that sheltered the apartment building below. “Tasty treats.” The words came on a low sigh.

  Gabriel roared a challenge and his demon, denied once that night, took over. His vision expanded as his skin darkened, changed as he eyed his quarry. A leap straight up, a hooking motion with his arm, and he’d ripped the vamp from the tree and tossed him through the air to land with a smashing of glass against the apartment building across the way. A burglar alarm sounded.

  Gabriel leaped off the balcony to take the fight to the ground. He looked up and beckoned to the vampire.

&nbs
p; The vamp shook free of the glass, grunted, and leaped down onto Gabriel’s back. Before the vamp could latch his teeth into Gabriel’s neck, another blur, this one a soft orangey-brown, leaped over the balcony railing and landed on the vamp, which took all three of them to the ground.

  The vamp screamed to feel his hair on fire. He threw the demon off his back and fled on foot.

  Gabriel grabbed Rose’s leg before she could follow. “No.”

  Rose pouted. “Why not? Gabriel, he’s a bad guy. We should just delete him.”

  He stood and took her with him. “No. Now change back, please.” He did so, shook hard. “Before someone comes looking for who ruined the neighbor’s window.”

  “Oh,” she mouthed, and staggered a little as she changed form. “Oh. Ouch. Gabriel, I don’t feel so good.”

  He hugged her to him. “I know, baby. Come on, let’s get back to Maggie’s place. Think she’ll have pants my size?”

  Laughing, Rose led the way back to the apartment. Gabriel followed, unsettled by all that had taken place between them in such a short span of time.

  * * *

  When the sun stood high in the sky and he’d assured himself of Rose’s well-being, Gabriel left Maggie's Montana Avenue apartment and ran the distance to the Caine Investigations office, stopping only to pick up a dozen bagels. Justin had beaten him in and the door to the office stood open.

  “There’s got to be a way to keep her safe." Gabriel dumped the bagels on the conference table and confronted Justin as he read the L.A. Times.

  "Calm down.”

  “Calm down? Calm down? Vamps are finding her now. Demons, vampires, what the hell is going on?” A furious anxiety had taken up residence in his chest, and he didn’t like it one bit.

  “Stop with the freak out. If she’s got the Soul Chalice thing going on, I guess it’s to be expected.”

  "Whatever I expected when I came down here following my soul, it wasn’t this,” he declared. “I've spent the better part of the past decade hiding, working for the filthy rich so I could do something eventually. I finally come home and the first thing I run into is a woman who has the same freaking demon on her that made me kill Marianne. A woman, moreover, who makes me dream of the impossible. Are you surprised that I'm having trouble here?" Gabriel, his eyes hot, pushed the bag of bagels at his brother.

  Justin shoved the bag aside. His strength had it spinning off the table and hitting the far wall. Bagels scattered but neither brother took notice. "You can't continue to use who you are as an excuse. Gabriel." he said, jumping up. "I hate that you were in trouble and I didn't know. I hate that you ran when we are family. We should have been by your side, helping you through it.

  "And now that you're back you son of a bitch, I'm gonna help you if it kills us both." Justin leaned on the table. "What I think about your past, what happened or how you got here, it doesn't matter. But I'd like to help."

  "Hell." He'd known how it had felt to be away from the family. He hadn't realized, not really, how they would feel about his absence. "I don't blame you, Justin, for not being there."

  "I don't fucking care. I blame myself, and that's what we've both got to live with." Justin blew out a breath. "Just don't forget your Fae blood, and your human blood. You're not just a demon."

  "If you tell me I need to find my inner fairy, I think I'm gonna puke.”

  Calmer now, Justin rounded the table to pick up the scattered bagels. "I'm just saying you need balance. Right now, you're giving the demonic part of you all the power, and denying the rest of your heritage."

  "Good, because I'm not down with the fairy dust, you know?" Gabriel looked out the window without seeing the clear blue sky. "You’re the second person to tell me I’m not just a demon. Do you really think because I don't have balance, I'm losing myself when I fight?" Gabriel looked over his shoulder at Justin, his eyes whirling demon-electric green.

  "Yeah. More and more. And the more you lose it, the harder it'll be to regain it."

  "How do I… "

  Kellan came through the door bearing doughnuts. "Hail, hail the gang's all here," he said. "I bring sweets to soothe the savage beast that lingers in us all." He lowered the pink box to Justin's desk, looking from one man to the other. "Oh. Did I just interrupt a moment?"

  "Of a sort. But doughnuts beat bagels by a mile." Justin set the battered bag of bagels on the table and moved to the box of doughnuts. "I get the chocolate bar."

  Kellan raised an eyebrow. "Who said I got you a chocolate bar?"

  Justin grabbed the chocolate bar and grinned. "You wouldn't forget that it's my favorite, no matter how long you've been away." He bit in, closed his eyes for a moment. "Mmmm. Chocolaty, doughnutty goodness."

  "Great. Now we won't get any sense out of him until he’s finished it." Gabriel threw Kellan a disgusted look, sat and dug into the box for a glazed. "What put you in such a cheery mood, anyway?"

  Kellan grinned. "I slept in our old room. Sorry I wasn't around when you woke up - I've been out getting supplies."

  Justin blinked and reached for another doughnut.

  Gabriel scowled, licking his fingers free of sugar. "I left before you, before dawn. What was so special about sleeping in our old room?"

  Kellan went for the bagels. "I slept like a baby. If I dreamed, I didn't remember it, but I woke up with a smile on my face. Do you ever remember waking up and not feeling good in that room?"

  "Only when I woke up sick. And even then, I wanted to get up." Gabriel frowned and took another doughnut.

  "It's the perfect place for Rose. She'll feel safe there. As a matter of fact, we should all go in daylight, have a look."

  "And Maggie," Justin said. "She won't want us to do anything without her. You're right; it would be a good way to get the women somewhere safe."

  "I'm telling you - there's something about that house." Kellan took a chair and straddled it. "So. What's the plan for taking out the vamps?" He bit into his bagel.

  "What can we do that won't have collateral damage? I'd really rather not kill any humans," said Justin.

  "Or weres," added Gabriel. "Remember, we promised to get the weres to safety. We can do a quick check for humans at that point."

  "No killing of humans or weres. There are demons down there, too, you know."

  "Yeah, but I don't feel bad about killing demons," retorted Gabriel. "Do you?"

  "Nope."

  "No remorse here," said Kellan.

  "Okay then. So the demons are expendable." The three looked at each other. "Is anyone else uncomfortable with that realization?"

  "Yeah."

  Kellan sighed. "Yeah. Damn it."

  Gabriel frowned. "Someone's gonna get killed if we take that place down. There's not a whole lot we can do about that."

  "Discussion won't work, that's for sure," Justin said. "Not with a vampire."

  "Not with Vlad, at any rate," amended Gabriel. "He'd be happy to kill us all." He shifted in his chair, remembering. "He's letting that place continue because it alleviates his boredom, quote unquote."

  Justin shrugged. "Danny will get his people out. Weres in fighting mode will usually spook a demon, and they'll run. If not, then I guess we fight the demons and the vampires."

  Gabriel looked at Justin, one eyebrow cocked. "Have you gone full demon?"

  Justin shifted in his chair. "No."

  "I have," offered Kellan. "And I know you have, Gabriel."

  "Yeah. So you’re saying that if the two of us go in, full demon, we should be able to take out the entire place?" Gabriel shook his head. “I don’t think so.”

  "I'd rather firebomb the basement where the vampires rest. If we do it in the daytime, on a weekend, little chance of human traffic in that area of town. When the vampires scrabble to the surface to escape the fire, poof, they'll burn from the sun.” What do you think, Justin?”

  “Hmm," Justin mused. "That might work."

  "If we think we can take the vampires out by ourselves, do we even need the weres?"
Finished with his bagel, Kellan reached a long hand out and snagged a cake doughnut with white icing and multi-colored sprinkles.

  "The vampires have a couple more captives. I know I'd demand to be a part of any rescue attempt if it were, say, you guys being held. We can't keep them from joining in. And frankly, the help is welcome." Justin wiped his fingers on a paper napkin.

  A knocking at their main entrance had them looking at one another.

  "Danny and his gang, already? I haven’t digested yet."

  "Don't snarl, Kellan. Let them in - and be nice." Justin raised his eyebrows warningly. Kellan snorted and left the conference room.

  Gabriel leaned toward Justin. "What do you expect to gain from this?"

  Justin shrugged. "I'm tired of being the only weirdos on the block watching out for our little corner of the world. Is there something wrong with having allies?"

  Danny, Sig and Favor came into the room. Danny held himself with quiet confidence as Sig and Favor flanked him. While Gabriel knew they didn't carry guns, he also knew they had weapons much nastier than any gun.

  He pushed the box of doughnuts to where they settled, their backs to the windows. "Kellan brought doughnuts."

  Danny shook his head, passing the box to Sig. "There's been more demon activity lately. Signs that maybe there’s more than one portal being opened to the Chaos Plane."

  "Damn Kendall Sorbis."

  "He's branched out from being merely the Sorcerer to the Stars, The Guru of Hollywood, or whatever you want to call him. He's definitely crossed a line. We’ve also got the confirmation that he’s been working with the vampire Satine." Danny sighed. "We're looking for him, but he's gone underground."

  Gabriel frowned. "Why would he be opening portals? What's his purpose?" He shifted uneasily.

  "Demons, full blooded demons, thrive in chaos," Justin said, his eyes thoughtful. "Any number of creatures out there would love to see Earth drop into chaos." He looked to Danny. "How does this have anything to do with Twisted, Vlad or Satine?"