by Bonnie Vanak
Hands jammed into his pockets, he strode forward. His skin was stretched tight over taut cheekbones.
“I hate to see you so upset. It kills me inside.”
Sitting beside her, Gabriel kissed the corner of her mouth and drew her into his arms. Megan parted her lips beneath the insistent pressure of his, sighing as his tongue swept into her mouth. Then she yanked back, holding out her hands like a stop sign.
“This isn’t the answer, Gabriel. I want all of you. I’ve been alone so long, dreaming of the one who could set me free. Someone who would accept me for everything I am, and would let me inside his world, as well.”
Her voice trembled. “I’ve wanted to give you my trust and my hope. But you keep shoving me away, just like they did on the island, only they did it out of ignorance and fear.”
His thumbs gently wiped away the tears spilling out of the corners of her eyes. “I want to start over again. Begin a new life, with you. I can’t promise anything but to try.”
“It’s all I ask, Gabriel.”
He tipped up her chin so she could look him straight in the eye. “You deserve everything good to come your way. I’ve never met a female more kindhearted or strong. You will be free, Megan. No more hiding in the shadows.”
She dared to press further. “Why didn’t you trust me before to tell me about what you really are?”
“This isn’t easy. I want you to trust me, Megan, and believe in me, so I’ll take the gamble.” He removed his hat. “I didn’t want to tell you about my being a Trans-Feral before because I was afraid.”
“Afraid of trusting me with the knowledge?”
“Afraid of your reaction. Anyone who knows what I am has never reacted…ah, favorably.” A twisted grin touched his mouth. “More like they act as if I’m Hell’s spawn come to earth. I didn’t want to see it in your face, see what I’ve seen in others.”
“What is it, Gabriel?” She kept her voice low and soothing.
“Damn this is hard.” He scrubbed a hand over the bristles on his jaw. Gabriel sat down. The honest plea in his dark gaze floored her. “I just, I want…”
“Tell me,” she urged.
“Can you promise me that you will trust me utterly? With your life if I should ever change and become fully Trans-Feral?”
“I trust you.”
“Promise, Megan. Promise me you won’t call me a monster.” His voice dropped. “I don’t think I could bear it, knowing my bonded mate thought I was one when all my life I’ve tried to convince myself I’m not.”
She seized his hands into hers. “I promise.”
“I didn’t tell you before because I was afraid of your reaction. Afraid you’d act like someone else had.”
The pain radiating from him was so intense, she felt an actual ache in her chest. Megan laced her fingers through his. “Please, tell me, Gabriel.”
But he couldn’t look her in the eye. “I’ll show you instead. Close your eyes.”
As she did, a series of images unfolded in her mind: a tall, voluptuous brunette, laughing and walking with Gabriel. Megan felt his absolute adoration, heard his thoughts. He was nineteen and Tamara was the one. Everything pointed to it, even though she was his first lover.
The chemistry was right, the sex amazing. He was certain he’d found his destined mate. Nothing could go wrong. Everything had.
A Morph attacked her. By the time Gabriel reached her, he was crazy with fear and Tamara was successfully fighting off the Morph. But infuriated and needing to prove his manhood, he shifted.
“Your eyes, oh Gabriel, what’s happening with your eyes?!” Tamara screamed.
Now Megan saw through Gabriel’s eyes, felt his rage and his fear for his lover as he became Trans-Feral. And then after he’d killed the Morph, his love backed away with horror in her eyes, throwing out her hands.
“Stay away from me, you monster!” Tamara shouted.
Megan’s heart sank as she watched a lonely Gabriel walk away in human form. Tamara screaming about telling her parents about the dangerous Trans-Feral, and how he should be locked away in a demon prison.
A saddened Gabriel forced to erase all memories of himself and their relationship from Tamara’s mind.
Megan’s eyes opened to see Gabriel quietly regarding her. She took his face into her hands and kissed him tenderly. “I’m so sorry,” she breathed against his mouth. “If I could, I’d erase your past. How could she do such a thing when you were only protecting her?”
Gabriel ran a finger down her cheek. “Fear. Tamara didn’t know what I was. I never warned her. But now you know. Don’t ever be afraid of me, Megan. I’d never hurt you, no matter what I was. It’s bred into my blood and bones to protect you to my dying breath.”
“I’d trust in that even if you shifted into a Trans-Feral.”
He gave a sad smile. “I hope so. I hope it never comes down to that.”
Chapter 19
Gabriel focused on the busy stretch of I-10 into New Orleans as Megan and the girls dozed off. Tristan had given them a sleek new minivan. They looked like a typical American family on a road trip. The drive had been long and silent but for the incessant, excited chatter of the twins as they anticipated seeing their father. Tristan had been impressed by both girls.
“They’re extremely smart, disciplined and show a ready aptitude to learn, despite the restrictions they’ve lived under on Shadow Island,” Tristan had told Gabriel and Megan. He aimed a thoughtful look at Megan. “Someone has taught them well.”
Megan had said nothing, only curled her hand into Gabriel’s.
Beside him, she awoke with a small cry. Sweat dampened her forehead. He reached over, gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. “The same dream?”
Trembling, she nodded. He brought her hand to his lips, kissed it gently. “Tell me, darling.”
“I can’t,” she said, pushing at her hair. “It will feed its power over me.”
Then she said nothing else.
Taking a leap of faith, he opened his mind to her. He touched her chest and her heavily beating heart. “When you hurt here, I hurt, as well. You will always be part of me.”
Megan took his palm and placed it against her cheek. She turned into his touch, her long silky lashes feathering against her soft cheeks.
“You’re so good to me, Gabriel. I’m glad we’re destined to be together.”
A rush of emotions left him staring wordlessly at her. Gabriel marveled at finally finding a woman who didn’t treat him like a pariah.
“When Alex comes, I want you to go with him and my brothers. It’s safer at my parents’ house.” He grimaced. “Until Logan and I have it out, you’re not safe.”
Logan was near. Every sense screamed it.
They passed the Super Dome, Gabriel exited the interstate, heading for Basin Street.
“Keep your guard up,” he warned. “Alex said he’d meet us at the cemetery.”
“An odd choice. Why not your restaurant or your home? Or his?”
“Too obvious. Alex said he shielded the place against Morphs, so it’s safe. None of Logan’s Morph clones can make it inside.”
“Nothing can tear down the shield?”
“Certain types of demons can, but there haven’t been any in these parts in decades. Tristan and the other Guardians trapped them.”
“Uncle Gabriel, you didn’t tell our daddy who we were yet, did you?” Jennifer asked.
“We want to surprise him,” added Jillian.
“Ah, he’ll be surprised, all right,” he assured them.
Wide-eyed, the girls quieted as he drove toward the St. Louis Cemetery Number One. Gabriel parked the car on the street.
He looked around. Hairs stood up at the nape of his neck, yet he could scent no danger. Yet.
“Maybe it’s just being here, at a cemetery.”
Megan’s voice broke through his introspection. For the first time, he realized he’d allowed her inside him, to experience his thoughts and emotions. It wasn’t as invas
ive as he’d envisioned. Or as intimidating. Rather, he felt her presence as gentle and reassuring.
I’m with you, all the way. We have to think of the girls, and Alexandre. It’s going to be a little scary for the twins and for him, as well.
He squeezed her palm. A small smile touched her mouth. Gabriel rolled his shoulders to ease the tension, watchful as they climbed out of the car.
Humidity hung in the air like a wet blanket. He breathed in the familiar smells: alcohol from Bourbon Street, magnolias and dank earth, river water, diesel fuel from the Mississippi, garbage, fried crayfish, a thousand scents of humans and other creatures, and the reassuring, earthy scent of Draicon wolves.
Megan’s own nostrils pricked. Surprise stole over her expression. “I smell…is that a vampire?”
He tweaked her pert nose. “Darling, you are in New Orleans. Don’t be surprised to see a Fae or two, as well. Heard there’s a convention in town.”
Blond dolls dangling from their tight grips, Jillian and Jennifer stared at the scrolling ironwork cross over the cemetery gate. “I’ve never been to a place like this before. It has the aura of magick,” Jennifer whispered.
Using his powers, he unlocked the gate. “Let me check it out first, then I’ll come and get you.”
After combing through the graveyard, he returned. They wended their way through the lanes of brick, marble and stone tombs. The air was hot and sultry, licking their skin with heat. Gabriel remained edgy and alert for trouble. But he scented only the humans who’d walked through here during tours and heard only the stillness of a slight breeze whispering through the graveyard.
Yet he couldn’t shake the feeling something was off. Beneath the normal smells of the city lurked a foul scent, like sulfur and methane.
His nostrils flared.
“Spooky place.” Megan had her arms around the twins.
He glanced at the hazy outline of the yellow afternoon sun. “We’re still early.”
The girls wandered off to examine the writings on a tomb. Keeping an eye on them, Gabriel ran a finger down Megan’s cheek.
“They’ll be with their father soon.”
Gabriel felt the tension in her body ratchet up. “I know how cruel Draicon can be.” She bit her lower lip. “All the verbal and physical abuse Normals dished out because I was a Shadow, I’ve fought my whole life to convince myself I’m not lower than dirt. I did the same for Jenny and Jilly. For every insult a Normal gave them, I told them how special they are and made them feel they were worth something.”
In a flash of clarity, he understood. “You’re worried you’re handing them over to someone who will make them feel bad about themselves.”
Megan nodded. “Draicon made my life hell. Why should I trust their father, any Draicon, can be good to Shadows? I guess I was hoping deep down that their father would be a Shadow.”
“I know how deeply Alex loved Simone and Amelia and how respectful he is of Shadows. He’ll love the girls with all his heart. This will give life back to my brother. He’s been walking in a fog ever since they died.”
“I believe you. You’re loyal and protective and courageous to the core. And yet you hide from the world, because you don’t want the world to truly see you. If they saw you as I do, they’d know exactly how wonderful you are.”
He gave a brief smile. “Not so wonderful when I show my dark side.”
“I don’t care,” she said fiercely. “Nothing you could turn into would make me turn away from you, Gabriel.”
Such easy acceptance.
Suddenly a stench made him gag. He leaned back, coughing. Everything inside him flared to high alert.
Something nasty and sinister lurked in the shadows.
“What is it?”
“I don’t know, but stick close,” he warned.
Movement caught the corner of his eye. Megan dodged a blow, the bat missing her by a fraction of an inch. Gabriel went to push her behind him, but she dropped and rolled away.
An unearthly screech echoed over the cemetery. Gabriel stiffened. His subconscious recognized the intruder.
“What was that?” Megan cried out.
“A demon. Protect the girls.” He tensed, waiting to attack. Not knowing where the ability came from, but going on a long-buried instinct.
Alex had shielded the cemetery against Morphs, but not against demons. They were screwed.
The dark cloud materialized and the girls cried out as they were seized.
Clad in a torn white shirt and ragged pants, the man gripped a twin by each wrist. He flashed a cruel smile at Gabriel.
“I smell a filthy dog who needs to be put down, along with his brother’s hellish spawn.”
A voice with a distinct Southern twang, once friendly and trustworthy. Sickened, he regarded his former employee. He’d known Jay for ten years, had taken him into his inner circle. The human was loyal to the core. Until now.
Jay was the reason the Shadow Friends network was compromised, he realized.
He circled closer, getting his bearings, using his sharpened senses to track the man’s moves. “How did you find me?”
Jay laughed. “You’re so cocky, Gabriel. All I had to do was plant a tracking device on the one item you’re never without. Le chapeau.”
The thick air of malice felt smothering. Gabriel tore off his hat, examined the band and pulled free a miniature chip. He crushed the GPS, threw the hat aside.
“I’ve made you rich, Jay. Why the betrayal?”
“Logan promised the entire chain of your restaurants would be mine when you died. All I had to do was give him the locations of the safe houses.”
Gabriel drew in a lungful of foul air. The inner voice nudged him to the warning signs, the foul breath, the wild-eyed reddish glare, the trembling of limbs no longer under his control. Anguish tore through him.
Jay was no longer human.
Gabriel tamped down his fury and grief. He couldn’t push it and unleash his wolf with the girls at risk. Deep inside, his friend still remained, trapped and screaming for release from the prison of his own body.
In a moment of blinding empathy, Gabriel felt pity for his friend’s panicked helplessness. He told Megan. Run, get out of here.
She threw him a distraught look. Not while he has the girls.
Megan whirled as movement stirred the air. Logan darted out from between two tombstones. He slammed Megan against a wrought iron fence. She recovered and delivered a blow that sent the Draicon reeling. Gabriel was torn between protecting his draicara, who was fighting well on her own, and dealing with the immediate threat to the twins.
I’m fine, I can handle this coullion. Take care of the girls.
“Jenny, Jilly, use all your powers,” Gabriel ordered.
Jennifer released her doll, sending it floating above Jay’s head, distracting him. Then Jennifer shoved him backward while Jillian’s brow furrowed in concentration.
Jay screamed. “Get out of my head! Out!”
The twins yanked free and fled.
Gabriel delivered a hard punch to the man’s solar plexus. Jay doubled over, gasping, then recovered. He flashed Gabriel a sickly grin.
“I’m ten times stronger now than I was as a puny human.” Jay dodged as Gabriel lashed out.
For every blow Gabriel delivered, the man recovered with amazing speed. And then for a split instant, Jay lifted his gaze. Gone was the reddish glare, replaced by hazel eyes filled with anguish.
“I’m dead, Gabe,” Jay whispered. “Kill me. It’s the only way I’ll have peace.”
He couldn’t. This was the man who had stood by his side, helped him establish the Shadow network, the guy who’d drank beers with him in the late hours after they’d closed the restaurant. Jay was more than a loyal employee. He was a close friend and Gabriel had once trusted him with his life.
But everything Feral inside him raged, knowing Jay spoke the truth.
And then the demon did something that made Jay scream in pain. Rage consumed Gabriel
. He snarled, feeling his savage side take over. “I’m sorry, Jay.”
With a howl that echoed through the lonely cemetery, he grabbed his former manager, lifting him as Jay fought and yelled in demon speak.
Muscles strained to control the demon. With a loud curse, Gabriel impaled him on the pointed spikes of an ornate tomb fence. For a moment peace came across his old friend’s features.
A foul whoosh of air pushed past Gabriel. Without thought, he whirled and snarled, talons exploding from his fingertips and raking over the dark cloud.
The demon’s scream echoed in his mind as he saw the black mass explode into small shards of inky darkness.
He turned to the sound of frightened screams.
The twins tried to shift into Shadow as Logan threw a silver net over them. The girls writhed against the bonds. The sharp netting cut her hands as Megan tried to free her cousins.
Then she too was trapped by another net. The burning stench of fear filled Gabriel’s nostrils as she fought the bonds.
Horror shone in her eyes. Each movement against the net weakened her powers. Logan fished out a knife and turned to Gabriel.
“You’re a Morph now. The shield should keep you out.” Gabriel fisted his hands, advancing, watching the other’s moves.
“Hitchhiker demons can eradicate a puny Draicon shield. Don’t you know anything, Feral?” The man blinked, showing coal in the pits of his eyes. “I gave up everything to avenge my son’s death. My money. My business. My soul. I turned Morph by killing my brother as a blood sacrifice for the demon and made an army of Morph clones to come after you. Now your loved ones will suffer like you made my Deke suffer, you Feral bastard. I’m going to cut them to pieces, slowly.”
Rage consumed Gabriel. The howl he released echoed through the stillness of the cemetery. Savage. Inhuman. The wild animal inside him wanted the blood of the man who threatened his loved ones.
Logan stepped closer to the net, drew his knife over Megan’s right cheek. Blood welled.
Maddened by the sight, Gabriel felt fury shape his cells, twist his bones. Without warning, he shifted into what everyone feared.
