by Tina Folsom
Gabriel frowned. “The other vampire will automatically oppose your power and use his against you—it’s an ugly fight, and generally only one comes out alive.”
“Even if it’s just by accident?”
“Doesn’t matter,” Gabriel explained. “When a vampire feels attacked by mind control, he defends himself out of instinct. Only the stronger of the two can break off the fight before the other’s death.” He put his hand on her elbow. “It’s a dangerous skill. Thomas is the best teacher for it. I’ll ask him to teach you when things are more settled.”
“Why won’t you teach me?”
“He’s the better teacher, and you should always be taught by the best. I will teach you other things, things that I’m better at than Thomas. I want you to learn everything you need to know from the best. Only then can I be sure you can defend yourself and be safe.” The soft press of his hand on her elbow was reassuring, and so was the knowledge that he would teach her other things and wasn’t passing her off to somebody else.
When they entered her one-bedroom apartment, Maya’s hackles rose; it looked like somebody had been there. While the door had been locked, too many things weren’t at their usual place. Even though she wasn’t tidy by nature, living in a small place had taught her to keep the place in order.
“Somebody’s been here.”
Gabriel nodded. “I was counting on it.”
“Why?”
“Because that means we have a chance of finding a trace of him. He might have left something.”
Maya was surprised—she hadn’t expected Gabriel to go all CSI on her. He surprised her at every turn. His skill of unlocking her memories had blown her mind, and he’d been right: she hadn’t felt a single thing when he’d done it. Did this mean he could do this anytime, anywhere, and nobody would be the wiser? She cast him a sideways glance.
Gabriel looked imposing as he perused her living room with purpose, letting his eyes run over her bookshelves, which burst from the seams with medical textbooks. His long fingers trailed along the spines of the books. When he shifted his stance to stretch for the upper shelves, she noticed his buttocks flex under his faded blue jeans. That man filled out a pair of pants like no other man. Maya wondered what it would feel like to sink her fangs into the firm flesh of his ass and suck his blood.
She’d taken a step toward him when he suddenly turned. Startled, she gasped, hoping he couldn’t read her mind like he’d assured her earlier. Before she could turn away, he put his palm on her forearm.
“Something wrong? Do you sense something?”
Maya shook her head and lied, “Other than the fact that I’m sneaking around my own apartment like a thief in the middle of the night? Not really.”
“Daytime is unfortunately out of the question,” Gabriel answered with a shrug.
“I figured that much. Don’t mind me, I’m just cranky.” More than that, she was hungry, and if she didn’t put some distance between them, Gabriel would turn into dinner. “I’d better check my messages.”
She walked to the phone and looked at the blinking answering machine. Three messages. She pressed the button.
“This is a recorded message from the Association of—” She pressed the delete button.
“Maya, honey, I just wanted to remind you to call Aunt Suzie next week. It’s her sixtieth birthday, and you know how she likes to hear from you. And call me. I haven’t spoken to you in a week. You’re working too much.”
She caught Gabriel’s curious look. “My mother,” she explained before the next message started.
“Where the hell are you? The chief is raving mad because you didn’t show up today. Call me.”
The machine went quiet. Maya put her hands against her temples. “Oh shit, that was Barbara. I completely forgot about work. They’re gonna fire me.”
She felt a small hand on her back. “Maya, I hate to break it to you, but you won’t be able to continue as a doctor.” She turned to look at Yvette and was surprised to see that there was compassion in her eyes. Yvette had said as much earlier. Maya didn’t see it that way anymore.
“Actually, I don’t see why I can’t remain a doctor. It’s not like I’m craving human blood. I should have no problems being around humans and treat their ailments. I’m not attracted to their blood.” No, not to theirs, just Gabriel’s.
“We don’t know that yet for sure,” Gabriel cut in. “For all we know, this is just a temporary problem. I guarantee you, once you’re thirsty enough, you’ll drink any blood that’s available.”
She hoped he was right, but couldn’t muster up the same certainty he displayed. And besides, there were other issues to be considered. “I’ll have to live off something. Even if my food bill will go down that doesn’t mean I won’t need money to live. And that bottled blood can’t be cheap either. Where do I even get that from? Mail order?”
Gabriel put a reassuring hand on her arm. “You shouldn’t concern yourself with things like that right now. We have more important things to think of. And whatever you need, I’ll take care of it.”
Maya wasn’t the only one who gave him an incredulous look. She noticed Yvette raising her eyebrows and twisting her mouth into a thin line. Had Gabriel just offered to pay for her living expenses? “Thanks, but I don’t want to be a kept woman.”
He grunted and turned away. Maybe her choice of words had been inappropriate, but the gist of what she’d wanted to say was there. She would not become dependent on a man. There had to be jobs that were tailor-made for a vampire. Working the nightshift at the blood bank? Guarding the cemetery at night?
Maya looked back at the answering machine. She should return her mother’s calls; she would be worried, and so would Barbara, the colleague she’d worked with for the last four years.
She lifted the receiver and punched in the numbers. Before the call connected, Gabriel’s hand pressed the off button on the phone. “What the hell?” she yelled, already on the edge.
“Who are you calling?”
She would have told him, but the controlling tone in his pissed her off and spread uneasiness in her stomach. “None of your damn business. What am I, your prisoner?”
With a shocked look, he released his grip on the phone. “No. Of course not. Go ahead.” He paused. “But be careful what you tell your friends and your family.”
Maya let her shoulders drop. He was right. She had no idea what she was going to tell her mother; she’d just dialed without thinking what to say. Her gaze trailed to the photo of her parents on the sideboard. There was her father, his arm draped over his wife’s shoulders, the two of them laughing at each other. She remembered when she’d taken the picture of them. It had been on the day of her graduation from medical school. Mom had put her golden hair up in an attractive bun, and Dad’s short, light-brown hair was wet, as were his clothes.
“He told me he would jump into the pool with all his clothes on if I passed with a four-point-O,” she said to nobody in particular. “I couldn’t pass up the chance.” When she looked up and away from the photo, she caught Gabriel looking at her, a soft smile around his lips.
“Call your parents. Tell them you’re fine, but you’re working extra shifts because a doctor is sick and you have to cover for him,” he advised. “We’ll figure out a more detailed and believable story later.”
She nodded and swallowed back her tears. “It’s too late. They’ll be asleep. I’ll call her tomorrow.”
“Fine,” Gabriel agreed. And then, as if he knew what she was thinking, he added, “You will see your parents again. I promise you. I’ll arrange it for you.”
She gave him a grateful smile. “Thanks.”
“And now, can you look around and let us know if anything is missing or if there’s anything that’s not yours and might belong to him?”
Maya shuddered at the thought that the person who’d attacked her had been in her apartment. How close had she been to him? Had she kissed him, let him touch her? Or even slept with him? It wouldn’
t surprise her—unfortunately. She’d always had a varied sex life and most of her relationships hadn’t lasted long.
She’d never been satisfied, not emotionally and never sexually. No man had ever been able to give her what she needed. Maybe it would have been easier if she’d been able to tell a man what she actually wanted and needed. But she’d never been able to voice her desires. All she knew was that they were dark, too dark for her own mind to put words to them. Whenever she’d had sex with somebody, she’d always wanted to feel more. Yet she didn’t know what this more entailed.
Maya pushed the thoughts aside and went through her belongings, painstakingly going through drawer after drawer, shelf after shelf. Nothing seemed to be missing.
“Are you picking up anything?” she heard Yvette ask Gabriel.
“Nothing. He was careful.” Gabriel’s voice was even.
“Yes, odd. Do you think he knew we’d come here?”
“Definitely. It looks like he’s been here to clean up after himself.”
Maya stared out the window into the dark and shivered. She didn’t want to stay here. The knowledge that he could enter whenever it pleased him, made her feel unsafe. “I’ll pack a few of my things,” she announced.
“Yvette, help her,” Gabriel ordered. “We’re done here.”
In the bedroom, Maya threw a few clothes into a bag, then went into the bathroom. She opened the medicine cabinet over the sink and reached for her contraceptive pills.
“You won’t need those,” Yvette said behind her.
She hadn’t noticed that Yvette had followed her, and the mirror didn’t reflect either of them.
“How would you know? I’m not giving up sex just because I’m a vampire.”
“Nobody is expecting you to. But you won’t need those pills. Vampire females are sterile.”
Sterile. The word hung in the air.
Maya gripped the sink for support. All these years she’d taken precautions against getting pregnant. All these years she’d been afraid of her contraceptives failing, a condom breaking, or any other stupid accident. And now, when she was told she no longer had to worry about that, she had to realize that she wanted to be a mother one day? How cruel could life be?
She felt Yvette’s warm hand on her back and turned into it. “I’m sorry. I thought you knew. Only vampire males are fertile, and only when they are breeding with a blood-bonded mate. I know, it sucks.”
Maya didn’t understand what Yvette was trying to explain to her. “Breed?”
“Yes, in the end vampire males are just like their human counterparts. All they want is a woman who’ll bear them a child. Only a blood-bonded human woman can take a vampire’s seed. All we vampire females are good for is sex. So you’d do well not to lose your heart to a vampire—it’ll only end in disappointment. I’ve seen it before.”
Maya stared at Yvette with disbelief. This couldn’t be true. Not only would she not have any children, children she hadn’t known until now that she wanted, but no vampire male would want her as a long-term partner because she was sterile? Was this payback for how she’d treated so many men? For the fact that she’d broken if off as soon as she’d realized that the man couldn’t satisfy her needs? For barely giving anyone a chance?
A sob tore from her throat.
A second later, Gabriel burst into the room. “What did you do to her?” he yelled at Yvette and squeezed between the two women, pulling Maya to his chest. She instinctively allowed herself to be cradled by him.
“I didn’t do a thing to her!” Yvette shouted back and stormed out of the tiny bathroom.
Maya let out another sob. It didn’t matter to her what Yvette’s motivation for the blunt revelation was. In fact, she was glad for it, glad that she’d found out now.
***
Maya’s sob went right through Gabriel’s bones. He’d failed again. He’d promised himself earlier that she wouldn’t have to cry anymore, and here she was, tears running down her face. He shouldn’t have asked her to come to her apartment with them. She was still too fragile, still too sensitive to everything.
She pushed against him and pulled free. Did she not want his concern? “I’m fine,” she claimed. He knew she wasn’t.
“Why are you crying?” he probed.
“I’m not crying.” She sniffed. “I think I’m coming down with something.”
He tilted his head to the side. “What do you mean?”
“Just a cold or something.”
Gabriel shook his head. Maya was avoiding him, and he didn’t like it. “Vampires don’t come down with anything. We don’t get sick.” Before he could get Maya to tell him what was really wrong, he heard a sound.
His head snapped to the small window over the bathtub. He hadn’t noticed until now that it was open.
“Somebody’s watching,” he whispered to Maya and took her arm. He quickly led her back into the living room where Yvette sulked in an armchair.
“He’s out there,” he told Yvette, who instantly jumped up. “I’m going after him. You take Maya home.”
“We have a better chance if we both go after him,” Yvette protested.
Gabriel cut her off with a movement of his hand. “That’s an order.”
Without waiting for an acknowledgment, he stormed out of the apartment and out the front door.
The rogue had been watching them. That meant he now knew Maya had survived, but also that she was under Gabriel’s protection. He might figure out where she was hiding. It was paramount that Gabriel found him before he could mount another attack.
The fact that he’d been watching her apartment—clearly in the hope that she would come back—made it clear to Gabriel that the rogue was obsessed with her. A stalker, just like he’d suspected. A jilted lover.
He hadn’t seen the man who’d stood outside in the alley and had watched them, but he’d noticed that the alley was a dead end. This meant the man had to have come back to the main street to escape. Therefore Gabriel didn’t bother running down the alley and instead followed the faint scent of vampire the rogue left on his trail.
He zigzagged through Noe Valley. It was obvious to Gabriel that he was trying to get out of the quiet residential area and into a busier area so it would be harder for Gabriel to stay on his tail. Gabriel sped up, trying to gain ground on the rogue, but his relative unfamiliarity with the San Francisco neighborhood didn’t help him. If this was New York, Gabriel would have cut the rogue off long ago, but chasing a man down in his own territory was much harder.
When he heard the sounds of music and partying, Gabriel knew he’d lost. A couple of blocks further and he was in the center of the Castro. There seemed to be two- or three-dozen bars and clubs just on two blocks. And the sidewalks teamed with clubbers. Gabriel looked through the crowd and suddenly noticed the absence of women.
Mostly men walked along the streets, some hugging, some holding hands, others kissing openly. Gabriel had been here before, many years ago. This was the gay center of the city, where the gay population had their special hangouts, where the police rarely interfered, where public exposure was the norm.
Gabriel stopped on a corner of a bar and pulled out his phone. A handsome young biker smiled at him and lifted his beer bottle toward him from the bar. Gabriel shook his head and turned away. Great, men were coming onto him—they obviously didn’t mind his scar. Why couldn’t a woman give him the come hither look? Not any woman—Maya specifically.
He dialed. His call was answered after the third ring. “What’s up, Gabriel?” Zane breathed hard into the phone.
“Where are you?”
“Why?”
“Because I need you to do some work,” Gabriel barked.
“I’m in the Mission, hot nightspot.” Zane gave the address.
“I’ll meet you there.” Gabriel punched the address into the GPS on his phone. Zane’s current location was only about six blocks away. Well, that was convenient.
What Zane called a hot nightspot was a little mo
re than just a nightclub. The bouncer at the door said nothing and let him pass inside the dingy establishment as soon as he was finished staring at Gabriel’s scar. He figured the darn thing did have its purposes. People seemed to be afraid of him and didn’t give him any resistance.
It was dark, darker than in other clubs he’d been to, and the reason why became evident instantly. Along the outside walls were small booths, the entrances covered with transparent fabric, enough to distort the faces of the people behind them, but not sufficient to disguise what they were doing.
Gabriel wasn’t surprised. His second-in-command’s choice of entertainment always included sex, and if it was peppered with violence, even better. He followed his nose and found Zane in one of the booths. He stopped outside of it and looked through the gauzy fabric.
It was easy to make out Zane’s distinct form. His bald head glistened. He was stretched out on a bench, his stiff cock sticking out of his leather pants. A woman was giving him a blow job while he had his fingers up the ass of a second one who was straddling his face.
The women were dressed, but on closer inspection Gabriel would see that the woman who was straddling Zane wasn’t wearing any panties under her ultra-short skirt.
Gabriel kept himself rigid as he watched how Zane sucked the woman’s pussy and worked a third finger into her ass, ignoring the woman’s attempt to pull away. With his free hand he slapped her ass cheek, and the woman squealed.
“Do as you’re told,” he heard Zane order her.
Gabriel contemplated interrupting him, but two things stopped him. Interrupting a vampire while he was having sex could turn ugly—Zane would turn his sexual energy into violence, and Gabriel didn’t want to be on the receiving end of it.
The second reason was his own arousal. Gabriel liked watching—it was all he often got. And this time, it was more than just watching some people in a porn movie. This time, he could pretend that he was the man, and the woman above him was Maya.
The situation turned him on within seconds, awakening sexual desires darker than usual. Why he suddenly wanted unspeakable things, indulge in sexual acts that seemed depraved and taboo, he couldn’t explain. Was he getting so desperate that anything would arouse him these days? Gabriel shook his wicked thoughts off.
