“My apartments are at your disposal,” Honoria said.
“And those recorders you have hidden in every corner of them will be at yours, right? No thanks.”
He pulled Amelia along through the mass of bodies, keeping her close and grabby hands away. The firedancers were still on the staircase. He had to make his way around them to get to the bottom where the guards still stood at attention. “Move,” he growled.
The guards looked up toward Honoria.
Gabriel didn’t trust himself to turn. She must have given a nod, though, because the guards stood aside and let them through. He’d never been so relieved to step foot onto sand before. “Are you okay?” he asked, never slowing, leading the way through the darkened streets of Rome.
“No,” she said, breathing heavier than should be necessary. “Maybe. I don’t know.”
He kept a steadying arm around her, glad for the cool night breeze. It would help clear her head.
“Where are we going?”
“Somewhere far less glamorous than the palace.”
Her head bumped against his chest as if she couldn’t hold it up anymore but somehow she managed to raise it again. “Oh, thank God.”
He almost smiled at that. Almost.
The streets weren’t empty tonight. There were hundreds, if not thousands, trying to get to Honoria’s little get together. Most of them would be turned away but that has never stopped a Roman before. There would be many more parties tonight, scattered around the arena, scorned prideful Patricians doing their very best to show everyone they hadn’t really been trying to get in. They’d had their own plans from the beginning.
Gabriel stalked the streets, taking them farther from the epicenter of chaos into the quiet, dark alleys of the outskirts. The house he sought was empty. A nice little hideaway Honoria might or might not know about. Whether she did or didn’t, she never came here and neither did her men.
“Step where I step,” he told Amelia, releasing her hand so he wouldn’t pull her off balance.
“What do you mean? I can’t see anything.”
He stopped in the doorway. “Close your eyes and let them adjust to the dark.” He could walk this path with his eyes closed, but then he’d done it thousands of times before. Amelia needed to see where she was placing her feet.
After a moment she nodded. “Okay, I think this is as good as it’s going to get.”
“Can you see the floor?”
“Barely.”
“Good enough. Step where I step. Nowhere else. And don’t touch anything.”
He led the way, checking behind him to make sure Amelia was following his directions. She had her arms spread out for balance and stepped lightly with her toes first, testing the floor before she put her weight on it. Good girl.
They circled around the main room, a random path of zig zags until they were facing the front door again. Gabriel stooped to feel for the edge of the trap door. When he opened it, the window shutters closed one by one and the door locked. Electric lights turned on inside the tunnel, illuminating the ladder rungs.
“Are we getting out of here?” Amelia asked. He could hear the hope in her voice.
“No,” he said, bracing for the wave of disappointment that washed over him a second later. “Just going where Honoria won’t find us.” He helped her down the ladder, following behind her so he could close and lock the hatch.
The tunnel was more of a maze. There were paths leading to dead ends—literally—and paths that kept going in circles big enough to confuse the hell out of the unwary traveler. There were so many booby traps even Gabriel didn’t know them all anymore. But he didn’t have to; he knew the only safe way through these catacombs. That was enough.
“What is this place?”
“You’ll see,” he said. They were almost at the end. He didn’t want to ruin the surprise.
The tunnel opened to a spacious cavern. Parts of the walls were still rough stone, as if someone had started carving them smooth but was interrupted before he could finish. There was an underground stream running through here. It was channeled around the chamber’s walls but a small side stream had managed to branch off to run through the center.
This was as close to home as it could be. There was furniture that almost looked modern, electricity, a computer system, and an emergency com system. It was capable of connecting to the world outside of Rome but Honoria had ways of monitoring when signals went in or out. If he used it she’d find this place in an instant.
Amelia brushed past him into the cavern. “Did you do this?” She turned full circle, looking around with a sort of wonder he’d never seen in her eyes before. She wasn’t a scientist observing her surroundings now; she wasn’t taking mental notes. For once, she was looking and just seeing.
“No,” he said and left it at that.
Amelia came back to him, holding his gaze. She touched his cheek with feather soft fingertips. The scent of the drug was fading. She was getting back to herself. “Your eyes are pale.”
Gabriel wasn’t surprised. “After the day I had, yours would be too.” His voice came out softer than he’d intended. Weighted down with years of shit no human being should ever be forced to carry. Being back here always brought it up to the surface. His brief escape into Amelia’s home, into her life, made coming here all the worse. He’d let himself forget with her. Now it all came back with a vengeance.
Amelia dropped her hand and pulled away.
Gabriel frowned. “What’s wrong?”
“Soren told me something today.”
He groaned. “Of course he did. Amelia, you can’t believe—”
“Is it true they didn’t recruit you?”
That son of a bitch!
“You haven’t lied to me about anything else so far,” Amelia said. “So tell me the truth. Did you ask them to bring you here?”
A muscle in his neck twitched. “He shouldn’t have told you that.”
“Is it true?” she insisted.
Gabriel’s shoulders slumped a little. “Yes,” he said.
“Why?”
I’m going to win her, Gabe.
She’s not a contest, man, think about this!
I am. I have nothing to offer her now. But once I do this, my name will mean something.
Suddenly weary, Gabriel dropped on the couch and leaned his head back. The angle was awkward but at least he didn’t have to look at Amelia. “It’s a long story. Anyway, it doesn’t matter now.”
“Funny, I seem to recall telling you almost the same thing about my past. And you still demanded to know. You told me I knew everything about you.”
“Everything worth knowing.”
“Well if it’s so inconsequential then what’s the harm in telling me—and God damn it, what the hell was in that wine?”
“I never said it was—”
“It’s simple, Gabriel.” She blew out a frustrated breath. The drug would linger in her for a while. Once the sharp arousal subsided, it tended to leave a person hypersensitive and unsatisfied. “You owe me. Those ferric diamonds aren’t going to do me a damn bit of good if I never get out of here. I’m kind of depending on you to survive. And it’s not exactly a comfort to know you might not have a plan to get out yourself. I know this was a suicide mission for you from the start, but are you willing to get me killed too?”
Gabriel shot to his feet. “Is that what you think?”
“And what should I think?” she said, getting in his face. “You had Honoria right in front of you twice now and you did nothing.”
“You were standing right next to Soren!” And the general’s hand had been on his sword the entire time.
“You’re a gladiator. From the looks of it, a pretty damn popular killer.”
“That would not have saved you today if Soren decided to pull his blade.” God, if only.
She ignored that and continued on her tirade. “You apparently chose this. For reasons I can’t begin to guess at because it scares the hell out of m
e to think about it. And you want to kill Honoria at any price, even if it means your life. Tell me, which part should I be comforted by?”
“Don’t do that. Not you. You know better.”
“I don’t know!” she cried desperately. “Don’t you see? I don’t know anything, except what you choose to tell me. So tell me!” Her fear hit him like a punch in the nose. She was breathing hard and her eyes glittered like she was about to cry. “Please,” she said. “Just tell me.”
Gabriel turned away from her, unable to stand the sight of her fighting to keep her tears at bay. Amelia wouldn’t cry; she was too strong for that. What killed him was that she shouldn’t have to be. He sat back on the couch and dropped his head in his hands. Christ, what a fucking mess. “I told you my college roommate was a cook.” The words halted there. Everything in him rebelled against burdening her with this.
Tell her. She deserves to know.
He sought the panther for some sort of support. The beast lounged back, seeming relaxed now that the mass of horny females was gone, but its gaze was too predatory, too fixed on Amelia. For now, it was watching, biding its time. But the interest was there and Gabriel had no way of knowing if it was lust or bloodlust in those pale feline eyes.
“Well there were three of us in the room,” he said, pushing back the panther; any awareness that it was there inside him. “Jack was the cook, Alex was the engineer, and I was the fighter. Had a personal trainer on call every day, courtesy of my scholarship, fought tournaments every chance I got. Won, too. More often than not.
“There was a girl living in the room across the hall. Paige. Pretty little thing. Genius with computers. She’d come over, take cooking lessons from Jack, self defense lessons from me, and in return she’d teach us about computers. Alex always did his own thing but he was always there for that lesson. He loved that girl…” Enough to do something stupid. “And she had no idea.”
Amelia came to him, sat on the ground at his feet. She didn’t say anything, didn’t touch him, but her nearness was enough.
“Then one day this guy came in, told Alex he’d have to prove himself to get a girl like that. Said he had the perfect way to do it. Three year contract, fame, glory and all that other crap, and then he could come back for Paige with a fat bank account and a name worth taking. So Alex signed up. We tried to talk him out of it but he wouldn’t listen.”
“He came here,” Amelia guessed.
“He came here.”
“So what happened to him?”
“He did well. So well that at the end of three years, Caesar wanted to renew his contract indefinitely. But Alex had Paige waiting for him at home. He respectfully declined and they backed off with a smile. A week before he was scheduled to come home he called us all to brag. We teased him like crazy for being dressed like a statue. He proposed to Paige that day, with me and Jack as witnesses. Happy times.
“Four days later they found Paige’s body three blocks from campus. Poor thing was beaten so bad we couldn’t even make the identification. Her hands were broken and she had skin under her fingernails. You know what that means?”
“She fought back, like you taught her to do.”
Gabriel nodded, the old bitterness coming back to the fore. “I taught her to be brave, so she fought when she should have run,” he said. “Against men like Soren and his goon squad, she wouldn’t have stood a chance, but she fought anyway. They could have made it quick, but they let her struggle and fight because it amused them. That’s what happens when Caesar is about to lose something precious.” The rest of the story spilled out uncomfortably past the lump in his throat.
“Alex must have found out somehow. Last message I got from him was some cryptic code and a map to this place. He never made it to the shuttle home. We were best friends, the four of us. I wasn’t about to let it go, and neither was Jack. But of the two of us I had the best chance of getting in. Jack stayed behind in case something happened to me. He died in a transport collision exactly one year after Paige. Around the time I got to be a damn popular killer.”
Everyone he’d ever cared about. Dead. Gone forever, leaving nothing behind but old recorded messages and the sound of their voices. Those would never leave him. Not as long as he lived. Gabriel blinked away the memories of broken bodies, bloodied faces that had once used to smile and laugh, enjoying life to the fullest. He dragged himself out of that dark place where his nightmares came from; where he retreated when he missed his friends the most, becoming almost catatonic for hours on end, remembering.
He found himself looking at Amelia’s hand, tucked trustingly in his. He squeezed it, grasping on to that fragile thread of compassion he would not find anywhere else.
“Your friend Alex built this place,” she said softly.
“Among other things,” he replied, having to clear his throat to find his voice. “He built the tunnels as a game. Must have realized something wasn’t up to snuff and added the traps later on. Caesars put their faces on every building in Rome. This is the only place they couldn’t touch. After all that promise of fame and glory, this cave is the only thing he had which they hadn’t corrupted.”
“Did you ever find whoever killed him?”
“The old Caesar gave the orders,” Gabriel said, anger clearing the last cobwebs of pained misery. “Honoria was the one who carried it out.”
Chapter 22
His face changed when he said it. Cheekbones widened, nose flattened down a little, teeth sharpened and eyes glowed pale brown, almost white. He didn’t seem to notice any of it. “All this time, everything you’ve done, was for revenge?”
Gabriel’s eyes flickered when he met her gaze. “If you had a chance to go back to all those sons of bitches who took your friends and make them pay, wouldn’t you?”
Amelia swallowed with difficulty. “Yes,” she admitted. She wouldn’t have hesitated. She’d have found a way, developed a virus, or poison; something to make sure nothing could save them. She’d make them suffer for days, even weeks for the lives they’d destroyed. Not just the scientists. Their friends and families; everyone who’d ever cared about them. How many calls had she had to make, informing someone’s wife or brother that the man they knew, looked up to, loved, was never coming back? How many times had she had to sit there impassively while a child cried, begging her to bring his mother back?
The only difference between her and Gabriel was that he had what Amelia could never get—the face of the person responsible. He knew exactly who to go after and now that she knew why he was so determined to do it, she couldn’t imagine another course of action but the one he was taking.
His face softened and he smiled, compassion making his eyes darken. “I know that look,” he said. He reached out to cup her cheek but his gaze snared on the dark claws that tipped his fingers. Brows drawn, he stared at them.
Amelia took his hand in hers. She checked his nail beds for damage but found none. “Looks like the serum took,” she said. It made her edgy that this was happening outside of a controlled environment. She had no way of monitoring the changes taking place inside him; no tools or meds for damage control if things turned bad.
But Gabriel was still alive and appeared healthy. She could be grateful for that, at least.
“So what happens now?”
“Now,” she replied, “I think it’s time you tried a shift. It’s better if you initiate it intentionally than have it happen on its own. This way you should be able to control it better.” Amelia pushed up from the ground but the hem of her skirt was stuck beneath her sandal. She was pulled up short, jarred off balance, and tipped forward.
Gabriel caught her, laughing as she ended up on top of him on the couch. “I can’t believe you’re actually wearing that,” he said.
“I didn’t exactly have a choice in the matter,” she grumbled. Stupid dress. Everything these Romans wore was like a nymphomaniac’s dream design. It was made for the express purpose of being taken off.
“Those bastards,” Gab
riel said, eyes glittering with mirth.
“Right?” He understood. “They tried to shave me!”
Gabriel laughed.
Or not. Amelia glared.
He took one look at her face and laughed harder. “Oh man, I would have loved to have seen that. Please tell me you threw the razors.”
“No,” she offered grudgingly. “The girl ran away too fast.”
Gabriel snorted with laughter, his eyes starting to water. Every time he almost had himself under control, he burst out laughing again.
Amelia felt her lips twitch in answer. She would not give him that satisfaction. She waited him out until his amusement at her expense finally subsided. “I can’t believe people actually choose to wear this.
His gaze turned hot and moved down over her, making her feel overheated again. She could have sworn the drug was wearing off, but clearly it was more insidious than that. “It has its uses,” he said. “But I can see you hate it. So allow me.” He tugged on one of the silver ropes the girls had tied her up in. One little tug, and the whole intricate design, which had taken half an hour to achieve, loosened. Nymphomaniac’s dream…
Gabriel tugged the rope off her, leaving her draped in blue fabric like the bed sheets they were. The material gaped at the sides, allowing him to slip his hands beneath it. She gasped softly at the feel of his rough hands on her sensitive skin. He caressed her waist, her hips, the curve of her ass, then skimmed his hands up her back to her shoulders. “Gabriel,” she breathed and licked her lips.
“Missed you, angel,” he murmured, applying a little pressure to bring her closer. “Thought about you all day long.”
She was kneeling on the stupid skirt, couldn’t get close enough when it kept getting in the way like that. Amelia shifted her weight to free her knees one at a time so she could straddle him properly, with the front of the dress stretched over her between them. “And what have you been thinking?”
He licked the seam between her lips. “Let me show you.” His mouth sealed over hers, stealing her breath. Amelia held on, submitting to the measured thrust of his tongue against hers. He led the way, showing her exactly how he wanted her to respond. When she tried to match him, his hands on her tightened in silent reprimand. When her hands skimmed over his bare shoulders to his chest, nails lightly raking against his skin, a low growl rumbled inside him, making her hands still.
Blood Debts (The Blood Book 3) Page 20
