Gabriel's Mate

by Folsom, Tina

  Ricky –

  With a small gasp, the papers slid off her lap and onto the floor.

  Twenty-eight

  Ricky gave Carl an easy grin as his lie rolled off his lips like fresh blood. The butler nodded slowly. “I understand. I’ll call Gabriel to let him know about the change of plans.”

  “I wouldn’t bother him. I’m sure he’s got enough on his plate right now.” Ricky tried to sound casual so he wouldn’t make Carl suspicious.

  He didn’t need Gabriel showing up here when he was so close to his goal.

  “He gave strict instructions.” Carl reached into his jacket pocket and retrieved his cell phone. “It’ll be just a minute.”

  Ricky never let his easy smile waver, not even when he slid his hand into his jacket pocket and reached for the wooden stake he kept there for emergencies. And this was an emergency. “Oh, before I forget,” he interrupted Carl before he could punch in Gabriel’s number.

  The butler gave him an expectant look. “Yes?”

  With one swift movement, Ricky pulled out the stake and plunged it into Carl’s heart. “Did I mention that I hate it when people don’t listen to me?”

  Before his eyes, Carl’s body disintegrated into dust. The cell phone and a few coins of change fell onto the wooden floor making a clanging sound. As the fine ash-like substance settled onto the wood floor, Ricky placed the stake back into his pocket and stepped back, not wanting the dust to dirty his clothes.

  Getting rid of Carl had been even easier than anticipated. Gabriel had done the right thing by calling for somebody to protect Maya – that somebody was here right now. He would take care of Maya from now on, like it was always supposed to be.

  Ricky inhaled deeply. Her intoxicating scent drifted into his nostrils.

  He looked up toward the stairs. She was up there on the second floor,

  most likely in the guestroom. How long he’d waited for this moment.

  Finally, he’d get his reward.

  * * *

  The video surveillance room was a windowless room in the basement of the hospital. Amaury glanced at the security officer who sat propped up against the wall, staring into the void. Zane had used mind control on him to put him into this catatonic state, in which he neither saw nor heard anything.

  p. He and Zane had already gone through several tapes to see who had attacked and killed the doctor. So far, nothing had shown up on the tapes. It was almost as if the rogue knew what camera angles to avoid.

  Amaury sighed. “This is frustrating.”

  “Frustrating, yet revealing,” Zane answered.

  “How so?”

  “That was quite a display of emotion on Gabriel’s part.”

  Amaury gave his old friend a sideways grin. “Looks like it’s hit him pretty hard.”

  “She’s got quite some fire in her.”

  “Seems so, even though I’m sure Nina’s got more.” His own mate was hell on wheels, and he wouldn’t have it any other way.

  “With how you put up with her, I’d say you’re a saint. Only I know better.”

  “She’s just what I need.”

  “Still in the honeymoon phase, huh?”

  “I’m planning for it never to end. Now, let’s make sure Gabriel gets his own honeymoon.” Amaury pointed back at the screen and sped up the tape.

  The tape showed the main entrance to the hospital. “There’s Ricky entering.” Zane nodded. Several minutes passed, but the tape showed no one exiting or entering. Then a woman walked in with a small child. She stopped at the information desk. Another few minutes passed.

  “There, Samson’s R8 is just pulling up,” Zane noted. A moment later Maya ran into the hospital and down one corridor, out of the reach of the camera.

  Amaury sped through the tape again, until finally Gabriel and Yvette entered. Shortly after, Zane entered on his own. Nothing else happened.

  Amaury stopped the tape.

  “I didn’t see you or Thomas go in,” Zane noted.

  “I took the side entrance where I parked the car. Thomas probably did the same. He knows the area well and probably went in from the back – it’s a shortcut from his house.”

  “So everybody is there, first Ricky, then Maya, then -“

  Amaury put his hand on Zane’s arm. “Wait a minute. Fuck! First Ricky? Why would Ricky be there before Maya?”

  His friend stared back at him. “Let’s roll back the tape.”

  The found the exact spot when Ricky entered the hospital and paused it. At the bottom of the screen, it showed the time: 12:49am.

  “This had better not mean what I think it means,” Zane cursed. “I had my suspicions about Ricky but then thought I was just being my usual asshole self, considering I don’t particularly like Ricky’s cheerful attitude. His talent. He must have used it against us. I think he fooled us all.”

  “One way to find out.” Amaury picked up the phone on the desk and punched in a few numbers.

  * * *

  Gabriel pulled his focus back from the witch and opened his eyes.

  p. “I’ve restored your memory of where you put the charm. Do you recall now?”

  She nodded. “Thank you. Do I have your word that you won’t go there yourself to obtain it?”

  “I have no interest in charms, no matter how powerful. All I want is -” The ringing of his cell phone interrupted him. “Excuse me.”

  He looked at the San Francisco number, but didn’t recognize it.

  “Yes?”

  “It’s Amaury.”

  Finally, he was returning his call. Tension immediately crept into his bones. “Any news?”

  “I’m afraid so. Tell me, when did you call Ricky to meet you at the hospital?”

  “When I realized that Maya wasn’t at her apartment.”

  “No, I mean at what time? Check your cell phone log.” Something in Amaury’s voice compelled him to comply with the request without questioning.

  “Hold on,” he told his friend and pulled the phone from his ear, pressed the menu button and navigated to the call log screen. Next to Ricky’s name was the time. “I called him at 1:03am, why?”

  “What did he tell you when you called? About where he was?”

  “He didn’t say. He only said he’d get there. What is this about?”

  He heard Amaury exhale sharply. “Ricky was already at the hospital when you called him. He arrived before Maya.”

  Gabriel’s heartbeat kicked up. “Shit. Ricky’s still on the list of vampires who don’t have an alibi for the night Maya was attacked.”

  “I know. Zane just told me – and he also told me he now remembers that he had doubts about Ricky, but they somehow vanished.”

  “His gift.”

  Amaury grunted. “He’s tricked us. You’d better not let Maya out of your sight right now.”

  Gabriel’s body coiled with fear for his woman. “Amaury, I’m not with Maya. She’s at the house with Carl. I sent Yvette to protect her.

  We need to warn them about Ricky. I’ll call Maya and Carl, you call Yvette, then send every available bodyguard to the house. Send out a search for Ricky. Start at Paulette’s house in Midtown Terrace – if we’re lucky, he’s still there.”

  He raced out of the lab without even glancing back at the witch and dialed Samson’s home phone. A recording answered. “You have reached a number that is out of service …”

  Twenty-nine

  Maya reached for the cordless phone next to the bed and punched the call button to get a line. Silence greeted her. She pulled the phone to her ear to verify, but her suspicion was right: the phone was dead. Ricky had disabled the line to the house.

  She threw the useless receiver onto the bed and swiveled. Her eyes scanned the room in record speed – the vampire speed she was grateful for now. Her gaze zeroed in on her handbag. Two large strides and she was there, pulling her cell phone out of it with the next move. She held down the on button for a
few seconds, her heart beating into her throat as she heard steps on the stairs.

  He was coming for her.

  She silently begged that her battery hadn’t run too low in the days she hadn’t used the phone and was relieved to see the screen coming on.

  Good. A few more seconds and the screen was fully booted. But she could only stare at it. This couldn’t be happening, not now, not when she needed to call for help! No service, it said.

  The sound of the door opening made her lift her head, and then she saw him. Ricky stood just inside the room, the door behind him sliding shut a moment later.

  “I had your service disconnected,” he drawled, his Irish lilt a little more pronounced now. “No use wasting money when you won’t need to make any more phone calls where we’re going.”

  Maya froze. Her mind worked frantically to assess her chances of getting past him and out of the house, but he was blocking the door effectively and short of her knocking him over, she would come up short. Her skin prickled uncomfortably now, and she realized it was the same feeling she’d had in the hospital and also that time when she’d met Ricky in the kitchen. At the time she’d written the feeling off to her illness, the approaching fever, but had she been well, she would have been able to connect the sense of danger in the air with Ricky.

  It was too late now.

  “I want you to leave,” she said as calmly as she could. “Yvette will be coming soon.” Despite the suspicion she had, she needed to stall him from whatever he was planning. Her suspicion was confirmed with his next words.

  “I’m afraid Yvette’s a little tied up right now.” He chuckled at his own sick joke.

  “Is she dead?”

  “She will be, soon. But let’s not talk about other people. Let’s talk about us.”

  Gabriel would be back soon. Despite the fact she didn’t want to talk to Ricky, she knew she had to keep him talking, but not about herself.

  “What did you do to her?”

  He ignored her question. “You liked me at first. I know you did. Did you know that I dumped my girlfriend for you? And what thanks did I get?”

  “I’m sure I didn’t ask you to do that for me. I never go after men who’re in relationships.” And for sure she wouldn’t have gone after him – just looking at him made her skin prickle with revulsion.

  “We met the night your car had stalled. I helped you fix it. You were grateful, very grateful,” he insinuated.

  She didn’t believe it. No, she would have never allowed him to touch her. “No.”

  “Oh, yes. Shall I tell you more about how it was between us?”

  Disgust rose in her stomach and settled uncomfortably at her solar plexus. “There’s no us. There’s never been an us and there’ll never be an us.” Even though she still remembered nothing about him, she knew instinctively that she’d never had sex with Ricky. Her body told her as much. It recoiled from his presence.

  “See, that’s where you’re wrong.” He took several steps into the room, closing in on her.

  “Gabriel will kill you if you lay a hand on me,” she warned and took a step back.

  “We’ll be long gone by the time Gabriel figures things out and gets back here.” He pulled a small, flat device out of his pocket and turned it to her. Maya looked at what appeared to be an iPhone with a map. In the middle of it, a red dot blinked. “I know exactly where he is right now, so don’t you worry about Gabriel.”

  Maya cursed. “You prick!”

  “Now, now, are those the words for a lover?” The sick grin around his mouth made her physically nauseous. She would never be his lover.

  She’d rather kill herself before she let him touch her.

  “You can’t possibly think I’d ever become your lover.”

  “The way I see it you don’t have much of a choice, seeing that you’ll be all tied up soon. And then I’ll take what I want, whenever I want and how often I want. It’s your own fault. It could have been different between us. But no, you had to lead me on, make me want you, and then just turn away as if I was a nobody. And generous as I am, I even gave you a second chance. We started all new, and you little bitch did the same thing again. There are days when I really love my gifts.”

  Then he growled.

  “And there are days when I recognize their limitations.

  Unfortunately now that your doubts about me are confirmed, there’s no more dispelling them, nor erasing your memories. It was easier when you were human, at least I could wipe the slate clean. But you left me no choice.”

  The snarl around his mouth made his average face look ugly. She could practically see the ugliness inside him, the evil that lived within him. Her skin crawled with awareness of the bad vibes his body was projecting. She felt it more intensely now that he was only a few feet away from her. The little hairs on her arms rose as if preparing for an attack. And she knew he’d attack. All she could do was distract him until help arrived.

  The silence from downstairs told her that Carl wasn’t coming to her defense. Maya feared the worst for the sweet butler who’d only ever treated her with the greatest respect. “What did you do with Carl?”

  His facetious grin confirmed her worst suspicion. “Dust to dust, ashes to ashes.”

  Maya swallowed hard. She was alone in the house with him. Yvette, the only other person who knew she was alone, was tied up somewhere, Carl was dead, and Gabriel was with the witch. Ricky would instantly know when Gabriel was approaching the house, so she couldn’t expect any help from him either.

  She was on her own. On her own with a madman – no, make that a mad vampire. A madman she could defeat with her new strength as a vampire, but looking at Ricky’s strong physique she’d bet her last paycheck that he’d take her in a fight.

  Maya let her eyes travel around the room, trying to find anything she could use to her advantage.

  “What were you trying to gain by turning me into a vampire?” She had to make sure he continued to talk while she tried to figure out a way of how to get away from him.

  “Your undying love and devotion, of course,” he teased lightheartedly, “but I’ll be happy with just your body, your legs permanently spread for me.”

  “You sick bastard. You really think I’d spread my legs for you?”

  “You did it for Gabriel,” he shot back, hatred suddenly flooding his voice. “What has he got that I don’t, huh? He sure hasn’t got it in the looks department. And he’s no charmer either. I’m just as rich as he is, and I’m far better looking. Is it because he lets you drink his blood?”

  Maya gasped. She hadn’t realized he knew.

  “Oh yeah, don’t look so surprised. You really think I don’t know what’s going on here? I can smell him on you. You’re positively reeking of him. But don’t you worry, a few days with me and his smell will be gone. I’ll make sure of it, even if I have to drain you of the last drop of blood and replace it with mine.”

  “You wouldn’t dare!”

  He jumped and stood only inches from her now. His breath ghosted over her face, and she felt bile rise. “Wouldn’t I?”

  “He’ll kill you.” She knew Gabriel would – whether she was still alive by then, she wasn’t sure, but she knew Gabriel would not stop until Ricky was dead.

  “He’ll never find us. We’ll be long out of the country by the time he even knows you’re gone. And then we start our life together, just like we would have if those idiots hadn’t interrupted us when I turned you.

  You would have woken up in my arms and looked up to me as your protector. But I’ll rectify that. You will be mine, and nothing in this world will stop me from making you mine. Don’t you ever forget that.”

  The threat hung heavy in the room, poisoning the atmosphere around her. She understood only too well how serious he was. Not even rape was beyond him. She could see the madness in his eyes. No, he wouldn’t stop at anything.

  That’s why she had to stop him.

  Det
ermination spread within her, and her mind cleared itself of everything else but the thought of getting away from him. Just the way she approached any research problem, she assessed her options one by one and determined the probabilities of succeeding. Her mind raced from one scenario to the next, her heart pumping rapidly to provide her brain with the needed oxygen.

  Sweat built on her brow, but she ignored it. Let him think she was scared: it would only serve her purpose. She was beyond fear now – she was in survival mode, and instinct and logic were her best friends. The knowledge that he’d killed her two best friends fired her resolve.

  “You killed my friends.”

  “Useless humans. They knew too much. You have gossiped about me to them. Their blood is on your hands.”

  Maya pushed the guilt away. Ricky was the culprit and she would not allow herself to fall into his trap. He was the evil one, and she would make sure he paid for his deeds. “I’ll make you pay.”

  He only laughed at her threat. Then he turned serious again and gripped her arms. “I should like to see you try, but later. We’re leaving.

  Now.”

  She heard the faint beeping sound coming from the iPhone in Ricky’s pocket and knew Gabriel was on the move. And he knew it too.

  The time for stalling was over. Maya tried to push against him and wiggle out of his hold, but he only tightened his grip on her wrists. He would break them if she gave him any more resistance.

  “I’m stronger than you,” he gloated.

  She knew that already. But she was smarter. Her gaze drifted to the fireplace where a poker leaned against the mantle. She concentrated on the long metal stick with its sharp two-pronged tip.

  Then she funneled all her pain and the hatred for Ricky into her thoughts and directed them toward the poker, willing it to move. But it didn’t budge. Her forehead furrowed as she concentrated more. She had to succeed. It had worked in the bar when she was with Thomas. She knew she could do it, if only she could concentrate hard enough.

  Ricky pulled at her arms. “Move!”