I contained my smile, hoping Gabriel gave them enough time before he went out there, otherwise he may walk into something even more private. As he was watching them leave with a frown on his face, I wondered if he was thinking the exact same thing.
Halina shook her head at the couple then sauntered over to Gabriel. They smiled at each other as she ran a hand back through his hair, then she frowned. “Who trashed your lab?” Her question got the attention of my silently debating husband. Teren sat back down beside me and looked over to the pair of them, his sad eyes turning inquisitive. “Who could pull off something like that, in your own home?” she asked.
That was something to consider. Gabriel’s home was even more impressive than the Adams’ place. It was also packed with purebloods and mixed alike. The lab was a few floors underground, in a soundproof room where Gabriel spent most of his days. Anyone that had gotten down there and destroyed it must have known exactly how to get in and out undetected. Either that, or there was now a fresh pile of dead-vampire goo somewhere in Gabriel’s house.
Gabriel sighed and surprisingly looked over at Teren and not Halina, who had asked the question. “I believe that someone I’ve been hunting was giving me a message…to stop.” One edge of his lip curled up; it was sort of menacing on the powerful man, especially with the orange firelight reflecting on his features. “I don’t intend to.”
I tilted my head at Gabriel. “Who have you been hunting?” I felt myself cringing, not all that sure that I wanted an answer to my question. If he was hunting a hunter, well, I knew what he did with them once he found them.
His cool eyes turned to mine as he started to answer, but Teren beat him to it. “The vampire who changed me…the one who stole from you, right?”
A small gasp went through me and I twisted in my seat to face Teren. “The one who gave that hunter the botched drug?” My eyes shifted over to a frowning Gabriel. “Is he right? Is that who you’re tracking?”
Gabriel’s lips twisted as Halina slunk her arms around him. “Yes. I sent out people to bring him to me for a… conversation, once you’d filled me in on what he’d done.” He frowned deeper and Halina lightly scratched his stomach. “He’s a slippery one though. He’s managed to successfully evade my net for years now, but I have eyes everywhere and we are getting closer.” He raised an eyebrow and shrugged. “It’s only a matter of time before he’s…dealt with. The crime committed against you will not go unpunished, Teren.”
I swallowed nervously, knowing Gabriel’s form of justice probably didn’t involve lawyers. Teren grabbed my hand, his eyes still focused on Gabriel’s. “But he’s getting to you too. If he got into your lab, then he can get close to you.” Teren’s eyes flicked to Halina as concerned filled his voice.
Gabriel noticed and looked over at her too. She looked between the two of them and straightened. “I am not afraid of one pissy vampire.” She rolled her eyes. “I think I can handle one man.”
Gabriel smiled crookedly at her. “I’m sure you could, dear.”
As she grinned at his comment, Gabriel's eyes twisted back to Teren’s. “I believe he only successfully got into my lab because I was out of the house, visiting a potential patient.” He smiled softly. “A girl, twenty-two, looking to start a family. I’d like to give her longer to think about it.”
He shrugged, sighed, and looked down as he sat on the stones in front of the fireplace. Even though the fire was small, more for ambiance than a heat source, I could feel the warmth of it on my sensitive face. But Gabriel didn’t seem to mind sitting directly in front of the heat. If anything, he almost curled into it, like a cat enjoying a warm snuggle. The small blaze was enough to warm the dead vampire’s chilly flesh. Halina’s too, as she sat beside him.
His hands clasping around Halina’s, he looked at their joined flesh as he sighed softly. “We will be losing so many overage mixed in the next twenty-four hours.” He looked up at her, shaking his head. “It does hurt my heart.”
Thinking about the mass conversions happening soon, I started thinking of my own; it made my heart speed up. Teren squeezed my hand harder, then leaned over and kissed my cheek. I knew he sensed my unease. It had to be apparent to every vampire in the room. There was no stopping the reaction though, my nerves were spiking as I started thinking about dying.
Gabriel studied me, his eyes analyzing. Wiping a palm on the edge of my flirty dress, I swallowed nervously again. “How long do you think I have?” I asked in a trembling voice. Clearing my throat, I more steadily added, “Until I die?”
Teren sighed and rested his head against mine. I nervously fingered the locket around my throat while I tried to put on a brave face. Teren had done this, surely I could too. Gabriel tilted his head while Halina narrowed her eyes, almost like she was waiting for me to keel over. “You had your shot this evening?” Gabriel asked calmly.
I nodded. “Before we headed out. I usually take it around bedtime every day, between eight or nine.”
Gabriel nodded as the facts entered his brain. I could nearly see his brilliant mind calculating and formulating, printing out an answer as fast as any computer in the world. “Your consistency has acclimated your body to the drug. It will expect the dosage around that time tomorrow. When it does not receive it, you, like Starla, will have a few hours until your heart gives out.” He looked over at Halina, squeezing her hand, then returned his eyes to mine. “I’m very sorry, Emma, but I don’t think you’ll be alive when the sun breaks Monday morning.”
Breathing in slowly, I closed my eyes and clenched my locket in my fingers. So, that was it. I would be a walking, fictional myth by the time I went back to work Monday. I would be heartbeatless and chilly to the touch and wouldn’t be able to handle any sort of food. I’d be unchanging to the world around me and would have to be more careful about leaving any loose ends. I’d be fully entrenched in the charade that Teren and his family had lived their whole life in.
As I silently absorbed it all, Teren’s voice cut through the room. “You are sure…that she will convert?” An edge of fear was in his voice and I opened my eyes; the fear was on his face too. Regardless of Gabriel’s assurances that I’d make it, that his blood would be enough to finish the conversion, Teren was still worried that I wouldn’t.
Gabriel smiled and nodded. “Yes, I see no reason why she should have any difficulties completing the process.” He raised an eyebrow. “Assuming she is fed enough, of course.”
Teren’s mouth firmed into a hard line. “Don’t worry about food. She will eat.” He looked over at me, the determination still in his features. “Even if I have to pour it down her throat myself,” he added quietly.
I smiled at the love I saw in that determination. Letting the locket swing loose against my skin again, I looked over at Gabriel. “How long will the conversion take?”
Gabriel’s appraising eyes shifted to Teren. “How long did yours take?”
Teren shifted in his seat, uncomfortable with even remembering what had happened to him. He shrugged as he answered. “Not long, under an hour.”
Gabriel nodded, like it wasn’t too surprising to him. “You are essentially his carbon copy, so yours will take roughly around the same amount of time.” He shrugged. “The process gets more efficient with each mixed generation, but around an hour is about as quickly as I’ve ever seen it completed.”
I nodded, leaning against Teren’s side. In the silence that followed his last statement, I whispered. “What does it feel like…dying?” Gabriel looked down. Actually, every vampire looked down. Teren released my hand, folding his arms around me, but he wouldn’t look at me either, instead, burying his face in my neck. My heart rate spiked a little higher at their silent confirmation of my fear.
It was going to be…unpleasant.
Hearing my heart, smelling my fear in the air, Gabriel peeked his eyes up at me. The firelight glinted off of them, turning the emerald into an eerie shade of bronze. “I’m so sorry, Emma, but I have no words to describe it.” H
e looked over at Halina, the two of them sharing an understanding that only undead vampires knew. “Dying,” he whispered, “is different for every creature on this earth.”
Halina sighed and looked over at me, her ageless eyes filled with a compassion that I wasn’t used to seeing on her. I think that terrified me more than Gabriel’s next sentence. Looking over at me too, he shrugged. “In the end, death is something we must all face alone.”
I nodded repeatedly while Teren kissed my neck, the stubble of his jaw scraping over my skin. Wiping my hands over and over, I prayed for the tears I felt stinging my eyes to not fall. Honestly, I had no reason to be afraid. I would survive death, just as my husband had. I had no reason to fear it. Now, if I could only convince my body of that.
Gabriel gracefully stood, Halina standing up with him. He walked over and squatted in front of me. Exhaling slowly through my mouth, I tried to stop the light tremors that I could feel throughout my body. He placed his chilly hands over mine, staring unblinkingly into my eyes. Even though there was no glow emanating from them, his ageless eyes had a calming quality about them and I found my body relaxing.
Teren sat up, rubbing my back as he felt me easing as well. Smiling softly, Gabriel quietly said, “You will survive this, Emma, and you will be reunited with your family.” He closed his eyes briefly, a small smile on his lips. I thought that maybe he was taking a moment to mentally check in on his family. While everyone in his nest was genetically a stranger to him, he did have two blood children out in the world, and he could feel their presence in his head, the same as I could feel mine.
“Thank you, Gabriel,” I said softly, folding my hands over his.
He opened his eyes and stood. “No, thank you, Emma…for saving Starla. I know she can be exasperating, but she is family to me.” He looked through the home to where we could all hear the sounds of very obvious heavy breathing and lip smacking. He frowned slightly while I grinned. Jacen and Starla were indeed…celebrating her survival. Gabriel sighed and shook his head. “And I am apparently not the only one who would have missed her.”
As Teren kissed my cheek again, Halina wrapped her arms around Gabriel. “You could stay tonight? Let them connect in a guest room while we connect in my room?” She raised an eyebrow suggestively and Gabriel smiled crookedly.
I flushed and wrapped my arms around Teren, giving them a moment of privacy, visually at least. I could still clearly hear Gabriel softly kiss her, and then sigh. “I wish I could stay, my dear, but I have too many conversions happening or about to happen. I need to get back home, to be there for them.”
I peeked up to watch Halina sigh and bite her lip, then nod and lightly kiss him. Gabriel kissed her once more then reluctantly shifted to leave. Teren and I stood and followed Halina to escort him out. As the fresh night air hit my face, I inhaled it deep, letting the crispness settle the last of my nerves. It would be fine, I would be fine, and now, Starla would be fine.
Smiling as we approached the sleek, black sedan they’d driven up in, I tried to not listen to just how “fine” Starla currently was. Gabriel approached the door just as I heard Jacen murmur that she was beautiful. Just as Starla giggled, whispering that she knew that, Gabriel jerked the door open. I bit my lip to not laugh at the look on Jacen and Starla’s faces. Clearly absorbed in each other, the high maintenance vampires hadn’t heard us coming towards them. They looked equally shocked, and equally rumpled.
Gabriel cleared his throat and motioned outside. “Can you think clearly enough to drive us home, Jacen?”
Lying on top of Starla, her arms and legs firmly wrapped around his body, Jacen immediately stammered, “Yes, Father,” and tried to disengage himself from the young woman beneath him.
Recovering from her shock, Starla frowned and looked up at Gabriel. Popping a bubble with her fresh piece of gum, the mint smell hitting me from where I was standing with Teren, she twisted her lips. “Father,” she said coyly, her arms cinching around a struggling Jacen, “do you think you could drive us back?” She smiled with just one edge of her lip. “So Jacen and I can…talk?”
Gabriel cocked an eyebrow at her while the laughter I’d been struggling to hold in bubbled out. Shaking his head at her, Gabriel let out a soft laugh as well. While not too sure about two of his “children” hooking up right under his nose, he didn’t seem to be able to refuse the woman who’d been so close to death. “Alright,” his eyes locked onto Jacen’s wide ones, “but you will act in accordance with your age, Jacen.”
Jacen nodded, his face serious. Well, his expression was serious. It was a little hard to take his face seriously with his hair sticking out every which way and faint streaks of lipstick across his mouth. “Yes, Father.”
Giggling again, I tried to block out the fact that Gabriel was correct in pointing out Jacen’s age. Even though he didn’t look it, Jacen was older than Halina, which made him considerably older than the twenty-something Starla. But to vampires, age was irrelevant at a certain point. Gabriel himself had a huge age gap with his own girlfriend…by hundreds of years.
As Gabriel moved to the driver’s side, Teren touched his arm. “I’ll drive you to my place. We can pick up the rest of the vials.” He looked over at me, a sympathetic sadness in his eyes. As much as Teren wanted forever with me, he knew what I was about to face and wouldn’t wish that on anyone. I smiled and nodded reassuringly. This was the right thing to do.
Gabriel nodded at him and cracked open the car door.
“Gabriel?”
He looked up at Halina as she stepped up to the car. Maybe it was a trick of the lights coming from the spacious windows of the home, or the mixing of every vampire’s dimly glowing eyes, but Halina seemed…nervous as she approached him.
Maybe sensing that, Gabriel closed his door. “Yes, dear?”
Looking over at Teren and I, then Starla and Jacen, she lightly grabbed his hand, pulling him towards her. “May we…talk for a moment, before you go?”
Gabriel smiled widely, then nodded. “Of course.”
They walked towards the house and I watched them curiously, wondering if Halina was about to break up with him. While she’d seemed like she’d decided to let him into her heart, the woman was a mystery and could have easily swung herself the other way. Maybe, since we no longer needed his assistance with me, she felt this was a good time to end things. I hoped not. Regardless of her worries, I knew that she loved him and love should be celebrated, not pushed away.
Teren and I watched Halina separate from Gabriel and then take a running leap to the top of the house. She landed effortlessly on her hangout, the covered section of the roof where we’d had our girl talk not too long ago. Gabriel looked up at her and smiled, then took a couple of steps and jumped. He landed as effortlessly as she had. I frowned that my attempt at that jump hadn’t been nearly as graceful as the two of theirs.
Beside us, Starla giggled and I heard the rear car door slam shut. Glancing down at the dark car, the sounds of lip smacking resuming, I shook my head at the eager girl. Teren chuckled lightly then slung his arm around me. “I could tuck you in before I go?” he whispered in my ear.
I shook my head. “I don’t think I’ll be sleeping anytime soon.” My hand covered my stomach, a tension knot forming. There was just no way to fall asleep after someone tells you that you only have twenty-four hours left to live. His pale eyes tracked the movement and he nodded. Sighing as I leaned into his side, I murmured, “I just want to stare at our children for awhile.”
He nodded against my head, then led me into the house. As we silently walked up the stairs to the twins’ room, conversations from the roof drifted down to me. I didn’t really want to listen, it being a very private conversation and all, but blocking out sound wasn’t always possible, and I was curious if Halina was going to end their relationship.
Climbing up the steps with my arm around Teren’s waist, I heard Halina casually state, “I just wanted to tell you that I’ve…grown fond of you.” I smiled and looked
over at Teren; he smiled too, also listening. Halina sniffed and I pictured her standing tall and straight, her chin held high as she reluctantly poured her heart out. “I enjoy your company and miss you when you are gone.”
I heard Gabriel’s light steps as he approached where I sensed her. “I miss you too,” he said quietly, a warmth in his voice that I didn’t usually hear.
As Teren and I reached the top step, Halina’s voice lost some of its casualness. Sounding much more like the teenager she resembled, she told Gabriel, “I may…have feelings for you.”
Teren smiled wider and shook his head. She may? I was pretty certain that she did. Gabriel seemed certain too. “You may?” he asked softly. I pictured him cupping her cheek. I pictured her with tears in her eyes. Of course, she may have been smirking for all I really knew.
Conversion Book Three: 'Til Death Page 17
