Before I could make anything of it, the man in the baseball cap turned around and faced me. His eyes were still shadowed by the hat but there was a wayward grin playing across his mouth. A mouth that I was familiar with. A mouth that I had both fantasized about and feared in equal parts.
“Hello, angel,” he smiled, tossing his hat away as he gave light to the face from my nightmares. “I’ve missed you.”
25. SECRETS
Watching Dominic move across the platform felt surreal. It was as though someone had knocked all the air out of my lungs—out of the world—and snatched away my ability to perform even the most basic human functions, like breathing or thinking or moving. All I could do was stare at him, paralyzed by the fear that had cemented my feet to the ground.
My mouth dropped open to gasp for air, to scream.
“Now, now, angel. Be a good girl,” he warned sweetly, pressing his finger against my lips to silence me. “You wouldn’t want any of these people to get hurt, now would you?”
My eyes flickered briefly to the happy, unsuspecting people around me, wondering what exactly he might do to them. Was he really capable of hurting them? Was I willing to take that risk? I shook my head. Or at least I think I did.
“Come on,” he said, leading me to the waiting carriage. “We’re going to take a little ride on the Ferris wheel,” he announced and then sat down at the far end, pulling me into the seat beside him. I didn’t even put up a fight, too afraid that he would follow through on his threat.
My eyes darted back around to the ticket booth, searching for Gabriel as though he were my one and only hope. I watched as he tore through the crowd, racing to make it back to me in time—to save me—but it was too late. The Ferris wheel was already moving, lifting us up higher and higher off the ground.
The crushing look on Gabriel’s face sent a rip through my heart as he watched us ascend further out of his reach. A look that only exemplified itself when Dominic leaned over the seat and waved down at him gloatingly.
“You look ravishing tonight,” said Dominic when he finally righted himself. He swung his arm around the back of the carriage and coiled his lips in a pleased smile.
Ravishing how? Like a steak?
The terror permeated my blood as I ran through all the definitions of ravishing in my head. I tried to convince myself that if he wanted to attack me—to feed on me again—he would have tried to take me to another place, a private location with no witnesses. That had to count for something, right? Right?
“Did you miss me, angel?”
I forced myself to look at him. “I can’t say that I did.”
“Really?” His eyebrows pulled into a point as he relaxed back into his seat, wetting his lips. “Then I haven’t been starring in your dreams every night since our kiss?”
I scoffed at his selective memory of that night. “Only if you count my nightmares.”
His laughter bubbled out, short and sweet. “As long as I’m haunting you, I suppose I don’t mind the means.” There was something truly terrifying about the way his baby-faced features nearly canceled out every sinister word he uttered.
“What do you want from me, Dominic?” My voice spiked unnaturally. “Haven’t you had enough fun?”
“There’s no such thing.”
“Are you going to try to kill me again?”
He clicked his tongue as though insulted. “Now where’s the fun in that? I have far bigger plans for you, love, none of which involve your death.” His grin widened. “Certainly not in the immediate future.”
An icy chill clawed its way down my back. “What plans?” I asked, choosing to ignore the latter part of his statement since my heart was already thwacking hard against my chest.
“Patience, angel. Don’t you like surprises?”
“No,” I said with absolute certainty. “I don’t.”
His eyes shifted briefly to the crowd below. “Let’s just say you’re going to help me get something.”
I swallowed hard. “Does this something have a name?”
“How do you name the unnamable?” His cheek hitched up in a jeering way. “I couldn’t possibly.”
“How am I supposed to help you get it if I don’t know what it is?” I asked, wanting to keep him good and talking.
“That’s the thing about vengeance, love. It has a way of working itself into the equation.” He reached forward and took a strand of my hair into his hands, twisting it gently around his index finger. “I only have to sit back and let its wrath light the way.”
“So this is about getting revenge on someone?” I scoffed, swatting his hand away from my hair. “Revenge on who?”
“Careful now,” he warned, though I wasn’t sure if he was referring to my probing question or the fact that I just swatted him away like a bothersome fly.
“I’m sorry,” I said, doing my best to sound it. “I’m just trying to understand what you want from me…so I can help you.” I forced myself to smile at him.
“You wish to help me?” he smiled back, sliding in closer. His eyes were glazed with a familiar look of want.
A look of hunger.
“Not like that!” I dug myself deeper into the corner of the carriage, wishing I could disappear into the metal. “I swear to God, Dominic, if you try to bite me again I’m going to hurt you,” I warned. I had nothing to back it up with but he didn’t need to know that.
“If I bite you again, you’re going to enjoy every second of it,” he said and raised his hand to my cheek, gently caressing it with the back of his knuckles.
His cold touch sent a lingering shiver down my arms, a shiver that I was horrified to find wasn’t completely revolting.
“See how nice that feels?” he whispered.
I could feel my mouth losing moisture by the second. I swallowed hard, trying to loosen the knot in my throat.
“You shouldn’t fight it, angel. I’m a part of you now. Your skin hungers for my touch even when your mind tells it not to.”
I shook my head. I didn’t want to listen to this—to hear it. Somewhere deep inside, I knew there was truth to what he was saying. I knew his bite had done something to me that night—changed something—and the thought of it petrified me.
The breeze picked up and ruffled my hair as the Ferris wheel came to another stop, holding us atop the world as though we had orbited into a different plane of existence.
“Why are you bringing me into this?” I asked, trying to take control of the conversation again, redirect it back to neutral grounds—back to his plans. “I’m not even from here. I don’t know anyone you know.”
“That’s not entirely true.”
“Well, except for Gabriel.” A surge of panic pierced through the good vibrations. “Is this about Gabriel?”
He pulled his hand away and casually sank back into his seat, and for the faintest of seconds, I felt the nick of guilt because I actually missed it.
“I won’t help you hurt him.”
He examined me with curious eyes. “And why is that?”
“Because he’s my friend,” I answered indignantly.
“Your friend?” he repeated, testing the word out in his mouth, swirling it around with his tongue. “So then he told you the truth? About how he came to be?” His smirk told me he already knew the answer. When I didn’t respond, he laughed and said, “I didn’t think so.”
“I never asked him to.”
“Then ask him, love. See if he opens up the vault.” He took up with my hair again. “I bet he won’t. I bet he’ll put her first. He always does.”
“Put who first?”
“Tessa, of course.”
“Tessa? What does my sister have to do with this?”
“See now, if Gabriel was a real friend, he would have told you all of this already.” His mouth curved into a sly grin. “He wouldn’t have left you out here in the dark, angel, especially when there’s so much danger waiting for you here.”
“You’re just trying to scare me,” I
said, doing my best to steady my voice though I was far too unsure of what the hell was going on to accomplish the feat.
“Maybe.” He caressed my cheek again. “But I’m telling you the truth. He’ll always protect her, and her little secrets too, even if that means putting you in danger.”
I glanced down at Gabriel who was watching the wheel make its way back around, his arms crossed rigidly across his chest. Gabriel who had done nothing but help me since the day I met him. I had no reason not to trust him.
Dominic on the other hand...
“I don’t believe you,” I said, facing him again. “You’re just trying to turn me against him. It won’t work.”
“Ask him to tell you about how he met her,” he dared. “And when he refuses, you are more than welcome to come and find me, and I will tell you everything you want to know.”
“Why don’t you just tell me now?”
His smile deepened as though my question brought him much joy. “It would be my pleasure to tell you now.”
“Okay...” I waited.
He leaned forward briefly. “For a kiss.”
I didn’t even have to think about it. “Forget it! I’d rather melt my lips off with acid.”
His laughter rang out melodically as the giant wheel of horrors gradually crawled to a stop.
From my peripheral, I spotted Gabriel pushing through the crowd of people waiting to get on as he made his way over to the loading ramp to meet me. I threw a pleading glance back at Dominic, praying he’d let me get off this thing without incident.
He nodded as if to answer my silent plea. “I’ll be seeing you,” he sang playfully, chilling my blood with his song.
I turned back to Gabriel who was holding his hand out like a life preserver, his eyes gleaming an apologetic shade of olive green. I grabbed it with all my heart and nearly somersaulted myself off the ride.
“Did he hurt you?” he asked with an exasperated look.
I shook my head, “I’m fine. Let’s just go.”
He put his hand on my back and funneled me past him where I began to move towards the exit, thinking he was right there behind me. It was only when I heard the gasps in the crowd that I turned around and found him plucking Dominic off the cart by his shirt and slamming him into one of the metal railings.
Dominic’s maniacal laughter pierced the air as Gabriel yanked him off the rail and rammed him into another one on the opposing side. The structure trembled under the impact.
“Stop it!” I yelled, running back over to them, terrified that the whole thing would come tumbling down on us.
“You’d be wise to listen to her,” said Dominic, his eyes wide with merriment over Gabriel’s total loss of control. “You’re causing quite a scene here, brother.”
Gabriel halted, his cautious eyes peering over his shoulder at the crowd that had amassed around us. He let go of Dominic abruptly as though scorched by the contact. “This isn’t over,” he said, shoving his finger into his brother’s chest.
Dominic’s lips twisted in an evil curl, welcoming the challenge. It was the look of a lunatic—a madman.
“Come on, Gabriel,” I said, tugging at his arm desperately. “Let’s go.” The sooner we got out of here, the sooner I could crawl under a rock and hide.
Gabriel took a step back, his livid expression softening some and making it easier for me to drum up the courage to pull him away from the scene. To my relief, he didn’t resist and followed quietly as I led him down the ramp, away from Dominic and the hungry crowd of people looking for a show.
“Nice job, skank.” Nikki’s faux smile greeted me as soon as my feet hit the pavement. Morgan and Hannah hung on either side of her like a bad accessory. “It takes a special brand of slut to get in between two brothers,” she spat out venomously.
I wanted to shout in her face that what happened back there had nothing to do with me, and that in fact, I was nothing more than a spectator in some long-time-coming revenge plot between the two of them and my sister over something that apparently happened long before I even got here, and that frankly, I didn’t have the slightest idea what was going on!
My mouth flopped open as I tried to edit the sentiment into something a little more condensed and less revealing, but was pulled away by Gabriel before I could get any words out.
“Thanks a lot,” I said as I fell into step with him. “You didn’t even give me a chance to defend myself!”
“You don’t need to defend yourself to her,” he said plainly. “We have more important things to contend with.”
“Starting with how you know my sister?” I yanked him back by his elbow, forcing him to face me. “You never did tell me how you two met.”
“What happened up there?” He ticked his head to the Ferris wheel like an accusation. “What did he say to you?”
When I didn’t answer, he folded his arms across his chest. “This is important, Jemma. I need to know what he said.”
“He told me I was going to help him,” I said, trailing a group of kids as they passed around us to get to the Duck Pond game. “Something about revenge…or vengeance? He didn’t exactly outline his plan for me, but he did mention you and Tessa.”
He looked tense though not surprised.
“He also said you’re keeping secrets from me.” I watched his expression harden. “Things about you and Tessa and the past. Things he thinks I should know about. Is he telling the truth, Gabriel? Are you hiding stuff from me?”
“It’s not as simple as that, Jemma.”
“Yes, it is. You’re either lying to me or you’re not.”
“Of course there are things you don’t know. A lot has happened over the years, but those things aren’t only mine to share.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means you have to talk to your sister.”
“So basically what you’re saying is, you can’t answer any of my questions because of Tessa.”
Isn’t that precisely what Dominic said? That Gabriel was covering up for her. That he would always put her first. Maybe Dominic was capable of telling the truth after all.
“She’s only trying to protect you, Jemma, and this is the only way she knows how to do it. You may not always understand what she does, but she has your best interest at heart.”
“I don’t need her to protect me. Not if that means being lied to all the time. I deserve to know the truth. Whether or not you and my sister want to admit it, I’m already involved in this. Dominic involved me.”
He knew I was right—I could see it in his eyes. I also saw that it didn’t matter one bit. His loyalty was to her and it was clear that he was going to continue protecting her...but for what reason? What could Tessa possibly have done that was so bad that she couldn’t even tell her own sister? Tessa who’d always done everything perfect and right since the day she was born.
It was becoming painfully obvious that if I was expecting the two of them to tell me the truth, I’d probably be waiting around until the end of days.
“Dominic offered to tell me everything.” I put it out there mercilessly, hoping it would raise the stakes a little. It scared me to think that I’d be desperate enough to take him up on his offer, that I was even considering it.
“You can’t trust him.”
“I know,” I agreed, meeting his somber eyes. “But I don’t know if I can trust you either.”
And that scared me even more.
26. BREAKING BREAD
A light drizzle peppered the windshield as Gabriel and I turned onto the main thoroughfare after leaving the Carnival. We hadn’t said a word to each other since we left the boardwalk and that was perfectly fine with me. I had no desire to hear another word from him unless that word was birthed from the truth.
I reached forward and turned up the volume to an ear-bending level to drive home the point.
He tipped forward and turned it back down. I could feel his eyes appraising me as though he were trying to decipher a puzzle. “You’re angry with m
e.”
“I’m surprised you were able to figure that out without Tessa’s direction.”
“That’s not fair.”
“Neither is being lied to all the time,” I shot back, watching plumes of fog spiral in and out of view outside my window. “I trusted you, Gabriel. You were the only one I trusted and now I don’t know if I can believe a single word you say.”
“I’m sorry you feel that way.”
“If you were sorry, you’d tell me the truth. I don’t know anything about you; how you changed, if you chose it, how long you’ve been this way. I don’t even know how old you are! How do you think that makes me feel?”
A heavy silence pressed down on us as the windshield wipers swooshed back and forth methodically.
“You need to eat,” he said without looking.
“I don’t need to eat. I need to hear the truth!”
“I’m a Revenant.”
“I’m aware of that.”
He looked down at my stomach, his eyes mapping my torso. I reflexively covered up, hugging my abdomen with both arms.
“I can hear your stomach,” he said, bringing his eyes back up to mine. “You’re hungry. You need to eat something.”
He heard my stomach noises? How freaking embarrassing.
Before I could confirm or deny the fact, he had already made the decision and was pulling into the parking lot of an old diner that overlooked the highway.
Might as well, I figured. I was two stomach growls away from starvation anyway.
The old diner was lit up like a Christmas tree—if your Christmas tree was decorated with white florescent sky lights, a neon blue open sign that flickered something terrible, and the kind of red banquet seats that made you wish you carried protective eye-wear on you. The only saving grace was that it looked to be about as lively as a morgue at midnight, which at least meant we could talk freely and not have to worry about slipping up in front of nosy patrons.
We walked to the back of the diner and sat down opposite each other in a booth by the window. A young, busty blond in her mid-twenties rushed out of the back-house wearing a fitted yellow uniform that looked as though it had just rode into town straight out of the fifties.
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