by Tes Hilaire
“You have a better idea?” she asked, grabbing up another stake. There would be no time to indulge. Get in quick, hit them hard. If she were lucky, real lucky, she could have Annie out by sunset.
And then the real hunt would begin.
“Aye, I do. Let me contact the council. They can authorize my brothers’ aid.”
“Why? So they can help rescue Annie, then turn around and lock her up themselves? Annie would be just head over heels grateful to you for coming up with a plan like that.”
“I don’t give a bloody damn about what her opinion might be if it means she’s alive to have it!”
Her eyes widened as she staggered back from the emotions pouring off of him. Holy crap, misinterpreted indeed. The Paladin was scared to death right now, and she didn’t think it was because of some sort of deep-seated sense of guilt for taking advantage of Jacob’s daughter. He cared about her. A lot. And was about going out of his mind worrying for Annie right now.
“I’ll get her back, Bennett,” she vowed.
“You and what army?”
She glared at him, drawing on all her mommy-born and stepdaughter-taught skills to make him back off and let her do her thing, but all he did was raise his brow.
She huffed out a breath, her gaze locking on her thigh holster and knife. “Wonder if that’s a trait He instilled or if that’s the human in the mix,” she muttered as she snatched them up.
“What are you talking about?”
She jerked the laces, securing the holster, and slid the knife home. She was talking about Valin in all his lovable stubborn-ass male glory. God, she missed him already.
He’ll be better off. They all will.
She shook her head, moving to the door. “Valin’s knife is on the shelf over my bed. Tell him…” She paused, her sweaty palm slick around the door handle. Of all the times to be scared. “Tell him I’m sorry. For everything,” she said and walked out the door, Bennett’s curses echoing down the hall behind her.
Frankly, she didn’t care if he went and tattled to his brothers or not. From what she’d heard and seen of the councils’ responses, it would take a bit to convince them to lift a finger for anyone who wasn’t part of their little club. And by then she would have done what she needed to do.
Jacob was still ranting as she passed by his war room. Gathering soldiers, planning their attack—as if throwing enough lives away would save the one he wanted.
The front door guard, wrapped up in a frayed trench coat as part of his disguise, glanced up when she pushed open the metal door, his mouth gaping in his dirt-smudged face when he saw the rather conspicuous arsenal of weaponry she wore.
Hmmm. Good point.
“Give me the coat.” She made a hurry-up motion with her hand.
He blinked, but set down the rifle he’d stuffed in the trench coat’s folds and scrambled to his feet, shrugging out of the material to reveal his faded fatigues and long-sleeve undershirt he’d been wearing beneath. He handed her the coat, then stood there, his gaze drifting uncertainly to the rifle by his feet.
“Probably better keep that out of sight,” she offered helpfully as she pulled the itchy coat around her shoulders. It dragged a bit on the ground, but at least it was cleaner than it appeared—i.e., it didn’t smell.
“Uh…” He eyed the coat she’d just commandeered, then looked at the door behind them.
“Keep your eyes sharp.” Confident he’d figure something out, she started down the stairs. Besides, she didn’t really expect trouble until nightfall, but that didn’t mean they shouldn’t be prepared. Contents of the note aside, she couldn’t dismiss the merker attack the other night. Yes, it could be a coincidence, but maybe not. Just because Christos’s methods had generally been to go in alone didn’t mean that the current vampire king wouldn’t be willing to work with Lucifer’s general. In fact, it was rather likely.
Stephan might have been known for his sadistic viciousness, but when push came to shove he was actually weak-spined. If Ganelon had somehow caught wind about a budding army of part-bloods, he’d be interested, and not at all averse to using Stephan and his coven to flush Jacob’s army out. And that was the real purpose for kidnapping Annie. Taunts and ransom notes aside, she knew that Stephan didn’t really want her, and she doubted Ganelon cared much either. It was just that Gabby had been the most visible with her personal eradication of her former comrades. They probably thought that she was the leader here and just didn’t realize that she wasn’t actually in charge of things.
Well, they were in for a surprise. They were likely counting on it taking a while for her to organize her troops. If she was fast enough, struck quickly enough, maybe she could pull this off.
She paused at the entrance to the subway, her gaze inadvertently drawn back to the building three blocks behind her. It might be the last time she laid eyes on it. Chances were this was a one-way trip. Even if she didn’t bite the big one in this fight, she knew she couldn’t come back here.
When had that run-down building become home? Her residency had never been meant to be more than a temporary layover. But sometime between training Jacob’s inept newbies, butting heads with Annie, and fencing with Valin, she’d forgotten that. Despite her end-of-game plans, there were enough people she’d been…invested in that she’d wanted to make sure things turned out all right. She’d never meant to stay. Never meant to get attached.
Never meant to fall in love.
She swallowed, choking down the bitter tears that threatened as she descended into the dim subway interior. She’d already shed too many of the damn things. Now was the time for action, not regrets. She’d get Annie back, kill the fuckers who’d hurt Aaron, and ensure Valin never had to look in the face of his shame again.
The trip on the subway passed in a blur as she worked to purge her mind of distractions. Annie, Jacob, Aaron, Valin…they didn’t need the woman right now, they needed the monster.
Her stop came, the last on the 1 line. Only her and a handful of others exited here, and each one took off briskly heading to their own destinations with not so much as a glance to their fellow travelers. She made her way through the gothic Victorian station down to the street, using her gift to scan and dismiss the various minds in the area.
No one was paying her any mind; even so, she pulled about her a don’t-look-at-me shield and made her way to the center of the vampire’s NYC powerbase. Tucked between the affluent neighborhood of Fielding and Manhattan College, the coven’s primary estate was a one-acre slice of easy-to-disappear-in heaven for a vamp. Large trees, overgrown gardens, and a shroud of evil even the least sensitive human would have run away from marked the edges of the grounds. It even had the prerequisite fog thing going on today.
She knew she was taking a bit of a gamble by coming here rather than to any of the other vampire safe houses sprinkled around the city. There were certainly more appropriate ones to hold captive and definitely ones better suited for an attention-drawing battle if Gabby or the others managed to see past the tease of a meeting place the note had laid out and gone searching, but this is where Gabby knew Stephan to be, and if he was anything like she remembered, he’d want to keep his newest prize close at hand to play with at his leisure.
Over my dead body.
She took a deep breath, releasing some of the anger. It would serve to motivate her when needed, but too much could blind her as well. What would also blind her? Keeping her shields clamped down tight as she’d been doing.
Carefully she lessened them, just enough to get an imprint of any thoughts or minds in the vicinity. There should have been nothing, what with the vamps in residence snug as a bug in their thick-walled mansion, but something poked her back, a sick, twisted mind that could only mean one thing: demon.
She slammed her shields back up, cringing at the sharp throbbing of her bruised brain. Crap and hell. So much for sneaking in while everyone was sleeping. Where there was one demon, there was bound to be more.
She’d really been
hoping Ganelon wasn’t involved in this.
Think of it as having all seven courses of the meal at once. Too bad she wasn’t all that hungry.
“How did I know you’d be alone?” a low baritone voice rolled over her from behind.
She spun, automatically plucking a throwing knife from her belt as she zeroed in on the source of the voice, but saw nothing other than the twisted growth of the overgrown grounds. Lots of places to hide.
“Who says I’m alone?” she stalled, her eyes keen for any bit of movement.
“Oh, come now, Gabriella, don’t lie.”
She spun again, following the shift of sound that had moved by her and deeper into the overgrown garden.
“My question is,” the voice rumbled again, to her left this time, “do you really think you have a chance of killing me?”
“I don’t have to kill you; I just have to send you back to hell.” Which, admittedly, wasn’t an easy thing. She’d been practicing banishing spells but had yet to have the opportunity to test them. There was always the old standard though: inflict enough pain on the demon’s earthly body so it decided hell’s fires were the better option.
The man chuckled, the sound eerie in the shadowed garden. “Ah…still the same old Gabby. You always did have trouble with displaying respect.”
A shiver ran down her spine, unease at the use of her nickname off the vile creature’s tongue.
“But you will for me.”
“Will what?” she spun again, sure the voice had been closer that time.
“Kneel, Gabby.” The command crashed into her shields, ripping and shredding the solid weave of power as if her barriers were nothing but newspaper. Stumbling back, she poured more energy into an ever-flowing river of power that the demon’s attack would ripple off of. Only it didn’t.
She screamed, her knees buckling beneath the force of the creature’s will. The moment her knees hit the ground the oppressive pressure lifted, leaving her entire body aching and her lungs gulping for breath.
What the hell? Only one person had ever been able to invade her mind like that.
Panting, she held her head, trying to fight back the tunneling vision.
Sitting duck. Vulnerable.
She lurched to her feet, her hand shaking as she pulled her gun. If she could wing the thing, she could possibly distract him enough to break his concentration.
“Come out and show yourself, you chicken-shit bastard!” she yelled, cursing her still-fuzzy vision. For all she knew he was standing right in front of her.
“As you wish, Gabriella.” Movement to her right had her spinning around, gun raised. The outline of a man stepped out of the shadows, sending her heart racing. She’d been wrong. The creature was not a demon, unless he’d stolen a body—albeit an impressive one. Not that it mattered. Whatever or whoever this was, he was pure evil.
But she’d faced evil before. And she’d face it this time too.
She lifted the gun, her eyes narrowing on her target. Then gasped as pain spliced into her mind. Her vision blurred as she watched her fingers fall from the gun’s grip. It landed with a thud upon the ground.
“How?” She staggered back, her hands shaking as she lifted them before her eyes.
“Sorry, it just seemed rather tacky accessory for our reunion.”
Reunion? She’d never met him before, was sure of it.
He smiled, his lips curling up in a manner that made every muscle in her body scream at her to run. “What? You don’t recognize me, Gabby?”
Her gut sunk, a hole opening up beneath her feet. Not possible. Not. Possible.
“Ah, how I’ve missed you, Gabriella.” He held out his hand, the king’s ring glinting in a stray ray from the overcast sun. “Come now, let me bring you home, daughter…”
***
Valin shifted, wincing at the scrape of the bark against his skin. What a loser he was, sitting up here in the branches of some tree in Central Park getting pine sap on his ass. The park had been one of Angeline’s favorite places to go. She’d love to come and people watch, especially when they set the ice rink up in the winter and the families came out to laugh and play. Frankly, all that bubbling happiness made Valin squirm. Give him a dark, dank alley any day. Throw in a merker to kill and he was more than content.
And didn’t that sum up the difference between them in a nutshell. Angeline had been all light and smiles and happiness, and he’d been a grumpy bastard.
Memories filtered through his mind, but this time he was able to smile now by the gentle way they wrapped around him. It had been good. She’d balanced his sullen nature, kept him from drifting too far into the dark. But as much as he’d love her, she hadn’t been meant to be his forever.
Gabby. Just thinking about her twisted him up in knots, both the good and bad kind. He loved her so much, would worship the very ground she walked on if she’d let him, but the thought of losing her was driving him mad.
He’d known he was bonding with Gabby. Known it was the real deal. Had thought he’d accepted that eventually his feelings for his mate would hit him on a level that, as much as he may have wished otherwise, he could never have experienced with Angeline. The compatible pair bond that he and Angeline had formed shadowed in contrast to what he felt for Gabby. He thought that would feel wrong, but it didn’t. Angeline and their unborn child would always hold a place in his heart, but Gabby was his heart and soul. And he knew Angeline would understand.
She would also have been the first one to tell him to stop being stupid and get off his sticky backside and go claim his mate.
He’d run this morning. Those chronic feelings of impotence raising their ugly head again as he realized that loving her was not going to be the cure-all to the darkness that had shadowed her life. Which was damn ironic considering how often he danced with the dark shadows of morality. Maybe it wasn’t about him saving her. Maybe it was about them saving each other.
But first he had to get back to the base and convince her to take on his sorry ass as a mate. They’d figure what they needed to do together.
More at ease than he’d been in a long time, he shifted, willing himself along the currents toward the base. He made it most of the way when something hit him: a feeling—terror—that ripped him right out of the shade and sent him smacking into pavement. He groaned, then screamed, arching as a darkness far different from the shade’s welcoming solace swelled around him.
“Dude, you all right?”
The darkness eased. Chest heaving, he lifted his head and stared through blurry eyes at the alarmed face of a disheveled teen and his two buddies hovering a couple feet behind him.
Not an attack. Not on him. But that meant…
<
For a moment they connected, a brief moment where her terror grabbed for him and clung like he was her lifeline. And then she was gone. Ripped away. The very pulse of her essence winking out as if it had never existed. Valin staggered, the stunning impact of loss curling around his heart and squeezing so hard he swore it stopped.
Not yours, hers. Told you this would happen… told you…
“Gabby, no!” He clawed at his chest, as if he could reach in and pump the organ back to life again. Only it wasn’t his…
“Gabby…” He’d lost her. Lost. Gabby.
His legs buckled. Someone grabbed him, helping him down to his knees. “Dude…you having a heart attack…”
Whatever else the boy said was drowned out as Valin began to scream.
Chapter 18
Valin materialized in his room, his movements quick and efficient as he gathered what he would need. Too long had passed since he’d fallen. He wasn’t sure how much time, just that the street had been empty when Valin finally screamed his vocal cords raw, the eerie silence suggesting that the teens and anyone else unlucky enough to be in the area had fled in fear from the
crazy naked guy in the street. Probably best. When he’d lost the ability to express his grief, his emotions had switched to the next best thing: anger. It had fueled him on the journey back to the base, his only thought to find and kill the bastard who’d taken Gabby from him.
Clothes, shoes…his knife. Fuck, where was his goddamn knife?
Gabby’s room. He’d never gotten it from her after the merker attack that night.
Gabby, oh God, Gabby. He sucked a deep breath into his tight chest, bracing his hands on his knees to keep from hitting the floor with his already abused knees. He would scream again if he could, but since he didn’t think his vocal chords would respond, the only recourse he had left was to weep. He couldn’t do that now. Not until after he’d found her. And he would find her. She was alive. She had to be. The other option was not acceptable.
It had occurred to him when he’d come to his senses in that empty street that there were other reasons why their connection could have been severed, the most logical being that she’d lost consciousness and had simply yet to wake. Wasn’t that what happened to Roland when Karissa had been taken?
But he’d had the blood bond, so he knew and could find her. You have nothing.
No, not nothing. He knew approximately where she’d been. And whether he had to move heaven and hell to do it, he would find her, because if he didn’t?
Don’t go there. That was the road to insanity and a sure one-way trip to absolute darkness. If Gabby was truly gone then he would not be able to find his way back, and God help anyone near him if he were to reach that journey’s end.
Determined not to waste any more time, he sent out a general ping through the base for Bennett. Almost immediately he got Bennett’s absentminded return ping. He followed the response back to Jacob’s planning room, then stood in the doorway as he watched the two men face off amongst a handful of other soldiers.
Though a couple of Jacob’s soldiers noticed his presence, neither Jacob nor Bennett did, and since they were discussing something that, turns out, Valin was eager to hear, he settled in against the doorframe to listen.
