Forbidden (The Gabriel Lennox Series Book 1) (21 page)

Colin,
his mind screamed.
Colin
! He reached out in his mind through the invisible threads that connected them to one another, stronger than steel, as delicate as spider webs.

Where are you? Where?

An answer came, faint, but quickly.

Whitechapel, Commercial Street. Please hurry, Master Gabriel. But forgive me when you do.

A trap. Without another word, Gabriel rose from the piano bench and simply vanished. Nikolai’s surprised gasp was the last sound he heard within the house. He materialized outside and ascended into the foggy sky.

* * *

Gabriel landed on the cobblestone in a misty, empty alley. A single gas light feebly illuminated the area so that the deserted street teemed with shadows. Colin stood beneath its glow. Gabriel moved toward him, but stopped several feet away. He had to be cautious. Nikolai never said how long his protective seal would last. He had to make sure of the figure’s identity. Colin or one of Seth’s illusions?

“Master Gabriel.” Colin moved toward him.

Gabriel raised a warning hand, stopping him from moving any closer. “Stay where you are.”

He froze, wringing his hands together. His entire body trembled. His hair, the side of his face, and shirt were matted with drying blood. “I’ve been attacked, Master Gabriel. The bruises, yer wonderin’, why there aren’t any. They’ve healed.” He brought his hands to his face and wept.

Gabriel just looked at him, waiting for him to morph, for Seth to throw off the illusion, and when Colin didn’t change, he closed the space between them and awkwardly wrapped his arms around the boy. As soon as he touched him, he felt a sensation that spoke of familiarity, possession. Absurd. And yet, he knew, just
knew
that this was Colin.
His
Colin.

His servant stopped crying. “Thank you,” he whispered. “Thank you for coming even though you knew it was a trap. Thank you.” He stepped back out of Gabriel’s embrace and stared at his shoes as if refusing to look him in the eyes.

“What happened? I need to know,” Gabriel demanded.

Colin’s eyes widened. “You forgive me then?” he asked, voice mixed with happiness and confusion. “Just like that? No questions? No demands! Bloody hell, I’ve betrayed you, Master Gabriel!”

Gabriel sighed. “Was it Seth who did this? Did you see him?”

“No, it was I,” said a male voice.

Gabriel spun around. The man stepped out from the shadows, smiling, an ebony walking stick in his hand. He appraised the man’s face, made of high cheekbones and an angular jaw line, and wanted to take great pleasure in breaking it. His long cloak fanned out around him as he stalked toward him. A red pin glittered in the lamplight, it looked to be made from a well-cut ruby and fashioned into a five-petal rose.

“I’ve been watching you for some time,” the man said.

Gabriel merely stared at him, the gaslight hissing sounded louder.

“Even before the murder at the whorehouse,” the man went on.

“Who are you?”

“My name is Edan,” he said with a little bow of his head.

“
Waal
,” Gabriel drawled. “That doesn’t tell me much.”

“I wasn’t sure if you wanted the truth or the apparent truth.”

“I want you dead.”

The man chuckled.

Colin stretched forth his hand, and a ring of fire formed around the man, who stopped laughing. “Not so funny anymore, is it?” Colin threw his head back in a burst of laughter, eyes shining in the darkness. “Shall I burn him to a crisp?”

Gabriel felt a jab in his back and glanced over his shoulder. Another man, stocky as he stood tall with piggy eyes, and sporting a brown derby hat, had appeared behind him. On his coat, he wore the same jeweled pin. A cigarette hung from the corner of his mouth.

“Tell your lad to stop,” he commanded. He jabbed him again with a bat.

Gabriel smiled despite his annoyance. Why was this man not afraid of Colin’s power? “But this has become so entertaining. My lad could light your fag, if it pleases you.”

“Master Gabriel.” Colin’s voice choked with terror.

Gabriel looked to Colin and saw that a third man had appeared behind him, noiselessly, like mist, as if he had simply materialized from the scattered shadows.
No, this one is no mere man
. Gabriel sensed that he was like him: above mortals.

The stranger held Colin close to his chest, and brought a knife to his throat. He smiled in a taunting manner. His eyes, like a gazelle’s—large and black—seized his. Gabriel stared back at him, transfixed.

“Come with us,” the first man said.

Gabriel smiled. “I don’t think we have a choice.” He raised his hands in mock surrender.

“No, you don’t.”

He walked deeper into the alley that branched off into a labyrinth of other streets that crisscrossed apparently with no purpose, no logic. Over the past three hundred years, the East End may have had developed rapidly, but it seemed more like a regression. He remembered how it used to be merely villages clustered around the City walls and along the main roads, surrounded by farmland, with marshes and small communities. Now it had devolved into a cesspool of death, disease, and decay.

The new stranger followed behind him, still holding onto Colin, knife at his throat. As Gabriel stepped into the carriage, his mood lightened by Colin’s curses to his captor.

“You fuckin’ pig! Go to bloody hell.”

Annoyance had replaced Colin’s fear.

Gabriel smiled.

* * *

Mikel kissed the prostitute’s eyelids. She went by the name of Marie Antoinette and considered herself what her lukewarm English people called a “Frenchy” with her style of clothing and her mannerisms.

He found her amusing and hadn’t killed her yet. She had merely fallen asleep. He opened the door to his bedroom and listened.

“He just vanished in thin air,” Nikolai said to Nathaniel for the third time. They were in Nathaniel’s room across the hall worrying over Gabriel’s sudden disappearance.

“With no word as to his whereabouts?”

“No, sir. Nothing.”

“That day,” Nathaniel said gently. “How is it that Seth was vanquished?”

“I don’t remember.”

“You
don’t remember
.” Nathaniel’s voice still sounded sweet, but the tone didn’t match the expression on his face.

He walked out of his room, into Nathaniel’s and stuck his head in the doorway. “May I be of some assistance?”

Nathaniel’s teeth were bared, smiling as predatory as a wolf. “If you’re asking to assist merely for the sake of politeness, don’t bother.”

“What do you mean?”

A momentary flash of anger lit up his eyes. “You know exactly what I mean. Gabriel Enlightened you, and I find it quite interesting that you don’t seem the least bit concerned about his absence.”

Mikel walked into the room and lay on the bed. “Forgive me, but I didn’t know that I had been assigned as his keeper.”

Nathaniel smirked. “It appears that you’d prefer to be his rival.”

“Like Cain and Abel?” Mikel rolled his eyes. “Perish the thought. My only desire is to
serve
Gabriel.”

Nathaniel blinked at him with his wintry blue eyes. “Serve? Yes, preferably his head on a silver platter. Really, Mikel, you don’t have to lie to me.”

Mikel turned over onto his back and stared at the ceiling before closing his eyes. As much as it angered and disgusted him, he focused on Gabriel and channeled his being through the ever-present invisible cords that tied them together. Every nerve in his body tingled, and an image of Gabriel and Colin flashed into his mind briefly before it disappeared. A cool, soothing sensation washed over him that seemed to whisper,
Safe. We’re safe
. “I can sense him. He’s with Colin, and they’re both safe.”

“Their location? Location! Can you sense that, man?”

He pushed further, concentrating on his maker, but in reply for his efforts, he received an annoyed ringing followed by a hollow silence in his head. The connection died. Mikel shook his head, relieved. He looked at Nathaniel from the corner of his eye. “Not a clue, and even if I did, I know that Gabriel wouldn’t want us to follow. It would be an insult to his divine majesty.”

Nathaniel tossed the length of his blonde hair over one shoulder. “Now,” he said, tenting his hands in front of him, “
that
I believe.”

GABRIEL GLANCED
AROUND
the room of the house they had been taken to, a two-story house in an upper middle class neighborhood. On the outside, it had appeared to be deserted, but inside, the owner had lavished the rooms with expensive and rare pieces of furniture. The carpeting, the wall décor, moldings, and fixtures matched perfectly and reflected that the owner most likely had a great deal of both time and money on his hands. Rich burgundy damask curtains covered the windows; lush coral carpets softened the dark wood of the walls.

Within the past fifteen minutes, he and Colin had been held “captive” (he could’ve escaped if he wanted to, but the problematic situation had piqued his curiosity); he had learned that the two human men claimed to be vampire hunters. The third man (well, more than a man), had disappeared and had probably resorted to observing him from the shadows.

He let Edan and Ralph tie him up in a high-back chair. Colin had stopped struggling and played along, too.

And when Mikel tried contacting him, it just made matters worse. Confusion and shock must’ve shown on his usually stoic face, for a few seconds, which allowed enough time to feed the stocky human’s suspicions. Ralph tilted his derby hat and narrowed his beady eyes at Gabriel.

Gabriel could’ve ripped him into pieces, large and stocky or not.

“Don’t do anything stupid,” the stocky man said in a low voice. He signaled Edan to follow outside to the front porch. Gabriel watched them through the parted curtains, whispering. He couldn’t hear a single word, but their body language spoke volumes. Edan kept glancing at his watch while the light outside became brighter, and once Edan looked over his shoulder at Gabriel who stared back, smiling like an angel. Edan didn’t smile, but frowned at him before turning around. He patted his partner on the back, who left in a hurry thereafter.

Edan returned inside and shut the door behind him. He rubbed his hands together as if he were cold.

“Your gorilla,” Gabriel said, “Where did he lumber off to?”

“
Ralph
,” Edan replied sharply, “has gone to make sure that none of your kind is fool enough to follow.”

Gabriel lifted his eyes to the ceiling in mock contemplation. “I wonder if it was wise of him to have left. Three against two were much better odds than you alone.”

At that moment, the Chosen sauntered into the room and dropped languidly into a large red chair beside the fireplace. He crossed one leg over the other and stared in Gabriel’s direction, his gaze strangely inquisitive, questioning.

Edan jerked a thumb at him. He sat in a chair several feet away from Gabriel. “Leigh is one of my greatest accomplishments. He’s the first vampire that I spared. In exchange for his life, he promised to serve me. To serve the Order of the Rose. Isn’t that right?”

Leigh, sitting regally in the large red chair, simply smiled with his sensuous mouth. His dark, unruly hair, which had a violet cast, reached his shoulders. The wildness of his hair, the violet tinge to it, and the rich, deep olive of his complexion were reminiscent of Bacchus. Gabriel had no trouble imagining him dressed in a toga, a wreath of olive leaves worn like a crown on his head as he led a group of drunken maidens through the woods to dance, the prelude to ecstasy and madness.

But what he wore suited him as well. The purple cravat around his neck and the bright green handkerchief in his breast pocket set off the black watered-silk coat to perfection. His outrageous fashion sense matched the dandies who strutted around London, fancying themselves as lovers and cultivators of beauty. Aesthetes, they called themselves.

He continued to stare off in Gabriel’s direction, but his large, black eyes didn’t seem to focus or threaten. Strange that. Had he only imagined the power behind them?

“Be careful, my dear Leigh,” Edan said, with mock concern. “Don’t strain yourself to answer.”

“Why can’t he speak?” Colin asked.

Edan smiled. “Because we clipped off his tongue. Would you like proof?”

Without hesitation, Colin shook his head. “No thank you, guv.”

Edan’s smile turned smug. “Your unholy kind never posed much of a threat to the Order. You would glut your thirst with the blood of the unwanted—the poor, the destitute—whomever we deemed not in our best interest, and that was fine with us. Fine, as long as you stayed in one place. We mean to keep you on this island.”

Gabriel took his eyes off of Leigh and set them on Edan. “You’re a liar. Our kind populate all parts of the world. Other cultures as old as Babylon and as new as the Americas testify of our existence.”

Edan took out a cigarette and lit it. He took a puff from it before speaking. “You haven’t heard many of those tales recently, have you? That’s because we’ve managed to wipe them out. The Order,” he added with an arrogant wave of his hand, “is very efficient.”

“What do you want from me?” Gabriel asked.

“A little of your time. Your cooperation.”

“I’m listening.”

“The murders as of late haven’t gone unnoticed. I’ve been called to be cautious and to watch from the shadows what’s going on. You’re not like other vampires. As I said, I’ve been watching you. You’re an exception, and I find you most interesting.”

Gabriel smiled. “Who said that I was a vampire? I certainly didn’t.”

Edan frowned. He rubbed his goatee with his thumb and forefinger, his lips slightly parted as if he would speak any moment, but instead said nothing.

“You mentioned murders. So many have transpired. I’m not sure of which you speak.”

He narrowed his eyes at Gabriel. “You know which ones. I told you that our business has to do with the actions of
your kind
. Humans have been slaughtering one another for millennia. That isn’t new nor is it really a threat.” He gave a throwaway gesture with one hand. “Your kind are a threat, however. Don’t be difficult. The one they call Seth is to blame for murders that have nothing to do with Whitechapel. Where is he?”

“I don’t know,” Gabriel replied.

Edan rose from his chair, his rage as hot as fire and his eyes like ice. “I don’t believe you. Will you force me to tear the information from you?”

“It would please me to see you try,
human
.” He laughed. Who had filled Edan with delusions that he could handle him? He glanced at Leigh who had shifted in his chair—his eyes were tapered with what looked like deep concentration, and he appeared ready to leap out of his seat. Gabriel relaxed in his bonds. “Seth and I have an interesting relationship. Adding you to the scenario, I think, shall make it quite complicated. I order you to retreat. Seth is my prey.”

Edan’s jaw slackened, and his hazel eyes glazed over. Gabriel leaned forward in his chair. “Do you hear me, stupid human? Seth is
mine
. If anyone is to destroy him, I am the one to do it.”

“So, Seth is . . . alive?” a soft voice asked. “Take your will off of him.” Gabriel glanced around. His gaze lingered on the mute Chosen with the wild hair and eyes.

“Edan was correct when he said I am without a tongue, but I still have my mind, and if I wanted to, I could crush yours into a senseless bloody mass with merely a thought.” The Chosen’s full lips stretched into a tight-lipped smile.

Gabriel withdrew his power from Edan, grudgingly, slowly. The human’s eyes opened wide before closing into what looked like sleep.

“I’ve sent him to slumber land,” Leigh continued, still smiling. “That way, you and I can converse without interruption. Tell me, what you said, about Seth? Did you really mean it? That you’ll . . .”

“Master Gabriel, what’s going on?” Colin asked, a troubled look on his face.

Gabriel shook his head and nodded toward Leigh. “What? You can’t hear him?”

Leigh laughed, but his lips didn’t move.

Colin stared at Gabriel, confused. Of course, Colin couldn’t hear. Leigh spoke in his mind.

Leigh ignored Colin, rose from his chair, and swaggered toward them. “Where is Seth? Answer me.”

“Only after,” Gabriel said, “you make us more comfortable.”

Leigh shut his eyes and brought his hands in front of him. His hands trembled for a few seconds. Colin’s ropes unraveled, and he let out a sigh of relief.

Gabriel’s ropes loosened, too. They slipped off and fell to the floor. Though Leigh’s power unnerved him, Gabriel willed himself to remain calm. “Impressive,” he said coolly. “I thank you.” He rubbed the back of his neck and rolled his shoulders. “Now what?”

Leigh fixed his eyes on the space next to Gabriel and glared. “Tell me what you’ve done with Seth.”

Leigh didn’t look at Colin or him directly, but stared at the space in between them. He waved his hand in front of Leigh’s face. His eyes moved neither left nor right and were focused on nothing. Nothing.

Leigh’s face went blank. “I was born blind.”

“You’re still blind. Even after . . .”

“Naïve youth. Did you think Enlightenment would have healed my eyes so that I could see? You’re not the first to have thought so. My mother made a pact with a wise woman in our village. My mother was a river of tears and filled with superstitions. She thought that I was cursed due to my blindness, and she believed that this woman – this sorceress—could cure me. But,” he spread his hands wide in a shrug, “as you have witnessed, she was wrong. Don’t pity me, though. I see what others can’t. Physical sight isn’t necessary. Now, answer me. Where is Seth? I can no longer feel his presence. Can no longer sense him. There’s only . . . emptiness.”

“Ohhh. Just as expected. You must be his mysterious maker.”

“Yes!” the voice snapped, cutting like a knife. “And if you’ve done any harm to Seth, I’ll kill you, Gabriel Lennox.” The blind Chosen’s voice no longer whispered in his mind, but could be heard throughout the room. Colin squirmed in his seat, discomfort wrinkling his face.

Colin glanced at Gabriel and chewed his bottom lip. “Uh, so that’s why you, errr . . . set me up?”

Leigh silently studied his fingernails. “Tell me just one thing. Seth . . . does he yet live?”

Gabriel stood. “For the time being.”

Leigh’s delicate, long-fingered hand clenched into a fist. An illusion. He wasn’t as delicate as he appeared. “You dare to threaten what is mine even when I have you in the palm of my hand? You’ll leave Seth alone.”

He stood up. “You’re entitled to your convictions, but I have my own. Seth forced me into a blood bond. Forced! And you know that there’s only one way to break such a bond.” His arms hung heavily at his sides.

Leigh gave a peaceful smile, looking like a saint, eyes shut. “I don’t care what you have to say. You must swear on your honor, on your blood that you’ll pardon him.
My
precious Seth.”

Colin’s gasp broke in like a thunderbolt. “But Seth is a monster! He torments my master who is no one’s toy. What’s more, he murders without remorse.” His voice held heat that Gabriel had never heard in him before. “And the longer I listen to you, the more I’m set to believe that the apple didn’t fall far from the tree.”

Gabriel closed his eyes, wishing that Colin hadn’t spoken the bitter truth. The uncertainty of how Leigh would react caused a sudden coldness in the middle of his spine to seep throughout the rest of his bones.

“Ah. The “dreaming-while-awake” blood exchanges. You call them murders. You stretch the word to suit your intentions. Those humans that know of us gave of their blood willingly—”

Colin gave a vehement shake of his head. “It’s murder—”

“Those humans had a choice, and they took a path less traveled.” Leigh still smiled, but the words cut the air in angry little bites. “I call it suicide.”

Gabriel glared at him. “Nonsense. It’s murder, no matter what you want to think or say. You only speak this way because you know that you’re guilty by association.”

Leigh frowned, his bottom lip jutting out in a childish pout. “True. But what does it matter? These humans are puppets.” He waved a casual hand at Edan. “And I—no,
we
are their masters.” He smiled, his shoulders shaking with silent laughter. “Ah. Humans. You speak to them, hold their gaze, and they’re like worms, mesmerized by the bird’s hunter eyes. Don’t you understand, pretty red bird? Humans are merely toys to alleviate boredom. Who cares if they stain the world with crimson? Not I.”

Leigh sniffed and paced the floor back and forth, forth and back, before spinning about and perching his chin on an elegantly raised hand. “So, you understand,” he said to Gabriel, in an intimate, tender tone. “That none of us can possibly accuse Seth of being a monster because we’re just like him.”

Gabriel shrugged, unmoved. “Believe whatever you like, but you know that Seth or I will have to bleed away in order to break the bond, and it won’t be me. Pardon Seth? I will do no such thing. His blood will spill for this great offense.”

Leigh looked at him directly, and then the power that Gabriel had sensed earlier revealed itself and crashed down on him.

Colin leapt forward out of his chair and into the air, his movements quick and graceful as a cat’s.

Leigh’s eyes flashed like two polished jewels and for a split second, turned on Colin, who froze in midair, inches from striking him in the face with a fist flaming with fire.

Fascinating. Gabriel thrust back with his own power, sending Leigh flying into the wall behind him. Like a marionette without strings, he thrashed him around the room, being careful not to muss the furniture or the curtains. Leigh let out a painful grunt or two and seemed to surrender. Finally, Gabriel pinned him against the wall with a glare, until Leigh’s dark eyes dimmed with submission.

“You’re not as blind as you say,” Gabriel said.

He lowered his head. “I
see
with my ears. Your blood-child’s movements are quite noisy and clumsy.” He sniffed. “I smell smoke. Something burns?”

“That something would’ve been you, if you had been a second slower. Release Colin.”

His eyes flickered to Colin before returning to Gabriel. Colin fell with a loud thump to the carpet. He groaned as he picked himself up and made much to-do about dusting his clothes off.