Hunted, The Complete Edition: A Full-length Steamy Vampire Romance (New England Nightwalkers) (18 page)

“My, my,” said Fenton, clicking his tongue in disapproval. “You’ve gotten creative in your older years, haven’t you? I would expect that level of sadism in Ezekiel, not you. Has he been teaching you some new tricks since Melissande died?”

What the hell was Fenton doing? Implying that Irena and Ezekiel were having an affair was not going to calm her down. Ezekiel was a master of keeping Irena’s leash just tight enough to get his prime lieutenant to do whatever he wanted, but a relationship? No way.

The harsh intake of breath was all too human, though, and her silence spoke volumes.

Gabriel’s mind was still blown when she finally spoke, her voice a low growl. “You fucking shit, you are just begging for it, aren’t you?”

“I never beg, Irena. I never have to.”

Gabriel realized this conversation was going on too long. Irena was clever. She was using Fenton’s natural inclination for one-upmanship to keep him on the line. There could only be one reason for that.

They were tracing the call.

And if they found them, it was all over. Sure, maybe she’d let Fenton live, if only so she didn’t have to face the wrath of the others for taking away their candy man, but she would make the doctor suffer. Of that, Gabriel had no doubt.

As for Zara?

Dead meat.

Gabriel snatched the phone from Fenton’s hand, at his wit’s end. Time was running short. They were going to find him soon. Better to face them alone than with Zara at his side.

“It’s me,” he snarled. “You want to talk? Let’s talk. Meet me at Marcella’s Bar down Old Country Road at seven PM tonight. Bring Ezekiel or don’t. Your call.”

He hung up the phone before she could answer, but he had no doubt they would be there. He had something they wanted…needed.

And he would do whatever it took to make sure they never got it. No matter the price.

Z
ara sat
on the end of the bed, fighting back a wave of dizziness. She didn’t eat much last night and, that, combined with lack of sleep had left her wiped. Now, this morning, she didn’t even have the energy to get up and brush her teeth.

She still felt angry over her father’s death, but the revelation that he had a hand in Ezekiel’s mate’s death put a different spin on things.

If Gabriel was telling the truth, her father had gone to this house on a hunch and murdered a woman in cold blood. Yes, the fact that she did, in fact, turn out to be a vampire was a critical piece of the puzzle that absolved him to some degree. But that didn’t change the fact that she might not have been.

Zara shuddered at the thought of all the other times he’d
thought
something and had wound up being wrong. What about the mailman he was sure was an alien? Or the lady at the grocery store he insisted was a CIA agent gone bad? Would he have killed them too, if given the chance?

And then, there was no looking past the very real possibility that Melissande was exactly what Gabriel had said she was. A nightwalker, yes, but not the nightwalker who had been responsible for the deaths on the beach that fateful night last summer.

She didn’t blame her father. How could she? Somewhere in his crazy, mixed-up brain he was only trying to do good. His compulsion to seek out conspiracies and the things hidden in the dark was beyond his control.

Funny how quick you are to absolve your father of his sins when the same could be said for Gabriel,
a little voice in her head whispered.

She tried to push it away, but the thought dug its claws into her and wouldn’t let go. What if Gabriel had no more control over what he was than her father did?

Fenton had mentioned a virus. What did she know about viruses and parasites? Parasites were too large to live in a microscopic virus, but a parasite could catch a virus. Often a virus/parasite symbiosis caused especially virulent forms of disease. Was one such combination linked to vampirism? If this were true, would an antibiotic that could kill the parasite, perhaps in combination with an antiviral medication, present a cure? She made a mental note to discuss it with Fenton. She was no doctor, but she couldn’t help but wonder if Fenton’s techniques using poisons as the foundation for a cure might be based in science he’d learned in the 18
^th
century.

Her librarian’s brain was firing on all cylinders, and, in a moment of clarity, she recognized it for what it was. Picking apart the intellectual side of this equation allowed her to avoid thinking about the crux of the matter.

That Gabriel was an emotional problem. A big one.

Seeing the aftermath of his physical pain last night had unlocked the part of her heart that she’d done her level best to lock down. According to Gabriel, he was going through all this to protect her. When he first told her that last night, it seemed like too little information, too late. But she couldn’t get his agonized screams out of her head. What if it was the truth?

Clearly Gabriel was not in the same class as Ezekiel, Irena or even Fenton. She shivered when she remembered Fenton’s lack of empathy for Gabriel’s pain, and his reaction to her bleeding ankle. His hooded eyes told her that he was inches from losing control. If he thought he could have gotten away with it, he would have drank from her.

But Gabriel had multiple opportunities to do the same, and had never given her any indication that he wanted her blood. If anything, aside from the searing sex, he was a perfect gentleman. Which, by any measure, had to have been an almost superhuman feat.

Her mind was still reeling, trying to make sense out of this mess, when the door came crashing open. Gabriel stood in the doorway, eyes full of intensity that both excited and frightened her.

“Do you need an invitation to come in?” she found herself asking. Look at her, less than forty-eight hours into knowing, and already she was cracking jokes. Maybe she really had lost it.

His expression remained solemn as he shook his head. “I’d like to talk to you.”

She should’ve asked him to go away. Told him she wasn’t interested in hearing anything he had to say, but something about the grave look in his eye had her beckoning him.

“Come in, then.”

“Do you feel all right? You’re looking pale.” Concern flickered over the handsome angular features of his face. Damn, and he was gorgeous. She couldn’t deny that. How could a monster be this beautiful?

“Maybe low blood sugar. Probably need something to eat.”

A look passed over his face that she could not decipher.

“We’ll get you something to eat. But first there is something I have to discuss with you.” He came in and sat on a chair next to the bed. “Irena knows that Fenton is with me. She called him this morning, and is demanding that I turn you over.”

Zara’s throat went tight as she looked away. So was this where his relative humanity ended? Would he turn her in to be slaughtered now?

“I scheduled a meet between she and I to take place tonight. I’m going to do my best to convince her to defy Ezekiel and let this go.”

She whipped her head up to stare at him in shock. “Gabriel, no. She’ll never agree to that. If she’s meeting with you, it’s got to be a trap. I won’t let you do it.”

“Yes, you will. You have no choice. They’re close to finding us anyway, and it is the only way to protect you. While I am gone I want you to do what Fenton says. I’ve paid him a lot of money to take care of you, so don’t squander my fortune, eh?”

“But--”

He shook his head and cut her short. “No buts, Zara. It would kill me if something happened to you. Do you understand that? You are more important to me than anyone or anything in this world. I’ve already lost my humanity. I won’t lose you too. I promise everything is going to be okay.”

She looked down. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep, Gabriel. They’re psychopathic monsters. I don’t see how anything is going to be okay. For me or for you.”

“Hey,” he said, lifting her chin gently with his fingers. “It will. I’ll make it so.”

Zara looked in his eyes, but despite his smile, she saw the grief there. Damn him. He was going to do something stupid and reckless and, suddenly, she had the distinct feeling that this was his goodbye.

“You just have to trust me.”

Terror clutched at her heart. Funny, just yesterday she had sworn to Fenton she’d have given up everything to go back in time and erase Gabriel from her life forever. Now, though? This sensation that his solution would separate them forever seemed like a fate worse than death. One that struck a chord deep within her that railed against it, as if her own life depended on it.

“Don’t do this,” she demanded, knowing full well, he didn’t need her permission. God, she felt so helpless. She swiped a hand at the tears sliding down her cheeks.

“There is no other choice,” he said firmly. “As long as you retain a trace of the bond--” He trailed off and jammed a hand through his tousled hair, “Look, they aren’t going to quit until they find you. The only way to make them stop is for me to go to them.”

“I’m afraid for you,” she said, her voice breaking with the words.

“Don’t be afraid.” Gabriel looked up to the ceiling pursing his lips. “I want to share a story with you,” he said softly. “When I was young, many years before the First World War, my mother and I lived in rural England. We worked for a couple on their large farm--”

“We? When you were just a boy?”

“Don’t look so shocked. It was normal then for children to work alongside their parents. I tended the sheep in the fields. It wasn’t hard work, just lonely sometimes.

“My father had died several years prior. I barely remembered him. My mother took work as a kitchen maid in the manor house of the farm. I think the fact that I could work too made the deal more attractive. She was a relatively young widow, beautiful and kind. Many itinerants came to the back door looking for food and she always found a way to feed them, though the Lord only knows how. The lady of the manor was a cheapskate, and more than one time failed to pay my mother her wages. But as long as we had a place to sleep and food to eat, she was satisfied.

“After a time, strange things had begun happening in the area. Animals gone missing or found dead and bloodless, even whispers of missing prostitutes trickled in from the city. Rumors hit the countryside, and my mother cautioned me to come back to the house each night before darkness fell. But one night I was late. A lamb had gotten away from me, and I had to find it or the master of the house would have whipped me. My mother was worried, so she left the manor to come find me, and just as we met a short distance from the manor, a terrible ruckus rose around us. The sheep bleated and ran, the dogs bayed and growled.

“My mother yelled at me to run. My legs froze, but when she shoved me, I did it. I began to run. But not far enough. I saw what happened to her. A man came to her. She fought him off at first and then…she didn’t. She welcomed him. I didn’t understand such things, I didn’t know then… well, I didn’t know.”

Gabriel looked so sad and vulnerable, Zara wanted to reach out to him. To comfort him, but she clenched her hands at her sides.

“She became a shell of herself. He came and went as he pleased, and she was his puppet. A few years later, when I was in my teens, he came in the middle of the night, and something in me broke. I couldn’t take it anymore. I snuck out the window and struck out on my own. Apparently, my mother’s nightwalker lover thought I’d seen him drinking from her and called in the others to find me. It took them a few years, but find me they did. That’s when I met Ezekiel and he turned me.” He broke off and met her gaze with one of despair. “Before I go, I need you to know something. I never wanted this, Zara. I know you think I’m a monster, but I’d never have chosen this if the choice had been mine. I’d give it up in a second to be with you, live a normal lifespan in your arms.”

God help her, she believed him.

Sure, he could be telling her a pack of lies just to gain her trust. But why, when he could gain her trust just by looking into her eyes and demanding it?

All the confusion she’d been feeling, all the hurt from his betrayal, fell away in the face of the facts.

He was set on this meeting tonight in an effort to save her life, and he might never come back. If he was playing her for a fool, so be it.

Now, in this moment, his dark, troubled eyes on her, the scent of him surrounding her, she wasn’t about to let him go without touching him one last time.

She stood and reached for him, cupping his head and tugging him forward until his face was pressed her stomach. His body quaked as he circled her thighs with his arms.

“Zara--”

“Shh,” she murmured, dropping to her knees so they were nearly eye to eye. “No more talking. Let’s just be together for awhile, all right?”

His answer came in the form of a kiss as he slanted his mouth over hers. It was like freefalling with him, every time. Plummeting off a cliff with no net. Too much, and yet not enough. He groaned as her frantic fingers tugged at his clothes, and she made a low sound in her throat in response.

How could she have thought this wasn’t real? Nothing in her entire life had felt more authentic.

Before long, their clothes lay in a pile on the floor, and she was

He let his fingers trail down the sides of her neck, brushing her bare shoulders. He was almost reverent in his concentration, taking in every detail in the soft morning light.

The room was silent but for her soft gasps as he gripped her hips and then slid his hands around to cup her ass, pulling her closer until they were flush against one another. She let out a moan, rubbing her cheek against his chest and then drifting lower, pressing soft kisses to his tense stomach.

He halted her with a groan, pulling her back to standing. “Later. I need to be inside you,” he muttered, pressing her back onto the bed.

He nipped at her earlobe, then pressed his lips to her jaw. She held her breath, but felt no fear when his mouth trailed over the pulse that leapt in her neck. She could feel his desire…the need that drove him, but in the maelstrom, she could also feel his restraint and his love for her.

He would never harm her.

His body covered hers, like a slab of warm muscle, a welcomed weight. One big, firm hand closed over her breast and she whimpered as he teased her nipple. It was like she couldn’t get close enough.

She ground her hips against his heavy erection, already wet and ready. Desperate to feel him moving inside her, erasing the pain of the past hurts between them.

He shook his head with a pained laugh. “It’s going to be a quick thing if you keep that up.”

But his words only spurred her on, as she pulsed her hips up and down, teasing him, beckoning him to come to her. He issued a muffled curse and took her nipple into his hot mouth. It was her turn to curse as he sucked and licked. He turned his attention to her other breast as one hand snaked down her side, over her ribs, trailing her hip.

A moment later his hand covered her already moist heat and a finger slid down her core. “Yes, please, Gabriel!”

“What do you need from me, love?” he whispered as he moved his magic hand over her, slipping and sliding over her aching clit.

She reached between them, wrapping her fingers around his swollen sex, stroking up and then down. He groaned, pulling her hand away and forcing his knee between hers, spreading her thighs wide.

She held her breath as he probed her entrance and found his mark. Flexing his hips, he stared into her eyes as he pressed, inch by exquisite inch, into her waiting heat.

She tried to wait. To make it last, but it was like the rising tide. Her body demanded more, clenching around him in gentle waves, drawing deeper. Soon, she was out of control, digging her fingernails into his backside, forcing him deeper. Faster.

Jaw clenched, eyes blazing, he took her wrists in his hands and held them down against the bed over her head, pulling back and sliding deep as he did.

She moaned as he pulled away again, only to cry out when he came back, filling her once more. He was relentless, and her body was taut, like a wire about to snap. She started to shake as the ache built, heat suffusing her, skin tingling.