Tempt Me (25 page)

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Authors: R. G. Alexander

BOOK: Tempt Me
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They told her that all the evil done in the house had left a mark. A stain of greed and malice, jealousy and wicked intent. It grew so strong that it became aware of its own existence. It was alive, but all it knew, all it wanted, was to create more of what it was. More fear. More pain.
Bethany spoke softly. “She said they performed a three-day ritual, sending everyone away from the house. When she returned, the mambo appeared ill and weak, and the hougan handed her the locket, wrapped in a scarf. He said they weren’t strong enough to disperse it, that they’d had no other choice. They trapped it.”
Ben was rubbing his temples as they turned on the final street to Gabriel’s mother’s house. “She never destroyed it? Sold it?”
“She was terrified,” Bethany reasoned. “It must have been like owning Pandora’s box. I suppose one of her children must have inherited her things, then died, leaving no one behind. That’s how it came to be at your mother’s shop.”
Gabriel wanted to hunt down whoever had sent this to his mother. Wanted to scream at the arrogant beings who had his Angelique open the box it came in. Made her take it home.
His
Angelique. His fault. They’d done it to hurt him through her. By taking her away.
“We’re here.” BD pulled into the narrow parking spot and turned off the car. “I should have known something was up when I saw that man being ridden last night. Damn, this makes me wish I could borrow back my Loa powers for an hour or two.”
Ridden? “Possessed? Do you think it was watching us? Angelique?” Was it one of the Loa who wanted to hurt her?
Rousseau growled. “Of course he does. He doesn’t believe in coincidence.”
“Amen,” Gabe murmured. They all sat in silence for a moment, and then he rubbed his face roughly with his hands. “They said I was the only one who could do this, so I should go in alone. There’s already too many people in there.”
“Fuck you, Gabe.” Ben reached for the handle of the car door. “My wife is in there. Our families.”
“I second that. Fuck you, Gabe.” Celestin, who’d been crowded into the backseat with Bethany and Gabriel, already had one leg on the curb.
BD put a hand on Ben’s shoulder. “We will all go. All but Bethany.”
“Excuse me?”
Gabriel watched as BD turned toward the backseat, a look of determination crossing the handsome man’s features. “I love you, Blue Eyes. I’m not ordering you; I am
begging
you. For the sake of my child inside you, stay in the car.”
His child?
Celestin looked up at BD, understanding and apology in his eyes. “I agree.”
Bethany’s stubborn expression had melted with her husband’s words, and her hands unconsciously cradled her still-flat stomach. “Okay.”
Gabriel opened his door as the other men got out, but turned when Bethany whispered, “BD is only human. Don’t let him forget that.”
“I won’t.”
He frowned as he walked toward his mother’s familiar door. He wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do, or how he was supposed to do it. If people trained to handle this sort of thing had failed to disperse it, what chance did he have? Hell, he knew more about exorcisms than he did about voodoo.
He had to trust in what he’d seen, what Papa Legba had said.
“Manny,” he muttered. “If you’re listening, I could really use your help right about now.”
The door was open. Gabriel went in first, the unnatural quiet sending a jolt of fear down his spine. The four men walked in silence to the living room. Where he’d had that first, awkward reunion with his family. Right before the
djab
had taken him.
It was also where he’d first seen Angelique.
Now he turned from the hallway to the living area, seeing her again. Silently holding a knife to Allegra’s throat.
He saw Ben and BD immediately reach out to hold Rousseau back. Good. He didn’t think startling Angelique would be the smartest move right now.
Angelique. Not Angelique. Still wearing her dress from the night before. And the locket around her neck . . . was open.
It smiled through her when it saw him. Had it been waiting for him? He saw the others from the corner of his eye. All of them watching, unblinking. Confusion and fear and anger coming off them in varying shades of shadow that he could see. Could use.
“You shouldn’t have come,” Michelle spoke in a tight whisper. “I thought you’d understand.”
Ben’s chuckle held no humor. “As if I wouldn’t, Mimi. You know better.”
Angelique’s voice sounded high. Strange. “I will trade her for him.”
Gabriel focused on it. It made a motion with Angelique’s hand and he understood. “Me for Allegra? Deal.”
Angelique’s expression became suspicious at the easy victory. “Why?”
Of course it would be confused. It didn’t know positive emotions. All it knew was fear and betrayal.
A familiar voice whispered in Gabriel’s ear. “Don’t speak; just listen. Angelique is still alive, but we have to hurry. We need to distract it with feeling. Lust. It used her lust for you, and her doubts to free itself. But you can trick it. Seduce it. Angelique wants you, so it will, too.”
Emmanuel? Thank God. Seduce it? The thing that was consuming her? He hoped like hell Manny knew what he was talking about.
“Why?” It was turning shrill. Bringing the knife closer to Allegra’s neck.
Gabriel shrugged. “Does it matter?” He took a step closer, his hands out, smiling. “Don’t you want to have me at your mercy?”
It hesitated, its glassy stare sliding up and down his body before nodding sharply, allowing him to move closer. He closed off his feelings for the other people in the room. He had to focus.
He studied the energy around it. Light and darkness. Love and hate. He could see both. That meant Angelique was still there. But he wasn’t sure for how long.
He maintained his smile, though a part of him wanted to cry out that she had to suffer this at all. Suffer like he had. No control. No power. “Take the knife away from that woman. She means nothing. None of them do. Only you and I. Let me help you. Take me.”
The thing in Angelique looked confused. “I have her memories. She fears for them.”
“Ah, but what she feels for me is more interesting than fear, isn’t it? Look at those memories. What I’ve done to her. Aren’t you curious? Don’t you wonder what it would be like to experience that with me?”
All his attention was trained on Angelique’s energy. He was looking for an opening. Looking for a sign.
“I know you want her,” he crooned seductively. “I want her, too. We could share her body. Together.”
Angelique’s face flushed. It recognized the lust Angelique’s body had known. Was responding to it. The hand holding the knife lowered, allowing Gabriel to lift Allegra from her perch and place her behind him.
“Gabriel.” BD’s words held a warning . . . and concern.
He couldn’t think about them right now. He stood in front of Angelique, one hand behind him, signaling the others not to rush her. That wouldn’t save her. “Everyone should leave now. I want to be alone with her.”
He heard movement, the sounds of people rushing out of the room, and hoped his mother and sister had been among them. “See? I can protect you. And I can make you feel things you can’t even begin to imagine.”
She held the knife against his chest, pushing just enough to prick him with the sharp tip. He looked down and saw a small circle of blood form on his shirt, and smiled.
It’s Angelique. Her body. Think of Angelique.
Gabriel rocked his hips forward, pressing his stirring erection against her body. “I could play hostage if you’d like. You can force me to pleasure you at knifepoint. Or I could just turn the tables on you now and get it over with.”
Gabriel’s hands whipped up to grip her wrists, twisting them behind her back and tightening until the knife fell harmlessly to the floor.
It smiled and the darker energy grew. He recognized it. Felt it move in his direction. Everything he’d been running from. The twisted lust. The violent darkness. He’d have to embrace it all now if he wanted to win.
“You like that? I knew you would. Would you like me to tell you what else I know?”
He leaned closer, ignoring her snapping teeth and whispering in her ear. “I know this body loves to be spanked. Loves to be made to submit.”
A desperate sound of excitement emerged from Angelique’s throat.
Gabriel held both her wrists in one hand, tighter than he would have under normal circumstances, and pulled up the back of her dress. “I know I can make it just painful enough to feed your hunger.”
He rubbed his palm threateningly across the cheeks of Angelique’s ass, taunting the creature with something it wanted just out of reach.
It jerked against him in frustration, trying to get away. He laughed. “Oh, did you want to be the one doling out the pain? Knowing how it feels to watch them kneel at your feet, begging you for it?”
Its eyes lit up. “Yes.”
“Well, baby, you picked the wrong body. You want that power? Want to cause that kind of lust, that kind of pain? Then you need someone stronger.”
“She’s strong. I could cause you pain.”
He tightened his grip on her, bending her backward until she cried out. He whispered against her temple. “I’m stronger. If you really wanted to, you could have me. I won’t fight you. I want you to.” He pulled back just enough for it to see his eyes. “Or are you too afraid?”
He let himself go for a moment. Let the ugly, bitter memories, the hate and rage that had been a part of him for years, swell inside him.
Like to like, as BD had said.
It recognized itself in him. And the impatience, the desire, inside it flowed toward him like a black molten river. The intensity of the shadows that swirled around him, inside him, were difficult to resist. Heady. Powerful.
There was no going back now. He let it in.
He could see nothing but darkness. It gorged itself on what was inside him. His punishments. His sins. The Dark Messenger with all the power of a demonic god. But he wanted more. He wanted all of it.
Gabriel sensed the moment of triumph as it left Angelique slumping in his arms, the moment it began to push him out of his body. For a heartbeat he was afraid it would succeed.
Love is your key, Gabriel. Love makes the light shine through the darkness.
He heard Papa Legba’s voice as if the old man were right beside him, and suddenly he knew exactly what to do.
Angelique? I love you.
He opened up his heart where he kept his memories. His mother, rocking him back to sleep after he’d had a bad dream. Playing with the sister, who was his best friend, his heart. All the love he’d kept locked away, hidden from the world, he showered on the darkness.
The energy balked, its movements confused. It was afraid.
Gabriel turned his thoughts to Angelique. She was his beacon. She was why it wouldn’t win. Why they, whoever the hell they were, wouldn’t win. He loved her. He chose her. He may doubt himself, his worth, but he didn’t doubt the strength of his feelings for her.
Every secret longing in his soul, every ounce of love he had to give, he gave to her freely, allowing himself to feel that for the first time. He belonged to her. He would love her until he died.
When he saw that light glowing inside of him he realized something. He hadn’t been stealing energy from her. Emmanuel had been wrong, but Bethany knew. It was her. Angelique. She’d been giving it to him all along. Asking for nothing in return. She’d loved him.
Like to like.
He watched as the light permeated the shadow, bursting through like sunlight after a storm. The darkness had nowhere to go. No understanding of it. No sanctuary from it. In him it had made its last stand. And lost. Love swept through him, washing away every foul emotion, every bitter regret. Until nothing of the darkness remained.
He dropped to his knees with Angelique still in his arms, his shaking arms laying her down on the floor beside him. Her lashes flickered weakly.
“Angelique? Can you hear me, baby?”
He felt a hand on his shoulder. “She’ll be fine now,” Emmanuel said. “And so will you. You did it. You figured it out and saved her.”
Gabriel shook his head. He knew he hadn’t done it alone. Despite what the Loa had said. “We did it.”
He leaned down and kissed her forehead, talking softly in case she could hear him. “You did it, angel. Loving you saved us both.”
“I WISH YOU’D TOLD US.”
Gabriel smiled and reached for his sister’s hand across the kitchen table. She was grumbling, but he could hear the underlying concern, the love, now. With Angelique resting safely surrounded by her family in the other room, he finally let himself relax. “I’m sorry, Mimi. For everything.”
He watched Ben place a comforting hand on her shoulder and squeeze. “Not to ruin the moment, but I’m still wondering what Papa Legba meant about what was coming down the road. And why your gift makes everyone on the other side so jittery.”

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