The loathing in his voice had her struggling to sit, clutching at his hand. "Wait a minute. You were protecting me," she protested. "If you hadn't done what you did, I'd be the dead one right now. And we don't know what would happen to the part of your soul I carry if I died." They were face to face now.
"Look. I didn't save you because you have a part of my soul," he began.
"I don't care why you saved me," she cut in. "I'm just glad you did. I'm not ready to die again. Not yet." They fell silent, each one taking the other's measure.
"Do you trust me?" His voice was gruff and low.
"With my life." Her eyes searched his. The slate gray had gone misty, and she couldn't see in. “Do you trust me?”
"With my soul, obviously. Do me a favor. Lie down again, and keep looking at me," he said, his voice soft. "I need to try something."
Curious, Rose lay back down. The hand that wasn't holding hers moved over her body, an inch or so away, as if he were testing her aura. A pale blue light shone from his hand and she remembered Justin and his healing. It was like a film was being stripped from her mental state as he proceeded. The confidence she'd felt since she first left the hospital came back. How could she possibly think she'd return to drugs?
Rose watched, astonished, as a quick pain showed in his eyes when he moved across her hurt arm. The sting eased within her and she broke into an awed smile. He ended the connection between them and breathed heavily, sweat sheening his forehead as though he'd been running.
"That was awesome. I feel good. Real good. What was that?"
Gabriel stood, walked to the door and back, shaking out his arms. "The most basic Fae healing. A baby could do it. Are you okay? I'm not very good at it."
Admiration filled her. "I'm fine, now. But how did you do that?"
"It was mostly illusion. Satine is very, very good at illusion. I managed to break through it." He sat again next to her. "You know what happened to her." It wasn't a question.
"Sara." She sighed, pulled her knees up to her chin. "We were camping, me and a bunch of family from my Dad's side. She left in the middle of the night with a man. She wanted to go with him. I'd seen her earlier that night with him.
"Something in me knew enough to be afraid for her. I held on to her, screamed, fought hard, and she kicked me in the face for my pains. I was only thirteen. She was eighteen. Her mother never forgave me for "losing" Sara, and I never saw that side of my family again. That was the real beginning of all my troubles."
"Has she ever tried to contact you before? Either mentally or physically?"
"No. Never." She looked up at him, startled. "Do you think she could, mentally I mean?"
Gabriel frowned. "You shared blood, but through family ties. I don't think it's possible for her to contact you mind to mind, but you must not let her bite you. That would be—bad."
Rose took a breath. "Thank you."
"For what? I've done nothing except put you in danger. I'm not exactly dancing at the thought," he growled. "I'll have to hang around to protect you until Justin comes home."
"I thought you wanted to face down Satine?"
His eyes bled to iridescent green. "I do. But I can't do anything until I know you're protected. I'm not having her come here after you, not before we're ready."
Rose shifted uneasily. She wished she could just reach out and take his hand, soothe whatever bothered him. Gabriel was definitely bothered, she could tell.
Abruptly he stood. "I suppose you're hungry again."
Her stomach rumbled at the thought of food. "I ate a ton of pizza just a few hours ago," she protested. "I can't be hungry."
"Spending time in demonic form is traumatic to your system. You need food. Fuel. I'll see what Justin has upstairs." Gabriel headed to the door.
"I'll come with you." Rose flung off the blanket and swung her feet over the side of the bed. “I’m perfectly fine. I’ll come up and keep you company.”
“You should stay down here,” he cautioned. “I’ll bring food down to you.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. No one has ever brought me a meal in bed,” she said, following him up the stairs. “There’s no reason to start now. I’ll eat up here with you.”
He let out an exasperated sigh. “Are you going to argue with me the rest of the night?”
“Probably, if you continue to be overprotective. You’re just going to have to deal, Gabriel.”
“Huh.”
Deep below the club levels of Twisted, Satine paced in the office of her private lair and smoked her tenth cigarette of the night. Her ribcage still hurt where Gabriel had kicked her though the bruise had already faded. She'd changed into a negligee of frothy pear-green lace that stopped just short of her bare crotch in front, down to her knees in the back. Angry and humiliated, she paced in front of the naked were tiger lounging on her couch, aware of his gaze on her. "Stupid bitch," she growled between puffs. "Stupid, stupid bitch."
"Family. You can't get away from them. Ignore her. Or, better yet, give her to Vlad." Chazz rose from the couch and caught her hips in his hands. He moved up behind her, nestled his hard and ready cock against her.
She rolled her hips against his heat in an almost automatic response. "She'll ruin everything. I need him, Chazz. I can't continue like this," she whined.
"What do you want with a part-demon when you have the master of the city eating out of your hand? Not to mention me, ready and waiting to take you at a moment's notice," he added with another grin.
"Vladimir scares me. But Gabriel, now..." Her voice trailed off, but she finished the sentence in her head.
With all of his soul, I could win my freedom
...
"Vlad loves you," murmured Chazz. He reached around and pulled hard on her nipples. "Doesn't he turn you on?" His mouth found her throat and licked.
Not one to let opportunity pass, Satine moaned her pleasure. “Vlad owns me, he doesn’t love me." Satine basked in the were tiger's warmth. "Nothing feels as good as you do." Except for Gabriel, she thought, but, uncharacteristically, kept that to herself.
Impatient, Satine turned in his arms, circled hers around his neck. She met his gaze and smiled slowly, rubbed her bare crotch against his. "I need you to do something for me." She heard his heartbeat speed up in anticipation.
He held her by the ass and squeezed hard. "Anything, you know that." Chazz bent to kiss her. She placed a hand between their mouths.
"I need you to take care of the girl. Keep her occupied for, oh, several hours. Several days," she corrected, baring her throat to his nips. "She's in the way of my… project." She felt his cock grow even harder between them, felt her desire finally stir.
"Dead or alive?"
"The longer you keep her, the less it matters whether she survives," Satine murmured. "Come here." She reached up, tugged his head to one side, and licked his throat like he had hers. Beneath her tongue his vein pulsed, and she could scent the sweetness of his blood. It called to her. "Now," she murmured and his hands gripped her ass, lifted her, and impaled her on his cock as she wrapped her legs around him. He slid in, all the way home, just as she struck, her teeth piercing deep.
Chazz cried out. Three hard thrusts and he came, again and again as she drank. He sank to the couch, with her wrapped around him. Finally she pulled away from his neck, licking her lips. She knew her eyes whirled red as she looked at him, lifted away, and stood.
She sighed, hands on her hips. This time, he didn't even come close to satisfying her. What a disappointment. Too bad she needed him. "Go to bed. Your job starts whenever you wake up. The longer you keep her occupied, the happier I'll be. Do anything you like with her. Kill her if you want."
"'Kay." Chazz's head lolled against the back of the couch. "That was great, babe." His eyes closed and Satine left, shaking her head.
She needed a dominant, someone who could help her get rid of Vladimir. Once that was done, her life would be so much easier. Gabriel would help run her business and keep the weres and vampires in line. Chazz just wouldn't do. She needed
all
of Gabriel Caine's soul and she needed it yesterday. With the rest of his soul inside her, she’d have more power than Vlad. Gabriel would be hers. He wouldn't be able to break free of her, nor would he want to.
That had been the plan, until it all went wrong on the beach. She hadn't expected him to deny her sexually. She really hadn't expected him to fight her, had thought the spell she'd used would have immobilized him. But no. He had to fight, and her strength had waned too fast. She'd fled with only part of her prize.
Satine slipped into her private apartment, slumped at her desk, and brooded. Kendall Sorbis, Hollywood's local go-to sorcerer, had given her a bad spell. He needed punishing, a swift retribution.
A knock on her door had her growling. “Come in.”
Kendall Sorbis walked in, and Satine shook her head. This was almost too easy.
“Kendall,” she purred. “What can I do for you?”
Tall and on the Nordic side, Kendall inclined his head to her, an affectation she hated. “Satine, my gorgeous one. I have come for what you owe me.”
“I owe you nothing.” Her lips twisted. “The spell was flawed. It didn’t work.”
“I can see his soul in you. It flares brightly. How can you say it didn’t work?”
“He fought me for it!” She spread her hands out on her desktop and stood, keeping her gaze fixed on him. “He fought and kept a part of it. His soul is damaged, incomplete, and unusable in its current state. The spell didn’t work.”
Kendall’s eyes remained unconcerned, his body relaxed. Inwardly, Satine frowned. He should be quaking in his Italian loafers at her anger. “Therefore, I owe you nothing.”
His dark eyes flickered at that. “You have more than you had. It isn’t my fault you can’t figure out how to use the part of his soul you stole.”
“I claimed it, I didn’t steal it,” she flared. She caught her anger back. Keep calm, she cautioned herself. Calm, but prepared. Straightening, she sauntered around the desk and leaned against it, never taking her eyes off the sorcerer. “Tell me how to use it, then.”
One pale eyebrow rose as their gazes locked. “It will cost you more.”
“I will give you what you require. After I have what I want.”
He seemed to consider that. A half-smile curved his lips. “I don’t think so,” he said cryptically.
She charged him then, enraged enough to take his life, but her arms closed around air. Satine turned wildly, looking from one end of the office to the other, but Kendall had disappeared. If he’d ever been there at all. She sniffed the air, but smelled only herself in the room.
Her rage cooled as fear set in. She’d known better than to deal with a sorcerer. But now she’d need to carefully set her course of action, or Vladimir would discover her secrets.
Vlad had sought her out, turned her into a vampire because she was a Soul-Stealer. The very first soul she'd taken had been Rose's, and wasn’t that sweet?
He'd allowed her to keep that one. The other souls she'd brought to him he'd used and grown stronger in the process, keeping her ignorant. When she had killed a Soul Stealer without Vlad’s knowledge, she'd absorbed all of the souls that one had amassed, growing ever stronger. But as her strength grew, so did her fear.
Eternal death stalked her. It breathed down her neck in her daytime sleep, lurked in shadows in the depths of night. Vlad controlled her; the others only tolerated her because of him. They'd moved in on the old Master of the city and had prevailed, the war short and bloody and unnoticed by the humans. Three of their vampires had gone missing, the only ones she'd counted as friends. Vlad had said it was due to discipline problems.