A Cross to Bear (21 page)

“No, Gabby, I did not. Victor has been feeding you lies,” said Michael.

“Desperate words of a dead man,” said Victor with a sneer.

Gabby took a step closer, holding the gun steadily aimed at his chest. “You killed Maggy, and you killed my mother.”

Michael lowered his gun when Gabby got in front of Victor. “Lower your weapons!” he told his men.

“Sir?” one of the guards asked, unsure of what to do.

“Do as I say.”

They lowered their weapons, tentatively watching Victor, who stood behind Gabby in winged form.

Gabby opened fire as soon as the guns pointed at the floor. Michael jerked back and hit the wall as three slugs slammed into him.

Victor sprang into action as soon as Gabby fired. He bolted to the right in a blur of motion, slashing the throat of the closest guard. Gabby dropped to a knee as the guards on her left began to raise their weapons once more. Victor’s blood lent her speed that these men did not possess. To them, everything would happen in a flash of confusion, but to her, time seemed to slow. She fired three shots, hitting each of the three guards in the head. In those few seconds, Victor killed the remaining guards.

To Gabby’s surprise, Michael suddenly shifted into a werewolf, tearing through his clothes and the Kevlar armor that had stopped the bullets. He slammed into Victor, and the two rolled across the floor in a blur of thrashing fur and feathered wings.

Gabby trained the gun on them but was unable to get off a clear shot.

The vampire and werewolf tore at each other like two rabid animals. Blood, fur, and feathers flew as they thrashed about wildly, crashing into a table and crushing it beneath them.

Gabby moved in cautiously, waiting anxiously for a clear line of fire.

“Nullify him!” Victor screamed in an inhuman voice full of wrath.

Gabby lowered the gun and shot out her left hand, sending a blast of nullification energy toward them both.

Nothing happened.

Gabby tried again. Still nothing.

Michael took advantage of Victor’s surprise and impaled him through the upper chest with a splintered table leg.

“No!” Gabby cried, and unloaded her gun into Michael.

The silver bullets ripped into him, sending him flying back and crashing to the floor. He shifted back to human form and lay there, naked and bleeding. His breath came laboriously as he held a shaking hand out before him.

“Please, Gabriella. You must understand . . .”

Victor had changed to human form as well and lay on his side clutching the wooden shaft protruding from his chest. He looked up at Gabby weakly.

“Finish it!” he growled.

Gabby unsheathed her silver katana and walked cautiously over to Michael. He stared up at her weakly as blood pooled beneath him.

She pointed the blade at his neck.

“I did not kill your mother, Gabriella. I loved her. Your power did not work on me because your mother made it so. I was there, during the ritual. She added my blood to the spell . . .” He coughed up blood and panted, trying to catch his breath.

“What is he saying?” she asked Victor. Gabby tried to think straight. The rush of adrenaline paired with the vampire blood caused her mind to race.

“He will say anything he can to confuse you,” said Victor.

Gabby held the blade inches from Michael’s neck. She wanted to strike, but something kept her from dealing the killing blow.

“He’s been lying to you all along,” said Michael. “Your power does not work on me because I am your guardian, tasked with keeping you safe from the likes of him. And I have failed. Just as I failed to protect Maggy.”

Behind her, Victor groaned with pain and slowly pulled the stake from his chest. It looked to have just missed his heart. He stood shakily and glared at Michael.

“Kill him and be done with it.”

Gabby hesitated, looking from Victor to Michael. She wanted to believe Victor, but the look on Michael’s face caused her pause. His eyes were pleading, sorrowful. They were not the eyes of a killer.

“Why didn’t my power work on him?” Gabby asked Victor.

He bent at the waist and let out a seething breath. Slowly the wound in his chest began to close. “Kill him!” he cried out with rage.

“Answer me!” she screamed right back.

“He has no answer,” said Michael, “because what I say is the truth.
He
killed your mother. Then he killed Maggy because she was protecting you.”

Gabby looked to Victor, who stared at Michael with disdain. “He will say anything to—”

“Stop lying to me!” Gabby screamed.

The wound closed up, and Victor stood tall and straight.

“He gave you his blood so that you would not be able to use your power against him,” said Michael in a pained voice. He was ashen. The silver moved through his veins, poisoning him and slowly killing him. “Think, Gabby. If I wanted to hurt you, I could have done so when I had you alone.”

The sword shook in her hand as she slowly lowered it. Her mind raced as she tried to separate truth from lies. She turned to face Victor, who was slowly walking toward her and Michael. “Get out of the way,” he told her.

Gabby thought back over what she had heard. What was it that convinced Gabby of Victor’s guilt? Was it Michael’s words? Was it the fact that Gabby’s gift hadn’t worked on the werewolf?

No,
she told herself.
I saw it in Victor’s eyes.

Gabby’s heart broke as she pointed her sword at Victor. He stopped inches from the tip of the blade.

“It was you,” said Gabby.

Victor suddenly ducked under the sword and backhanded Gabby so hard that she was thrown through the air several feet. She hit the wall and slumped down beside Michael. His machine gun barked angrily, and Victor reeled back from the attack. The streaking bullets riddled the vampire, but when the gun clicked empty, Victor was still standing.

Gabby fought her vertigo and focused a blast of nullifying power on Victor and unleashed it through her palm.

Nothing happened.

He looked to her with disappointment. Gabby realized that Michael had been telling the truth. Victor hadn’t been feeding her his blood so that they could be together. He had only been doing it so that she would have no effect on him.

Michael was barely conscious. He put a shaking hand on her leg and squeezed weakly. “My blood will counter his,” he said almost inaudibly.

Victor heard him. His black, horned face twisted with rage, and he leaped forward. Without thinking, Gabby smeared her hand on the bloody floor beneath Michael and brought it to her mouth. Fire exploded in her stomach, and she cried out against the terrible pain. Victor lifted her from behind and turned to throw her to the side. Gabby’s mind and body surged with sudden power, and she screamed, grabbing Victor’s head and unleashing every ounce of nullifying energy she could muster.

Victor released her and staggered back. His wings withered and turned to ash, and his skin returned to normal. Victor gave a gut-wrenching cry as his fangs receded and his horns disappeared. He fell to his knees, naked and human.

She brought her katana to bear and stood before him, tears streaming down her face.

“Gabby . . . what have you done?” he asked, staring at his hands in disbelief.

She held him at bay with the silver katana, unable to deal the killing blow.

“Kill him,” said Michael behind her.

Gabby fought to focus through her streaming tears. She couldn’t speak. The pain of betrayal burned bright inside her, searing her heart. She thought of her mother and sister, and the terrible realization that she had slept with their murderer . . . and had loved him.

Victor must have seen a change in her, for he suddenly rushed forward. Gabby cried out and thrust the blade forward, impaling him through the chest. He took in a shocked breath as his eyes went wide with terror and rage. Gabby gripped the blade with both hands and trembled, horrified and sickened by what she had done. There was no satisfaction in her revenge, only sorrow.

Victor fell to his knees, gripping the blade and never taking his eyes off her.

“Finish it,” he said through clenched teeth.

With a cry of rage and sorrow, Gabby withdrew the blade, and in one swift motion, she severed his head.

Gabby turned from Victor’s corpse and hurried to Michael’s side.

“Roof,” he groaned. “The moon.”

“Freeze!” someone yelled behind her.

Gabby turned to see two guards who had just come into the room.

“Hurry. He is dying. He needs the light of the moon!”

They leveled guns on her, and she tossed the katana away. One guard held her in his sights as the other bent to check on Michael’s wounds. Gabby had hit him in the stomach, chest, and shoulder.

Michael said something, and the guard glanced at Gabby.

“We need to get him upstairs,” he said to his partner.

The two guards carried him to the rooftop with Gabby in tow. They laid him down in the glow of the moon and began working on extracting the bullets. Gabby watched nervously as one radioed for help.

“Is he going to live?” she asked with growing trepidation.

They ignored her. Michael had stopped breathing.

One of the guards started performing CPR as doctors and nurses rushed out onto the roof with a variety of medical equipment. A doctor slammed a big needle into Michael’s chest, and another charged up a defibrillator and yelled, “Clear!”

The machine buzzed loudly, and Michael’s body arched and fell to the ground lifelessly.

“Clear!”

Again the paddles were pressed against his chest, and his body heaved.

“We’ve got a heartbeat!” said the doctor.

Gabby cried with relief. “Is he going to be all right?”

“You need to come with us, Ms. Cross,” said a guard.

“Is he going to be all right or not?”

“Fuck this!” yelled one of the guards, aiming his gun at her head. “She was working with the vamps.”

Gabby froze, knowing that no amount of nullification was going to help her now.

“Michael claimed her as his own,” said another guard. “Lower your weapon, soldier.”

The guard aiming the gun at her looked to be debating blowing her away then and there. Finally he lowered it and turned away, which gained him a pat on the back from his comrades.

Gabby was led back into the building and shown to a room on the floor below the penthouse.

“You can’t hold me here,” she told the guards as they left the room.

One stopped at the door. “You will remain here until Mr. Steele wakes up. For your sake, you should pray that he does.”

The door closed, and Gabby stood staring at it.

What have I done?

She paced the room, her mind racing. Michael’s werewolf blood still coursed through her veins. Her first thought was to try and escape. If Michael didn’t make it, the werewolves would probably kill her.

In her mind, she saw Victor’s face, twisted with hatred and malice. He had used her to get to Michael. He had told her that he loved her and that she was special.

Gabby shivered.

She had made love to the man who had killed her mother and sister. The thought made her sick, and she rushed to the bathroom. When the heaves had subsided, she washed up and tried to get ahold of herself, but she couldn’t stop crying. She wanted to sleep, or die, anything to make the terrible cycle of thoughts stop torturing her.

Had she made a mistake?

She paced the room for hours, going round and round in her head. There was so much that she wanted to ask Michael. Why had her mother chosen him to be Gabby’s guardian? What was Victor’s true involvement with her mother?

Fed up with the hours of waiting, Gabby crossed the room and began beating on the door, insisting that they let her out.

The door opened, and a woman Gabby had never seen before stared at her with an unreadable expression. “Gabriella Cross. I’ve heard so much about you. My name is Juliette Steele,” she said, extending her hand.

Gabby shook the woman’s soft, lithe hand. Like the rest of Juliette’s body, her fingers were long and thin. She wore a smart black suit and heels. Her black hair was braided and curved around her shoulder.

“Steele?” said Gabby, glancing at the woman’s left hand. “Are you his—”

“Sister,” said Juliette with a firm shake.

“How is he?” Gabby asked.

“Stable. Would you like to see him?”

“Yes, please. I’ve been so worried.”

Juliette’s look said
I bet
.

“Come this way.”

They took the elevator down to the seventh floor and emerged into what looked like a hospital. Gabby guessed that it made sense. A man like Michael Steele could have anything he wanted. Why not a medical center in his skyscraper? He seemed to be the type to get himself into a lot of trouble, and considering the uniqueness of the patients, it seemed like a wise decision.

“Follow me please,” said Juliette, though Gabby was already following her.

They went down the hall to the right, past the reception area. Near the end of the hall, Juliette stopped before a door on the left. The door was closed, but there was a rectangular window with which to see through. Gabby looked inside. Michael lay on a bed, hooked up to an IV drip. To the right, a monitor blipped with his heartbeat and other vitals.

“Why hasn’t his body healed itself? I thought that werewolves could regenerate,” said Gabby.

“
We
can,” said Juliette. “He has silver poisoning.”

“Poisoning?”

Juliette stared at Gabby, stone-faced. “Victor recruited you to kill weres, and he didn’t even teach you that much? What an asshole.”

“You know about that?” said Gabby, unable to meet her eyes for the shame.

“Michael tells me everything.”

“Will he live?”

“He’s stable. Once the silver is out of his system, he will regenerate. We just have to make sure he doesn’t die before that.”

“Then there will be no lasting effects? It will be as though it never happened?” Gabby asked hopefully.

Juliette saw the guilt in her eyes.

“It depends. There is always the possibility of brain damage with silver poisoning. You got him under the moon quickly, which will help.”