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“I know!” Roseline screamed.
 
“Don’t you think I know that?
 
I can’t explain it Fane.
 
That’s why I called you, but you weren’t exactly much help!”

Fane struggled to comprehend what it could mean.
 
Immortal bound to a human.
 
Such a thing was unheard of.
 
It was forbidden to even care for a human, let alone be bound to one.
 
It was impossible.
 
Wasn’t it?
 

“You didn’t tell me you were bound to him,” Fane protested, grinding his teeth at the thought.
 
“If I’d have known…” he trailed off, suddenly unsure of what he would’ve done.
 
Would it have changed anything?
 
No.
 
This was one of those unspoken rules that were passed down through the ages.
 
You never try to break a bond.
 
But could you out run one?

Roseline’s tears fell silently.
 
“He’s just a boy.”

“Exactly,” Fane said, his voice softer than it had been.
 
“He doesn’t know what love is.
 
But I do.”
 
He gently pulled Roseline’s hands into his.
 
“Roseline, we’ve been together through wars, plagues, tortures and so much more.
 
I know you in and out.
 
That boy could never know you as well as I do.
 
I’m the one that should be by your side.
 
You know how much I love you.”

Turning to look at him, Roseline managed a weak smile.
 
It was true.
 
They’d shared several lifetimes together…but it changed nothing.
 
He was her best friend, former lover, but he wasn’t the one meant for her.
 
No matter how hard he fought it, Roseline knew deep down that he knew it too.
 
“I’ve always known Fane,” she whispered, glittering tears flowing like a moonlit river down her cheeks.
 

Fane’s head bowed low, his long blond hair falling into his eyes, loosed from the leather thong that’d held it back.
 
He sighed deeply before straightening his shoulders.
 
With the gentlest of touches, Fane clasped her delicate hands to his chest.
 
“Run away with me.”

Despair oozed through Roseline’s body, turning every nerve ending into ice.
 
The creeping freeze stole all the way to her toes, locking her heart into a crystallized glacier.
 
“I can’t.
 
Vladimir
will kill you!”

Breaching the invisible barrier between them, Fane leaned across the consol.
 
He brushed back the hair that curled around her jaw, his thumb gliding over the silky smooth curve of her cheek.
 
“I’m willing to take that risk to be with you.
 
We can make it.
 
I know we can.”

“You’re wrong.
 
It’s just your heart talking right now.
 
We both know that
Vladimir
would never give up.
 
He’d hunt us to the ends of the earth just to hurt me.”

“Is that the only reason?”

Roseline glanced away, unwilling to look at him as she spoke the words that she knew would crush him.
 
“I can’t be with you Fane.
 
Not now that I’m bound to Gabriel.
 
You know how it works.”

“But what if you’re wrong?” he pressed, grasping at the tinniest straw of hope.
 
“Maybe it’s just an infatuation.”

“I’m sorry Fane.
 
I really am. But I’m not wrong.”

Fane’s head bowed low, tears slipping from his pale cheeks.
 
“So I’ve really lost you,” he muttered, pulling back from her.
 
Roseline couldn’t bear to look at Fane, to see the misery that she’d caused.
 
Instead she fixed her gaze on the taillights in front of them for the remainder of their trip.
 

Chapter 10

“Are you completely insane?” Gabriel raged at William.
 
“How could you leave Rose with some strange guy?”
 
The longer Roseline went missing, the more panicked he became.
 
“Who knows what that guy has done to her by now!”

“Stop ranting,” Sadie cried.
 
“It’s making my head ache.”
 
She held an ice pack against the large bump forming on her head.
 
The blood had stopped not long after William reached her but the pounding was getting worse.
 
Gabriel’s shouting wasn’t helping any.

William shoved Gabriel back as he rounded on Sadie.
 
“Back off Gabriel.
 
I get that you’re worried.
 
We all are.
 
But attacking my sister is the last thing you should be thinking about right now.”

The wind puffed out of Gabriel’s lungs as he sank into a plush couch in the hall, just down from where his classmates continued to dance the night away.
 
Hearing their carefree laughter made him nauseous.
 
Didn’t they know Roseline was missing?
 
Shouldn’t they have stopped the dance?
 

Of course not.
 
No one in that room was as intimately in tune with Roseline as he was.
 
Most of them probably thought it was just someone else trying to claim Roseline as their own.
 
Not that every guy in school hadn’t thought about it.
 
“You’re right.
 
Sorry Sadie.”

She nodded, begrudgingly accepting his apology before turning on her bother.
 
“He has a point though.
 
Why’d you leave her with that guy?”

William shrugged.
 
“She said she knew him.
 
They seemed pretty friendly to me so I didn’t think anything of it until I heard Gabriel yell.”

 
“How’d she know him?” Sadie asked, settling on the couch next to Gabriel, moaning as she slipped her boots off.
 
It wasn’t the dancing that’d caused the deep throbbing to attack the balls of her feet.
 
It was from trying to hide from Nicolae all night.
 
“Hang on a second.
 
Where’s Nicolae?”

Gabriel growled.
 
“Is that really important right now?
 
I thought you didn’t even like the guy.”

“I don’t,” Sadie snapped.
 
“But he disappeared around the same time Roseline did.
 
Do you think he went with them?
 
I mean, he is from the same country and all.
 
Maybe he knew the guy.”

William shrugged.
 
“I guess it’s possible.”

“No, it’s not.”
 
Gabriel adamantly shook his head.
 
“Nicolae wouldn’t go anywhere with Rose unless he had to.
 
You both know how weirded out he gets around her.”

“I’ve been wondering about that…” William trailed off, scratching the back of his head.
 
The wax had begun to lose its effect from all of the sweating on the dance floor and its usual scruffiness had returned.
 
“Everyone seems to like Roseline right?
 
I mean, she’s the sweetest person I’ve ever met.
 
So why does he always seem so intense around her?
 
There’s definitely a bad vibe between them.”

Gabriel rubbed his jaw, his brain hurting as he fought to remember any clues to explain Nicolae’s strange behavior.
 
“I don’t know.
 
When we find him we can ask.
 
Right now all I want to do is find Rose.”

“You mean Roseline,” William muttered.

“What’s that?” Gabriel asked, sitting up straighter.
 

“That guy…he called her Roseline.
 
I’ve never heard anyone call her that before.”

Sadie rolled her eyes.
 
“She probably changed it when she moved here.
 
It’s not exactly a popular name, is it?”

Gabriel frowned.
 
Something didn’t feel right.
 
He’d seen Rose and the stranger talking, laughing and then everything had changed.
 
The handsome man’s face had darkened and he’d looked furious with her.
 
What if Roseline was in danger?
 
“I can’t take this anymore.
 
I’m getting out of here.”

“What about Claire?” William asked, glancing at the sequined figure racing towards them from the ballroom.

“I don’t care about her.
 
Let her find a friend to give her a ride home,” Gabriel cried, surging to his feet.
 
“I’ve got to find Rose!”

Sadie nodded, rising too.
 
She clutched her biker boots under her arm, staring at her brother with firm resolve.
 
“He’s right William.
 
I’m going with Gabriel.
 
He can drop me off once we find Rose.”

“What about your car,” William protested.
 
He didn’t even really care about her car.
 
William was sure her mustang would be fine in valet parking overnight.
 
He just dreaded explaining to his parents why Sadie had left the dance with Gabriel.
   

Sadie gave her brother a withering look before heading down the hall, rushing to catch up.
 
Gabriel ignored Claire’s furious shouts as he slammed through the front door, startling the doorman.
 
Instead of waiting for the car to be brought around, he grabbed his keys and rushed into the parking lot, frantically searching for his car.

“Try the alarm,” Sadie suggested, struggling to catch her breath.
 
She might be slender but she was far from fit.
 
Working out was for jocks and cheerleaders and she certainly wasn’t one of those!

Gabriel pushed the alarm and rushed towards the end of the row where his silver Range Rover was parked between a Hummer and a Lincoln Navigator.
 
He pushed the alarm button again and deafening silence filled the concrete prison.
 
“Get in,” he commanded, unlocking her door.

Sadie leapt inside and tossed her boots into the backseat.
 
She shoved her seatbelt into the lock just before Gabriel threw his car into gear and raced out of the garage with squealing tires.
 
The SUV slid wildly on the ice before righting itself.
 
“Where are you going?
 
She could be anywhere.”

White knuckles gripped the steering wheel as Gabriel wound in and out of traffic, too focused on his mission to answer Sadie.
 
There was only one place that he could think of to look.
 
The drive to Roseline’s house was tense, silence blanketing the car.
 

When they arrived the two story bungalow stood dark.
 
There was no sign of movement.
 
The driveway was empty apart from a fresh set of tracks that’d been ground into the snow.
  

“She’s not here!” Gabriel roared, slamming his hand against the steering wheel.
 
Tingling numbness raced up his forearm but he refused to acknowledge it.
 
“I was sure she’d still be here.”

“Yeah well it looks like you were wrong,” Sadie snapped.
 
Her anger and concern for Roseline was making her very irritable.
 
“Where to now, Sherlock?”

Gabriel yanked on the door handle, spilling out into the snow.
 
He righted himself, his slick dress shoes slipping underneath him as he raced for the porch.
 
Holding onto the railing for dear life, Gabriel worked his way up the icy steps.
 

“What are you doing?” Sadie called.
 
There was no way she was gonna leave the warm comfort of Gabriel’s car to go bang on an empty house in the middle of the night.

Gabriel pounded on the door until his fist went numb.
 
Tears of frustrations slipped from his eyes as he cupped his face to look through the window.
 
The same bleak emptiness stared back at him.
 
But there was something new this time.
 

Leaning closer to the window pane, Gabriel breathed in deep.
 
The scent burned as it slid through his nose and down his throat.
 
Cinnamon and vanilla mingled with pine and dirt.
 
The stranger!

“She’s not home,” Sadie called, leaving only enough room for her head to fit through the raised window.
 
She shivered against the frosty night air.
 
The windshield was slowly freezing over; giving way to the sleet that’d begun falling not long after they’d left the dance.

Gabriel rushed back to his car, annoyed with Sadie’s lack of help.
 
“Thanks for stating the obvious,” he snapped as he clicked his seat belt in place.
 
“Is that all you’re good at?”

“Don’t yell at me,” Sadie screamed shrilly.
 
“I’m not the one that pushed her into some stranger’s arms!”

Gabriel’s mouth dropped open.
 
“I didn’t…it’s not my fault,” he stammered.

“Oh no?
 
We both know how you betrayed her.
 
Roseline was crushed.”

“Right,” Gabriel growled, backing down the drive.
 
“Did she also tell you about the email to her boyfriend back home?”

Sadie frowned.
 
“What boyfriend?”

“Fane.
 
The guy she’s in love with.”
 
Gabriel spat out the words, afraid to be tainted by their poison.
 

“Are you insane?
 
You’re all Roseline has been able to talk about since the first time she met you.
 
No way there was another guy,” Sadie protested.

“You didn’t read the letter.”

Sadie gasped.
 
“And you did?
 
You violated her privacy?”

Gabriel winced.
 
“Yes, but I never meant to…she’s been lying to me Sadie and I needed to know why.”

“So you think that gives you the right to go snooping?
 
Unbelievable!
 
I knew you were a jerk!”

“Hey,” Gabriel objected.
 
“I’m not the one with secrets!”

“Well maybe she had a good reason for keeping her secrets.
 
Ever think about that?”

Gabriel sighed.
 
Of course he’d thought of that.
 
But the idea of Roseline trying to protect him didn’t allow him to excuse away his anger.
 
Gabriel blew out a breath, imagining the anger flowing out of his body, riding on the ripples of heat flooding the car.
  
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have yelled at you.
 
I’m just scared to death about Rose.”

Sadie begrudgingly agreed, crossing her arms over her chest.
 
“So what’s the plan?”

Gabriel shrugged, feeling a heaviness settle over his heart.
 
“What about a phone?
 
Did she ever give you a cell number?”

Her squeal startled Gabriel so badly he slammed on the breaks.
 
“Yes!
 
Oh thank you Gabriel, you’re a genius.
 
She just bought a cell phone not too long ago.”

Hope flared to life.
 
“Great.
 
Give her a call.”

Sadie rolled her eyes.
 
“Do I look like I have a purse?”