Gabriel's Mate (14 page)

The sound of the door opening made her snap her eyes toward it, but she couldn’t alert Gabriel in time.

As Yvette stepped into the room, staring at them in shock or disgust or both, Gabriel licked his tongue over her nipple, making the fabric transparent.

Only when Yvette let out a gasp did his head rear up and snap in her direction. He instantly jerked up from his compromising position.

“Shit!” Gabriel cursed.

Twelve

Gabriel had barely listened to Yvette’s apology or her excuses before he extricated himself from the embarrassing situation and stormed into the master bedroom.

He’d completely lost control and had been seconds away from fucking Maya.

And he’d sensed something else. Something was wrong with his body. Gabriel ripped his robe open and pulled down his boxers. His swollen cock was no surprise, but what had happened to the flesh above it was.

The deformity that stuck out about an inch above his cock was a mass of flesh and skin, normally three inches long and about one inch in diameter. It was what all women recoiled from in horror. He was a freak with an ugly and useless piece of flesh that got in the way when he wanted to fuck a woman.

Gabriel examined the protrusion. It was getting worse.

Instead of its normal length, it now stuck out almost five inches and its girth had increased by about half. The skin on its tip was shriveled as if it contained more layers of skin all stacked upon each other. He let go of the offending part.

Maya would have screamed with disgust if he’d tried to have sex with her just now. He was almost grateful to Yvette for having shown up at such an inconvenient moment. Her interruption had saved him from a most painful rejection.

And not only that: he’d shamefully exploited Maya’s vulnerability by kissing and touching her when he knew that she was susceptible to quick arousal brought on by the feeding. She had no idea of this, but he, an experienced older vampire, knew all too well. It had nothing to do with whether she was attracted to him or not, it was a mere reaction to the bite. A euphoria she would experience. He was a cad for taking advantage like this. Somebody should beat him to a pulp for being such an ass.

He had no idea whether she was really attracted to him. He’d seen her look at his scar again, but then her arousal had taken over not giving her a real choice of what she wanted. How could any woman look at him and find him attractive unless she was drugged? And drugged she’d been—by his blood. Why else would she have accepted his demand for a kiss? Or was it possible that she felt attracted to him? Was her blood-drugged state not to blame after all?

If only he knew what to say to her, how to explain his concerns. But he wasn’t exactly adept at sweet-talking a woman. Hell, he had no idea how to interact with her. But he knew he had to come up with something, explain himself to her. Apologize for storming out of the study like that.

What was she thinking right now? Surely she must think him callous and uncaring, when he was anything but. But had he stayed, he would have made even more of a mess than the situation already was. No, he had to clear his head first and come up with an action plan.

After an uneasy few hours of sleep, Gabriel left the house as soon as the sun set, wanting to avoid both Yvette and Maya. He would face Maya after he got back. But first he had to take care of a few things.

As soon as he was outside walking the dark streets, he pulled out his cell phone and dialed the witch’s number. It rang three times before it was answered.

“I told you to go away,” the witch said without any greeting. Figured he wasn’t the only one who used caller ID and could memorize a phone number.

“Please don’t hang up. I’ll give you anything you want if you help me.” This time he meant it. The sight of his growing protrusion frightened him. He needed to get rid of it. Now. He couldn’t face Maya like this. He wouldn’t give her a reason to reject him. What had happened in the study between them had made him realize that he wanted her so much he was prepared to fight for her. Whatever it took.

“Anything?” The witch’s voice was full of interest.

He knew it was dangerous to offer her whatever she wanted. “Anything.”

There was a pause at the other end of the line. Had she hung up?

“I’ll think about it. Give me a day or two.”

A click and she was gone before he could say anything else. At least she would consider it and hadn’t rejected him outright like the first time. It was a step in the right direction. He hoped she would help him. Maya’s next feeding was less than twenty-four hours away, and if he couldn’t control his urges then, the same thing would happen again.

He promised himself not to collect payment for her meal next time she fed from him. It was better not to tempt fate and to instead remove as much temptation as possible. Just having her feed from him again would cost him every ounce of control he had. An incident like the one that had happened in the study couldn’t be repeated. Not while his body looked like it did.

Soon after his phone call to the witch, he reached Drake’s practice and was led into his office by his Barbie-doll receptionist.

“How is Dr. Johnson?” Drake asked the minute he entered the room, seemingly not at all surprised to see Gabriel.

It took him a fraction of a second to realize who Drake meant by Dr. Johnson. Gabriel didn’t see her as a doctor. He just saw her as Maya. “She fed from me.”

Drake only raised an eyebrow. “I figured that much.”

Gabriel straightened. “Excuse me?”

The doctor shrugged. “She told me she was craving your blood. She was fighting it.”

Gabriel glared at him. “And you didn’t tell me?” He felt fury rise in his chest. Drake had let her suffer when Gabriel could have taken care of the problem had he only known? He took two steps toward Drake.

“Doctor-patient confidentiality.”

“Fuck doctor-patient confidentiality!” Gabriel yelled and grabbed the doctor by his white coat. “You listen to me now: anything—and I mean
anything
—that concerns Maya, concerns me. Whatever you know about her, you’ll tell me. Do you get that?”

Drake shrugged out of Gabriel’s hold. “What is she to you?”

“That’s none of your business.”

“It is,” the doctor disagreed. “Are you going to help her through this when things get tough? Are you?”

“I helped her through this, haven’t I?” Gabriel shot back.

“You’ve seen nothing yet! ”

“The worst is over. She’s gone through the change, and now that she’s accepted her need to feed from me, I don’t see what other problems there could be.” Gabriel didn’t like scaremongers. If the doctor thought he could raise his fee by making up some bogus ailments, he’d soon be at the receiving end of Gabriel’s unrelenting fist.

“No, I don’t know either
what
problems there’ll be. But I know for sure there
will
be problems.” He wiped sweat off his brow. “I have reason to believe that Maya is not entirely human.”

Gabriel snorted. “Of course she’s not human. She’s a vampire.”

Drake shook his head. “That’s not what I meant. She wasn’t entirely human before she was turned.”

It took several seconds for the information to sink in. “Not human?”

Drake pointed to the chairs, and they both sat down. “I doubt she has any idea.”

“You examined her?” The idea that the doctor might have touched her when he’d gone into the study with her made Gabriel’s stomach twist.

“No. She gave me access to her medical records. I looked at all tests she’s ever had in her entire life, and I’m telling you, something is off.”

Good—the doctor hadn’t touched her. It made him feel better. “Off—like how?”

“She’s been having these attacks of fever ever since she turned thirteen. At least once a year, sometimes twice. The doctors can’t explain it. They wrote it off to influenza or an infection. But the frequency, it disturbs me.”

Gabriel shrugged. Humans were just more vulnerable to all kinds of things. There was nothing odd about it. “What else?”

“She had a genetic test done during her residency—part of a trial she took part in to make extra money,” he explained. “The results are worrying.”

“Spit it out,” Gabriel ordered.

“The test showed two extra pairs of chromosomes: a total of twenty-five instead of twenty-three pairs.”

“How could that happen?” Gabriel now was glad for the lonely days that had forced him to find things to occupy his time with. He’d long ago taken to watching programs on the Discovery Channel and therefore had a rudimentary understanding of medical issues.

“The notes on the test say that they think the sample was contaminated and they excluded it from the clinical trial. But Dr. Johnson—Maya,” he corrected himself, “she kept the test results in her medical record. She must have wondered if it caused her fevers.”

“Isn’t it possible that the lab who did the test was correct in saying there was contamination? It could happen so easily. You must know better than I how easily things get contaminated. Human error is always possible.” Gabriel didn’t want to accept that there was something wrong with Maya. She had enough to deal with already.

“That’s what I thought too, but—”

“Do you think that the reason she doesn’t want to drink human blood is connected to this chromosome issue?”

Drake nodded. “It’s a distinct possibility. Frankly, I’ve never heard of a vampire who didn’t drink human blood. It’s true that some vampires drink each other’s blood, but in general that’s merely a part of their sex lives. Blood-bonded couples do it, but not at the exclusion of human blood.” Suddenly the doctor looked straight at him. “I hope you’re drinking enough blood while she’s feeding from you. You have to keep your strength.”

“Don’t worry about me. I feed as much as my body tells me to.”

“How much is she taking from you?” Drake gave him a curious look.

“As much as she needs.” And for his liking, her feeding had been far too short. He would have liked to enjoy the sensation for much longer.

“Well, I suppose you know what you’re doing. At least this will buy us some time until I can figure out what’s wrong with her. As I said, I have a hunch that I need to look into. I have to get some information on her parents. Since whatever nonhuman component she has in her would be genetic, I need to get a medical history on her parents.”

Gabriel nodded. “I’ll get you their names and addresses. But you’ll probably have to steal the medical info. Thomas can help you get access: he can hack into any electronic system. I’ll talk to him.”

“Good. It will help. Once I know what peculiar things her parents suffer from, I think I can confirm my suspicion.”

Gabriel leaned forward in his chair. “So you have a suspicion? What is it?”

Drake simply shook his head. “I can’t say anything so far. If I do without any proof, you’ll most likely just call me crazy.”

“Tell me. I promise, I won’t call you crazy.”

“No. First we need to get information on her parents.”

Gabriel didn’t like it that the doctor kept his suspicions to himself. “Fine. But there’s one thing I insist on.”

Drake raised an eyebrow.

“Whatever you find, I will be the first you tell. You won’t speak to Maya about it. I alone will decide if and when to tell her. I know better what she can take right now. And frankly, I don’t want her to have to deal with anything else right now. She’s too fragile as it is.”

“Fragile?” Drake asked. “She’s a vampire. There’s nothing fragile about that.”

“She isn’t aware of her strength yet, or her urges. She can’t control them. I don’t want anything to upset her right now.”

Drake rose. “As you wish. Who do I send the bill to?”

Gabriel grunted. “What do you want for it?”

“Don’t worry. For this job, cash is perfectly fine.”

Gabriel got up from his chair and walked to the door. “You have my address.”

Before Gabriel opened the door, Drake asked, “Is there anything you wouldn’t do for her?”

He threw a look over his shoulder and glared at the doctor. “Just do your job. My feelings don’t matter to you.” But they mattered to Gabriel.

***

Impatiently, Gabriel knocked at the entrance door of the modern home that hugged the hills just below Twin Peaks. The views from the home had to be stunning. Thomas sure had some nice digs. It didn’t surprise him. As a vampire who’d lived close to a century, he, like many of their other colleagues, had accumulated a large amount of wealth.

The door swung open and Thomas appeared in the frame, clad only in a towel wrapped around his lower body, skin glistening from a recent shower.

“Sorry, Thomas. I should have called. We can talk later,” Gabriel said.

Thomas waved him in. “Just come in. If you show up unannounced, I suppose it means it’s important.”

Gabriel stepped into the house and closed the door behind him. “Thanks. Appreciate it.” His eyes roamed around the great room with its open-plan kitchen, trying to avoid looking at Thomas’ half-naked body. He didn’t know Thomas as well as Samson or Amaury did, particularly since Thomas had never lived in New York and Gabriel very rarely ventured out West. Seeing another man only partially dressed normally didn’t bother Gabriel, but it was different with Thomas. He had no idea what the etiquette was when conversing with an almost-naked gay man. Did you look? Didn’t you look?

“So, what’s up?” Thomas asked, seemingly entirely comfortable in his present state.

Gabriel cleared his throat. “I’ve just been to see Drake. Maya is still rejecting human blood.”

Thomas shook his head. “We’ll have to force-feed her if that continues, otherwise she’ll starve.”

“That won’t be necessary. She started feeding from me this morning.”

“From you? She’s craving vampire blood?” Thomas ran his hand through his wet hair, the motion showing off his muscled torso.

The sound of the entrance door opening again made Gabriel turn his head toward it. He recognized Eddie trotting in. Eddie’s gaze first fell on Thomas and lingered there for longer than Gabriel had expected.

“Hey,” he greeted them.