Gabriel's Mate (22 page)

***

Maya let herself fall on the covers of the bed. As she turned her face, she could still smell Gabriel’s scent lingering in the pillows. How had everything suddenly gotten so complicated? Only hours ago she’d felt happy and satisfied. Now things were in uproar.

The man who’d stood in the entrance door when they’d come back from the Castro wasn’t the same man who’d held her in his arms and touched her with almost worship-like reverence. This wasn’t the Gabriel she thought she knew, not the tender, careful lover of the day before. This Gabriel was different: harsh, unyielding, powerful.

And from his exchange with Thomas, she knew he indeed did have the power he wielded so easily now. This wasn’t the man who’d kissed her tenderly and had told her he looked forward to dinner, as if he was the one feasting on her instead of the other way around. As if she could feed from him right now. She couldn’t face him right now, not after what she’d said to him only a few minutes ago.

She knew why she’d reacted so harshly to his reprimand. It was the flash of memory that had assaulted her in the bar.

Control.

The word spread in her mind again. Something about it filled her with fear. And when she’d seen Gabriel standing in the doorway, she’d seen it in his eyes: he was used to controlling those around him—maybe not because it was his nature, but because he was the boss. And at that moment, he’d scared her.

She had the strangest feeling that she’d had a similar conversation with somebody else. When she’d accused Gabriel of wanting to watch her twenty-four hours, she hadn’t really spoken to him. The words had come to her from a memory she didn’t have.

Maya shivered when her mind led her to connect the dots. The words had come from the memory the rogue had erased—words she’d spoken to the faceless monster who’d turned her. He’d wanted to control her, possess her. Instinctively, she knew that now, even if she didn’t remember it. Her memory of that time was still blank, but her body had retained sense memory. When she’d heard herself say those words to Gabriel, her body had remembered the fear she’d felt when she’d confronted the rogue with them.

She had to explain to Gabriel that she hadn’t wanted to snap at him. That this wasn’t about him but about her own fears. He would understand.

Nineteen

Gabriel set the empty glass of blood he’d poured himself onto the coffee table, then looked at Francine, who’d made herself comfortable on the couch.

The witch gave him a long look. “I’m concerned.”

Gabriel’s spine stiffened. “About?”

“I’ve had a long talk with Drake. I have some suspicions about Maya.”

“Suspicions?” He felt himself become defensive.

“Relax, vampire. When I say suspicions, I don’t infer that she’s deceiving anybody. She truly doesn’t know what’s wrong with her.”

“There’s nothing wrong with her.” In fact, he’d never met a more perfect woman.

The witch smiled knowingly. “Do you guys ever come off that testosterone rush, or are you always this jumpy?”

When he opened his mouth to retort, she merely cut him off with a move of her hand. “Luckily, I’m not the one who’ll have to deal with your ego. I’m much more interested in Maya’s condition.”

Gabriel exhaled sharply. “Why is that?”

“She’s a vampire, yet she drinks your blood and rejects that of humans. She went into heat when vampire females are known to be sterile.”

“You know an awful lot about vampires.”

She shrugged. “It’s important to know your enemies: the better to fight them. But pleasantries aside, have you considered the possibility that you giving Maya your blood has triggered her symptoms?”

Gabriel shot up from his seat. “You’re suggesting my blood is not good for her?”

“You sure are one to jump to conclusions. No. All I’m saying is that your blood could have awakened some latent genes in her. You told me yourself when we talked about your problem that your turning was just as difficult as hers. What if you have more than that in common?”

He raised an eyebrow. He’d told the witch an awful lot about his predicament that night just before Maya had collapsed. “We couldn’t be more different from each other.” She was perfect, and he was anything but. Even the witch had to know that.

“She craves your blood—and yours alone, as I understand it. Not the blood of a human, nor the blood of any other vampire.”

“Because I finished the turning.”

“No. Because there’s something in your blood that she needs. Maybe something her body recognizes.”

“You make it sound like I’m a drug to her.”

“In a way you are. But we won’t know for sure until I’ve analyzed blood samples of both of you.”

Gabriel narrowed his eyes. “If this is a trick for you to get vampire blood so you can—”

Francine let out an exasperated huff. “I don’t think I’ve ever met a vampire, who’s more suspicious than you are. Trust me, vampire: if I wanted to harm you, I could have done so long ago.”

Trust her? Maybe he had to if he wanted to know what was wrong with Maya and with him. “Maybe if you called me ‘Gabriel’ instead of ‘vampire,’ I’d have an easier time trusting in your good intentions.” He paused. “Francine.”

She raised an eyebrow. “If that’s all it takes, I can do that.” She paused for effect. “Gabriel.”

Gabriel relaxed and sat back down in the armchair by the fireplace. “How much of my blood do you need?”

“Just a small vial. I’ll take it to my lab and analyze it. Won’t take more than an hour.”

“You have a lab?”

“You didn’t think I could live off being a witch, did you? I work at a commercial lab downtown. It pays—” She winked. “—enough to buy crow’s feet for my potions.”

“Let’s go upstairs. I hope you don’t mind if we perform the bloodletting in the bedroom. I’d rather not be interrupted. My associates would find it strange to say the least if I gave blood to a witch.”

She stood and took her satchel which presumably contained all kinds of witchy things. “Normally I’d say no way, but seeing how infatuated you’re with Maya, I daresay you’re no danger to me.”

For the first time since the witch had arrived, Gabriel let out a small chuckle. “You’re an attractive woman, but no offense—I have no interest in you or any other woman besides Maya.”

Once in the master bedroom, Gabriel closed the door quietly behind him. “Just one request: let’s be quiet. Maya is next door, and I don’t want her to hear us.”

“Fine.”

Francine took out a tourniquet and a syringe. Gabriel merely glanced at it and shook his head.

“That won’t be necessary. Just give me the vial.”

She handed it to him. He willed his fingers to turn into claws and sliced a small cut into his thumb. Blood instantly oozed from it. Gabriel held the vial underneath it and filled it with the red liquid. A moment later, he licked his thumb with his tongue, closing the incision.

Francine took the vial from him and closed it before putting it into her bag. “Good. I’ll leave you one for Maya. Call me when you have it ready for me, and I’ll send somebody over to get it. Now, let’s check on your problem. I believe we were interrupted last time just as I was about to examine you.”

Gabriel swallowed. This was the part he dreaded most. “Can I have your word that whatever you discover, you won’t discuss with anybody?”

“Witch–Vampire confidentiality, goes without saying,” she joked, but Gabriel didn’t feel like laughing.

With unsteady hands, he loosened his belt, then opened the button of his jeans. The noise the zipper made as he lowered it seemed to echo in the room. Could everybody in the house hear it? When he shoved his pants down mid-thigh, he heard Francine’s breath whoosh out of her lungs.

As he stood before her, she dropped down onto the chaise lounge, bringing her head level with his crotch. “Oh, boy,” she whispered.

***

Maya’s stomach growled, but she tried to tamp down her hunger. She’d paced for a good length of time, deciding what to do. Now, she couldn’t stall any longer. She had to face Gabriel and explain to him why she’d reacted so harshly when she’d returned. For the sake of what was growing between them, she had to make the first step and apologize for her harsh words.

And then she needed to feed. By God, she craved him. Not just his blood, but his touch, his lips, his kisses. She felt weak in the knees just thinking about him, remembering how he’d touched her and kissed her, how he’d made her come, using his tongue and his hands. Small beads of perspiration collected on her neck. She felt hot just thinking about being in his arms.

Maya closed the bedroom door behind her and walked down the corridor. At the stairs, she halted. She could clearly sense Gabriel’s presence. In fact, she could smell his blood. Was it more intense now because she was famished or had she always been able to smell his blood from such a distance? When she turned her head, she realized that the smell was becoming more intense—it wasn’t coming from downstairs, but from the master bedroom.

Maya smiled to herself. If Gabriel was in bed, even better. She could first drink his blood and then devour him. On tiptoes, she walked to his door. As quietly as she could, she turned the doorknob and pushed the door open.

As soon as she took one step into the room, she froze in horror.

Maya stopped breathing.

Gabriel stood near the fireplace, facing her. But he wasn’t looking at her. His gaze was focused on the woman who sat in front of him on the chaise lounge with her back turned to Maya. His face was contorted as if in pain.

But that wasn’t the worst of it. The worst was Gabriel’s pants were dropped to his knees, his naked thighs showing, while his crotch was blocked out by the woman’s head.

Maya blinked, but she wasn’t imagining this. The strange woman was giving Gabriel a blowjob! And the look on Gabriel’s face wasn’t pain. No, it had to be pleasure.

How could he do this to her?

A sob tore from her throat.

Gabriel’s gaze shot to her, and at the same moment the woman turned. They both stared at her, shocked looks on their faces.

Gabriel tugged at his pants, but failed to pull them up. “Maya, please, this isn’t what it looks like.” The woman turned fully, still blocking her view of Gabriel’s crotch. As if Maya needed to see his hard-on to know what they were doing. She needed no proof of it. All the proof was written in their guilty faces.

She spun on her heels and rushed out of the room.

“Maya, listen to me. I can explain.”

His words were lame at best. What was there to explain? He’d brought another woman to the house right after she’d told him she didn’t want to be controlled. Was that his answer to her anger? That he didn’t care what she thought? How cruel.

Maya ran down the stairs, faster than ever before. So this was vampire speed? Just as well. She had to get away, from him and from this place. In the foyer, she saw a set of keys on the sideboard. She knew there was a car in the garage—Gabriel had taken it when he’d met up with Zane earlier.

She snatched the keys and ran down into the garage. With a click, the doors of the Audi R8 unlocked. She’d never driven a sports car before, but it would do. Maya jumped into the car, slammed the door shut and jammed the keys into the lock.

A second later, the engine roared to life. The garage-door opener was where she expected it to be—on the visor. Valuable seconds passed as the garage door rose. When it was halfway up, Maya hit the gas pedal and raced out.

Her new superior vampire senses helped her avoid a crash as she pulled onto the street. From the corner of her eye, she saw Yvette stopping on the sidewalk, looking at her. Maya ignored her, pressed the gas pedal harder and raced down the road.

Her eyes burned, and only now she realized she was crying.

Damn Gabriel!

She’d let him come too close, and all it had gotten her was a hell of a lot of pain. He was just the way Yvette had laid him out to be;  all he wanted was a human woman, not an infertile vampire. It hadn’t escaped her notice that the woman who’d had her head buried in Gabriel’s crotch was human. Her scent had definitely been human, if just a little off. But certainly she wasn’t a vampire. Maya sniffed. It hadn’t taken him long at all to replace her. After all the things he’d said when he’d been in her bed; the promises that he’d take care of her, that he’d always be there for her. Had he lied when he’d claimed that Maya feeding off him was heaven for him?

With the back of her hand, Maya wiped the tears off her cheek. If it meant that men like Gabriel could treat her with such disrespect, such callousness, then she didn’t want to be a vampire.

She hit the brakes at a stoplight, letting the engine idle, and took a deep breath. Were vampires really all that different from humans? When she recalled the situation in Gabriel’s bedroom, she realized with disgust that even his “it’s not what it looks like” was decidedly human—any man would have said the same to get out of this mess. No, vampires weren’t really all that different when it came to that. What it boiled down to was that Gabriel was just another cheating bastard, no worse than any human man.

So she would just have to do what she would do with any other man: forget him. And bitch about him with her girlfriends. Yes, that’s exactly what she needed now.

Maya checked her watch. Paulette would be at home and wouldn’t mind if she showed up unannounced. She’d break open a bottle of wine and commiserate with her. For a moment, Maya wondered how much to tell her, but then she decided that honesty was the best way to go. If she wanted to keep Paulette as her friend—and she desperately needed a friend on whose shoulder to cry—she had to tell her the truth. Slowly, and very gently.

Twenty

Gabriel almost collided with Yvette when he ran into the foyer. If he hadn’t been struggling to pull his pants up and gotten the witch’s hair caught in his zipper, he could have caught Maya before she’d managed to flee the house.

“Have you seen Maya?” he asked gruffly.

Yvette raised an eyebrow. “She left in Samson’s Audi.” Then she walked calmly past him as if it didn’t matter.