Gabriel's Mate (32 page)

“It’s not real,” he claimed as he turned back to her.

Zane stepped closer, his mouth dropping open at the sight. “It’s not a picture,” Zane said. “There are cars moving. Live feed?”

Thomas nodded. “The house is equipped with cameras all around, filming what’s going on outside right at this moment. It projects the images onto the special shutters I’ve had designed. They block out the sunlight like regular shutters, but I can project film onto them. What you see on them is what you would see if the windows were clear. The projections are accurate depictions of what’s going on right outside.”

“Ingenious.” Zane nodded his approval.

“And the light?”

“A new kind of light bulb that mimics daylight. Pretty realistic by the looks of your reaction.” Thomas smiled at her, and she finally exhaled.

“I’d say.” Only now she realized they weren’t alone. In one corner Eddie stood talking on his cell phone. And to the left where Thomas had several computer screens hooked up, Amaury sat, the phone pressed to his ear.

“Ricky tried to kill me.”

Thomas nodded, his mood solemn. He seemed to notice her damaged wrists now. “We figured as much. Do you want blood?”

“I’m good. I had some in the car. What I want is Ricky’s head on a stick.”

Amaury turned to them. “Good to see you, Yvette.” The sound in his voice told her he meant it. They hadn’t always been on the best of terms, but at least now she knew who she could trust.

“What’s the latest?” Zane asked.

“Gabriel and Maya have disappeared. We can’t trace their cell signals either.” Amaury looked at Thomas and pointed at the phone. “That was the human crew you sent to Samson’s house. Nobody’s there.” For a moment, he closed his eyes. When he opened them again, pain was evident in the brilliant blue of his irises. “We have reason to believe that Carl is dead.”

“Oh shit,” Thomas mumbled.

“What about Ricky?” Yvette asked.

“We have our human bodyguards out looking for him.” Amaury stood.

“He’s dangerous.”

“We know that now.”

“Damn, we could have known earlier,” Eddie’s voice came from the corner as he flipped his phone shut. “That was Holly, Ricky’s ex-girlfriend.”

“Has she seen him?” came Amaury’s question.

“No. But she just told me that she followed him one night. Guess she was jealous and wanted to know who Ricky was so infatuated with. She followed him to an apartment in Noe Valley.”

“Maya’s place,” Yvette uttered under her breath. “What else did she say?”

“She gave me a few of his favorite hangouts.”

“Have the daytime guards check them out, see if we can flush him out,” Amaury ordered. “His movements are limited right now so this is our best time to find him. Tonight, once he’s able to move around again, he can slip through our fingers.”

Eddie nodded. “I’m on it.”

Yvette stared out the window at the city below. Somewhere down there, Ricky was hiding, and so were Gabriel and Maya—she could only hope that Gabriel had gotten to Maya before Ricky could lay his dirty paws on her. As much as she’d wanted Gabriel for herself, she would never forgive herself for not stopping Ricky if he’d harmed Maya. Gabriel deserved to keep the woman he loved. And she would do anything to make sure it stayed that way.

“Ricky has to be hiding somewhere.” She clenched her jaw and looked into the round of the four big vampires in her company. “And when we find him, he’s mine.”

Nobody contradicted her.

Thirty-two

Gabriel ran his hands alongside the door and found a switch. He flipped it. A second later, a neon light flickered and hummed before it steadied itself and illuminated the entire room. He bolted the door from the inside before he turned to take in his surroundings.

The approximately five-hundred-square-foot room was fairly bare. There were several cots stacked on one side, a supply cabinet next to them. In the back was a rudimentary toilet and a small sink. A small desk and chair completed the furnishings. While it wasn’t much, the place was surprisingly clean, and most of all, it had no windows through which sunlight could penetrate. For now, they were safe.

Next to him, Maya seemed to have come to the same conclusion. She nodded to herself.

“How did you know about this place?” he asked, turning to her and reaching for her hands.

“A paramedic told me about it a long time ago—they found a sick homeless guy who’d broken in.” She looked back at the heavy bolt on the inside of the door. “Ricky won’t be able to get in, will he?”

Gabriel pulled her close, seeking contact with her body to appease the worry he’d felt for her. “No. We’re safe. At least until sunset.” He tipped her chin up to look into her eyes. “I was scared. I thought he’d gotten you.”

“How did you even find me?”

“I’m not entirely sure, but for some reason I could see into your memories as you were fleeing Ricky. I followed the streets you saw when you were on the back of the truck.”

She shook her head. “How’s that possible? I thought you can only go into someone’s memories when you’re close to them.”

He shrugged. “That’s like it’s always been, but maybe my connection to you is so strong that I don’t need to be physically close.”

“You mean you saw everything?”

He’d virtually felt Maya’s disgust when Ricky had kissed her. It wasn’t a memory he’d particularly wanted to see, but nevertheless it only cemented what he planned on doing to him when he caught him. “I’ll never let another man touch you ever again, I promise you that. We’ll get Ricky and I’ll kill him.”

“Not if I kill him first,” she responded.

There was so much contempt in her voice, that Gabriel pulled back a fraction to look into her eyes. That’s when it hit him. “You remember.”

She nodded. “It all came back when he touched me. Gabriel, he’ll never give up. He’s obsessed. And he’ll stop at nothing. If you knew the things he’s done.”

Rage boiled up in Gabriel. “Tell me what he did,” he bit out through clenched teeth. If that bastard had harmed a single hair on her head, he would draw and quarter him. He’d torture his sorry ass until Ricky begged to be killed.

Maya blinked her eyes shut, then opened them again. “He was about to rape me when he got interrupted. That’s when he wiped my memory for the first time.”

Gabriel gasped, disgust rolling off him. As gently as he could manage, he stroked over Maya’s back. “Oh, baby, I’m so sorry. I wish your memory hadn’t come back.”

“Frankly, I’m glad it did. At least now I know one thing for sure.” She pulled back and locked eyes with him. “Despite what he claims, I never let him touch me. I was never intimate with him.”

He felt himself rejoice at the knowledge that Ricky had never laid claim to her. “Baby, I’m so glad for your own sake. But I’m still going to kill him.”

“I’m not sure how he managed to keep all this from you and your friends. Did nobody have any suspicions?”

Gabriel had wondered the same, but he now knew with certainty what Ricky must have done. “He used his gift, his gift to dispel doubts. When I went over the list of vampire males, who had no alibi for the time of the attack, Zane was adamant that Ricky was in the clear even though he had no conclusive alibi. I was suspicious of it, but somehow my doubts disappeared just as soon as I wanted to raise them. Ricky must have been near. He must have been watching me and Zane and interfered with his mental gift.”

Maya nodded. “I think he did the same to me. I had an uneasy feeling when you introduced me to him in the kitchen, but the feeling went away. And then I was so distracted by the fever that I couldn’t think clearly anyway.”

“He played us all. But that’s over now. I can guarantee you that Amaury has already mobilized the troops. They’ll be out looking for him.”

“During daytime?” Maya gave him a doubting look.

“Yes. We have plenty of human bodyguards who are loyal to us. They’ll be out looking for him now. He won’t be able to move.”

“Let’s hope so.” She circled her arms around him and snuggled into his chest.

Gabriel shelved her chin on his palm and dropped his head. Maya met him halfway. The moment their lips met, warmth flooded through him. For the first time in the last hour he felt at ease. He captured her lips and slid his tongue into her mouth, stroking against hers in one smooth sweep. When her body pressed against him in the most trusting way he’d ever felt a woman, he felt himself harden—and this time he could distinctly feel both his cocks. The awareness reminded him of what he needed to tell her.

He severed the kiss and looked at her surprised face. “I have to tell you something.”

A small frown line built between her brows, almost as if she was afraid of what he wanted to tell her. “Yes?”

“About what the witch found out.” He hesitated. Would she welcome the news? He hoped she would, because if she didn’t, there was nothing he could change about it. His body was what it was: that of a satyr, and as such, he was endowed with two penises. He could only hope that if she truly was a satyr too, her instincts would tell her to accept him.

Maya pulled away and turned slightly, avoiding looking at him. Curiosity rose in him. “I told you it doesn’t matter if it can’t be removed. I’m okay with it.”

Gabriel put his hand on her arm and turned her back to look at him. It was time for that talk he’d postponed, because he’d been at a loss of how to explain everything to her in two sentences. Now they had all the time in the world. “I know you told me that.  And we’ve already established you actually want the thing to stay because you’re scared.  Let’s talk about that.”

***

Maya felt his warm hand and looked up to meet his gaze. “Once you’re normal again, you’ll want somebody else, not me.”

“Didn’t you hear what I said to you earlier? That I love you.”

The words felt good, but still she couldn’t believe them. “Yes, you said that, but you also said you want a child. Once you realize that you could have anybody when your deformity is gone, then why wouldn’t you want to be with somebody who can give you children?”

Before she knew what was happening, Gabriel pulled her into his arms. “I don’t care about that,” he said gruffly. “All I ever wanted out of life is a wife who loves me and accepts me for what I am. Becoming a father would have been a bonus, but I don’t care about that, not enough. Do you really think I would give up this chance at happiness merely because we won’t be able to have children?”

“You mean that?” Her heart beat into her throat.

“I mean it. But—”

So there was a
but
. She shouldn’t have rejoiced too early. Her shoulders dropped in defeat.

“You have to accept me, and once I tell you what the witch found out, it’s up to you to make a decision. I love you. I want you to know that, but I can’t ask you to be mine until you know what I am. It wouldn’t be fair.”

Now confusion set in. There was a hesitation in his voice she hadn’t heard before, almost as if he was uncertain of how to broach the subject. “What you are? What do you mean?”

“I’m not a full-blooded vampire.”

The news didn’t mean anything to her. How could he not be a full-blooded vampire? By everything she’d seen so far, he was definitely a vampire, and a very potent one at that. She’d seen his fangs, felt his strength. She’d seen him drink blood. “How can you not be a vampire?”

“I am, but I’m not, at least not fully. I wasn’t human when I was turned. I just never realized that until now. My turning was much like yours, and now I understand why. Like you I almost died a second time, as if my body was rejecting becoming a vampire. But I pulled through, just like you did.”

She remembered all too well how painful it had been. “I live because of you.”

He pressed his forehead against hers. “But I don’t ever want you to think you owe me for that. I did it for a very selfish reason: I wanted you to live, because I wanted you to be mine. Right there, that moment when I first saw you lying on that bed in Samson’s house, I knew I would love you.”

“How could you know that? You didn’t know anything about me.” Yet, there was such certainty in his words.

“My body recognized you. We’re alike, Maya, much more than I could have ever guessed. I’m part satyr, and so are you.”

The news hit her like a freight train slamming into a brick wall. Satyr? “A beast with hooves?”

Gabriel shook his head. “You mean a Minotaur. Satyrs are different. They are mythical creatures, part man, part animal, but the animal part only manifests itself in their strength and thirst for carnal pleasures and in the male of the species in one other piece of anatomy. Otherwise our bodies look entirely human. All that about hooves and horns came later in mythology. Anyway, that’s why I never knew. I didn’t know my father, so there was nobody to explain to me what I was.”

“And you say I’m a satyr too. But how?” It didn’t make any sense. She’d always felt human.

“You’re aware that you were adopted?”

She was surprised he knew. “Of course. My parents never made a secret of it. Besides, they are blonde and fair skinned, and I’m anything but.”

“Your biological parents, or at least your father, must have been a satyr.”

“How can the witch be so certain? She hasn’t done any tests on me.” The witch’s claim was too outlandish to believe.

“She doesn’t have to because of what’s happened to me. I’ve gone through a change.” He swallowed hard. Maya could see his Adam’s Apple move up and down.

“What kind of change?”

“After we had sex.”

“Damn it, Gabriel, would you just come out with it.” She planted her hands at her waist, but instead of releasing her, he only pulled her closer.

“This change.” He pressed his hips into hers. “The mass of flesh you saw. It’s changed. It only does that after a satyr has sex with his satyr mate for the first time. Maya, it’s turned into a second penis because you and I had sex.”

She gasped, sucking the air into her lungs quickly to supply her brain with oxygen. He had two penises? She pulled away from him and instantly noticed his disappointed frown. But she couldn’t concern herself with that right now. Her hand went to the place where his jeans bulged. When her palm connected with the hardness beneath, he jerked for a moment before he pressed against it.