The Gathering (10 page)

Sabriel reached for her, pushing her hand
away before laying his own on the side of her face. Rayna gasped at
the cooling sensation. The burning along her cheek slowly faded and
she stared up at him as he watched her. “You did this cooling thing
to my face the last time you were here. What is that, exactly?”

“Just a little trick I picked up in Istanbul.
Does your cheek feel better?”

She nodded. “Is it magic?”

He grinned. “Something like that.” His hand
lingered on her face, sliding over her chin before he ran one
finger over her lips. His smile remained but the look in his eyes
spoke of sadness. “And for the record, under different
circumstances, I would not have a problem saving you.”

Rayna didn’t doubt his sincerity. She could
see the truth of it in his eyes as he looked at her. She blinked
and glanced away. “What circumstances?”

He pulled away from her and slid back across
the seat. “The Collective has worked a long time to bring their
vision to light. Malcolm assured us all would go as planned and
since his death, many have lost faith. Bringing you to the leaders
will expedite the proceedings.”

“Because Garrett won’t be there to kill you
for it?”

Sabriel laughed. “Yes. Your mate doesn’t seem
to share our vision.”

“Neither do I but that doesn’t seem to stop
you from dictating my life.”

“You don’t know what its like to live as we
do.”

“Then tell me,” she said. “Make me
understand.”

He turned and looked out the window. “You’re
newly turned. You’ve not had to spend years hiding in the shadows
as we do.” Sighing, he faced her. “I’ve spent the last three
hundred years hiding from the world, Ms. Ford. Never being able to
call any one place home. The most I can hope for is ten years in
any given location. Anything longer and people start to wonder why
I never age. Why I’m never seen in the light of day.

I surround myself with others like me.
Vampires, who after the first thirty years or so, I’d just as soon
stake as to talk to. I can’t afford to meet new people, Ms. Ford.
Humans don’t like to know monsters roam their streets. We want to
change all of that. Change the way people see us.”

Rayna listened to him and understood but that
didn’t mean she had to agree. She certainly didn’t have to be the
one to, “bring them into the light,” so to speak. She also knew
trying to change his mind was useless. If he would kidnap her to
see that the world knew he existed, he wouldn’t grow a conscience
now and let her go. She was trapped regardless of how she looked at
it. Either she exposed them to the world, and endangered her own
life, or doomed them to a life of darkness. A life Sabriel had
already endured for over three hundred years.

* * * *

Garrett lifted his head when someone knocked
on the door. He sighed. “It’s open.” Bryce walked in and Garrett
knew by the look on his face the news wasn’t good.

“We found nothing, Garrett. There were fresh
tire tracks in town but that’s it.”

“I figured as much.” Garrett stared at him
before looking around the room. He should have been embarrassed at
the state of it but he was too tired to bother blushing.

When he’d come back upstairs and found Rayna
gone, along with her suitcase, he’d lost it. The room now lay in
shambles, the pack members he’d worked so hard at to gain their
trust were once again afraid of him, and Bryce looked at him with
such pity he wanted nothing more than to take off on foot and chase
that hard-headed woman down just so no one would feel sorry for him
anymore.

When Bryce cleared his throat, Garrett turned
to look at him. “Go to bed. There’s nothing to do now.”

“Are you going to be all right?”

Garrett laughed but there wasn’t anything
funny. “Sure. My mate left me. A woman I don’t want can’t wait to
come back and the people I promised to protect are afraid of me
again. What else can go wrong?”

A hint of pity shone in Bryce’s eyes. “For
what its worth, I’m really sorry. I didn’t think she’d leave or I
would have posted someone outside.”

“I didn’t think she’d leave either. Shows you
how much I know, huh?” Garrett laughed again and felt anger coil
inside of him when he did. There was nothing funny about any of
this but it was either laugh or cry like a bitch, which is what he
wanted to do.

How could Rayna just leave him? Especially
after what had happened earlier? His neck still hurt where she’d
bit him. Blunt teeth marks marred his skin and those straight edged
teeth hurt worse than the wolf’s sharp fangs. He hadn’t complained,
though. His wolf had nearly tap danced on his spine when Rayna
marked him and said he was hers. He’ll, he’d let her do it again if
she’d just come back.

Bryce shifted and cleared his throat. “I’m
down the hall. Just yell if you need anything.”

Garrett nodded his head. When Bryce pulled
the door shut behind him, the silence was deafening. He leaned back
against the wall and stared at the room before laughing again.
Rayna bitched because he left his socks lying around. He wondered
what she’d think if she saw this mess?

The dresser was in pieces, the mattress on
their bed shredded. Clothes littered the room, broken furniture
thrown from one end to the other and the window had shattered when
he tossed the chair through it.

When the dust settled and he’d slid down the
wall, he could still smell her. Her scent still hung in the air,
thick and rich like expensive perfume. He inhaled, taking it in
before he closed his eyes. He could see her in his minds eye, lying
on their bed, naked. Her skin still flushed pink as she stared up
at him. “Why did you leave me, Rayna?”

Because Carmen gave her no choice.

Garrett growled the moment he thought of
Carmen. Why did that woman enjoy fucking with his life so much?
He’d left twelve years ago to get rid of her and now, she’d chased
off the only woman he’d ever loved.

Opening his eyes, he stared around the room
and his temper flared. Heat raced through his veins as he thought
of Carmen and the fury that followed brought him to his feet. He
paced the small space uncluttered with debris and the wolf surged
to the surface. He held it back but fed off his agitation.

Why did Carmen get to say how things would be
done? She was no one. A rogue wolf who ran with her tail between
her legs the minute Malcolm and Caleb were defeated. Now, the
moment things had settled, she’d waltzed back in and demanded
things she no longer had a right to demand.

Turning to the door, he walked into the hall
and made his way to Bryce’s door. He didn’t bother to knock. “Who
leads this pack?”

Bryce stared at him with wide eyes. “You do,”
he said, pulling his pants back up.

“In all things?”

“Yes. Your word is law.”

“That’s what I thought. So, why the hell do I
have to do anything Carmen demands me do?” Bryce stared at him
blankly. “I don’t! She has no say in this pack. She left. Ran the
minute her plan blew up in her face and only came crawling back
when she thought she had something to gain.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, she knows Rayna hasn’t shifted yet
and can be easily beaten in a fight. She also knows the pack is
scared of her. She shows up with a pack of her own, tosses down an
ultimatum, and everyone scurries to bow down to her. She’s nothing
to this pack. She has no say. I’m pack leader. What I say
goes!”

Bryce grinned at him and he turned and walked
back down the hall to his room. He slammed the door and looked at
the wreckage. Rayna was the woman his wolf chose and she was the
woman he would have. He would rot in hell before he let Carmen step
foot back inside this house and demand anything of him or his
pack.

Pacing the room, he tried to think of where
Rayna would go. Back to Bluff’s Point, maybe. Her old boss, Clive,
would give her job back to her but he wasn’t sure she’d go
someplace obvious. Unless she wanted him to find her.

He smiled. Why wouldn’t she? She belonged to
him and that wolf of hers knew it. If he just bided his time, she’d
come home to him. He would bet his life on it.

They stopped just before dawn, pulling into a
garage big enough to hold several cars. The walls were white, the
concrete floor spotless and for a garage, it looked rarely
used.

Rayna blinked as the driver opened his door
and flooded the inside of the SUV with light. “Where are we?”

Sabriel opened his door and climbed out.
“Somewhere you can rest.” Rayna didn’t move. She watched him and
was surprised when he walked around the car and opened her door
before holding his hand out to her.

“I didn’t know you were such a gentlemen.”
She ignored his offered hand.

She climbed out and took a minute to stretch
before looking back out the garage door. The sun was coming up over
the horizon and the sky was lit in shades of orange and red. The
smell of fresh cut grass and flowers filled her head and she
inhaled the scent, welcoming it after being trapped inside the SUV
for so many hours.

“Not all vampires are monsters, Ms.
Ford.”

She turned back to face him and smiled. “No?
When will I get to meet one of the good ones?” He frowned at her
and her skin felt irritated all of a sudden. She rubbed her arms,
trying to get the sensation to go away. “How do you do that?”

“How do I do what?”

“Touch me with just a look?”

His eyes widened a bit and the frown
disappeared. The tiniest smile touched his lips before that too
vanished. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

He stared at her and the feeling changed.
Instead of irritation, her skin felt cooled and covered in soft
silk, her limbs felt languid and a prickling of heat shot through
her body and tingled in places it shouldn’t have. She gasped, then
scowled. “Stop that!”

When he laughed, his eyes sparkled vibrantly,
and Rayna had to close her own as the feelings running through her
body intensified. “If I had known I was able to produce such a
connection with you, Ms. Ford, I wouldn’t have had to come for
you.”

She peeked back up at him. “Oh?”

He moved closer and she backed up, stopping
only when she felt the SUV at her back. “You would have come to
me.”

Sabriel invaded her personal space to the
point she felt uncomfortable. Not that he scared her, just the
opposite, actually. She didn’t trust the way her body reacted when
he was around. The cooling thing he did on her cheek, he’d said,
was magic. Was that how he made her feel things with a look? How he
was able to touch her without raising a hand?

She knew now that’s what it was. A touch. Her
skin felt itchy when he’d frowned and caressed in silk when he
smiled. If it was magic, she wanted to know how he did it. If it
was a vampire trick, well, the mystery would go unanswered. He’d
never tell.

He stared at her for long moments, his gaze
caressing her face before landing on her lips. “If you weren’t
already taken, Ms. Ford, I would be very tempted to keep you.” He
leaned toward her and for a brief moment, Rayna thought he was
going to kiss her. He turned away instead, motioning her forward
when he reached the door.

She followed, his words still running on
repeat through her head. What had he meant exactly by keep? She
shivered. She was just getting used to werewolves. Vampires were
something she knew little about but no longer than she’d been
around Sabriel, her body responded to him much like it did with
Garrett and that was disturbing. She loved Garrett. With Sabriel,
she… well, she didn’t know what to think about him and didn’t want
to know either.

Stepping into the house, she gave the
spacious home a thorough look as he led her down a series of
hallways. The interior of the house was very generic. White walls,
beige carpets. The furniture was white and tasteful art hung on the
walls. The scent in the air reminded her of a hospital. Very
“clean.” Whoever lived here must have been the dullest person on
the planet. Nothing about this house said, “home,” to her.

Sabriel showed her to a room at the end of
the hall, motioning her inside. The bedroom was large and spacious,
again with the monochromatic whitewashed look. She stopped at the
foot of the bed before turning to look at him. “A little color
would do wonders for this place.”

He looked around the room. “You don’t like
it?”

“It’s not that I don’t like it…” She gave the
room another inspection before shrugging her shoulders. “Its just…
dull.”

“How so?”

Rayna grinned. “You’re kidding, right?” He
didn’t look amused or as if he even knew what she was talking
about. “It’s all the neutral colors. Everything’s so… generic.”

“Generic?”

“Yes. There’s no… life here. Its boring.”

He smiled. “Well, nothing alive lives
here.”

Rayna raised an eyebrow at him. “Come
again?”

“I’m a vampire. I’m not technically
alive.”

Glancing around the room again, taking in the
white on beige, she turned back to face him. “This is your
house?”

“Yes.”

She grinned and sat down on the bed. “You
should hire an interior decorator. Or eat the one you had do all
this.”

His laughter skated across her flesh in a
wave of tingles that shot straight between her legs. He was staring
at her again, his eyes sparkling, and she was almost positive
whatever he was doing to make her feel things had been on purpose
that time. She scowled at him and his smile widened. “Stop doing
that!”

He turned, his laughter washing over her
limbs until she rubbed furiously at her arms and legs to get the
feeling to go away. He stepped to a door on the other side of the
room, opening it before turning back to her. “You’re welcome to use
the bath. You will find towels and other supplies in the cabinet by
the tub.”