Chapter 14

14

GAbrIEL

W e plummeted through the pitch blackness, falling faster and faster. The wind whistled in my ears. My only anchor was Evangeline's hand, clasped tightly in mine. I pulled her closer, unwilling and unable to consider the idea of losing contact and leaving her to fall through the void by herself.

I tried to twist through the air until I was stretched out flat with Evangeline above me. Maybe it would slow us down just enough, and with my body to cushion her fall, Evangeline might survive.

A strange sound came from above me, so wildly out of place that it took me a moment to figure out what it was. Evangeline was laughing, and the sound of it was being whipped away by the wind as we fell. Perplexed, I stared into the darkness. Had she lost her mind in the face of our likely demise?

There was a crash of noise below us, and weak, blue-gray light shone up from beneath our falling forms. It illuminated the space just enough for me to see Evangeline wink at me, grin widely, and then the light got brighter and brighter.

The next thing I knew, I crashed down onto something soft. Evangeline landed on top of me, driving the air from my lungs. She wheezed out a slightly manic giggle. My arm was still slung around the small of her back, and when she laughed, her breath brushed against the tender skin of my neck.

"You're a lunatic," I told her breathlessly. "You're an absolute lunatic."

Slowly but surely, I managed to get my bearings. We were on a large bed with a jumble of mismatched quilts. The room around us was small and a little cluttered, with shelves covered in books and knickknacks. In one corner was a large plant pot filled with grass. The room smelled of Evangeline's magic—old books, jasmine, and vanilla.

A small speaker designed to look like an old-fashioned radio switched on. Etta James warbled out of it. At the same time, a candle on the bedside table flickered to life.

"Hello, Chanel," I said. A notebook left open on the dresser fluttered its pages coquettishly.

Evangeline seemed to have finally worked through the strange euphoria of the fall. She rolled off me, flopping down onto the bed by my side, and curled a hand around her labradorite pendant. The portal stone, I realized. Of course. In the shock of plummeting blindly through the darkness, I'd forgotten all about it.

She pushed herself up onto one elbow and grinned down at me. I was suddenly struck by the fact that the bedroom matched my dream almost exactly, although it filled in the details my mind had left fuzzy and amorphous. The last time I'd imagined myself in this bed…

I swallowed hard.

"You should've seen the look on your face," Evangeline said. "Very noble and resigned. Thanks for trying to break my fall, by the way."

"It seemed like the right thing to do," I said stiffly. "Although, I don't know how much good it would have done you."

Evangeline's smile softened into something sweeter and gentler. "I still appreciate it. That you would do that for me."

Our faces were close together, and the warm solid line of her body was pressed against my side. It would be so easy to stretch up and press my lips to the welcoming curve of her smile. Her eyes were very green, and this close, I could see every freckle scattered across the bridge of her nose. I wondered how long it would take me to count them all.

Evangeline's eyes flicked over my face. If she was searching for something, I didn't know what it was. I didn't know if I wanted her to find it. Her gaze rested on my mouth for a long moment, but then she pulled back and got off the bed.

"We should figure out where to keep the piece of the ascendancy array, so it doesn't attract attention," she said.

"Of course." It came out slightly hoarser than I'd been hoping, but if Evangeline noticed it, she didn't comment.

She led me out into the living room but froze so abruptly that I almost crashed into her back. There was a man in her kitchen. He was tall and lean with ropey muscles. His gray hair was swept back from his face and was long enough that it almost reached his shoulders. He had a tidy beard, bright blue eyes, and was wearing one of the worst shirts I had ever seen—neon orange fish and bright red coral on a background of alarmingly bright aqua.

The strange man also had Evangeline's plant-cat draped across his shoulders like a grassy feather boa and he seemed to be in the middle of making himself a sandwich.

"Ah, Evangeline!" the man said cheerfully, raising a hand in greeting when he saw us. "I was wondering when you'd be home. And you've brought a friend. How wonderful. You must be Gabriel de Montclair. Delightful. I was wondering when I would meet you."

"Marcus." Evangeline groaned. "Seriously, you have your own place. I've been there. I know you have your own kitchen."

"Well, yes, but my kitchen was suffering from a tragic lack of peanut butter," Marcus said, raising a knife covered in peanut butter to make his point. "How did the expedition go?"

"Pretty well," Evangeline told him. "Turns out there's a clan of vampires trying to get the ascendancy array, too, so we had to deal with a few of their grunts, but they weren't much of a challenge."

Marcus nodded. He didn't seem even the slightest bit surprised by our appearances. I was filthy, splashed with blood, and dusted with a considerable bit of soot. My jacket was shredded, and I could only assume that I looked exhausted. Evangeline, although she was as radiant as ever, didn't look much better. Although her shoulder had healed up, there was still a jagged blood-stained gash through her jacket and shirt, and her hair had given up on the pretense of staying in its bun.

Marcus just blinked at us mildly.

"Sandwich?" he said, tilting a plate toward Evangeline. "I'm making my own special twist on the classic Elvis. Peanut butter, banana, and bacon, but with the addition of golden raisins."

"You're a sick, sick man," Evangeline told him fondly, and he shrugged.

"I merely have refined tastes," he said.

Evangeline snorted and shook her head, then moved past him with easy familiarity, filling a mug with water and chugging it down. They were completely used to sharing a space, weaving around each other smoothly. A pang of jealousy twisted its way up through my chest, and I squashed it down ruthlessly. I was beginning to come to terms with my own infatuation with Evangeline, but this was an older, uglier kind of jealousy. The sort I felt when I saw parents doting on their children.

"Okay, we need to figure out what the fuck we're going to do with this thing," Evangeline said, setting her mug down on the kitchen island with a firm clink. "Right now, I think our best bet is to muffle its power as much as we can. Double bagging?" she asked Marcus, who shook his head.

"Triple, I should think. At the very least." He said it with an almost academic detachment, but his eyes were locked on the artifact Evangeline turned over in her hands.

She nodded and grabbed some of her evidence bags, wrapping the piece of the ascendancy array in layer after layer. "That's a pretty temporary solution, but it'll hold us over for a little while," she said. "I need to get myself cleaned up, because right now, all I can think about is how incredibly gross I feel. You two play nice, okay? I'm leaving Pothos in charge while I shower."

Pothos yawned hugely, revealing sharp little white teeth. Then he stretched out one of his fuzzy front legs, nestled his face against Marcus's shoulder, and promptly fell asleep.

"Keep up the good work," Evangeline murmured, stroking the pad of one finger between his ears. He let out a low rumbling purr and a happy feline sigh.

Evangeline shrugged off her jacket, tossed it on the sofa, and headed for a door I assumed led to a bathroom. Marcus continued constructing his horrible sandwich.

"Evangeline speaks very highly of you," I said.

Marcus's bright eyes flicked up to me. "Is that so? She's a very generous young woman. Always seems to find a way to see the best in people." Even if they don't deserve it, his gaze said.

I barely resisted the urge to squirm.

Marcus began placing golden raisins on his concoction. "She's an excellent investigator, but she can sometimes be too trusting for her own good," he said as calmly as if he was talking about the weather.

"I assure you I have no intention of betraying her trust," I said, feeling like I'd been thrown into a test without any time to study.

Marcus hummed thoughtfully, wiping his hands on a dishtowel. There were runes tattooed on his fingers in faded blue-black ink—one between each knuckle. At the base of each fingernail was a small, stylized eye.

"Mr. De Montclair," he said, then shook his head with a grandfatherly chuckle. "Excuse me. Lord De Montclair." I hid a wince at the title. "I'm not sure you've considered what this situation looks like from my perspective." He eased a hand under Pothos and gently shifted him onto the top level of the nearby cat tree.

"Please," I said, sliding onto one of the stools in front of the island. "Enlighten me."

Marcus smiled thinly. "My ward receives an anonymous letter informing her of a powerful artifact with the potential to do irreparable damage if used as a weapon. As soon as she begins to investigate it, the heir of an incredibly powerful vampire clan suddenly comes into her life. An heir, I might add—and I hope you won't take offense to this—who is widely assumed to be primarily decorative, and who seems to be quite resentful of that assumption. With the help of this heir, Evangeline throws herself into several dangerous situations, and he's right there by her side. On one of these expeditions, she discovers that, wonder of wonders, there's a group of vampires looking for the very same artifact."

I opened my mouth to protest, but Marcus held up a bony hand to stop me. "I'm not done," he said sharply. He braced his hands on the island and leaned over it toward me, looking me dead in the eye. Sweat prickled at my hairline.

"If someone was looking for an incredibly powerful weapon, they would use multiple methods," he said calmly. "They might, for instance, hire a very capable investigator, follow her while she gathered all the pieces they needed, and then eliminate her and take the array for themselves."

"That's n—" I began, but Marcus twisted a finger through the air and my voice died in my throat as I tried to push the words out.

"You may speak when I am done," Marcus said. "You can understand how this looks, can't you? A prince kept from the power that's his birthright, helpfully agreeing to help Evangeline find a source of incredible strength."

I nodded reluctantly, and Marcus rewarded me with a small smile. He picked up Evangeline's saltshaker—a grinning ceramic skull in a top hat—and poured a small pile of salt onto the table. He began to trace a complex pattern into the salt with one finger. The eye tattoo stared up at me.

"In a moment," he said casually. "I'm going to give you a choice, Lord De Montclair. I'll drop the spell that's keeping you silenced, and you will tell me if you'd rather grant me brief, limited access to your mind so that I can see your intentions, or I will cast a spell that will force you to answer three questions completely truthfully. If you attempt to lie, it will be excruciatingly painful. Nod if you understand."

I nodded, my mind racing. I'd had no idea that Evangeline's mentor had the sort of power he was threatening to use so calmly. Did she even know the extent of his magic?

"Now, are you ready to make your choice?" Marcus asked.

I nodded again, and the spell that had been restricting my voice disappeared abruptly.

"The three questions," I rasped. Every single one of my instincts was screaming at me that it would be incredibly unwise to let such a powerful witch into my mind.

Marcus smiled at me. "Yes, I thought you might say that." He grabbed my wrist so quickly I barely saw him move, and he slammed my hand down onto the scarred countertop of the island so that my palm was pressed over the pattern he'd sketched into the salt.

"Why are you looking for the ascendancy array?" Marcus asked, his eyes boring into mine.

I refused to break eye contact first. Perhaps it was petty, but control of this situation was clearly far from mine, and it seemed like the only thing I could do.

"I think that it's linked to the disappearances of vampires in the city, and I want to help Evangeline," I said. The words bubbled up from my mouth without my input, spilling clumsily into the room.

"What would you do with it if you found it?" Marcus asked.

"Give it to Evangeline," I said immediately.

Marcus raised a bushy gray eyebrow. "Interesting," he said. "Why are you so invested in Evangeline?"

I could feel the words trying to force their way between my teeth and swallowed them back down. "I don't know," I said. The salt under my hand went burning hot, sending bolts of pain up my arm. I tried to pull away, but between the magic and Marcus's bony grip, I wasn't going anywhere. "Because I think I'm falling in love with her," I blurted. The pain stopped immediately, and Marcus let my wrist go.

I stared down blankly at the salt on the table, covering my mouth with my hands. I couldn't believe I'd actually said it. Hell, I hadn't even let myself think it before, and now I'd just blurted it out. I had never prayed a day in my life, but now I sent a fervent prayer to anyone who might be listening that Evangeline hadn't heard what I'd said.

Marcus clapped me on the shoulder. "Good lad," he said. "I was hoping that was all. There's a great deal of paperwork and politics in the aftermath of the death of a vampire heir, you know. I'm glad I could avoid all the fuss." He turned away and searched through a cabinet, pulling out a dusty bottle and a plastic squeeze bottle of honey in the shape of a bear. He set a mug in front of me that had a bright purple cartoon spider on it, giving four thumbs up. Below the spider, it said, in a jaunty green font: browsing the web! He poured a measure of liquid from the dusty bottle into it.

I drank the contents of the mug in three long gulps. It was a surprisingly good ruby port. Marcus began humming to himself as he squeezed honey onto his sandwich.

"What do you think?" he asked conversationally. "Should I add in some walnuts?"

I looked at the gloopy mess he'd built. "They might help with the structural integrity?" I offered weakly.

Marcus nodded sagely and began rummaging through a drawer. I heard the shower turn off, and shortly after, Evangeline came out of the bathroom in a cloud of sweet-smelling steam. She had changed into a soft-looking dress made of moss-green fabric, cut to leave her toned, freckled arms bare. Her hair was twisted up in a towel, but a few damp curls were attempting to make an escape, plastering themselves to the long pale line of her neck.

"You two having fun?" she asked.

"We had a wonderful talk," Marcus said cheerfully. "Didn't we, Gabriel?"

"Yes," I said. "It was quite a talk."

"Great," Evangeline said. "Shower's all yours if you want to go get cleaned up. There are towels in the hutch."

The idea of being even more vulnerable around Marcus wasn't appealing, but the idea of escaping the room definitely was. I stood with as much dignity as I could muster, pulled a change of clothes from the bottomless tote, and headed to the bathroom.

I am falling in love with Evangeline , I thought, stripping off my stained and torn clothes. I am falling in love with her , I thought, as the hot water sprayed down over me, washing away the grime of travel and combat. I am falling in love with her.

How could I have let this happen? I had duties to fulfill, responsibilities to my clan, and to my people as a whole. I would have to marry a vampire, produce vampire heirs, continue my lineage. Plenty of high-ranking vampires pursued relationships outside of the bonds of marriage, often with the knowledge of their spouses, but even then they slept with other vampires, or perhaps a nymph or werewolf. Sleeping with a witch would have been bad enough, but falling for one?

Witches created vampires and had immediately considered them a failed experiment before they tried to destroy them. Vampires had been created then betrayed by their creators. The ones who escaped the initial massacre had stayed on the run for years, fleeing witches who were intent on experimenting on them, draining them, and using their life force for experiments. Only a few of the vampires who remembered those brutal, paranoid times survived. One of them was my father.

My father wasn't the sort of man capable of acknowledging his own fear, so instead, he twisted it, converting it into frigid anger. Given his willingness to make problems disappear, I didn't want to imagine what he might do if he learned how I felt about Evangeline.

I could only avoid Evangeline by hiding in the shower for so long, so I dried off, using a towel that the apartment had thoughtfully warmed up for me, and dressed in clean clothes. Luckily, I'd had the forethought to pack something comfortable, although even I had to admit that the merino trousers probably wouldn't have been ideal for hiking. As I shrugged on my shirt, the top two buttons popped off and clattered to the floor in a way that I might have assumed was spontaneous if I wasn't aware of Chanel's inclinations.

"Not your most subtle work," I told the apartment. The apartment seemed unrepentant, which was fairly standard, given that it was a building. I rolled my sleeves neatly up to the elbows, did my best to finger-comb my damp hair into some rough semblance of order, and went back out into the main space of the apartment.

Evangeline was curled up on the sofa with a thunderously purring Pothos in her lap. She perked up when she saw me, and the cat cracked open an eye to glare at me.

"Feeling better?" she asked, running a hand down the cat's grassy back.

"Much," I said. It was true. I was still actively tamping down my panic, but at least now I was clean. "Where's Marcus?"

"He headed out," she told me. "He said he was going to make some calls and see if he could find a safer place to store the fragment of the ascendancy array."

"I see," I said, trying to hide my relief. "Well, once I retrieve my things from the enchanted bag, I'll be out of your hair."

Evangeline bit her lip. "Actually, um… Usually after big jobs it takes me a while to unwind. Usually, I invite Isabella over and we have a girls' night or something, but would you…? I mean, you don't have to, obviously—you're probably pretty busy—but you could stay. If you wanted." She took a deep breath and tried again. "I'd like it if you stayed."

Nothing could have forced me to leave in that moment. "I suppose I could make some room in my schedule."