Chapter 12

12

EVANGELINE

I managed to send the chatty river fairy away, but the mood had been well and truly killed. Now, Gabriel and I were left in cold, wet clothes. I was shivering, and Gabriel looked about as happy as a cat in a bath. I grabbed his hand and squeezed.

"One more jump," I said. "Then you can get some rest, okay?"

"Okay," he murmured.

Hand in hand, we walked until I could slip us into the stream of ley lines. There was an intersection not far from Marcus's safe house, and when I pulled us back up into the real world, we were in a small, scraggly clearing that split off from the mill's driveway. It wasn't really on a path, more of a deer trail. Honestly, calling it a clearing was generous. It looked more like a little area where the plants had simply given up. There was some scrubby yellowish grass, but most of the ground was bare gray dirt, the water from our clothes dripping into it. The big brick building was near us.

"Is this… where you were trying to take us?" Gabriel asked.

"Yeah, it's Marcus's safe house," I said. "We figured it wouldn't be safe to stay at the manor with everything that's going on. Sorry. I bet you were looking forward to sleeping in your own bed." I processed my words and blanched, thinking about the wreck that was Gabriel's bedroom.

"Honestly, I'm not feeling picky about where I rest," he said dryly. Even though the waterfall had washed off the blood, Gabriel still looked like a mess. He had bags under his eyes and an exhausted slump to his shoulders. His hair was starting to dry into a cloud of fluffy curls, which looked extremely cute.

"The others are here as well, I assume?"

I nodded.

He chewed his lip nervously, and I watched his fang dimpling the soft skin. "I… don't suppose you could make my excuses to them, could you? I know they mean well, but I'm truly not in the mood to be swarmed by well-wishers right now."

"'Course," I told him. "They'll get it. Do you, uh, I mean… if you want to be alone, I totally get it, but I think Marcus might be out of guest rooms. You can share with me, obviously, but I can also ask him if there's, like, a sofa I can crash on or something, it's?—"

Gabriel leaned down and kissed me. "No. No, I'd rather share."

"Oh. Oh. Okay. Neat." I groaned internally. Neat? Very smooth.

We made the short trek up to the old mill building in companionable silence, hands clasped, fingers entwined. There was a side entrance that went right to the stairs, so I led Gabriel to that one. Before we went in, I stopped him. "Wanna see a cool trick?"

He eyed me warily. "I don't know. Do I? And before you answer that, please consider the week I've had."

I pulled the magic around me into the same shape I'd used to get into the citadel unnoticed, then cast it onto Gabriel. "There," I said. "I'll make your excuses, and you can go right up to the room. Third floor, first door on the right."

Gabriel inspected his own hands curiously. "Thank you," he said, sounding worryingly fragile.

Smiling at him, I opened the door.

The only person on the first floor was Isabella, who sat on top of one of the messy work benches. She was cleaning the place up, or at least organizing it a little. Bags of what looked like craft supplies—beads, feathers, shapes cut out of foam, and a baggie of necklace clasps—took up the surface next to her. All the worrying specimens floating in jars covered another bench. I recognized the ‘I need to do something useful or else I'll think about what's going on' coping mechanism when I saw it.

"Hey," I said, keeping my distance. "I got Gabriel, although we definitely got noticed by some people on our way out. He seems okay, but he's not up for people right now. Can you let the others know to give him some space?"

Isabella blinked at me with owlish surprise, like she'd gotten so sucked into reorganizing, she'd forgotten other people existed. "Yeah, no problem. I'll text Theo. They'll keep the others from bugging him for a bit."

"Thank you." God, I missed being able to talk freely to Isabella. If things were different between us, I would've asked her about that, or teased her about having Theo's number.

Isabella gave me a ‘don't mention it' nod, and I went upstairs, making a pit stop in the kitchen to grab some synth blood from the fridge. I suspected Marcus had bought the stuff. I didn't think any of the vampires would've willingly chosen a brand that had designed its packaging to look like a Capri Sun pouch. I snorted. According to the slogan on the back, the contents were AB+Solutely Delicious!

I let myself into the bedroom, synth blood packet in hand. The bathroom door was closed, and I heard the shower running. I considered joining Gabriel in there, but the closed door was a clear message, and that tiny little shower was barely big enough to fit one person, let alone two. Anyway, I didn't have to wait long. A few minutes later, the shower squeaked off, and Gabriel came out of the bathroom, a towel slung low around his hips. It seemed like an attack on me personally, but I ogled him anyway. I'd earned it.

"I brought you blood," I told the general vicinity of his abs. He had very defined hipbones.

Gabriel flinched backward, then came toward me. He took the pouch from my outstretched hand carefully. It was a weirdly timid gesture, like he was trying not to let our fingers brush. My PI instincts drowned out my desire.

Gabriel stabbed the straw into the little hole in the synth blood pouch and took a long, eager pull before making a face and dropping the container on the writing desk.

"Gross?" I asked sympathetically.

He winced. "Not to my tastes."

"We can pick you up another brand," I offered.

"Sure. Maybe."

I didn't frown, because frowning would've put him on his guard. There were a few major dots, and I was beginning to connect them.

Gabriel clutched something in his left hand, his knuckles even paler than usual. I let my eyes drop to it meaningfully, making sure he followed my gaze. He opened his hand, revealing the familiar shape of my portal stone sitting on his palm. His thumb worried over the groove. It was a motion I'd done more times than I could count. I felt a rush of affection, of relief. I hadn't really allowed myself to be worried about Gabriel when he was held captive, not as much as I had wanted to, because I'd known it would paralyze me. Now, all the fear I'd tamped down rose to the surface. My eyes stung, which pissed me off. I shouldn't have been the one tearing up.

"Did it help?" I asked. My voice was barely louder than a whisper.

Gabriel knelt on the floor in front of me, holding the stone out. "More than you can imagine."

I gave him a watery smile and wrapped my hand around his, closing his fingers back over the stone. "You should keep it."

"Are you—" he started, but I cut him off.

"I'm sure," I said firmly. "I want you to have it." I didn't like the haunted look in Gabriel's eyes. I touched his cheek gently. "Hey. You okay?"

He shook his head, but I wasn't sure if he was brushing off the question or responding to it. I was pretty sure he meant it to be the former, but I was also certain I should interpret it as the latter.

I bent to kiss him, more to reassure him than anything else. I was very aware that there was a hot man wearing nothing but a towel at my feet, but the kiss wasn't about me. All I wanted was to prove to him that I was real, that he was safe and could relax.

Gabriel stiffened, and I started to pull back, thinking I had made a mistake. Before I could put any space between us, though, he jolted back into motion, tangling his free hand in my hair and kissing me back urgently. It wasn't the soft, sweet kiss I'd aimed for. He lapped at the seam of my lips, and I opened eagerly for him, letting him take control. Gabriel was almost frantic with it, and it was good. Really good. All of a sudden, I was extremely aware of how long it had been since we'd fucked. It was like a switch flipped in me. Heat zipped through me, pooling between my thighs. I moaned into his mouth, and he echoed the sound, nipping at my lower lip.

Then, suddenly, Gabriel was on the other side of the room. He flattened himself against the wall, even splaying out his hands against the mural like he was trying to merge into it, and stared at me with wide eyes. His horrified gaze was fixed on my mouth.

I licked my lips, tasting a faint, coppery tang. When I wiped the pad of my thumb across my lower lip to investigate, it came away with a small streak of blood. His fang must have nicked me just enough to break the skin. I looked back up at Gabriel. In his sprint over to the other side of the room, his towel had fallen off, and now he was not only panicking but also naked. I took a slow breath. Those dots were definitely connecting now.

"Gabriel," I murmured. I stood and took half a step toward him.

"Don't," he snapped, then his voice softened into something scared and pleading. "Please. I'm not myself." His entire body shook, so I didn't take another step.

"I'm not gonna make you tell me what happened at the citadel," I said cautiously. "But I saw that room. I think I can probably guess."

Gabriel squeezed his eyes shut and panted, even though breathing was merely a force of habit for him.

"That's why you didn't like the synthetic stuff, isn't it?"

He nodded almost imperceptibly. "He was… Toward the end, before you arrived, he stopped feeding me," he whispered. "It's monstrous, but I'm… I'm hungry, Evangeline. And the synthetic blood tasted rotten to me. You should go. I can… I can go out and find an animal to feed on. I will handle this. I can't let myself slip."

I took another careful step, and his eyes snapped open, tracking my every move. It wasn't the sort of tracking of a predator, though, but more like an injured animal backed into a corner.

"I need you to level with me," I said. "Do you think animal blood will be enough?"

"It has to be."

"That isn't what I asked. Will it be enough, Gabriel?"

He made a pained sound, halfway between a whimper and a sob. He shook his head.

"Okay," I said. "Okay." My pulse had never pounded harder, and I wondered if Gabriel could hear it. "So, you should eat."

Gabriel looked aghast. "I can't go out and hunt someone," he said, sounding stricken. "I won't do that, Evangeline."

"What—No!" I pulled a face. "I mean you can drink from me, dumbass."

Being called a dumbass turned out to be exactly what Gabriel needed to snap him out of his panic. He spluttered indignantly. "Absolutely not. That's… That's out of the question. It's practically medieval, the vampire lord feeding on the innocent maiden. It's… it's gauche!"

I was a little obsessed with how dorky Gabriel got when he was startled. "Wow," I said. "Okay, there's a lot to unpack there. First of all, I'm definitely not innocent, and you know from personal experience that I'm not a maiden. Secondly, I just rescued you from being imprisoned in an evil castle, which I'm pretty sure means I'm the knight in shining armor, and you're the damsel in distress, so maybe we should set aside the tropes before we both get confused. Thirdly, it's not like you're swooping in through my window, Gabriel. I'm literally offering this." As I spoke, I stepped closer, and now that he was less likely to hyperventilate, he allowed it. "Also, I know for a fact that you own multiple velvet capes, so you don't have a leg to stand on about vampire clichés."

He actually laughed a little at that, although it was more of a wheezy hiccup. I reached out for him, making sure to telegraph the movement, and put my hand on his chest to steady him.

"I want to help. Together, we can wean you off, get you back to animal and synth blood. But for now, you've gotta eat, okay?"

Something in Gabriel shifted. He didn't look like a cornered animal now. When he looked at me, my mouth went dry. "I don't know if I'll be able to stop," he admitted. It seemed like it cost him a lot to tell me that.

"I trust you," I said.

"I don't trust myself," he rasped.

"Well, great news. I'm a pretty powerful witch. If I need you to stop, I can make you stop." His eyes darkened at that, which was definitely something to investigate later. "I know you don't trust yourself right now, but do you trust me?"

Gabriel nodded slowly.

Slowly, agonizingly slowly, I raised my hand to his face. The little streak of blood was still on the pad of my thumb, and I pressed it against his lips, his breath shuddering against my skin.

"It's okay," I said softly.

Gabriel closed his eyes and took the digit into his mouth, lapping and sucking. He looked desperate and blissful.

"Fuck," I murmured. "We're really doing this, huh?"

Even though he thought he couldn't control himself, he was careful, making sure to mind his fangs. I pulled my hand away, and he made a little sound of protest, but I cut it off quickly by leaning forward to kiss him. It was an open-mouthed, hungry thing. There had been so little blood on my finger, I couldn't even taste it on him, and I'd braced myself for that. If that little blood had gotten him so worked up, what would a proper bite do?

We stumbled backward toward the bed. I tripped on something—Gabriel's towel?—but he caught me, his arms wrapping around my waist. He'd moved impossibly fast, holding all my weight without breaking a sweat.

Maybe those swooning maidens were kind of onto something with that one , I thought as I kissed him again.

We only stopped kissing so Gabriel could tug my shirt over my head, and then our lips came together again. By the time we made it to the bed, I was down to just my bralette and panties. We crashed down onto the pillows, sending a couple of them flying.

"What do you need?" I asked. Gabriel had wound up beneath me and was doing really distracting things to the side of my neck with his tongue. "My neck?"

He pulled away and shook his head. "Too risky." He already sounded wrecked. "Please, just… whatever you'll give me."

It was the horniest I'd ever been while trying to remember major arteries, but I was good at thinking on my feet. I scooted away a little, and Gabriel moved to follow me, but I pushed him back down. He went willingly. I shuffled up the bed on my knees, and Gabriel's eyes went even darker when he realized what I was thinking.

"One bite," I said. "You drink until you're full or until I tell you to stop. Clear?"

"Clear," Gabriel rumbled.

I straddled his face. Gabriel groaned, rubbing his nose along my thigh. I'd sort of imagined he would try to find the perfect spot, but either he was too far gone for that sort of patience, or he was too good at this to need to hunt for it. I felt his damp breath against my inner thigh, then the fangs dug in.

Gabriel's fangs were too sharp for there to be much pain. It was like slipping with a sharp knife and not realizing it until you saw the blood. After a second, there was a little bit of an ache, but then suddenly, it began to feel… good. Really good. My mind went fuzzy, my body warm and floaty, like I'd had just the right amount of champagne.

Gabriel stared up at me, looking as drunk as I felt. His eyes were hooded and a little dazed, but he was watching me like it was unthinkable to do anything else. He sucked at my flesh, drawing the blood out of it and guzzling it down. That warm, floaty feeling filled my whole body. I'd read something about vampire bites releasing a chemical that made humans euphoric. Was this what it always felt like? God, no wonder some people chased after vampires.

I tangled a hand in Gabriel's hair and held him close, encouraging him to keep drinking. One of us groaned. Maybe both of us. Distantly, I was glad I knew what dizziness from blood loss felt like, so I could tell I was just dizzy from arousal. His hands were on my hips, not keeping me in place, but just holding me. The sounds coming from him were obscene and hungry. I was so wet I couldn't think. My hips moved without my permission, humping the air in tiny waves. Gabriel's head moved in time with my undulations, keeping his mouth on my thigh. He began to alternate suckling at the wounds with broad passes of his tongue, licking up the blood. Slowly, he stopped sucking entirely and simply laved at my thigh, cleaning up the stray droplets of blood.

"More," Gabriel said hoarsely. His mouth was streaked with blood, and he looked fucked-out. "Please."

"I said one bite," I reminded him, tensing up. Would I have to use magic on him?

"Not blood," he said. "You. Please."

I was already nodding, shifting to climb off him so I could get my panties off, but his grip on my hips tightened, keeping me there. He reached up and grabbed the thin fabric. There was one tearing sound, then another, and then my panties were off.

"Fuck," I hissed. "You really need it, huh?"

Gabriel didn't answer. He gripped my hips and pulled me down against his face, letting out an animalistic noise as his lips met my cunt. I slammed my hand against the headboard to keep myself upright. My thighs were burning, but the ache was well worth it. Gabriel licked into the core of me, even hungrier for it than he was for my blood. He stroked his tongue up to my clit, licking and sucking so intensely perfect that I screamed.

If I kept watching the look on his face I'd crash over the edge, and I didn't want it to end yet. I tossed my head to the side, catching a glimpse of Gabriel's rock-hard cock. It was flushed and leaking against his stomach. I hissed out a curse as he found a particularly good motion, and his cock twitched at the sound. Gabriel moaned against me, eager and urgent.

He gripped my hips more firmly again, pulling me toward him, then away. I let him set the rhythm, then took over the motion, grinding against his face just the way he wanted. It was so fucking good I wanted to cry. It wasn't hyperbole, either. My moans were closer to little hitching sobs. My legs shook, but I knew Gabriel would catch me if they gave out. Blindly, I reached behind me and swiped my hand through the mess of precum on his stomach, then wrapped my fingers around his cock. He let out a sound like he'd been punched, and I grinned, stroking him rough and fast, matching the pace of my hips against his face.

I felt shuddery and perfect all over. I was close, so close, just hovering on the edge. Gabriel was hot and hard in my hand, fucking up my fist.

"Feels so fucking good," I moaned. "Gabriel, fuck. It's so good, it's—Ah!" He'd moved his hand just enough to dig his thumb into the bruise he'd left on my thigh. The pain was a stark contrast to the pleasure of his mouth on me and also a reminder of what we'd done. I didn't know if it was the tangle of sensations or the memory that pushed me over the edge, but whatever it was had my orgasm crashing over me. I kept riding Gabriel's face through the unending wave because it built into something white-hot and blinding. I was too far gone to keep stroking him, but he didn't seem to mind, rutting up into my hand as I finally reached the peak.

I collapsed against the headboard, leaning a forearm against the top to rest my head on. My knees were still bracketing Gabriel's head, and he mouthed gently at my thigh. It wasn't a real kiss or the precursor to a bite, more a lazy brush of his lips. It tickled, but I was too out of it to squirm away. It took herculean effort to roll off him and wiggle around bonelessly until I could lie with my head pillowed on his chest.

"Holy shit," I said.

"I couldn't agree more." Gabriel sounded dazed. "It's not usually like that."

"You don't usually give the people you drink from the best orgasm of their lives?" I asked, still too breathless to attempt any semblance of innocence.

"I usually didn't sleep with them at all," Gabriel said. "Hang on, the best?"

I poked his chest. "And you said it would be gauche."

"I did," Gabriel admitted. "I did say that."

One of us should have gotten up to grab a washcloth. I'd get up and do that in a second, then we could both get cleaned up. As soon as my legs could support my weight again.

"Gauche," I said again, throwing an arm over Gabriel and closing my eyes. I'd definitely get up in a second.