He lifted his head and met my gaze. “How are you alive?” he asked from where he crouched. His eyes searched mine. I could smell his disbelief and his relief. But regret wouldn’t undo the fact that he mortally wounded me last night.
“What makes you think that I am?” My voice came out calmer than it should’ve. The florescent lights continued to flicker and pause.
Caleb wrapped the towel around his waist. “Are you a vampire now?”
“I was always a vampire.”
He covered his eyes with a shaky hand, then let it slide down his face. “I—I’m sorry, alright?” He said it like I’d already accused him. “There aren’t words to describe just how much I am. But I warned you I couldn’t be trusted. And you were considered the anti-Christ, for God’s sake. You knew where things stood.”
“So this is my fault.”
Say it, I dared him. Say it and allow me to unleash my anger here. I’d do more than level this place. I’d wipe it from existence.
He padded towards me. “Of course it’s not. You didn’t choose to be the devil’s consort. But you are. When I joined the Politia, I swore an oath to protect supernaturals. That means setting aside my feelings for you and protecting the innocent.”
“From me,” I filled in.
His mouth formed a grim line.
“You were my friend,” I said. The overhead lights flickered faster and faster.
He glanced at them but said nothing.
“You were my friend and I trusted you when I needed you most. You betrayed that trust. You betrayed me.”
He shook and goosebumps sprouted along his arms. “I know, Gabrielle, I know, and I’ll never forgive myself. I did my job, but now I can’t seem to live with the person I now am.”
So this was still about him.
“Four months ago, I saved you. I carried your body out of a burning house. The same one you returned to, to kill me.”
“I know,” he breathed. “That wasn’t lost on me. I came to kill you. I pulled that trigger and watched one of my closest friends die—” His voice caught, and his eyes swept over me anew. “But I didn’t kill you,” he breathed. “You’re not dead.” Wonder lit up his eyes.
I wrapped my hands around the cell’s iron bars. “I’m worse than dead. I wasn’t the anti-Christ when you shot me, but now I am.”
Chapter 4
Andre
“The news captured footage of her in Jerusalem earlier this evening,” the vampire explained, talking as they headed down Bishopcourt’s hallway.
Impossible. Andre would’ve felt it. That hollow ache inside him only worsened with every minute that ticked by. But damn his heart; even the shredded remains of it seized on the possibility of Gabrielle being alive.
Andre strode into Bishopcourt’s conference room, where the television had been set up. The sound had been muted, but footage from a camera phone played out on the screen.
Andre staggered at the sight, bracing his hand against the conference table, his eyes transfixed.
There she was. His soulmate. His queen.
Clad in some dark dress that shimmered even under all that dirt. Her startled eyes swept over the camera as she stared out at the crowd.
“Dios mio,” he whispered. A tear leaked out.
His mouth had gone dry. He reached out and touched the screen. “Gabrielle.”
Even newly risen from the ground, she was the most beautiful thing he’d ever laid eyes on.
Absently he rubbed his heart as he watched Oliver—Oliver?—step up to her and— Kiss her?
I’m going to remove that fairy’s organs and slowly feed them to him.
Then the two disappeared.
Andre let out a gasping noise. She was gone once more.
He read the banner at the bottom of the screen.
Angels of Jerusalem.
The news looped the footage again. Of the earth shaking, rolling, rising. Of it giving a final heave and pushing Gabrielle out from it. Dirt fell from her, not like it would a normal living thing. It fell off completely. As though it wanted to get away from her.
This wasn’t a supernatural news channel. Mortals had witnessed the spectacle. The Politia would be stepping in. They’d have to.
Andre watched the kiss and her subsequent disappearance all over again, anger then anguish rising in him once more.
Somehow Oliver had known where to retrieve her, and he’d whisked her away via ley line. Which meant she could be anywhere in the world.
Behind him, several vampires and the head of his security team entered.
“I want all personnel plugged into the media.” Andre spoke to them without tearing his gaze away from the screen. “Find what you can about Gabrielle Fiori’s whereabouts. Once you’ve located her, put together travel arrangements.”
He was going to find his soulmate.
Gabrielle
A bloody tear snaked down my cheek. Normally, it would’ve horrified me to let someone see me cry. At the moment, however, I was high off of anger and power and retribution. Not even a tear could make me feel weak.
“After you fled last night, the devil came and claimed me. While you wallowed here on earth, I spent the day in hell.”
“You spent the day … in hell?” Horror bloomed on Caleb’s face.
I tilted my head to the side. “Did you really think I wouldn’t?”