Dark Mate (MATE series) (7 page)

She waited for him to come
close enough.

She wouldn't hesitate. She
would stab the shard right into his heart.

Hopefully, the pain and shock
would distract him and give her just enough time to bolt past him.

It was the only way, her only
chance to escape.

Eva trembled at the memory of
his lips and tongue on her body, his touch and his kisses igniting an
inferno through her entire body. How was that possible? How could
she have lost all control, and surrendered her pleasure to him?

That devious vampire must have
done something to her, twisted her mind to his perverted will.

A part of her acknowledged
that he had not forced himself on her. He had not forced her to do
anything she didn't want. She had wanted it, wanted
him
.

Eva began to shake as she
stared into the depths of his whiskey colored eyes. No. She
wouldn't allow him to affect her like this. She shouldn't be feeling
anything for him.

The conflict and shame
swirling through her mind distilled into pure, primal anger. Her
grip tightened around the shard and with a wordless cry, she lashed
out at him.

Gabriel's eyes widened as she
flew towards him, slashing wildly with the jagged shard of porcelain.

“
Eva,” he
whispered, a look of betrayal crossing his features.

He caught her wrist as she
aimed the point at his chest. Screaming, she tried to struggle free
but he refused to let her go.

“
Eva, I...I can never
hurt you,” he said, gazing deeply into her eyes.

“
Liar!” she
shrieked in rage.

“
Listen to me...”

“
No! You are a liar!
All you do is lie! Lie and kill and hurt...” She twisted free
of his grasp and fell back. Pushing herself off the bed, she swiped
at her nose and began to stalk slowly towards him.

His eyes followed her, and he
pivoted to face her, but he didn't try to move towards her.

She lunged at him, and scored
a deep cut down his arm. Gabriel didn't even flinch. He just stared
at her, blinking slowly as blood oozed from his wound.

“
Why didn't you move?”
she spat. “Do you think that by not fighting back, I'll just
drop everything and back away? Give me back my things and let me go,
Gabriel. Now!”

“
I'm not letting you go,
Eva,” he said quietly but firmly.

She smirked. “I thought
you'd say that.” She stood without moving a muscle just a few
feet from him, her eyes narrowing.

Without warning, she lurched
forward and thrust the deadly shard straight into his shoulder.

Gabriel caught her as she
tried to wrench the shard out to strike again. She twisted
furiously, trying to grab that shard out of his body. Gabriel cursed
viciously. Blood was pouring from his shoulder, but he refused to
let go of her.

“
Eva, stop. Stop this!”

“
No! No!” she
screamed. “I will kill you!”

Something seemed to have
snapped in her. She thrashed and jerked violently in his arms,
trying to get her fingers around the shard embedded in his shoulder
while kicking and clawing at him. At this moment, she was more
animal than human, hissing, scratching, biting without thinking. She
just wanted to draw blood, and bring him down.

“
Eva!”

She felt his powerful hands
close around her waist. No, no! She would not let him snap her
spine.

“
No!”

She twisted round, flailing
and struggling vehemently. She screamed and she felt his fingers
release her body suddenly.

Eva jerked forward violently,
unstoppably, smashing into his shoulder.

Everything went red and dark,
like a crimson curtain had fallen over her eyes. She blinked up at
Gabriel's wide eyes and saw his horror. His mouth was open, but she
couldn't hear his scream.

Something was wrong.

Very wrong.

All at once, she was aware of
her own gurgling, bleeding throat.

She tried to speak, and
immediately tasted her own blood in her mouth.

As her vision began to waver,
she gathered all her remaining strength and closed her fist around
that piece of bone white porcelain still embedded in Gabriel's
shoulder.

His lips were moving, but she
couldn't hear his words. The only sound she heard was her own
wheezing breath. Her last breath.

She was dying. But still, she
would kill him.

With a smile, she twisted the
shard viciously, before sinking into that deep, dark sea of red.

Gabriel heard her gurgled cry,
and felt hot, wet blood spurting into his face.

It wasn't his blood.

“
Eva, no!”

He grabbed her just as she
began to slump. There was a horrible, deep gash across her throat,
and her arterial blood was pumping out of her body in forceful
spurts.

Gabriel pressed his hand to
her gaping wound but her blood kept pulsing out between his fingers.
“No, no, no...Eva, what have you done?”

He glared down at the bloody
shard sticking out of his shoulder, and stared at Eva's slit throat.

She had fallen on that shard
and cut her own throat.

Her eyes stared up at Gabriel
and she gave him a wide smile, baring her bloodstained teeth at him.

With one last wheezing breath,
her hand fell away and her eyes closed.

Gabriel yelled her name over
and over again, but she no longer heard him. Her blood was all over
his hands, pooling and spreading beneath her.

“
No! Why, Eva...what
have you done? What...have I done?”

Why the hell had he served her
sandwiches on a china plate? He should have used a paper plate.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

There was no time, no time for
recriminations or regrets. It was impossible to stop the relentless
flow of blood. She was fading away before his very eyes, and he was
powerless to stop it.

He was watching her die. He
was going to lose her.

Again.

Gabriel let out a terrible
roar of anguish. No! He was not powerless this time. He would not
let her die.

He wrenched the cursed shard
out of his shoulder and flung it away with a curse. Damn him! Why
did he give her a porcelain plate? He should have been more careful.

His mistake, her life. It was
always like this.

Not this time.

Gabriel put his hands against
her throat, feeling her warm, thick blood pump out of her body with
each weakening beat of her heart. His fangs lengthened at the scent
and sight of her deep red blood, but he resisted the overwhelming
urge to take her blood and turn her.

If he turned her, she would
destroy herself. He'd read the fierce, unyielding resolve in her
eyes. She wasn't kidding. She would rather face the terrible,
excruciating agony of the sun's rays and be incinerated to ashes than
to live as a vampire. She would do it. And he would have to watch
her die.

Again.

No, he couldn't take her
blood. But she could take his.

He closed his eyes for a
heartbeat. This had to work. But blood healing would only work
if...

He growled and raised his
wrist to his mouth. With his fangs, he cut his veins wide open and
clenched his fist to quicken the blood flow. He pressed his bleeding
wrist to her throat and watched his blood mingle with hers.

As soon as his blood met hers,
Eva's body convulsed violently and arched off the floor. Gabriel
caught her securely with his other arm, and pressed her shaking body
against him.

Her head lolled to the side
and he saw the blood spill down her neck and drip onto the floor.
She was losing too much blood.

Holding her down, he tore
deeper into his cut wrist with his fangs, opening his wound wider for
her. He bit so deeply into his wrist he almost severed his own hand,
but he didn't care. All he cared about was—her. He had to get
more blood to her. Stop her bleeding, and let enough of his blood
seep into her body.

His carpet was stained red,
and for a surreal moment, he had the feeling that he was once again
kneeling on the dungeon floor, feeling the sticky blood coat his
hands and knees.

Gabriel took a sharp breath
and forced his mind back to the present. He was not in a dungeon.
He was in his bedroom, cradling a human woman in his arms. A woman
who was...

No, not his.

She wasn't his.

So why was he fighting to save
her? He would gladly give her all his blood, if that meant she would
live. He would give up his life for her.

To exist for so long, only to
die for a human...

Gabriel sucked a ragged breath
into his lungs. For the past two hundred years, he had merely
existed, existed not lived. He had searched tirelessly for Vonetta,
because he had felt that it was his duty, his responsibility. He
owed her.

He hadn't protected her.
Because of him, she had been taken in the most horrendous, brutal
way, turned and sold by the Master.

What he felt towards Vonetta
was...guilt.

He stared down at the
unconscious woman in his arms. Why couldn't he just let her die?
She was just a tiny, insignificant human.

Was he trying to redeem
himself?

Save Eva, when he couldn't
save Vonetta?

He knew she wasn't Vonetta.
They were so different. And he had never felt so possessive and
protective towards Vonetta. But he must have felt some affection
towards Vonetta. After all, he had been about to marry Vonetta, so
he must have loved her to some extent. It was his duty to love her.
Their marriage had been arranged by their families.

Gabriel lowered his lips to
Eva's forehead and rocked her gently, as he pressed his bleeding
wrist to her throat. He had no idea how long he held her and bled
for her. It never occurred to him to walk away and leave her. He
would remain kneeling and bleeding at her side forever if that would
keep her alive.

He closed his eyes,
remembering the taste of her blood on his lips. In that instant, he
had known.

His blood and body had
awakened instantly, instinctively to her. But his stubborn mind and
cold, callous heart had tried to deny the truth. He was still
denying it.

He would save her. But he
would use her. He would make sure she repaid her blood debt.

He opened his eyes to see his
blood flowing straight towards her wound, as if his blood knew
exactly where to go. As his blood seeped into her veins, the gash in
her neck began to knit together, her flesh healing at vampiric speed.

He finally allowed himself to
blow out a shaky breath.

His blood had healed her.

Blood healing would only work
if there was a blood bond. Yet, he would deny the bond. Deny
himself.

“
Eva, wake up. Live!
You will live, Eva,” he snarled fiercely against her cold
forehead. “You. Must. Live.”

When her wound had fully
closed, he scooped her off the floor and laid her out on the bed.
Exhausted, Gabriel slumped into a chair at her bedside.

Other than a faint line on her
neck, Eva looked none the worse for wear. His blood had dripped from
his wrist steadily into her wound, speeding the healing of her body.
Her blood had recognized his, and had mixed perfectly with his.
Every cell in her body seemed to come alive when his blood entered
her body. The color had returned to her face, and she had choked and
spluttered before starting to breathe evenly.

He stared at the ugly scar on
his pale wrist and made a strained sound. It was supposed to be a
laugh, but there was nothing funny about this whole situation.

He glared at her sleeping
form.

Blood never lies.

He wished it did.

Gabriel closed his eyes,
trying to block out the image of Eva's blood-soaked body. He had
held her for so long, whispering to her, smoothing back her hair as
she shivered and groaned in his arms. For the first time in a long,
long time, he had felt something akin to terror as she teetered on
the brink of death.

Gabriel snapped his eyes open
with a snarl. He was Gabriel King. He feared nothing.

You fear losing her.

No!

This human woman was
dispensable, just a tool to be used and discarded. Now that he had
saved her life, he would use her.

Use her to find Vonetta.

He owed Vonetta, and Eva owed
him.

He was so close to finding
Vonetta. Eva could complete the job for him. She was a cop. She
knew her way around. She would find Vonetta for him. And now that
she had his blood in her body, he would be able to control her—to
a degree, though he suspected that that would not be easy.