Demon Soul (42 page)

Rose shrugged a shoulder. "Found it in Satine. I don't know how she got it, but I thought you might want it back. It's not much, there are pieces missing."

"I'll take it." The words rushed out of his mouth. He bowed his head in supplication. "If you please." Rose stretched a hand out to Mephisto and took a step toward him.

"Wait," commanded Gabriel. He turned to Rose, beyond exasperated. "What are you thinking? You're giving a demon back his soul? Wait. Do full demons even have souls?"

Rose turned to Gabriel. “He gave me a part of himself. Right now, I have strength. I don’t know how long I’ll have it, but the fight’s not over. So let me do this, okay?”

“I don’t like it.”

"You don’t have to." She eyed him. "I'm giving his back, just like I gave you yours back. Is that a problem? Satine had it. When I took yours back from her, I got mine back and Mephisto's came, too, as well as all the others she’d amassed through the years." She cupped Gabriel's cheek with one hand, her eyes steady on his face. "He just saved my life, Gabriel, and now I have his soul. I'm not about to withhold his soul from him."

"Okay, okay. But we'll do it my way." He turned Rose toward Mephisto, and held her back to his front, one big arm across her body protectively. "First," he said, addressing Mephisto, "if she does this for you, then you leave the greater Los Angeles area. If I catch even a whiff of your stench on the air, I will find you and crush the life out of you."

"Agreed," Mephisto said, his eyes not leaving Rose.

"Second. Release all claim on her soul."

He rolled his eyes. "Fine. I release my claim on her soul." He waved a hand and the bars of fire melted away, leaving a slightly sulfurous scent behind. “Not that I really had a claim there, so that one was easy.”

Gabriel kept tight rein on his temper, wanting nothing more than to hit him again. "Third. If we ever need you, you come."

Startled, Mephisto looked up at Gabriel, wary. "Why would you want help from me?"

Gabriel shrugged. "I've heard about the rumblings from the Chaos Plane. You could come in handy if it ever comes down to a fight between Chaos and humanity."

The demon's eyebrows rose. "Interesting. Agreed. Now, dear Rose." Expectantly, Mephisto turned his charm toward her. "Whenever you're ready."

 Rose patted the arm across her body. "Gabriel?"

Reluctantly, he released her and took a half step backwards. "I'm here if you need me," he grumbled.

She flashed a grin at him over her shoulder. "I know."

Turning back to Mephisto, she smiled. "You've had a tough time of it. Hopefully, this will bring you a measure of peace. I did what I could to heal it, but I don’t know much and there was little time."

She reached out and put her hand onto his bare chest.

At her touch, Mephisto's body arched and a look of pained surprise crossed his face. Gabriel could almost see the demon's soul pass through Rose and into Mephisto's chest, a silvery, glittery, jagged burst of light, surprisingly small, that spread through him.

Mephisto sank to his knees, agony contorting his features.

Rose snatched her hand away and stepped back, alarmed. Gabriel's arms came around her protectively. "Gabriel! What did I do wrong?"

They watched as Mephisto, his face bloody, bowed his head to the floor and howled. Flame burst along his arms and streamed down his hair. He flung his head back, caught Rose's hand in his and pressed a kiss on the back of it. His flame didn't touch her. "Thank you," and his eyes glistened with moisture. "It has been too long housed in others," he gasped. "My body is making room again."

“I understand now. Blessings, Mephisto," she murmured. The demon cringed. His flame flared high and both Rose and Gabriel blinked at the brightness. When they could see again, Mephisto had vanished.

Kellan appeared, backlit by firelight. "We've gotta get out of here. The building's gonna go."

Rose turned to look at Gabriel, her face paling. "Mephisto. He's leaving me. I mean, I know he left, but he's leaving me," she whispered, agonized.

Gabriel lifted her. "Stay with me, Rose. Stay with me." Her body had grown very cold, a last flush of heat on her cheeks slowly paling.

"I'm here," Rose whispered, clutching at his shirt. "I'm not leaving you. Not now."

As he held her, her fire demon form wavered and vanished, leaving the human Rose in his arms. "I'm just plain me again," she sighed, and a tear rolled down one cheek. Her head lolled back over his arm.

The building rumbled beneath his feet as his fear and anger surged. He held her tighter to him and ran for safety through the scent of hellfire and smoke.

He emerged into the night and ran to the far edge of the parking lot where his brothers and Maggie had gathered. A rumbling behind them had them moving again into the alley.

"Quickly," said Kellan, and waved Gabriel through the hole in the fence. "Get her to Doc Cavanaugh. We'll follow."

"No. Get my clothes, and a coat, a blanket, or something to cover her up," Gabriel ordered. As the others hesitated, he growled. "Now!"

"Blanket, coming up," promised Maggie. She flew through the darkness out of sight.

Justin tossed him a bag. “Your clothes. Well, my clothes, but you’re welcome to them.”

Gabriel held Rose close to his heart, feeling her strength slowly slip away. Fear, unlike any he'd ever known before, set his heart sprinting. He rocked her. "Stay with me, baby. Stay with me. Come on, you can do it."

Maggie came panting up, a blanket in her arms. Once it was spread out on the ground, Gabriel laid Rose down. The others stood guard.

The heat of the day still lingered in the ground. Gabriel called upon the life force deep in the earth, felt his vision shift again. There on Rose's left shoulder, unseen by his demon eyes, a barely-healed vampire bite shone pink and silver in the moonlight. "Don't think, don't think," he said to himself, before fastening his mouth over the same spot on her shoulder. Gabriel heard Maggie gasp and Justin whisper low, but he quickly forgot his audience.

Gabriel breathed the life force of the earth into Rose as it flowed into him, careful not to lose himself. He could taste Mephisto on her, knew that the fire demon had breathed a part of him into Rose to save her life. It grated, but Gabriel found a moment to give the demon grudging thanks. He could taste Satine there, too, but her influence waned as his breath pushed earthly life into Rose.

Finally, she stirred in his arms, her body growing warm again. Not demon hot, just human warm. With a last kiss on her shoulder, he lifted his head and searched her face. "You okay?"

Rose looked up, blinked. "Yeah. I think. Help me stand. We won, right?"

Gabriel grabbed a tee shirt from the bag near him and dropped it over her head. It was long enough to cover her half way down her thighs. "Right. The vamps are toasted. Mephisto is gone and Satine, well. You know better than we do about Satine." He found sweatpants in the bag and pulled them on.

"Satine's ash on my back." Rose sent a wry smile to her friends. "You guys don't know how lucky you are to have family that you can love."

"You sure you can walk? I could carry you."

"I think I'm done being carried. Just don't go too fast, and I'll be fine." Rose stretched her arms over her head. "Man, what a night."

Gabriel turned to his brothers and Maggie. "Thanks, for everything. You guys okay?

"A few scrapes, teeth marks, bruises," and Justin shrugged. "I'll give everyone a check after we get back to the house, do any triage necessary. Maggie, you're coming too.” His voice left her no room for argument.

"Okay." Maggie bent and picked up the blanket, and they all turned and started walking to their cars.

The night still held heat. Gabriel looked up at the stars, dimly glinting in the city sky, one arm wrapped around Rose. "I don't know how to say this."

"Don't talk about leaving. I'm too tired to argue with you, and my heart is too sore right now." Rose rubbed her chest.

"What the hell were you thinking, going inside that place by yourself?" he demanded. He stopped her in the middle of the street and gripped her shoulders. "Didn't we talk about that? Didn't we say we'd go together? You know how things fall apart when we're not together. Damn it, Rose."

"How were you going to get your soul from Satine? Tell me that, big guy," she demanded. "Do not push me around. I've got a good brain. I enjoy using it. So accept me the way I am, because I've gone through more changes than I care to remember in the past few days. I'm done changing. Done."

"How do you think I felt, knowing you were where I couldn't reach you, where I couldn't protect you?" He pulled her into him and held her tightly, his heart hammering hard in his chest. "I can't, I won't live without you. I'm done being alone, because alone? It really sucks."

Astonished, she lifted her head off his chest and stared up at him. "You don't want to leave?"

"I've never been more serious in my life. I don't want you to feel like you have to stay with me just because I changed my mind. And it's not really that I changed my mind, it's that I finally started listening to my heart. Rose, I need you in my life. I love you." He felt her melt into him then, her hands stroking his back. “And I will push you around when it comes to your safety.”

Rose sighed and snuggled closer. "I think I was born loving you, missing you. Needing you."

Her aura grew shiny-golden in the night. Gabriel had never seen anything so beautiful in his life as the ash-covered redhead with the golden glow. "You take my breath away, I love you so." Gabriel thrilled to feel the steady beat of her heart against him. He pressed a hard kiss to the top of her head and leaned back to see her face. "I'm not letting you go, not ever again."

She studied the clear gray of his eyes, saw the love filling him, and her heart sang. "You'd better not. You've given me more than I knew to want. I'll need some time to pay back the favor." She lifted her face for his kiss.

Footsteps pounded down the street toward them. "Ah, good. Welcome to the family, Rose." Justin bent and kissed her cheek before catching Gabriel's eye. "I need some help. Fast. Maggie collapsed before we got to the car. Kellan's with her, but I need you." Urgency pulsed off him.

"I'm there." Gabriel turned to Rose. "I'll carry you."

"No." Laughing, she held her hands up and backed away. "Go on, I'll just walk at a normal pace, thank you. It'll give me a chance to work out the kinks."

Justin zipped off, faster than Rose's eyes could track. His voice floated back to them. "Hurry, Gabriel!"

"They're just around the corner. Half a block." Gabriel took a step forward, not wanting to leave Rose.

"I'll be right there. Go, Maggie needs you." She blew him a kiss, her eyes shining with love.

"I'll hold you to that promise," he growled, having snatched her kiss from the air. Then he was gone, and the wide street empty but for her.

"How things change," she murmured to herself. Deepest night was edging to dawn. A couple more hours and the sun would pour down over her new life. Rose walked slowly, cataloguing everything that had happened in the night.

Mephisto. She would miss him. It was stupid to pretend otherwise. His soul was so badly damaged, and she didn't have it long enough to figure out what to do with it. She could only hope that he'd heal, over time. Though the debt between them had been cancelled out, she still felt she owed him. He'd given her the precious gift of his powers, and she'd known what it was like to be different. Strong. Losing that had been such a shock to her system. She couldn't cope until Gabriel had stepped in, brought her back to life.