Gabriel's Hope (#1, Rhyn Eternal) (24 page)

She still felt his hands branding her body. The look he’d given her after she told him she was leaving made more sense. He was jealous. But how could he be jealous, agree to send her away and make out with another woman?

He made her head hurt, and her body ache.

Deidre emerged into the living room and turned around once completely, not expecting the views of the city from the bank of windows along one wall. The apartment was a sprawling penthouse. The floor plan was open and relaxed, with wooden floors giving warmth to cream furniture.

Nothing about this place looked like it was something Gabriel chose. Did he kill someone here recently and decide it was a nice place to keep?

She shook her head. The bedrooms were on the second floor, the master larger than her old apartment.

If she had limitless money, this was a place she’d pick out. Struck by the thought, she checked the dresser for clothing.

Her size. Her style.

This place had been hers. How was that possible, when she recalled living a full life in Indiana before moving to Atlanta? There were tags on most of the clothing, and the styles were from fall. A few months ago.

If the place didn’t feel so much like she designed every detail, she’d freak out. As it was, it was almost familiar. She checked the master bath, half-expecting to find bones in the tub. The round tub was luxurious, and her thoughts turned a different direction.

Deidre ran a hot bath. The main difference between the penthouse and its contents and her own life: she’d never been able to afford anything remotely as expensive or nice. The rich cinnamon-vanilla scent of the bath bubbles filled the air, reminding her of the candle she’d bought at the farmers market the day her life went to hell. She sank into the hot water. For the first time in days, the tension in her body loosened.

Life or Death? Gabriel or …Gabriel?

She groaned. Darkyn was becoming her most promising option. What did he have to gain by curing or killing her? Whatever it was, it wasn’t going to be free. No matter what he said, she’d heard enough about past-Deidre to understand there was much more to their relationship. It probably wasn’t good, which meant Darkyn was going to fuck her over somehow, too.

Just like everyone else. Could he really be much worse?

Chapter Eleven

Several hours after Deidre walked through the portals back to Atlanta, Gabe’s soul radar began working again. He felt the subtle shift and stopped on the stairwell down to the gym. With her taste in his mouth and scent on his skin, he was about to go insane, especially after walking away from her.

He tested the portals to see if his door to the underworld was back. It wasn’t. He crossed through anyway to the soul on the list to be claimed. It was dark where he emerged, but the body was where it should be.

Along with two demons. Gabe’s weapons were out before his second foot was out of the portal. He hacked down one, and the other managed to get in one strike before it, too, fell.

They’d been struggling to beat the demons to the souls, and Gabe stood over the dead demons, furious. How did they beat Death? Granted, Death’s soul radar just kicked in. There was no telling how long this soul was waiting.

“Come on out,” he told the soul, kneeling over the body of a dead human.

The green fog appeared. Gabe had never been so relieved to see it as he was now. He watched the emerald form then placed it in his pocket before returning his attention to the demons.

He searched their bodies to find another twenty souls they’d already claimed. He knew he wasn’t collecting fast enough, but the amount left him horrified to imagine how many he was missing. Disconnected from the underworld, he had no way of knowing.

Gabe shook out the jacket of one demon. Something fell with a clunk to the ground. He tossed the coat and froze.

Soul compass. Gabe swiped it off the ground and studied it. It showed no wear of time. None of his dealers reported one missing, which left two options, neither of them good. He debated which he trusted less: the Ancient Immortal that made the compass or the death-dealers that carried them.

He went to Tamer first.

It was too early for the silver shop to be open. Gabe knocked then took a portal inside, to the foyer he’d walked through last time. He sensed the wards he tripped and waited for the Ancient to appear.

“I wasn’t expecting you,” Tamer called from the third floor balcony.

“I just need a minute,” Gabe replied.

The Immortal sighed and trotted down the stairs. Gabe assessed him. Tamer hadn’t bothered to put on a shirt, appearing as if he’d leapt out of bed the moment the wards alerted him. He wore silk pajama bottoms and was barefoot, his muscular upper body on display. He was irritated but not wary, unarmed and relaxed. Gabe knew without touching his mind that Tamer wasn’t the one who had betrayed him.

“What is it?” Tamer asked.

“This is one of yours?” Gabe asked, holding up the compass.

Tamer took it then handed it back. He nodded immediately, recognizing his own magic.

“Are you numbering or logging them or anything?”

“Nope. Your people are handling all of that. I oversee their creation then seal them. Why?” Tamer’s gaze sharpened. “I know it didn’t break. I’m too damn good at what I do.”

“It works,” Gabe said grimly. “That’s all I needed.” Dread pooled in the base of his stomach for more than one reason. There was a traitor among the fifty-odd death-dealers he had above ground, and he’d assigned twelve-hour shifts to keep an eye on the apartment where he sent Deidre.

“I heard a rumor,” Tamer said. He crossed his arms. “Wynn?”

“He is back,” Gabe confirmed.

“You brought our father from the dead-dead?”

“You can thank my predecessor for that one.”

Tamer appeared conflicted. Gabe suspected he knew why. While not privy to the Council’s business, he assessed the appearance of their father at a time when Rhyn was struggling for control did not bode well for any of them. The Council had been on the verge of splitting for years, severing the effectiveness of their ability to combat Darkyn’s demons.

The three eldest sons on the Council were dead. None of the remaining were old enough to remember how Wynn had run things, and no other Immortal in the human world had been around when Wynn was in control. Gabe distrusted the Ancient father of the Council as much as he did Darkyn.

What happened was outside of Gabe’s official purview. Personally, he wasn’t about to let Wynn hurt any of the people he cared about.

“Thanks,” he said and tucked the compass away. “Send all of these to me from now on.”

“Will do.” Tamer said, distracted. “Hey, you got time to see something?”

“Is it important?”

“No, I wanted to have a fucking tea party.” Tamer started towards the locked door on one side of the foyer, behind which were the historical treasures. “I figured out a few of the symbols on your compass. I’ve been working twenty hour days for you, Gabe.”

“You’re welcome for keeping Rhyn off your back.”

Tamer shot him a look. The Immortal led him down the hallway to a familiar library. A notebook lay on the table next to a few scrolls, an ancient manuscript and another block of stone with carvings too faint for Gabe to read.

“The symbols in the strictest interpretation are largely related to nature,” Tamer started. “Snow, rain, one is a tree stump, another a ravine. Of the twenty symbols, I’ve figured out five.”

He flipped the notebook open to show a neatly sketched diagram of the compass with the ones he’d interpreted highlighted. Gabe took it.

“It seems too easy that these are locations,” he said.

“I thought so, too,” Tamer said. He carefully opened the massive manuscript with a petrified wood cover. “Everything in my library that can be scanned is on a computer. The records I alone can read with my magic are in this hallway, which is a pain in the ass when it comes to searching for things. I have to look by hand.” He muttered. He turned a few of the crisp pages carefully.

“I don’t have much time, Tamer,” Gabe said. “Just summarize what you think it is.”

Tamer straightened. “Bear with me. This will sound crazy,” he said, taking a deep breath. “Measures of a soul’s goodness. I think the compass tells you what kind of soul it is.”

“Interesting. Unless they’re headed to Hell, I don’t need…” He drifted off, mind on the demons. He’d wondered how they were choosing which souls to take and assumed his dealers were beating the demons to some.

What if the demons were choosing which souls they wanted, based on the compass readings? Darkyn was old enough to read the compass.

“Quick notes on what I think I know,” Tamer said, scribbling on a piece of paper. “I’ll keep working on it.”

“Thanks.” Gabe tucked the note in his pocket. “I’ll check in later.”

Tamer gave a salute.

Gabe left him for the lake near Rhyn’s. Rather than dread at what lie ahead of him, he felt nothing but anger. Reaching the lake, he tossed the souls he’d recovered from the demons into it and lingered.

Deidre had knelt near here and unknowingly touched a soul. Her reaction – and what he’d read in her mind – left him unable to deny an uneasy truth. This Deidre and the one he used to know were two different people. Same body, different in every other possible way. This Deidre was everything he’d loved about his ex-lover: her spontaneity, sense of humor, beauty combined with the purest human heart he’d ever known.

She really was perfect. She really was dying a death he couldn’t stop.

Gabe’s fury rose again. He located the nearest death-dealer and approached. The man melted from the shadows, awaiting his orders.

“Mind check,” Gabe told him.

The man bowed his head without hesitation. No sense of nervousness, no indication he had anything to hide. Gabe knew it wasn’t him before he rested his hand on the man’s head. The brief touch filled Gabe’s thoughts with a lifetime of visions. He pushed them aside to rifle through the man’s mind as he sought specific memories and indications the man was a traitor.

He was loyal, if concerned about being trapped on the mortal plane. Gabe dropped his hand.

“Go here on assignment. You are authorized to kill any threats to the woman you’re protecting. Demons are after her. Send the dealer you replace directly to me,” Gabe ordered. He held out his fist. The assassin bumped fists with his, and Gabe conveyed the location of Deidre’s apartment.

The death-dealer obeyed. He called a portal and strode away.

Gabe waited a few minutes for the assassin being replaced to appear. The small woman was one Gabe had known for years.

“Mind check, Cora,” he said.

She, too, bowed her head without hesitation. A quick search yielded nothing, except similar worry to the first man. His death-dealers didn’t doubt him, but they weren’t exactly convinced they’d see their home again.

“Keep this quiet, okay?” he said. “Any issues with your ward?”

“No, Gabriel. You could’ve warned me,” Cora said, grinning. “I almost ran when I saw her.”

“Yeah. That happens to me every time I see her.”

“She’s been exploring the area today. She hasn’t gone far. No demons, a couple of Immortals. I take it Rhyn has an eye on her?”

“He does. Does she seem … well?”

“Distraught mostly.”

Gabe nodded, uncertain if he should be relieved she wasn’t rejoicing to be away from him or worried that she was unhappy. She needed to be unhappy, he reminded himself. He’d done what little he was willing to do to his own mate to keep her upset. And out of his reach, because he was unable to keep the distance between them without her spearheading the effort.

Gabriel was no closer to figuring what to do about the woman meant for him than when he was when he saw her mating tattoo at the bungalow.

“Soul radar?” he asked.

“Broken.”

“Alright. Take up guard here,” he said, moving away. Mind on Deidre and the fact he still didn’t know how to undo what Wynn had done, Gabe went onto the next death-dealer at the lake then the next.

The fifth death-dealer hesitated to submit. Gabe gave him no chance to run or fight but snatched his neck. The man resisted, but Gabe pried his mind open and found part of what he sought: a deal with Darkyn. The death-dealer before him was newer, with less than a few decades in the service of Death. While not surprised past-Death had taken this man to her bed as well, Gabe was surprised he’d folded so quickly to Darkyn’s offer of spying in return for a guaranteed trip to the underworld. He had a handler who passed messages from the demons to him. Unfortunately, the man didn’t know who his handler was.

Gabe snapped his neck. It was a much kinder death than he deserved. He dropped the body and retrieved the soul. He gazed at it in the palm of his hand. He saw past-Death handle traitors but never expected he’d have one in his midst, a few months on the job.

With some regret, Gabe crushed the gem in his hand. It turned to green dust. He dumped it on the ground. Darkyn would see this man again soon in Hell.

“There’s always one,” Wynn said from nearby.

Gabe resisted the urge to behead the Immortal. One day, he’d be able to make love to his mate at will and kill the Ancient that almost killed her. That day wasn’t coming fast enough.