Love Beyond Loyalty (17 page)

Rather than giving in to his need to pummel the man, he tried to listen to what was being said. It was fortunate he was all but totally fluent in English because they spoke very fast, and he might have missed things given that his hearing was partially obstructed from his hiding place.

"I'm not a fool, Isabelle. I have existed for millions of years. Before I killed you, I would separate myself from you magically. For me, it's a simple, easy spell that takes no concentration at all now that I have reached my full powers."

"That's nonsense. If you reached your full powers, you would have already enslaved the earth. The fact that you haven't tells me that it's not time yet. That the Outsiders still have the opportunity to defeat you."

Christophe heard the man—if that is what he could be called considering his self-description made him sound like something else entirely—slap the woman. It was loud, and he knew it must hurt like hell.

From the distance, a pounding sounded on a door.

"Ah… your lover arrives with his friend in tow. Much faster than I would have thought. They must be
motivated
." The man dragged the screaming woman down the hall in the opposite direction from the pounding and passed Christophe's hiding place. From his position, Christophe could make out a door opening and closing. Less than a minute later, the man returned alone and passed by the door again going in the other direction.

This time he stopped as he reached the hallway. It looked to Christophe, and he could be wrong but he couldn't think what else it could be, like the man sniffed the air.

"This place is going to stink of Outsiders. Leonardo's not in the vicinity two-minutes and I feel like I'm surrounded by Outsider stink in the hallway with me." The man stomped his feet as he walked away. "I suppose if I can handle Alexa's scent I'll learn to deal with this too."

Christophe heard him walk away, and this time he didn't pause. With the sound of chanting in his ears, not something he could make sense of even if he'd had the time to stop and think about where the noise came from, he moved swiftly through the hall in the direction where it sounded like the creature took the woman.

After he'd walked a few feet, he found himself in front of a door. He tried the door handle and found it wasn't locked. Shrugging at the indolence of the man who had stashed the woman inside, he turned the handle and opened the door.

Behind him, he could hear three men shouting at one another, and he wondered if one of them was Leonardo. It was amazing how much his agenda shifted in just a few hours. When he'd arrived in New York, all he'd wanted was to find the man who probably hollered at the door right now.

Instead, he'd all but fallen immediately in love with a woman named Ruby who taught history and didn't seem to notice him at all. Now, he was God-knew-where trying to rescue a brunette from something that was capable of using dark magic.

Who would have thought it?

The door opened to a wooden staircase. Closing it behind him so as to not draw attention to the fact that he'd gone in at all, he crept down the stairs not even turning on the light. It was dark, almost pitch black, with little to no light making its way through the slits in some windows found in the back of the room.

"Who's there?"

The woman must have heard him approach despite his efforts at quiet.

"Do not be alarmed. My name is Dr. Christophe Roux. I mean you no harm. Through a strange set of circumstances I find myself at this house in a position to help you."

He moved toward the side of the room where her voice sounded.

"I'm Isabelle Listora, and I don't know what these circumstances are but I'm so unbelievably happy to see, well, hear you."

"I need to hurry." He moved fast, finally finding his way to her. Reaching above his head, he turned on a light on the ceiling by pulling a lamp cord. Isabelle was sitting on top of a box.

"I know." She raised her chained hands, which were attached to the ground, and then lifted her legs to show they were also secured. "It's pretty helpless. You're not getting me out of here. He has the keys. But maybe you could still help me. You could call someone. My husband, his name is Kal, he needs to know I'm okay."

"If he is with Leonardo, then they arrived at the door a few minutes ago."

The woman chewed on her lip. "Drat. He won't be any help since he's bound to be captured any second. Can you get out of here and call my friends? Their names are Gabriel Ward and Loraine Peacock." She proceeded to tell him a number to remember.

It was a good thing he'd always had a brain that could store information easily.

"I will call them."

He looked down to see that his hands were starting to disappear.

Isabelle's eyes got huge. "You're vanishing."

"I told you, it's a strange set of circumstances."

Gasping, Isabelle grinned. "You're one of us."

He didn't have time to ask her what she meant by that. He'd be gone any second.

"Where are we?"

"Tell Gabe to come to Sebastian's house. Tell him I'm sorry."

Chapter Thirteen

Gabriel landed gently on the ground and lowered Loraine down so that she stayed pressed to his body. He wasn't ready to let go of her. Wouldn't be able to do that for hours, if he was lucky.

"Where are we?"

"The man who sold me my boat owns this place. He's gone up North to visit his son for three months."

He started to move forward but stopped when Loraine pressed her hands to his chest. "Are you telling me we're going to break into this guy's house to…?"

Grinning, he kissed the end of her nose. "To make love, yes. Come on, he won't mind. He's a buddy of mine."

"Still, how is he going to feel about us breaking in?"

He could have laughed at his soul mate's indignation. Someday, maybe, he'd tell her all about his upbringing and why breaking into a friend's house would be last on his list of lifetime offenses.

For now, however, he could make her feel better. "It's not breaking in. He likes me to occasionally check on things. I have the key."

His statement seemed to temporarily mollify her; although he could see from the way her gaze darted back and forth that she was still nervous and uncomfortable. That wasn't exactly the way he'd pictured making love to her for the first time.

He wondered if he'd already blown the mood so badly that his sexual plans for the evening should be called off. They walked together up the stairs to the house. Gabriel groaned. Frank, his friend whose house he was 'borrowing' for the evening, had reinforced his support beams with the same wood Gabriel had been attempting to use just days earlier when Sebastian tried to drown him.

Now, he didn't have a house, but he had a soul mate. All things considered, he'd come out on top. Still, it might be nice to have his own bed to take her to. Not to mention, he'd like to beat the shit out Sebastian until he was dead.

If that was possible
.

Putting the key in the slot, he pushed open the door. The lights were all off, and he was sure there was nothing in the fridge, but at least it was civilized.

Loraine walked a few steps in front of him. She looked up at the ceiling. Following her gaze, he saw three skylights illuminating the room with moonlight. Gabe could remember putting in the original windows, and then replacing them when they'd started to leak. They were pretty but a pain in the ass.

He noticed Loraine staring at him with one eyebrow raised.

"What?"
Why did she stare at him?

"You were remembering something funny just then, weren't you?"

He nodded. "I was thinking about skylight repair. Why? How did you know?"

"Honestly, you had the strangest expression. I knew you had to be remembering something interesting. Frankly, I had no idea you'd be thinking about house repairs."

Gabe felt his cheeks heat up. "I really like building things with my hands or fixing things that are broken. I always have."

"Wow, you're going to prove to be a useful person to have around, aren't you?"

He rubbed his hands together. "Here's the thing."

He took a deep breath knowing he had to say this, had to get it off his chest before he exploded from the need to do so. "I'm not stupid."

She nodded. "I never thought you were. Have I given you the impression that I thought you were dumb?"

Her tone was, at best, condescending, and, at worst, down right hostile. Wow, he'd bumbled that. It had never been his intention to make her mad.

"No, please, hear me out. Okay?"

Crossing her arms over her chest, she bit down on her lip. "Okay."

"I didn't finish school. The only full year I completed was fifth grade. Otherwise, I went sometimes and other times I didn't, depending on the day, my mood, my situation, Alexa. You get the idea."

Loraine sighed and dropped her defensive pose. She walked forward. "That's not your fault. Someone should have been doing a better job of watching what you did and did not do."

"Un-adopted foster children are not overly protected. At least they weren't back then. Maybe things are better now."

"I doubt it."

He did too. "Anyway, I guess I have a chip on my shoulder about it, and somehow you, being a teacher, get my back up without you having to say a word."

She touched his arm. "Are you under the impression that I somehow judge you based on your education or lack thereof?"

"Maybe I judge myself." He shrugged to cover up just how comfortable the fact that he had to have this conversation made him. "In any case, I just want you to know that I recognize I haven't done everything I should have done. I know we're not exactly on equal footing."

Loraine shoved him—hard. He stumbled backwards due more to his surprise than any real hurt she inflicted. Cocking his head to the side, he had to admit he was stunned.

"You listen to me, Gabriel Ward, and you listen well."

"Ah… okay." Gone was the condescending teacher voice or the patient, understanding lady. The tone Loraine had now was pure fury. Her cheeks were red, her eyes huge. In short, she was pissed.

"This is your issue, not mine. Do you think I'm so incredibly insensitive that I have no idea what you've been through?"

He started to interrupt, but she wouldn't let him. She raised a hand and jabbed in him the chest. "We were all dumped all over the world. I'm still not sure exactly why, but I somehow ended up with a kind elderly woman who told me she was my grandmother and raised me with love and compassion. You ended up in an orphanage responsible for another of our kind even as a baby."

That was true. "Still, the fact remains that at some point you're going to realize I haven't read the same books you have, or that I have a whole slew of knowledge missing from my life."

"If you think I'm going to care that you can't name verbatim the periodic table of elements or tell me what year the Magna Carta was written, you are greatly mistaken. None of that matters." She poked him in the chest again. "What matters is in here. How do you feel about me, Gabriel? Because when I look at you all I see is goodness, light, strength, and ability. Do you see someone who would judge you when you look at me?"

Touching both of her cheeks, he felt a pang of regret form in his stomach caused by the pain he hadn't realized his words would inflict on her. "No, what I see is a beautiful woman who doesn't know all the ways she moves my heart."

She pushed against him, and he wrapped his arms around her in a tight embrace. "Did it ever occur to you that in this fight for the existence of mankind your skill set is going to prove to be more important than the fact that I joined the Cardinal Key Club in college or that once upon a time I took French?"

He laughed. "All right, I'll get over it. I won't bring it up again."

"I don't want you not to bring it up again. I want you not to feel it at all."

"That might take a little bit more time."

She sniffed dramatically. "Fine, I can wait."

"You might be able to, but I can't."

He leaned down and kissed her, amazed at how soft her lips were beneath his. Her curves pressed against him, and he thrilled in the fact that Loraine was soft in all the right places.

She sighed and pulled her mouth back. "I want to feel your skin against mine."

His heart rate sped up. He sputtered more than spoke. "Really? I kind of thought the mood had been ruined a couple of times now."

"No." She shook her head. "You think you can be all turned on out there by that tree and then heat up my blood by making me angry without paying the piper, so to speak?"

Wow, she was really amazing. He grinned from ear to ear then tried to contain it to look a little more sophisticated. Realizing it was futile; he decided Loraine probably wouldn't care if he wasn't smooth in his approach.

"If my girl wants to make love, then that is what we will do."

Picking her up in his arms, he rushed to the bedroom. Swinging open the door with a frantic kick, the door banged against the wall making a large whacking noise. In two steps, he reached the bed and settled Loraine gently on top of it. The bed squeaked like it needed a new mattress, but Gabriel couldn't care less. She was there, looking beautiful, innocent, sexy, and all his. They were alone in the house. They could make as much noise as they wanted to.

He leaned over Loraine, kissing her, pressing his body snugly to hers. Using his elbows, he kept his weight from completely crushing her.

"Skin, Gabriel, I want skin."

He grinned. "Pushy woman."

"I never would have thought I was, but apparently I am."

"Works for me."

They kissed, his tongue dancing with hers, hers thrusting against his, each stroke making him harder. Finally, he sat up on his knees, pulling his shirt over his head. She smiled, her mouth already slightly swollen from their kisses. It appealed to him on a primal level. He'd done that to her, and she'd loved every second of it. When he was done, he would claim more than just her mouth as his own.