Spell Bound (Darkly Enchanted) (57 page)

Gabriel pulled open the sliding door to the warehouse without encountering a challenge and scanned the empty space with his eyes and senses.

When he didn’t find anyone, they ran for the back where a solid steel door was set in the center of a brick wall.

Quinn sighed. “I don’t like going in blind, Gabe.”

Gabriel shook his head. “Me, either. But we don’t have a choice.”

Leo’s small hand pushed at his waist, trying to move him. Gabriel allowed him to get by then watched as the kid pulled at a string around his neck and pulled Shea’s nail, in its shape as a key, from beneath his shirt. With the nail in his hand, he placed both palms on the door and closed his eyes.

“I see four people with guns and I see that other guy,” Leo said. “The one who took Shea.”

Jesus, this kid was a treasure. Gabriel would have given him a hug if he could have spared the time.

“What about Shea, Leo? Where’s Shea?”

It took him a few seconds but Gabriel knew exactly when he found her. Leo started pounding on the door and screaming.

“No! Shea! No!”

* * *

Shea had prepared herself as best she could for this, but she still couldn’t stop the shakes. Her teeth chattered and her hands trembled so badly, she couldn’t hold them together.

For the past few minutes, she and Dario had discussed the process of what was going to happen, what needed to be done, but her brain could only think about Leo and Gabriel.

She wanted to hold her brother one more time. She hadn’t been able to say goodbye in all the mess. And she wanted one last kiss from Gabriel.

She didn’t want to let a mad man stick a blade through her heart so he could mingle his life blood with hers.

But here she stood, her mother’s athame in her hand. Ready to end this. For her parents’ sake. For the women. For Leo.

“And you’re sure this will work?”

Dario stared at her with an expression of childlike curiosity, looking so much like Gabriel, it was starting to give her the creeps.

She forced her spine straighter and nodded. “Yes. It will.” It had to. “Are you afraid?”

Dario chuckled, and the sound sent chills down her spine. “No. I’m not afraid of dying. But if this doesn’t work, I will heal when the knife is removed from my heart. You won’t, will you?”

There was no way she wanted to think about that now. “It will work. And when the curse is broken and you stop your pursuit of my brother and the women, it’ll have been worth it.”

Dario nodded, his expression considering. “You’re a brave girl. You would have been more than a match for my son, I believe.”

Her lip quivered before she could stop it. He was torturing her, the bastard. Why? When everything he’d worked toward for centuries was about to happen?

And it would happen. She truly believed this was the only way to break the curse.

Blood for blood.

Plus, the constant hum of the voices in her head were gone completely. She believed it meant she was doing the right thing. Of course, it also meant her mother had deserted her when she’d needed a good kick in the ass to forge ahead. Didn’t that figure?

She looked straight into Dario’s eyes. “Just get it over with.”

Goddess, please give me the strength. And let Gabriel understand.

She took a deep breath as she handed him the blade.

* * *

Gabriel pushed Leo away from the door so hard the kid fell to the floor. He didn’t have time to apologize. Laying his hands on the solid steel, he shoved with every ounce of physical strength and
arus
he possessed and felt the metal give beneath his hands.

Not enough. The door remained closed.

He growled, a guttural sound of frustration that echoed the roar in his head. He had to get in there. Shea was in there with Dario, and he had to get her out. Nothing else mattered.

He continued to push, but the steel wouldn’t budge.

Damn it, he refused to fail her. It just wasn’t an option.

He threw everything he had at the door, and still couldn’t get it to move.

And then, just when he was about to start wailing on it in sheer frustration, he felt Leo step up beside him and place his hands on the metal next to his.

Adrenaline surged as they blasted the door away from the frame, knocking out two of Dario’s guards in the process.

They rushed into the room—and found Dario sinking a knife into Shea’s chest.

Leo screamed, a high-pitched wail, drawing Dario’s gaze as he pulled the knife from Shea’s body. And Shea crumpled to the ground.

Quinn jumped the two remaining guards as Leo ran for Shea.

Gabriel tackled Dario with a roar.

They hit the floor and rolled. Dario managed to escape from Gabriel’s hold and come up to his feet, but Gabriel didn’t give him time to get set in a fighting stance. He swung out with a roundhouse that caught Dario in the kidneys and made him stagger back a few steps.

Dario shook it off and landed an uppercut to Gabriel’s jaw that made his ears ring and followed with a jab to his eye.

Gabriel felt a snarl twist his mouth as they traded blow for blow with equal skill.

But where Dario was cold and calculating, Gabriel fought with a dark fury. He wanted to flay the man’s skin from his body, make his blood run in rivers.

He wanted him to die.

Gabriel landed blow after blow and absorbed just as many, his fury giving him strength and insulating him from pain.

Blinking sweat and blood from his eyes, he waited for an opening, for the moment Dario would think he had him. He stumbled back slightly, faking a weakness he didn’t feel and baring his teeth when Dario took the bait and followed him.

Dario stepped closer, expecting Gabriel to back away. But Gabriel stepped in, wrapped his foot around Dario’s ankle and pushed, letting them both fall to the ground. Dario tried to twist into the fall, but Gabriel got his hands on Dario’s neck and held him down.

Without a second thought, he grabbed Dario’s chin in one hand and the back of his head with the other and twisted his head until he heard bones crack and felt Dario go limp.

The sickening sound didn’t stop him from throwing Dario into the far wall, where he made a crater in the cinderblock.

“Gabriel!”

Leo called his name, distracting him from going after Dario and ripping the man’s head off. The boy knelt next to Shea, who stared at him with tears in her eyes. He rushed to her side, dread sinking into his stomach at the amount of blood pumping from the wound in her chest.

“You should have let him finish.” Her voice was barely a whisper. “Now it’s all for nothing.”

Shutting off his brain, Gabriel lifted her into his arms as Dario’s men groaned next to their fallen leader. Quinn held them at bay with a fierce stance and a menacing growl.

“Don’t leave me, Shea.” Gabriel heard tears in his voice and wasn’t surprised to realize his face was wet as he ran for the door he’d kicked in only minutes ago, Leo close on his heels. “Just hold on until we can fix you. Please.”

Instead, she slumped against him, her breathing shallow and faint.

By the time they left the building, Quinn had run ahead, shifted back to human form and had the Jeep idling at the door. Leo climbed in the back seat and Gabriel followed, holding Shea. Quinn peeled out before he had the door closed.

She was almost gone. He could feel the life leaking out of her with each beat of her heart.

He looked into Leo’s eyes.

The little boy’s hands shook as he laid them on his sister’s bleeding chest.

Chapter Twenty-
Four

Shea awoke with the knowledge that she was still alive.

She knew because her chest ached…and the voices were back, whispering, taunting.

Failure.

She opened her eyes and stared at a plain white ceiling.

She tried to move but couldn’t, her hands caught in some type of vise, and one strong, warm band anchored her to the bed.

Panicking, she drew in a deep breath and caught his scent.

“Gabriel.”

Her scratchy throat felt like it was lined with hay, her voice barely audible, but Gabriel’s head snapped up from where he’d been resting it on her lap. He had both of her hands in one of his and his other arm wrapped around her waist. It couldn’t have been a comfortable position, but his gaze was sharp and alert when he met hers. Assessing.

She couldn’t hold his gaze for long.

One big hand reached out to feel her forehead then ran the length of her hair, as if petting her. “How do you feel?”

She wanted to curl into him, but that weight on her shoulders was back. Heavier now. She’d failed them all.

“Thirsty,” was the first thing that popped into her head.

He reached for the pitcher on the bedside table, poured water into a glass then held it to her lips for a few sips.

When he withdrew the glass, she moved a few body parts experimentally and found nothing hurt. Even the ache in her chest was fading.

She looked down and found she was naked under the clean white sheet. She appeared to be fine. Only the faintest hint of a scar where Dario had stuck the knife in her chest. She remembered exactly how it felt, the coldness, the sheer agony.

“You let Leo heal me.” She reached for the t-shirt at the foot of the bed and pulled it on, for the first time uncomfortable in her nudity. The huge shirt covered her to her kneed and smelled like him. “Is he alright?”