Temptation, Chronicles of the Fallen, Book 3 (12 page)

Maggie slowly opened her eyes.

“Rest, little one,” Mikhail said, his voice strained. “You are safe now.”

Maggie blinked. She took in Mikhail’s scarred visage and then Gideon’s wretched, miserable countenance. She looked back to Mikhail.

“You healed me,” she said, her gaze steady. “I could feel you…touching me…from the inside out.”

“I am sorry, it could not be helped,” Mikhail whispered. As if he’d done something to be ashamed of.

The room fell silent as all attention turned to the hushed exchange between Maggie and Mikhail.

Maggie reached out a trembling hand, doing what no one had ever dared to do. She laid a gentle hand against Mikhail’s scarred cheek, and looked deeply into his eyes. “I do not know your name.”

Gideon held utterly still, awash in an unexpected wave of tranquility. Power pulsed around Maggie, stronger than he’d ever noticed before.

“Mikhail,” the demon beside him replied, a confounded expression on his face.

“Mikhail.” She repeated his name. That strange peace filling the air intensified. Gideon glanced around to see if anyone else sensed this enthralling power seeping from Maggie. Niklas and Carly, as well as Mikhail himself, seemed…mesmerized. “Thank you, my friend. You are a gift I will cherish.”

Slowly, she released Mikhail. He pushed to his feet, blinking as if in a daze. He stared down at her, long and hard. At length, he nodded curtly, and then disappeared in a shimmer trail. Maggie turned to Gideon. She reached out, only to draw her hand back at the last moment.

Self-loathing filled him. Whereas she’d been ready to throw herself into his arms before, now she obviously couldn’t stand the thought of touching him.

“This wasn’t your fault, Gideon.” A fleeting grimace twisted her lips as she tried to push herself up, only to fall back. “Don’t…please, Gideon, don’t blame yourself.”

“Lie still.” Gideon circumspectly blanked his expression and pushed to his feet. “Get some rest. Don’t undo all Mikhail’s hard work.”

Turning, studiously avoiding eye contact with Niklas and Carly, Gideon walked out of the room.

Chapter Ten

Gideon stood at the sink, his arms splayed, his palms braced on the counter, his head bowed.

How badly he wanted to shimmer away, anywhere but here. And he very nearly had, only catching himself at the last second, remembering that Maggie would go with him. And she sure as hell wasn’t ready for that. Not after what he’d just put her through.

“Let me,” Carly whispered near the doorway to the kitchen. The quiet rumble of Niklas’s reply and Carly’s soft murmur of reassurance pricked at his frayed nerves. A few moments later, the muted sound of footsteps crossed the linoleum.

Carly came to a stop close beside him. An icy sensation wafted over the skin on the back of his hand. He flinched and stared down at where their hands should have connected. Torment though it was, he savored the feel of ghostly cold, misty sensation on his skin where she held her hand, carefully suspended, over his.

“Oh Gideon,” she whispered.

“Don’t. Just don’t,” he said, whirling away from her, his hand ghosting through hers as he moved. “I could have killed her. Don’t pity the monster, darlin’. I don’t deserve it.”

He was a damned fool. How could he think, for one moment, that Maggie was safe around him? As long as he didn’t change. As long as he kept the monster inside leashed.

But he’d been stupid to pretend. He knew better. You didn’t leash the monster, you placated it. Tiptoed around it. Did everything in your power to keep it happy. Because just one slip, one mistake, and the monster came out of hiding and bit you in the ass.

He sensed Niklas’s presence in the doorway. Didn’t blame him one bit for hovering protectively over his woman. After all, one never knew when the monster might snap.

“Niklas,” he said, turning to his friend. “I know it’s dangerous, but you have to let Maggie stay with you and Carly.” God, did he sound as desperate as he thought he did?

“Her place isn’t with us,” Carly said as Niklas crossed to stand beside her. She nestled into the shelter of Niklas’s arms as if she’d been born for no other reason.

He watched as Niklas dropped a kiss to the side of her forehead. Icy blue eyes turned his way. “Carly’s right. The best place for Maggie is with you.”

“How can you say that?” Gideon exploded. Raking two hands through his hair, he gestured wildly toward Sebastian’s living room as their betrayal knifed at him. “Didn’t you see what I did to her? She’s lucky to be alive! If Mikhail hadn’t been able to—” He choked on the words, unable to even think about what might have happened without Mikhail’s healing touch.

Niklas stiffened. Indecision etched his face; his doubt had returned. But Carly patted her hand comfortingly over Niklas’s forearms where they crossed over her stomach. And Niklas visibly relaxed.

Why couldn’t he have had that, just once, with Maggie?

“Maggie is going to be fine, Gideon.” Carly smiled at him the way a woman did when she was convinced she was right and there was nothing you can say or do to change her mind. “But she needs you now. And you need her.”

“She needs me like she needs another hole in the head,” he scoffed, his anger building. Why couldn’t they see how dangerous he was to her?

“You care about her,” Carly said softly.

Giving up on reasoning with her, he turned a pleading gaze on Niklas. “I care about Carly too. Are you willing to leave her in my care?”

“I have before,” Niklas pointed out. The bastard was just all kinds of unhelpful today.

Growling low in his throat, Gideon gripped the back of a kitchen chair. He picked it up and slammed it down. “That was different.”

“How?” Niklas countered.

“I’m not half in love with Carly,” Gideon blurted before he realized what he was saying. Niklas’s lips parted and his eyebrows went up. Carly’s smile widened and her eyes sparkled.

Damn it!

“No, I’d say you’re more than halfway in love with Maggie, Gideon,” Carly said. “I’d say you’re all the way there.”

“Christ on a crutch, Carly! Don’t! Just don’t go there,” Gideon pleaded. He conjured a cup of coffee only to set it aside without taking a sip. He paced to the door leading outside but couldn’t leave.

Angry, he stomped back, then strode to the living room as if drawn by a magnet just to make sure she was still there, still breathing, still alive. She lay on the sofa, right where he’d left her, her chest gently rising and falling. He wanted to crawl out of his skin. Wanted to claw it from his body. Wanted to pull his hair from his head. Why couldn’t they understand?

He came to a stop beside the sink once more, dimly aware that Carly had followed, Niklas close on her heels. He sure as hell didn’t trust himself around Carly, let alone Maggie. Niklas damned well shouldn’t either.

“Gideon, stop beating yourself up over this. It was an accident. I’m sure Maggie feels the same. You already heard her say so,” Carly reminded him.

“Please, Niklas.” Gideon beseeched his friend. “Take her with you. Away from me. Keep her safe. Please.”

He reached for the key around his neck when it looked as if Niklas was waffling. He’d solve the problem for them. He’d take the damned cuff off and leave. He’d go straight to a nest and end this once and for all. Then they’d be forced to watch over Maggie. And she’d be safe from him.

His fingers scraped over bare flesh. Gideon grasped both hands at his throat, patting desperately where his necklace should have been.

“What the hell!” he exclaimed. “It’s gone!”

“What’s the matter?” Carly reached out in alarm to grab his arm, her hand ghosting right through him. “What’s gone?”

“The key! The key to the cuffs binding us together. Without the key, the cuffs won’t come off. Without the key, I can’t shimmer without taking Maggie with me whether she wants to go or not. Without the key, I can’t—”

Without the key, he couldn’t seek Oblivion. Who knew what would happen if he died while still bound to her by the cuffs. Would she die too?

Would she be dragged to Oblivion right along with him?

His blood ran cold just at the thought.

“Where could it have—” The memory of silver glinting in Mortikaï’s fist flashed through his mind.

Sweet Jesus. Mortikaï has the key!

Maggie would never be safe now.

Panic made it difficult to breathe. Adrenaline spurted through his system. His easy out was gone. His torment would never end.

Carly regarded him through shrewd eyes. “This is about more than the cuffs binding you together, isn’t it? And more than your fear of hurting her again.”

Gideon stepped back, rounded the table, putting more space between him and the couple. More space between him and reality. His back was to the living room as he faced them, as if he could shield Maggie from Carly’s words. Shield her from the awful truth. He was a freak that could never touch her. But he’d fallen in love with her, and would probably kill anyone else that tried to touch her. God, he was a sick joke.

“Sugar, you don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said, striving to inject scorn into his tone.

“That’s exactly it,” Carly argued, undaunted. “This is about your curse, isn’t it?”

Something in him snapped.

“Could you imagine living every day with Niklas, and not being able to touch him?” Gideon finally let the dam break, not caring that his words were intentionally cruel. “Being close enough to smell him, feel his heat, hear his heartbeat, and never be able to feel his skin? Never be able to hold him, or kiss him, or make love to him? It’s like that for me, every second that I’m with her. How could you rub that salt in my wounds? How could you expect me to continue to live with that kind of torment?”

Carly took a step toward him, her hand going to her throat as understanding dawned. “Oh, Gideon. I didn’t mean to—I’m so sorry.”

Great, now it looked as if she were going to burst into tears. He was just batting zero for a thousand here.

“We’ll figure out something.” Shaking her head, Carly set her features in determination, even as she grew more distraught. “We’ll break the curse, somehow. We’ll find a way around it. We have to be able to do something. You mustn’t give up. We can—”

“Shhh,” Niklas said softly, drawing her back into his arms to comfort her. His gaze locked on Gideon, he pressed a gentle kiss to the side of his woman’s forehead. “We’ve been searching for almost two hundred years, Carly. Mikhail, Sebastian, Xander and I. For a while we thought there might be a chalice in Tibet…but it was just a legend with no substance. There’s no way to counter the curse.”

Gideon blinked in surprise at Niklas. He remembered Mikhail spending time in Tibet, but thought he’d been doing penance. He recalled the way the big warrior had come back looking so defeated. Mikhail had avoided Gideon for months after that. Gideon had never been able to figure out why. Had Mikhail blamed himself somehow? Felt he’d let his brother down?

This wasn’t their fault, none of was. No one deserved the blame here but him.

That his brothers had been searching on his behalf…that they’d been so careful not to let him know, so vigilant not to get his hopes up… He was humbled.

“We will break this curse, Gideon,” Carly stated again, her tone brooking no argument. “Don’t you give up, Gideon. Do you hear me? Don’t you quit on us. I won’t let you choose Oblivion. So just get that idea out of your head right now.”

“What are you talking about, Carly?” Niklas asked. Now that the cat was out of the bag and it was too late to stuff it back in.

“Damn it,” she huffed, anger pinkening her cheeks. “I’m sorry, Gideon. I didn’t mean to—”

“I never told you that,” Gideon hissed. How had she figured it out?

“I know you,” Carly whispered. “You’re like a brother to me. I. Know. You.”

Gideon stared at her a long moment. Touched and betrayed. Filled with love and torn asunder. He couldn’t deal with the emotions flooding him anymore. Spinning away, intent on getting the hell as far away as he could without shimmering, he drew up short.

Maggie stood in the doorway, clutching the frame for support. Her face was pale, and set in a scowl as she regarded him.

“What is she talking about, Gideon? What curse?”

Shooting an angry glance over his shoulder, he felt his world crashing around him. Carly stared back, clearly puzzled.

“She doesn’t know?” Carly shook her head. “How can she not know?”

“Because I’ve been careful to never touch her.”

Misery flickered across Carly’s features. “Oh Gideon. I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t.” Gideon held his arm up and pointed at Carly. “Don’t you apologize again. And don’t you feel sorry for me anymore. No more pity. I can’t take it.”

“Gideon, what’s going on? What curse is she talking about? And what did you mean? Why have you been so careful not to touch me? I thought it was me. I thought you just didn’t…” Her voice trailed away, and her face filled with confusion and doubt.

Gideon clenched his teeth, feeling as if all the air had been sucked out of the room. He stared hard at her face, committing to memory the last time she would look at him without the pity that was sure to come.

When he remained silent, Niklas finally spoke up. “No one can touch Gideon, Maggie. Shortly before we rebelled against his reign, Lucifer cursed Gideon to never again know physical touch…except for when he’s in demon form. And then…well, you saw what happens when he’s in demon form. He doesn’t recognize friend from foe.”

Maggie was frowning now. She looked back and forth between the three of them in obvious disbelief. “You’re trying to tell me no one can touch him? That no one has touched him in how long?” Shaking her head, she crossed her arms, as if offended somehow.

“Two hundred years. No one can touch him, Maggie,” Carly assured her gently. “Whenever I try, my hand goes right through him. Like he’s a ghost. Or I am. I’m not sure which.”

“You’re wrong,” Maggie insisted, shaking her head.

“Jesus, Maggie, I swear you argue just for the sake of arguing,” Gideon snapped, frustrated and humiliated beyond endurance. “Carly and Niklas are telling the truth. No one can touch me, and I can’t touch anyone else. Not without being in demon form.”

Frowning now, still shaking her head, Maggie wouldn’t let it go. “Why are you trying to convince me of this nonsense?”

“Because it’s true.”

“No, it’s not.”

“Damn it. Just let it go, Maggie. I’m not—”

Gideon froze as she marched across the room, preparing himself for that nightmare moment when she would reach out and her hand would pass right through him.

Maggie lifted her arm and cupped his cheek, just as she had Mikhail’s earlier. Flesh to solid flesh.