The Embrace (41 page)

“I’m not telling you, because I need to talk to him before you kill him. Besides, I want to be the one to end his life for myself.”

Before Aiden could say another word I shot off towards the nest. My body moved faster than it ever had before. I could tell that Aiden was following me at first but I took a long, drawn out route and eventually he lost track of my location.

I stayed in the courtyard of the apartment block and stared up at the window which I knew led on to our living room. I had stared out of that window on so many nights, trying to find a reason why Gabriel didn’t love me the way I loved him. I guess everything made sense now. He had been able to manipulate me because he never loved me at all. He never had a problem with hurting me because he saw me as nothing more than a pawn.

I was about to confront everything that had troubled me over the past few months. The truth I had been denied was waiting for me just a few feet away. There was always the possibility that Gabriel would kill me as he had Emma. If the story was true then I meant nothing to him. The game was over and now he could destroy me like he had always planned, gaining his final moment of pleasure.

I couldn’t predict who would walk out of the flat in one piece, but all I knew was that the night wouldn’t end without bloodshed. 

I knew I had to be strong. I had ancient, powerful blood racing through my veins and I was fueled by rage and loss. I genuinely believed that if it came down to it I had the power to kill my maker. It would be a sin, and the guilt would be unimaginable, but it would be worth it if it meant protecting my future with Robert and my integrity as a vampire.

I drew in a deep breath. I didn’t need it but it had always comforted me to keep hold of that tiny piece of humanity. I exhaled and strode towards the apartment entrance, ready to face my future head on.

When I reached our apartment
I kicked the door in forcefully, half expecting Gabriel to be waiting in an attack position behind the door. In fact he was sitting casually on the sofa, reading one of his many foreign books. It looked as if it was written in Russian. He must have picked up the language during his trips with the Order. The thought of Gabriel leading a group of sycophant vampires made my blood boil. I was certain now that I had to kill him.

“Next time you choose to wonder off without me I would appreciate a note.” He said in his cold, calculated voice, without even looking up from his book.

I imagined leaping across the room and wrapping my hands around his throat right then and there, tightening my grip until I could tear his head right off his shoulders. I tried to steady myself but it was too late.

“So, when were you planning on finishing everything? You wanted to ‘destroy’ me? When would I be damaged enough for you?” I threw my words at him and he looked up at me in shock. I had been angry with him many times before but never like this. This time I was fuelled by raw hatred and he could see his charade was unraveling around him.

“I don’t know what you mean.” He lied.

“Don’t even pretend you’re innocent. I know what you did to me. I know that you ordered the murder of my family and I know that you turned me so that you could watch me go mad. Is that why you’ve been playing with me these past few months?” I picked up a glass that was lying on the table and threw it at his head, narrowly missing his temple. “Were you trying to drive me insane?”

I picked up a heavy paperweight that was placed on the table. It had belonged to the previous owner and Gabriel had tried to get rid of it but I had urged him to keep it as a decorative item. It felt heavy in my palm, a perfect weapon. I was glad I’d forced him in to keeping it. A smile crept across my lips as I threw the ornament at him, smashing the side of his face.

I felt so proud of myself. I had thrown a few things at Gabriel when I had first been turned but his instincts were usually far too strong for me. I had only ever been able to hurt him once. I silently thanked Robert for convincing me to take his blood.

It was too early to be thinking about that. Gabriel launched himself across the room towards me, throwing me against the wall. I suddenly thought of all our judgemental neighbours, the ones who had looked at me in the hallway and seethed with jealousy. They would be having a field day, pondering over the strange noises emanating from our apartment. If I managed to kill Gabriel then I’d follow that up by killing every single one of those gossipy witches, bathing in their blood as a celebration.

I tried to free myself but my mate pushed me against the wall until my head collided with the surface. Waves of pain throbbed through my temple and I had to squint for a moment, my vision crowded by bright lights.

He leaned forward and nuzzled my neck. I used to love these little gestures but now it felt as if he was tormenting me. There was no ounce of love left between us. The only feeling we shared for one another now was hatred. He was just an obstacle standing in the way of my true happiness, an obstacle I had to destroy.

“I guess the cat’s out of the bag now, sweetheart.” He whispered with a heavy, sensual tinge.

The red curtain descended again. It had once been my enemy, forced upon me by a stranger who later turned out to be Robert, leading to my most reckless kills. Now it was a layer of rage and I knew that embracing it would give me strength. With my renewed purpose, I drove myself forward with all my might, pushing Gabriel backwards.

He fell to the floor with a thud and I sat astride him, pinning him to the ground.

“Why me?” I screamed. My voice didn’t sound anything like it used to. I sounded truly demonic. “Answer me. When were you planning on killing me?”

I raised my fist and hit him in the face. I had never punched anyone in my human life but I could see why some people thrived on fighting. The feeling of my knuckles hitting his flesh sent a wave of pleasure through me. I wanted to hurt him just as badly as he had hurt me.

He wriggled his body underneath mine and finally pulled his arms free. He grabbed my upper arms and pushed me on to the ground, gaining the advantage over me. I tried with all my strength to escape but I could feel Robert’s blood slowly ebbing out of my system. I was losing my power, running on my own need for revenge which would soon weaken under Gabriel’s years of experience.

“Oh, Louisa, you aren’t nearly damaged enough yet.” He shot me a sinister smile and grabbed my hair, slamming my head against the tile floor ike a wrestling move. “I had so many other little tricks I could have played with you.”

He lifted my head and dropped it again. He repeated this motion until my eyelids grew heavy and my whole body weakened. I fought the urge to let myself be knocked out, but it took all of my strength. Gabriel was much older than me and I was beginning to resign myself to losing. All the strength Robert had given me was leaving my body and I had nothing else to rely on.

Eventually I couldn’t fight it and I let myself drift off. It was just as easy as falling asleep, although I could feel the throbbing of a headache and I could faintly make out Gabriel’s figure moving around the room in front of me.

As I let my consciousness drift away, Robert’s image appeared in front of me like a teasing mirage. It felt fitting that if I was going to die, thinking of Robert would be the right way to go.

“Robert” I murmured his name softly to myself, hoping that Gabriel wouldn’t hear. Then finally I surrendered and let my body shut down.

When I woke up I felt an aching in my arms and a throbbing in my head. It took a few seconds for my eyes to focus, and for the full extent of the situation to sink in. I looked upward and found my hands bound at the wrists and tied to the railings. Just a few days earlier Dahlia had been tied to that same spot, a human waiting to die. Now here I was waiting for my own death at the hands of my former mate.

“Glad you could join me, sleeping beauty”

Gabriel’s cold voice pierced through the fog around me. He was sitting on the sofa, his back to me..

I was ready to face him, once and for all. I hadn’t had a long life, human or vampire, but I had found Robert during my months as a vampire and I knew that made me luckier than most.

“Are you going to kill me?” I asked. I thought it was best to be forward.

Gabriel finally came towards me. The look on his face gave me chills. There was such determination in him, no regret or sadness. Clearly the thought of killing me didn’t even worry him.

Something in his hand caught the light shining from the fixtures in the ceiling and caught my eye. Any confidence I had held disappeared from my mind when I worked out what the object was. The glinting prize he was holding was a dagger.

He crouched down to my level and lifted the knife up, staring at it like a magpie enthralled by a shiny object.

“All in good time. I think we have some issues to discuss before we get to that.” He pressed the tip of the dagger with his finger and a tiny drop of blood fell on to the tile floor. “You know if I stabbed you right in the heart this wouldn’t kill you. It’s extraordinary how hard it is to kill a vampire. It would hurt like hell, but it wont kill you.”

He flipped the dagger over, now staring intently at the odd, pointed hilt. I tried to pull at the ropes to see if there was any room for maneouvering but they were tied too tight. I was trapped, waiting to die at my lover’s hands.

“However this end is made of wood. If I stab you in the leg for example, you wont die, but if I stab you in the heart with this wooden end...”

He raised his arm slowly and then, with an almost impossible speed, brought the dagger crashing down towards me. I closed my eyes, expecting to feel the wooden stake plunging through my chest, but all I heard was Gabriel’s taunting cackle.

I opened my eyes and looked down. Gabriel had stopped the dagger barely an inch above my chest. He was teasing me with my impending death, just like he had teased so many of our victims in the past.

“You know I lied about the vampire I was with. I love him and he loves me. We’re going to be together and there’s nothing you can do about it.” I said to him, spitting venom with every word.

Gabriel just chuckled away to himself, ignoring my empty threats. “Next you’ll be saying ‘my boyfriend’s bigger than you. He’s going to get you.’ I expected you to try and talk me out of it but really, this is just pathetic.”

He leaned forward, his face lingering just above mine. He kissed me on the lips, just as he had during our years together. There was no love there but his touch still brought back memories of better times. I remembered everything we had been through, good and bad. I knew now that it was all a lie, but I had spent 8 years believing it. I felt ashamed that I could be so easily taken in by the first creature who looked my way.

He pulled away and touched the blade of the dagger to my breastbone. Slowly and carefully he dragged the blade down my skin, with just enough force to pierce through but not enough to create a deep wound.

I felt searing waves of pain ripple through me as he dragged the blade down my chest. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the wound as the dark blood bubbled to the surface and trickled down my skin.

“We have so many fun things to do before I kill you.” He said, looking intently at the wound with menace in his eyes.

He was going to kill me, so I had no reason to restrain myself. I glared at him and spat in his face. I had never done anything like it before, but it was a perfect expression of how I felt. He was nothing more than dirt to me now.

Gabriel’s eyes narrowed to slits and he wiped the spittle away with the back of his hand. He hadn’t expected it, and I knew he hated surprises, especially if they made him look weak.

“That was a mistake” He was seething with rage, but he had become an expert at keeping his true feelings in check.

Before I could even respond he drove the hilt of the dagger in to the flesh on my calf. The pain was unbearable, more agonising than even the strongest hunger I had felt. I knew what Gabriel meant when he had mentioned the wood’s power over the metal. Although both caused physical pain, the torture inflicted by the stake almost made me feel like I had lost a part of myself. A tiny part of my vampiric nature had been ripped out of me by the roots.

“You know, I’m not really doing anything that isn’t expected of me. Vampires are demons who are created to kill, humans or otherwise. We’re solitary predators, that’s it.” I could tell by Gabriel’s tone of voice that he was gearing up for a lecture.

I had been given lectures by him dozens of times while I was his mate, and I liked them even less now. I almost rolled my eyes, but I had to stop myself. I didn’t want to provoke another outburst while Gabriel still held the stake in his hand.

“You know what actually happens when vampires are created?” I didn’t care, but I had a feeling Gabriel was preparing himself for a lecture. “Our blood is like poison for humans. It flows through the body and destroys the victim from the inside out. Blood is what makes a vampire what they are, so when it mixes with human blood it’s like a battle. Every human element is wiped out and the vampire blood seeps in to your cells. It changes your DNA, makes you something completely different. All of this nonsense about mates and sires, it’s too human. Vampires are meant to live alone. Humans are just there for a meal. Other vampires? They’re just there to make life easier. We use each other and we move on, that’s the way it’s supposed to be.”