Chapter 18
Gabriel
“How the hell do you know where I live?”
Mateo’s look of astonishment would’ve been something to relish had Gabriel not had more important matters on his mind.
“Nicholas mentioned it.” He brushed past him, picking up Nicholas’s scent in the extravagant apartment.
“Well, what are you doing here?”
“I’m looking for him.”
“I already told you he wasn’t here when you called.”
He had, right before hanging up without offering further details.
“Why are you looking for him anyway? And would you stop snooping around? I didn’t even invite you in.”
Gabriel poked his head into the kitchen, then into the bedroom off the far hall.
“Why wouldn’t I be?” Gabriel asked, returning to the living room. Mateo seemed stumped by the question.
“You asked why I was looking for him, as if I don’t have the right to do so.”
“Do you not know how friendships work? He had plans with me, which means you should be at home waiting for those plans to end like a good boy, not here ruining them.”
Gabriel didn’t have time for Mateo’s jealousy. Nicholas’s scent was at least a few hours old. If something was wrong, it could already be too late.
“He obviously isn’t here, and hasn’t been for a while, so I’m assuming you were the one who ruined those plans. Now, where is he?”
Mateo lifted his chin in defiance.
“Don’t make me repeat myself.”
“If he wanted you to know—”
“He could be in trouble.” Gabriel’s words sent a crack through Mateo’s facade.
“Trouble? What kind of trouble? What have you gotten him into?”
Gabriel’s expression gave nothing away.
“He wasn’t feeling well earlier; was that somehow because of you? What have you been doing to him? Fucking answer me, asshole!”
Something in Gabriel’s gaze sent Mateo back a few steps.
“Lucky for you, I don’t have time to deal with your disrespect, but I will make time if you don’t tell me what I want to know. This could be life or death, and if he dies, you’ll follow right behind him.”
“Are you threat—”
“Where. Is. He?”
Mateo’s sweat glands activated, and Gabriel quietly inhaled. Whether he feared for himself or Nicholas didn’t matter, so long as Gabriel got the answers he sought.
“He’s at the shelter.”
“No, he isn’t.”
“Maybe because he already left.”
“He never arrived.”
Mateo checked his phone, something like guilt clouding his eyes. “He never called,” he whispered to himself. “Did you check his place? St. Michael’s?”
Gabriel strode for the door, realizing Mateo knew even less than he did. He’d already searched everywhere for Nicholas.
“Hey, where are you going? Why don’t you call the cops if you’re so worried? Better yet, I’ll call them.”
Gabriel’s phone vibrated with an incoming text.
Marcus: He’s heading home.
“The police won’t be necessary.”
“Why not?”
Gabriel ignored him, exiting the apartment. Mateo chased after him.
“I said, why not? Was that him who just texted you? Is he okay? Answer me, damn it!”
The stairwell door had just closed behind Gabriel when Mateo’s parting words reached him.
“I should have insisted he keep coming to me. Then he never would’ve met you.”
Gabriel stepped back into the hallway, but Mateo had already turned away.
“What did you say?”
Mateo swung around, clearly startled. “Shit.”
A satisfied gleam replaced his surprise. He either didn’t recognize the warning in Gabriel’s question or he didn’t care.
“Did he not tell you?” His smile turned smug when Gabriel didn’t respond. “I wasn’t going to let some stranger be his first. Eliana’s clients aren’t very patient. They know what they want, and they spend a lot of money to get it. They wouldn’t have made it special for him.”
His tone turned taunting.
“I had him first. I’ve shared something with him that you never will, and now you’ll be reminded of that every time you see my face.”
Gabriel’s cruel smile in response sent Mateo backing up against the apartment door.
“It must hurt, doesn’t it? To know how much of yourself you’ve given to him, and he still doesn’t want you.
It must eat you alive to know you weren’t special enough to keep him coming back for more.
That he’d rather have a stranger fuck him than someone who loved him more than anything.
It could have been anyone, Mateo. I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t have known the difference. ”
Heat rose to Mateo’s tanned skin, and his scent reeked of pain and suffering.
“Fuck you.”
Gabriel took in the damage he’d caused, the way Mateo trembled against the steel door, and decided he’d allow him that parting shot.
“He’ll see right through you,” Mateo called at his back. “And when he does, he won’t choose you.”
That got to Gabriel more than he’d have liked to admit, because the only insecurity he had was whether Nicholas would choose him.
“And you think he’ll choose you?”
“No, but I’ll be here for him. Like I’ve always been.”
Gabriel checked the time before issuing his farewell.
“I’ll make you a promise, Mateo. If Nicholas isn’t okay because of this petty delay, I will kill you.”
That appeared to bring Mateo some pleasure, perhaps proof that Gabriel was exactly who Mateo thought him to be.
“Well, at least I’ll be with him.”
Gabriel’s chuckle held a sinister edge, and the overhead light flickered.
“Is that what you think? That you’ll be in any condition—dead or alive—to follow anyone anywhere?” He drew in close, breathing in the stench of Mateo’s fear. “When I’m through with you, it’ll be as though you never existed. I will strip you of your soul.”
Gabriel struck faster than a provoked snake, clamping a hand over Mateo’s mouth as his fangs punctured the skin at his neck.
It was the immediate release of bane that made the massasu dimae bite painless.
Given enough, their victims would forget, but a completely venomless experience would leave them scarred for life.
Waiting until the bitter end to administer it was considered a cruel and unusual punishment, an absence of mercy.
Mateo thrashed within Gabriel’s hold, his trapped scream shredding his throat. Gabriel drank enough to refuel, but not enough to kill, then he gave him just a hint of his venom. Enough to leave him wondering.
A smokey-eyed feline scratched at Nicholas’s apartment door. The cat darted away at Gabriel’s brisk approach, slipping past the ajar door at the opposite end of the dim hall.
Nicholas was alive, Gabriel knew. He’d weeded through the other occupants in the building to pick up his heartbeat. It was sluggish but steady.
The pungent scent of his heat had reached street level, triggering Gabriel’s chemical response. He locked himself down, retracting his teeth and claws, before forcing his way inside.
He found Nicholas lying in a pool of water and cum, non-responsive, but breathing. Kneeling beside him, Gabriel shrugged out of his jacket and tore the sleeve off his shirt to get to his wrist. He bit into it, teeth scraping against bone.
“Ishrab, Habibi. Drink.” He pressed the mangled flesh against Nicholas’s cool lips, repeating the process twice more, tilting his head back so the blood could slide down his throat unaided.
Footsteps approached, too light to be human. Gabriel crouched over Nicolas’s naked body, hissing in warning.
“It’s me, Sayyidi.”
“Not a step closer.”
Nicholas’s pheromones wouldn’t be as detectable to Marcus as they were to him, but his scent markers were stronger than ever tonight. If another predator got too close, instinct would drive Gabriel to eliminate the threat.
“Is it time?”
Gabriel started up the flow of blood again, listening to Nicholas’s heart, counting the beats per minute.
“No.” His relief was palpable. “My blood will be enough tonight.”
Marcus scented the air, the act making Gabriel’s hackles rise. “He may need more than your blood, Muharib.”
Gabriel didn’t want to acknowledge that, so he didn’t.
“When, then?” his friend asked.
Gabriel wiped the sweat from Nicholas’s brow. He hadn’t yet latched on to him, but some of his color had returned.
“Soon.” His tone was dismal, as he now feared the one thing he’d wanted for so long.
“Go. Ensure everything is ready. We’ll be fine.”
A half hour passed, and although he’d fed Nicholas more blood than he ever had before, he still hadn’t awakened. He’d been about to grab a knife and drain himself dry if that’s what it took, when Nicholas groaned his name.
“Gabriel?” His eyes parted halfway.
“I’m here, my love.” He gathered Nicholas to him. “Sleep,” he whispered. “I’ll take care of you.”
“All I do is sleep,” he complained before drifting off.
Gabriel laid him out on the bed, then filled a large bowl with warm, soapy water. He cleaned him from top to bottom, starting with the dried blood at the corners of his mouth.
He set the sponge and bowl on the nightstand, leaning in to kiss the dark circles under Nicholas’s eyes. A tidal wave of emotion hit Gabriel. He was watching Nicholas die, had been watching him die for weeks.
“The monster is cruel and unforgiving.”
Cruel and unforgiving…
Cruel and unforgiving…
Cruel and unforgiving…
Gabriel stood abruptly, twisting away.
His eyes widened at the bedroom window, and he crept closer, tracing the wingspan of the large butterflies clinging to it. Swallowtails were diurnal creatures who avoided rain at all costs, yet here they were, braving both night and rainfall.
Would he be willing to brave anything for Nicholas, too? More specifically, could he brave losing him? Gabriel glanced over at him, not wanting to answer that question.
Needing something to do, he cleaned up the mess in the kitchen. He’d just tossed the wet napkins and the broken pitcher into the garbage when Marcus’s words came back to haunt him.
“He may need more than your blood, Muharib.”
Cruel and unforgiving…
Nicholas’s hunger would wake him eventually, and this time he’d need more than what ran through Gabriel’s veins, more than Gabriel’s hands and mouth.
It had been the same with Zayn. A deep sleep followed by an urgency to be mounted, just days away from his transition.
Gabriel could hardly remember that time now, could hardly remember anything before Nicholas.
In preparation for what was to come, he ventured into the hallway, slipping into the apartment the cat had vanished into, seeking out the two healthy heartbeats inside.