Page 70 of The Huntress
“Damn it, Leo. I don’t want to know.” Gabriel arched his back and roared, venting his frustration at the powerless moon. He sucked in sharp breaths, clinging with desperation to the vestiges of his control. “We’re running out of time. I’m barely holding it together. Just find Callie. I give you one more hour before I start bashing down doors and storming cellars.”
“She needs you focused.”
Gabriel grunted. Telling him what Callie needed was futile. He wanted her found, at all costs. “Can you reach Darius yet?”
The question startled Leo, jumping at the change of subject, and he closed his eyes again. “East.”
Gabriel levitated, not waiting. To restore what Leo had taken, he had to feed, but more than this, he couldn’t stand idly by. Hewouldfind Callie. He had to. At least, Leo flew alongside him. Whether he did so out of friendship or a misplaced affection for Callie, Gabriel was grateful. “Can you command the rat to return to her, to bite her? I placed anaetermeon her left inner wrist.”
“You did explain what she needs to do?” Leo nodded at Gabriel’s pointed look. “Of course you did. I can suggest, as I would do with humans. Seems like rat brains work along similar lines.” Leo paused in flight, hovering in place as he compelled the rat to return to Callie.
He opened his eyes with a snap, and shot forward, changing his direction to southeast. Gabriel followed. A surge of hope warmed his chest again, but hunger and weakness overshadowed it. “I need to feed.”
Spotting one of their clubs, Elixir, he descended. He landed in front of the bouncer and entered. The club manager, Lyssa, rushed forward, her clothing leaving nothing to the imagination. He didn’t take the time to note her assets so on display, having seen it all before.
“Lyssa, I need to feed. Now.”
Her eyes widened then without a wasted second, held out her wrist. “I offer freely.”
Gabriel snatched her wrist into his hand and bit down. He drank deeply, then closed her wounds with a flick. “More.” His voice shook, impatience and despair crushing his vocal cords.
“Gabriel? What’s the matter?” Lyssa traced a finger across his chest.
“I don’t have time, Lyssa. Get me more, please.” With his patience gone, his usual civility had been stripped from his words.
What drove him was something far more primal, harkening to the days of old, when vampires were brutal. Much had changed, and humans had stopped fearing them. There were still a few that practiced the old ways, but Syl had done much to absorb many of their members into his Holds.
Lyssa jolted, stared before raising her hand and summoning one of her girls. The young human woman ran up to her, offered her wrist, and mumbled the required words. He bit down on her wrist, drinking deeply before closing the wound. With a nod, he bolted out of Elixir and up into the air where Leo waited. Together, they moved southeast.
Leo drew to a halt to flash a bright smile. The satisfaction that crossed his face forced Gabriel to stop as well. “The rat has found her.” He closed his eyes, and his brow furrowed. “But…”
Fire burst across Gabriel’s wrist, and he gasped, holding his hand up to look at the pulsing orangeaetermesymbol. Unadulterated joy burned through him, with hope blossoming to consume his heart. Tears pressed behind his eyes. He smiled, unable to prevent happiness from curling his lips.
Spinning in a circle, theaetermebrightened and weakened until its pulse was at its strongest. He headed in that direction, focusing on each house or building in the hopes it was the correct one.
He grunted when he spotted Dimitri’spal’tsycrowding the front entrance of an old brownstone. They stood tall, spaced from each other in precise intervals, as formidable as the rumors indicated. Amongst them was a man, one who had red staining Gabriel’s vision, freezing the fire within his chest, hardening his muscles and his jaw.
After landing in the middle of their gathering, he threw the first punch, connecting with Darius’s mouth. His nails extended as he swung again, slashing his face. The beating removed his infuriating smirk, not that this appeased Gabriel. Nothing could soothe the pain, the punishment he’d endured.
“Where is she, Darius?” he asked, his voice low enough to scare the most hardened of vampires.
Thepal’tsyshifted, but they remained in position.
“You are too late.” Darius spat blood from his mouth, as his lacerated skin sealed.
“Too late for what?” Gabriel asked, dreading the answer. Darius was smug, lacking fear as if he’d accomplished what he’d set out to do and his death mattered not.
“To sire her, of course.”
Gabriel wrapped his fingers around Darius’s throat, squeezing, fighting the temptation to end his life. Dark whisperings—long unheard and seductive in their influence—commanded him to kill him.
“Find Callie first,” Leo said. “What does theaetermesay?”
“Aeterme?”Darius growled around the tight fist crushing his esophagus. “How did you come by this? It’s an ancient forgotten magic,” he said. As soon as Gabriel released him, he fell to his knees, gasping and choking.
Gabriel held up his wrist and spun on the spot, striding in the direction of the pulse. She wasn’t in the house thepal’tsyguarded. As he walked away from them, so they followed, dragging Darius with them.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
