“I will love you no matter what. Forever, Kara. There is nothing you could do that would change that. There is no part of you I do not love.”
Gabriel kissed me, sealing his oath with fierce gentleness.
***
Gabriel, Inola, Thomas, and I all piled into Inola’s car and headed to North Carolina.
Inola was not happy about involving Olivia because she knew Olivia’s resemblance to Lucy would cause Gabriel pain, but she wanted Elias dead as much as everyone else, so she didn’t protest.
Thomas didn’t care one way or another, or at least, that was what he’d said. You could never really tell with Thomas—only Inola knew what he truly thought about the situation.
Gabriel, of course, was going along with whatever I wanted.
It made me equally uneasy and euphoric to know I could choose to paint the countryside in blood, and he would stand by me no matter my reasons. His loyalty ran deeper than words could express. He had stopped me from feeding on Jeffery because he’d known it hadn’t been something I’d truly wanted. It had been the blood frenzy.
Had I truly desired to kill Jeffery, Gabriel would have let me.
Gabriel squeezed my hand, confirming my thoughts. He wanted to give me whatever I wanted, as long as I was safe. And what we were doing was the safest method possible when it came to ending Elias’s life; even Elias couldn’t stand up against the entire coven and live.
The trip was long, but it was not boring. There was plenty of adrenaline, chatter, and anticipation.
But sitting so close to Gabriel was hard. I wanted to drink his blood even though I was not thirsty, and I longed to kiss him endlessly.
His half-smile drove me mad. He loved that I wanted him. He had always been able to tell, even when I’d been human.
He made it difficult to keep a civil conversation going with Inola and Thomas. He purposely kept thinking about our intimate moments.
I gritted my teeth and clutched the seat hard enough to leave fingernail imprints. Gabriel merely winked at me. He was thinking about biting my inner thighs and drinking from me until I screamed from the incredible sensation. . . .
“Are we there yet?” I asked, my voice strained.
Gabriel grinned at my distress. His arms crossed over his chest as he relaxed into the seat.
“Ants in your pants?” Thomas asked nonchalantly.
“More like in my head,” I said through clenched teeth.
“Ah, the honeymoon stage. Don’t look so surprised, Red. It is all over your face that you’re trying not to rip into Gabriel’s neck. Remember those days, Inola?”
I saw Inola roll her eyes in the rearview mirror. “I wasn’t aware we had left those days behind yet.”
Thomas gave her a wicked smile. “Indeed we have not.”
Inola looked at me in the mirror. I could tell she was ecstatic that Gabriel and I weren’t fighting anymore.
“You learn to block out the images somewhat, at least enough to concentrate,” she said.
Gabriel switched tactics and used words instead of pictures.
I swallowed hard. “Somehow I doubt that.”
I knew Gabriel was trying to keep my mind off of what was about to happen, but it really wasn’t necessary. My determination far outweighed any doubts.
A few hours later, Inola parked the car on a dirt road a few miles away from Olivia’s house. According to the information we’d procured about her, she shared the place with her roommate from college.
“We have an hour of night left, people. Let’s not waste it,” Thomas said, handing me a pair of sunglasses.
I slipped the sunglasses on. Gabriel put his on as well, and he nodded at me.
Thomas kissed Inola on the cheek. “Want me to stay with the getaway car instead?” Thomas teased.
“I am fine where I am, thank you,” Inola said out loud for our benefit. Then she and Thomas stared at one another, and I knew words were being passed between them inside their minds. Thomas kissed her again and got out of the car. Gabriel and I followed.
We ran through the woods like wraiths, coming out of the trees and into the backyard of Olivia’s property.
Thomas ran ahead of us and disappeared. He emerged silently on top of the roof and took in the surroundings. After a minute, he signaled that no one was lurking around.
Gabriel and I went to the one of the windows. He pried it open easily, but noisily. I cringed at the grating sounds echoing throughout the air.
“I am sorry. I did it as quietly as possible,” he said.
We listened for noise coming from the house. There were two things breathing inside, one too small to be human. The human stirred, shifting in bed, possibly waking.
“It’s now or never. Get in there and get out,” Thomas commanded quietly from the rooftop.
I slipped inside the house, Gabriel right behind me.
“Let’s hope she’s not on the night shift. There was only one car in the driveway,” I said inside our minds as I looked around.
I was wary of the animal being a dog, but instead, gleaming cat eyes stared at us from on top of a coffee table. It hissed. I hissed back, baring my fangs. It ran behind the couch, its hair standing on end.
Gabriel peered through a cracked door leading to one of the bedrooms. Through his eyes, I saw that no one was in there. I went to the room next to it and tried the doorknob. It was locked.
“It will wake her, so you’ll have to be quick,” Gabriel said. “Do you want me to do it?”
He already knew my answer. I took off my sunglasses and handed them to him before I kicked the door open.
The woman sat up in the bed and opened her mouth to scream, but barely a sound came out as I ran to her and covered her mouth with my hand. Everything had happened so fast, but my perfect senses didn’t lie. It was Olivia in the bed, not the roommate.
“Be quiet,” I Controlled. “Do
