I took my hand away from her mouth. Hesitation washed through me as I watched her eyes glaze over, completely compliant.
“If you have changed your mind, heart, you’ll need to decide now,” Gabriel said.
Olivia got off the bed and stood before me. For a brief moment, I saw myself in her place. Gabriel swallowed hard, and I felt the sensation in my own throat as he recalled me waking up in his room that first time, all the fear in the world inside my eyes.
His guilt and shame encased my heart, and in return, my forgiveness flowed into him, warm and comforting.
Although Olivia appeared calm, it was a lie from my Control. Her heart pounded quickly, and her fingers twitched; she was desperately trying to fight back against the Control, but she was helpless against it.
“I’m sorry,” I told her. “I shouldn’t involve you, but I have no choice. There is someone who needs to die so I can protect the people I love, and so I can protect myself. You are the key to his destruction.”
Olivia blinked at me, her face blank. But her pulse raced, and I could smell her fear. Beads of perspiration dotted her forehead, and her legs were shaking slightly.
“You’re not going to be afraid,” I Controlled her. “It’s going to be ok.”
She nodded at me. Immediately, her heartbeat slowed to a normal pace.
I gently took her hand and led her to the window where Gabriel was. I slipped on the sunglasses he held out to me.
He was trying not to look at her.
“I’m sorry,” I told him as Olivia and I went out the window.
Gabriel followed behind us and closed the window. He kissed my forehead, picked Olivia up, and sprinted toward the woods. Thomas landed silently beside me, and we followed them to the car.
It had only taken three minutes to turn the poor girl’s life completely upside down.
***
I Controlled Olivia to sleep on the ride home.
None of us spoke. Inola’s eyes never left the road, and her grip on the steering wheel looked tight enough to snap the thing in half. Thomas chose to sleep, and I almost wished I had chosen to do the same. Gabriel stared out the window, his hands fists in his lap.
Olivia’s appearance unnerved him, but what bothered him the most was that this brought back all of his guilt from when he’d taken me. If he had the chance to go back in time, he would have approached things differently, but he and I both knew my fate with him was sealed in blood.
I would have been his no matter what.
My predator mode was fading. To appease my guilt, I tried to make Olivia as comfortable as possible even though she was unconscious. I wrapped her in the quilt I had packed for her and rested her head on a pillow against the window.
For most of the ride, I stared at the back of the driver’s seat and counted Gabriel’s heartbeats, each one thudding in perfect time with my own.
When Inola parked the car in the garage back at the coven house, I removed the quilt from Olivia’s body.
“Wake up,” I Controlled softly into her ear.
Her eyes fluttered open.
“Just follow me quietly. Don’t be afraid.”
She actually smiled at me as she nodded. My stomach heaved in response, and I knew much of the reaction stemmed from Gabriel. He loathed Control, and as connected as we were, it was like he was the one Controlling her instead of me.
I took her hand, and we went inside, stopping inside the parlor where half a dozen members of the coven were gathered.
Their bodies tensed when they saw Olivia, and surprise washed over many of their faces. Everyone knew what Lucy looked like; there were paintings of her all throughout the mansion.
“This human is claimed by me,” I said.
Christopher was in the room, and he studied Olivia before nodding. “I think I see exactly what you are up to, Kara. Have you informed Jasmina of this?” he asked.
“Not yet,” I replied. “I’m not breaking any rules. If Elias happens to come here to get her, then we will just have to dispose of him for his many crimes.”
Freesia, the vampire who had come to me in the library and given me the note about Emma, smiled widely. She and June had been best friends.
“Oh, Elias will not be able to resist this. I am assuming he has been keeping tabs on this human?” Freesia asked.
“We are counting on it,” Thomas answered.
Freesia’s fangs snapped out, but Olivia remained calm.
“Let him come. We will be ready for him,” Freesia said.
I nodded and led Olivia to my room.
“This is where you will stay,” I told her. “I will try to make you as comfortable as possible. Are you hungry?”
Olivia looked at me with glazed eyes. Gabriel watched from the doorway, his body stone.
“You may speak now,” I Controlled.
“Yes, I’m hungry.”
“Ok. I’ll have something brought up to you,” I said.
Gabriel disappeared from the doorway to go get the food.
Olivia looked around. “Are these your animals?”
“Yes.”
“May I pet them?”
I smiled. “Sure.”
Olivia helped me feed them after I introduced her to them. She had a purring Denny in her lap when Gabriel came back inside, a tray of Thomas’s homemade tomato soup and garlic bread in his hands.
“You don’t have to stay in here, but I don’t want to leave her alone,” I told him gently.
Gabriel kissed the top of my head before setting the tray down on the table.
“I will stay with you, heart. The more I look at her, the less like Lucy she looks. But . . .”
“She seems very kind like Lucy, doesn’t she?”
Sadness filled our eyes.
Olivia got up and sat down before her food, placing Denny in the chair opposite of her.
“You all are vampires, aren’t you?” Olivia asked, dipping her bread into the soup.
Gabriel sat down on the floor with me. He scratched Millie behind the ear. “Why would you think that?” he asked.
“Well, that woman
