“How can I not? Because of me, my two friends are dead.” A sob tore from her chest.
“Your two friends?” A terrible sense of unease rolled over Gabriel.
Maya turned, her eyes wet with tears. “Paulette is dead. I found her – it was him. He killed her.”
He pulled her into his arms and held her. “I’m so sorry, baby. I wish I could undo it.”
She pushed against him, freeing herself from his embrace. “He wrote it in her blood. It’s your fault Maya.”
Gabriel shivered at the thought of Maya seeing her friend’s dead body, her blood.
“I should have warned Barbara,” she continued blaming herself, “I knew Paulette was dead when I spoke to Barbara.”
He took her chin and made her look at him. “You spoke to her.
What did she tell you?”
“I didn’t get a chance to ask her about him. She was called to a Code Blue. I should have never let her go. I should have insisted.”
“It’s not your fault. He killed her because she knew what he looked like. It’s my fault. We should have brought your friends in immediately.
I should have known it wasn’t safe for them.” Gabriel cursed himself for his bad planning. Two lives could have been saved if he’d only thought things through. But when it came to Maya, he never thought things through properly. He was too distracted when it came to her.
“She’s still in her house. He hung her on a hook on her bedroom door, like she was some kind of disposable thing. And I didn’t even have the guts to take her down and give her some dignity. I just ran.”
Gabriel stroked softly over her hair and pulled her back into his arms. She buried her head in his chest, her tears soaking his shirt. “I’ll send someone to Paulette’s house.”
Without releasing Maya, he pulled out his cell and speed dialed Yvette’s number. She answered immediately.
“Yvette, I need you to take care of something for me. I want you and Ricky to go to Paulette’s house. She’s Maya’s other friend. She’s dead too.”
“Oh, fuck,” was Yvette’s response.
“Yeah, I know. Comb the place for any evidence. Ricky has the address – he was supposed to find her and find out what she knew about Maya’s stalker. I guess it’s too late for that now.”
“I’m on it.”
He terminated the call. Then he turned back to Maya and gave her a long look. “Maya, I know what happened to your friends is painful for you, and I wish I could give you some time to grieve, but we don’t have that time. To keep you safe, I have to be sure that you trust me one hundred percent, and I know you don’t right now.”
She pushed away from him. “I can’t do this, Gabriel. I can’t think of myself when I know that my friends are dead because of me.”
“You have to stop saying that. It’s what he wants you to believe. He wants to break your spirit, and I won’t allow that. Do you hear me?” He cupped her shoulders and shook her gently. “We will avenge your friends. He will pay for their deaths. I promise you that.”
“I don’t want to talk right now. Not to you.”
“Then don’t. Just listen to me. What you saw in my bedroom wasn’t what you thought it was.”
Maya tried to pull away from his grip, but he held firm. She would have to listen to him. He needed her trust to keep her safe. And he was prepared to gain that trust even if it meant laying himself bare.
“The woman you saw wasn’t giving me a blowjob. There was nothing sexual about it. She’s a healer.” He paused to give her time to process what he’d said.
Her defiant look finally turned to reluctant curiosity. “What kind of healer?”
“She’s a witch, and I have a problem nobody has been able to solve.
But she thinks she can.”
Maya’s gaze dropped to his jeans. “What kind of problem?”
Gabriel cleared his throat. There was really no easy way to say this.
How should he phrase it? “It’s a physical thing.” He knew that didn’t explain it, so he tried again. “It has to do with my …” He broke off again. This wasn’t easy at all. How had he ever thought he could come clean and tell her what ailed him when he was scared shitless that she’d leave him if she found out?
“Gabriel. If it’s something physical, you can tell me. I’m a urologist.
I deal with men’s reproductive organs all the time.”
Gabriel cringed, but still couldn’t open his mouth.
Maya put her hand on the front of his jeans and jerked at the button.
“Well, if you can’t tell me about it, then I’ll have to examine you.”
That jolted him. He imprisoned her hand with his, preventing her from opening his pants. “I don’t want you to see it.”
She pulled her hand out of his and stepped back. “Okay, Gabriel.
Here’s the deal: if you can’t tell me what the problem is, I’m just going to have to believe my first assumption is right, and that you cheated on me. In any case, I’ll remain hopping mad at you, and as soon as all this is over, I’ll be out of your life. Is that what you want?”
“No!” The word came out so fast and furious, he surprised himself.
He would not allow her to leave him. He needed her. She was his mate.
And besides, had she already forgotten that all she drank was his blood?
She would starve without him.
“Fine.” With shaking hands, he opened the button of his jeans. “It’s tormented me. Caused women to recoil from me my whole life. I’ve had this even before I became a vampire. Nothing I’ve tried to get rid of it has worked.”
Gabriel searched her eyes before he continued, “Maya, I want you to know no matter what happens or what you might think of me when you see this, I love you. I had hoped the
