He didn’t remove the stake from her heart. Clearly, he’d learned from their earlier encounter. “What are you trying to gain by this? You know he’ll kill you when he catches up with you.”
“Yes, but by that time, I will have had you, and you’ll be damaged goods. I’ll have used your body so often and so violently that even he won’t want you back.”
Maya’s blood froze at the venom in his voice. She tried to shake off the feeling of despair that hit her. No, even if Ricky managed to do to her what he threatened, Gabriel would still love her.
Her ears perked up. In the distance she heard glass shattering. Was it Gabriel?
Ricky had heard it too. “Time to go.”
He pushed her ahead of him, the wooden stake now pointing at her back. Which probably meant that he could kill her from that angle too –
he wouldn’t have to plunge it into her chest, because the back would do too.
Maya took in her surroundings and noticed a shovel lying on the ground near one of the plant beds. Somebody had forgotten to put away their tools after their work was done. She honed in on the item as they passed the spot. She concentrated and visualized the shovel rising from the ground, hovering in the air.
A clang against a metal surface broke her concentration. She felt Ricky swivel, then pull hard on her arms. “Bitch!”
She twisted her head and saw that the shovel had hit a railing she hadn’t seen.
“You try that again, I’ll stake you right here.”
She somehow doubted his claim. He’d wanted her for so long, she didn’t believe that he would kill her now when he hadn’t even forced himself on her yet. She figured he’d at least try to rape her. The sick bastard would surely not forgo that perverted pleasure.
Ricky shoved her through the next door. A movement to her left caught her eye and stopped her in her tracks. Ricky bumped into her, and the wooden stake bounced against her back. Instantly she pulled forward, the contact with the wooden implement having sent her heart rate spiking.
She used the momentum to pull against Ricky’s restraining arms.
One of her wrists came free and she twisted herself in a half circle.
Another silent shadow entered her peripheral vision, the figure too small to be Gabriel. Maybe it was just a hallucination.
Her feet suddenly lost tracking and she fell to her side. A shadow leaped over her in the same instant. Somebody had grabbed her feet and made her lose her balance. And it hadn’t been Ricky.
As she found herself once again face down, she rolled quickly.
Grunts behind her alerted her to a fight. She focused her eyes on the two figures. Yvette’s lithe body stood out against Ricky’s muscled one, but what she didn’t match in body mass, she made up for in agility. She dodged every one of his blows and twisted like only a circus performer could.
“Gabriel!” she shouted, trying to alert him to her location.
Hasty footsteps came her way. First, she recognized Zane. She’d never been so relieved in her life to see the bald vampire run toward her.
Behind him another figure emerged: Amaury, and finally Gabriel ran toward her from a path to her left.
As Zane and Amaury launched themselves into the fight with Ricky, Maya jumped up and threw herself into Gabriel’s arms.
“Oh, God, baby, I’m so sorry I couldn’t protect you.” His arms tightened around her.
“You’re here now.”
Turning her head, she saw Amaury and Zane restraining Ricky. In front of him stood Yvette, her feet planted wide, her arms by her side. In one hand she held a stake.
“I should do to you what you tried to have me suffer.” Yvette spat into his face, and Ricky tried to shake her spit off him, to no avail. It ran down his chin unimpeded.
Then Yvette turned her head toward her and Gabriel. “He tied me to the fireplace at that dead nurse’s house and had me wait for the sun.”
Maya felt a shudder go through her at the thought of Ricky’s cruelty.
“Do I have your permission?” Yvette lifted her hand that held the stake so Gabriel could see it.
“Make it quick,” Gabriel answered and turned away, taking Maya with him so she couldn’t see what was happening.
“You’ll be safe now,” he whispered and kissed her.
Thirty-five
The cemetery lay in the dark. Only torches illuminated the area around the grave that had been dug. The coffin that held no body was suspended over it, covered with white calla lilies.
Maya looked at the small assembly. The night before, Samson and Delilah had returned, and she had met them for the first time. She had taken an instant liking to Delilah, the sweet wife of the most powerful vampire in San Francisco. She and Samson had extended their hospitality and asked her and Gabriel to stay until they had decided where to live. She couldn’t have imagined a warmer welcome.
Oliver, Samson’s daytime assistant, a human, stood next to them, his eyes on the ground. He’d lost a good friend in Carl.
Maya glanced at Amaury and the beautiful blonde woman by his side. They made a striking couple, and it seemed in Nina’s presence Amaury was more relaxed and docile than when alone. Despite the fact that Nina was a tall woman, her blood-bonded mate dwarfed her, and she appeared fragile, even though Nina was anything but. The stories the other vampires had told her suggested that she was quite a handful to deal with – and that Amaury enjoyed every second of it.
Maya now also understood the connection between Nina and Eddie.
She was surprised to find out that Eddie was her brother. The family resemblance was certainly evident, but she had not expected one sibling to be a vampire and the other to be human.
