Authors: Amber Hughey
He shook his head again and looked at her out of the corner of his eye. “Not exactly.”
She gave an exasperated sigh and slouched in her seat the best she could.
He laughed at her expression as he elaborated. “If you ever get married, you’ll marry into a family with an already established scent. You’ll either combine their scent with your own, or you’ll adopt their scent as your own.”
“So it’s a type of signature,” she mused, running a hand over a healing bruise on her leg. Probably from one of the many furniture pieces she’d stumbled into.
“Yeah. I think it’s the angelus version of a human’s family herald. At least, it’s the closet comparison,” Gabriel replied.
After another long bout of silence, surrounded only by the trees whizzing past, they arrived at Owen and Vicki’s mansion.
Amalia stood at the front of the house, near the door, where Owen and Vicki faced them. She stared at her former friends, wings hanging heavy off her shoulders.
Vicki gave her a pitying look. “So, you’re one of us.”
Amalia gave her a considering look. “You could say that,” unwilling to share that she wasn’t a solan like Vicki and Owen.
“What do you want?” Owen snapped as he crossed his arms defiantly.
Gabriel stood behind Amalia on the bottom step, staring at Owen through narrowed eyes. He rocked back on his heals before fingering the letter in his pocket. “I have some questions for you to answer.”
“So?” Owen snapped, body tight with outrage and anger.
Gabriel straightened. “As an Enforcer, I recommend you answer my questions truthfully.”
“Or what?” Vicki’s question was almost too soft for even Amalia’s new-found intense hearing to pick up.
Gabriel looked at the pale blond and stepped up next to Amalia. “Or you’ll be charged and tried as a conspirator to the crime.”
“What crime?” Owen said harshly, brushing a hand through his thin blond hair.
“Murdering multiple angelus. Kidnapping. Those are just the two major ones. I’m sure I can find some others to charge you with as well,” Gabriel said blithely, staring at Vicki’s slack face as she realized just how serious he was.
Owen straightened. “Then ask.” An unspoken ‘and leave’ hung in the air
Gabriel smiled coldly. “Let’s go inside. It’s chilly out here,” he said, snowflakes landing on his black coat, melting into sparkles of water. The sun was hidden behind the trees, and dusk was well underway.
Owen frowned and gestured to Vicki. When all four were seated in the small sunroom, twilight had left. The moon’s barest sliver shone through the glass, and the stars sparkled through the leaves.
“What’s this about?” Vicki asked, folding her hands demurely in her lap, pressing them down as she forced herself not to reach for Owen.
“Explain this,” Gabriel said as he handed the letter to Vicki.
As she read it, her face paled, turning an almost translucent white. She turned to her husband and held out the letter with trembling hands. “Owen, what’s this about?”
Owen gave her a patronizing smile before taking the letter. As he read it, all emotion left his
face. He set the letter down on the small table between the two couples and crossed his legs after leaning on the arm of the chaise.
“What do you want?” Owen said, eyes narrowed at Gabriel.
“The truth,” Gabriel said simply. “Where you funding this?”
Owen thought about the answer before nodding. “Yes. I was funding it.”
“Were you involved other than the funding?”
Owen emphatically shook his head. “Absolutely not. I provided the funds. I gave the researchers free rein over how to give me the results I required.”
“You provided no rules? Just money?”
Owen stared at Gabriel, an arrogant look crossing his pale features. “No. I gave them the money, and told them I expected results with how much I was giving. And you can see, I got results.”
“At the cost of multiple human lives,” Amalia snapped. She leaned forward, trying to escape the burden of her wings.
“Humans are fodder. You’re a dead end. It matters not if it costs a million humans if it saves one angelus,” Owen snapped.
Gabriel raised his head and stared at him. “You did this to save Aleks’s sister.”
Owen smiled coldly. “No. That’s a byproduct. A way to get a good researcher to use methods he wouldn’t ordinarily use.”
“Then why? Why throw thousands into this research?” Amalia asked, staring at Vicki.
“I have personal reasons,” Owen said, avoiding the question as he turned his attention back to Gabriel.
“What personal reasons?” Gabriel asked icily, frosty gray eyes boring into Owen’s mind.
Owen swallowed hard and attempted to return Gabriel’s stare. Failing that, he responded with an inelegant motion of his shoulders. “It’s in the name of research. That’s all.”
Gabriel narrowed his eyes and stood. He walked to Vicki and leaned down. Breathing deeply, he found what he was looking for and stood. He stood over Owen, a looming shadow over the pasty solan.
Amalia gave him a questioning look, then turned her gaze back on Owen.
“She’s umbren,” Gabriel said flatly, staring down at Owen.
“No, I’m not,” Vicki said hurriedly, stealing a glance at Owen before lowering her gaze back to her hands.
“Yes, you are,” Gabriel replied, sitting back next to Amalia. “You smell umbren. He,” he said, motioning at Owen, “smells solan. Big difference.”
“So, he’s trying to what…change her back into a human? Why?” Amalia asked, confused, but knowing he was the cause of all the strife.
“Because she was supposed to be solan,” Owen snapped, losing his temper. He quickly rose and faced Gabriel. “She wasn’t supposed to be a damn umbren. I didn’t know she had an umbren in her genes. If I’d known – “ he cut himself off as he glanced down at Vicki and saw tears rolling down her pale cheeks. He tightened his jaw and continued, “She has an umbren and solan in the same generation. I missed the umbren in my research. Human turned umbren, actually.”
“So, what, change her human then back to angelus?” Amalia surmised, nodding when he gave her a brief nod. It was all due to his vanity. His damn status. “So that’s why the research, but why the kidnappings? Why the murders?”
“I had nothing to do with them,” he proclaimed again, cheeks growing red with anger. “I gave them the funds to do the research. That. Was. All.”
“And from spending that much money, you’d reap the rewards. Change Vicki into what you wanted her to be. What she was ‘supposed’ to be,” Gabriel finished.
Owen nodded and breathed heavily, trying to calm himself. “I had nothing to do with anything but funding it. I mailed the checks and received only
brief reports about the research. Nothing with how it was being done. Who it was being done by. If I’d known about it –“
“I’d kill myself,” Vicki said, slowly standing. Staring at her husband, Amalia saw the fire that she’d known Vicki had years earlier. “Me being the ‘right’ species isn’t worth the lives that have been lost. Not even close. And Sam…Especially with Sam. Sam is all right, isn’t she?” Amalia heard the pleading tone in her voice, in her eyes.
Amalia nodded, offering Vicki a comforting smile at the mix of emotions that flowed across her face. “She’s solan, but she’s all right. Probably a bit mentally scarred. Who wouldn’t need therapy after that, though? But, she’s going to be all right. I’ll make sure of it.”
Vicki nodded sharply. Turning to Owen, she said, “You haven’t heard from Aleksandre, have you?”
He shook his head, the fine, pale hair whirling around his head like a pale halo. “No. I haven’t heard anything for several days. Almost a week, actually.”
“If you hear from him, or anyone, I need to know. I don’t think you will. I don’t think anyone will,” Gabriel said as he helped Amalia stand.
“If I do, I’ll contact you, Enforcer,” Owen said sharply, silently announcing that the interrogation
was over by crossing his arms and glaring, looking for all the world like a thundering dance instructor.
Gabriel returned the nod and escorted Amalia back to the Aston, once again helping her to slide in the leather seat without hurting her wings.
After getting herself comfortable, she turned to Gabriel. “You believe him?”
He nodded and started the purring engine before answering. “Yeah, I do. He knows that if I catch him lying, that I’ll execute him.”
She raised an eyebrow and turned to look out her window. “Do you do that a lot?”
“Executions?” He saw her nod, and then finished, “No. Not that often. But for a crime like this, it warrants execution. Usually, it’s things like community service, fines, working off the debt by working for the person you’ve wronged, things like that. But with something involving a lost life…purposefully taken…that’s one of the few times execution is used.”
“And only an Enforcer can execute?”
He nodded, “Yeah. One of the benefits. If you can call it that.” Which he sometimes did, he thought with satisfaction. Something he’d enjoy doing to Aleks, if he ever found him.
“So, he’s going to stop funneling money, so the ring is closed except for Aleks,” she said softly.
He looked at her, then back at the road, which was growing slick due to the heavy snow that fell.
“Aleks isn’t something to worry about right now. All of his assets are completely frozen. Word is already out in the angelus world about him. Anyone who finds him will turn him in.”
“Accessory if they don’t?”
He gave her a slight smile. “Exactly.”
“So what now?” she asked, watching the flakes fall quicker as he sped up, coating his windshield until he turned the wipers on.
“Now, now we wait and see if he pokes his head out of any holes. In the meantime, I get to teach you how to be angelus.”
“Fun, fun,” she said dryly.
“It will be,” he promised. “Just look at it this way. It’s either me or Matt. Who do you want teaching you to be an umbren?”
“Since Matt’s not umbren, I can just think of the shit he’d try and teach me,” she said with a giggle. “Like sleeping in a coffin.”
“Exactly,” Gabriel said with a grin. “Trust me. I won’t lead you wrong. At least, not
too
wrong.”
“So what now?” she repeated. “And by that, I mean what happens when we get back to Matt’s?”
“Not going back to Matt’s,” he said, “you’re going home. Lucy is waiting for you there.”
“I can go back? Seriously?” she said in surprise.
He nodded. “Seriously. I’ll be staying with you to help you adjust, but you’ll be home.”
“What about your home?” she asked curiously, watching him.
He brushed his dark hair back before answering. “My home is fine. Aimee lives there, remember? I’ve got all the time in the world to teach you how to be umbren.”
She nodded slowly before laying her head back against the headrest. “Wake me when we get there, right?”
He reached out and took her hand in his. He pulled it up to his lips and kissed it. “Of course, m’lady.”
She stood at the French door that led to the backyard, staring out. She watched the falling snow slowly cover the dead grass, and saw the glimmer as the lights reflected in the snowflakes. Hearing footsteps behind her, she turned to find Gabriel padding up behind her. His hair was wet, falling in thick curls, the crimson darkened to a bloody red. She turned back to the backyard where the darkness fell in a thick curtain, only illuminated by the light from the house.
He came up behind her, smelling like water and soap, just faint scents of cinnamon and nutmeg. Wrapping his arms around her, he pulled her close, resting his chin on the top of her head.
“So you think we’ll find him,” she said, leaning into him. She could feel her wings press against his chest, feel the individual feathers as they pressed against him. She pulled away when Lucy scratched at the door. With a small laugh at Lucy’s exuberance, she let the little dog out into the fenced in yard. She ran frantically around the perimeter, chasing away all the imaginary dangers that lurked around in the shadows.
“Definitely,” Gabriel replied forcefully. He pulled her back to him, face to face. He dipped his head down to hers, lying a gentle kiss on her soft lips.
She reached out and grabbed a fistful of his thick hair, making sure he wasn’t going to leave.
After she was satisfied, she pulled away, a grin on her lips. “What now, oh wise umbren Master?”
He arched an eyebrow. “Master? Now I could get used to that.”
“In your dreams,” she replied with a smirk.
“Now? Now you’ve got to be pretty damn sore,” he said as he looked her over, noting the uncomfortable way her wings fell.
“Yeah,” she admitted, “any and all muscles that have anything to do with the wings hurt like hell. And some that don’t. Like my legs.”