"Fine. But don't blame me if you don't like what you hear. And don't interrupt."
Rose crossed her legs on the kitchen chair and leaned her elbows on the table, chin on her hands, and waited.
Gabriel stared at the table between them. "Ten years ago, I killed a human. A demon had messed with her but I didn't realize it until too late. Marianne and I were up north on a short road trip. I was eighteen and in love. We'd gone to the same high school, and had hooked up right before graduation. We were on the beach one night and I showed her how fast I could run. Then she turned into a demon in front of me, a male demon. I didn't know what to think. Was she really a male demon, and not a female human? He challenged me and we fought. I killed it. Broke it's spine against the rocks at the beaches of Carpinteria.
"But to my shock I didn't kill
it
, I killed
her
. When she died, the demon possessing her laughed at me as he appeared next to her broken body. I fought him like a madman. He was hurt bad when he disappeared in front of me.” He touched the scar on his cheek. “I was hurt pretty bad, too. I thought I'd killed him.
"I was left with Marianne, dead on the beach, and nothing to prove that she'd been possessed except a spiral tattoo on her stomach."
Rose clenched her hands together at the mention of the tattoo. She swallowed hard. "What happened next?"
"My first instinct was to go to the police and confess. But I was a coward. I couldn't make myself do that, even though it was the right thing to do. So I took off. I crashed my car against a tree, left her purse and my wallet after taking the money out of them. And I disappeared, into the desert, hoping the world would think we’d both been killed."
Her heart ached. "You were just a boy, Gabriel. He tricked you, used you."
"It doesn’t matter. You had to know that part before I could tell you the rest. The first time I met Satine, it was like a dream. I'd been living in an empty shack along the highway. There are a lot of them, if you know where to look. One night, she—Satine—was just there, hovering above my pallet, her outfit porn chic, something a lonely man might conjure. She came to me, offered herself, and I took her without thought, without care. She was a dream, not a woman. Just someone who wanted my punishment, who needed to be used. A mindless fucking, that's all she wanted. Hell, that's what I wanted.
"Demons can get rough without knowing it, and apparently I got rough. She loved it, wrung me out, had me, or I had her, again and again that night. And two, three, four nights in a row she came to me to be…used.
"I'd wake up feeling dirty. Not rested or refreshed, but tainted. I don't know when she started taking my blood. Not a lot, not ever a lot. But finally one night, her eyes were red with need. She asked me then if I wanted to die and live forever. She...tempted me, said she would free me of my human guilt, my human existence."
Rose cleared her throat. "She didn't know you were a tribred?"
He shrugged. "Don't know. But her calling me human shook me out of that waking dream. I cursed her to hell and back. She laughed, told me I was already hers, and reached to me with her mind, implanting the suggestion of knives as she spoke. As a result, she speaks, I get the pain."
"Oh." Rose looked at him in dismay. "So when you talk to her, mind to mind..."
"Yeah. It hurts."
Rose got up from her chair and went around the table to stand behind Gabriel. She wound her arms around him; laid her head on his shoulder, and gave him what comfort she could, ignoring his discomfort. "It's not your fault. What she did was awful."
"Right. And I was a Boy Scout." Self-loathing filled his words.
She spoke softly. "You were in pain, not to mention you were very young. You distanced yourself from your family, and you handled the problem in the only way that your sense of honor would allow."
"Sense of honor." He unwound her arms gently and turned to look at her, holding her away from him. "A full demon raped my mother. Their blood types weren't compatible, and she died while giving premature birth to me. I don't have the full complement of human and Fae DNA in my makeup. Not like the rest of my family. I'm mostly a demon, a killer. Don't make me out to be better than I am."
Rose ached to hold him close. "I think you're probably one of the best people I know."
A flash of emotion showed in Gabriel's eyes before he let her go and turned from her. "Yeah, well. You've just come back from the dead. You're not at your best mentally right now." He stood and moved to the doorway, Rose trailing after him.
"You've got a pure soul, Gabriel. I should know. I'm carrying a part of it. You haven't lost your humanity. I'm just keeping it safe for you."
Gabriel hesitated before he said over his shoulder, "I need to get ready for later tonight. I've got some computer work to do before I head out." He left the kitchen, a restless man haunted by too many demons.
"Hey! Before
we
head out." Rose scrambled to follow. "What can I do?"
"Go take a nap, or something. Rest." Gabriel turned into Justin's office and settled himself at the computer.
Rose followed him into the office. Lined with books, it was a cozy room done in earth tones, with the desk in one corner and a couch and reading chair opposite. Perfect. She settled into a corner of the couch and picked up a book sitting there. She wasn't letting him out of her sight.
* * *
Gabriel wanted her with him as much as he wanted her safe. But he couldn't let her stay here alone, and he had no idea when Justin would be back. If she shifted in and out of her demon form again tonight, she'd be too weak to be of much use in a fight if things went bad.
Which they usually did when vampires were involved.
Gabriel frowned and looked at his search results. Twisted Sister, rock group. Twisted Pretzel Factory. Twisted Tights Dance Studio. Twist and Shout. Twist Tie Trio. Twist Off the Weight. Doggedly, he continued wading through the sites looking for Satine's nightclub. Three Google pages in, he found just plain Twisted and clicked on it.
A red page opened up with a black whip snaking out from one corner to lick the T in Twisted, the words By Invitation Only written in elaborate script below it. When he rolled the cursor over the word Invitation, it changed into a hand. Gabriel clicked on the word.
An address in black popped up, plus an envelope below the address. Curious, Gabriel clicked on the envelope and when it opened, he stared.
Club Twisted
welcomes
Gabriel Caine & Rose Walters.
Invitation good for 3:00am on this night only.
"Hell," he said, and closed out the windows. He powered the computer down. "We got an invitation to Satine's club."
Rose looked up from her book. "That's a bad thing, I guess?"
"Yeah. Really bad." He turned in the chair to look at her and frowned. She looked good, too good for his self-control. "You should be napping."
"I will if you will." She raised a brow in challenge.
"I'm not the one who shifted this evening," he reminded her. "You really need to nap."
Rose sighed and put the book down. "I guess I need to spell it out for you. I don't feel safe anywhere without you. So I'll nap if you lie down and nap beside me."
"I don't nap." Irritated, he growled at her. "I'm a demon. Demons don't nap. It's not…seemly."
"Oh, really." She crossed her arms and raised one brow, amused.
"Really. Not ever." He rose from his chair and came to her, helped her to her feet. "You, however, really do need to rest. Regain your strength."
He hustled her down the stairs and to a bedroom before she could protest. One glance at the bed and he felt her sigh in his bones.
"You're right. I need to rest." She climbed onto the bed, holding fast to his hand. "And you need to rest beside me." Her eyes closed and her breathing evened out.
Gabriel cursed under his breath. The last thing he should do was the thing he most wanted in the world. He took a step away from her, but her fingers tightened on his. He gave in. If nothing else, touching her kept his demon calm. Shifting her to the middle of the bed, he lay down beside her and gathered her close. If he just kept thinking of her as a child, maybe his body would behave.
Mentally taking note of the time, he set his internal alarm and allowed his mind to wander.
He woke slowly to the fresh scent he’d come to associate with her. She’d sprawled across him, a warm bundle of female, her hair tickling his nose. He turned on his side and adjusted her as he moved. She snuggled further into his arms and he just held her, allowed her light to fill him up.
She made a purring sound low in her throat, somehow a question.
“I’m awake.”
Rose raised her head from his chest and smiled at him with a radiance that had him blinking. "What's the plan for tonight?"
"Recon, an hour or two before we're expected. I want to know what the place looks like and how many we'll be dealing with. Ideally, I'd like to know who's gonna fight when pushed to it, but this isn't an ideal situation."
"I suppose not." She looked down at the collar of his tee shirt and bit her lip.
"What is it? Ask. You know you're going to."
"Are you going in armed?"
"Yes."
"Will you arm me?"
The question brought Gabriel up short. He shifted away from her and sat up. Rose followed suit. "Well?"
Gabriel looked at her coolly. "Can you shoot? Use a knife? Can you stake a vampire in the heart and not miss?
"No, yes somewhat, and I don't know. I've never tried. But if you give me lessons," she began.
"There's no time for lessons. You use the weapons you have. Right now, all you have is the ability to shield your mind and the demon on your body."
"I'd rather use my wits and a gun. Or a knife. Anything. I just – I don't think I'm ready to be the demon again just yet."
Gabriel sympathized. "I know. But if you're coming with me, you'd better be prepared to use what you've got. I can give you a knife, but that's all," he added grudgingly. "I must be crazy. I should really leave you behind."
"No, you shouldn't. You should keep your soul close to you." And Rose blinded him again with her smile.
* * *
"We can do this the easy way, or the hard way." Gabriel stood across the street from the club, his arm around Rose. He tried hard to ignore her tight little body pressed up against him. The midnight hour had a surprising amount of foot traffic in this area of town, so they didn't look out of place.
"Which is which?" she whispered. They'd walked from where they'd parked Justin's car four blocks away and had stumbled into a pool of light from a flickering streetlight, giggling and pretending to be drunk. It had been her idea, and to his chagrin Gabriel hadn't come back with a better one.
Gabriel buried his face in her hair, breathed deep. Her scent sank into him, reminding him of the wild sun-filled days of his youth. It was enough to make him drunk. He struggled to answer her. "Easy is just observing from the outside." He nuzzled her neck and felt a tremor go through her. Where her pelvis pressed, her heat seared him.
"But that won't give you the information you need, will it?" She pressed her nose into his chest and breathed deeply. "Mmmmm."
She fit in his arms. Felt far too good there. Gabriel yanked on his libido and refocused on her question. "No. So it's the hard way, after all." He took a deep breath and, one finger under her chin, tilted her face up to his. "Promise me you'll run if I tell you to." He kissed her, keeping it light.