Bound to the Fallen (Prophecy #2) (55 page)

Brooke

“Are you sure?” I shouted into the phone.

“Certain. Pull it up on your computer,” Constance said, her voice shaking from shock.

“Give me a second. I don’t even know why I’m looking this up. I know you’re screwing with me because you are just sick like that.” I booted up my laptop while cradling my cell phone between my ear and shoulder.

She huffed into the receiver, “I swear to you. I just saw it on the fucking news. I can’t believe no one’s called you. I mean, what are they gonna do Monday? Just surprise you guys with something like that? You didn’t even know he got fired?”

I logged into my computer and double clicked on the internet icon. “No. I had no idea. Don’t you think I’d tell you something crazy like that? Ashley hasn’t called me, so either you’re lying to me, or you’re the first one to find out. What channel did you say you saw it on?”

“Channel six.”

“Okay. Hang on.” I typed in the web address and waited for the page to load. As soon as the page popped up I saw Dan’s picture. “Oh, my God.” I felt chills run up and down my spine. “You weren’t lying. He’s dead? He fucking killed himself? Why?” Nausea flipped my stomach. I may not have cared for Dan, but I certainly didn’t want him to die.

Constance blew into the phone. “I don’t know. I mean, you hear about people committing suicide after they lose their job all the time. It’s sad.”

My eyes quickly skimmed
over the article. It said that Dan had been let go from his job on Friday due to sexual harassment and that his wife had found him dead in the backyard that night. “I can’t believe this. I wonder who reported him?”

“I’m sure you weren’t the only one. You just had good reason to not blab on him ‘cause of Gavin. Man, I’
m sorry. This is crappy,” Constance said.

I sat there, pulling at a loose piece of thread on my bedspread. “I mean. It didn’t say he killed himself. It said the investigation was ongoing. It didn’t even say how he died. Wouldn’t they state it if they knew he committed suicide?” I panicked, thinking that Gavin may have
gone over there to confront Dan and somehow ended up killing him. “Oh, my God. Constance. What if Gavin killed him?”

“Come on, Brooke. Gavin wouldn’t do something like that, right?” She fell silent for a moment. “
He’s a doctor. Right? I mean….he’s completely normal. He wouldn’t do that. You’re just freaking out.”

My heart hammered relentlessly in my chest at the thought of it. If Gavin had done that, I would never be able to handle the thought that I was the reason someone had been murdered.
Shutting my laptop, I said, “I gotta go. I need to call Gavin.”

“Okay. Just chill out and breath
e. Everything’s gonna be fine. Call me after you talk to him, okay?”

I mumbled, “Yeah. Okay.”

“Love you, Brooke.”

“Would you stop acting like I’m next? Good grief. Love you too, Con.” I hung up my phone and immediately dialed Gavin’s number. It rang and rang, then went to voicemail. I waited a few minutes and called him back and there was still no answer. I panicked. I could just envision him sitting in a jail cell.

Pacing in my living room, I glanced over to my keys laying on the kitchen counter. I figured something as insane is this was reason enough for me to go over there. He had given me a key after all.

The entire way to his house I continued to call him. He never picked up the phone and I had convinced myself that he really had murdere
d Dan. I pulled in his driveway. Hurrying up his sidewalk, I came to the front door. I fumbled with my keys and finally found the silver one that went to his lock. As I turned the lock, I felt my stomach knot up.

Slowly opening his door, I saw an orange glow coming from the living room and heard music playing in the background. All of the lights in the house were out and I knew that flickering glow was from candles. My heart stopped. “Gavin?” I quietly called out and shut the door behind me. I walked through the foyer and turned to face his living room.

Just as I turned, I saw him enter the room, carrying someone.

My pulse picked up and my eyes focused through the dark room. My heart sank to the pit of my stomach, stopping when I realized that Gavin was holding a half-naked woman in his arms. My initial reaction was to scream at him, cuss at him for betraying me, but something told me to be qui
et.

Gavin saw me and stopped midstride. I looked at the woman draped across his arms and the image eerily resembled the fallen angel in
that book I’d refused to finish reading. Continuing to stare at him, I realized the woman he was holding was Ashley. Warm tears flooded my eyes. My chest tightened, constricting my ability take in air, my breathing became shallow and each breath I drew in burned. I could feel my heart being ripped out by what I was seeing, and I felt like a fool for trusting him, for
believing
he loved me. Not only had I been lied to by him, but by someone who I thought was a friend. I wanted to run, but I couldn’t. I was too shocked to do anything.

Walking to
his couch, he laid Ashley down. Her arm fell weightlessly off the side of the couch and her knuckles hit the floor with a thud.

Gavin approached me and I backed away.

I stared at Ashley, waiting on her chest to rise, to confirm to me that she was breathing, but it was still. She lay lifelessly on his couch.

Fear immediately ripped through my body in large waves. I turned to run to the door, but I’d taken no more than two strides before Gavin caught me. His hands gripped my arms and spun me around. I screamed and thrashed wildly, trying to free myself from him.

“Calm down, love. Calm down.” His voice was soft. His eyes were placid, not at all how you’d expect the eyes of a murderer to look. “Stop fighting me,” he demanded.

“What the fuck is wrong with you? Is she dead? Did you kill her?
Did you kill Dan?” I screamed.

Gavin lowered his face to mine, speaking softly to me as he said,
“I’m not going to hurt you. You need to calm down and listen to me.” The composure in his voice sent another wave of panic pulsing through my body. I continued to struggle and realized I would never free myself from his hold. I went limp, sobbing uncontrollably.

I could see the anger building behind his eyes. He shook me softly. “Listen to me.”

Unable to stop wailing, I screamed, begging for him not to kill me.

Finally having had enough of my yelling, he shouted,
“Do you want to die?”

My pulse skipped a beat and I
immediately fell silent. The entire situation felt surreal to me, like I was dreaming.

Peering
behind Gavin at Ashley’s body, I realized I’d been in love with a man I didn’t know. I’d lain in the arms of a killer, a monster. I’d felt
safe
in his arms, and I was certain his arms would be the last thing I’d ever feel around my body.

“Gavin, please
—” The stinging sensation in my throat caught my voice. My body was shaking with sheer terror.

“If you don’t want to die, I’m going to need you to trust me.” He released one of my arms and reached up to my face, stroking
his fingers gently along my cheek. “I’m so sorry I’ve done this to you. I told you there were things you didn’t know about me. Darkness, did I not?”

He lowered his lips to mine to kiss me, but I jerked my head back.

That act of rejection forced hurt to veil his eyes.

“Understandabl
e — it’s not me you should be worried about. What I’ve just done,” his eyes cut over to Ashley’s body and then back to me, “I’ve just broken an agreement that was sworn would never be broken. When this is found out — and it will be found out — they will hunt us both and they will do whatever they must to cause me pain. Even if it means sacrificing an innocent person, such as yourself, to bring that pain to me.”

His eyes peered into mine. “I’m afraid they know who you are – Scott knew — I just refused to believe that I was the one who would go against the agreement, so I didn’t see it. I was blinded by my desire for you.”

Gavin raked his teeth across his lip. His breath was deep and steady. “I’m afraid the two of us have gotten entangled in something that legends foretold, and how we’re going to escape this is beyond me.” I felt his grip loosen from my arm. “Now, I’m going to let you go, but don’t make me chase you. You’re going with me. Don’t complicate this. I know that you don’t believe me, but you
must
trust me. I’m afraid I’m the only thing that can save you now. The only thing that can keep you safe.”

My heart was racing
, skipping beats in my chest, and I felt weak. My vision diminished and blackness spread throughout my sight; my ears rang and I felt my legs buckle. Gavin’s arms wrapped around me just as all my senses cut off.

The sound of voices
whispering woke me up. I opened my eyes to find black pipes running across an open ceiling. I heard Gavin speaking, his voice angry and frantic. I knew at any moment I would wake up from this nightmare. Those pipes, those were from my dreams.

It’s a dream. A nightmare. Wake up. Wake up, damn it!

Gavin’s voice rose to a yell.
“There’s nothing that can be done now. We just have to plan how this will be handled.”

A woman shouted, “I knew it! I knew by the way you’d been acting that you were possessed by one of them!”

Looking across through the dark, I saw figures gathered on the far side of the room.

“Possessed or not. That conniving woman was evil. I don’t care what they say, they’re better off without the likes of her anyway. You should have had better judgment, Raven. You should never let someone like that in here. You have to be careful!
She followed me. She tried to ruin me!”

A woman’s voice
roared out, “Don’t you
dare
blame this on me, Gavin!”

Anoth
er male voice spoke up. “They don’t know yet. We could easily make it look like a murder.” The man paused. “The only problem is that one there, she knows. We’ll have to kill her.”

“Absolutely not,” Gavin yelled.

“You’re willing to sacrifice us to save her?” The woman’s voice echoed from the tall ceiling.

“This is not her fault – they’ll find out. There’s no way around this.”

Another male whispered, “It’s the prophecy. They
will
find out. They have been watching for this for centuries and there is no way to hide this. If we kill her it will only make things worse. The best thing you can do is run, Gavin. We can buy you time, but I’m afraid that’s all we can do.”

Gavin’s face peeped around the crowd of people whose backs were turned to me. He saw tha
t I was awake and walked toward me.

I quickly sat up, scooting to the other end of the couch to distance myself from him. “What did you do to me?” I demanded.

“Nothing. You were so terrified you passed out.” He sat down next to me on the couch. “I wasn’t about to leave you. Every time you came to, you passed out again.”

The group of people approached us. The woman emerged from the shadows and I recognized Raven. She wore a disgusted expression on her
face. “Had I only known.” Shaking her head, she walked in the direction of the door.

Before the door closed behind her
, a man carrying suitcases walked into the dimly lit room. He placed the suitcases and a duffel bag beside the couch. “Everything you asked for is in there.” He reached underneath his arm and pulled a book out, tossing it at Gavin. “Someone tried to warn her.” He turned to exit the room and looked back at me as he said, “Her heart wouldn’t let her listen.”

The others followed him out, leaving me and Gavin alone.

Glancing down at Gavin’s lap, I noticed the man had handed him
The Song of the Fallen
. Gavin looked perplexed as his fingertips traced over the lettering on the cover. His eyes moved from the book to my face. “Who gave this to you? Do you know who gave this to you?”

“No, I don’t. But I
would
like to know what the fuck is going on!”