Curse of Tempest Gate (10 page)

“No?” Gideon wasn’t going to let his actions
slide. “You don’t think I should have interfered. If I hadn’t the
woman would have called 9-1-1 and we’d be having this conversation
in the back of a squad car. So do you mind telling me what that was
all about? You scared the woman and her boy with your wolf-like
gaze as if you were on the hunt and the woman was the prey.”

Lucca ran his fingers through his hair,
pulling the long strands away from his face.
Wolf-like gaze?
Prey?
His behavior proved startling enough, but to have Gideon
recap it for him only made it worse. The woman and the boy were
frightened. Yeah, he was a little shaken himself. Gideon wanted to
know why he went
all predator
back there. Well, he didn’t
have an answer. It was like some button had been pushed, activating
the human side of his emotions making him irrational as they were.
Even now he had to fight the urge to go back to the woman and drag
her out of the Laundromat and make her his. “The female…”

“Yes? The female what?”

Lucca glanced at Gideon. “Her scent was like
an aphrodisiac. You picked up her scent, didn’t you?” Hell if he
had, Lucca knew without a doubt he would have fought Gideon to keep
him away from her.

Gideon frowned obviously thinking he’d lost
his mind. Hell, he thought he’d lost his mind.

“You were attracted to her,” he asked
carefully.

“Attracted?” He almost laughed. His lustful
thoughts went beyond the causal attraction.
Obsessed
, fit
better.

“Yeah, attracted like you have the hots for
her,” Gideon went on.

Lucca glanced at him, wondering if the
Watcher mocked him, but the guy looked serious. “Hots for her. Is
this a human term you’ve picked up?”

Gideon’s chuckle grated on his nerves. “You
need to keep up with times man, this is the twenty-first century.
Learn the lingo. The
hots
means you find her pretty. You
want to—”

“I get the jest of it,” he interrupted him
not wanting to continue this conversation, but Gideon never knew
when to shut up.

“So, do you?”

Lucca’s brows furrowed. “She has a comely
way about her, but…”

“You hesitate. Why?”

“It was her scent that drew me.” He looked
at Gideon now, weighing his statement and wondering if he
understood. Gideon liked the human realm and lived among them
easily enough. Maybe this was a common happening. Gideon tugged on
his arm, halting their steps. At this rate, he’d never arrive
home.

“You were drawn in by her scent?” Gideon
moved closer and lowered his voice as if he feared someone would
overhear the conversation. “That’s why you went all stalker-like
back there?”

A quick glance around them, told Lucca
whispering wasn’t necessary. A woman and her two children walked
toward their car with ice cream cones in their hands. Two men
dressed in polo shirts and nice slacks headed in the opposite
direction. Their attire and their slick back hair told him they
were looking to get lucky. Most likely their destination would lead
them to World’s End. Not a preternatural being in sight and he
didn’t sense one lurking in the shadows, but he didn’t begrudge
Gideon his
I-gotta-secret-to-tell
covert operation. Finally
the overdone production played out and Gideon revealed what he
knew.

“It’s rumored that Eli found his mate by her
scent.”

Lucca snorted and took a step back. He
wasn’t sniffing for a soul mate. There had to be another… more
logical explanation. “Don’t be ridiculous.”

Gideon lifted his shoulders in a shrug. “The
elders are looking into it. They’re recording any information Eli
can provide. Ryden, Eli’s mate—”

“I know who she is.”

Gideon ignored the interruption. “Ryden has
agreed to be tested. See if being mated to Eli has changed her in
any way.”

Lucca rubbed the tense muscles in the back
of his neck. “What do you mean changed her?”

“The elders are interested to know if we
take human mates if the mate’s lifespan will increase. You know
like other shifters and their mates. The bonding ritual tends to
make the human mate live longer, almost as long as the shifter
they’re bonded to.”

“I know the biological makings of a bonded
were-creatures. What does that have to do with the Fallen?”

“In a sense, we function like a
shifter.”

He harrumphed with obvious annoyance. “You
compare us to werewolves and such? We do not have the capability to
shift to a lower being.”

Gideon chuckled then covered his amusement
with a cough.

Most likely his lethal glare did the trick
of shutting his trap. “You find this humorous?”

“Yeah. Haven’t you always said humans were
inferior beings? My friend, we shift from angelic beings to the
so-called inferior human. We’re shifters.”

Gideon’s smug look boiled his blood to the
point that he found his hands balled into fists. One more word and
he would punch the arrogant slant of Gideon’s mouth right off his
face. “Shifters,” he spat and hissed, baring his fangs.

“I do prove my point or do you believe
exposing your fangs makes you civilized.” He grinned even more,
letting his fangs lengthen, too.

Through history, humans had mistaken the
Fallen as vampires who could fly. Looking at Gideon’s fanged mug,
made him realize why they came up with such a ludicrous idea.

He drew in a deep breath, letting the anger
go as Gideon’s words truly sunk in. Eli found his mate by her
scent. If it were true, that would mean… His gaze wavered down the
block where he could still make out the light illuminating inside
the Laundromat and spilling out onto the sidewalk. He shook his
head. “No.” He refused to believe he’d fallen so low as to lust
after a human.”
She’s your mate.
His pesky subconscious
mocked him. “No she’s not.”

“What did you say?” Gideon’s brows
furrowed.

“Nothing.” He turned away. “Will you piss
off, Gideon. I’m off for home.” He cringed at the word home. He
never believed he would think of a place on the human realm as
home, but there it was:
life as a human
. It sounded like a
bad sitcom.

“Fine, I’ll call on you tomorrow.”

Lucca waved his hand over his head in
farewell, but then remembered something important. “Gideon?” The
Watcher turned to look at him in question. “When you happened upon
me at World’s End, did you see anyone else with Kordon?”

Gideon’s ruddy eyebrows drew together over
the bridge of his nose. “Do you mean besides his goons?”

Lucca nodded.

“No. Why?” Gideon looked at him with
concern. “Are you sure you’re okay? Do you need me to heal you?” He
took a step forward and Lucca immediately stepped back, holding up
his hands.

“I’m fine. I don’t need your hands on
me.”

Gideon shook his head. “You know, you’re a
stubborn sod. Heal like a human then. Maybe it’ll do you some
good.” The glamour clogged the air and Gideon went off to do
whatever the Watcher did on the human realm.

Heal like a human, he says. His fingers
gingerly touched his scalp where a lump had already formed. This
beating was nothing compared to others he’d endured.

He shoved his hands in his pockets as he
strode toward his apartment. What did Gideon do on this realm
besides pester him? He’d make a conscious choice to find out.
Gideon may be his only friend and only contact with what transpired
in the Otherworldly realm. He could prove useful in finding out the
elders’ progress with soul mates.