Secrets in the Shadows (32 page)

Drake and Gabriel returned, and Drake came to squat beside Jules. Jules met his solemn eyes. He was probably the only Guardian who wouldn’t condemn him for what he’d done.

“Thank you,” he said, more moved than he wanted to admit by the Killer’s show of solidarity.

Drake nodded in acknowledgment. “I’ll take her to Eli with the others,” Drake said quietly. “He’ll take good care of her, you know that.”

Jules nodded tightly. He didn’t want to, but he loosened his grip on Hannah and let Drake take her from him. They stood up together, and Jules planted one more soft kiss on Hannah’s temple before Drake carried her from the room, leaving him alone with Gabriel.

He’d almost allowed himself to forget the deal he’d made with Gabriel, and what the consequences of breaking that deal would be. He should probably be very, very alarmed right this moment. But somehow he couldn’t seem to feel much of anything except the heaviness of his heart. Perhaps he was in shock.

At the sound of Drake’s car starting, Gabriel frowned and gave Jules a puzzled look.

“He’s leaving without you?”

Jules shrugged. “It’s not like I can go back to Philly after what I just did.”

Gabriel cocked his head. “Why not?”

“Because Eli would kill me.”

Gabriel looked disgusted. “So, you’re going to make Hannah a vampire, and then you’re just going to dump her in Eli’s lap and wash your hands?”

Jules snarled at him. “You’re not in any position to give lectures. And where the hell were you, anyway? Why was Hannah in this house? And why was she alone?”

To his surprise, Gabriel lowered his head and looked vaguely ashamed. “My apologies. Hannah and I were on our way here to try to rescue the mortal, but my mother caught up with us and I had to run for it.” He shook his head. “I should have known Hannah wouldn’t wait for me to come back.”

For the first time, Jules took a really good look at Gabriel. The light of the Coleman lantern bleached a lot of the color out of his skin and hair, but Jules now saw the smudges of what he’d thought was dirt were actually blood. Dried blood, not the blood of Ian’s fledglings.

“Is she dead?” Jules asked, wondering how Gabriel could have taken out a monster like Camille. He was strong, but she should be stronger.

An eerie light shone in Gabriel’s eyes. “No, she’s not dead. But right now I’m not sure she appreciates the distinction.” He smiled, but it wasn’t a pleasant expression. “I suppose I’m the new Master of Baltimore, though despite my mother’s suspicions, I have no fledglings.” He looked at Jules and curled his lips up to reveal his fangs. “I would have been here sooner, but I had to wait till her fledglings woke up enough to feel what I did to them. I wanted her to hear them scream. And I wanted her to know that sickening, helpless feeling that she could do nothing to stop me.”

Jules took an involuntary step backward from the mad, dangerous creature who stood before him. The creature who’d promised him slow torture if he refused to give up everything he knew about the Guardians.

But Gabriel sheathed his fangs, that insane light fading from his eyes. The sneer turned into something almost like a smile. “Don’t worry. I know you never intended to give me any information. You’re a terrible liar.”

“Then why did you give me Ian?”

A shrug. “Because it pleased me to do so. Of course, I’d intended to make you talk afterward.”

“But you’ve changed your mind?” It sounded too good to be true, but Jules was sure of one thing—he didn’t understand Gabriel worth a damn. Who knew what the freak was thinking, or what he would do?

Gabriel stepped closer and clapped a hand on Jules’s shoulder. Jules managed to suppress the urge to pull away as Gabriel leaned in close.

“I’ve thought of a better way to strike at my father. Besides, Hannah needs you.”

Those words were just a little more proof that Jules didn’t get this guy. “Hannah’s made it very clear she doesn’t need anybody.”

“That’s what she thinks, but she’s wrong. She was wrong even before you made her, and she’s doubly wrong now. If I questioned you as I planned, you’d be broken when I was finished. You’re no good to her broken.”

Jules snorted. “I’m no good to her dead, either, which is what I’d be if I tried to go to her.”

Gabriel released his shoulder. “Eli won’t kill you.”

“Somehow I don’t think your assessment of his character is terribly reliable,” Jules said.

“Why not? I’ve known him for almost five hundred years. He wasn’t able to kill me, and I’ve done worse than you. Far, far worse.”

About the last thing Jules had expected was for Gabriel to defend his father, but it was hard to miss the hint of wistfulness in his expression. It must have hurt like hell when Eli turned on him. Still, that didn’t make his argument convincing.

“I used to think I knew him,” Jules said, bitterness tingeing his voice. “Or at least, that I understood him. But that was before I knew he was a Killer who’s been lying to me for almost eighty years.”

Gabriel made a sound between a snort and a laugh. “Eli doesn’t lie. He’s a master or skirting the truth, but he’s completely anal about not lying.”

“For eighty years, he’s been pretending that he’s not a Killer, that he wants nothing more than to destroy Killers for the good of all humanity. As far as I’m concerned, that’s an outright lie!”

Gabriel’s eyes widened. “You don’t know the truth about him, do you?” He chuckled. “That would explain a good many things.”

“What truth? What are you talking about?”

Gabriel met his gaze squarely. “He was a Killer. But he cured himself.” He smiled wryly. “Not on purpose. He was trying to kill himself in a fit of remorse but fucked it up.” The smile turned into one of Gabriel’s patented sneers. “That’s when he decided all the rest of us needed to die. That’s when he founded the Guardians.” He sighed. “So no, Jules, he won’t kill you for turning the woman you love into a vampire to save her from certain death. But if you’re too chicken-shit to go to her when she needs you, then I’d be happy to carry out my original plan.”

Jules blinked, and suddenly his back was against the cold, crumbling wall, his feet off the ground as Gabriel crowded into his space.

“Don’t misunderstand me, Guardian,” Gabriel said. His breath reeked of blood and death. “I’m not the forgive and forget type. I will come to Philadelphia. And I will kill any Guardian who gets between me and my father when I come for him. If you truly love Hannah, then go to her. Let Eli help her through her transition. And then the both of you had better stay the hell out of my way. Now, should I take you to the train station, or should I start questioning you?”

It was hard to get a sound out with Gabriel’s forearm pressed hard against his windpipe, but Jules managed to gasp the words “train station.” The freak released him and gave him a shove out the door. Jules breathed deep of the fresh clean air, but Gabriel was walking briskly toward the car and he had to hurry to keep up.

The badly injured mortal woman lay across the backseat. Her skin was deathly pale, her breathing shallow. The life force Jules had sensed in her was growing even more faint.

“What are you going to do with her?” he asked as he got into the car.

Gabriel floored the gas pedal, and the car took off with a shriek of burning rubber and a fountain of gravel. Jules hastily fastened his seatbelt.

“I’ll drop you at the train station,” Gabriel said as the car continued to pick up speed. The maniac had to be doing about eighty on this quiet country road. “Then I’ll take her to the emergency room.”

Jules gripped the door handle and tried not to watch the road, figuring what he didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him. “Shouldn’t we drop her at the emergency room first?”

“First or second, it doesn’t matter. She’s going to die anyway,” Gabriel said with callous indifference.

“You don’t know that! She might—”

“I’ve seen more human death than you can possibly imagine, Guardian. I know it when I see it. But I’ll take her to the emergency room anyway. She’ll probably last a day or two, maybe long enough for her family to come be with her at the end.”

Jules would have argued further, but there was clearly no point in it.

They made it into the city in what had to be record time. Jules wondered how much glamour Gabriel used to avoid being stopped for any of the hundreds of moving violations he committed along the way.

True to his word, Gabriel dropped him at the train station. Jules had to pick up his luggage from the hotel before going anywhere, but he’d be extremely thankful to be out of Gabriel’s presence and take a cab.

“I’ll take care of returning the car for Hannah,” Gabriel said as Jules shut the door behind himself. “Take good care of her.”

“I will,” Jules said, once more bemused by Gabriel’s apparent multiple personality disorder.

Then the car pulled out into traffic once more, and Jules was faced with a decision. He wasn’t foolish enough to remain in Baltimore, but just because Gabriel had dropped him at the train station didn’t mean he had to go to Philadelphia. For a moment, he entertained fantasies of leaving his past and all his troubles behind him, going somewhere new and starting over. Then, he returned to reality.

Maybe Gabriel was totally delusional, maybe Hannah didn’t need him. And even if she did, maybe she wouldn’t want him, not after what he’d done. But he owed it to her to let her make that choice herself.

Hoping that Gabriel was right about at least one thing—that Eli wasn’t going to kill him on sight—Jules entered the train station and bought a one-way ticket to Philadelphia.

Jules stood outside the gates of Eli’s mansion and shivered. Freezing rain pelted him, soaking through his clothes and chilling him to the bone, and yet still he hesitated. It had taken him three seemingly endless nights to work up the courage to come here, but now his courage was failing him.

Was Hannah awake yet? If so, would she hate him? He wasn’t sure he could bear it if she did.

The intercom set into the gate suddenly squawked, nearly startling him out of his skin.

“How long are you planning to stand out there in the rain, Jules?” Eli’s voice asked.

Jules groaned quietly. He’d told no one that he’d returned to Philadelphia. He’d shut off his cell phone and unplugged his home phone, needing the extra time to try to straighten out his thoughts. Though the time hadn’t done him much good.

“How did you know it was me?” he asked, leaning closer to the speaker.

“Who else would stand at the gate in the rain for twenty minutes without ringing?”

“May I … come in?”

Eli didn’t answer, but the lock on the gate buzzed. Gathering the remnants of his courage, Jules stepped through the gate and hurried up the path toward the house. At least it would feel good to come out of the cold, even if Eli was about to kill him. Or, worse, tell him that Hannah hated his guts and never wanted to see him again.

Eli met him at the door, silently handing him a towel. Jules took it gratefully and dried off as best he could, considering his clothes were soaked through. Eli led him to the library, where a merry fire crackled in the hearth. Jules stood so close to the fire he practically singed his eyebrows, drinking in the warmth of the flames. Behind him, he heard Eli sit down in one of the leather reading chairs.

Bracing himself, Jules turned around to face the Founder.

He might have thought that after all he’d learned about Eli, he’d see the Founder with different eyes. But Eli still looked like Eli, a kind old man with a too-knowing stare.

Jules stuffed his hands into his pockets and resisted the urge to scuff his feet like a guilty ten-year-old. “So, are you going to kill me?” he asked.

One corner of Eli’s mouth raised slightly. “Tempting, but no. I understand from Drake that there were … extenuating circumstances.”

Yeah, that was one way to put it. He swallowed hard, shoving away his mental picture of Hannah lying bleeding on that floor.

“Was it worth it, Jules?” Eli asked softly. “Is everything all better now that you’ve had your revenge?”

Jules flinched. Eli always knew how to eviscerate a person with his words. Jules almost swallowed the rebuke without protest. But on second thought …

He sucked in a deep breath and met Eli’s steady gaze. “If I hadn’t gone to Baltimore to confront him, then I never would have been able to let go of the rage.”

Eli raised an eyebrow. “Have you let it go then?”

It was tempting to give Eli the glib, easy answer, but Jules knew the Founder wouldn’t settle for that. So he thought about it a long moment before he spoke. “I don’t know if I’ll ever let go completely. But what was once a bleeding wound is now no more than an ugly scar.” His throat tightened. “If Hannah hadn’t gotten hurt in the process, I’d have said it was worth it.”

Eli’s gaze frosted over. “You selfish, arrogant ass! Would it have been worth it if because of your pig-headed insistence on revenge Camille had destroyed the Guardians?”

Jules stood firm in the face of Eli’s anger. “No, of course not. But she didn’t.”

“No thanks to you.”

“It’s not my fault you’ve lied to everyone for all these years.”

Eli’s eyes said he made no apologies. “I keep secrets for good reason, Jules. I know I can never atone for the things that I’ve done, but I’m going to keep trying anyway. The fewer people who know about my past, the better.”

Jules shook his head. “So what you’re saying is you’re still going to keep your damn secrets.”

“Yes. Drake has agreed not to share what he’s learned about me. And if you start talking, he’ll contradict you.”

Jules knew he was playing with fire, practically daring Eli to change his mind about killing him, but he couldn’t help himself. “Have you ever told Drake that the addiction is curable?”

For the first time Jules could remember, Eli looked genuinely stunned.

“Gabriel told me.”

Eli shook his head and groaned. “How I wish I’d killed him when I had the chance!”

“I gather this means Drake has no idea.”

Eli sighed. “No. And it’s going to stay that way.”

“Eli—”

“It’s not curable. Not for someone his age, or someone who wants to live.”