When doing something illegal I liked to hum the song from Mission Impossible beneath my breath. It was my version of “Whistle While You Work,” and it made the lock picking aspect of the evening go much more smoothly. Granted, I’d never been very fast with picking a lock, and the one that Gabriel had on the door to his inner office was more advanced than I had given it credit for. Luckily, I wasn’t in a rush.
It had been a simple matter to make my way back through the building after hours. My security clearance as Gabriel’s personal assistant meant that entering my employee ID and fingerprint got me through pretty much any locked door. A cheery wave and bag of doughnuts for the night guard and I was in, as simple as that. By far, the hardest part of my night had been the ache in my knees from kneeling in front of the lock for so long.
It was all worth it when I heard the soft “click” that meant I’d gotten through. Grinning, I stuffed the lock pick back into my oversized purse. Reaching out to turn the lock, I paused as something reached my ears.
It sounded like…voices?
Scrambling now, I got to my feet, my hand clutching my bag against my chest to keep the contents from clanking around and giving me away. Halfway back across the room, I heard the door separating my office from Gabriel’s open. Cursing beneath my breath, I changed direction and stumbled in the dark until I found the conference table. I’d just hidden beneath it when the lights flickered on.
“It’s almost time. Is everything ready?”
Gabriel.
I felt myself pale.
“Security says the last of the stragglers came in about half an hour ago. The alarm is set, the cells are locked, and the task force just arrived to help deal with the Specters.”
Specters?
Cells?
Above and beyond my concern over those two phrases however, one thing that Marcus had said made alarm bells start going off in my noggin.
Task force.
Gabriel’s specialized task force was patrolling the building. Even if I could make it out of the office now, how the hell was I supposed to make it past them? For a moment, all I could do was sit there and curse Gabriel and Marcus Evans for being a pair of no good, dirty liars. If they had just gone out of town like they were supposed to, I could have infringed on their privacy without all this added stress.
From beneath the table, all I could see of either man were their legs. I was as far back as I could get without coming out at the other side, so I had no concerns that they would see me. Especially since it looked like they were heading towards the inner office without any hesitation. They’d almost reached the door when one pair of legs stopped. I’m ashamed to admit that I recognized who said appendages belonged to, and his voice confirmed it.
“Do you smell that?” Gabriel asked, voice lowering.
His question brought Marcus to a standstill, and I froze as the other man inhaled deeply.
“Yes.” The words were a growl, a hungry little rumble, as if he’d caught a whiff of his favorite meal on the air.
My nails bit into my palms and I held my breath.
They might have gone on standing there for an eternity, both eerily still, bodies tense, if the emergency lights for the fire alarm hadn’t begun to flash. They blinked once, twice, three times. Blood-red eyes in the corner of the room. The flash was enough to drag Marcus, at least, from whatever it was that they’d scented in the room.
“Shit.” He began to move again and this time he made it to the door without distraction. “Come on, Gabe. They’re almost here.”
If I had expected Gabriel to be as easily distracted as his brother, I was obviously mistaken. Instead of following Marcus through the door (he didn’t seem to notice that it had already been unlocked), Gabriel had wandered even closer to the conference table.
I watched his footsteps approach. Noted the silent way he moved as if he were floating on air rather than simply putting one foot in front of the other.
“Gabriel!”
A beat of silence passed, and in that moment all I could hear was the sound of my pulse racing in my ears.
“I think I’m going to hunt tonight.”
“You can’t-”
“I wasn’t asking permission.” Gabriel’s voice was cold, and I imagined Marcus flinching back at the sound. When he replied, he sounded stiff, almost formal.
“Then I’ll accompany you.”
“No.”
“I insist.”
“I won’t shift, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
Marcus snorted, “I’d be more worried if you didn’t shift. Especially tonight, of all nights.” He hesitated. “Are you sure about this?”
Gabriel’s chuckle was dark and smooth. Sin given a sound. “Positive.”
“Fine. I’ll see you in the morning. Good hunting.”
“Thanks.”
I listened as Marcus finally stepped back into the inner office and shut the door. I heard the lock engage, and some of the tension bled out of me. One down, one more to go. Only, when I looked back towards where I’d last seen Gabriel, he was no longer there. Cautious, I moved forward an inch to see if he’d simply traveled beyond my sight, but he was nowhere. The room was empty.
The fact that I couldn’t see him anymore was enough to give me the chills, and trying to keep quiet, I crawled backwards. Hoping to come out at the other side of the table so that I could at least have the window at my back.
He had me before I knew he was even there.
One second I was sneaking my way towards freedom, and the next, something grabbed me by the ankle and jerked me out from beneath the table. Opening my mouth, I took a deep breath to scream, only to choke when Gabriel slapped a hand over my mouth and loomed over me.
I was laid out flat beneath him, my breathing fast and ragged, and adrenaline coursing through my blood like the sweetest drug. I looked into his eyes from less than an inch away, and as I watched, he slowly raised his free hand to his lips.
“Shhh,” he breathed, gaze unblinking.
I nodded quickly and he took his hand away from my mouth. His amber eyes seemed bright. Too bright. They glistened with fever. His skin was flushed, and I’d remembered just how hot he’d felt in the brief moment we’d been skin to skin.
He shook his head, and his expression was sad. “You shouldn’t have come here.”
There was something strange about him tonight. A restless, eager energy. As if he couldn’t bear to stay in one place for too long. Even as he straddled me, I could feel the way his fingers clenched and the way the muscles in his thighs bunched and quivered like a runner waiting for the shot.
His eyes though…they never strayed from my face. The longer he watched me, the richer the amber in them grew and the darker the world became. I stared into his eyes, and it was as if they were all there was. My vision began to darken around the edges, and all I could see was a long dark tunnel and those eyes at the end of it, calling me home.
I don’t know what it was that he heard. It was too faint for me to catch. I know the lights flickered in the room before going out and casting us both in darkness. In that instant he froze above me, head lifting, and body tensing until he was nothing more than corded muscles and brutal focus.
I drew in a shaky breath and tried not to whimper.
When he looked down at me, all I saw in the darkness of the room were those glowing amber eyes, as rich as old blood and flickering like flames.
“Run.” His voice didn’t even sound human anymore, but I didn’t need him telling me what common sense had been screaming at me to do for the last five minutes.
Then, between one heartbeat and the next, he was gone.
I heard something chuckle in the deeper recesses of the room. A sound like sandpaper on baby’s flesh or broken bones running through a woman’s hair. I wanted to look. I almost needed to look. To see what sort of…thing, could make a sound like that. What sort of monster could conjure images of death and bloodshed during a fit of mirth.
But something t
old me not to. That whatever it was in the room with me was better left to nightmares and horror stories. So, for once, instead of giving in to my insatiable curiosity, I did the smart thing.
I ran.