eating with Maurice brooding in the parlor and Gabriel sleeping the sleep of the undead in her bedroom? And always in the back of her mind was Nina's threat to destroy her.
Head throbbing from the heat in the kitchen and her troublesome thoughts, she opened the kitchen door and stepped outside. The autumn air felt blessedly cool against her face. For a moment, she stared up at the sun, a sight Gabriel had not seen in over three hundred years. Gabriel.
Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes, anxious for nightfall, for the time when she could be in his arms again.
She gasped as she felt a hand on her arm, then chided herself for her fear. She turned around, expecting to see Maurice.
But it was not Maurice. Fear snaked through her. She opened her mouth to scream, but a huge hand fastened around her throat, choking off her cry, trapping the air in her lungs until the world went black.
The smell of something burning roused Maurice. Frowning, he jumped to his feet, the book in his lap falling to the floor unnoticed as he ran into the kitchen.
"Sara Jayne, what's the..."
The words died in his throat. The kitchen was filled with smoke; the back door was standing open. Grabbing a towel, he opened the oven and removed a pan that held a chunk of charred meat.
"Sara Jayne?"
He felt a growing sense of dread as he crossed the room and looked outside.
"Sara?"
He walked down the short flight of steps that led to the small garden behind her apartment, but there was no sign of her.
Returning to the house, he checked the spare bedroom, hoping to find her there asleep, but it was empty.
Hesitantly, he opened her bedroom door and peered inside. Gabriel lay on the bed, as still as death.
Shutting the door, Maurice went to the entry hall. The front door was closed, locked from the inside.
Where was she? With a low groan of despair, he sank down on the sofa, his head cradled in his hands. Where was she?
And what would Gabriel do when he woke and discovered she was gone?
He woke in the hour before dusk. Lying there, still weak, he sent his thoughts to search for Sara, and knew, in that moment, that she was gone.
"Maurice!" The word was a cry of rage, a scream of primal fear.
It vibrated off the walls, shook the glass in the windows, and filled Maurice with a quiet sense of doom.
On legs that trembled so violently he could hardly stand, he walked to the bedroom, took a deep breath, and opened the door.
Gabriel sat up, his back propped against the headboard. "Where is she?"
Maurice shook his head. "I don't know."
"Damn you! I told you to watch her for me."
"I... she was in the kitchen, cooking. I... I fell asleep. When I woke up, she was gone."
Gabriel glared at Delacroix. It had been days since he fed; the lust for blood was strong, and growing stronger. "Come here."
Maurice took a wary step backward. "No."
"You will not like what happens if I have to ask you again."
On legs that felt like stone, Maurice approached the side of the bed. He tried not to look at Gabriel, but the vampire's gaze burned into his, hot and bright and hungry.
Slowly, Gabriel swung his legs over the edge of the mattress, his gaze fixed on Delacroix. "Sit here, beside me."
Maurice didn't want to obey, but he seemed to have no will of his own. Like a puppet whose strings had been cut, he sat down beside the vampire, his heart pounding so rapidly, so loudly, he wondered if he was going to die. And then he saw the blood lust blazing in Gabriel's eyes, and a short, hysterical laugh bubbled from his lips. Of course he was going to die.
Have you ever thought of being dinner?
Nausea roiled through Maurice as the memory of Gabriel's voice asking that question echoed in the back of his mind.
"You're going to kill me?" There was no fear in Maurice's voice now, only a distant feeling of calm, a sense of facing the inevitable.
"No, but I need your blood, Delacroix. I haven't fed in several days, and I don't have time to prowl the streets looking for someone else."
"Will I become..." Maurice swallowed hard, the thought of becoming a vampire more frightening than the specter of death.
"No."
Maurice flinched as Gabriel's hands fastened on his shoulders, anchoring him in place. The vampire's eyes seemed to burn a path to his soul. Fear