and hard where Sara's was warm and filled with life. Heartsick that he must leave her behind, he fell into step beside Nina.
"No!" Sara's voice cut across the stillness of the night. "You can't have him! He's mine."
Nina whirled around, her face contorted with rage. "You dare defy me?"
Sara shook her head, frightened by the rage in the vampire woman's eyes.
"Then be still, mortal, before I destroy you."
"You will not touch her," Gabriel said, his hand tightening on Nina's. "Remember yourpromise."
"Gabriel, why are you going with her?"
"He's mine now," Nina said triumphantly. "He has vowed to be my slave for as long as he survives."
"No! He loves me."
"Love has nothing to do with our bargain," Nina retorted, her voice filled with disdain. "Now be gone before I destroy you."
"Is this what you want, Gabriel?" Sara asked.
"Yes."
"You're lying! You love me, not her."
"Nina spoke the truth, cara. Love has nothing to do with our bargain." But that, too, was a lie. Love had everything to do with it, his love for Sara.
"Come, Giovanni," Nina said, tugging on his hand. "I grow weary of this conversation."
"Gabriel, don't leave me!"
"I'm afraid I must," he said bitterly. "My mistress calls, and I must obey."
Sara knew suddenly what he had done; he had forfeited his freedom to spare her life. Had he been a mortal man, with a normal span of years, it would have been a sacrifice of untold worth, but Gabriel was a vampire. Thousands of years stretched before him, making his sacrifice beyond comprehension. She let her mind meld with his, felt the anger surging through him because Nina had the upper hand. She felt his anguish at losing her, his revulsion at the thought of spending endless nights as Nina's slave, swallowing his pride while she bent his will to hers.
Sara watched Gabriel turn away to follow Nina, and in that instant she knew she could not let him do it. Better she should forfeit the remainder of her short span of life than allow the man she loved with all her heart and soul to spend an eternity as a slave to this heartless vampire.
"No, Gabriel," she cried, and running after him, she wrenched his hand from Nina's. "I won't let you spend the rest of your life with this horrible woman on my account."
"You cannot stop him!" Nina cried, and summoning her revenant power, she lashed out at Sara, her hand striking her across the face, hurling Sara backward so that she fell against an ancient tombstone.
"Leave her alone!" Gabriel roared.
But Nina ignored him. She stared at Sara, the hatred blazing out of her eyes, burning into Sara's like a living flame.
Sara screamed and shielded her eyes as pain lashed through her.
Gabriel stood where he was, watching Nina's fury build, until every ounce of her energy was focused on the girl writhing helplessly on the ground. And then, with Sara's cries ringing in his ears, he picked up a splintered piece of wood and walked toward Nina. The wood seared his flesh, and he realized in some dim corner of his mind that it had once been a part of a cross.
But the pain scorching his hand was insignificant. His only thought was to put an end to Sara's agony.
"Nina."
He spoke her name quietly, yet it echoed like thunder in the stillness. Face contorted with anger, she whirled around to confront him, and he drove the stake through her heart.
For a moment that seemed to stretch into eternity, Nina stared up at him, her mouth open in a soundless cry of surprise, and then a torrent of blood spewed from her lips and she slowly spiraled to the ground.
In the space of a heartbeat, Gabriel was at Sara's side, drawing her into his arms, whispering her name over and over again. She huddled against him, sobs racking her body from head to heel, while he rocked her back and forth, one hand stroking her hair.
After a long while, she lay still in his embrace, her eyes closed, her arms wrapped tightly around his waist. Only then did he glance over his shoulder. There was no sign of Nina save for a handful of ashes, and even as he watched, a gust of wind caught them up and carried them away, so that nothing at all remained.
PART One Chapter Twenty-eight
Gabriel checked into the first hotel he saw. Fixing the desk clerk with a hard stare that proscribed any questions, he demanded a room, warned that they were not to be