Dark Legend Page 0,4

"It wouldn't hurt to do a checkup at the hospital. Really, it would only take a minute."

Gabriel shook his head slowly in protest. She smelled good. Fresh. Clean. He was too weak even to clean himself up. It embarrassed him that she would see him in such a state. She was so beautiful, shining from the inside out.

She parked in an area where it appeared hundreds of contraptions like hers were sitting empty. "I'll be right back. Don't try to get out, it's a waste of your energy. This will just take a minute." She touched his shoulder, a small gesture meant to reassure. Immediately he felt the strange lightening of his heavy burden.

The moment she was gone he was assailed by hunger that clawed at his insides, demanding he feed. He could barely breathe. His heart was beating very slowly: one beat, a miss and another beat. His body cried out for blood. For nourishment. Screamed for it. He needed. That was all. So simple. He needed. Craved. Needed. It blended together into one desire.

He smelled it. Fresh. Heard it. Yet he smelled her, too, and her nearness helped to overcome the roaring in his head. His gut clenched, knotted. A male walked beside her. This one was different from the last. This man was young and he was looking at Francesca as if she were the sun, the moon and the stars. Every few steps the young man's body would brush Francesca's. Something wicked, something deep within him lifted its head and snarled with unexpected dislike. His prey. No one had the right to stand so close to her. She was his. He had marked her for himself. The thought came unbidden and at once he was ashamed. Still, he didn't like the male standing so close to her and it took every ounce of his discipline to keep from leaping on the man and devouring him there on the spot.

"Brice, I have to get home. This gentleman needs help. I don't have time to talk right now. I just stopped by for a few supplies."

Brice Renaldo put his hand on her arm to stop her. "I need you to look at a patient for me, Francesca. A little girl. It won't take that long."

"Not now, I'll come back later tonight." Francesca's voice was soft but very firm.

Brice tightened his grip, intending to pull her back, but as he did so, he felt something moving along his skin. Looking down he saw several small spiders with vicious-looking fangs crawling along his arm. With an oath he let go of Francesca and shook his arm hard. The spiders were gone as if they'd never been and Francesca was already walking quickly to her side of the car. She was looking at him as if he were a nut. He started to explain but when he couldn't see any evidence of spiders, he decided it wasn't worth the trouble.

Brice hurried to the car, deliberately taking her arm again, bending low to peer in the window at Gabriel. His mouth immediately twisted in a disgusted grimace. "My God, Francesca, where do you find these bums?"

"Brice!" Francesca pulled her arm away from him with a small, very feminine gesture of annoyance. "You can be so callous sometimes." She lowered her voice, but Gabriel, with his superior hearing, heard the exchange quite clearly. "Just because someone is old or has no money does not make him useless or a murderer. That is the reason we never quite make it, Brice. You have no compassion for people."

"What do you mean, no compassion?" Brice protested. "There's a little girl who never did anyone any harm suffering and I'm doing everything I can to help her."

Francesca moved around him when he would have stopped her, and slid behind the wheel of her car. "Later this evening. I promise I'll look at the little girl tonight for you." She started the car.

"You're not taking that old man home, are you?" Brice demanded in spite of her admonishment. "You'd better be taking him to the shelter. He's dirty and probably covered with fleas. You don't know the first thing about him. I mean it, Francesca, don't you dare take him home with you."

Francesca gave him one haughty little frown before she drove away without a backward glance. "Pay no attention to Brice. He's a very good doctor, but he likes to think he can tell me what to do." She glanced at her silent companion. He was hunched