Incipient A Dark Paranormal Romance - Bianca Scardoni Page 0,67
Now.”
He straightened, keeping his back to me as though he couldn’t even handle looking at me. “The bloodlust is too…strong. And you’re scent…” He trailed off, unable to bring himself to finish.
But I didn’t need him to. I knew what he was saying.
Tasting my blood last night had opened a pandora-sized box of shit neither of us were equipped to handle. Gabriel was a virgin to human blood. That alone would give him zero ability to control his bloodlust. He didn’t have the experience or the tolerance to fight the cravings. Add Slayer blood into the mix…well, that was a recipe for disaster.
“This is all my fault. I don’t know what I was thinking.” I shook my head, horrified with myself for not seeing this coming a mile away. In my defense, I wasn’t exactly thinking straight while Dominic’s compulsion was crawling through my brain. All I wanted to do was make the pain go away—make his voice go away. I probably would’ve sold my first-born child to make it stop if given the opportunity.
“Tell me what to do. How do I fix this?” I asked gently, taking a cautious step toward him though making sure to keep my hands to myself and not to enter his personal space this time.
“You can’t.” He pushed his hand through his short black hair and shook his head. “This is not your battle.”
I supposed it wasn’t—I couldn’t exactly fight the cravings for him no matter how guilty I felt or how much I wanted to take his suffering away. “How can I help then?” I asked instead. There had to be something I could do that would ease his pain. “Do you want me to take a trip to the butcher?” That was the only place in town I knew of that could get you a full supply of animal blood. I’d make the trip ten times over if I thought it would help.
“I already have what I need,” he said and slowly turned around. I immediately noticed the purple coloring under his eyes as though the delicate skin there were beginning to bruise. His jaw was set tight and his hands were balled into a fist. “It’s not…enough anymore.”
The animal blood was not enough to satiate his appetite anymore. Fuck. This was really not good.
Weary of the microscopically thin line I was broaching, I asked, “Should I get some donor blood for you?” Bagged human blood, that is. I wasn’t sure when the last time Gabriel had donor blood, if ever, or if I was making a horrible mistake suggesting it, but I didn’t know what else to do at that point. The damage had already been done.
“I have that as well.” He lowered his eyes in shame.
“Oh.” My heart sank for him. “And it’s not…helping?”
He shook his head sharply.
I swallowed the knot in my throat and stared at him for a moment. “How about my blood then? Would that help?”
His gaze darted back up to mine, the green of his eyes disappearing again at just the mention of my blood. Something was telling me I’d just tripped over that microscopic line and fell flat on my face.
“You should leave,” he gritted out, his knuckles turning white as he tightened his fists. “Leave now, Jemma.” The urgency in his voice should have sent me running for the door, but it didn’t.
I couldn’t leave him like this. He was my friend—my Handler.
“You can’t hurt me, Gabriel. I’m protected, remember? Let me help you.” I started toward the kitchen but then froze at the sound of his fangs clicking out. Normally that sound excited me, but with Gabriel it was different. He didn’t have the control or experience that Dominic had. And I wasn’t in love with him the way I was with Dominic.
“Don’t move,” he warned lowly.
The hair on the back of my neck stood up as I stared into the kitchen. “Gabriel?”
“If you run, I will hunt you.”
Panic gripped my insides as I realized he wasn’t threatening me. He was warning me. Moving swiftly or worse, running, would elicit his prey-predator instincts—something he had no control over. I had intended on getting a small knife from the kitchen to draw out a little blood for him, but I was seriously doubting that was even remotely a possibility now, or a good idea for that matter.
In fact, I was seriously doubting any of this was a good idea.
“You should’ve left,” he said beside my ear, standing behind me now.