Incipient A Dark Paranormal Romance - Bianca Scardoni Page 0,9
knee. “Have you spoken to Dominic since the hospital?”
I shook my head. “He hasn’t reached out yet at all.”
Gabriel’s expression turned worrisome.
“I know, I know,” I said, before he could vocalize what he was obviously thinking. “He’s probably planning something horrible as we speak. With Dominic, no news is definitely bad news.”
“Unfortunately.” My knowledge on the subject did nothing to quell the concern from his expression.
“What am I going to do now?” My eyes stung with hopeless tears that ached to break free, but I refused to let a single one of them fall. Because this wasn’t hopeless. It couldn’t be, and I wasn’t about to sit here and cry about it, or worse, throw in the towel and admit defeat. Not when it came to Dominic.
Swallowing back my sorrow, I looked up and met Gabriel’s eyes. “How do I get him to turn his emotions back on? Would killing his Sire do it?” Frankly, I was just itching for another reason to slay that bitch.
He shook his head and my heart slipped into my stomach once again. “She may have forced him to shut them off, but once he turned them off, they’re off. She has no control over them.”
I swallowed against the knot in my throat. “Can they be turned back on?”
He gave a circular nod, like he couldn’t figure out which way to go with it. “The only way to get them back is try to bring out the human part of him again, but that could take months, years, decades even.”
“Jesus Christ. Decades?”
“I’m not saying it’ll take that long,” he quickly amended. “I’m saying it’s a possibility. It’s different for every Revenant.”
Well, that didn’t really make me feel any better. “So, how do I do it? How do I bring back the human part of him?”
His expression tightened as his gaze fell heavy on my face. “You use any and all emotions against him. Not just love. Use his anger, his jealousy, his pride—every emotion you can think of. If you can make him feel again, then maybe, just maybe, you can bring him back from the void.”
I left Gabriel’s appartement shortly after sundown, feeling only slightly better than when I had arrived there. While I didn’t exactly hear what I’d wanted to hear, at least there was some glimmer of hope—a chance that Dominic’s emotions could be turned back on. And that was better than nothing. Unfortunately for me, it was going to take a lot more than just true love’s kiss to break him out of this spell.
Pulling into Trace’s driveway, I killed the engine and sat there for a moment, staring at the row of garage doors as indecision plagued me. Trace was inside. Alone. Waiting for me. He’d ported Famine and himself to his house after William let him know that he was sending a car to fetch the Horseman.
As much as I didn’t want to be alone at the moment (and definitely not at the Blackburn Estate where I’d stupidly invited Dominic in), I was nervous about seeing Trace. About being alone with him.
The situation between Trace and I was beyond complicated and I didn’t have enough hours in the day to untangle it. Not to mention the fact that Nikki was carrying Lucifer’s child and had managed to convince herself that it was Trace’s. I prayed that my warning earlier had broken through to the sane part of her, but I certainly wasn’t counting on it. The threat of Nikki’s bombshell dropping over Trace’s head was ever present and I couldn’t help but fear how he would react if he ever did find out. And worse, what if I was the one to accidently let it slip out to him, through touch or otherwise?
This was a bad idea.
Too much was at stake to risk being here with him, no matter how safe I felt or how much I wanted to see him.
I started the ignition and put the car in reverse. Before I could remove my foot from the brake pedal, a soft knock rapped on my passenger side window, jolting me in my seat.
“Where are you going?” asked Trace, his voice low and muffled from the glass barrier.
Putting the car back in park, I turned up my nose and rolled down my window. “I was, uh…” Think, Jemma. Think. “I was just going to get some clothes and stuff at my house.”
Disproval marred his gorgeous face and I instantly regretted the lie. “Seriously?”