Part 20 (2/2)
The door was barely open a crack before Megan pushed inside, her boyfriend, still in uniform, right behind her.
”Holy s.h.i.+t, Gabby! Do you have any idea how worried I've been? Why haven't you returned my calls?” She pulled her into a fierce hug, then released her, only to frown at Gabrielle like a frantic mother hen. ”You look tired. Have you been crying? Where have you-”
Megan broke off abruptly, her eyes, and Ray's, catching a sudden glimpse of Lucan in the middle of the living room behind Gabrielle.
”Oh... I didn't realize you had someone here... .”
”Everything okay here?” Ray asked, stepping past the two women and letting his hand rest lightly on his holstered weapon.
”Fine. Everything's fine,” Gabrielle quickly replied. She held her hand out toward Lucan. ”This is, uh... a friend of mine.”
”Going somewhere?” Megan's boyfriend strolled forward, and gestured to the stuffed duffel bag that lay on the floor beside Lucan's feet.
”Um, yeah,” Gabrielle interjected, walking swiftly past Ray and putting herself between him and Lucan. ”I've been a little shaken up tonight. I thought I'd go to a hotel and chill out. Lucan stopped by to give me a ride.”
”Huh.” Ray was trying to peer around her to where Lucan remained rudely stoic and silent. Lucan's scathing stare said he had already sized up the young cop-and dismissed him in that same instant.
”I wish you hadn't come, you guys,” Gabrielle said. And that was the G.o.d's honest truth. ”Really, you don't have to stay.”
Megan walked over and took Gabrielle's hand protectively in hers. ”Ray and I were hoping you'd consider coming with us to the police station, honey. It's important. I'm sure your friend would agree with us. You're the detective Gabby's mentioned, right?
I'm Meg.”
Lucan s.h.i.+fted a step. The small movement brought him right up in front of Megan and Ray. It was such a slight flex of muscle, so fast, time seemed to slow around him. Gabrielle saw him take those handful of impossibly quick strides, but her friends blinked and found Lucan standing in their faces, crowding them with his ma.s.sive size and a menace that vibrated in the air around him.
Without any warning at all, he lifted his right hand and took Megan by the forehead.
”Lucan, no!”
Meg cried out, a half-uttered noise that died in her throat as she stared into Lucan's eyes. With viper speed, he reached out with his left hand and clamped Ray in a similar hold. The officer struggled for a mere second before his face drooped into a trancelike stupor. Lucan's strong, clutching fingers seemed to be all that was holding the pair upright.
”Lucan, please! I'm begging you!”
”Get the memory sticks and the duffel bag,” he told her, his voice calm. Coldly commanding. ”I have a car waiting outside. Get in, and wait for me. I'll be right out.”
”I'm not going leave you here to bleed my friends dry.”
”If that had been my intent, they'd already be dead on the floor.” He was right. G.o.d, but she had no doubt that this man-this dark being she had admitted into her life-was dangerous enough to do just that.
But he hadn't. And he wouldn't; she trusted that much about him.
”The pictures, Gabrielle. Now.”
She jolted into action, hefting the bulky duffel bag over her shoulder and dropping the two flash drives into the front pocket of her jeans. On the way out, she paused to look at Megan's blank face. Her eyes were closed now, as were Ray's. Lucan was murmuring something to them in a voice so low she could hardly hear it.
The tone of his words didn't sound threatening, but oddly soothing, persuasive. Almost lulling.
With one last glance at the bizarre scene taking place in her living room, Gabrielle dashed out the open front door and down onto the street. A sleek sedan waited at the curb, parallel parked in front of Ray's red Mustang. It was an expensive vehicle-incredibly expensive, from the looks of it-and the only other car around.
As she approached, the front pa.s.senger door opened as if it had been willed to do so.
Willed by the sheer strength of Lucan's mind, she knew, wondering just how far his preternatural powers might reach.
She slid into the deep leather seat and closed the door. Not two seconds later, Megan and Ray appeared on her front stoop.
They calmly walked down the steps and right past her on the sidewalk, eyes straight ahead of them, neither of them saying a word.
Lucan was directly behind them. He closed the apartment door and came around the car where Gabrielle waited. He climbed in, stuck a key in the ignition, and started the Maybach's engine.
”Not a good idea to leave these behind,” he said, dropping her purse and camera bag into her lap.
Gabrielle stared at him across the subtly lit c.o.c.kpit of the vehicle. ”You did some kind of mind control on them, like you've tried to do with me before.”
”I suggested to your friends that they had never been at your apartment tonight.”
”You erased their memory?”
He inclined his head in a vague nod. ”They won't recall anything about this evening, or your having been at Megan's apartment last night after the Minion's attack on you. Their minds are no longer burdened with any of it.”
”You know, right now, that sounds pretty d.a.m.n good. So, what do you say, Lucan? Will you do me next? You can start erasing right before I made the terrible decision to go to that nightclub a couple of weeks ago.”
He held her gaze, but she didn't feel him so much as trying to get into her head. ”You aren't like those two humans, Gabrielle.
Even if I wanted to, I couldn't change any of the things that have happened to you. Your mind is stronger than most. In many ways, you are... different from most.”
”Gee, I feel so lucky.”
”The best place for you now is with us, where the Breed will protect you as one of our own. We have a secured compound in the city. You can stay there to start.”
She frowned. ”What, you're offering me the vampire equivalent of the Witness Protection Program?”
”It's a bit more than that.” He turned his head, looking out through the winds.h.i.+eld. ”And it is the only way.” Lucan hit the gas and the sleek black car shot up the narrow road with a low, silky growl. Clutching the leather seat on the pa.s.senger side, Gabrielle swung her head around to watch as darkness slowly swallowed up her residential block on Willow Street.
As the distance grew wider, she saw the vague silhouettes of Megan and Ray getting into his Mustang to leave her apartment, none the wiser. Gabrielle felt a sudden jolt of panic that made her want to leap out of the car and run back to them, back to her old life.
Too late.
She knew that.
This new reality had her in a tight grasp, and she didn't think there would be any turning back, only a steady march forward. She turned away from the rear window and sank into the seat 's b.u.t.ter-soft leather, staring straight ahead as Lucan wheeled sharply around the corner and drove her deep into the night.
CHAPTER Twenty
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