Christine Feehan: Dark Legend (Dark Series - Book 8)

Gabriel came down the stairs. Glided. Flowed. He moved with the grace of a large jungle cat, powerful muscles rippling beneath the thin silk of his shirt. “Thank you so much for bringing her home. I was beginning to worry,” Gabriel said smoothly. His voice was velvet soft, gentle, impossible to ignore. It paved the way for whatever compulsion he chose to implant in his listener’s mind.

Gabriel moved right up to Francesca, ignoring her little feminine retreat. His hand closed over her wrist, drew her beneath his wide shoulder. “You stayed out all night, sweetheart, you must be exhausted. I hope she was able to help your patient.” His arm slipped possessively around Francesca’s shoulders, firmly anchoring her to him.

If she struggled or protested, she would be placing Brice in an untenable position. He would feel he ought to come to her defense and there was no one on this earth, she believed, who could successfully defeat Gabriel, unless it was his fallen twin Lucian.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

she demanded, using their mind merge to chastise him. He was tall, his strength enormous. He made her feel small and delicate when she was not that at all. He made her feel vulnerable.

“Who are you?” Brice asked uneasily.

“He senses your fear, Francesco. Do not make me do something you will have a difficult time forgiving.” “Don’t you dare hurt him.”

“I am Gabriel.” Gabriel thrust out his hand toward Brice, as friendly as a full-grown panther. He looked elegant. He looked dangerous. He looked untamed. He looked very courtly and old-fashioned with his thick flowing hair caught at the nape of his neck by a leather thong.

Brice shook the offered hand, uncertain how to handle the situation. Francesca wasn’t giving him any cues. Her young face looked stiff and frightened, her eyes enormous, deliberately avoiding his questioning gaze. She remained nestled beneath Gabriel’s shoulder and looked very much as if she belonged there. Certainly there was no mistaking the possessive way Gabriel touched her, the warning in his eyes when he looked at Brice. Gabriel was letting him know, man to man, that Gabriel considered Francesca his and wouldn’t allow any other man in her life. It was in his very body posture as he sheltered Francesca’s slender feminine frame against his own muscular one.

“I guess you know who I am,” Brice said grimly. The stranger reeked of danger. It clung to him, emanated from him. And Francesca just stood there silently, helplessly, as if she had no idea what to do.

Fully aware of the imminent rising of the sun, Gabriel was moving her up the stairs, his larger, heavier frame urging her smaller one toward the door. Francesca went only because Gabriel gave her no real choice in the matter. If she protested in any way, she would be putting Brice in a terrible position. She forced a smile. “I’ll talk to you this evening, Brice.”

“Do not count too heavily on it.”

Francesca continued the charade with a halfhearted wave before she ducked beneath Gabriel’s arm into the safety of the house. “How

dare

you interfere in my life?” Adrenaline was surging through her veins. She paced across the floor, back and forth in quick, hurried steps, betraying her frame of mind. She couldn’t have stayed still if she had wanted to.

Calling on the patience born of a thousand battles, Gabriel watched her through half-closed eyes, his body as still as the mountains. “You are extremely angry with me.” He said it very softly without a hint of expression.

Her black eyes flashed fire at him, and she swung her head so that her hair flared out like a thick curtain of silk. At once his body reacted. She was intensely beautiful, every movement sensual. “Don’t do that, Gabriel. Don’t start patronizing me. You are nothing to me, nothing in my life. I helped out a fellow Carpathian, that’s the extent of what is between us. It was my duty, no more, no less.”

“You sound as though you are trying to convince yourself, Francesca.” He tilted his head, regarding her steadily. “You were going to invite that man into your house.”

“That man is my friend,” she pointed out. He didn’t blink. Not once. He just watched her. Francesca found it very disconcerting. He was as still as a statue, looking lazy yet dangerous, and the longer he stood there, the faster her heart beat. He had some kind of power over her. It was because he was her lifemate. She was still Carpathian enough to realize his soul cried out to hers. So did his body. She could feel it, the hunger, the desire washing through her with a slow molten burn. Carefully she averted her eyes, staring at the carpet beneath her feet instead of at his fascinating body.

“Francesca.” He said her name softly. Gently. His accent was very Old World and produced an unfamiliar fluttering in her heart. His voice was so beautiful and pure, she felt a compulsion to look up at him but she kept her eyes cast resolutely downward.

Intellectually, Francesca knew Gabriel was an extremely powerful being. His voice was compelling, his eyes mesmerizing. Because he was her true lifemate, it would be even more difficult for her to resist him, but she had no choice. “I have lived my life, Gabriel. I no longer wish to continue my existence. I certainly do not want to start over with an entirely different lifestyle. I’ve been alone, made my own decisions all these long centuries. I could never be happy being dictated to by a male. You can’t ask me to change what I’ve become by your own decree. Tell me, will you still devote yourself to destroying your twin?”

“That is my duty, my vow to fulfill.”

Francesca sighed with relief. She was extremely tired, her body once again feeling the enervating effects of the sun as it began to climb. “We have nothing further to discuss.”

“If I had not aided you while you healed that child, you would never have had the strength to make it out of the sun.” He said the words as he said everything, with no inflection, yet she felt the weight of his censure.

Deliberately she shrugged, a careless movement of her shoulders. “It didn’t matter in the least to me whether I did or didn’t. I have said it more than once and I don’t wish to repeat myself continually.”

“You leave me no choice but to bind you to me.” Actually, he had intended to do so from the moment he’d realized she belonged with him. For two thousand years he had not

lived,

he had merely

existed

in a dark, ugly world. It was completely different now. Everything. Emotions. Colors. Francesca. He had thought to court her first, she certainly deserved that much. But if her life was at risk, he would wait no longer.

She looked at him, her eyes like black opals, beautiful and glittering. “It won’t matter, Gabriel. I won’t hesitate to go to the dawn. I won’t be responsible for your life. If you make the decision to bind us, it is your decision alone. I refuse to be a part of it. If you choose to follow me when I go, so be it. But my life will be

my

choice.”

Gabriel touched her mind; her resolve was genuine. She meant every word she said. “Francesca, tell me about your relationship with this doctor. How far has it gone?”

She curled up in a deep cushioned chair. “I’m not sure what you want to know. I haven’t slept with him if that’s what you mean. He wants to. I think he’d like to marry me. I

know

he would like to marry me.” She hesitated a moment before admitting the rest. “I’ve considered it.”

His eyebrow shot up. “And you allowed a human to develop such a strong attachment to you?”

“Why not? My lifemate rejected me and later I believed him to be dead. I had every right to find affection if I desired it,” she replied without remorse.