Chapter 19
Vega adjusted her sweater and pants, fighting the heat flooding her cheeks. She wasn’t embarrassed or anything but…what had happened was wholly unexpected. Not to mention insane timing. She wasn’t sure what had driven her to act so rashly when they should have been trying to get the hell out of here.
Okay that was a lie. After she’d drunk from Gabriel she’d wanted to keep drinking, to keep taking from him as pleasure had infused her. She’d never experienced anything like that in the past when she’d taken blood from someone.
Gabriel reached for her again, his big hands settling on her hips in a possessive manner she liked way too much. “I’ve never had a vampire drink from me before.”
Technically she was a hybrid but she knew what he meant. “Yeah…I, uh, I’ve never felt like that when drinking from someone.”
“Turned on?”
“Yes.” It had been a heady experience.
“I hate to say this, but we need to get out of here. Whatever is going on…” Shaking his head, he looked around again but didn’t take his grip off her.
A shiver of cold snaked through her as she looked up at the walls of the cave. “We could climb out.” But the thought of trying to claw their way through however many feet of dirt and rock? Yeah, not feeling really great about that. Especially since they’d be doing it with very little traction or support, given the sharp angle of the cave walls. Surprised at the cold, she wrapped her arms around herself.
When she shivered again Gabriel pulled her into his arms. “We’re going to get out of this mess,” he murmured. “At least the voice has been quiet.”
Nodding, she bundled closer to him, enveloped in his warmth. “I’m surprised by how cold it is in here.” More importantly, she was surprised she was affected by it.
Gabriel shifted against her and buried his face against her neck. The action seemed so instinctual that she arched into him even as she ached for him. For more of this. Them. She couldn’t believe they’d gone from well, nothing, to this. Not that she was certain she knew what this was. Abruptly she stepped back.
“What is it?” he demanded.
She let out a curse and reached into her back pocket. The necklace August had given her was still there. She’d tucked it into her pants during the hunt for Carson because she hadn’t wanted to leave it behind and it would have broken if she’d left it on during her shift. She’d lost her phone, probably on the forest floor before they’d been pulled into this place, but the necklace was still there. Grimacing when she saw that it was more or less destroyed, she let out another curse. This was not good.
“Where’d you get that necklace? Did a male give it to you?” Gabriel’s voice was neutral enough but his wolf flashed in his eyes and stayed there.
She blinked once. “Are you jealous?”
“Yes.”
Maybe she shouldn’t be surprised by his honesty but she sort of was. This was a whole new side to Gabriel. “August gave this to me as a sort of failsafe—”
“It had a panic button,” he said before she could even finish. And he wasn’t asking. So he was at least familiar with this type of thing.
“Yes and I’m pretty sure it was activated.” Which meant there could be a whole mess of stuff going on with Judoc and his packmates right now. She refused to think about that, however, because she needed to compartmentalize and their only goal was to get out of this cave. And you know, figure out what the hell was going on.
“We’ll worry about that later. You ready to climb?” he asked, watching her closely.
She had no idea what to make of his look, if anything. “Yeah. How should we do this? Go at the same time or should one of us wait while the other climbs?”
“I’ll go first,” he said, still holding on to her.
And wow, did she like it. She wanted to argue but decided to just let him go. Right now they needed to work as a team and she could let him take charge. “Okay.”
Surprising her, he brushed his lips over hers oh so gently, before he stepped back and moved toward the nearest wall. Another chill slid against her, making her wrap her arms around herself as he released his claws and jumped high into the air, grasping onto a ledge far above him.
Or at least tried to.
Her heart leapt into her throat as he couldn’t gain any traction and fell back to the earth with a thud.
Though she knew he was fine, she immediately stepped toward him.
“It’s iced over,” he growled without looking at her. Instead he reached out and slammed his claws against the wall. Then winced.
She did the same and couldn’t make a dent. That was when she noticed little ice crystals forming along the wall—and on her sweater. Her teeth chattered slightly as she said, “Not to be a whiner but holy shit it’s cold in here.”
Jaw clenched tight, he nodded. “This isn’t normal.”
As a full-on shudder racked her body, little flames danced along her fingertips. She couldn’t remember being this cold in her life. To be fair, she rarely got cold because of her nature. But this… Her teeth chattered as she tried to order the fire under control.
Gabriel’s eyes widened. “That’s new.”
She was glad he didn’t overreact. Of course he wouldn’t—the male seemed to take everything in stride. “Yeah… It’s been happening on and off for the last year. I don’t know what it is.” Except that it was weird. Because vampires and fire didn’t mix. Only she wasn’t a full vampire.
“It’s pretty fucking awesome,” he murmured. “Try it on the wall. See if you can melt the ice any.”
Trying to ignore the chill invading her veins, Vega held her hand up and concentrated but wasn’t sure she was doing anything right…because she wasn’t certain what the hell this was. It didn’t feel like a gift she could do much with. More like a little tingling of power sparking, but nothing else. It was so new it was hard to tell, however. She hadn’t had her psychic gift since she was born either; it had developed in her teens. And it had taken six or so years to completely develop.
The ice glistening over the cave wall started to melt—only to ice right back over.
And with it, a wave of cold wrapped around her like a thick blanket, chilling her to the bone. Her teeth started to chatter as she moved closer to Gabriel.
“Whoever’s calling out to you,” he gritted out, clearly affected by the cold too, “is likely doing this to drive us to that opening.”
Swallowing hard, she nodded and scratched the back of her neck. A little tingling had been bothering her there since…well, since her orgasm. Ignoring the prickle against her upper spine, she burrowed closer into him. “We can’t climb out…and my fire isn’t doing much… Should we take the exit provided?” It felt stupid to walk into it but what else could they do?
The voice wanted them to leave, wanted them somewhere else, so at least they knew there was a potential trap and would be able to fight against it. Or they could sit here and turn to ice pops.
Before he answered, the temperature seemed to drop another twenty degrees. Little ice crystals formed on his dark lashes and she actually felt her heart rate slowing. Even breathing in burned her lungs. Yep, no way this was normal.
Simply nodding, he wrapped an arm around her, whether for body heat or because he wanted her close, and they started toward the exit.
It seemed to take forever, her steps as sluggish as her heartbeat. Each inhale was like she’d swallowed sharp shards of ice until finally a wave of warmth rolled over them as they neared the exit.
Only ten feet to go and it felt like they were crossing the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway. She could feel the nearby heat, as it called to her like a siren’s song. Warmth started spreading through her fingers and face as they stepped through the entryway into a…tunnel.
She hadn’t been sure if it would be another cave but apparently not. Though this tunnelway probably led to another cave—or hopefully an exit topside. Somehow she doubted that, but a girl could hope. She wasn’t even certain that they were only underground and not in some other realm. But for now, that was what she was going to assume.
As they stepped into the tunnel fully, warmth infused her entire body. She went to step away from Gabriel, but he held her close. Okay, then. She certainly wasn’t going to fight him. Not when he felt so good.
Little lights flashed on overhead, but it was nothing manmade. They looked like little glowworms.
“So are we going to talk about that whole ‘fire with your fingers’ thing?” Gabriel asked as they cautiously moved through the tunnel.
“I honestly don’t know what to say. It’s kinda like the psychic connection I have with my mom, and now how I can get into other people’s dreams. It just started one day and I wasn’t even aware I was controlling it. Now I only sort of control it. When we were in that hotel room and you kissed me abruptly in front of Judoc, my fingers basically lit up. I think it was an uncontrolled reaction but I was able to get it to stop.”
“Anything else new that you can do?”
“No. But that doesn’t mean anything. I’m still pretty young.”
He nodded once, his expression thoughtful. “I didn’t gain the ability to bend the shadows to my will until I was about fifty.”
“How old are you now anyway, grandpa?”
He snorted. “If we make it out of here I’ll tell you.”
“Damn. That old, huh?”
Gabriel simply shook his head, fighting a smile. “We are going to get out of here, you know that.”
“I know. And I’m going to rip Carson’s face off.”
He let out a startled laugh. “I didn’t realize you were so bloodthirsty.”
“Normally I’m not, but hey, I am a hybrid. I guess it’s in my nature. Plus he really pissed me off.”
“I think Judoc likely locked him down. There’s no way that wolf escaped from this territory. Or I’d be very surprised if he did,” Gabriel said.
“If he did, we’ll just hunt him down. I really hope that I didn’t accidentally activate the panic button.” That was her main worry and she was pretty certain she had. Because if August and the others decided to infiltrate this territory, now of all times, she wasn’t sure how well that would go down if they got caught. And if anything happened to them, that would be on her conscience forever.
“Judoc doesn’t kill people for sport. If your team did infiltrate his territory,” Gabriel said, clearly guessing her thoughts, “unless they were overtly violent, and I don’t see that happening, they’ll be alive. Maybe worse for the wear and in a cell, but alive.”
Okay, that would have to do for now. “When I was in college, I used to write you letters,” Vega said abruptly. There were more than a few things she wanted to tell him, especially since things had changed between them.
He shot her a sideways glance. “What do you mean?”
“When I was bored in class—because I’d already read ahead five or ten chapters—I would type you notes on my laptop instead of actually paying attention.”
He let out an incredulous laugh.
“What?” she asked, frowning. It wasn’t that big of a deal, was it?
“Back home I have a stack of about a hundred handwritten letters to you. When I left my post in New Orleans, I continued writing them. But when we were basically living together at the pack’s house, I wrote you letters often. It was my way of getting some shit out of my head when I couldn’t tell you how I felt.”
She was silent for a long moment as they continued down the winding tunnelway. “Do you think that you ended up fighting this thing with me, with us, pointlessly? Because right now it kinda feels like we were meant to be together.”
“A magic man once told me that fighting destiny was a fruitless endeavor,” he said, and then just stopped talking. Apparently that was all he was going to say on that.
She’d take it. For now. Because the main priority was getting the hell out of here alive.
“What if we’re walking in a giant circle?” she muttered after five minutes of walking the curving tunnelway. “And eventually those little glowworms are going to attack. Because they’re really radiation-filled glowworms doing the bidding of…whoever the voice is. She’s trying to wear us down, first with the cold cave, and now from fucking boredom. And that’s when they’ll attack.”
Gabriel sorta snort-laughed. “You’re ridiculous.”
“I know, but come on… How crazy would it be if glowworms attacked when we least expected it?”
He laughed even harder, his expression softening in a way she’d never seen it as he looked over at her. His green eyes were filled with warmth and…she didn’t even know what. The only thing she knew was that she definitely wanted to see this side of him more often. As in, always. Because damn.
“Fucking glowworms,” he muttered to himself a few minutes later as they were still walking.
As they rounded yet another corner, that little itching on the back of her upper spine was back. Annoyed, she reached back and scratched it again.
“You okay?”
“Yeah. Just itchy.” She shot him a sideways glance. “Maybe the glowworms have started their attack already.”
Rolling his eyes, he reached out and rubbed the back of her neck. “That better?” The low tone of his voice rolled over her, sending shivers rolling through her.
“Mmm hmm.”
“You get a tattoo?” he asked as they came to a split in the entryway. The lights overhead all shifted right instead of left.
Pausing at the fork, she shook her head, wanting to savor the sensation of his hand resting so protectively against the back of her neck. Clearly they’d lost their minds earlier, and she knew a replay wasn’t happening anytime soon. But that didn’t mean she couldn’t fantasize about a replay. And hope for one later.
Frowning, he stepped behind her and gently tugged at the top of her sweater, pulling it down a couple inches.
When he swore violently and stepped back, she swiveled to face him. “What’s wrong?”
The muscles in his neck worked as his jaw clenched—as if he couldn’t talk. Finally he turned around and tugged down his own pullover.
Frowning, she leaned closer, inhaling his spicy, masculine scent even as she did. Her eyes glowed bright enough in the dimness that she didn’t actually need the overhead lights to see anything. Her frown deepened as she looked at the tattoo on his upper back. It was a Celtic symbol and she was pretty certain it had something to do with life, death and rebirth.
“You got a tattoo?” She wasn’t sure why he was even showing her, or why he seemed to be having trouble talking.
“It’s not a tattoo,” he rasped out as he turned around. Gone was the relaxed male from earlier, replaced by this fierce, angry wolf. “It’s a mating symbol. You have one too. We’re mated.”
She blinked. “That’s…not possible. It’s just not! We haven’t even had sex.”
“That doesn’t seem to matter. You orgasmed and bit me at the same time. And you’re psychic so…maybe…fuuuuck. I don’t know!” Growling, he shoved a hand through his hair. “This can’t be happening.”
“Yeah, well it is. It has.” And she wasn’t sure how she felt about it. At all.
But she knew that she didn’t like the way Gabriel appeared to be having a full-on panic attack. Okay, that was an exaggeration but his face had flushed red and he…didn’t look too good.
So she punched him in the chest.
His head snapped up as he met her gaze. “What the hell was that for?”
“You looked like a freaking cartoon, like steam was about to start coming out of your ears.”
Gabriel sucked in a deep breath and seemed to center himself. “I’m processing this.”
“Me too!” And she was definitely going to freak out. But a lot later. Once they were out of this place.
“I know, I’m…” Taking her off guard, he pulled her into his arms.
She moved into his embrace, wrapping her arms around him. She rubbed a hand up and down his spine. “We’ll figure this out.”
“Don’t do that.”
“What?”
“Try to comfort me.”
She pulled back slightly but kept her arms around his waist. “Why not?”
“Because I should be the one comforting you.”
“How about we both comfort each other—and get the hell out of here in one piece.”
Nodding, he glanced at the two tunnelways, his expression turning grim. “Let’s follow those damn lights.”
She nodded even as she tensed, preparing for whatever lay at the end of the tunnel.