Chapter Twenty
Angel listened as Gabriel explained the situation with the Malek Taal. When he finished, she sat still in the chair and processed it. She could handle a rogue Taal.
Right?
According to Gabe, he didn’t want to kill her… right?
But the more she allowed herself to think about it, the more she remembered about the Taal – and what she remembered filled her with dread. So she pushed this new problem to the side with quite a bit of mental force and straightened in her chair.
She took a deep breath. “Okay. So there’s a second threat I need to be wary of… but from what you’ve just told me, it doesn’t seem related to the Apex killings.”
“I don’t think it is,” Gabe told her frankly, shaking his handsome head. “But the Vampire King felt it important you be warned about the Taal nonetheless.”
Angel didn’t want to be a pest, so she kept her smartass comment about the irony of the Vampire King’s warning to herself. But it was as if Gabriel could read her mind, because he gave her a slightly exasperated look.
“And as far as the Apex case goes,” he said, returning their discussion to its original parameters. “You know the rules, Angel. Officially this job is no longer ours. It belongs to the Monsters.”
Angel inhaled quickly and started to argue. “But Gabe –”
“I said, ‘officially,’” he went on, signaling with his hand for her to be quiet. “But yes, I saw what you saw.” He took a deep breath and fell silent.
In that silence, Angel found herself hoping against hope that he was going to break the rules for once. That he would give her the okay – under the table – to go after the Apex herself. And that was the only reason she remained quiet. She didn’t want to mess up her chances.
“Letting you take this one on would probably be the dumbest idea I’ve ever had,” said Gabe without looking at her. He was still staring at something in the general vicinity of the floor rather than at her. “Especially with rogue Taal on the rampage. And given your history with….”
“Insane, obsessed bad guys?” Angel supplied, feeling a familiar bitterness creep in.
Gabe shot her a sideways glance before turning away to shove a hand through his hair. “You won’t be in your right mind. The past will screw with you.”
“Gabe, I can’t sit still and do nothing. It’s a ninety-nine percent chance this thing is for some reason focused on me. I’m the only warden living in that area.”
Gabe shot her a surprised look. “How did you know that?”
She smiled. “I didn’t. You just confirmed it for me.”
He exhaled and swore softly.
She went on, all seriousness again. “This thing is either circling in for an attack like a shark, or its trying to get my attention,” she said. “If it’s the former, then I’m in mortal danger, Gabe. And if it’s the latter and I pretend not to notice, the Apex will just up its game.”
“I’ll handle it.”
Angel watched him for a few shocked seconds. “Oh?” she finally asked, bewildered. “How exactly will you do that?” He’d just told them all that the job belonged to the Monsters clan.
“It isn’t your concern,” he said without looking at her.
“Oh, I think it very much is my concern. This creature is gunning for me.”
Gabriel put his hands on his hips and took a deep breath as if preparing for something. He still didn’t look at her, and Angel’s wariness grew. He closed his eyes for a moment and rolled back his shoulders.
Then he asked, “Angel, what aren’t you telling me?”
Angel froze. She blinked a few times and sat back in the metal chair. She put her hands on the arm rests to try and calm her nerves. “What do you mean?”
Gabriel dropped his hands and opened his eyes. He turned the full search beam of his attention on her, leaning over the table to brace himself against it with two strong arms. The color of his beautiful eyes had lightened dramatically, going from amber to citrine that caught the light overhead and focused it like a magnifying glass.
At once and like a slap in the face, Angel remembered where she was. This was the interrogation room. She was in the chair. And Gabriel Santiago was the Vega clan’s best interrogator.
He’d brought her in here on purpose, and not solely because of the Apex job. He was planning on questioning her. He was planning on getting answers out of her. And for that he had her right where he wanted her.
Gabriel waited there a moment, allowing her to fully realize the situation before carefully formulating his words. “You haven’t been sleeping.”
Angel opened her mouth to protest out of general stubbornness, but he held up his hand, silencing her before she’d made a sound. “Don’t insult me by denying it. We’ve already established this much.”
He lifted off the table and circled around it. She watched him come with mounting trepidation. “What you haven’t admitted, but that we both know, is that you’re being haunted. Now. After a decade and a half of flawless work.” He rounded the table and stopped beside her chair, but she refused to look up at him. Instead, she stared at his boots.
“I want to know why, Angel. I want to know why you’re so tired you can barely stay on your feet – yes, I noticed. I want to know why you’re unable to defend yourself when we train. I understand you’ve had no break since the Victor Maze case, but you’ve managed to handle stints like this before.” He leaned down, resting his hands on the arm rests of her chair. “This is different. Something is eating you.” He spun her chair around, scraping its legs on the cement as he did so.
She stifled a cry of surprise and instead chewed on her bottom lip. She could feel it tremble between her teeth.
“I want to know why you’ve chosen not to heal yourself before going to sleep the way you used to.”
He was brutally laying out the evidence of her problems like suffocating layers of truth she couldn’t hide from. He was right about everything, including the healing, and she hadn’t even realized that one until he pointed it out.
Before all of this, she’d developed the habit of using some of her healing magic to tend to really bad bruises or bothersome injuries before resting because she knew she would regain that magic power in sleep just like a human regained energy. But she hadn’t done that for some time.
“Why are you holding out every night, Angel? What is it you are so afraid will happen to you while you sleep?” He spelled out her actions and their reasons with crystal clear comprehension. She couldn’t hide a damn thing from him.
“And most of all,” he continued, his tone lowering, “I want to know why you were absolutely certain before we’d even pinpointed your apartment’s exact location on the map that you are the Apex’s target.”