Page 31 of Soulbound Shadows: Part 2

EVANGELINE

Imanaged to send the chatty river fairy away, but the mood had been well and truly killed. Now, Gabriel and I were left in cold, wet clothes. I was shivering, and Gabriel looked about as happy as a cat in a bath. I grabbed his hand and squeezed.

“One more jump,” I said. “Then you can get some rest, okay?”

“Okay,” he murmured.

Hand in hand, we walked until I could slip us into the stream of ley lines. There was an intersection not far from Marcus’s safe house, and when I pulled us back up into the real world, we were in a small, scraggly clearing that split off from the mill’s driveway. It wasn’t really on a path, more of a deer trail. Honestly, calling it a clearing was generous. It looked more like a little area where the plants had simply given up. There was some scrubby yellowish grass, but most of the ground was bare gray dirt, the water from our clothes dripping into it. The big brick building was near us.

“Is this… where you were trying to take us?” Gabriel asked.

“Yeah, it’s Marcus’s safe house,” I said. “We figured it wouldn’t be safe to stay at the manor with everything that’s going on. Sorry. I bet you were looking forward to sleeping in your own bed.” I processed my words and blanched, thinking about the wreck that was Gabriel’s bedroom.

“Honestly, I’m not feeling picky about where I rest,” he said dryly. Even though the waterfall had washed off the blood, Gabriel still looked like a mess. He had bags under his eyes and an exhausted slump to his shoulders. His hair was starting to dry into a cloud of fluffy curls, which looked extremely cute.

“The others are here as well, I assume?”

I nodded.

He chewed his lip nervously, and I watched his fang dimpling the soft skin. “I… don’t suppose you could make my excuses to them, could you? I know they mean well, but I’m truly not in the mood to be swarmed by well-wishers right now.”

“’Course,” I told him. “They’ll get it. Do you, uh, I mean… if you want to be alone, I totally get it, but I think Marcus might be out of guest rooms. You can share with me, obviously, but I can also ask him if there’s, like, a sofa I can crash on or something, it’s?—”

Gabriel leaned down and kissed me. “No. No, I’d rather share.”

“Oh. Oh. Okay. Neat.” I groaned internally. Neat? Very smooth.

We made the short trek up to the old mill building in companionable silence, hands clasped, fingers entwined. There was a side entrance that went right to the stairs, so I led Gabriel to that one. Before we went in, I stopped him. “Wanna see a cool trick?”

He eyed me warily. “I don’t know. Do I? And before you answer that, please consider the week I’ve had.”

I pulled the magic around me into the same shape I’d used to get into the citadel unnoticed, then cast it onto Gabriel. “There,” I said. “I’ll make your excuses, and you can go right up to the room. Third floor, first door on the right.”

Gabriel inspected his own hands curiously. “Thank you,” he said, sounding worryingly fragile.

Smiling at him, I opened the door.

The only person on the first floor was Isabella, who sat on top of one of the messy work benches. She was cleaning the place up, or at least organizing it a little. Bags of what looked like craft supplies—beads, feathers, shapes cut out of foam, and a baggie of necklace clasps—took up the surface next to her. All the worrying specimens floating in jars covered another bench. I recognized the ‘I need to do something useful or else I’ll think about what’s going on’ coping mechanism when I saw it.

“Hey,” I said, keeping my distance. “I got Gabriel, although we definitely got noticed by some people on our way out. He seems okay, but he’s not up for people right now. Can you let the others know to give him some space?”

Isabella blinked at me with owlish surprise, like she’d gotten so sucked into reorganizing, she’d forgotten other people existed. “Yeah, no problem. I’ll text Theo. They’ll keep the others from bugging him for a bit.”

“Thank you.” God, I missed being able to talk freely to Isabella. If things were different between us, I would’ve asked her about that, or teased her about having Theo’s number.

Isabella gave me a ‘don’t mention it’ nod, and I went upstairs, making a pit stop in the kitchen to grab some synth blood from the fridge. I suspected Marcus had bought the stuff. I didn’t think any of the vampires would’ve willingly chosen a brand that had designed its packaging to look like a Capri Sun pouch. I snorted. According to the slogan on the back, the contents were AB+Solutely Delicious!

I let myself into the bedroom, synth blood packet in hand. The bathroom door was closed, and I heard the shower running. I considered joining Gabriel in there, but the closed door was a clear message, and that tiny little shower was barely big enough to fit one person, let alone two. Anyway, I didn’t have to wait long. A few minutes later, the shower squeaked off, and Gabriel came out of the bathroom, a towel slung low around his hips. It seemed like an attack on me personally, but I ogled him anyway. I’d earned it.

“I brought you blood,” I told the general vicinity of his abs. He had very defined hipbones.

Gabriel flinched backward, then came toward me. He took the pouch from my outstretched hand carefully. It was a weirdly timid gesture, like he was trying not to let our fingers brush. My PI instincts drowned out my desire.

Gabriel stabbed the straw into the little hole in the synth blood pouch and took a long, eager pull before making a face and dropping the container on the writing desk.

“Gross?” I asked sympathetically.

He winced. “Not to my tastes.”

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