Page 40 of Incipient

He was really comingallthe way out of his comfort zone for me, and I was going to have to find some way to repay him for it when this was all over.

Wanting to make this a little easier on him, I extended my arm to him as soon as Trace had cut me loose and offered him my wrist. Mostly because I knew Gabriel would never attempt a bite on my neck as that was far too intimate of a place and he was far too modest of a man. “Ready when you are.”

He stared at my wrist for a long moment. “I think perhaps it might be a better idea to bloodlet instead of a direct bite,” suggested Gabriel, still hovering away from me and not making the slightest attempt to take my extended wrist.

“What do mean bloodlet?” asked Trace, his eyes narrowed on Gabriel.

“It’s simple, really. We make a small incision on her wrist, extract some of the blood into a cup or some other instrument and then I take the sample from there,” answered Gabriel, sounding very cold and detached from the whole thing. “This avoids direct contact and any of the risks associated with that.”

“Risks?” asked Trace, but I quickly spoke over him.

“We don’t need all these extra steps,” I blurted shrilly, both my arms fastened around Trace’s waist. “We’re just wasting more time and I want to gohome.”

Trace’s gaze shot down to mine and softened.

“I really have to insist,” continued Gabriel, his forehead wrinkled with apprehension. “Frankly, I’ve never done this before and I’m not entirely sure how I’m going to take to it.”

Take to it?He was making it sound like we were transplanting my lung into him. “It’s just blood, Gabriel. I’m sure you can stand it for thirty seconds.”

“Standing itis not the problem, Jemma,” he answered gruffly. “Being able tostopis my concern.”

Ooh…well, shit. Duh. I glanced back at Trace who looked horrified and then back to Gabriel who looked even more horrified than Trace. Between the two of them, my confidence had just been shot to shit. “So, about that cup?”

17. YOUNGBLOOD

After acquiring a small glass and a sterilized knife from Ben, I proceeded to make a tiny incision in the palm of my hand and then squeezed my fist to let the blood drip into the glass. When I was done, I peered up at Gabriel and Trace, who was still holding me closely in his arms, and wrinkled my nose. One looked like he was disgusted with the whole thing while the other one looked like he was regretting ever picking up the phone in the first place.

Doubt flitted through me.

“We don’t have to do this, you know,” I said to Gabriel as I watched him white-knuckle the glass filled with my blood. “We can come up with another way around this.”

“Such as what?” he answered, his eyes filled with enough thundering emotion to sink an entire ship.

The more I looked at him—at his perturbed eyes, at the sweat on his forehead, the tight jaw, the rigid arms—the more I felt like I was doing something really, really bad to my friend. Like I was puttinghiswell-being far behind my own by making him do something he wasn’t comfortable with. The thought alone made me feel gross inside.

“Such as going after Dominic—incapacitating him until we can figure out what to do about hisemotionalproblems,” I suggested off the top of my head, though after hearing the words come out of my mouth, I really liked the way they sounded. It was a viableshort-termsolution. “The incapacitation will break the compulsion he has on me while also giving us time to figure out how to turn his emotions back on.”

“That doesn’t sound like a half bad idea,” noted Trace, his jaw working from side to side.

Gabriel shook his head decidedly. “You’re not ready to go up against him, Jemma.”

I knew he wasn’t referring to my physical abilities. We both knew that was never the issue. “Do you really think that when push comes to shove, I can’t do what I need to do? I think you’re forgetting who I am, Gabriel and what I’vealreadydone,” I answered, trying to gently remind him of what happened with the last boy I loved without having to say it aloud.

“Yes, but this is different. You’re bloodbonded with Dominic. You will not be able to get within two feet of him without tipping him off. Furthermore, how are you going to launch an attack against him in this state? Do you plan on waltzing in there holding hands with Trace the entire time? Because you might find it hard to yield your weapon.”

“Very funny,” I deadpanned. But he had a point there. I wasn’t exactly at my shining best right now. Frankly, I wasn’t even able to hold a conversation without physically hanging on to Trace and his good vibrations. I’d be useless against Dominic like this. “Point taken. But…it is a good idea, right?”

It may not have been a long-term solution, but it wassomething. We couldn’t just continue to leave Dominic to his own device, stalking the streets of Hollow Hills and draining god knows how many humans. Not to mention torturingme. He needed to be put on ice, at least until we could figure out how to bring back his humanity.

Gabriel gave a circular nod, absorbing it. “Let’s take care of one thing at a time,” he said and then swirled the blood around in the glass as though trying to work up the courage to drink it—to abandon all his morals and do the one thing he’d promised himself he’d never do.

His expression changed into one of scorn, his fangs clicking out abruptly as his pupils dilated. His body was reacting to my blood despite the stringent control he had constantly maintained over himself.

With a heavy breath of surrender, he brought the glass to his lips and then tipped his head back. His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed my blood, his pupils exploding outward as they wiped out any semblance of his moss-green eyes. The glass shattered in his hands as he took a predatory step toward me for more.

Trace pushed me backward as he stepped in front of me, blocking Gabriel’s view. “Take a breath, man. You don’t want to do anything stupid.”

Gabriel’s bloody hand was opening and closing beside him as though trying to control whatever primal urge had risen to the surface. “I. Need. A. Minute,” he said, a terrifying growl sounding deep in his chest as he zipped out of the cellar and disappeared, leaving barely a blur of his shadow behind.

---