Page 35 of The Huntress (The Blood of Legends #1)
Chapter Thirty-Five
CLOSURE
W hen Callie first let Gabriel know of their visitor, he’d dashed over, Leo trailing him. Moments before bursting inside his home, Leo had asked him to wait, to listen. Perhaps she would reach through Stavros’s grief. The longer they spoke, and the more Leo held him back, it made him realize they’d planned this, to use Callie as bait. Dimitri and his fingers dropping down around him confirmed this.
Stavros muffled their connection, and the only way to do that was to force a dematerialization. Gabriel saw red, an angry fire burning through him as he fought Leo’s attempts at restraining him.
She must pass this on her own, Gabriel.
He’d grunted, knowing the test was crucial, yet hating that they’d denied him time to prepare for it. They trailed Stavros until she broke free of his hold. Her pleas for aid almost killed Gabe. Leo had to exert some sort of control on his mind, as if the scene played out from far away. This dampened his senses, his emotions, making him malleable, stealing his will.
Her strength of will, her sassiness, and her remarkable skills called forth a pride he couldn’t recall ever feeling for a woman. Dimitri had the right of it. She was a huntress, and her sense of justice would ensure she remained a true protector.
Her emotional turbulence before she shut him out haunted him. His knees trembled as the darkness consumed his soul with alarming greediness. He wanted to fall to the ground and wail his despair. Thoughts circled his mind, destructive and addictive, the pain coating each word with a malevolence that drowned reason.
“Gabriel,” Dimitri’s bellow yanked him back to reality. “Focus. We need to deal with him, once and for all.” He had pressed his blade to Stavros’s neck, keeping him there.
Leo’s expression hardened, and sweat beaded his forehead, a clear sign of an internal struggle. “He’s trying to mist. Will you two hurry the fuck up?” he said from between clenched teeth.
Gabriel waved his hand, carving a rune inches above Stavros’s chest. The light sizzled, shooting out on either side, forming a trellis of sorts before fading to a shimmer.
“I didn’t know you could do a vincula ,” Dimitri said, awe softening his raspy voice.
“You can release him now,” Gabriel said.
Both men stepped back on tentative heels. Dimitri held his blade out, ready to strike the killing blow. Gabriel stared at Stavros, who lay immobile, fear sliding into his eyes. He’d spared him because of Abigail, and now he wouldn’t spare him because of Callie. The way Dimitri gripped his sword told Gabriel who needed to end this the most.
“The plan was brilliant,” Stavros said, sweat glistening on his body as he fought the rune. “One I toyed with for decades, Gabriel. A way to end our era of weakness, hiding from the humans and bowing to the shifters.”
“Involving Callie made it personal for us both. I don’t want to hear your excuses, your reasons. It makes no difference to your fate.” Gabriel ran a hand over his face, needing to be with Callie and not here, hating losing more time to a pointless vendetta. “None of what you’ve done would have pleased Abigail.”
“What the hell do you know?” Spittle flew as Stavros’s face mottled. “She was my sister. My only family.”
“ We killed her. I’m tired of rehashing this. I don’t live in the past anymore, and I longed for you to be free of it all.” Gabriel looked to the sky, not taking a second to appreciate its vibrancy but needing its magnitude for clarity. “I am over this, Stavros. You no longer influence my thoughts nor summon any form of guilt. You don’t exist. Your death isn’t on my conscience, and whether this would displease Abigail, I don’t give a shit.” He tapped Dimitri on the shoulder. “He’s all yours, brat .”
“Wait!” Stavros’s shoulders straightened, his ancient power testing the strength of the rune. “Don’t you want to know what Carter has planned for your precious Callie?”
Gabriel stilled, tempted to listen to the poison he would spew, but his dwindling logic whispered not to…perhaps there was a twist in the tail, something Carter had planned. He shot a glance at Leo, and at his slight nod, Gabriel allowed a sad smile to form.
“This is farewell, Stavros. Dimitri, Leo, and I will leave him to you. The rune won’t protect him from harm nor a bolting,” Gabriel said.
“My gratitude. Let me know if you need my pal’tsy to find your beloved. I sense she will not return to your home.”
Gabriel couldn’t answer. Longing, despair choked him and swallowed his voice. He launched into the air, trusting Leo to follow.
He’s right. Gabriel, I’ve never felt this much pain from her. She believed you died, but upon finding you’re alive, she thinks you abandoned her to die. I’m sorry. I can’t track her. When she shut you out, she became unreadable to me.
“You return to the Hold. I’ll search everywhere else she might go. Please let me know if she shows herself to you.”
Ah, you believe she’ll want to see Valerie. Very well. Leo veered off, and the cold silence descended.
Gabriel shivered as the silence traveled along his veins, the destination his heart. Everything Carter had planned now lay with Leo, who’d read Stavros’s mind. None of that mattered if Gabriel couldn’t find Callie.
Mike was undergoing a slow conversion, so he wasn’t available to her. Which left Val or Callie’s old apartment.
Since Leo guarded Val, Gabriel headed for George. Callie would go nowhere without her.