Death Takes Wing, page 24
A throat cleared and a foot rhythmically tapped the floor.
Gabriel stopped and raised his head. When he saw Matt standing in the doorway, he growled.
“You two find anything? I hope you did, because upstairs was a – Oh,” Sam said, stopping next to Matt. “So, you two didn’t think finding Aleks was very important, did you?”
“Uh,” Amalia said, trying to step away from Gabriel, but finding it nigh impossible.
“Well, I know what’s going to happen now,” Matt said in mock disgust.
“What?” Sam said curiously, walking around him to stand next to the table.
“I don’t have a chance to Amalia, that’s what,” he said dramatically, holding his hands over his heart, as he followed Sam to the table.
“You didn’t have a chance with her anyways,” Sam said brightly as she picked up the stack that Gabriel had discarded.
“I might have,” Matt protested, a smile flickering on his face.
“Yeah, if you were tall, dark and handsome. As you are? Not a chance in hell,” Sam said, eyes lighting in interest at the paper she held. She set it aside before turning to the next paper.
“As I am?” he said. “What’s wrong with the way I am?”
She glanced up with a smirk on her lips before responding. “You look too much like Eric.” When she saw confusion on his face, she added, “the ex.”
“You two done yet?” Matt said as he started to skim the paper he held.
“Since you two aren’t going to leave, yeah,” Gabriel replied, voice hoarse with the heat that still filled him.
“Good, start actually working then,” Matt said with a smile before dodging Amalia’s fist.
After a few moments of silence, Amalia’s eyes widened and she shoved a letter into Gabriel’s hand.
He scanned it, lips tightening into a white line.
“You find out who it was, I hope?” Matt said as he watched Amalia and Gabriel.
“Read this,” Gabriel said, holding the paper out to Sam.
“What am I, chopped liver?” Matt complained.
“No, but you don’t know who the letter is from,” Gabriel shot back forcing Sam to take the letter.
Sam’s eyes widened, and she shook her head. She ran a hand over her shorn hair before holding the hand over her mouth in disbelief. “That’s not right. That can’t be right.”
“Oh yeah, it can. He’s always been an ass,” Amalia snarled. She pressed a hand into the small of her back, trying to work out a kink that had formed from her leaning over the table.
“An ass, yeah. But a killer?”
“He hasn’t killed anyone himself,” Amalia said, rebutting Sam’s comment with a flip of her hair.
“No, not himself, but he had to know what was happening. Right?”
Gabriel shook his head, “Not necessarily. But this is something I can’t ignore.”
“What are you going to do?” Amalia asked, turning towards him.
He took the letter back from Sam and reread it. Owen, thanking Jessamyn for her research into the vaccine and commending her for the progress she and Aleks had made so quickly. Promising a bonus if they completed the project before the deadline. Owen.
“Why?” Amalia asked softly as she read the letter over Gabriel’s arm.
Gabriel shook his head. “Too much money and not enough brains?”
Matt snarled softly, receiving a surprised look from Sam. “Ass. Dumbass, actually. What the hell is more important than saving lives? At the cost of lives?”
Gabriel shook his head again, pushing off the table. He turned to stare out the picture window that let the faint light in. Snowflakes fell harder, melting on the Aston’s warm hood. “Whatever it is, I plan on finding out.”
“Not alone,” Amalia said following Gabriel to the door. “I’m going with you.”
“Of course you are,” he replied, flashing her a grin before walking out the door. “I planned on it.”
She cocked an eyebrow at him before following him to the Aston. “I’m sure you did,” she said dryly.
He walked to the passenger door and opened it for her with a flourish. When she narrowed her eyes at him, he shrugged and smiled.
She stopped at the open space and stared at him. “You know,” she said lightly, “I was under the impression that you didn’t like angelus women.”
He smirked and helped her slid in the car, arranging her feathers again. After sliding in himself, he turned to her, “I don’t. You aren’t an angelus woman.”
She looked down at herself, then at him. “Funny, I seem to recall being told I was an angelus.”
He laughed and ran a hand through his hair. “Genetically, and physically, you are. Mentally, you’re human.”
“So, I’m the best of both worlds?” she asked as he started the car.
He smiled at her, showing her the lengthened canine’s she’d soon sport. “You could say that.”
A knock on his window, then a low voice, “open up, Winterbourne. We’ve got you surrounded.”
He snorted and rolled his window down. Matt stood next to the car, smiling. “What’d you want?”
“You two are off to greet the Coursaire’s?” Matt asked, leaning into the window. His frame blocked the light, and snowflakes slowly covered his oak wings. “Anything you want us to do?”
Gabriel nodded. “I want you to find out where else Aleks was staying. Maybe you can find out where he bolted to.”
Matt nodded then straightened. He walked back to his SUV before saluting Gabriel and Amalia as they pulled away.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
“So we’re off to talk to Owen,” she said as he sped down the driveway.
“And Vicki,” he added, turning onto the blacktop. Snow fell around them, sparking in the dim sunset.
“You think they know anything the kidnappings?”
“Yeah, I do. I really, really do. Owen’s that type,” Gabriel said, speeding up.
“And here I just thought he was a chauvinistic ass,” Amalia commented as she watched the trees speed by.
“Too bad you weren’t right. This would be a lot easier for both of us,” Gabriel muttered as they sped along the road.
“When will I get my canines?” she asked after a few minutes had passed.
He gave her a surprised look before answering, “Whenever they grow? Probably within a few days you’ll notice your human canine’s loosening.”
“The wings grew in such a short time. You’d think I’d have the rest of the goods. Unless I’m not umbren?”
He laughed at the latter. “No,” he said, shaking his head, “You’re umbren all right. I can smell it clearly now. It’s the enclosed space.”
“All I smell is cinnamon and nutmeg,” she groused.
“That’s the oil from my wings. Family scent versus racial scent.”
“I don’t have a family. So what do I get to smell like?” she asked, throwing a pout in there for good measure.
He pursed his lips and thought about it. “Well, you’ll get to help decide,” he finally answered.
“I don’t get to pick?” she asked with interest.
Gabriel shook his head and shifted in his seat. “Not entirely. First, the officials will go through the already registered scents. They’ll let you know which ones you can use and which combinations you can use them in. Then you pick.”
“And that would be my scent? Forever?”
He shook his head again and looked at her out of the corner of his eye. “Not exactly.”
She gave an exasperated sigh and slouched in her seat the best she could.
He laughed at her expression as he elaborated. “If you ever get married, you’ll marry into a family with an already established scent. You’ll either combine their scent with your own, or you’ll adopt their scent as your own.”
“So it’s a type of signature,” she mused, running a hand over a healing bruise on her leg. Probably from one of the many furniture pieces she’d stumbled into.
“Yeah. I think it’s the angelus version of a human’s family herald. At least, it’s the closet comparison,” Gabriel replied.
After another long bout of silence, surrounded only by the trees whizzing past, they arrived at Owen and Vicki’s mansion.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Amalia stood at the front of the house, near the door, where Owen and Vicki faced them. She stared at her former friends, wings hanging heavy off her shoulders.
Vicki gave her a pitying look. “So, you’re one of us.”
Amalia gave her a considering look. “You could say that,” unwilling to share that she wasn’t a solan like Vicki and Owen.
“What do you want?” Owen snapped as he crossed his arms defiantly.
Gabriel stood behind Amalia on the bottom step, staring at Owen through narrowed eyes. He rocked back on his heals before fingering the letter in his pocket. “I have some questions for you to answer.”
“So?” Owen snapped, body tight with outrage and anger.
Gabriel straightened. “As an Enforcer, I recommend you answer my questions truthfully.”
“Or what?” Vicki’s question was almost too soft for even Amalia’s new-found intense hearing to pick up.
Gabriel looked at the pale blond and stepped up next to Amalia. “Or you’ll be charged and tried as a conspirator to the crime.”
“What crime?” Owen said harshly, brushing a hand through his thin blond hair.
“Murdering multiple angelus. Kidnapping. Those are just the two major ones. I’m sure I can find some others to charge you with as well,” Gabriel said blithely, staring at Vicki’s slack face as she realized just how serious he was.
Owen straightened. “Then ask.” An unspoken ‘and leave’ hung in the air
Gabriel smiled coldly. “Let’s go inside. It’s chilly out here,” he said, snowflakes landing on his black coat, melting into sparkles of water. The sun was hidden behind the trees, and dusk was well underway.
Owen frowned and gestured to Vicki. When all four were seated in the small sunroom, twilight had left. The moon’s barest sliver shone through the glass, and the stars sparkled through the leaves.
“What’s this about?” Vicki asked, folding her hands demurely in her lap, pressing them down as she forced herself not to reach for Owen.
“Explain this,” Gabriel said as he handed the letter to Vicki.
As she read it, her face paled, turning an almost translucent white. She turned to her husband and held out the letter with trembling hands. “Owen, what’s this about?”
Owen gave her a patronizing smile before taking the letter. As he read it, all emotion left his face. He set the letter down on the small table between the two couples and crossed his legs after leaning on the arm of the chaise.
“What do you want?” Owen said, eyes narrowed at Gabriel.
“The truth,” Gabriel said simply. “Where you funding this?”
Owen thought about the answer before nodding. “Yes. I was funding it.”
“Were you involved other than the funding?”
Owen emphatically shook his head. “Absolutely not. I provided the funds. I gave the researchers free rein over how to give me the results I required.”
“You provided no rules? Just money?”
Owen stared at Gabriel, an arrogant look crossing his pale features. “No. I gave them the money, and told them I expected results with how much I was giving. And you can see, I got results.”
“At the cost of multiple human lives,” Amalia snapped. She leaned forward, trying to escape the burden of her wings.
“Humans are fodder. You’re a dead end. It matters not if it costs a million humans if it saves one angelus,” Owen snapped.
Gabriel raised his head and stared at him. “You did this to save Aleks’s sister.”
Owen smiled coldly. “No. That’s a byproduct. A way to get a good researcher to use methods he wouldn’t ordinarily use.”
“Then why? Why throw thousands into this research?” Amalia asked, staring at Vicki.
“I have personal reasons,” Owen said, avoiding the question as he turned his attention back to Gabriel.
“What personal reasons?” Gabriel asked icily, frosty gray eyes boring into Owen’s mind.
Owen swallowed hard and attempted to return Gabriel’s stare. Failing that, he responded with an inelegant motion of his shoulders. “It’s in the name of research. That’s all.”
Gabriel narrowed his eyes and stood. He walked to Vicki and leaned down. Breathing deeply, he found what he was looking for and stood. He stood over Owen, a looming shadow over the pasty solan.
Amalia gave him a questioning look, then turned her gaze back on Owen.
“She’s umbren,” Gabriel said flatly, staring down at Owen.
“No, I’m not,” Vicki said hurriedly, stealing a glance at Owen before lowering her gaze back to her hands.
“Yes, you are,” Gabriel replied, sitting back next to Amalia. “You smell umbren. He,” he said, motioning at Owen, “smells solan. Big difference.”
“So, he’s trying to what…change her back into a human? Why?” Amalia asked, confused, but knowing he was the cause of all the strife.
“Because she was supposed to be solan,” Owen snapped, losing his temper. He quickly rose and faced Gabriel. “She wasn’t supposed to be a damn umbren. I didn’t know she had an umbren in her genes. If I’d known – “ he cut himself off as he glanced down at Vicki and saw tears rolling down her pale cheeks. He tightened his jaw and continued, “She has an umbren and solan in the same generation. I missed the umbren in my research. Human turned umbren, actually.”
“So, what, change her human then back to angelus?” Amalia surmised, nodding when he gave her a brief nod. It was all due to his vanity. His damn status. “So that’s why the research, but why the kidnappings? Why the murders?”
“I had nothing to do with them,” he proclaimed again, cheeks growing red with anger. “I gave them the funds to do the research. That. Was. All.”
“And from spending that much money, you’d reap the rewards. Change Vicki into what you wanted her to be. What she was ‘supposed’ to be,” Gabriel finished.
Owen nodded and breathed heavily, trying to calm himself. “I had nothing to do with anything but funding it. I mailed the checks and received only brief reports about the research. Nothing with how it was being done. Who it was being done by. If I’d known about it –“
“I’d kill myself,” Vicki said, slowly standing. Staring at her husband, Amalia saw the fire that she’d known Vicki had years earlier. “Me being the ‘right’ species isn’t worth the lives that have been lost. Not even close. And Sam…Especially with Sam. Sam is all right, isn’t she?” Amalia heard the pleading tone in her voice, in her eyes.
Amalia nodded, offering Vicki a comforting smile at the mix of emotions that flowed across her face. “She’s solan, but she’s all right. Probably a bit mentally scarred. Who wouldn’t need therapy after that, though? But, she’s going to be all right. I’ll make sure of it.”
Vicki nodded sharply. Turning to Owen, she said, “You haven’t heard from Aleksandre, have you?”
He shook his head, the fine, pale hair whirling around his head like a pale halo. “No. I haven’t heard anything for several days. Almost a week, actually.”
“If you hear from him, or anyone, I need to know. I don’t think you will. I don’t think anyone will,” Gabriel said as he helped Amalia stand.
“If I do, I’ll contact you, Enforcer,” Owen said sharply, silently announcing that the interrogation was over by crossing his arms and glaring, looking for all the world like a thundering dance instructor.
Gabriel returned the nod and escorted Amalia back to the Aston, once again helping her to slide in the leather seat without hurting her wings.
After getting herself comfortable, she turned to Gabriel. “You believe him?”
He nodded and started the purring engine before answering. “Yeah, I do. He knows that if I catch him lying, that I’ll execute him.”
She raised an eyebrow and turned to look out her window. “Do you do that a lot?”
“Executions?” He saw her nod, and then finished, “No. Not that often. But for a crime like this, it warrants execution. Usually, it’s things like community service, fines, working off the debt by working for the person you’ve wronged, things like that. But with something involving a lost life…purposefully taken…that’s one of the few times execution is used.”
“And only an Enforcer can execute?”
He nodded, “Yeah. One of the benefits. If you can call it that.” Which he sometimes did, he thought with satisfaction. Something he’d enjoy doing to Aleks, if he ever found him.
“So, he’s going to stop funneling money, so the ring is closed except for Aleks,” she said softly.
He looked at her, then back at the road, which was growing slick due to the heavy snow that fell. “Aleks isn’t something to worry about right now. All of his assets are completely frozen. Word is already out in the angelus world about him. Anyone who finds him will turn him in.”
“Accessory if they don’t?”
He gave her a slight smile. “Exactly.”
“So what now?” she asked, watching the flakes fall quicker as he sped up, coating his windshield until he turned the wipers on.
“Now, now we wait and see if he pokes his head out of any holes. In the meantime, I get to teach you how to be angelus.”
“Fun, fun,” she said dryly.
“It will be,” he promised. “Just look at it this way. It’s either me or Matt. Who do you want teaching you to be an umbren?”
“Since Matt’s not umbren, I can just think of the shit he’d try and teach me,” she said with a giggle. “Like sleeping in a coffin.”
“Exactly,” Gabriel said with a grin. “Trust me. I won’t lead you wrong. At least, not too wrong.”
“So what now?” she repeated. “And by that, I mean what happens when we get back to Matt’s?”
“Not going back to Matt’s,” he said, “you’re going home. Lucy is waiting for you there.”
