“Shooting me down already,” he teased. “Shame on you, Jacinda. You haven’t even allowed me to finish.”
Still holding the Lovers card, he leaned back on the couch, one arm bent behind his head, legs parted, his muscled form on exquisite, drool-worthy display. It would be so, so easy for her to crawl into his lap, lean in and kiss the spot behind his earlobe, slide her hand down the front of those jeans and—
“Do you know how your former master became a vampire?” he asked, snapping her right out of her fantasy.
“Oh, sure,” she said, rolling her eyes. “The asshole could never shut up about it. Some noble vampire lord in Paris saw his untapped potential and plucked him from the slums, bestowing upon him the gift of immortality, yadda yadda yadda.”
“I don’t know about untapped potential, but I do know about the noble lord. King, more accurately. It was my father, Jacinda. Augustus Redthorne.”
Jaci gasped. “Renault was sired by your father?”
Gabriel nodded and lowered his gaze, his cool demeanor cracking just a fraction. “Before… before my brother Malcolm died, he told us he’d met with Duchanes and all but confirmed it. Duchanes was already showing symptoms. He’s the one who told us about the curse—he must’ve learned about it from Chernikov.”
“Holy shit, Gabriel.” Jaci closed her eyes, memories flashing through her mind. It all made perfect sense in retrospect; she’d seen it herself—Renault’s growing avoidance of the sunlight, his constant need to feed, the physical exhaustion he tried to hide at all costs, requiring her magical intervention more and more often. Absent a logical explanation, she’d attributed it to his frustrations with the Redthornes and his endless scheming to overthrow Dorian. She had no idea he was afflicted by dark magic.
She opened her eyes, meeting his gaze. “If this is true—”
“It is. I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me earlier. When you confessed your plans for the binding spell this morning, I couldn’t… I saw red. Bloody red. That’s all there was for me. After that, I was so focused on hating…” He trailed off and lowered his gaze, but Jaci knew what he’d meant to say.
“Hating me,” she whispered.
Gabriel nodded. “I was angry, Jacinda. I’mstillangry. I just… I’m trying to understand you. To understand all of this. I’ve never felt so… But then I met you and everything changed so fast, and it was… And I…” He trailed off again, and this time she didn’t fill in the gaps.
She didn’t have the courage to ask what he felt, what meeting her had changed, what words were supposed to come after that “I.”
So instead, she squared her shoulders and said, “We have to find the Keepers of the Dark Flame. We already know they’re connected to Duchanes. They’ll know how to find him.”
“Perhaps.”
“I can go in undercover. I know what to expect this time. I—”
“No.” He looked up again, his eyes suddenly blazing. “Absolutely not. You went in undercover last time and look how that turned out.”
“But this time the demon won’t be warning them in advance. It won’t be a setup.”
“I don’t care. You’re not going anywherenearthose mages, Jacinda.”
“But what if that’s our best shot?”
“Then we’ll take our second-best. Cole’s still investigating Duchanes’ real estate purchases in New Jersey. Unless that lead turns out to be a dead end, we’re not making a move—especially not one that involves you risking your life with the Dark Flame mages. One hundred percent out of the question. Understood?”
With a deep sigh, Jaci nodded. “Let’s just hope Cole finds something.”
“That wolf won’t quit until he’s sniffed out every last shred of evidence. So when he finds Duchanes—when, not if—then we’ll figure out how to capture him, pseudo-kill him, resurrect him, and let you do your hocus-pocus.” Gabriel shook his head, blowing out a breath. “Oh, and that’s assuming we find your sister too, and get them in the same location long enough to execute the plan, all without getting ourselves killed in the process.”
“Is that all?” she teased.
Gabriel shrugged. “No small feat, Jace.”
Jace. She didn’t know whether to feel more hopeful about the sweetly casual use of her name or the news about Duchanes and the curse, but either way, things were already looking up, and she couldn’t help the new smile stretching across her face.
“If there’s one thing you’ve always known about me, Prince,” she said, “it’s that Ilivefor a challenge.”
Gabriel glanced at the Lovers card still in his hand, then back to her. “That’s precisely what I’m afraid of, little moonflower.”
Chapter Thirteen
“Zachary Colburn is receiving excellent care,” Colin said, sliding a folder across Gabriel’s desk. “It’s a small hospital, but his doctors and nurses are among the best in the country. They’re tending to his every need. From what I could determine from my examination, he’s as healthy as can be expected, given the circumstances.”
