kissed-by-moonlight by Rakhibul hasan (ebook reader for pc .TXT) 📕

was only when I felt Liam and Marcus turn their attention to us that I was able to snap out of it.

 

Knowing the type of abuse that both of us would be in for if anyone found out that Gabriel could heal me, I pulled him up and against me. Wrapping my body around his, I clung to his neck and fake sobbed. Catching on, he wrapped his arms around my waist, sliding my shirt down over my now smooth skin as he did so. Even though it was meant to be artifice, I really liked having him there, wrapped around me. Holding me like he cared.

 

It would have been all sorts of romantic if Liam hadn’t walked over to us and kicked Gabriel in the side.

 

“Get up, mutt. Nice trick with the glass, but it’s time to go back to your cell.”

 

Gabriel growled without releasing me or raising his face from where he’d buried it against the side of my neck. I clutched him a little tighter and my “sobbing” got a little louder.

 

“Just leave them.” Support from an unexpected source. Marcus sounded more exasperated than understanding, however. “We have other things to do today.”

 

Liam was quiet for what felt like forever, before I finally heard him sigh in agreement.

 

My muscles relaxed.

 

“Fine,” he said, “I learned what I came here to learn.”

 

He crouched down beside us and his voice lowered. I don’t know why he bothered whispering, everyone in the room could hear him just fine.

 

“I’ll be back for you though,” he told Gabriel. I felt him tense against me and my nails dug into his back as if I could pull him even closer than he already was. “Now that I know what it takes to make you talk, you, me, and Miss Conners are going to be the best of friends.”

 

He stood and stepped over us on his way to the door. Marcus followed. Before he left, Marcus turned to look back at us, offering a final bit of advice.

 

“I wouldn’t try your little disappearing act again. The Huntsmen have a new toy they’ve been dying to test out. We may not be able to see you, but we don’t need to see you to hurt you.”

 

Then they were both gone.

 

I listened for the sound of the door locking, and when it reached my ears, I sighed shakily into Gabriel’s mop of curls. Even his hair looked beaten, and something fierce and snarling came to life in me.

 

I couldn’t let them hurt him again. He’d managed to reach me and the least I could do was protect him now that we were together. Even though our audience was gone, neither Gabriel nor I thought to move away from one another. Within minutes I heard the soft, even sound of his breathing. Using his gift must take a lot out of him. Not to mention that I could count the number of times I’d seen him doze off on one hand.

 

I would have preferred it if we’d done this on the bed, but I wasn’t heartless enough to wake him just to make him move to that pitiful excuse of a cot. So instead, I lay there, hands soothing down the muscled expanse of Gabriel’s back. I didn’t sleep. I just stared at the wall and let my mind work.

 

By the time morning rolled around, I had a plan.

 

I just hoped it would work.

 

“Don’t complicate things. Life is simple. When the world hands you lemons…you eat them.”

 

—Lettie Arnold

 

 

 

Chapter Fourteen

 

 

 

 

 

There was a woman who brought us food. Well, who brought me food. It had been a while since anyone had given Gabriel a plate to eat off of, or a fork and spoon to eat it with. When I handed him my breakfast that morning, he stared down at the scrambled eggs, bacon, toast, and lone waffle as if he’d never seen them before.

 

“You eat it,” I told him slowly, pantomiming with an invisible fork and spoon. I groaned to show that my fake meal was delicious. “Food good,” I reiterated. “Eat food.”

 

Sending me a long-suffering look, he shook his head.

 

“I’m perfectly aware of what food is, Phaedra.”

 

Oh.

 

“Then stop glaring at it like it owes you unpaid child support,” I snapped, trying to ignore the way my face reddened. He snorted, but complied, shoveling the food in his mouth with an enthusiasm that put my own eating habits to shame.

 

“So,” I began, “you want to get out of here or what?”

 

I figured since he’d already slipped up and used his gift, then it wouldn’t hurt to use it to escape. To my disappointment, he shook his head.

 

“I haven’t used it in a few hundred years. I’m out of practice. Plus, I couldn’t take you with me even if I was at full strength.”

 

“Why not?” I grumbled.

 

“Well. You’re human,” he told me simply. “What I do is like pulling cells apart. If I broke you, I wouldn’t be able to put you back together again.”

 

On that note, he went back to his breakfast, leaving me to imagine that lovely scenario.

 

At one point he looked up at me with smeared cheese from the eggs on his face and I felt it. That shiver. That quake. That nameless something that told me I was in love. My upper lip curled in distaste.

 

“Damn,” I thought, “he got me.”

 

“What’s wrong? What did I do?” Suddenly self-conscious, he set down the now empty plate and gave me the old puppy dog eyes.

 

Guaranteed to melt the heart of any woman.

 

Reaching over, I wiped the egg from his cheek with my thumb and sighed. “Nothing,” I said irritably. “You’re just too damn cute.”

 

Earnest worry morphed into smooth swagger in an instant, and I was almost relieved when Liam stepped into the room so that I could look at something other than all of that smoldering sex appeal.

 

“I’ve been thinking,” I spoke before Liam could open his mouth. For this to work I couldn’t really afford for him to get too distracted by Gabriel. This was about getting us out there.

 

Liam blinked at me, then turning to speak softly to someone out in the hallway, he came fully into the room and shut the door.

 

“Really?” he said, indulging in curiosity. “This should be interesting.”

 

I chose my next words carefully. “It’s occurred to me that you and your Huntsmen are thinking too small.”

 

His eyes narrowed and I felt Gabriel stiffen beside me. “What are you talking about, Conners?”

 

I smiled, “Have you ever heard of a creature called a ‘Sidhe’ Agent Liam?”

 

Regarding me levelly, he wandered deeper into the room so that he could lean against the window that separated Gabriel’s old cell from mine. I didn’t plan on letting him go back in there.

 

“It’s a fairy isn’t it?”

 

I nodded, “For lack of a better term, yes. A very ancient breed of Fae. My classic lit teacher used to talk about them all the time. There are two types of Sidhe, the Seelie and Unseelie. They live on a different plane than us, and the only way to reach their world is by entering the Sithin. It looks like a giant mound of dirt, but as we all know, looks can be deceiving.” I sent a smile in Gabriel’s direction, begging him silently to go along with me.

 

I’m pretty sure what he’d done the night before constituted as using his power. Even now, the Wild Hunt could be tracking him down. If they were, I didn’t want to be locked in a cell when they found us.

 

But if we could use the FBI and the Huntsmen against them…

 

You know what they say. The enemy of my enemy is still my enemy, but he’s too busy beating the ass of the other guy to bother paying attention to me. Classic Art of War stuff.

 

“What does any of this have to do with me?”

 

“It could be nothing,” I said, “Or it could be everything. It just depends on how you look at the big picture. I’m just trying to tell you what I know.”

 

“And what do you know?”

 

“I know that the Sidhe were responsible for creating the first werewolves.” I didn’t bother mentioning that it was because they’d cursed random humans whenever they’d needed extra hounds during their hunts. I saw Liam’s interest spike visibly and I hid a smile. “I also know that they’ve had no reason to bother coming to this world. Until now.”

 

“Explain,” he barked. I could see his mind working, still dissecting the news that the Sidhe knew the secret to creating Weres.

 

“Well, you have one of their pets,” I indicated Gabriel with a nod of my head. “They’re going to want him back. They probably won’t be pleased why they find out how you’ve been treating him.”

 

Liam snorted derisively. “Let me guess. You expect me to let you both go all so I can gain the goodwill of a bunch of Tinkerbells?”

 

“I’ve seen that movie,” Gabriel spoke up suddenly. “My masters are nothing like the tiny woman in the small dress. They also don’t secrete fairy dust. They would eat you and yours alive.”

 

“Is that a threat?’

 

“It’s a fact,” Gabriel spoke with the same blunt honesty that he reserved for most everything. He wasn’t boasting or exaggerating to try and frighten Liam. He was simply telling the truth as he understood it.

 

“You don’t expect me to believe-”

 

“You want the secret to creating Weres?” Gabriel interrupted. Liam hesitated, but finally nodded. “The Sidhe can give you that.”

 

“Why don’t I just turn a bunch of you loose? I’m sure I’ll have my pick of new recruits from among the survivors.”

 

Gabriel shook his head in disgust and I felt as if we’d switched places without my realizing it.

 

“That’s just a myth. Being a Were isn’t like having a virus. You don’t catch it from a bite or a scratch and we don’t pass the curse along to our children, in the event that we have any.”

 

Growing frustrated, Agent Liam began to pace.

 

“You’re lying,” he stated finally. “Otherwise you would have died out a long time ago.”

 

“That’s true, but I’m not lying. The curse is just that. A curse. It’s magical in nature. The moon chooses who changes. If the magic in you is strong, you shift, and if the magic is weak…” He shrugged helplessly and I finished the sentence for him.

 

“If the magic is weak, you turn out like Marcus. A defective wolf. All bark, but no bite. I don’t think that’s what you’re looking for is it?”

 

“No,” he spoke absently, “It certainly isn’t.”

 

Gabriel and I let him stew on this new information for a moment. When I knew the time was right, I nodded for Gabriel to start in on him again. He did so without a second’s hesitation.

 

“We all want something, Agent Liam. I’m sure with a little negotiating we can reach some sort of compromise.”

 

“Say I let you go,” Liam mused, “where does that leave me when it turns out that you’re both lying?”

 

“We’re not lying,” I said.

 

“And I’m supposed to believe that? Even if I did, what’s to keep me from simply using you as leverage? The Sidhe tell me what I want to know and I give them back their dog in return.”

 

“Remember what happened last night?” Gabriel asked quietly. “That was child’s play, a parlor’s trick compared to what the Sidhe would do to you. They have ways of tracking down what’s theirs and they’ll find this place sooner rather than later. When that happens, you won’t get the chance to offer a trade. They’ll just come in here and take what they came for. In the end, even if they leave you alive, you’ll still be left with nothing.”

 

There was such conviction, such coldness in his words, that even I felt the hairs on my arms rising and goosebumps breaking out over my skin. I watched the insidious seed of doubt began to sprout in Agent Liam’s throat worked as he tried to swallow. I saw him give in to the inevitable before his next words could confirm it.

 

“Why would they help