Forget About Midnight (Alexa O'Brien, Huntress #9)(93)

“I totally understand if you guys came here to kill me. But please, hear me out. I want to apologize for my role in everything that night. It was stupid, and I regret every second I spent with Shya.” He paused, allowing us to process this. “I spoke with Arys. He wore pretty much the same expression you have. But I mean it. Really.”

Gabriel and I didn’t share a lot of history. We’d met through Brogan, a mutual friend, and our interactions since had mostly consisted of me warning him about Shya and him ignoring me.

“I’m not here for you,” I said. “I came to find Jez. Have you seen her?” When he shook his head, I continued. “Shya says you’re being a rebellious teenager. So I guess that means you’re probably not lying.”

“I’m not.” He gave his head a vigorous shake, his black hair falling in his face. “I thought I knew what I wanted, but dying changed that. It was the most terrifying thing that’s ever happened to me. I saw… bad things. Talk about perspective.”

I scoffed and crossed my arms, fixing him with an intense, watchful wolf stare. “Yet you still fought for him while he tried to use me as a sacrifice. You hurt Shaz. He could’ve been killed.”

Gabriel and Shaz shared a look. Gabriel dropped his gaze and nodded, shoving the hair back out of his eyes. “I know. I’m sorry, and I don’t expect that to be good enough for you. But I don’t know what else to do but try to make peace with you and Arys.”

“Why?” Me? Mistrustful? Just a little.

Gabriel fidgeted with a loose thread on his jacket. There was an awkwardness to him that was all teenager, revealing that beneath the powerful exterior, he was still so young and so inexperienced in this world. “Because I don’t have anyone else. Shya just sees me as another of his minions. I can’t even be around my mom without wanting to hurt her. And I have a link to you guys. I can feel it.” He didn’t meet my gaze as he mumbled. Nervous energy danced around him. It tickled my senses.

The kid was asking for a family. I stared at him for so long without speaking that Shaz nudged me. I wasn’t sure what to say. When I’d offered Gabriel guidance, he had shunned me, but now he was confessing his error and asking for help.

I sighed as my need for vengeance died. It should have been reassuring to know my empathy hadn’t suffered total destruction.

“If I give you the benefit of the doubt, you had damn well better not let me down. If I catch you working for Shya, then it’s over for you.” Even as I uttered the warning, I could hear an echo of Hurst in my mind, his warning that Gabriel must not be made a vampire. It was too late now. All we could do was wait and see why that warning had been issued. I was sure that we would soon find out.

“Understood.” Gabriel gazed down the street, watching those gathered outside the club to smoke and talk with cool disinterest. “Look, Alexa, I feel like I need to be honest about something. I want you to trust me.”

He looked down at his feet, gathering himself. I tensed. That didn’t sound good. His energy grew so frazzled with nerves I actively had to shield against its irritating touch. Just when I was about to shake him and demand that he speak, he did.

“When Arys turned me and we touched, I saw something. I saw Arys… and your sister.” There was a moment of silence as he paused, letting that information hang between us. “I saw him attack her. That’s all I saw. I don’t know if it gets worse.”

For a moment my tongue wouldn’t move. My emotions overloaded, and I snapped. Grabbing Gabriel by the throat, I dragged him close and snarled into his face. “Are you f*cking kidding me? This better not be a lie.”

“It’s not, I swear.” Gabriel’s voice rose, but he was otherwise calm. “Arys doesn’t even know what I saw. I tried to tell him, but he didn’t want to hear it.”

“Lex.” Shaz’s one word was a warning. Keeping a respectful distance, he didn’t try to intervene. Yet that one word cut through my wrath.

I let Gabriel go with a shove. “Don’t speak a word of this to anyone. I’ll handle Arys.”

“I won’t. I promise.” He blinked a few times, and his gaze darted about in a frantic way that led me to believe he’d just seen something when I touched him. Gabriel’s greatest gift was also a curse, as most gifts tended to be for people like us. Well whatever it was, I didn’t want to know.

“Where’ve you been staying during the day, Gabriel?”

“Wherever I can. Usually a victim’s house. I move on pretty quickly.” Looking guilty, he clasped his hands together, then unclasped them before shoving them into his pockets. “It’s so hard to stay in control of myself.”

I’d never been the nurturing type. That had always been Kylarai. Still, I wasn’t an entirely heartless bitch. “Stay at The Wicked Kiss. There’s a room there you can have. It’s safe during the day, and you should have a place of your own.” I paused, hoping that Gabriel wouldn’t give me a reason to regret this. “You should spend some time with Arys. He can help. It’s tough in the beginning.”

I didn’t miss the pointed look Shaz shot me. Yeah, yeah, I know.

“Thanks, Alexa.” Gabriel peered at me through a fringe of black hair. “I honestly didn’t expect you to be so cool. I appreciate it.”