Kiss of Temptation

  Gabrielle was in one at the end. Naked and terrified, she pounded on the Plexiglas, screaming for help. To no avail, of course.

  Making sure no workers were about, Zebulan rapped on the glass and put his mouth to the speaker hole. “Gabrielle! Gabrielle, do you hear me?” he whispered.

  She stared out at him with even more terror in her dark eyes and continued to scream.

  He realized that he was in his demonoid form, complete with red eyes, scaly skin, and a tail. Immediately, he transformed himself into human form, as he’d been back in New Orleans . . . denim pants, T-shirt, and baseball cap.

  She stopped screaming, tilted her head in question, and asked, “Who the hell are you?”

  “Your savior?”

  “Get me out of here.”

  “In due time.” Zebulan needed to rescue the woman without Jasper suspecting his involvement. Otherwise, he would be unable to continue working as a Lucipire to complete Michael’s work. Not to mention Jasper would make ground Lucipire of him in punishment, or something equally horrific.

  “Listen. There isn’t much time. This is the plan. You must go along with it.” He explained that the red-haired guard from Angola Prison, Roland O’Malley, would be coming here, expecting to have a night of sex with her before Jasper began his tortures in the morning. Zebulan would plant the idea in O’Malley’s head. But once out of the glass box and in O’Malley’s chamber, Zebulan would rescue her. The blame for her escape would be placed on O’Malley.

  She was not happy, to say the least, pointing out all the ways it could go wrong.

  “It is the only solution.”

  She kept shaking her head and saying, “No!”

  Meanwhile, time was a-wasting.

  “Are you an angel or a demon?”

  How to answer that question? I’m a demon, but a good demon? “You really don’t want to know.” In fact, she’d already seen him in his demon form. She knew. Finally, he pulled out his last bullet of persuasion. “Ivak sent me.”

  “He did?” she whispered.

  He nodded, not about to tell her that Ivak would have shot through the roof if he’d known the details of this plan.

  “All right,” she said then. “God be with you.”

  He hoped so!

  Twenty-Four

  Being home was not so sweet . . .

  Gabrielle was in a tropical bungalow somewhere in the Caribbean, a very nice property, but she felt as if she was still living in the middle of a nightmare.

  Zebulan had brought her to the place he referred to as his secret hidey-hole and said he had to leave her there for a short time while he went back to Horror, that castle of torture where she had been taken. All the Lucipires were being called to witness the punishment of O’Malley for her escape.

  Despite O’Malley’s demonic work and the way he had fondled her body when taking her out of the glass cylinder and to his bedroom, Gabrielle had to feel a twinge of sympathy for what the former Angola guard might be now suffering. On the other hand, maybe not so much. O’Malley had been the one to originally fang Hebert, and then Leroy. The start of this whole nightmare.

  She was sitting on a sofa, having taken a shower and put on a pair of too-big sweatpants and T-shirt. Zeb had assured her that he had not looked on her nakedness as a man might. She’d thanked him for that . . . and for rescuing her, of course.

  Just then, she heard a phone ring. She hadn’t even known there was reception here. She found a satellite phone in a kitchen drawer.

  “Hello,” she said, tentatively. Maybe it was a trick of the demons to find her.

  “Gabrielle!”

  It was Ivak.

  She began to cry.

  “Ah, heartling! I am so sorry.”

  “It wasn’t your fault,” she said on a sob, wiping her nose on the hem of the long shirt.

  “Yes, it was. If it hadn’t been for your association with me, they never would have targeted you. I’ll never forgive myself.”

  “Ivak, it was horrible, but nothing happened.”

  “That’s what Zeb said, but . . . nothing?”

  “Other than being stripped naked”—and being touched by that slimy O’Malley, which she didn’t think Ivak needed to know right now—“and scared to death, nothing.” She didn’t think she’d ever be able to forget this experience, though.

  “Gabrielle, I’m not going to be seeing you when you get back.”

  “What? What do you mean? You won’t be working at Angola anymore?”

  “As far as I know, I’ll still be at Angola, but I won’t be with you anymore.”

  It felt as if she’d just been sucker-punched. And the tears started again. “Why?”

  “This incident has shown me better than anything could that I have no right to get involved with a human. The things that could have happened to you . . . ah, sweetling! I was a selfish bastard.”

  “So, you’re going to cut me off to protect me?”

  “Precisely.”

  “Bullshit!” She hung up on him. She’d been through hell today, literally, and she didn’t need this worry, too. She would deal with Ivak later.

  Feeling sick in her stomach, she ran for the bathroom. Who wouldn’t be nauseous after what she’d witnessed today?

  Later that day she was delivered to the driveway of Tante Lulu’s cottage. Zeb told her that she would be safe in her apartment, but that she might want to have company for a few days.

  “Does Tante Lulu know what happened?” she asked.

  He shook his head. “No one knows, except the vangels. As far as anyone else knows, even your brother, you spent the weekend at your apartment, resting after the talent show. Or rather, not resting with Ivak.” He waggled his eyebrows at her. He’d been trying to make her smile since he’d returned to the bungalow.

  “He’s broken off with me, you know.”

  He shrugged. “He’s an idiot.”

  She did smile then.

  “But he loves you.”

  “That’s debatable.” She heard the back door opening. Tante Lulu would be coming out here soon. It would be best if she didn’t see a demon in her yard. “Good luck, Zeb.”

  He kissed her on the cheek and said, “Pray for me.”

  And he was gone.

  For a brief moment, Gabrielle wondered if she had dreamed it all, but then Tante Lulu came up to her and asked, “Was that an angel I jist saw out here? They likes ta come and visit with my St. Jude birdbath.”

  Even angels need help from the saints sometimes . . .

  A week later Ivak was miserable.

  What else is new?

  He was happy that Gabrielle had been rescued. Of course he was. He owed Zeb big-time, and knowing Zeb, he would collect someday in some way. In the meantime, Ivak had been assured Gabrielle would be safe from the Lucies from now on. But he hadn’t seen or heard from her himself. That was the crux of his problem.

  Oh, it had been Ivak’s decision to break off contact with Gabrielle, but that didn’t mean he liked it. Doing the right thing shouldn’t hurt so much.

  Ivak had been working hard with the inmates. In fact, he’d saved five men who had been previously deemed irredeemable this past week alone. His skin was a golden tan, as a result. But there was no one to appreciate his appearance, or even pat him on the back.

  Of course the warden did enough back patting. He’d been so pleased with Ivak’s work on the talent show that Ivak could now do no wrong. Of course, he was buttering him up, hoping that Ivak would be doing talent shows every year from now on.

  Ivak committed to nothing.

  There was a knock on Ivak’s office door. Leroy entered after speaking softly to the guard who’d escorted him here.

  “Good news?” Ivak asked, seeing the happy expression on Leroy’s face.

  “The best! I hope! I just talked to Gabrielle, and we have a meeting tomorrow with the St. Francisville DA. The one who prosecuted me in the prison murder.”

  “That’s wonderful,” he said, standing t
o hug Leroy.

  “Gabby will meet me there with Luc and Thor. Prison guards will escort me, but . . . will you come with me?”

  Ivak would like to, but he didn’t think it would be a good idea; Gabrielle wouldn’t like the idea, he was sure. If she’d wanted him there, she would have made that fact known. “No, this is your day, Leroy. Besides, I have another commitment.” A lie. A white lie.

  Leroy’s shoulders slumped. “I have so much to thank you for.”

  “No, it’s Tante Lulu you need to thank.”

  Leroy shook his head vigorously. “It was you. Ever since I met you, you’ve given me something I thought I’d lost.” He gulped. “Hope.”

  After he left, Ivak just sat, miserable, as usual. Then he opened a drawer and took out a small statue of St. Jude that Tante Lulu had given him. He set it on the desk in front of him and stared at the plastic likeness, which was probably not at all what the saint looked like.

  Finally, he pressed his palms together in a prayerful fashion. “Is it possible . . . I mean, dare I . . .” He felt silly saying it, but he said the one word. “ . . . hope?”

  He could swear the statue smiled at him.

  Life sometimes throws roadblocks in our paths . . .

  Gabrielle sat on one side of a long conference table with Luc and Thor, while the DA and several of his staff sat on the other side. They all had copies of the prosecutor’s settlement offer in front of them, waiting for Leroy to arrive to discuss the details.

  It broke Gabrielle’s heart to see him escorted in wearing handcuffs and leg shackles, with an Angola guard on either side of him. Although she was wary of the staff at Angola after the incident with O’Malley, these two looked kind, and they were gentle with Leroy when they removed the leg chains and motioned for him to sit down beside Gabrielle.

  Until this moment, Gabrielle hadn’t realized how much she’d been hoping that Ivak would be with him. She hadn’t talked to him since that phone conversation the day she was rescued, and he hadn’t made any attempt to make contact since then. Just as he’d said on the phone. Well, she’d be damned if she would take the first step. Even if she did still love the louse.

  She leaned over and kissed Leroy on the cheek, whispering, “How you doing, sweetie?”

  “Nervous.”

  “Me too.”

  “You look awful. I mean, your skin is white. Have you been sick?”

  “A little bit. Must be a stomach bug.” Actually, she’d vomited her guts out this morning. As she had several other times since returning from Horror. It was probably a stress reaction to her experience. In most circumstances like this, the victim would be in counseling for PTSD, but how could she tell a psychologist what had happened to her? They would think she was crazy.

  Once Leroy was released, she would probably feel better.

  “Okay, folks, now that everyone’s here,” the DA said. “Mr. Sonnier, in light of the deathbed testimony of Edward Hebert, we are prepared to offer you an out-of-court settlement.”

  Leroy straightened, and Gabrielle took one of his cuffed hands in hers.

  “We agree to your release as time served, providing you enter a guilty plea.”

  “What? I don’t understand.” Leroy turned to Gabrielle.

  “You’d have to plead guilty if you want to avoid a lengthy retrial,” she explained.

  “But I didn’t do it.”

  “I know.”

  “Can we have some time to discuss this in private?” Luc asked the prosecutor.

  “Yes, but the offer’s only on the table today. After that, we’ll ask the judge for a court date.”

  The prosecutor was posturing, in Gabrielle’s opinion, but sometimes that’s all the law was about.

  Once they were alone, Leroy said angrily, “Hell, no! I won’t agree to something I didn’t do. It would be on my record for life.”

  “Leroy, you already have a felony on your record for life. That of manslaughter two for murdering your father,” Thor pointed out.

  “That’s different.”

  Thor shrugged.

  “Why won’t they just let me go now that they know Hebert lied?”

  “They need to save face,” Luc told him.

  “And I get thrown under the bus to make them look good?”

  “That’s about it.” Luc shrugged.

  “What do you think I should do?” Leroy asked Gabrielle.

  “I’m divided,” she said. “Like you, I hate your having to make a guilty plea, but it would mean your release within days. Whereas a jury trial could take years, and I’m always fearful about what could happen to you in prison.”

  Leroy buried his face in his cuffed hands. “I wish Ivak were here to give me advice.”

  Gabrielle exchanged rueful glances with Luc and Thor. Three experienced lawyers in the room and Leroy would have preferred advice from a prison chaplain. At least that’s all Luc would know of Ivak.

  Leroy said, “It burns my ass to do it, but I’ll accept. Later, I’ll worry about the implications. Maybe I’ll write a book making them all look like asses.”

  “That’s the spirit,” Luc said.

  After Leroy and the lawyers signed all the appropriate documents, Leroy was taken back to the prison. It would take days for him to be processed out.

  “I’ll make space for you in my apartment,” she told him before he shuffled out. Later, she would have to look for a bigger place. Tall as Leroy was, she’d have to sleep on the couch, giving up her bed for him. A small sacrifice, considering.

  Once Leroy was gone, and Luc and Thor were done discussing details with her, Gabrielle made a mad dash for the ladies’ room. Once again, she threw up, though she had almost nothing in her stomach at this point. She decided to stop at the supermarket on the way back to New Orleans and among basic groceries, she was going to pick up some kind of liquid antacid. After all these years of stress, she was getting ulcers now?

  She should have been happy on the drive home, but she felt such a weight on her shoulders. Maybe it was the aftereffects of her demon experience. Maybe she wouldn’t be able to relax and celebrate until Leroy was actually released. Maybe she was just missing Ivak too much. Maybe she should swallow her pride and call the man.

  But she did nothing that night. When she returned to her apartment and put away her groceries, taking a long swig of the pink stuff, she could only think about taking a nap. And to her shock, she slept right through until the following morning. When she was sick again.

  Later, she was sitting in her kitchen, having some tea and toast, when she heard her doorbell ring. She glanced at her watch. It was ten a.m. To her surprise, it was Tante Lulu.

  Gabrielle opened the door and the old lady came huffing in. “Holy Sac-au-lait! Those steps are a killer. You oughta be in a place with an elevator.”

  Like I could afford that! She closed the door and followed Tante Lulu into her kitchen, where she placed a paper sack that, from the delicious scent, must hold beignets. Gabrielle watched with confusion while the old lady put a plate on the table and arranged the desserts.

  “Tante Lulu, what are you doing here?” Sorry to be blunt, but sometimes it’s the only way.

  “Yer brother gave me a call, and I come ta see what’s goin’ on.”

  “Leroy called you?”

  “Well, I asked the warden ta have the boy give me a call. I wanted ta know what happened yesterday. You dint let me know,” she accused Gabrielle.

  “I was so tired when I got home. I fell asleep and didn’t wake up until this morning.”

  Tante Lulu nodded as if she understood. “And you ain’t been feelin’ good, right?”

  Leroy had a big mouth. “That’s right. Just a little stomach bug. I feel much better now.”

  “Jist like I figgered.” Tante Lulu reached down into her big purse that she’d set on the floor.

  Oh my God! She better not have bought me a gun.

  But, no, she handed a small box to Gabrielle.

  Confused, Gabrielle
glanced at the box, then burst out laughing. “Where did you get this?”

  “I had Tee-John run inta the drugstore and buy it fer me.”

  “Good Lord!”

  Tante Lulu chuckled. “He ’bout had a heart attack when I told ’im what I wanted.”

  “I appreciate your effort, but I’m not pregnant. I can’t be.”

  “Are you sayin’ you ain’t done the deed with Ivak?”

  Gabrielle’s face heated up. “Ivak is sterile. He can’t have children.”

  Tante Lulu folded her arms over her chest and raised her chin with stubbornness. She looked surprisingly normal today, with gray hair and a neat pantsuit. “Go take the test.”

  “But—”

  “Go.”

  Just to appease the old lady, she went into the bathroom and took the test. Stunned, she walked out ten minutes later. Pregnant. She was pregnant. But how could that be? Oooh, Ivak had a lot to answer for.

  “Congratulations, honey,” Tante Lulu said when she returned, not even waiting for Gabrielle to tell her the test results. “I gotta get that hope chest done right away now.”

  Later, Gabrielle couldn’t recall anything that she or Tante Lulu discussed until Tee-John eventually came to pick her up. At the door, both the nephew and the aunt hugged her warmly, and Gabrielle promised to call Tante Lulu the next day.

  It took her an hour to get herself until control.

  She was pregnant. Unmarried and pregnant. Well, that didn’t matter so much today. But the timing was not good, especially with Leroy about to get out of prison. He would be staying with her, at least in the beginning. Then she would have to think about how she was going to support herself and a baby, how she would be able to work.

  On the other hand . . . a baby! Gabrielle put a hand over her stomach and smiled. A miracle, really.

  First things first, she got up to get her cell phone and tapped in Ivak’s number. She got his voice mail.

  “Ivak! This is Gabrielle. I need to talk to you. Right away. It’s important.” You stinking liar! You no good charmer. You . . .

  She no sooner ended the call than her phone rang. It was Ivak.

  “Gabrielle! I just walked in. What’s wrong?”

  You stinking liar! You no good charmer. You . . . “Everything. You better get your Viking butt here right away.” She hadn’t meant to be so shrill. It just came out that way.