Gabriel couldn't manage to get use to the stale smell of the catacomb of mazes he'd discovered in the abandon silver mines. He wasn't sure what had led him to the place where he kept his sister Madelyn captive, but all the still it had served its purpose well.
He'd known weeks earlier that his young, beautiful, vibrant sister hadn't been acting herself. It wasn't until he cut himself making dinner that he discovered reality behind all the childhood stories he'd been told. At the sight of his blood his sister had flown into a frenzy, drawing his injured hand to her lips and drinking the thick red blood from the open gash. In that moment, he knew that he had to find away to save her.
Confusedly, he pushed her away. She turned her eyes up to him. Her eyes were bright red and void of all traces of humanity. He could sense her hatred and desire acutely. He knew in that moment what she was. All that would come to mind was the Lord's prayer. As he began to recite it, seeing his own death at her hands, she began to screech as if in brutal agony. She doubled over and began to vomit violently.
He took advantage of her pain. Continuing to pray, he bound her hands and feet and carried her to the jeep. His intention had been to take her to the hospital, but it was as if an invisible hand was steering his jeep. Instead of the hospital, he found himself in the middle of no where, 50 miles out side of town in the back country, standing at the entrance of the old silver mine.
With only a flash light and his catatonic sister draped over his shoulder, he allowed that invisible hand to guide him through the web of interconnecting passages and tunnels to a room that had obviously once served as a prison of some sort. As he let the beam of the flash light explore the dark cavern, he found shackles lined along the wall. A dusty mattress in the corner of the room and what looked to be a makeshift lab lining the wall next to the entrance. All at once he knew his purpose. The Lord led him to that place to secure his sister until he could find a cure.
In the weeks to follow, he'd made the rather large cave into a second home. He'd brought a tub for Madelyn to bath in, though he was only able to fill it with water from the natural spring that ran freely though out the maze of tunnels. He dragged her bed, frame and all to insure she would sleep comfortably all with in moving range of the iron tether. He filled the room with oil lanterns so that he could document the steady changes in her appearance and behavior. The only thing he hadn't taken in to account, was feeding her, though she hadn't seemed at all weak and he hadn't once sensed her hunger in the weeks that he'd held her chained to the silver lined wall.
"Madelyn honey..." Gabriel breathed tiredly, studying her empty green eyes. "I'm back."
"I see." she frowned, not bothering to rise from the bed. She didn't have the energy. Her heart ached far too much to move.
"I'm sorry I had to leave you alone for so long." Gabriel apologized softly, debating whether he should tell her about the female creature.
"I smell her on you." Madelyn said disinterestedly as if reading his thoughts, though he knew she couldn't.
"I've met another female like you." Gabriel said gently. "I'm hoping maybe she can help me find a cure."
"I don't need a cure." she said weakly. "I need Adam." she said as she had a million times in the past two weeks.
"Yeah..." he said thoughtfully. "I would love to find Adam as well. I'd like to rend his head from his neck for doing this to you." he bit as once again rage took hold of him over his sister
predicament.
"He did nothing to me that I didn't ask him to. I knew what he was and I wanted to be with him forever." she said honestly. "You wouldn't understand. You're heart is incapable of knowing that kind of love. You're just like Mother." she frowned, chiding him as she did over the course of their child hood for not wearing his heart on his sleeve. "I will die with out him Gabriel. Please I'm begging you to let me go to him." Madelyn pleaded, thick painful tears spilling from her eyes, not knowing how much longer she could survive with out her mate.
"You won't die. I won't let you." Gabriel said firmly. "I will find away to fix you."
"And I will find away to return to him if I don't die here." she said honestly.
"Then maybe I should make it a point of destroying him before I find a cure for you." he bit coldly.
"You would destroy me in the process." she smiled.
"Stop being so dramatic." he laughed bitterly, seeing that even as a creature she still had a propensity for melodrama.
"I'm not being dramatic... If you destroy the maker, you destroy the creation. Every one knows that." she said, not honestly knowing if her words were actually accurate.
"Oh... Damn it." he sighed.
"Watch your language. What would God think?" she chided. "I think you would see things differently if you were capable of loving." she said thoughtfully.
"I have to go." he frowned feeling Ava calling out to him. Her crying his name echoed as loudly in his head as it would have in the wide open cave.
"She's calling you. You can sense that." Madelyn said with a gasp of surprise, though she'd been in the process of being educated about their abilities when her brother had secreted her away, she was certain that only mated pairs could call one another. Hearing the female vampires voice in her brothers head confused and interested her greatly.
"Yes I can sense her. Same as I sense you." he shook his head annoyed by the smile on his sisters pale face.
"I can't summon you." she said knowingly.
"I'll be back soon." Gabriel sighed, feeling Ava's summons become more urgent, though to his surprise it didn't seem to hold any anger. Nervously, he drove back to the parking lot of the Vampire night club he'd fled from earlier. He knew Ava was awaiting him there.
"What have you done, you stupid human?" Ava questioned furiously, before Gabriel was able to step out of his Jeep.
"What do you mean?" Gabriel asked innocently, having thought the whole way there of a way to explain his actions. He knew that she would be livid with him. He didn't need to see the violet of her eyes to know that she was fighting the urge to sink her fangs into him, he sensed the war of emotions with in her very vividly.
"What do I mean?" Ava growled taking a threatening step closer to him. Instinctively, his hands immediately went to her shoulders, cupping them soothingly. Ava, felt a powerful stab of sentiment that she hadn't felt in longer than she could recall. It was so foreign that she was unable to even name it. For a moment, she found herself completely frozen. To her chagrin, her eyes returned to their calmer shade of green as her anger melted away.
"I didn't have a choice Ava." Gabriel said, telling only a half truth. Had he not baited the guard she'd left to watch over him, he'd not have had to defend himself. "That blood sucker bit me."
He explained, with wide eyed child like surprise.
"Where?" Ava questioned, having sensed the attack on the human the moment it happened. Fear had immediately crept into her mind as she'd felt Gabriel's pain and distress distinctly.
"There." Gabriel said, removing only one hand from her, to tug the edge of his collar down to give her a view of a mark that didn't exist. He tensed as Ava stepped closer in an attempt to study his injury. The feel of her warm breath on his skin was almost more than he could bare. Slowly he closed his eyes and found himself deeply breathing in her intoxicating scent.
"There's nothing there Gabriel... Not even a bruise." Ava said thoughtfully, knowing that what she'd felt earlier had not been an illusion. Confusion filled her mind like a thick haze. She knew Gabriel staked the guard while he was still feeding. Why his wounds were sealed was a mystery. She'd never known a human that could close heal their own wounds.
It was the responsibility of all vampires to close the puncture marks of their victims. As their fangs were covered with powerful toxin, their saliva was filled with antibodies to those toxins. The feeder would coat the wound with a thick coat of saliva when they were done feeding immediately sealing the evidence of their crime against humanity. Failing to do so, the wounds would fester and end the life of the victim in a matter of hours as the human body had no antibody to the venomous toxins that coated the fangs of all vampires.
"I know... I thought that was strange. I figured that ya'll just have a way of closing it up." Gabriel shrugged blamelessly, forcing his mind from the creature standing so close to him, trying desperately to focus on the conversation at hand.
"We do." Ava said hesitantly, deciding not to relay her concerns. She didn't want the human knowing yet just how unique he actually was until she had a chance to discover why he was so singular. "Do you realize what a mess you've made for me to have to clean up Gabriel?" Ava asked with a sigh, running her fingers through her long hair in frustration.
"Relax." Gabriel frowned, feeling a sense of guilt over her distress that made him more than uncomfortable. Instinctively, his hands moved to her full round hips to draw her closer to him. "They all bow to you. This isn't a big deal. Why are you so upset?"
"That's the second time that you've said that tonight. Why do you assume that they bow to me?" She asked, easing away from him despite the objections of her body. Intently, she studied his tired eyes.
"I don't know." he said honestly. "I think I just assumed it because of the way you looked at them as you dragged me from the club earlier. I sensed them... I don't know, cowering I guess, to you. Why is that by the way?" he asked curiously. "What makes you so special to them?"
"What do you mean you sensed them?" she asked, realizing that the council may have a bigger problem on their hands than they'd originally suspected. If a mortal could actually sense their presence and state of mind, that could prove fatal to their very existence.
"It's hard to explain." he shrugged. "I felt you... I think the second you were asked to come here. And I've been locked on you every since. But when others of your kind are around... I can sense it. Not as painfully as I feel your presence though. I can't read their minds or anything. But I can kind of feel their emotional state. Like when I walked into the club. Immediately it was like the room became filled with a thick air of hunger or lust... But when you came over to me, it was like all that need was replaced with absolute fear and bitterness for your presence there in the first place. I was able to sense what their emotions were. Yours... I feel more strongly than any others for some reason." he explained, not understanding why he was opening up to the creature so willingly. It had to be the fatigue of the last few days.
"Have you always been able to sense us?" she asked, suddenly filled with genuine interest.
"Yes and no." he answered with a thoughtful expression on his face. "I've always had a sense of something... I just didn't know what it was that I was sensing until..." he started but stopped himself short. "Until recently. Do you sense me as well?" He asked curiously.
