It is possible she can aid him as well.
Gregori took a deep breath, glided a step closer to Gary as if he would shield him from what was coming in the future.
Gary glanced at Gregori, held his eyes for a long moment and then nodded. It would give him time and distance, something he needed to separate himself from Gabrielle. He would either find a solution in that time, or he would learn to accept that he had lost her forever.
3
Gabrielle streaked through the dark sky. She was going to be too late. She felt it. That terrible buildup of tension. Of dread. It was there, a tremendous pressure in her chest. Her belly was in knots. Her heart hurt. An actual pain. No one would tell her where Mikhail had sent Gary, but he'd definitely been sent away. He was gone the following rising when she went looking for him. She'd done what she'd never attempted to do before. She'd used her deep connection with him to call to him--and then she had tried shapeshifting on her own. Flying on her own.
The echo of his answer was faint--very faint. She knew he was a very long distance away from her, but it didn't matter, she could follow his psychic trail. She'd had time to really think about what her life would be like without him, and she knew she didn't want to live in the Carpathian Mountains. She would go away, far from everything and everyone she knew. Disassociate. That was what she did. She lost herself in her research so she didn't have to face life. A lonely life. Gary was the only one who "saw" her. She needed him to be real. To exist.
She didn't even care if she was chasing after him, needy as hell. Psycho ex-girlfriend. Because she knew without a shadow of a doubt that he loved her. He would walk through fire for her. If she didn't get him away from the prince and Gregori, she would lose him forever and she would lose herself.
Below her the mountains streaked by. She caught glimpses of the dense forest and craggy mountaintops. Ahead were the mists surrounding the monastery where the ancients went when they wouldn't walk into the sun but could no longer be trusted around humans or Carpathians. When they could no longer safely hunt the undead. They were dangerous men.
Gabrielle didn't want to go anywhere near the monastery. She didn't want anything at all to do with them, but if that was Gary's destination, then she was going to be there first. She knew, from sliding into her sister's mind, that he had gone to see Andre and his new lifemate, Teagan. Together, the three would approach those in the monastery to see if they would be willing to have Teagan try to help them. Gabrielle intended to catch them outside the gates. She had followed Gary's psychic trail and found her way.
The air had gone cold, unnaturally so. She could feel the safeguards woven into the mists broadcasting a warning that got under her skin even when she knew why and how it was there. Inside the mist things moved. Shapes. Voices whispered warnings. The mist swirled, dense and heavy, so that even in the form she'd taken, she was saturated, the water penetrating her feathers, a nearly impossible feat.
She could easily see how the ancients had stayed undiscovered for so many years. Their warning system was brilliant and cleverly in play all year round as well as both day and night. The actual location of the monastery appeared to change as well. She'd catch a glimpse of it, the mist would close over it and when the veil parted again over what she could swear was the exact same spot, the buildings were gone.
She was fully Carpathian with all the powers. She had never really utilized her gifts before. No one had really talked to her about what she could and couldn't do, and she hadn't asked. She should have asked. She knew most humans were converted by a lifemate and their lifemate taught them everything they needed to know. She'd been converted and, although grateful to be alive, she had disappeared into her work so she wouldn't have to face a life that was very alien to her.
Perhaps if someone had worked with her, she wouldn't have felt so cut off, but no one thought to do so, and she couldn't ask. Not the prince. Certainly not Gregori. She had counted on Gary. She had always counted on Gary. He would teach her what she needed to know.
Now, she used her mind to keep herself in the air. She knew everything started in one's mind. Her feathers might be soaked, but she could shift in the air if she had to. Whatever the ancients tried, she would not be afraid. She would not back down. Gary belonged with her. No one was going to take him away from her. She'd seen in his eyes that he was close to capitulating.
The owl began to falter in the center of the mist and she forced a shift, one she'd never attempted before, but she was very familiar with molecules and the molecular structure of the human body, so she wasn't as afraid of becoming molecules as she had been when she'd first learned how to shift into the form of an animal or bird.
The veil of mist parted again, and way down the mountain she caught a glimpse of four men and a woman hiking the mountain trail above the human village. They looked tiny, like ants. She was grateful they couldn't possibly see her in the thick, swirling clouds of living fog miles and miles above them.
Without warning a wrenching sickness took her over, so that even in her present state, without a body, she felt as if she might tumble from the sky and be sick over and over. Fear seized her. She couldn't tell why. It was unreasonable. She knew that, but it didn't help to lessen the effect on her. Fortunately, the veil parted again, and this time, she actually saw the gates of the monastery. More. She saw Gary. He was with Andre. She recognized the Carpathian others referred to as "the Ghost." With him was a woman. She was shorter than Gabrielle and had beautiful, mocha skin. Her hair was a deep ebony, and even braided it was very thick and hung to her waist.
Relief flooded through her and she dropped down fast, afraid if she didn't get through the small hole in the mist, she would lose the location again. She saw Gary turn his head toward her, as she came out of the mist to shift only feet from him. Andre stepped in front of his lifemate.
"Gabrielle." Gary breathed her name.
The unguarded look on his face was everything she could ask for right before a mask dropped down.
"Gary. I've had enough time to think about everything, and I'm willing to take the chance. We have too much for me to be afraid of reaching for what I want," Gabrielle said hastily, moving right into him.
She ignored Andre and his lifemate, Teagan. She ignored the fact that she was nearly pressed against the huge, thick gates of the monastery. She knew better than to touch them, but she stayed firmly inserted between Gary and the gates. She knew she only had a few minutes before everything was lost. She knew because she felt the two Carpathians trailing after her. If they arrived before she managed to convince Gary they deserved their time together, she would lose everything.
"Gabrielle." Gary said her name softly. Just that--her name.
She closed her eyes at the love in his voice. So real. So raw. So honest. How could anyone ask them to give up each other? As humans they would have married, had children and lived a happily-ever-after life. She knew that with every breath she took. She could hear the same knowledge in the sound of Gary's voice. In her name.
She held out her hand. "Come away with me. Right now. Andre can do the prince's bidding. We can take fifty years. Fifty. That's all we're asking for ourselves. We have an endless amount of time ahead of us." She couldn't think about that long eternity of loneliness stretching in front of her--not without Gary. "Fifty years isn't too much to ask, Gary."
She held her breath. Looked into his eyes. Let him see how much he meant to her. How much she loved him. They deserved to be together. They belonged. She felt it in her heart. No, in her very soul, the soul she supposedly shared with another man.
"Gabrielle." The melting sensation in his heart told Gary he was so far gone in this woman he was going to lose the battle. He didn't want to ever hurt her. Not again. The look on her face before she ran down the mountain, the rejection and pain so plain in her eyes had gutted him right along with her.
"We've given to them. We both have." She stepped closer.
Her scent was elusive, mesmerizing, beautiful and delicate like sh
e was, wrapping him up and surrounding him with her. Gary always got lost in her when she was so close. He couldn't help it, he had to touch her. All that soft skin. It felt as soft as it looked. He framed her face with both hands, ignoring Andre, who had stepped close, his lifemate, Teagan, who had tears in her eyes, one step behind her man.
Gary stared into Gabrielle's dove gray eyes and fell hard. He always did. She was right. They both had given much to the Carpathian people. Both had suffered. Nearly died. "Fifty years," he whispered.
Her eyes searched his, hope creeping into her expression. "We'll come back after and give the rest of our lives to them. If we find lifemates at that time, fine, if we don't, we had our time."
"Honey," he said, still trying to do the right thing. "I could lose my emotions. Any time. Any day. What then?"
"You'll know before it happens. They fade away. Over time. We have time. That's one thing we do have."
"My ability to see in color left when you did on our wedding night." He would always remember the sight of her running from him, taking the vivid colors with her, leaving his world gray. "My emotions could go the same way."
"I get that you're saying there's a risk. I know you would never hurt me, Gary. I know it. If you lose your emotions, we'll deal with that. But it should be my risk. My choice. I should have that right. I work with hot viruses; do you think I wouldn't risk everything for you? I'm fighting for us, Gary. I need to know I'm just as important to you as you are to me. I need you to fight for me."
She laid it all out. Courageous. Right in front of Andre and Teagan. She bared her soul, leaving herself exposed and vulnerable to him. There was no resisting that. He felt the smile start somewhere deep inside of him. She was right. She was so right. Fifty years in a Carpathian's life was nothing. For them, it would be everything they wanted.
"I love you, Gabrielle," he stated. "I love you with every breath in my body. And honey, never, for one moment, think you aren't worth fighting for. I'd die for you. You aren't second to anyone. You're my number-one priority."
Her face lit up. Like sunshine. Like the stars over his head. Lighting his world. He might not be able to see in color, but he could see the light shining like a beacon--for him. His heart jerked in his chest.
"I think Andre and Teagan can handle this assignment without me. I was here to observe, if the ancients even wanted to try Teagan's experiment. We can leave now. Go to the States, live out our time there."
Gabrielle flung herself at him with a glad cry, her mouth turned up to his. He caught her in midair, wrapping his arms around her at the same time she wrapped her legs around him. His mouth found hers, tasting her. Tasting the wild in her. The wild she never let anyone see, but he always knew it was there, under the surface. His. She'd been his from the moment he laid eyes on her.