Bloodlands by Chris Marie Green & Christine Cody

Author:Chris Marie Green & Christine Cody [Green, Chris Marie & Cody, Christine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance, Horror, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Fiction, General, Dystopias, Contemporary, Occult & Supernatural, Paranormal, Vampires, Paranormal Romance Stories
ISBN: 9780441020621
Publisher: Ace
Published: 2011-07-26T00:00:00+00:00

Gabriel

Gabriel watched as Mariah ran ahead of them, darting inside the entrance. He’d heard her flailing body rhythms this entire time, connecting to them, so he hadn’t been at all comfortable with what’d just transpired. Before Chaplin could get to his trapdoor, Gabriel stepped in front of the dog.

“Good enough for you?”

Yup, Chaplin answered. He’d been mind-connected with Gabriel most of the time, except for there at the beginning, when the dog had first confronted her in the domain. What’d been said between the two, Gabriel couldn’t be certain, but he’d pretty much put the puzzle of the conversation together, along with the images the dog had shown him about Mariah’s attack a couple nights earlier.

“Angry, ain’t she?” Gabriel said.

Chaplin finally seemed unable to avoid the drugs in his system as he answered in a dragging cadence. She’ll probably go to the workroom, as usual. It helps her calm down. Maybe she’ll sleep well with you outside. At the very least, she just learned something about her limits, and she needed that. Badly.

“You want me outside,” Gabriel said. “It sounds as if you hope I’ll keep my distance.”

Chaplin paused, then thought, There’s a hunger, Gabriel, and it’s been building.

So there it was. “If you can sense that in me, you probably also know that I’m getting better and better at conquering it.”

The dog hesitated again, as if carefully setting out his musings. It almost struck Gabriel as too deliberate until the canine thought, Maybe you should just consider drinking some blood from that flask of yours. It might even help to dig a good spot out here under the dirt for your coming rest.

That stung. And it also made Gabriel determined to prove the dog wrong. He could overcome the hunger just fine.

He jerked his chin at the dog as they came to the main entrance. “Understood, Chaplin. You need me around because of Stamp, but you’re going to make sure you protect your mistress, too. I get it. You’re a jerk when you need to be.”

I’m only doing what I have to, Gabriel.

“Aren’t we all?” He lifted a brow. “Including you?”

Gabriel meant to broach the subject of any plans Chaplin might have for him, but the dog was spent, stumbling to the trapdoor and going through it while Gabriel made sure the spring-loaded dirt spiller covered the entrance sufficiently. He shouldn’t have bothered.

As he vowed to talk to Chaplin later, he searched out his flask in the ground, took a good drink, and assumed his guard duty, the shotgun tucked in his arms. But the longer he stayed outside, the longer he wanted to show Chaplin that there was nothing to worry about with him.

Carrying a chip on his shoulder had been a shortcoming as a human, too, Gabriel thought. Throughout his life, he’d been doubted by teachers, not responding to so-called cures for dyslexia, feeling stupid except when it came to working with his hands on the intricate patterns of handmade furniture only the elite could afford. Of

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.