lip, the coppery taste of blood replacing Angelique’s essence.
“You’re beginning to piss me off,” Gabriel growled. “Why don’t you all run back home and have your mommies teach you some manners, eh? And stop playing all those violent video games. They’re giving you delusions of grandeur.”
He could tell his quips didn’t go over well. It certainly hadn’t done anything to ease the tension. The small group converged on him, anger at his insult burning like stinging embers in their eyes.
If he woke up from this, he would know that somebody up there liked him—or just really enjoyed watching him suffer. If he didn’t . . . An image of Angelique pressing her delicious breasts together, her tongue curling around the crest of one perfect nipple, filled his vision.
It was a good thought to die to.
A quiet voice in his head had another theory. Maybe, just maybe, it’s a good thought to live for.
Either way, it was the last one he had before he lost consciousness. Again.
“DAMN, YOU ARE A SAD-LOOKING SIGHT, BOY. CALL THE Mambo now, cher . Tell her we found her son, and he’ll be staying with us for the night. I don’t think she needs to know anything else right now.”
Gabriel groaned, opening one heavy eyelid to find BD sitting beside him. He was naked in a strange bedroom, and he could see the pale face of Michelle’s friend Bethany hovering over her husband’s shoulder, a cell phone to her ear.
He was still alive. In their house. It was an oddly comforting realization. His mother didn’t need to see him like this again. And BD? BD had seen him in his darkest hour. He’d been there with Michelle, literally the spirit inside her who’d dragged the djab out of Gabriel’s body and sent it into the void last year before the Loa had become human.
Somehow the fact that he was here made perfect sense. But he still wasn’t sure how that miracle had come about.
“H-how?”
The ex-Loa lifted his eyebrows. “I was just about to ask you the same thing, mon ami . How, by Legba’s walking stick, did you manage to do so much damage in one night?”
“Me?” Gabriel tried to sit up, swearing as his ribs protested painfully. “I was just walking home. Minding my own business. I was attacked by—”
“Five men. Brutes, all of them, I know.” BD was nodding. “That’s what the littlest one said. Well, not in so many words. He was too scared to make much sense, but who could blame him, yes?”
Scared? Gabriel took a few deep breaths, hoping a bit more oxygen to his brain would help him think past the aches in his body and make sense of the conversation. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, but whatever you did, thank you. Once again, you saved my life. I’m not sure how I got out of this last one intact.”
He wiggled his toes and fingers. They hurt, too, but at least they were moving. Yes. Intact. Unbelievable.
BD shrugged. “I did nothing. It was the strangest thing. We were on our way home from Adair’s house—talking about you, by the way—and my wife heard a voice in her ear telling us where to find you.” He smiled at Gabriel’s expression of disbelief. “My wife, having never heard a disembodied voice before, decided it would be best to obey. And I make it a rule never to argue with my wife. Imagine our surprise when we find you in the center of a pile of bodies, all alive, but most in the same shape as you are now.”
Gabriel opened his mouth to deny it, but BD raised his voice, his hands moving expansively as he continued. “Imagine our increased surprise when one of them begins to spin a tale about the easy tourist mark who became a horrifying wild man with angry black eyes and iron fists.”
BD tapped his chin thoughtfully, his eyes sparkling. “It’s sure to become an urban myth. Perhaps a morality tale that will, at the very least, keep those particular young men out of trouble. For a while.”
Gabriel lowered his head gingerly back to the pillow and
“You’re beginning to piss me off,” Gabriel growled. “Why don’t you all run back home and have your mommies teach you some manners, eh? And stop playing all those violent video games. They’re giving you delusions of grandeur.”
He could tell his quips didn’t go over well. It certainly hadn’t done anything to ease the tension. The small group converged on him, anger at his insult burning like stinging embers in their eyes.
If he woke up from this, he would know that somebody up there liked him—or just really enjoyed watching him suffer. If he didn’t . . . An image of Angelique pressing her delicious breasts together, her tongue curling around the crest of one perfect nipple, filled his vision.
It was a good thought to die to.
A quiet voice in his head had another theory. Maybe, just maybe, it’s a good thought to live for.
Either way, it was the last one he had before he lost consciousness. Again.
“DAMN, YOU ARE A SAD-LOOKING SIGHT, BOY. CALL THE Mambo now, cher . Tell her we found her son, and he’ll be staying with us for the night. I don’t think she needs to know anything else right now.”
Gabriel groaned, opening one heavy eyelid to find BD sitting beside him. He was naked in a strange bedroom, and he could see the pale face of Michelle’s friend Bethany hovering over her husband’s shoulder, a cell phone to her ear.
He was still alive. In their house. It was an oddly comforting realization. His mother didn’t need to see him like this again. And BD? BD had seen him in his darkest hour. He’d been there with Michelle, literally the spirit inside her who’d dragged the djab out of Gabriel’s body and sent it into the void last year before the Loa had become human.
Somehow the fact that he was here made perfect sense. But he still wasn’t sure how that miracle had come about.
“H-how?”
The ex-Loa lifted his eyebrows. “I was just about to ask you the same thing, mon ami . How, by Legba’s walking stick, did you manage to do so much damage in one night?”
“Me?” Gabriel tried to sit up, swearing as his ribs protested painfully. “I was just walking home. Minding my own business. I was attacked by—”
“Five men. Brutes, all of them, I know.” BD was nodding. “That’s what the littlest one said. Well, not in so many words. He was too scared to make much sense, but who could blame him, yes?”
Scared? Gabriel took a few deep breaths, hoping a bit more oxygen to his brain would help him think past the aches in his body and make sense of the conversation. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, but whatever you did, thank you. Once again, you saved my life. I’m not sure how I got out of this last one intact.”
He wiggled his toes and fingers. They hurt, too, but at least they were moving. Yes. Intact. Unbelievable.
BD shrugged. “I did nothing. It was the strangest thing. We were on our way home from Adair’s house—talking about you, by the way—and my wife heard a voice in her ear telling us where to find you.” He smiled at Gabriel’s expression of disbelief. “My wife, having never heard a disembodied voice before, decided it would be best to obey. And I make it a rule never to argue with my wife. Imagine our surprise when we find you in the center of a pile of bodies, all alive, but most in the same shape as you are now.”
Gabriel opened his mouth to deny it, but BD raised his voice, his hands moving expansively as he continued. “Imagine our increased surprise when one of them begins to spin a tale about the easy tourist mark who became a horrifying wild man with angry black eyes and iron fists.”
BD tapped his chin thoughtfully, his eyes sparkling. “It’s sure to become an urban myth. Perhaps a morality tale that will, at the very least, keep those particular young men out of trouble. For a while.”
Gabriel lowered his head gingerly back to the pillow and
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