dark fury etched his face. “It’s not hers and she shouldn’t touch it. No one ever touches it.”
Dread curled in her stomach. “Who does it belong to?”
His jaw ground violently. “My niece Amelia.” Now his furious gaze held hers. Amber eyes. Wolf eyes. “She was a Shadow, just like you.”
Megan’s heart thundered in her chest. She cradled her injured hand. Clouds darkening the sky cast his face into shadow. Didn’t want to know, had to ask. Had to know …
“Was?” she whispered. “What happened to her?”
Gabriel’s jaw tensed to granite. “I killed her.”
Chapter 4
Last one.
Wind kicked up sand eddies, swirling on the ground. Gabriel lifted a heavy metal shutter, hooked it into place over the window and attached it.
He’d changed into shorts and a white muscle shirt for the arduous task of shuttering his vacation home. Sweat dripped down his temples. Gabriel swiped his damp brow with the back of one hand. His home now resembled a ghost house, the shutters reflecting the remaining rays of the late afternoon sun.
Megan and the twins were in the guest cottage on the bayside, where they all would ride out the storm. It was the safest house on the island. Gabriel needed to be alone for now, away from the horror in their eyes, the alarm shadowing their faces. Fear was good for them. Let them think he was as nasty as his reputation.
The thought sickened him.
He sagged against the shutter, feeling sun-warmed steel heat his skin. Closing his eyes, he saw Amelia’s trusting face as he stood in the pool with her favorite bath toy as incentive for learning to swim. Heard her squeals of laughter as she finished splashing toward him, then grabbed the yellow rubber duck in her small fist.
“I got it, Uncle Gabriel! I’m like Ducky, I can swim now!” she’d yelled.
He’d laughed and swung her up in his arms, as Simone and Alex watched proudly.
The duck.
The yellow duck.
That damn … duck!
He hurled the hammer at the sand. Amelia deserved much better. Learning how to swim in the deep end, first dance, first kiss …
Thanks to him, she’d have none of that. She was only ten years old.
I’m sorry.
Gabriel fisted his trembling hands. The approaching hurricane echoed his turbulent emotions. Warmth spread through his body. Wolf clawed to the surface, stirred up by guilt, anger and self-loathing. Plucking at his shirt, he felt as if hundreds of ants crawled over his skin. He rubbed his chin, alarmed to find thick stubble. Gray fur replaced the light hairs dusting the back of his hands.
The first physical manifestation of his Change.
It had grown more powerful since Raphael’s mate had infused him with power during a vicious Morph fight. His sister-in-law Emily’s touch had heightened his Draicon’s magick. It had tripled Gabriel’s powers, but also made his wolf more ferocious.
The hell with it. He allowed the wolf to flow through him. Muscles rippled and stretched, bones lengthened. He snarled at the elements, feeling the primitive need to rip and tear and destroy.
The sweet vanilla scent of childhood halted the process.
Gabriel stiffened, fisting his hands/paws. Acute senses warned that a twin stood behind him on the deck. His human side wrestled for control. Even though the wolf would never hurt an innocent, he could not allow a young one to witness his transformation.
“Mr. Gabriel?”
“Go away, Jillian.” His voice was a low whiplash, hinting of danger.
“Are you still mad at me?”
Closing his eyes, he breathed deeply.
“I’m sorry I touched your toy, Mr. Gabriel.”
“I’m not mad at you, Jillian.”
He managed to corral the violent emotions. Gabriel studied his hands, relieved to see they were normal. The wolf was gone. For now.
“You can call me Jilly. Everyone does.”
He turned, wondering if this young one would know how close she’d danced to the knife’s edge of violence.
“I’m not afraid of you.” A frown dented her brow. “I’m worried about you. You hurt.”
At his blank stare, she rubbed her thin chest. “In here.”
Tension knotted the spot she’d indicated. “I’m fine,” he lied.
“No, you’re not,” she said seriously. “I can tell. I can feel inside you. You don’t want anyone to know because you don’t like what happens when you feel this way.”
Merde, a seven-year-old could tell? Gabriel retrieved the hammer. As he brushed it free of sand, he glanced at the solemn girl examining the inside of his canvas tool bag.
“You can feel inside me?”
She nodded. Seldom had he used his enormous powers of mind control to delve into a child’s thoughts. Children were innocent and their motivations and thought patterns as clear as shiny glass. They were easy to read, but he hated having to do it.
He motioned to the steps, and when she’d sat beside him, he turned the hammer over in his hand. “Can you read other people’s thoughts?”
Jillian gave him a guileless look. “Only if they allow me to, or if they’re so loud they’re screaming at me. Like they’re yelling out loud, but they’re not. Gram taught me not to be rude and invade their minds.”
In a ladylike gesture, she folded her hands in her lap. “I tried once, when my friend Andrea bragged her hair was prettier than mine. I went into her mind to see the truth. She hated her hair and I told her so. Megan punished me and made me apologize. She said it was wrong. I didn’t mean to hurt Andrea and I promised never to do it again.”
“Megan is right. Using power holds you accountable for your magick.”
Gabriel sucked in a deep breath. “When you get older, you’ll understand the difference between doing it for the right reasons or just to be a bully. You’ll learn to shut out others’ thoughts, too, so you can have peace.”
How he wished he could experience such peace. Hadn’t, not since Amelia and Simone had died.
“You didn’t do it, Mr. Gabriel. You didn’t kill her.”
“What?”
“Amelia. You said you killed her, but I felt what you felt.” Jillian shook her head. “You’re not like the bad men who hurt Shadows.”
