Dark Legend Read Online Free PDF Page B

the door to the chamber and hurried away from him along the tunnel toward the basement. It didn't improve her temper when he kept pace with her easily, his muscles rippling powerfully, suggestively. How dare he be so casual about her life? "It hasn't changed a thing. You still have your job and I have my life. It belongs solely to me, Gabriel, and only I can make my decisions."
    "The Prince of our people has much to answer to me for," Gabriel said in his soft, mild voice. "He has not watched over you as was his duty. Is Mikhail still in power?"
    "Go to hell, Gabriel," Francesca bit out, anger erupting at his statement. She pushed her way into the kitchen and moved straight across the room to the hall mirror. Sweeping her hair aside, she examined her neck for any telltale marks.
    "You are going out?"
    His voice was so low and soft, her heart thudded hard in her chest. She kept her face turned away from him. "Yes, I told Brice I would look in on one of his patients. I can't have him worried and coming to look for me."
    "Brice can wait," Gabriel said smoothly.
    "There is no reason for Brice to wait," Francesca told him. "I expect you to be gone when I get back, Gabriel."
    A small smile softened the hard edge of his mouth. "I do not think that will happen." He watched her go out the front door, amusement never once touching his smoldering black eyes. The moment the heavy door banged shut behind her, Gabriel flowed through the room to the window. Francesca was moving down the street quickly on foot. She hadn't used her car as a human would and she hadn't dissolved into mist and streamed through the air as a Carpathian might. As Gabriel watched, she began to run. Her body moved lightly and fluidly, poetic in its beauty.
    He reached out with his mind and merged with hers so that he was a quiet shadow. Francesca was very afraid of him. She meant every word she had said. She had been conducting some kind of experiment, one that had allowed her to remain in the sun with the humans. She had spent a great deal of time and energy researching, looking for a way to make the change. It had taken several centuries to get her body to the point that she could do so. She had been so adept at appearing human in her thoughts and actions that she had fooled even such an ancient as he. Now he had ruined it for her by giving her his ancient blood. She was very upset over that. And she was determined that these were the last few years of her life. She had been considering spending her last years with Brice, growing old in the manner of humans. She intended to meet the dawn when those last few years were gone. She had been planning it for some time.
    "I do not think so, Francesca," he whispered aloud. His body slowly wavered, shimmered into transparency. He dissolved into a fine mist and streamed from the house through the partially opened window. At once the mist took the form of a large white owl, his favorite method of traveling. Strong wings spread wide and took him high over the city.
    Francesca ran as fast as she could along the sidewalk. She could hear her heart thudding wildly, heard the soles of her feet hitting the walkway, the air rushing in and out of her lungs. In her wildest dreams she had never once thought this could happen. Gabriel. Her people whispered of him. Twins. Legends. They were dead, not alive. How could this be? He had taken her life away from her, forced her to live an endless solitary existence. Now that she had finally found a way to live like a human, to perhaps have a human relationship, to live and die like the others she had watched come and go throughout the years, Gabriel had come back from the dead. What if he insisted on claiming her?
    There was no way to run from one such as Gabriel. He was an elite hunter. Gabriel could track the ghost of a trail, let alone his own lifemate. Francesca slowed to a fast walk. Maybe he would just go away again. He had all but admitted Lucian had risen. He was still hunting. He would