It didn’t sound as if Gideon was having any better luck falling asleep. Every time she moved, he shifted as well. Like they were in the same bed, moving in sync to accommodate each other. Sometime after the moon drifted past the slight part in the curtains, Gideon heaved a beleaguered sigh.
“You don’t ever have to fear that bastard again.” Gideon’s soft voice cut through the darkness, making her jump.
What? Lost, she asked without thinking, “Who?”
“Randy,” came Gideon’s subdued, bitter response. “He’ll never terrorize another young girl again.”
Frowning into the dark, she couldn’t piece this latest conversation together. Shaking her head, she gave up and asked, “Why not? What happened?”
The silence stretched on, heavy with innuendo.
Understanding hit her like a brick to the face. Bolting upright in bed, she gasped, “Oh my God! You ate Randy?”
He didn’t answer. She sought his form in the deep shadows of the room. Gideon shifted on the pallet, and the whisper of moonlight revealed his movements as he laid his forearm across his forehead.
At first, she was too shocked to think of an appropriate response. And then the truth of it settled over her. Yes, he’d had to take a soul to survive. She’d thought she’d come to grips with that, until now. But she’d actually known this soul.
However, Gideon hadn’t preyed on an innocent. And as a result, a depraved pedophile wouldn’t be able to hurt helpless children any longer. Gideon had made sure of that.
How many kids had he saved by his actions tonight?
He had to have targeted Randy specifically. After all, what was the likelihood of stumbling upon—
Wait a second. Randy lived in a small town in the Midwest. They were in Tennessee. And Gideon certainly hadn’t shimmered to Randy. If he had, she would have been the first to know.
“How?” she asked before she’d had time to sufficiently form the full question in her head.
He choked. Sitting up, he suffered through a mild coughing fit.
She waited until he calmed down, then clarified, “How did you get to him? He isn’t exactly within driving distance.”
“I had Mikhail find him and bring him to me at a warehouse we use for…ah, questioning,” he explained, lying back down.
“Oh.” She fell silent. So Gideon had asked a friend for a favor, for her. She got the impression the small band often went out of their way to handle personal situations on their own. She wasn’t sure how to feel about any of this.
“Good,” she whispered, the words slipping from her without premeditative thought. Then that same small, vindictive part of her added loud and clear, “I’m glad.”
Gideon remained silent.
“Thank you,” she said.
“Lucifer’s balls,” he exclaimed, aghast, “don’t thank me!”
“Why not?”
“Do you have to argue about even this?” he asked, clearly incredulous, though she couldn’t understand why.
“You did something noble tonight, Gideon, and I just—”
“Noble? Noble!” he squawked. Gideon sat up and twisted to face her, a thin strip of moonlight bisecting his tormented face. “I killed a man tonight, Maggie. He might have been a rank, evil bastard, but he was still human. And I ended him. No, I took pleasure in ending him. And you wanna know what else happened? I’d just absorbed Randy’s soul. His body was probably still warm, in fact. That’s when your father found me. I’d just fed from a human, just like the monster I am. And then your father and I got into a brawl in the alley.”
Shame twisted his features as he turned away and lay back down facing the wall now.
“You’re not a monster, Gideon.”
He remained silent. Ignoring her? Silently arguing? She couldn’t tell, and it was driving her nuts. He couldn’t possibly think of himself that way. He was not a monster.
Before she gave herself time to reconsider, she slipped from the bed and trod across the room. Dropping to her knees beside him, she reached out and touched his shoulder. Gideon’s entire body went rigid.
Maggie pulled her hand back, and clenched her fists in her lap. “I know you, Gideon.” She caught the slight movement of his head, though he remained silent. Well this was one battle she was determined he would not win. “You were right earlier. I do know you,” she insisted. “You’re a lot of things…and not all of them necessarily very flattering…but a monster you are not,” she firmly declared.
He continued to hold his tongue. Frustrated, she did the only thing she could think of. Easing down, she wiggled her way onto his pallet, molding herself to his bare back like a second skin. Oh, he was so warm.
But dear Lord, it was frigid down here. So cold in fact, that despite pressing tightly against Gideon’s warm skin, in a matter of minutes, she was shivering. But she refused to be the first to yield.
“Damned stubborn, argumentative woman,” Gideon muttered beneath his breath and rolled away. Before she could protest, he scooped her up in his arms and strode to the bed.
“Stay with me,” she urged as he lowered her to the soft mattress. She locked her arms around his neck, forcing him to hover over her.