Embrace the Night

Page 176



Gabriel shook his head. For all the hunger burning through him, as badly as he needed nourishment to heal his wounds and restore his strength, he could not take this man's blood. Not now.

"Do it," Maurice urged.

"Are you ready to die?"

Maurice stared up at Gabriel, knowing without words what Gabriel was asking him. "You can… save me?"

Gabriel hesitated. Under other circumstances, a little of his vampire blood would have revived Delacroix, but he was too near death now for that to be effective. "If you wish."

"Would you… make the choice… to be what you are… again?"

Gabriel stared out the window, his heart and mind searching for an answer. Would he make the same choice again? He thought of all he had seen and done in three and a half centuries, and then he thought of the endless darkness, the years of loneliness, the awful, unbridgeable gulf that stretched between himself and all of humanity. Between himself and the woman he loved.

Slowly, he shook his head. In 350 years, he had never bequeathed the Dark Gift to another soul. "I don't know," he replied honestly, "but you must decide now, before it is too late."
"Will saving me… weaken you?"

"Yes."

In that moment, Maurice made his decision. Gabriel was Sara's only chance, and the vampire was right. There was no time to waste.

"Take… my blood…" Maurice's voice grew faint. "Save… Sara…"

"As you wish," Gabriel murmured. And then, because Sara's life depended on it, on him, Gabriel bent his head to Delacroix's neck, determined to fulfill Maurice's last request.

Gabriel spoke to Maurice's mind, soothing the young man's fear as his fangs pierced his flesh. Delacroix went limp in Gabriel's arms; moments later, Gabriel felt Maurice's heartbeat slow and grow labored as he quickly drained the life's blood from the younger man's body.

Before Delacroix's heart beat its last, Gabriel drew away. Sitting back on his heels, he watched the light fade from the young man's eyes, heard the last breath of life whisper past Maurice's lips, and with it, his very soul.

Rising, Gabriel wiped the blood from his mouth. "Forgive me," he murmured fervently. "I only pray I am not too late to save her."

Chapter Twenty-seven

In the last half-hour before dawn, Gabriel carried Maurice's body into a run-down part of town and left