I blinked, not expecting him to say anything like that. Behind him the fire popped and sizzled, the smell of mesquite swirling around the room, overlapping the scent of vodka seeping through my pores. Halina and Teren straightened as Gabriel sighed and shook his head. "We had a break-in. They destroyed...everything," he said quietly.
Starla sniffed again, digging into Jacen's side. Jacen, looking just as overcome with emotion as she was, leaned over to us. "She's going to die unless you do something!"
I blinked again, my head feeling a step behind. "Die?" I glanced back up to Gabriel, who was giving Jacen a clear warning in his stern gaze. "What does he mean, die?"
Gabriel's deep jade eyes connected with mine again. Before he spoke, Teren beside me sighed and hung his head, seemingly having pieced together what was going on already. I felt a little out of sorts that my fuzzy mind hadn't yet.
"Emma," Gabriel began slowly, a hand running through his dirty blond hair, "they demolished every vial of medication that I had." He shrugged. "I can make more, I even left Jordan to begin the process, but it will take months for the first batch to be ready."
As I narrowed my eyes at him, trying to picture how such a thing could have happened, Starla's small voice filled the room. "I don't have months, Emma."
I gasped as my eyes flew to hers, icy understanding filling me. No, Starla didn't. Unlike me, who was taking the shot simply because I wasn't ready to die, Starla was taking the shot to stay alive. As she'd confessed to us once, she came from a line of "defective" mixed vampires. Her body wouldn't complete the changeover. Once she began her conversion, she would never finish it, she would simply...die.
"Oh, Starla, I'm so sorry."
She sniffled again as Jacen closed his eyes and buried his head in her neck. Gabriel sighed, dragging my attention back to him. "I have many vampires who will be converting in the next several hours, but Starla, as you know, won't live through the process." His eyes pulled away from where Starla and Jacen were cuddling to stare at me again. "You have the last of the remaining samples, the only supply large enough to see Starla through the interim of making a new batch. I'm so sorry, Emma, but we need your help. We need your medicine."
All of the blood drained from my face, taking any remnants of alcohol with it. I'd never felt more sober in all my life. They were asking for my lifeblood. They were asking me to give up my heartbeat, so Starla could keep hers going. As I processed that, Teren beside me exhaling in a long, controlled breath, Starla quietly said, "I know that you probably don't care for me. I know I'm sort of...bitchy."
Her voice cracked and looking over at her, I watched fresh tears stain her cheeks. "But this is a death sentence for me, Emma. I won't survive a conversion." Jacen kissed her head, looking like he was going to start crying too. I instantly knew that the man loved her, deeply loved her.
"Of course it's yours," I whispered.
Jacen, in his concern, didn't hear me. He looked up at me, his watery eyes fiery. "You can't condemn her to death, not when you'll survive. You can't be that selfish!"
Having heard me, Starla shushed him and blinked at me. "You'll give it to me?" She seemed genuinely surprised that I'd help her.
Jacen did too, once he figured out what I'd said. "You'll help her?" he whispered.
I looked between the two of them. "Yes, of course."
Teren lifted his head beside me. "Emma..."
I looked back at him, his perfect eyes torn. Lightly shaking my head, I smiled softly. "I won't let her die, not when I'll...survive."
Teren's fingers came up to touch my cheek, his eyes watery now too. "Are you sure?"
I nodded, emotion filling my own. No, I wasn't sure if I wanted to die, who was ever sure of that? But I wasn't going to let another person permanently die, just so I could hear my heart beat a little while longer. Looking back at her, I smiled through my hazy vision. "It's yours, Starla, take it."
She started sobbing in earnest, then flung herself away from Jacen to engulf me in a hug. She sobbed mercilessly into my shoulder while I held her, patting her back. Jacen ran his hands back through his hair and then down his face. "Thank God," he murmured over and over.
Watching me comfort his child, Gabriel smiled warmly, fatherly affection in his face. "Thank you, Emma, for giving Starla a chance." He looked down to his daughter as she clung to me like my very presence was keeping her alive. "She's the only one that I knew for certain wouldn't survive this." As Starla sniffled and straightened, I handed her over to an eagerly awaiting Jacen. Gabriel watched the two embrace with a raised eyebrow as he said, "I am working on her problem, but it's...complicated."
He left it at that. I looked up at Starla and Jacen holding each other tight in front of me, not even knowing where I'd start to help her...genetically.
Starla smiled down at me, Jacen easing his grip on her reluctantly. "Yes, thank you, Emma."
I nodded, flushing that they were actually thanking me for giving them back something that technically was theirs to begin with. Shaking my head, I muttered, "You don't have to... You're welcome."
Narrowing my eyes at her, I examined her body more closely. Even my enhanced sight didn't catch anything unusual about her. Aside from being disheveled from her earlier worry, she was picture-perfect as always. "Do you need a shot now? Have you had one today?"
She shook her head, her turquoise eyes filling and spilling. "The lab was trashed when we got back to it. We looked everywhere for a spare, but everyone kept their supply safe in the lab."
Gabriel frowned at her. "I've told her to keep an emergency supply in her car, since she cannot afford to miss a dose, but it apparently...ran out and she never refilled it."
Starla hung her head and shrugged sadly. Glancing between them, wondering how much time she had, I turned to Teren beside me. "Will you go and get her mine please?"
Teren eyed me for a moment, seemingly not happy about this, but knowing it was the right thing to do. He nodded, then blurred away upstairs.
Starla's hand came out to touch my arm as she separated from Jacen. "Thank you, it took a long time to get here and I've already missed my evening shot. Father says I have another couple of hours, at the most..." Emotion locked up her throat and she shook her head.
I smiled and stood up to hug her warmly as my husband came back with the few vials that I'd brought for the weekend here. He immediately prepared one and injected her with it in the arm. Starla didn't react to the sting, anymore than I did. After awhile of daily shots, you just get used to it. As he pulled away, she reached out and hugged him tight. Teren blinked at the snobbish vampire's rare display of affection. I guess being that close to death can leave you with a different view on what's important in life.
I was even more certain of that when Jacen stepped forward and shook Teren's hand, then pulled Starla back into his arms. "Thank God, Starla. I don't know what I'd do if you..." He sighed and clutched her to him like he was scared she'd vanish at any moment.
As they pulled away from each other and started romantically gazing into each other's eyes, a feeling started to build in the room. It was an uncomfortable one, like we were intruding on a very private moment. Like any second, they were going to lean forward and kiss, quite possibly, for the very first time.
I turned away respectably. Halina snorted. "We have several guest rooms available, if you'd like to consummate this little love fest going on?"
Jacen's eyes widened and he immediately stepped away from Starla. The tiny debutante twisted to Halina, the attitude I knew and loved, suddenly returning. "Bite me, Grandma."
Halina slowly rose from her chair, tilting her head, like she was considering Starla's suggestion. Gabriel grabbed her hand as she took a step towards Starla. Halina ran a hand down her forever nineteen body, a smirk on her lips. "Careful, child, you wouldn't want to have an accident... now that you're free to age again."
Starla sniffed defiantly and raised her chin. "I'll ponder my slowly fading youth tomorrow," she raised an eyebrow at the pureblood, "while I'm basking in the bright, California sunshine." Her smirk rivaled Halina's and I heard a familiar growl burrow out of the elder vampire's chest.
I knew Starla was skating around very thin ice, and was about to whisper at Teren to do something, when Gabriel spoke up. "Enough, Starla. Please take the vials out to the car and wait for me with Jacen."
Starla's eyes sank to the floor as she immediately responded with, "Yes, Father." Jacen took the few vials that Teren was holding as Teren stood between Starla and his great-grandmother. If things had gone down between the two snarky women, I wondered what Teren would have done? If it were me, I'd have run for cover.
After Jacen took the medicine, Starla grabbed his hand and pulled him away. The heavy smell of her hairspray marked her passing. As Jacen left with her, I noticed several emotions passing his youthful face. He seemed a little angry at Halina's comments, a little embarrassed by the moment he'd been caught in, and grateful that Starla was going to be okay. But over all of that, he also seemed...intrigued. As his eyes firmly locked onto the back of Starla's tight dress as she paraded him out of the room, I thought that they might do a bit more than just "talk" once they got in the car.
I contained my smile, hoping Gabriel gave them enough time before he went out there, otherwise he may walk into something even more private. As he was watching them leave with a frown on his face, I wondered if he was thinking the exact same thing.
Halina shook her head at the couple then sauntered over to Gabriel. They smiled at each other as she ran a hand back through his hair, then she frowned. "Who trashed your lab?" Her question got the attention of my silently debating husband. Teren sat back down beside me and looked over to the pair of them, his sad eyes turning inquisitive. "Who could pull off something like that, in your own home?" she asked.
That was something to consider. Gabriel's home was even more impressive than the Adams' place. It was also packed with purebloods and mixed alike. The lab was a few floors underground, in a soundproof room where Gabriel spent most of his days. Anyone that had gotten down there and destroyed it must have known exactly how to get in and out undetected. Either that, or there was now a fresh pile of dead-vampire goo somewhere in Gabriel's house.
Gabriel sighed and surprisingly looked over at Teren and not Halina, who had asked the question. "I believe that someone I've been hunting was giving me a message...to stop." One edge of his lip curled up; it was sort of menacing on the powerful man, especially with the orange firelight reflecting on his features. "I don't intend to."
I tilted my head at Gabriel. "Who have you been hunting?" I felt myself cringing, not all that sure that I wanted an answer to my question. If he was hunting a hunter, well, I knew what he did with them once he found them.
His cool eyes turned to mine as he started to answer, but Teren beat him to it. "The vampire who changed me...the one who stole from you, right?"
A small gasp went through me and I twisted in my seat to face Teren. "The one who gave that hunter the botched drug?" My eyes shifted over to a frowning Gabriel. "Is he right? Is that who you're tracking?"