Gabriel's lips peeled back from his teeth, and he jerked the girl to him. As if protecting his prey from an intruder. "Don't come any closer," he hissed.
"It's energy, isn't it?" Kaitlyn didn't dare take another step, so she dropped to her knees instead. She was at Gabriel's level now, and she could see that his eyes were like two windows opening on darkness. "It's life energy you need. I can feel that. I can feel how much it hurts—"
"You can't feel anything! Get out before you really do get hurt!" It was a tortured cry, but almost instantly afterward Gabriel stilled. A deathly calm spread over his face, and his eyes went like black ice. Kaitlyn could feel his purposefulness in the web.
Without looking at her, ignoring her completely, he turned his attention to the girl in his arms. The girl had soft curly hair—dark blond or light brown, Kaitlyn thought. She looked almost peaceful. Gabriel had undoubtedly stunned her with his mind somehow.
Now he turned her head to one side, pushing the disordered curls off the back of her neck. Kaitlyn watched in horror, frozen by the cool deliberation of his movements.
"Right here," Gabriel whispered, and he touched the nape of the girl's neck, a point at the upper part of the spine, just between vertebrae. "This is the transfer point. The best place to take energy. You can stay and watch if you want."
His voice was like an Arctic wind, and his presence in the web like ice. He was looking at the girl's neck with cold hunger, eyes narrowed, lips skinned back a little.
And then, as Kaitlyn watched, he bent to put his lips to the girl's skin.
"No!"
Kait didn't know what she was going to do until she did it. But suddenly she was moving, she was throwing herself across the little distance to Gabriel. She was putting her hands between the girl and him—one hand on the girl's neck, the other on Gabriel's face. She felt his lips, and then the brush of teeth.
Keep out of this! Gabriel's mental shout was so powerful it sent Shockwaves through Kaitlyn. But she hung on.
Give her to me! he shouted. Kaitlyn's vision was red; she could see nothing, feel nothing, but the all-encompassing fury of Gabriel's hunger. He was a snarling, clawing animal now—and she was fighting him.
And losing. She was weaker, both physically and psychically, and he was utterly ruthless. He was tearing the girl away from her, his mind a black hole ready to consume…
No, Gabriel, Kaitlyn thought—and she kissed him.
That was the result, anyway, of her sudden darting movement. She'd meant for a different contact—forehead to forehead, the way Rob had touched her to channel healing energy once. But at the touch of his lips against hers she felt a shock of a different sort and it was an instant before she could pull back to get the position right.
She'd shocked Gabriel, too—shocked him into stillness. He seemed too astonished to fight her or jerk away. He simply sat, paralyzed, as Kaitlyn shut her eyes, and, gripping his shoulders, thrust her forehead against his.
Oh.
That simple contact, skin to skin, third eye to third eye, brought the biggest shock of all. A jolt that went through Kait like lightning—as if two ends of electric wiring had touched, sending a violent current coursing through.
Oh, she thought. Oh…
It was frightening—terrifying in its power. And for the first instant it hurt. She felt a tearing in her body, in her bloodstream—as if something was being pulled out of her. A vital pain at the roots of her being. Dimly, with some part of her mind that could still think, she remembered what Gabriel had said once.
That people were afraid he would steal their souls. That was what this felt like.
And yet, at the same time, it was compelling. It swept her along with it, helpless to resist. It demanded that she surrender…
You wanted to help him, the part of Kait that could still think said. So help him. Give. Give what he needs.
Kaitlyn felt a wrenching—and then a bursting. It was as if some barrier in her had been broken, ripping under pressure. She trembled violently—and felt herself give.
It still hurt, but in a new way. A strange way that was almost pleasure. Like the release of something painful, blocked… backed-up.
Kait had received psychic energy before, taking Rob's healing power when she'd been drained and exhausted. But she'd never given it, not on this scale. Now she felt a torrent of energy flowing from her into Gabriel, like a flood of golden sparks. And she could feel him responding, drinking in the energy greedily, gratefully. The darkness inside him, the black hole, being lit up by the gold.
Life, Kaitlyn thought dizzily. It's life I'm giving him really. He needs this or he'll die.
And then: Is this how healers feel? Oh, no wonder Rob likes doing it. There's nothing like it, nothing… especially if you want to help.
For the most part, though, she couldn't think at all. She simply experienced, feeling Gabriel's hunger gradually being sated, the burning need in him slowly cooling as it was met. And feeling his amazement, his wonder.
He was less of an animal now, and more Gabriel.
The Gabriel who had tried to protect her from the pain of Mr. Zetes's great crystal, the Gabriel who'd had tears in his eyes when he spoke of his past. Kaitlyn realized suddenly that she'd gotten behind his walls again. She was seeing, touching, the Gabriel that was kept hidden from the world.
It's different—like this. The thought was almost a whisper, but it shook Kaitlyn with its strength. Its—intensity. She could feel the astonished gratitude behind it, and something like awe. Different… when I took energy before—when I took it last night—it wasn't like this.
And because Gabriel's mind was open to her, Kait knew what he meant. She could see the girl from last night, the one with the straggly hair and the unicorn tattoo. And she could taste the girl's fear, her anguish and aversion.
She was unwilling, Kaitlyn told Gabriel. You forced her; she didn't want to help you. I do.
Why?
One word, with the force of a blow behind it. Kaitlyn felt Gabriel's hands tighten on her shoulders as he projected the thought. She hadn't been aware of her physical body for some time, but now she realized that she and Gabriel were clinging to each other, still in contact at the transfer point. The curly-haired girl, the new victim, had fallen or been shoved aside.
Why? Gabriel repeated, almost brutally, demanding an answer.