Dark Intentions [ON HOLD UNTIL SUMMER]

Chapter 4

_Gabe’s POV_

“How does one woman walk into our safe house, with the entire immortalia community as witness, and kill my brother? The elders were to be at this particular engagement! What if it were one of them she had been after? I should have the lot of you plucked and cast into the dungeons,” Gabriel’s voice boomed through the library. Tonight his temper was out on display, masking the confusion and grief that lurked behind the curtain of his soft blue eyes. Tonight he would be the emotionless warrior his kind feared. Tonight he would be the avenging angel he was born to become.

His men needed reprimand; they needed punishment to show the others that this was not acceptable from the royal guards. The armies needed structure and order. And he would provide it, regardless of the wayward thoughts that plagued his mind each time he pictured the woman. The woman that killed your brother, he had to remind himself of that bitter truth too many times, but he didn’t relent with his self-loathing for a moment because the thoughts would soon creep back into his mind. Thoughts about her beautifully tanned skin and the emotionless cloak that descended over her. They were like poison, mortifying and decimating what little self-respect he had managed to conjure for himself.

It was only to figure, the second he found a woman who drew his attentions; she killed his brother right before his eyes. Although he didn’t miss the look of horror as Ezekiel’s wings had manifested on the floor beneath his body. She didn’t know—

It’s no excuse!

“My humblest condolences, Gabriel. We had withdrawn the men manning the doors after the initial arrival of guests. I had been assured that no more immortalia would be arriving and no one sensed anything of notice.” The young angel sweated even as he tried to plead his men’s case. Beads of perspiration were already beginning to cluster at his forehead and neck. It was a miracle in Gabriel’s eyes that the young lieutenant hadn’t fainted yet. It was the kid’s second week under Gabe’s command, and he knew as well as anyone else that his rules were much stricter than his peers. But Gabe’s men were the best at what they did. Even if the kid was new to his legion, he couldn’t let such a grievous mistake slide unattended.

“No matter what you are assured, unless an order comes from me to withdraw, you do not leave an entryway unguarded! This woman was not from our community, she wasn’t expected to be here tonight. We don’t even know what damned race she is.” His ire rose at the thought, she could have been a demon with some sort of concealment charm for all they knew. Damn this. He turned away from the fledgling and focused his harsh glare out the window, “You are relieved from duty, do not report back until I send for you.”

To his credit, the man stayed composed. He bowed low before sweeping from the room with an anguished gasp he probably thought Gabriel couldn’t hear. Another reason Gabe needed to rely on his own men for now, give his peers’ men time to adjust to his way before he trusted them. For now, he turned to Nathaniel—his second in command and his best friend. There were times he confided more to Nathaniel than he did his own flesh and blood. “Find her, question everyone again until somebody remembers something. I don’t care how long it takes. Find that woman, I want her alive.” Again he saw her plain as day in his mind, recalling the horror in her eyes as she stared down at Ezekiel’s lifeless corpse, “bring her to me and I will handle the rest.”

Nathaniel nodded, his face set in the grim mask that most of his men wore, but Gabriel recognized the glint in his muddy brown eyes. The worry that bled through Nathaniel wouldn’t throw him off. The man reeked of loyalty and compassion when it came to the people he cared for, but for those who would harm his loved ones? The seraph would respond with retribution that likened him to the demons they fought. Gabriel couldn’t ask for a better man for the job.