Tangle (BWWM)

Chapter 25- The Taste of Blood

Gabrielle sat in the ballroom, restrained to the chair she was forced into. Gideon had yanked her out of that strange backwards place about a half hour ago, leaving Cameron in there by himself once more, and forced her into the very same place where she'd first encountered him. The room was dark and haunting when out of operation. The place that she'd marveled at months before now became a place of fright as she feared for her and her friends' lives.

Gideon had been pacing about and mumbling to himself for most of the time after his phone call taunting Vincent. Several times, he would pause his ramblings to peer over at her and gave a psychotic smile before laughing and walking. It seemed that he was beginning a neurotic descent. What was even worse was that he was in Cameron's body, making her friend appear disturbed and evil.

On a table at the other end of the room lay some sort of alter with slowly burning candles, demonic daggers and an old painted portrait of a beautiful woman. When Gabrielle caught a glimpse of it, she'd noted the lady's jovial, round face and beautiful brown hair. Though her neutral face looked naturally happy, something about the artist's rendition of her captured a certain underlying sadness that Gabrielle couldn't help but notice... The portrait itself looked as if it dated back to at least the 19th century. She concluded that the woman must have been Gideon's wife that he kept mentioning. It was clear that he'd loved her dearly, though she still could not understand anything that was happening.

She was hoping that Gideon would reveal his evil plan in typical movie villain style, but she had no such luck.

Gabrielle kept her eyes glued to the demon as he continued to pace about. Once again, he paused to look at her. "I hate you," he muttered in her direction. She furrowed her brows in nervous bewilderment at his statement. "I loathe you and that accursed vampire... He took everything from me!" She continued to listen, hoping he would divulge more information, but instead he growled at her. "Stop staring at me!"

She quickly averted her eyes and shrunk away.

Gideon's hands began to tremble as he stalked over to the table and picked up one of the daggers. "Oh, I am just itching!" he exclaimed as he stalked back over to her. "Itching, itching, itching to finish you off!" He stopped short just in front of where she sat, and Gabrielle braced herself for a blow, clenching her teeth and squeezing her eyes shut. "But luckily for you, I want Dragonoff to be here and witness when I take your life."

She gasped when she felt the cold, sharp edge of the knife against her throat, threatening to bite at her skin and draw blood.

She felt his fingers grip her chin tightly just before he huffed in her face. "I just want to slit this pretty, little throat of yours..." he hissed menacingly.

Whimpering, Gabrielle tried to rip her face out of his grip. "I don't understand what your problem is! Why are you doing this?"

"Your vampire is my problem! He took my wife away from me a hundred years ago."

"I have nothing to do with that."

"Why, of course you do. You're involved with him now. You're collateral damage."

Gabrielle looked him in the eyes, scowling deeply at him. "That sounds like a coward's move to me," she let slip, instantly regretting it when he cranked back and laid a hard slap on her cheek, the force of the blow causing her neck to whip to the side. She'd hardly had time to process the stinging or the taste of blood before she felt his blade press more into her throat. Frankly, she had rather not test him further to see if he would keep his word and let her live until Vincent arrived or to see what other ways he could harm her. For now, it seemed she'd been fortunate...

"I think it would be in your best interest to mind your tongue, bitch. There's no saying that my hand can't slip with this blade against your jugular. Either way, Dragonoff suffers when you're dead. I could finish you now and have him find your lifeless body propped, greeting him at the door." Looking into Gideon's deranged eyes through the tears that formed in reaction to the pain he'd inflicted, she could tell that he was dead serious in his threat, so she opted to stay silent. As her head began to pound, she wondered where Vincent was, and hoped, sincerely hoped, that he'd be able to save her one more time.