Gabriel wasn't sure why he had left Cecily where she was now. He wasn't sure why he wanted to leave her as well. Her presence was strangely comforting although he would never admit it.
The silence was getting suffocating for him and the scream happened to be a healthy distraction. He didn't understand why he felt as if a thousand ants were crawling up his skin.
He flicked his wrists as he strode towards the source of screams. Cecily could protect herself for a while. It was probably a mundane who had wandered off the main path.
They always seemed to bring trouble onto themselves, despite it being unintentional.
Gabriel had slowly developed a revulsion towards them over time, but it was not because of the fact that they were beneath him as Will perceived.
More of the fact that they seemed to purposefully land themselves into uncanny situations and needed saving. His senses were tingling overtime now.
He rounded the corner. There was couple flattened tightly against the other, leaning on the chalky brick walls. Gabriel stared disgusted while they were being unnecessarily explicit.
The male was slowly dragging his nails down the lady's arms, leaving great red streaks, blood pulsing underneath them.
He had seen more than a few mundane couples- usually drunk- having a good time like this in dark alleys but he couldn't place the screams.
The male tickled the woman under her chin before swiftly slicing his fingernails near her throat. It was a small gash, but large enough for blood to come trickling out.
The woman howled. The sharp incisors slid out of the male's teeth, his skin turning milky and translucent. He turned his head toward Gabriel.
"Do you mind? I'm trying to enjoy myself here," He drawled before fixating his gaze back on the woman.
Gabriel scowled at him. He advanced slowly and purposefully until he was almost breathing down the bloodsucker's neck.
He knew he was playing with the Law and perhaps the almost nonexistent fact that he was risking his life.
"I'm sure you know that the Accords forbid preying on mundanes who have done no wrong. You do know the consequences, am I right?" He casually touched the point of his seraph blade to the vampire's forehead.
The Night's child laughed, tilting his head back. The woman was glassy eyed, her skin turning into a pale milky sheen.
He snapped his incisors. "Go ahead foolish child, kill me. Let the rest of De Quincey's clan have the right to take revenge on the Clave. We have done nothing wrong."
Gabriel inclined his gaze towards the woman's. He could be doing any number of things right now, most preferably talking to Cecily.
He wasn't prepared to waste the entire night having a political debate with a vampire. "What about her then? You know the Law about mundanes."
The vampire released his grip on the woman and turned to face him as she slumped to the floor. He turned to face him, his curly hair, thin eyebrows and the slight tilt of his mouth ringing in Gabriel's memory.
"You…" He hissed, gripping his seraph blade tighter in his hands.
"Finalmente, mi amigo," Raphael said disinterestedly. "You are slower than last time. It took you this long to figure out who I was."
His words were slurred and somehow that added to Gabriel's sense of growing unease. He was toying with him, Gabriel realized.
"What are you doing here then? I thought you were in New York?" Gabriel fought to keep his voice steady.
"Patience, little one. Good things come to those who wait." He raised his gaze. "As for the mundane, I am merely collecting a debt."
"The London clan's?"
"Of course not, although I'm sure they will be collecting theirs very soon." He smiled without humor at Gabriel.
Raphael was a great deal shorter than Gabriel, but that was an air about him that was menacing and calculating.
"Who then?" Gabriel asked, already dreading his answer.
Raphael eyes were stone cold, lit with a hint of cruel amusement.
"Why, your father, of course."