Dark Visions by L. J. Smith Page B

Gabriel-even whether she liked him or hated him.
    But he had saved her from a very bad situation.
    Gabriel didn't look gratified by the thanks. "And that's all?" he said mockingly.
    "Of course."
    "You're not just a little curious?" When Kaitlyn blinked at him, he leaned forward. His teeth were bared again. "You don't even want to know?"
    Kaitlyn felt distaste pinching her features. "You mean ... about. . ."
    "The murder," Gabriel said, his dazzling grin getting nastier by the minute.
    Fear uncoiled in Kaitlyn's stomach. He was right-
    she was crazy. What was she doing sitting here in his bedroom? Two days ago she wouldn't have sat in any guy's bedroom, and now she was chatting with a killer.
    But Joyce wouldn't have brought him to the Institute if he was really dangerous, she thought. Joyce wouldn't take that risk.
    Kaitlyn said slowly, "Was it really murder?" Then she looked straight up at Gabriel.
    His expression changed as he met her eyes-as if she'd startled him. Then he seemed to regain his balance.
    "I called it self-defense, but the judge didn't agree," he said. His eyes were now cold as ice.
    Something inside Kaitlyn relaxed. "Self-defense," she said.
    Gabriel looked at her for a long moment, then away. "Of course, the other one wasn't self-defense. The first one."
    He's trying to shock you, Kaitlyn told herself.
    He's succeeding, her mind whispered back.
    "I'd better go," she said.
    He was very fast. She was closer to the door, but before she could reach it, he was in front of her, blocking it.
    "Oh, no," he said. "Don't you want to hear all about it?"
    Those dark gray eyes were strange-almost fixed, as if he were looking through her. His expression was strange, too. As if he were covering unbearable tension with mockery and derision. Kaitlyn could see the glint of clenched teeth between his parted lips.
    "Stop it, Gabriel," she said. "I'm going."
    "Don't be shy."
    "I'm not shy, you jerk," she snapped. "I'm just sick of you." She tried to push past him and he wouldn't let her. They tussled.
    Kaitlyn found out very quickly how much stronger he was.
    Stupid, stupid, she thought, trying to get a hand free to hit him. How had she gotten herself into this mess?
    Her heart was going like a trip-hammer, and her chest felt as if it would burst. She was going to have to scream-unless he stopped her. Choked her, maybe. Was that what he'd done to the others?
    Maybe he'd used a knife. Maybe he cut them. Or maybe it had been something even worse.. ..
    She and Gabriel had been struggling silently, their faces inches apart. Kaitlyn's mind was dark with imaginings of how he might have killed before.
    And then...

    And then it all stopped. Kaitlyn's fantasies were cut off as if somebody had slammed down a window in her mind. And all because of the look in Gabriel's eyes.
    Grief. Guilt, too, plenty of that, but mainly grief. A kind Kaitlyn recognized, the kind that makes you nearly bite through your lip so you won't make a noise. The kind Kaitlyn could remember from when she was eight years old, when her mother died.
    Gabriel, with his handsome, arrogant face, and his savage bared teeth, was trying to make the tears go away.
    Kaitlyn stopped struggling with him, realizing in the moment she did that he hadn't hurt her. He'd been blocking her, restraining her, but he hadn't bruised her.
    "Okay," she said, her voice loud in the silence. "So tell me, then."
    It caught him off guard. Actually rocked him backward. For a moment he looked shocked-and vulnerable.
    Then his face hardened. He was taking it as a challenge.
    "I will," he snarled back. He let go of her and stepped away-a hunted, constrained movement. His chest was rising and falling quickly.
    "You've all been wondering what I do," he said. "Haven't you?"
    "Yes," Kait said. She moved cautiously away from the door. "Is that so surprising?"
    "No." He laughed-a very bitter laugh. "It's what everyone wants to know. But when they find out, they don't like it." He turned and looked at her