Beauty and the Beast by Laurel Cain Haws Read Free Book Online Page B

Gabriel to Vincent on the boat, the Compass Rose, where he had arranged to meet Vincent with a promise of information about where Gabriel was holding his infant. In the end, though, when Elliott finally understood the depths of Vincent’s love for Catherine and her child, he threw himself in front of a bullet to save Vincent. Then Gabriel blew the boat up. Elliott didn’t survive, but Vincent managed to make it to Catherine’s grave before collapsing, which was where Diana was waiting, knowing he would eventually come there. She knew this because of her careful profiling of Catherine. Catherine had many books given to her by Vincent, with love notes signed by him inside the covers, and references to him were all over her journals. When Diana had found the book of poetry with And Death Shall Have no Dominion by Dylan Thomas marked, she knew Vincent would end up at her grave.
    Allowing his inner Demon, which Vincent normally kept securely leashed, to surface in the protection of his
    family and friends always hurt him. Diana desperately wanted to protect him from that harm. She had seen first hand the damage it did to Vincent, to be forced to return violence for violence in the defense of those he cared about. When he had abruptly left her loft after only three days of recovery from nearly being killed by Gabriel, when he blew up the boat, Diana had come to the tunnels looking for him. She knew that he needed help hunting for his child in a world where he couldn’t show his face, and she wanted to convince him to let her help him. Vincent had saved Diana from a cruel violation and death at the hands of three assailants who were in the drainage tunnel when she arrived, and the visible effect it had on him to have to kill those men, even though they were armed and bent on killing others, was heartbreaking.
    When Gabriel had used his corrupt policemen within the police force to abduct Diana, had informed her that Vincent’s child was dying, and then had instructed her to tell Vincent, she knew it was a trap. However, the child’s plight was real, and Gabriel was convinced that only Vincent could save him. What Gabriel didn’t understand was that it was Vincent’s empathic attachment the baby needed, and not his blood. Diana warned Vincent that he would be captured if he went to Gabriel, but Vincent had been experiencing visions of his child’s illness, and he already knew the baby would die if he didn’t go.
    As expected, Gabriel imprisoned Vincent in an electrified cage, extracting blood from him which was
    incompatible with the baby’s. Gabriel finally had sense enough to allow Vincent to hold his baby for several hours. As soon as their empathic bond was established, the child recovered.
    Gabriel had taken Diana’s weapon from her, and because Gabriel’s people had her apartment under surveillance, Diana was not only unarmed, but she couldn’t even get to her police badge to go rescue Vincent and the baby. Meanwhile, Father’s community was in a panic, because Vincent was missing, so Father arranged to have a couple of their Helpers from above snatch Diana, to see if she had information on Vincent’s location. That was the first time Diana had met any of Vincent’s family and friends. They had apologized for frightening her, but explained that the last time they had seen Vincent was when he received her message.
    She had explained the danger Vincent was in, and how she was cut off both from her badge, and from Acting District Attorney Joe Maxwell, because of the unknown criminal elements controlled by Gabriel in the legal system. Thanks to Gabriel she was also unarmed. At a time when Father’s world was in danger, Catherine had given him her pistol for protection. When Father understood that Diana needed a weapon to rescue Vincent, he sent for and then gave Diana Catherine’s gun. Then Father, himself, went to Joe Maxwell to tell him where he could meet with Diana in safety to plan storming Gabriel’s