Gabriel's Mate by Tina Folsom Read Free Book Online Page A

asked.
    “No!” This didn’t prove anything. Maybe the sideboard was some cheap prop designed to crumble under the slightest impact.
    “Then go into the bathroom.” He pointed toward a door near the fireplace. “There’s a mirror over the sink. Look into it and tell me what you see.”
    Maya hesitated. Doubts had started bubbling up in her. She had nothing to lose by looking into a mirror, did she? Without letting Gabriel or the other two out of her sight, she cautiously walked to the bathroom door. She pushed it open and glanced inside. An elegant white marble bathroom greeted her. It was much more luxurious than what she was used to.
    “I’ll be waiting here,” Gabriel said.
    Maya stepped into the bathroom, but kept an eye on the door. As she approached the sink, she looked in the mirror over it. She stopped right in front of it, but there was no reflection of herself. She did a double take, then leaned forward to inspect the mirror more closely. Nothing.
    “Another one of your tricks, I see,” she commented. She’d heard of movie props like this: mirrors that weren’t really mirrors so the light on a movie set wouldn’t reflect back into the camera.
    “It’s not a trick. Vampires don’t have a reflection. Our auras transmit on a frequency that the mirror can’t process. So it reflects nothing back.”
    “I guess that means you don’t show up in photos either,” she mocked.
    “We do if you use a digital camera,” his response came from the bedroom.
    “Bull,” she answered. “I don’t know where you’re going with this, but whatever you’re trying to do, it’s not working.”
    “Take anything in the bathroom, a towel, soap—whatever you can find, and wave it in front of the mirror.”
    She snorted. She had no intention of following his stupid suggestion. What would it prove?
    “Do it,” Gabriel ordered in a voice that brooked no refusal.
    Fine, she’d do it, and then she’d walk out of here and tell him to try his idiotic tricks on somebody else. She was done with this. It wasn’t funny anymore. In fact, it hadn’t been funny from the start.
    With an impatient gesture, Maya grabbed the hairbrush from the white marble counter and held it in front of the mirror. As if held by an invisible hand, it appeared. She moved it, and it moved in the mirror. The mirror was working. Now that she looked more closely, she noticed that it reflected everything behind her, the shower, the toilet, the towels on the towel rack. Everything—except herself.
    With a loud clank, the hairbrush landed in the sink.
    Maya opened her mouth, but no sound came out. No scream, no words.
    Her lungs fought for air as her brain processed the news. She lifted her hands and stared at them. They were visible to her, she could see them, touch them, but the mirror showed nothing. As if she didn’t exist.
    What was she?
    ***
    At the sound of her scream, Gabriel knew that the truth had finally sunk in. Her sobs started only a moment later.
    He turned back to face his colleagues. “Leave us. I’ll take care of this.”
    Thomas appeared relieved. “I’ll be downstairs if you need me.”
    Yvette only raised a questioning eyebrow. But within seconds, the two left the room.
    Now he was alone with Maya’s sobs and his own pain. He could only too well imagine what she was going through, but this was more than empathy. He’d never felt another person’s pain so intensely. Only kindred spirits felt each other’s pain like this. So why did his heart ache for her when he barely knew her?
    Determined to help her, he walked into the bathroom. Like a little bundle, she crouched against the bathtub, her arms hugging her legs, her head buried between her knees. With two long strides, he was at her side and picked her up in his arms.
    She gave no resistance. All the fight had gone out of her. The woman, who had so bravely faced them thinking they were God-knows-what-kind-of-criminals, had crumbled.
    Gabriel cradled her against his