CHAPTER IV

The background is painted by the evening's dark blue sky. The stars decorate the sky with its glimmer and astronomical secrets.

Gabriel can perceive different scents; cigarettes, alcohol, puke, blood and even the pee of the girl that passed by him, crazy heightened senses.

He stands at a balcony inside of the club admiring the beauty of human vices caress it’s way into the young party lovers.

Rachael meets him, "Hey, Samuel" "Gabriel, woman" "O. Where is Samuel?" "Dead", what an ass, she thinks.

"Why are you always like this? " "Like what?" "Cold. I mean I know you have a heart" "What do you want, Rachael? ".

Okay, she realizes that starting a conversation with Gabriel isn’t a good idea. "Okay. I will go and find your brother", Gabriel ignores her.

Rachael walks away mumbling words of insult.

She doesn’t notice that she is close to Samuel until she bumps into him and spills his drink on herself.

"Crap, I didn't see you there. Sorry" Samuel says as he helps her to take off her brown cashmere coat.

"Damn it, it’s my favourite one.

I'm so sorry, I was looking for you" she says as she takes her coat off.

"Wow, falling for the hot boss Miss McQueen?” he chuckles and she blushes a bit.

"No. I just wanted to tell you I'm going home. I am really tired".

"Okay. Every day by 9 am you are here and you leave at 11 pm" "That's about 14 hours" "Okay come by 10 am" "That's still a lot" "That’s why you have a fat salary, Miss McQueen”

“It’s not even that fat”

“ I will have a maid wash your coat, you will get it back tomorrow”.

My boss doing my laundry, wow.

"Thanks, you know, you are quite cool for a boss" "Does a kiss come with that compliment? " "No. See you tomorrow, Samuel".

Rachael leaves the club, she is a few blocks away when a car stops by.

The door swings open "Get in", she looks at the gentleman's face and is surprised to see him, "Samuel? "·

"No, it's Gabriel. You need to know the difference" he says, "Samuel said I should drop you off before you freeze to death.

So hurry up and get in" he says with a cold expression, Rachael just sighs.

She gets into the car and they drive off, they are silent through the whole drive.

They reach Rachael's apartment and Rachael is in awe because she never told him where she lived.

She didn't want to be the one to break the silence so she didn't say a word on their way but now she just has to ask.

"How do you know where I live? " she asks, "We investigate our employees before we hire them".

"So you stalk potential employees" "Investigating and stalking isn’t the same thing" "Yeah, right. Thank you for the ride anyway".

Rachael comes out of the vehicle to go into her apartment but she hears footsteps behind her.

She turns and sees Gabriel behind her, "Where do you think you are going?" she asks him.

He is acting strange.

"I'm coming in" "Um, maybe you haven't noticed but this is my house" "And you are my employee, I have to make sure you are safe".

What a lame excuse.

"Did Samuel asks you to do this? " "Yes, why else would I do this?"

This guy is acting creepy now.

An odd set of twins.

Rachael sighs.

Rachael opens the door and lets Gabriel in, "Stay here and don’t touch anything. I'll be right back”, she says and Gabriel nods.

Rachael goes into her bedroom and drops her purse on her bed.

What is Gabriel doing?

She wonders as she takes off her clothes and heads into the bathroom hoping that Gabriel will be gone before she is done.

Immediately he hears the shower on Gabriel starts to search the house.

He searches her living room, the kitchen, under the couch and even her room.

He finds a picture of Frank McQueen and frowns, “Sorry man” he mumbles.

What could be the connection between Gabriel and Frank?

Rachael hears something in her room, she puts her towel around her body and comes out. She steps into the room.

Her room is empty and she is glad to be the only one in it.

Thank goodness, I thought he might be stalking me.

She dresses into her nightgown and goes to her living room where Gabriel is still present.

He holds a bottle of Muscat and two tumblers, "Where'd you get that? " Rachael asks, "I brought it with me. Come on, let's drink"

"Okay. This is strange, are you trying to drug me or something?”.

He pours the drink into a glass and hands it over to her before pouring the liquor for himself.

"You know, I'm not as bad as you think" he starts "Samuel said so as well," , Gabriel giggles, "Wow, I can’t believe it.

You smiled." "Yes Rachael, I can" "So which one of you is the older twin? " "I am but Samuel thinks he is" Gabriel says and Rachael laughs.

"I'm guessing there were a lot of fights between you guys while growing up”.

“Not really, Samuel isn't much of a fighter but he is still dangerous in his own way" “Dangerous, okay. And you?" “If I say I didn't fight a lot as a kid, that would be a lie" he said as he looks straight into Rachael's eyes and takes a sit beside her.

He smells nice and for some unknown reason Rachael finds herself gazing into his eyes every time she takes a sip of her drink.

"You have an amazing set of brown eyes" he whispers loud enough for her to hear, her cheeks turns red as she tries to fight her shock and excitement.

What is he up to?

His places a hand on her thigh as he holds her gaze

"Heh, thank you" she bites her lip as she turns her gaze away from Gabriel.

He touches her face and Rachael leaps in fear and pours her drink on Gabriel, "I am so sorry" "No worries. I must have startled you".

Not just that, your touch, the feeling. its exactly the same way my rescuer's hand felt.

Who are you?

Questions and unexplored clues.

"Sphinx" Gabriel says.

"What?” "Thanks" "For?" "Offering to clean my jacket" "I said that?" "Yeah", he pulls off his jacket and hands it to her.

Samuel offered to clean her jacket and here she finds herself about to do the same with his brother.

Rachael eyes his bulging bicep as he relaxes on the couch.

They continue their chat with no care for time until Rachael falls asleep on her couch next to Gabriel who is still awake.

Gabriel carries Rachael in his arms, her weight is no match for his inhuman strength.

He carries her to the bedroom and gently drops her on the bed and covers her with a blanket.

She is still cold, he notices as she hugs the blanket.

"It can't be helped but maybe I can do something about it".

He goes under the blanket next to Rachael and places her head on his chest as he holds the cute little drunk.

Rachael's cold body feels the warmth it needs. She subconsciously moves closer to her newly found source of heat, wanting to attach her entire body unto it, clinging tightly.

Slow down girl, I am supposed to be the blood thirsty one.

She feels a soft touch on her forehead and she hears her name in a sweet voice calling out, "Rachael".