Aria's POV

As I left Roarke with his jaw hanging open over how I had known about his original plan for me, I allowed the black hole in me to expand.

Under the cover of dust and dirt, I walked the field, then changed my gravity pull to the earth and spread out my molecules high in the air so that the debris spinning around me would not tear me apart. Picking up speed, I let my rage fill me up as the contained swirling dirt and debris cut an eighty-foot deep pathway from Arkansas to Maine in a matter of less than an hour.

How did I find them? Easily. Vampires have a completely different gravity signature than regular humans, so catching up with them was easy. They might be fast, but I am one helluva lot faster than them.

I tore through neighborhoods and small towns not giving a damn what structure or road I pulled down and destroyed along the way. I only watched out for the humans. I wanted to leave zero casualties behind. They enraged the wrong entity. No longer in my human form, I felt cold inside. I didn't feel sorry for the vampire that took Richard away. Gabriel was going to suffer for this!

Still a roiling mass of dirt and debris, I cut through a long stretch of trees and then stopped as the treeline thinned out. Vampires were fleeing across the great open fields where the Estate sat. The place was huge, stretching out into a central area and two wings painted stark. I saw neither Gabriel nor Richard, so they must still be inside. Moving swiftly across the barren field I started to change back into the form of a clothed Annie once more, but not before shaking the entire Estate as the double doors cracked, splintering as they blew wide open for me.

I stepped past the foyer with four small white columns and into what looked like a huge lobby of sorts. Beautiful gold-framed paintings hung on brick red painted walls. Talk windows were set on one side of the room about twenty feet high, plus matching black leather couches and chairs were strewn about the room to kinda frame the walk-in fireplace made of white marble.

I wasn't interested in it all, though the couches slid toward me and light fixtures blew up, I used the fast spinning of my core to create a voice that rang throughout the Estate like a sonic boom. "LET HIM GO, GABRIEL!!!” The entire place shook with my words and I knew he heard me.

Down the hall leading to the right-wing, an oak door opened quietly. "In here!"

It was Gabriel. My head snapped up and I started walking purposefully toward the opened door in the navy blue painted hallway with brass scones for fake light candles which exploded as I passed by them. Moving to the open doorway, the framework split, bowing inward and the plaster walls began to crack with my fury.

There was Richard, barely conscious, chained to a barren wall with manacles on his wrists and ankles, with Gabriel bending over him. Focusing my anger, I used my gravity to pull Gabriel away from Richard and straight into my bone-crushing arms. Gabriel gasped at the pain, turning his head to look at me. "He'll die without my help now, Aria. And my help comes with a price." He dared to grin at me over his shoulder.

I gazed upon him coldly, feeling as if I had no soul. My teeth clenched as I let him go. He straightened his clothing as he looked down at me. "What is your price, Gabriel?" I fought with mind and heart. The one said to stay where I was, the other wanted me to rush to Richard's side. I stayed, of course.

With one hand, Gabriel slicked back his hair and looked at me over the rims of his round sunglasses with a toothy smile. "I know you are not the type to lie, so I will take you at your word, Aria. Yes, I have studied you that much to know that fact." His grin broadened as he shoved his hands into the black front pockets of his pants. "I will save your Richard, but only if you stay and work for all vampires under my control." Richard would hate me if I agreed to this. Swiftly I spread out my molecules and dove through Gabriel's body, collecting only some of his memories. Slowly I pulled away from him and settled into the human form of Annie once more.

He truly had studied me. Even more than the fools at NASA. Gabriel had a deal going with the government that he would procure me, and share what I had to offer, in order to stay in power over all vampires worldwide. At least Roarke's deal was just with NASA. After all, it was his boys that got us distracted at the liquor store. The one I imprinted, had that information in his head. Damn fool.

Slowly, I let my facial features relax into a small smile. "Alright, then save Richard now Gabriel, then set him free." Grinning, Gabriel pulled up his sleeve and then walked to Richard. I watched closely as Gabriel bit down hard into his own arm. As the blood flowed, he forced Richard to drink from him. "I said to save him, not turn him!" As Richard latched on to Gabriel's arm weakly, the fierce glow in his eyes as he drank, said otherwise. After a few minutes, Gabriel pulled his arm away harshly, tearing his own flesh a bit more.

Richard sat there panting before his body arched in pain and he screamed. "What the hell have you done!" Using my gravity I slammed him back against the wall and marched over to him. "If you have harmed him any further, I swear by the black hole that created me, you will be the first creature I will kill with relish!"

Choking harshly, Gabriel couldn't answer me until I backed my gravity off a bit. "He is doing fine. It's all a part of the change." Richard was only two feet away now but was writhing on the ground. Pulling all of my power back inside, I gazed at him and knew what he would need.

"Damn you to hell and back, Gabriel." I knelt down next to Richard, but he wasn't quite himself. He was sweating from head to toe in his swim trunks. His body was rejecting all impurities. I had to get him out of here.

Struggling to sit upright, Richard grabbed me from behind with an arm around my waist, and the other snaking up between my breasts. "Richard, no!" The blood running through my veins was the closest to pure creation as it gets. It could kill him for all I knew. But he didn't hesitate. He bit into my artery hard and held onto me with inhuman strength. There was no pleasure in this. Only pain. A pain that I couldn't stop because it was too late. Every draw of blood that he took from me made my veins and capillaries scream out, though I didn't.

Tears ran from my eyes as he let me go. Quickly my molecules filled in the damage done by his fangs.

Richard turned me around and held me to him, as Gabriel unfastened the manacles. "You fucking bastard! You set her up to weaken her using me! By God, you are one dead Vampire Gabriel." Richard yelled at Gabriel, while I whispered into Richard's ear for only him to hear.

"I'm glad to see you alive. Don't worry, I'm not as weak as I seem. This isn't over yet." Lifting me up in his arms, we stood before Gabriel who had a Cheshire cat grin on his face.

"You are bound to me by blood, and she will soon be bound to you as well. Either way, you both serve me now, and don't you forget it." Turning on his heel, Gabriel walked from the room with authority. When he was far enough away, We both began to laugh.