She was and was not like the other women who had been in his life. There was true darkness in her, as visible as that black half of her coat, and sometimes he hated the way she looked and spoke. Sometimes he thought it would be best to save her soul as he had saved so many others, but each time the nagging doubt and his own aging, lonely heart kept him from turning on her. This was why the task she had put him on mattered so much—in slaying the beast that had sired her she might come to know peace. She might come to know the world without the scowl and the far-off look in her eyes.
He trailed the campsite on four legs, familiar and comfortable in this shape. There was the scent of fresh-kill (a rabbit, as he soon stirred up a bit of fur) and the musk of her father. He wondered, again, how old this man was. Gabriel knew he was old enough to have sired the girl himself, and was again thankful that no society existed in this wilderness. No one judged him but the Spirit and in his heart there was no doubt.
“He knows we’re after him,” Gabriel reminded her, and dog-trotted towards her side. The scents were thick everywhere, but it seemed like instinctively she had homed in on the strongest. He brushed against her lightly, in a reassuring manner. “Patience, little bird, patience,” the hybrid said softly, though he was smiling a bit. He smiled more around her than he had in years.
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