Read Mathieu for Free Online Page B

back into it. I cannot bear it and I could not bear hurting others because of it.”
    Jenn shifted forward. “You’ve been up here for six months. Did you think that maybe you need to stop hiding and start living?”
    “Hiding keeps me away from that which makes the darkness stronger, and from those that would call to the darkness and use it for foul purposes. I am what Gadreel made me. I cannot change that, much as I wish I could.” He hugged himself as he looked at the floor. “I cannot die, not for lack of trying. I cannot live, for that would make those around me die. I am best kept here, far away from the world and those who live in it.”
    She sighed and tried again. “You owe me.”
    He was silent so she pressed her advantage. “You told me you owed me a debt. What kind of noble are you if you don’t honor that?”
    He turned and looked at her, cocking an eyebrow. “I would hardly call myself a noble.”
    She smiled. “I found you, Mathieu de Bourguel. The blazon on your surcoat led me right to you. I found where you were born, I found where you lived and I found where you died. You went to the Holy Land on Crusade. You died in the Battle of Acre.”
    “But I didn’t die.” He smiled back, but his smile was painful.
    “Everything I found says you did,” she retorted.
    “Many things that were said to happen never did. Everyone knows that Troy burned because of a stupid prince’s love of a beautiful woman, even though Demonkind started a war so they could feed on pain, misery and death. Wars have torn this world apart, have made brother kill brother, father kill son, neighbor kill neighbor, all so Gadreel and his kind could feast.”
    “So what happened to you?”
    “Me?” He shrugged and waved around him. “This happened. I took a gut wound and thought I was going to die. I prayed to die from the wound and not the mortification. Not even with my grievous sins did I think I deserved that agony. When I woke I was not dead, no matter how much I wished I was.” He sat heavily on the other bench. “And I wished mightily for a long, long time that I would die. But Gadreel would never allow such a thing.”
    She nodded for him to continue, but he only shook his head and spoke. “You found me. What do you want from me?”
    “One of us has been taken by one of…those things. Like Gadreel.” Jenn pulled a picture from her jacket and passed it to him. He looked at her hand as if it were a venomous snake and then took the picture, being very careful to not touch her fingers. “Her name is Amanda. She’s a good friend of mine.”
    “I am sorry to hear this. Deeply sorry. I would not wish this on the foulest person on Earth.” He looked at the picture and frowned. “But you have not said what you want from me.”
    “I want you to help us get her back from that thing and help us destroy it. We don’t know how to, but you’ve shown us that it’s possible. I want you to help us save her.”
    “ No. If she’s been taken, it’s already too late.” Mathieu shook his head and handed back the picture with the very tips of his fingers.
    ”You’re one of her ancestors.”
    He froze and then frowned. “Impossible. I can assure you beyond a shadow of a doubt that I fathered no children before I met Gadreel.”
    Jenn raised an eyebrow at his wording but pressed on. “No, but your cousin Yvette de Argenton married Thierry de Viehel and produced several children. We’ve traced the family and found that Amanda comes from that line.”
    “So you… she married that pig after all? He was a horrible man. I pray he treated…” Mathieu shook his head and paused, “I hope she was happy.”
    “I have no idea,” Jenn answered brusquely, not meeting his gaze. She instead focused on the picture in her hand. Amanda was an old friend, willowy, blonde and blue eyed. She was beautiful and glamorous and witty, everything Jenn wished she could have been.
    Except now Amanda had been taken by God only knew what and