“That’s not an option,” Gabriel shakes his head no. “I’m truly sorry, but you will be coming with me tonight. I’m not going to chase you across the country again. I can’t handle the thought of losing you.”

“You never had me,” says Ravi. “You have this idea of me. It’s not who I am. I am not your companion, your lover, I’m not even your friend.”

The words hit Gabriel like a slap to the face, but after hundreds of years roaming the earth, it’s easy enough to hide the pain. He smiles. 

“It’s a good thing we have a long time to get to know one another. I can see now that getting to know you will be one of the greatest joys of my life. Your beauty, your intellect. You’re the total package, Ravi.” 

He can hear the tell-tale gurgle that suggests Ravi is fighting back against nausea, against utter panic. 

“There must have been others,” Ravi suggests. “Throughout the years, others who have kept your fancy. Who have made decent companions. You’re able to turn one in a thousand people. Surely someone came across you that pulled you in, that wanted to share this world with you.”

Gabriel thinks back on them, on Harrison, Evan, and Eric. Brief lovers. Harrison, though excited to do so, had not survived the transformation. Gabriel had watched in horror as his body withered away, bleeding out from every orifice there on the floor of Gabriel’s lair. 

Gabriel had been loath to turn Evan, putting it off for months, but had eventually given in when Evan had pleaded with him for the umpteenth time. It was successful, and for 25 years, they had enjoyed each other’s company, feasting together, traveling, enjoying one another’s presence. 

Or so Gabriel thought. 

In truth, Evan had grown bored, wanting so much more from an immortal life. He had changed into something completely sadistic, violently taking lives night after night just for fun. So many more than he needed to survive. He decimated villages, ended family lines, and left Gabriel no choice but to destroy him. Gabriel, being the stronger of them, chained Evan to a post with an ocean view, giving his seething lover one final kiss on the forehead before leaving him to burn to dust in light of the rising sun. 

It had been fifty years before Gabriel was willing to try again with Eric, but before he could even begin to turn him, something possessed Gabriel to continue to drink and drink until there was nothing left of Eric to save. He had wept as he lay Eric down on the floor, looking at his still shocked form. 

Eric’s blood hadn’t even held a candle to how Ravi’s tasted.

“There were others,” Gabriel admits. “But for one reason or another, they never ended up working out. The connection wasn’t there. They were not strong enough. Or they were corrupted.”

Gabriel pulls Ravi’s chair close again, reaching his hands out to embrace Ravi’s face, feeling the man attempt to flinch away. 

“You are none of those things, Ravi. You are strong, brilliant, beautiful, and our connection is real.”