Gabriel (4 page)

The memory of Ruadhan's face flashed across my vision, pausing on the expression he had worn as he gaped at me, confused and horrified. His voice calling my false name swirled around my head.

I tripped, trying to find my balance as I attempted to move away from him. “No!” I shrieked, my heart pounding.

“It's okay, sweetheart.” He surged forward and my eyes—wide with dread—begged him to stay back.

I glanced at my chest, and the memory of that weapon flickered in and out. I backed away and the table crumbled under my weight, collapsing in chunks behind me. It didn't stop my continuing slide across the marble floor and so I crashed right into the mirror, which shattered against my back. I took half the shards with me and the rest poured down as I sank to the floor, pinned in place by fear.

I curled into a ball, wrapping my arms around my knees, and I screamed an ungodly sound—so loud that I thought my lungs might burst.

Everything around me had spiraled, and the only safety I could find was welding my eyes tightly shut. I knew I was hallucinating; Ruadhan was extending his hand, not a sword. I was not on the mountaintop; I was safe. I tried to calm myself down.

I blanked all thought from my mind, and then Gabriel was singing to me. The sweetness of his voice resounded from somewhere locked away.

My gentle harp, once more I waken

The sweetness of thy slumb'ring strain

My eyes welled up, and I opened them to find Gabriel knelt over me. He tilted his head, his lips forming a tight line, but the hum of a song he once sang played in my mind. I was sure he heard it, too.

“
In tears our last farewell was taken, and now in tears we meet again
,” I sang slowly to him.

Gabriel was staring, trying to rediscover that innocent, unspoiled girl whom he had met nearly two hundred years ago, straining to see beyond the damaged and broken being that sat before him now.

I let his feelings wash over me, and I was hit with a sense of great loss—of regret. But he didn't let his sadness win for long. He placed his palms to my cheeks and brought his forehead to mine. He was so close I could taste him, like lemon and lime. It might have been winter outside, but Gabriel was my very own summertime.

Brushing the tip of his nose against mine, he inhaled a deep breath and then placed the softest of kisses on my top lip. It was so gentle that I shouldn't have felt it, but it was as though there was an upsurge of ecstasy bursting inside me. As he withdrew, the rapture subsided, and I was left feeling empty.

I couldn't keep it together; I couldn't pretend that everything was okay, as though death's grasp hadn't left a mark on my wrist as it had pulled me far away from him, from everything.

I was nowhere. I was nothing. I was so lost.

I was suffocating.

“Lailah. Take a deep breath.” Gabriel tried to gain my attention.

I couldn't reply. My throat was tight and sore.

What's wrong? Tell me what's wrong.
He projected his thoughts to me.

As I struggled to focus, I sensed that there were now other bodies in the room. I thought they were watching me, as muffled noises bounced off the walls of the entranceway.

Then, clear as crystal: “Cessie.”

His
voice.

My vision sharpened, and I looked past Gabriel's shoulder to where
he
stood. My eyes zeroed in on two pinpricks on the side of his neck where the remnants of drying blood clotted on his skin.

Suddenly it was as though I was sucking in every last bit of air from the room. Every muscle became taut, and my gums ached as once again my sharp canines cracked. The room became a neutral backdrop with nothing else in it—only him. A black smudge against a blank canvas. Tall, with messy dark hair and glowing hazel eyes.

He was a Vampire. And I was going to kill him.

I launched myself toward him, but the Vampire didn't move. I hurtled into his body, and he slammed to the ground beneath my weight. I hadn't meant to remodel the marble with a Vampire-shaped hole. The scent of cinnamon was too tempting, and I was overcome with a sense of hunger.

I had no regard for who he was or why he was here. All I knew was that, for whatever reason, I wanted to feast on his blood and then rip him apart.

I straddled the Vampire, my mouth an inch from the throbbing vein in his throat, when Gabriel's arms locked under mine, and he pulled me away. Gabriel turned me into his chest and made soothing sounds in my ear, and as I relaxed, the fury began to subside.

“That's not who you are, Lailah,” Gabriel said.

The room moved around me, like an earthquake only I could feel. When my vision stopped blurring and my fangs receded, I withdrew from Gabriel and surveyed what I'd done.

Shattered glass and chunks of wood littered the hallway. The front door squeaked, swinging back and forth, attached to the only hinge I had left intact. Outside, snow had begun to fall, beating down and becoming lost in the thick fog spilling into the entranceway. Ruadhan stood still, shocked, and Brooke helped the Vampire dislodge himself from the caved-in floor.

I knew what I was now.

I not only knew what I was, but I also accepted that I existed as a hybrid of Angel and Vampire in an immortal body. The Purebloods, the Arch Angels—both sides wanted me because I was supposedly the most dangerous threat to both.

The Vampire I had nearly just ended arched an eyebrow in response to Gabriel's comment as he dusted himself off.

“You need to leave.” I snarled.

Though his broken skin had healed, the scent of his blood still lingered all around me, and I didn't know if I would be able to prevent myself from attacking him again. I wasn't sure why he evoked such a reaction. Brooke, Ruadhan—they were both Vampires, but I didn't want to hurt them. But then, they hadn't spilled their blood around me, either.

“What's wrong with you?” the Vampire said. “It's me, Cess—”

“Lailah. My name is
Lailah
,” I said sharply. It took every last bit of my self-control to remain calm. I wanted to obey my urge. I wanted to kill him.

I ran my tongue over my gums, checking that my fangs weren't about to reappear. A frustrated tear ran down my cheek, and the Vampire misinterpreted it as some sort of sadness.

“Lailah,” he said. “It's me.”

Bravely, or stupidly, he leaned down and stood nose to nose with me. Licking his thumb, he grazed my cheek as he wiped away my bloodied tear. He took a sharp intake of breath as my scent hit him. Microfibers of red wove through the fabric of his hazel eyes, and I was amazed at the detail I could see now with these heightened senses.

“Gabriel…” I gritted my teeth.

Responding immediately, Gabriel hooked his arm under the Vampire's, and with help from Ruadhan, he led him backward down the hallway. The Vampire didn't resist them, but all the while his gaze never left mine.

The Vampire's escorts stopped when they reached the front door, and Gabriel said something quietly to him. I was about to walk away, when the Vampire shouted, “I'm coming back for you.”

A sense of déjà vu crept up my neck. He saw the flash of recognition with the widening of my eyes and, even though Gabriel was talking in his ear, his stare—steadfast—remained fixed on me.

My shoulders slumped as I became lost, searching for an answer.

The left side of his lip curved up, and he winked.

Then, just like that, he was gone.

 

THREE

“G
REAT, NOW THAT YOU'VE
finished trying to end Jonah, I think we'd better go,” Brooke said, wiping her mouth with the back of her arm. I had only a moment to realize it was the Vampire's drying blood that was smeared around her lips before the name she offered grabbed my attention.

Jonah.

I tried to put his face and his name together, and instantly my skin began to simmer, and my mind filled with white noise.

Brooke was already at the doorway, searching outside.

“Brooke—” I said at the same moment as Gabriel said, “Time to go.”

Brooke became a blur, departing before I could question her.

I turned to Gabriel, seeking an explanation from him instead. “That Vampire's name is
Jonah
?”

Gabriel flinched when Jonah's name left my lips, and he didn't offer me any confirmation.

“You said his name, outside—”

Gabriel cut me off. “It doesn't matter right now.
He
doesn't matter right now. We need to go. Neither the Purebloods nor the Arch Angels know you're alive, but it might not stay that way if Hanora finds me, finds
you
, here. I need to deal with her, alone.” He paused. “She betrayed us once; I don't trust her not to do so a second time.”

I understood his urgency for us to depart then. Hanora was Gabriel's oldest companion; he had considered her a friend. Hanora's feelings, however, ran far deeper but were unreciprocated. She assumed Gabriel couldn't be with her romantically because her soul was dark. When Azrael announced that I was harboring some form of Vampire lineage, in a jealous rage, Hanora had told the Purebloods where I was; she must have fled shortly afterward.

I balanced my weight from one foot to the other, caught in my own confusion. I remembered that happening as clearly as everything else, so why could I not recall Jonah?

Gabriel placed his hands over my bare arms; his light swept over me and I faltered.

“Please, Lai. We need to leave,” he said.

Gabriel had always tried to protect me. Calmed by his warmth, I didn't think on it any further and simply said, “Okay.”

Gabriel collected my backpack from the bottom of the stairs. I followed him quickly, and then he, Ruadhan, and I piled into a rented truck and headed for the airport. There was no sign of Brooke or Jonah; we were all leaving in very different directions and going on very different journeys.

I sat in the back, and Gabriel passed me my backpack from the front seat.

“I'm sorry I startled you,” Ruadhan said softly, as Gabriel reversed off the grassy verge.

I coughed uncomfortably. “Sorry. I just—I don't know. I panicked. That's all.”

Ruadhan didn't know it was you. On the mountain, Azrael tricked him.…
Gabriel's words reached me by thought.

I know
, I replied.

The truck struggled in the snow, but once on an actual road, it glided along the concrete with ease and Gabriel wasted no time obliterating the speed limit.

“Why are we going back to England?” I asked.

“I have some business I have to tie up, back in London,” Gabriel said.

I raised my eyebrows. “I'm coming with you.”

“No, it's too dangerous.”

“You said, you and me, on the run, hiding—just us. I don't understand—you're leaving me already?”

Gabriel's hands clenched tightly around the steering wheel and I felt his anxiety.

“There are some things I must,
must
do, and I have to do them alone. That's why Ruadhan's joining us.” Gabriel took his eyes off the road, briefly, to look at his friend sitting in the passenger seat. “I won't be gone more than a day, and he will keep you safe. Then you and I will leave together.”

Ruadhan didn't acknowledge Gabriel; he was hunched forward, constantly checking the mirrors, clearly back on daddy duty.

I need you to trust me and I need you to do as I ask, and then we will be together.

I was already regretting how easily I had agreed to follow Gabriel's lead without question. Now was not the time to be petulant, so instead I eyed the backpack next to me. I rummaged around inside and found some of my clothes and my passport.

“I need to change. My toes are freezing.” My bare feet were purple-red with cold; I wasn't dressed for winter or a plane.

“Go ahead. Ruadhan will avert his eyes,” Gabriel said.

I pulled out a pair of light-blue skinny jeans, a sleeveless shirt, and a cream-colored cardigan. Toward the bottom of the bag, I found a pair of wool-lined ankle boots and a pair of thick socks.

I slid the jeans on under the dress I was wearing, and then slowly lifted it over my head. I clutched my chest as I tried to wriggle into the shirt.

I flicked my eyes up as I struggled, meeting Gabriel's in the rearview mirror. He looked away and I felt my cheeks flush.

I loved Gabriel; I felt it in every part of my being, and I wondered if our relationship had ever made it to the ultimate level of intimacy. No. He was too much of a gentleman for anything to have happened. As I thought about Gabriel, to my surprise, my skin started to glow.

What are you thinking about?
Gabriel asked me privately.

You.

The snow outside the window was falling thick and heavy, blanketing the landscape in a layer of pure white, as though it were wrapping up the evidence of recent events and covering our tracks as we left.

I was more than happy to leave this place. I wanted a fresh start, to leave my demons behind me—literally.

*   *   *

A
FTER AN UNEVENTFUL PLANE
journey and yet another long drive, I was relieved when Gabriel finally pulled the rented car to the curb and turned the engine off.

“Lailah, we're here,” Gabriel said.

“Where's here, exactly?” I asked, unbuckling my seat belt. I ran the back of my cardigan sleeve over the condensation on the window, attempting to clear it. Splatters of rain pelted down, leaving mini droplets against the outside of the glass.

“Henley-on-Thames. About half an hour or so from the Hedgerley house.”

“Little close, no?” I asked.

“Look out the rear window, Lai.” Gabriel gestured behind me, where tall streetlamps lit the edges of a riverbank. “That's the Thames.”

“Right. And that's helpful?”