Gabriel (6 page)

We sang in unison, and I marveled at my voice. It was lighter, more delicate than it was now.

But then something odd happened. It was as though I was watching a movie and the DVD had scratched, as that moment repeated on a loop—the same line of the song occurring over and over again.

My voice became lost, a low warble, and Gabriel's became louder, harder, until it felt as though he was screaming the line. The scene in front of me stopped repeating and became a still frame, and silence fell.

The memory had become broken somehow; perhaps the disruption was me waking. But then, from nowhere, Gabriel—just Gabriel—seemed to come to life in the still image in front of me.

He turned his head as everything else around him remained frozen. I was asleep, dreaming, remembering. I was looking in on an old memory and now he was looking out, at me.

He closed his eyes shut and his eyelids seemed to bubble and bulge. When they shot open, his pupils had spilled their black contents into his sapphire-blue irises, mirroring the way my own eyes now appeared. Extending his hand, it looked bonier—like he'd suddenly lost muscle in his arms and shoulders.

And as he reached for me, his voice bled the lyrics.

She only brought new tears to thee.

As the last word vibrated from his lips in a plaintive cry, his eyes flashed a prodigious flaming red.

I sat straight up in bed, beads of sweat falling from my forehead. My shirt was sticking to my skin, drenched in my fear.

“Lailah?” Gabriel shuffled behind me and placed his hands on the tops of my shoulders.

I was too scared to turn to him, in case what I had seen in my dream was somehow real. I might have been perspiring, but my entire body was shivering and my teeth were chattering uncontrollably.

“Are you okay?” I asked, but my words came out half-jumbled.

“Yes. You're not, though. What's wrong?” Gabriel tried to turn my body toward him, but I refused to move an inch. I was too afraid to look at him.

Breathless, I couldn't shake the image of Gabriel's eyes and the words with which it felt like he was threatening me. I had to release the thought as I felt Gabriel trying to connect his mind with mine; I didn't want him to see what I had.

“I'm all right,” I said finally. “Just a bad dream.”

“Then why won't you look at me?” Gabriel switched on the side lamp and jumped off the bed. He rushed to his bag in the corner of the room and pulled something out before entering the bathroom and turning on the tap. I heard his footsteps returning to me but kept my gaze fixed on the buttercups and their stems on the duvet cover.

He crouched behind me, scraping my damp hair away from my neck and untangling the chain from some errant strands. Placing the mass of curls over my shoulder, he dabbed the bare skin on my neck with a cold flannel. He stopped after a minute and gently wrapped his arms around my chest. He then began to release my shirt, one button at a time. When he'd reached the bottom, he grazed my arms as he glided his hands back to my shoulders and peeled off my shirt. Pressing the wet cotton to my spine, he patted my bare skin, cooling me.

I realized after a few minutes of repetition that he was now tracing the scar left by Frederic.

Gabriel must have started to tremble. His hand twitched, and the flannel became unsteady. Now calmer, I reached behind me to his wrist and guided him to the top of my shoulders, encouraging him to brush the last of the damp cloth down the length of my arms. He obliged, leaning his chin into the crevice of my neck, where his cool breath caused goose bumps to ride down my entire body.

Only then did I become aware that I was naked except for my panties. But I didn't care. Suddenly I didn't feel embarrassed or ashamed. A cold splash hit the curve of my right breast and ran down, trailing toward my belly button as Gabriel squeezed out the last of the water.

I brought my knees up to my chest and wrapped my hands around them. Gabriel mirrored me and curled himself around my body, rubbing my legs with his toes and nuzzling into me.

“Feel better?” he asked.

“I'd be lying if I said no.” I paused and tilted my head back so I could see his face.

His eyes bloomed with a watery sparkle—like dew droplets on a blue rose—as though they were crying for me. For the first time, I noticed the tiny filaments reaching from the corners of his eyes, blemishing his porcelain skin.

I turned around so that I was facing him and sat on my knees. I rubbed my thumbs over the marks as if my touch might erase them. “I don't remember you having lines,” I said quietly.

He cupped my hands in his and brought them down, parting them at his hip bones.

“You're immortal. You don't age,” I said.

“As are you. You have your scars; I have mine.”

I thought on that for a moment. The creases in his skin were not scars; he hadn't been injured. I didn't understand, and I highly doubted that Gabriel was going to elaborate—not if he thought the reason for them would upset me.

He changed the subject. “What was it like, Lai?”

“What was
what
like?” I played with the hem of his T-shirt.

“When you were gone. I couldn't hear you anymore. I couldn't sense you. Where did you go?”

“I was trapped. I don't want to go back. Anywhere, in any world, would be better than where I was,” I said.

“Which was where, Lai?”

“It was … nowhere. I used to fear death because I would wake up again, lost. I fear it now for the opposite reason—” I gulped. “Because now I won't wake up, and nowhere can't be found.”

Gabriel took my face in his palms and kissed me. He tasted a little like strawberries from a summer garden.

He leaned into my ear and whispered, “I would tear down everywhere until all that was left was nowhere, and I would save you. I will always save you.”

I gripped the hem of his T-shirt and he parted from me, allowing me space to pull it over his head. I ruffled his blond hair before running my fingers down his chest and his stomach.

He followed the movement of my fingers. His love for me exuded from his being to mine. I reached behind his shoulders and squeezed. Bringing him in to me, my chest became flush with his. All I wanted was just for him to hold me, skin to skin.

He reciprocated and laid me back down on the bed. Entwined, I wished that I would never have to let him go, and I fell back to sleep.

 

FOUR

I
T WAS STILL DARK
outside when Gabriel woke me. Yawning, I rolled onto my side and dangled my legs off the side of the bed. I was about to reach for my discarded clothes that were strewn across the carpet, but I hesitated; I felt Gabriel's eyes boring through me. I twisted around, covering my bare chest with my arm, and smiled.

He lay across the bed, the duvet covering only his legs. I couldn't help but notice the definition in the muscles along his torso as he reached for my hand and grazed my knuckles delicately.

“Sunrise can't be far away,” I mused. We both fumbled to dress as I said, “You know, when I woke up yesterday morning, in the sun's presence, I did sparkle, like you. In fact, I'm sure the light that left my skin met yours.”

“I know. We're bonded through light, Lai; our connection is fused together by it. When your light and mine reconnected, it intertwined us back to each other. Could you even remember my name before it did?”

“Yes, it was echoing in my head as I woke up, but I can't say that I knew you were the owner when I saw you again for the first time. Not until that happened.”

Gabriel took my hand. “Come on.”

We were at the door when he raised his finger to his lips, signaling for me to remain quiet.

Gabriel shuffled me behind his back and began to faintly glow. The doorknob turned and then the door opened swiftly. Whoever was trying to get in fell backward in surprise, and the floorboards underfoot bounced with his heavy weight.

“It's me!” came a deep bellow, belonging to Ruadhan.

Gabriel stopped glowing immediately and rushed toward his friend, who was slumped against the wall.

“I told you I'd be back before sunrise, lad.” Ruadhan snorted as Gabriel helped him to his feet.

“Sorry, did my light catch you?” Gabriel asked.

“Just a tad,” he replied, patting down the arms of his sweater. “Make sure that when you do finish me off, you do it more quickly and more effectively than that.” He laughed.

His words hit me hard in the chest, and I moved in front of Gabriel to stand between my soul mate and my friend.

“Excuse me? When
he finishes you
?”

Ruadhan scanned the hallway, making sure no one had been disturbed by his fall, and ushered me inside. “I didn't see you there, love.” He looked to Gabriel for guidance.

Gabriel hovered in the doorway. “Lai, we need to go, or we'll miss sunrise.”

“Not until you tell me what Ruadhan meant.” I crossed my arms and shifted my weight.

“Nothing. He didn't mean anything by it,” Gabriel said.

I huffed and pushed past Gabriel. “I'm not buying it, but I have all day to chat with Ruadhan once you're running your errands.”

Ruadhan and Gabriel exchanged a dubious glance before Gabriel led me down the hallway.

Outside the B&B, the Thames wore a dull gray coat, perhaps reflecting the murky color of the clouds above it. Gabriel unlocked the car and opened the passenger door for me.

“We're traveling by car?”

“It's not far by car. Let's get today done, and then we have all the time in the world to safely test some theories. If you want to, that is.”

We set off with Gabriel behind the wheel. I wiped the window with my cardigan sleeve and watched the town disappear as we veered off onto a country lane. The terraced cottages that we passed were sleeping. The end of nighttime was still and quiet, and it reminded me of death.

We hadn't traveled far when Gabriel brought the car to a stop alongside a series of endlessly rolling hilltops.

“We need to hurry.” He smiled at me as he began to squeeze the door handle, but an uncertainty brewed within him, passing through to me.

I reached to my chest to check that my ring with my crystal was still sitting in its rightful place, and Gabriel glanced at it.

I fingered the crystal. “Azrael said it was my mother's. She left it, after she gave birth to me. He said he might never find her without it.” Guilt twinged in the pit of my stomach. “You said the crystal belonged to my family, the family I had when I was growing up in my first life, and that they gave it to Ethan to seal the deal on our engagement. You said he had it put into a ring—this ring.”

“I didn't know it had come from your Angel mother, Lai,” he replied coldly.

I fidgeted in my seat. “You must have a crystal of your own; you said Angel Descendants had them placed in their necks so that they could pass through the rifts and bring back the light souls to Styclar-Plena. Did you not recognize it?” I twisted my hair nervously, not sure what he might say.

“No. I didn't. The crystals given to Angel Descendants were carved from the crystal that sits at the center of Styclar-Plena. They are all different shapes and sizes, and they are embedded into our necks; they become part of us. I didn't know who you were then, Lai. And how your mother took it from her neck is beyond me. Only Arch Angels can remove the crystals.” Gabriel's brow was dipping and he shook his head, as if doing so might let the answer fall into the center of his thoughts. He didn't consider it for much longer. “We're going to miss sunrise. Come on.”

If only the Arch Angels were able to remove the crystals, then how had my mother taken it from her neck? Why had she left it for me, and what had she been thinking when she did? Would I ever know?

I forced the stiff car door open, following Gabriel to a large fence. I think he expected me to go through the gap in between the wood, but instead, I leaped over the top and landed in the grass in a crouching position. I'd jumped automatically, without even thinking, and I felt excited. The cramp that came in my calf after caused a momentary spike of worry, but within a few seconds it had gone.

Gabriel scanned to make sure no one had seen.

“Sorry,” I said.

“We need to get to the hill, and we don't have long.”

It didn't look like far. I wasn't sure what was behind Gabriel's urgency. “We could stroll, and we'd still be there in ten minutes,” I said.

“No, not that hill; it's in view of the road. We need to get to the one farthest away. See that one up there?” Gabriel pointed into the distance. Initially, I couldn't see where he meant, but as I followed his finger, it was as though the whole landscape parted. Like I was wearing some sort of superbinoculars as my sight finally arrived at that distant point.

“I can run, very fast,” I said.

“No.” Gabriel's voice growled, and several birds in the trees took flight. He snatched my hand up in his.

I stalled, taken aback by Gabriel's tone.

He collected himself and scooped me up in his arms before I had a chance to react. “I'll take you. The way Angels, the way
we
, travel. Clear your mind,” he instructed.

I did as he asked, but I kept my eyes open. It was as though the world had suddenly become a painting and we were spilled water, running through the landscape, transforming it into a blur of bleak color. The hilltop was the one solid image that remained through the wash of grays and greens on either side of me.

We arrived just as the sun was rising.

The grass underfoot was slippery from an overnight rain and so Gabriel placed me down carefully.

“How'd you do that?” I said, gasping.

“An Angel's abilities come from the power of thought. It might have just felt like you were somehow teleporting because the action is faster than the speed of light on this plane, but you're still traversing the land,” he said, and to make sure I understood added, “I was
running
.”