Lailah (The Styclar Saga) (10 page)

“Is it true that Jonah drank your blood?” Brooke’s accusation sliced through the air.

“Urm … Yes. I didn’t give him a lot of choice.”

“Brooke, you know what happened. Cessie helped Jonah. He is still with us because she assisted him.” Gabriel fired her an annoyed look that seemed to say “stop talking.”

“Assisted him! Jeez! You’re lucky you’re still breathing! Honestly, who goes around offering themselves like that anyway!” she continued petulantly.

I started to sense that it wasn’t my risky sacrifice that she was interested in; it was my connection to Jonah. “Really, there was no alternative,” I defended myself.

A short, sharp snigger came from the far corner, where Hanora stood. And I couldn’t help but feel that she was rather enjoying this little exchange. I didn’t want to appear like an argumentative child, so I put an end to the conversation.

“Gabriel, would you mind if I take a nap? I’m a bit tired.” It wasn’t a lie. I was torn between starving hunger and an overwhelming need to close my eyes, just for a short while.

“Of course. I’ll show you to your room.”

“I look forward to getting to know you all,” I offered uncomfortably as he whisked me off.

Politely, he stepped behind me and guided me through the hallway and up a huge staircase. He directed me to the landing, passing several doors as we went, eventually ending up at the far end. He turned the heavy steel handle and opened the room up for me. I stepped inside and observed my surroundings. The room itself was sizable, decorated neutrally in whites, which contrasted with the dark wooden beams that ran across the ceiling.

In the center there was a four-poster king-sized bed draped with expensive white-and-silver sheets. The hardwood flooring was mostly covered with a chocolate-brown rug that the bed sat upon, extending to a few inches in from the baseboards. I considered the ornate dresser, topped with a circular mirror, placed in the corner. It looked as though it once belonged to a prima ballerina or a lauded actress. I stepped farther in and saw an additional door, which I walked toward.

“Your en suite.”

Behind the bed on the back wall ran enormous built-in closets and it occurred to me that I had no clothes, nothing at all. “I would never be able to fill that in a lifetime!” I joked, astounded.

Gabriel walked over and slid the mirrored door across, revealing several outfits, a dressing gown, silk pajamas, and slippers. “Borrowed from Brooke. She’ll take you shopping so you can pick out everything you need yourself,” he said, beaming.

“That’s kind of her. I assume you had something to do with that offer. I get the distinct impression she’s not my biggest fan.”

“Don’t mind her, she’s still very young and she’s quite protective of Jonah. He saved her, you see.”

“Like you saved me a few days ago.” Maybe Brooke and I had something in common.

Gabriel sighed. “If only I had been able to save you,” he murmured. “I would have spared you a lot of pain and myself…” He trailed off. His gaze fell to my midriff. I shifted uncomfortably. He moved in and stood squarely in front of me and said, “May I take a look?”

“Did Jonah tell you?” I stuttered.

“He may have mentioned … I tended to your wound, I’d already seen—”

I stood uncomfortably still.

“There might be something I can do,” he offered.

I met his eyes and searched them; it dawned on me that he had gifts of his own.

My feet sank into the rug as I strode across the room and gently shut the bedroom door. He watched me cautiously as I made my way over to the bed, flicking the flats off, letting them fall untidily to the side. I climbed onto the bed, plumping a couple of pillows on top of each other. I inhaled through my nose slowly. My top was still torn underneath the cardigan; all I had to do was slip it off. I did so, keeping hold of the front of the shirt across my chest as I lay down. I nestled my face in the side of the pillow, my hands close to my face. My loose curls tickled my exposed back at my waist.

I felt Gabriel sit down next to me. He stroked my hair tenderly at first before gradually sweeping it away from my skin.
Oh, Lai.

I winced, changing my mind instantly. This wasn’t a good idea; I didn’t want him looking at it. I started to scramble up.

Shhhh, it’s okay.
His voice in my mind calmed me once more. I relaxed again. I felt his hands glide over my skin, his fingertips running up and down my scar. Goose bumps spread over me. His touch was so soothing; it was unlike anything else in the world.
What happened to you?

I didn’t want to revisit it, but I didn’t want to hide anything from him.
I don’t know exactly. A Vampire.
I was drifting off, deeper into the tunnel.

What was his name?

Frederic.

I didn’t want to name him. There were black spots of him in my memory, even though it had happened in this lifetime, just over three years ago. Part of the story was missing, which made it difficult to recall the first few chapters. Although the details were sketchy, the wave of emotion that spread over me was pure desperation and complete, all-encompassing fear.

As I conjured his face, it flashed across my mind, and I jolted back. I felt Gabriel place both his hands across the ridge of my spine, easing me. But I couldn’t control it; complete recollection came tumbling through rapidly.

Images of us working together in a patisserie seeped through first. I was laughing, he was laughing. He was my friend. Images of him leaving the shop with different girls, grinning like a naughty schoolboy as he went.

I had thought it was funny; I didn’t know. I’d tucked it all away; I hadn’t wanted to think of him again. I knew Gabriel was watching, able to see everything I saw.

What did he do to you?
Gabriel’s voice sang through my disturbing thoughts.

Why do you want me to see it again? Why do you want me to watch?
I was starting to panic. I knew what came next.

I have to know what happened to be able to take it away.

I didn’t have time to respond before the memory flooded through my consciousness. I watched myself walking out of the exit at the back of the shop; I heard Frederic locking up behind me. I recoiled inside as I saw myself choke when the cruel steel sliced through my skin, scraping along my bone. I saw myself thud to the floor, my head hitting the curb.

For a moment, I couldn’t see the scene any longer and I strained to focus. Then I suddenly realized I was no longer watching.

Somehow I was back in my own body. I was reliving the experience.

I couldn’t get up. A trickle of blood crept past my vision and I tried to move my hands to my head but my arms were like bricks, dead weights down at my side. I heard the thick clanking of the chain fastened to the hook that was dug deep into my back, and he began dragging me across the ground at an accelerated speed. I screamed as I felt the hook etch through my skin as he pulled me along callously, the laceration traveling up toward my neck. I convulsed as it ripped through my nerves, tearing through the muscle.

He stopped running and I was facedown in the dirt. Only then did he stoop down to my level, and I watched the flames whirl around his prodigious pupils. This was the first time I could remember knowing and experiencing the cold brutality of the species known as Vampire. His razor-sharp fangs baring over me, he hungrily tasted the trail of blood from my forehead staining down to my cheek, but restrained himself from furthering his desire. I gasped for air. The blinding pain floated in a cloud, above me, outside my body.

Abruptly, his confident and malevolent expression changed. Snapping his mouth closed, hiding his gleaming fangs, he receded like a wild animal that had inadvertently woken a far greater beast. He shriveled and stumbled and then from the emptiness I saw her, moving straight for him. Her jet-black hair flowed loosely, cascading down her back. Her shriek filled the air. It was so dark that I could barely make out her silhouette as she circled around Frederic. Her chin tilted up, her face still covered with night. The red furnaces that replaced her eyes instantly blinded me. It was her, the girl in shadow.

Blackness. Darkness. Nothingness.

Excruciating, intolerable pain streamed down my back. My eyes flew wide open. I couldn’t move, unable to speak, scream, or cry. I was trapped, suspended in time, halfway between memory and reality. I needed to vomit.

I was sure Gabriel was trying to break through, but I was alone; he had left the tunnel a long time ago. I struggled, willing myself to return. Gabriel’s eyes were suddenly fixated on my own, his words falling over themselves to reach me, but it was like watching the TV on mute. I almost laughed; it was comical. Laughing, yes! He was funny. I think he’d always made me laugh. I wanted to be with him. He felt so warm, so easy, his arms so protective.… Oh, to be in those arms, so safe. The room seemed to be displacing, spinning behind him. That was odd, bedrooms weren’t supposed to spin.

I didn’t know what was happening to me, my brain was jumbled, the waves weren’t connecting, everything was wrong. This was wrong! Panic rising, my throat tightened and I struggled to breathe. I had to calm down. Yes, that was it, I had to just stop, stop trying, stop everything! I wasn’t in France, I wasn’t with Frederic, and I wasn’t dying.

And just like that the whole room curved and then popped in; like a large bubble, it burst. My agony subsided along with it.

“I’m here! Can you hear me?” Gabriel was on me, with me, all around me. An aura of light exuded from his skin, caressing and holding me, like a blanket wrapping around my soul.

I trembled as I grappled for the pillows and hoisted myself up. Automatically I reached for my back; Gabriel’s strong arm was already steadying me. A disobedient tear smeared across my cheek.

“Is it gone?”

He stared intensely at me, a bewildered and terrified look smacked across his face.

“No.” He paused. “I lost you, Lai, I lost you to the darkness. You disappeared.”

“I thought maybe you were detaching it somehow.” It was my only explanation for the pain that was as real as it had been the first time I had endured it.

“I would never hurt you like that.”

I believed him.

I jumped off the bed, tripping as my legs woke up. I revolved in front of the mirror. My skin was unchanged, the same violent damage marked me as it had for the last few years. My head lurched heavily and I felt dizzy.

I glanced back to the mirror and watched, astonished, as a trickle of blood drizzled down my forehead. I felt disoriented, woozy. I placed my hand across my head and presented the palm to myself, smeared with my blood.

I staggered back to Gabriel before my legs could crumple underneath me. I halted as I reached him, as if I had hit an invisible wall. I could see it now; he was caked in crimson red. All over his hands, his arms, his shirt, even smudged across his temple.

My blood.

I was going to faint; Gabriel caught me as I dropped to the floor.

S
EVEN

S
TARTLED,
I bolted upright.

Gabriel was at my side, dumbfounded. I was back on the bed. “It’s okay, I’m here.” His words washed over me and I felt reassured.

I wiped the stain from my cheek while he watched as the cut to my head began to recede. He was still immersed in reds. I sat motionless, trying to acclimatize back to reality, managing only shallow breaths. My heart was still pounding against my chest, my hands shaking uncontrollably. “Sorry, I’m squeamish. The sight of blood makes me…” I tried to explain.

Gabriel looked down at himself, peeled off his shirt, and threw it out of sight, exposing his toned torso. My eyes lit up and my cheeks burned a little in response. He must have thought I was embarrassed as, self-consciously, he leaped off the bed. I automatically reached for him, grazing his arm. I didn’t want him to go. I didn’t have to ask; he was already sitting back beside me.

“I don’t know what happened. I’m so sorry,” he began.

“It’s all right.”

“I had to see it play out so I could reverse it, but you stopped remembering. Everything fell into darkness,” he continued, confused.

His face was strained, its glow dulled, as if the sun was setting, casting him in shadow. I knew then that the moment I stopped watching and inadvertently transported back into my body, he had lost the connection.

“How exactly does it work?” I asked.

“I’m not of this world. I have certain gifts here; they are very strong in this dimension. I had willed my powers away when I returned to Earth. My desire was to fall, to become mortal.” His words cut through me, stinging, to the core.

“You wanted to die?” The very idea caused a lump to form in my throat. “Why?” I whispered.

“It’s complicated. But I welcomed death, if that’s what you’d call it. They would not grant me mortality for their own ends. But then from nowhere, there you were, lying in my arms. And I was thankful to them for refusing me in spite of their motivations.”

Gabriel spoke in riddles a little more often than I liked.

“Who wouldn’t grant you mortality?” I asked.

“The Arch Angels. Only they can decide if an Angel will be allowed to fall. Requests of such kind, now at least, are very rare.” Gabriel shifted his weight, seemingly uncomfortable with the question I had asked.

“Are you some sort of healing Angel?” My knowledge of the supernatural was hardly up to speed and my mind was still throbbing.

“No, Lailah. I was an Angel of Death.”

That shut me up.

He raised his eyebrows and smiled nervously, showing off those divine dimples. “Don’t worry. I went rogue a long time ago,” he added lightly. “Healing is just an ability all Angels, no matter what their job title, so to speak, possess on this plane.”

I nodded.

His blond hair fell over his temple delicately and all I wanted to do was reach out and touch it, touch him. “So healing is just one of your gifts. You have others?”

“Yes, all Angels do when we are here on Earth.” He didn’t elaborate.