Lailah (The Styclar Saga) (22 page)

“Yes.” His answer was swift.

“I’m not the same person you knew,” I said. “I have changed; I haven’t even the slightest clue who Lailah is. She’s a stranger to me. I don’t know who I am, I never have.”

He didn’t reply immediately but pulled me closer, kissing the top of my forehead. “You’re wrong. When I look at you, I’m met with the same person. Your smile may have weakened and your eyes may have grown weary, but you are no different from the beautiful girl I fell in love with. And somehow, if it is even possible, I feel more connected to you now than ever before.”

Despite the force with which he exerted his words, I couldn’t help but feel that he was trying to convince himself more than he was me.

He tilted my chin up toward him, but kept his hand spread tightly in the arch of my lower back, his eyes daring to reach deep down within me. He touched my cheeks gently before bending down and placing the lightest of kisses against my lips.

“Lailah,” he said. “I need you to decide for yourself what it is you really want.”

I read between the lines. What he actually meant was that I needed to decide who it was I really wanted.

My lips trembled. “Your face has been the only constant I have ever known. I would bet good money that ever since the day you left, I’ve been able to feel you. It’s an extraordinary, inexplicable yet inevitable force that I can’t deny. I may not know what I am, but one thing I am certain of is that whatever it is I may be and whatever it is I may want, none of it matters without you.” I began to sob, but I had run dry of tears.

“Ah, but Lailah.” He stopped, his hand clenching into a ball-shaped fist against my spine. “Lailah,” he repeated. “I would never let inevitability dictate your happiness. Wherever your path is meant to lead, you deserve and you should command the choice to decide. In your decisions, inevitability doesn’t rule you.” I watched his jaw lock, though it did nothing to harden his features.

What was it that I wanted? Normality? No. Though I had envied it, my destiny was not aimed at “normal.” I knew I wanted Gabriel. But to really know why that was, first I had to understand what I was and perhaps more importantly, who I was now.

I breathed in the smell of the damp soil. The rain continued to lash down. Gabriel’s shirt was stuck to his chest. The white fabric had become transparent and the muscles along his torso were clearly visible. His scent of citrus had diluted with the rain, but I could still taste him. He rubbed my shoulders repeatedly, finally reaching for my hand. I gave it gratefully.

We had reached stalemate; there was nothing left to say. Not yet. Before either of us could calculate our next move, we would have to be still and patient for a while longer.

Filling my body with heat through his touch, Gabriel instructed, “Come on, we have to leave, it’s almost dark.” His tone was urgent.

We emerged onto the curb in front of the driveway to find the metal bars of the gate bent and discarded. Hissing shrieks deafened my self-pity into silence.

They were here.

FIFTEEN

G
ABRIEL’S EYES SNAPPED TO ME
and I met them with alarm.

“You need to go, Lailah! Now!” He lifted me and ran until his gaze finally settled on an old, rusted Ford parked in the distance. He yanked open the door, quickly bundling me into the driver’s seat. He touched the ignition with his index finger and the engine kicked in. Neat trick. “Drive as far as you can. Do you have your cell?”

“No,” I replied, stifling my shock.

Thrusting his iPhone into my palm, he ordered me to leave and I hesitated, mounting a protest that never managed to leave my lips.

“You have to go now! I have to help the others and you need to leave!”

I knew arguing would result in wasted minutes, so I nodded as he slammed the door shut and I put the car into first gear and pulled away. I looked for him in the rearview mirror, but he had already disappeared. I hit the brake and it squeaked in reply; I then jiggled the old gear stick into neutral. Did he honestly think that I would run away? Leave him and the others to perish at my hunters’ hands? Perhaps he didn’t know me that well after all.

Grinding the round leather knob into reverse, I pulled backward down the road, accelerating fast, finally plummeting to a halt outside the gates. I took a deep breath and made my way to the discarded pieces of metal strewn over the smooth concrete.

The sun had set and was replaced by a half-moon that hung low in the sky, watching me walk into impenetrable uncertainty.

A glint of light reflected off my crystal, spilling out over my blouse; it caught my attention as it bounced off a jagged piece of metal. Scooping up the bar, I ran my fingertip along the edge. It was deadly sharp.

Now armed—well, sort of—I realized Gabriel might feel my presence, so as I drew nearer I built my brick wall once more. As the hissing, shrill shrieks pierced my hearing, the hairs on my arm stood on end, and I once again wished that I could remain concealed.

As I tiptoed through the door, I was greeted by the sound of shattering windowpanes and the blast of hurtling bodies, causing my legs to tremble in response. Edging underneath the staircase, I crouched down—unmoving—in the corner, weighing my immediate options.

Formulating a plan against a Vampire attack was far outside of my experience. Noise filled every gap around me; it could only be moments before I would be faced with one of them. I heard a pub regular say once that the best form of defense was attack; albeit he was an overweight lump of a man, and he was talking football tactics, but it was the best I had. I mustered my courage, but just as I was about to charge from under the staircase, I heard Michael’s panicked voice coming from the lounge.

“What are you doing? I led you to her, we had an agreement!”

This confession caused my skin to crawl. Michael was the reason they were here. He had told them. He had betrayed Gabriel. He had betrayed all of us. The response that met him was simply a series of harrowing high-pitched noises; I knew it was a Pureblood Vampire. This had to be Michael’s maker, the most deadly force inside this house, his Gualtiero—Eligio.

Despite that fact, I found myself rising from the ground and catapulting myself into the hallway. Michael certainly didn’t deserve my help, but then if it hadn’t been for me he wouldn’t be about to meet his end either.

My fingers gripped the wooden doorframe. I began to raise the jagged metal in my free hand, but just as I was about to dart forward, thick layers of flashing hot ash and dust smothered me as if I had been caught in a volcanic eruption. I was too late.

I didn’t have time to wipe away Michael’s remnants. Repositioning my body and regaining my balance, I spun around as a spine-tingling scream reverberated upstairs. Without thinking, I flew up the staircase, but fell as the house vibrated and rocked. Jumping back to my feet, I followed the sound. I didn’t have to open the bedroom door; half the wall was missing as though a demolition ball had smashed through it.

Brooke was cowering in the corner of the room, sobbing, covering her eyes. Jonah was protecting her, engaged in a death match. He hurled the Vampire into the other wall. The Vampire plummeted through it, but bounced back within a millisecond. His fangs hung like deadly daggers from his mouth. In an instant he had Jonah pinned on the carpet and was ready to rip him apart.

My mind emptied and I sprinted over to the Vampire, and with all my might I plunged the metal bar into the creature’s left shoulder blade, breaking through the muscle and bone, straight through to the other side of his chest. My aim was so precise that I just missed stabbing Jonah, who lay underneath him. The Vampire screeched and spun around. But before he had a chance to meet the gaze of his killer, he exploded into burning ash and dust.

Jonah jumped up and grabbed me by my arm, which was still extended in front of me, shaking. “What are you doing here? You have to go!” he shouted.

His eyes locked with mine; an instant connection swelled between us. I broke it and nodded over to Brooke, who was lifting herself up using the wall to leverage her body. “Take her away from here,” I said. “Look after her.”

I hadn’t intended for my words to sound so final, but my inner voice was reasoning that this was most likely the end. If I were to ever meet Jonah again, I would likely not remember him. I turned my body reluctantly from his and moved back in the direction of the gaping hole in the wall.

He grabbed my hand and pulled me toward him. Reaching for my waist, he held me tightly and protectively. “You’re coming with us,” he whispered.

I realized he was afraid for me. I shook my head. “Where is he?”

Jonah’s shoulders slumped; he knew I wasn’t about to leave without Gabriel and he didn’t have time to try and convince me otherwise. If Brooke stayed here any longer, she would surely perish. She was no fighter.

He blew hot air from his mouth and cracked his jaw from side to side. “Last I saw of him, he was on the ground floor.”

“What are you waiting for? Go!” I commanded, and unwillingly he charged to Brooke, lifting her easily.

He perched on the ledge of the window, but before he jumped he said, “I’m coming back for you.”

I was already making my way through the broken pieces of plaster, but his words fell around me and I knew that he meant it.

As I reached the landing, three Vampires stooping below flashed their red, bloodied orbs at me, their prize. I had nothing to defend myself with, I had no hope; all I could do now was call to Gabriel.

I need you—

The adrenaline that was pumping through me began to grow hotter as I lost myself to the Vampires’ enraged eyes. As my blood boiled beneath my skin, my cry for Gabriel gave way to a shadow that flickered to the left of me. I broke my stare away from the Vampires growling below me as her long dark hair stroked my skin.

She was back.

All three ascended into the air, up to the banister rail that ran the length of the landing. I tripped backward, shocked, as from behind her I watched blades slice through her knuckles. She made a low howling noise that seemed to come from deep inside her. The girl’s form matched the color of the night that had wrapped itself around the house, masking her into little more than a faint silhouette. It was only through the blur of flame caused from an explosion below, which lit her arms now poised away from her waist, that I saw the ink of her tattoos.

Two of the Vampires hesitated on the tip of the railing, unsure of their next move. But the other, undeterred, hurtled forward, flying above her head. She raised her hand; he was only inches from her face, plummeting down, when suddenly he stopped. She held him suspended above her, cricking her neck from side to side—almost contemplatively—before she reached her bladed hand up and struck his chest, crushing through his bone in a clenched fist. The shriek that burst out of the Vampire’s lungs sent shock waves through my whole body.

The girl only twitched a little as she whispered, “Shhhh…”

I couldn’t see her expression, but I could tell she was smiling.

As she opened her hand from inside his chest, she slowly sliced open his blackened heart and he burst into a waterfall of thick oil. It poured at such a speed that it hit the floor and splashed back, splattering my skin from where I took in the scene, disbelieving. Whatever she was, she was far more powerful than any Second Generation Vampire.

The same realization must have hit the two malefactors that were still perched on the ledge. Their features filled with awe and both turned at the same moment, rushing to escape. She wasn’t about to let them leave. She toyed with them, willing them nearer with a gesture of her finger. She wasn’t just saving me, she was playing a game that she evidently enjoyed. That thought terrified me more than anything else.

I whimpered as she tore their throats out with her teeth, finally ending them. Spitting blood from her mouth, she began to move down the length of the staircase without even glancing back at me.

I trailed behind her, afraid to see where she was going and who she might find next. She traveled down the long hallway; the flames that were spreading quickly through each room didn’t concern her. She didn’t seem to notice the stifling heat or choking smoke that filled every corner as I made chase.

I finally caught up with her in the destroyed kitchen. I needed to see her face, needed to speak with her. I extended my hand to her shoulder, and just as I was on the cusp of touching her, an all-encompassing light spilled through the doorframe from the garden, striking her, and she evaporated into thin air.

I fell where she had stood, my knees grazing the kitchen tiles and my hands spread out on the other side of the doorframe, scraped by the grit of the pebbles underneath them. The light dissolved immediately and as I shook my head back into some form of comprehensive thought, my stomach somersaulted.

Gabriel lay several feet away, covering Hanora’s body entirely with his own. I moved my lips, but stopped as the air around me began to warp, like the atmosphere underneath a rocket when it takes off.

In slow motion, I was forced to observe his strong arm move behind her back as he smoothed her hair away from the wounds that ran down her blackened neck. Her eyes flew open and with every frantic bat of her eyelashes her orbs grew bigger, brimming with desire. She pulled him close by the collar of his torn shirt into a long lingering kiss. I didn’t see him pull away as his lips touched hers. The moment spiraled, and the invisible hands of the clock ticking in my mind resumed normal speed.

Suddenly, like two race cars slamming into each other head on, our connection collided. For a flicker of a second, I felt a sense of love pass through him.

Instantly he twisted around, his surprised eyes capturing mine. I sprung my body up by the palms of my hands. As I teetered back to my feet, I resented Gabriel desperately scrambling away from Hanora to get over to me. I wanted to run far away, and this time from him.

I didn’t have long to listen to the moan of my heart as it tore in two: I was elevated off the tiles by a tremendous hand lifting me by the back of my blouse. I squirmed as the pain of his fangs swiftly bore through the skin of my neck. It was like boiling water cracking a frozen car window, splintering down every last vein inside me. His poison was paralyzing; even my thoughts seemed to slow.