Gabriel (12 page)

“They have something I need.”

“Such as?”

“Information. I need a few days with them.” I wasn't sure whether Jonah would agree, but I had no choice, so I continued, “You think you could tell Gabriel not to worry and that I will be back soon?”

“In case you hadn't figured it out yet,
those guys
are Vampire slayers, demon hunters, or, more accurately, kid farmers with silver pitchforks. You're in dangerous territory. If Gabriel knew you were with them, he wouldn't let you stay, and I'm kinda with him on this one. I gotta take you back.” Jonah hunched his shoulders and strode toward me.

“You do that and Gabriel will take me away for good. I need some time. Just a few days. Please, Jonah.” I didn't want to ask a favor, but I would if I had to. “Don't tell him where I am.”

He stopped in his tracks and rummaged around in his jacket pocket, producing a packet of cigarettes and a lighter. “You think my desire for you to not run off with him would outweigh the need to keep you safe?”

“But I am safe. They don't know who or what I am. Besides, according to you I am the most deadly force walking the Earth. I don't think I'm in any kind of trouble.” I hoped my statement had more confidence than I did.

He pulled a cigarette out of the box with his lips and lit up. “The most deadly force walking the Earth, who can't even uproot a measly yew tree? Yeah, I was watching.”

So much for trying to sound confident. And yet, suddenly I did feel confident. His words were like a challenge. One I accepted. I returned to the aging tree and wrapped my arms around its base. I stooped down and yanked with all my might but not even a pebble bounced at the tree's roots.

About to try again, a plume of smoke infiltrated my vision. A pungent taste of burning ash stung my tongue, and I coughed. Jonah was right behind me. He slid his hand underneath my shirt and spread his palm wide across my navel. Everything tingled at his touch.

Pushing the inside of my thigh with his knee, he spread my legs wider apart. He took his cigarette from the corner of his lip and held it between his fingers, still clutching the packet in the palm of his hand. He edged back and brushed his hand against my bottom. I was about to smack him, when I realized that he was sliding his cigarette box into the back pocket of my jeans.

“What are you doing?” I said in a huff.

“Positioning you correctly.”

Moving his body around mine, he tucked my bangs behind my ear. Finally, he rested his chin in the crevice of my neck. “Pull.”

I gulped hard as a nervous, excited knot twisted inside me. But knowing that this very action would make the difference between Jonah ratting me out or not, I ignored it and instead threw my weight into my bottom and desperately tried to pry the tree from the ground. Jonah exerted force onto my belly with his palm, pulling me closer into his frame so that my body was flush against his. I thought, perhaps, he was trying to help. That he'd yank with me.

The tree barely shifted.

Apparently his help stopped with showing me proper form.

I slapped Jonah's fingertips from my midriff, and he released me. “Sorry, beautiful. Looks like you're coming with me. You might have to face the awkward conversation with Gabriel sooner than you'd like.”

I reeled around. “What awkward conversation is that exactly?”

“The one where you confess that you're not ready to ride off into the sunset with him.” Jonah took one more tug on his cigarette, blowing the smoke from his nose, before flicking the stub over his shoulder.

“That's not why I want to stay. I told you, they have something I need.”

“Sure thing, beautiful. You keep telling yourself that.” He stared at me, his hazel eyes shining with sarcasm. “A deal's a deal. Come on—time to return you to the ‘lost and found.'”

Annoyed with myself, I kicked the bark of the tree that had defeated me.

The sun had begun to rise, and I felt its warmth on the back of my arms. My Vampire abilities might be failing me, but what if …

I scanned from the top of the tree's branches down to its roots before closing my eyes. I had to make this damn piece of wood move. If I could travel by thought, surely I could exert strength in the same way? I imagined the ground cracking beneath my feet; I imagined the wind picking up and assaulting its base; I imagined it falling.

It was as though the world were rocking: As I flashed my eyes open, to my surprise the whole tree was at a 90-degree angle, half-uprooted. The air swelled and I stretched out my hand, lining it up with the tree.

“Fall,” I begged, allowing my arm to sway limply at my side.

Jonah sucked in a breath as the whole tree crashed down, smashing into its neighbor. A row of six trees tumbled like dominoes, rhythmically colliding, one after the other. The last one went down with an almighty thud, and a cloud of dust smothered the two of us.

Jonah's eyes were wide and his expression perplexed. For once, nothing came out of his mouth.

I wiped dirt off my hands. “Right, well, I think I've made my point.”

Jonah didn't protest. Instead he became no more than a blur of color as he sped a few feet away from me and then reappeared. I tilted my head in confusion before realizing why he raced from me.

I was starting to glow in the presence of the rising sun.

I breathed in the magical rays, and my whole body prickled with heat. A halo of crystals surrounded me, and I raised my palms to my face and smiled in wonder as bulbs of light bloomed in my hands.

I cupped the brilliant white jewels and blew at the center. The light flowed forward, splitting itself in two and twisting around the trees that I had just uprooted.

“Rise,” I whispered.

The trees vibrated, and then they bounced on the ground, the glow wrapping around their bases.

“Rise,” I said, louder this time.

As if by magic, one by one they climbed back toward the sky, the roots replanting themselves in the dirt.

All the energy I had just absorbed had left me and was floating over the trees. Once I was no longer glowing, Jonah returned.

I had no idea how I had commanded the light, and I didn't know how to control it. The sparkles merged together at the top, becoming a single ball of pulsing light. I rolled my fingers nervously in my palm. As if the effervescing ball was responding to me, it split into branches that coiled around the trunks.

From nowhere, a silver tear sliced vertically beside the trees. As if the air were a piece of fabric being cut in two and pulled open, strobes of golden rays cascaded through the gap.

A rift was opening from the first dimension, right in front of us, and it wasn't one that I had created.

I panicked and flexed my hands, and the jeweled spirals of my making stopped.

One by one, they plummeted to the ground. The light gathered and spilled out like a waterfall, flooding where Jonah and I stood.

Jonah cursed, and before I had a chance to blink, I was swept onto his back and we were hurtling through the field.

*   *   *

J
ONAH STOPPED AND SET
me down beside a well, far away from where we had been.

We were miles away, but I concentrated on where we had run from and I was able to focus in on the trees were once again stood tall, appearing untouched by my actions.

The distance made it difficult, and the scenery wobbled and rocked back and forth, in and out of focus. But then, the silver glimmer of the rift came into view, prominently displayed against the bleak landscape. And next to it now, a towering figure draped in white robes floated in the air. There were great white feathers on his back, stemming from between his shoulder blades. They fluttered, and his form shook until his very being became microscopic particles. As he reentered the rift, it closed behind him.

Like an elastic band, the scene snapped back.

I turned to Jonah, who winced as he tried to balance his weight.

“Are you in pain?” I asked.

“The kid farmers you're so keen to spend time with shot me with a silver bullet, Lailah. Gabriel removed it, but not before it had caused some damage.”

I shook my head. “You're a Vampire. It should have healed by now.”

“Silver reflects light. And that light began traveling through my blood before I found Gabriel.”

“What will heal it?” I asked, scanning the land around us, ensuring no other rifts were opening.

He looked at me as if I should have known the answer and then shook his head. “Doesn't matter. It's not important. That was a nice show you put on back there. You drew the attention of the Arch Angels, though—that wasn't clever.”

“It's okay; he didn't see us. I just watched him go back through the rift and it closed behind him.” I paused. “Not too much wrong with my Angel side, it seems, other than some control, of course.”

“You gotta stop doing that.”

“Doing what?”

“Referring to yourself as if you're split in two, or as if somehow your soul is half and half.”

“It is: half light, half dark.”

Jonah pressed his lips into a tight line. “No. You weren't conscious when that guy carried you off, and he was laden with silver. Silver affects Vampires.”

“What's your point?”

“You weren't sporting your fangs when that happened, beautiful. You were just you. Not glowing like an Angel and not lit up like a starving Vampire.” Jonah collected his thoughts. “Do you remember me offering you my blood, on the mountain, before you … died? Do you remember any of that clearly?”

I vaguely recalled a pair of big black eyes staring down at me. That was the moment that I saw my light, reflecting back at me from the darkness. Had those eyes belonged to Jonah? “I've told you, I don't remember you. I'm sorry.”

“You accepted everything you were before your body gave up. You must have, because you came back. Do you remember what that felt like, right before?”

I looked toward the horizon. I did remember. “It was like an explosion, as if there were an upsurge of light and dark all at the same time—as if they collided and merged together.”

Jonah placed his hand on my shoulder. “You aren't half light and half dark; you're one whole. And that whole is all kinds of shades of gray.”

My lower lip twitched nervously. “So what does that mean?”

“I dunno. I'm hardly an expert on the subject. It makes you
different
. It makes you
capable
. And if you've got the abilities of both, then it's likely you have the vulnerabilities of both, too.”

“Yeah, I figured.… Good news for me, right? Get me near a Pureblood or an Arch Angel, and I won't last five seconds.”

“No. Embrace all that you are, and you will be untouchable.” Jonah's tone softened. “Forget your new friends. Let's leave, and you can tell Gabriel you want to stay awhile, that you want me to stay awhile with you.” He hesitated as I crinkled my forehead. “Look, you need me. If you want to run off into the night with your Angel, fine. But if you at least let me help you first, you'll stand a chance when they catch up with you.” When I still didn't answer, he tried again. “You can't run as fast as I can, you couldn't uproot that tree using force, and you couldn't control whatever it was you just did back there. You're struggling when it should be easy. Let me try to help you.”

“I'll think about it.… But first, I have a question, and the answer to it is back the way I came.” I listened for the noise from the motorway and tried to get my bearings.

Before I could leave, Jonah seized my arm and yanked me in toward him. “You have two hours.”

Our sudden closeness made my heart thud in my chest. “What? No. At least give me a day!”

“Half a day. And I will be back to get you. Understand?”

I wrinkled my nose but finally conceded. “Fine, but not a word to Gabriel about where I am,
do you understand
?” I shrugged him off, annoyed that his touch affected me and that my body betrayed me so easily.

Jonah's cheeks creased as he let out a half-laugh and ruffled my hair. “You're still pretty stubborn. I guess some things never change.”

His words stung me. I didn't appreciate the closeness he seemed to find habitual, or the way he spoke to me as though he knew me better than I knew myself. It unnerved me.

I didn't want to be unkind, so I spoke softly. “No. Some things don't. I love Gabriel.” I paused. “In my nearly two hundred years of walking this Earth, no matter how many times I died and woke up, I never forgot
his
face.”

Jonah wore a blank expression but his body had hardened and his right hand was clenched into a fist.

“I know I'm asking you to keep Gabriel in the dark about where I am, but please don't let that cloud your opinion of my feelings for him.” I thought that was all I needed to say, but that arrogant grin was already edging up his cheek. “Remind me, what name did you call me?”

Running his tongue along his teeth and then grinding them together, eventually he replied, “Cessie. I knew you as Cessie.”

“I'm sorry, Jonah, but in case you hadn't gathered, Cessie was a mask—one I have taken off. Just to be clear, whatever happens from here, I'm Lailah, and my intention is to spend the rest of forever with Gabriel.”

His face fell. I turned, gearing up to run, when he tugged at my shirt and spun me back around to face him.

“Cessie, Lailah, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty … You've had, and I gave you, plenty of names. What is it that dude said? ‘A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.' Call yourself whatever the hell you like; it doesn't change who you are. Not then and not now.”

We stared each other out for some time before I finally conceded. “All right. Point made. And that
dude's
name is Shakespeare, by the way.”

He loosened his grasp, freeing me. “Great, him you remember.”