Gabriel (33 page)

I swiftly removed my hands from his chest, embarrassed and hurt. I took a few moments to collect myself. “If you believe that you were meant to save me, know that you did. You should run now; you should never stop running.” I paused, watching for something—anything—in his expression that would offer me the final confirmation of what I already understood. He didn't love me, he didn't want me, and now that he had fulfilled whatever purpose he thought he was meant to, he would forget me. “I'm sorry for everything, truly. I will go … take some satisfaction in knowing that I will suffer the same agony as you—that my penance is now paid.”

Jonah's eyebrows dipped as I rose to my feet, pulling the jacket down firmly, ensuring I was covered.

This was really it, our final farewell; I would never see him again. He stood to meet me, and I reached for his hand to squeeze a last apology, a final thank-you. But the moment I met his skin, that delirious craving gnawed at me again, and unable to stop myself, I forced his mouth to mine once more. He yanked his hand away, withdrawing from my frantic grasp.

“You really don't want me, do you?” I said, breathless.

In the darkness, I waited for his answer.

“No,” he said firmly.

The final nail in the coffin. I flipped up the hood of Jonah's jacket as I pictured the house in Henley. In a flash, I was traveling by thought, so his words fell to an empty field when he finished, “Not like this.”

*   *   *

I
ARRIVED IN THE
gardens of the house to raised voices coming from inside.

Once again able to break down the wall in my mind, and with no further need to keep Gabriel out, I let it drop. He was right there on the other side, waiting.

Where are you, Lailah?
His thoughts found me immediately.

At the Henley house,
I answered swiftly.

Entering the property through the back door, I marched through the kitchen and down the hallway toward the commotion from the living room. Before I had a chance to get inside, a blur of light appeared in front of me and transformed into Gabriel's figure. He didn't waste a second. He flung his arms around me and pulled me in close. “I've been searching everywhere for you.…”

He was breathing heavily as his right hand pushed away the hood hiding my face, and he pressed his thumb against my cheekbone. Finally when he released me, he wore a concerned expression.

Rubbing his temple, he simply said, “Go and put on some clothes.”

I nodded and then traveled by thought to the landing.

I couldn't sense Jonah's presence, so I unzipped his jacket and threw it to the end of his bed before making my way to Brooke's room.

I yanked on the nearest pair of jeans I could find and a plain T-shirt. I hadn't intended to check myself in the mirror atop the dresser, but as I rushed past it, I glanced quickly at my reflection.

Blood.

Splattered all over my face, staining my neck. The sight of it stirred something within me, but I pushed the flutter down as I realized that Gabriel had seen it—that he must have known I had drunk from Jonah.

I ambled to the bathroom and scrubbed my face over the sink, trying to rid the blood and smeared mascara from my skin. I would have spent longer assessing my efforts if it weren't for the sound of Iona's cries from the living room.

I darted downstairs. My body fully energized, I felt as though I could run forever and my legs would never tire. Inside the living room, Iona sat perched on the edge of a chair in the far corner of the room. Gabriel was kneeling beside her, holding Iona's hand in his. Ruadhan stood a little farther back; I assumed he had been monitoring her while Gabriel had searched for me.

“What's going on?” I asked.

Gabriel shifted, which allowed me to see Iona fully. She was glowing so brightly that even I had to squint at her form.

“Is Fergal back yet?” he asked.

“I didn't see him, or—” I paused, thinking carefully before I finished my sentence. “Lailah. I didn't see either of them.” I stepped closer to him and Iona.

“You're burning up,” Gabriel said to Iona. “I need to fetch some ice. Ruadhan will stay with you.” He then gestured for me to follow him out of the room.

“No, please don't leave,” Iona said with a sob. She may have been elegantly dressed, but she sounded like a small child.

Iona wobbled as she tried to stand. Gabriel eased her back and said softly, “I will only be a moment, I promise.”

“It's okay, love, I'm here,” Ruadhan said, reassuring her.

I followed Gabriel down the hallway and into the kitchen. He unbuttoned the top of his shirt, shrugged off his suit jacket, and hung it over a chair.

“What's going on? What's happening to her?” I asked.

Gabriel balanced his weight against the top of the chair. “I think Iona is Of Elfi,” he said, as though I should understand what the hell that meant.

I shook my head.

His eyes met mine. “The Endlrich Of Elfi. Offspring of fallen Angels.”

“Children of fallen Angels?” I repeated quietly.

“Yes. Some of the Angel Descendants that fell mated with mortals and their children are known as the Endlrich Of Elfi.”

“So what, her father was a fallen Angel?” My mind flipped and whirled, and then I remembered what Iona had said about her father having called her and her mother his Angels. “It was her mother, wasn't it? She was the fallen Angel. Her brother Padraig had a different mum, but not Fergal, which means he is Of Elfi, too.…” My thoughts turned to Brooke—yet another complication for her to contend with. Not only was Fergal the leader of the Sealgaire, but he was also a child of a fallen Angel.

And Brooke was a Vampire.

“Fallen Angels exist here without any gifts, in a mortal form. But it takes them hundreds, thousands of years, even, to age and to eventually die. Iona turned seventeen when the clock struck midnight. In Styclar, that is the equivalent to one day. It's the moment when we become fixed in our forms, immortal in our world. For children of a fallen Angel, if their soul is pure when they reach seventeen years, they become just the same as their parent.”

“Meaning she won't have any abilities and she's not immortal, but she will, what, live for goodness knows how long, very slowly aging?”

“Yes. Her body is transitioning; her cells are becoming almost frozen with the trace of light she possesses in her genetic makeup. She will be okay in a few hours. But I'm going to have to explain all this to her.”

“You mean you're going to have to tell her that while she's mortal, she will live for thousands of years? Without any abilities to protect herself during all that time?” I paused. “She's not immortal, so she can die, right?”

“She's the same as a fallen Angel. If her heart stopped beating, yes, she would die.” Gabriel shoved the chair under the table and walked to the freezer.

“You were glowing when you kissed her,” I said matter-of-factly.

Gabriel stopped, and he turned back to me. “She started to glow when the clock struck midnight. Her skin was against mine, so it caused me to do the same.” He paused. “Lai, that was all for show. I don't need to tell you that, do I?”

The way he said it made me feel small. For show or otherwise, it had hurt. Right now, I didn't care to dwell on the possibility of what the
otherwise
could mean. And after what had just happened between Jonah and me, I hardly had a leg to stand on.

“You were selling crystals from Styclar-Plena to Sir Montmorency. How did you get them?” I asked.

Satisfied that I was changing the subject, Gabriel rummaged around for an ice tray, but then paused.

“You were listening to my conversation?” he said.

“Yes.”

“What were you even doing there?”

I had wanted to keep an eye on Brooke. Fearing she might run into trouble if Fergal slipped up and used her name,
my name
. But, I had also gone to keep an eye on Gabriel and Iona, but I didn't want to say that. Instead I repeated his words back to him. “It's difficult to watch you leave, and all too easy to follow you, Gabriel.”

Gabriel's body relaxed a little, as though he understood.

“How did you get those crystals?” I asked him again.

“Orifiel gave them to me when he tasked me again to find you. They were a means of funding my search and aiding my existence here on this plane. I told you before, using our gifts on Earth in the wrong way or in an act of darkness can be very … damaging.” Ice tray in hand, Gabriel squeezed several cubes out onto the work surface. “He didn't wish for my light to become tainted; he knew it would make it more difficult for me to find you. And now that I have, I need to ensure that I can afford to protect you in every possible way,” he said.

“What, with a big house and a fancy car?”

Gabriel's answer was swift. “No. But houses with high-tech security systems, fast cars, and flights when we can't travel by thought across water cost money, Lailah.” Of course, I hadn't considered the detail of the practicalities. But there was having enough and having more than enough. “But it seems that whoever Sir Montmorency was selling the crystals to this evening had no desire to pay for them.”

My mind quickly flipped back to Darwin, to his family, and I panicked. “The Vampires … did they … Sir Montmorency, his son?” I stuttered.

Gabriel took a tea towel off a hook underneath the sink, and I was reminded of the time he had wrapped ice cubes up for my benefit when I had sliced my hand on the lemonade glass. That day felt like a million years ago.

“They are fine, Lailah. I took care of the Vampires.”

I breathed a sigh of relief for Darwin. “You suspected something wasn't right.… I could tell, when you were with Sir Montmorency. Why did you give him the crystals if you had any doubt over where they would end up?” I challenged.

“Sir Montmorency has been selling my crystals on to dealers for years, Lailah. More perfect than any jewel this world can produce, they are worth a great deal of money.” He paused as he finished wrapping up the ice cubes. “The idea of one buyer didn't sit right, no. But it was one last deal to secure our
entire future
.… There is no doubt I wouldn't overcome, no risk I wouldn't be willing to take, to keep you safe.” Gabriel's eyes hardened in a determined gaze. “I'm far more concerned with what happened when you chased down Azrael when he was making off with the gems.” He put down the towel and stared at me. He must have found Brooke, or Brooke him, before he began his search for me. And I didn't know what she had told him.

“I killed him in cold blood,” I said. I had to stop hiding who I was, who I was becoming.

Gabriel halted, considering my confession, and then moved across the kitchen to meet me beside the table. He took my hands in his own and kissed them softly. “You were protecting Brooke. I understand. You did what you had to do. I'm so sorry that I didn't get there first … that you had to be the one to do it.” His eyes were blooming again, his blue roses flowering as though he were offering them to me as some sort of apology.

He drew me in, and I breathed in his citrus scent. Although it wasn't as potent as it had once been, it was still comforting and his embrace calmed me. I faltered, as his love, his light, kindled in me. “Azrael was working for the Purebloods, Gabriel. They wanted the crystals for something.… Did you retrieve them?”

“Yes,” he answered, and then I remembered.

Jolting back, I placed my hand to my chest, home to the necklace that I was missing. “My crystal.”

“It's okay. I have it.”

I squeezed a nervous smile, feeling lost without it. “Help Iona, then let's go.”

“You're keener than you were,” Gabriel mused, taken aback by my sudden desire to leave. He traced every minute movement of my lips, my eyes, expertly reading my defensive body language. Again I assumed he knew what had transpired this evening—knew but was unwilling to utter the words aloud.

“Okay,” he murmured. He leaned in and kissed me with such conviction that I nearly believed the message he was trying to convey—the one that used words like “forever.”

Dissolving into his kiss created multicolored luminous stripes across my vision, and every last inch of me responded, reaching out and trying to seek Gabriel's heart—the pot of gold at the end of his rainbow.

Somehow, it seemed just out of reach, and a sense of unease crept over me. As I tried to place the reason behind it, I realized that it wasn't the thought of a devious leprechaun trying to steal it away before I found it; I was afraid of a sweet Endlrich Of Elfi who had already taken it for her own instead.

A key turning, followed by the rattle of the front door ricocheting off the wall, broke my thoughts. Fergal prowled through the hall, Brooke behind him, as he searched for Iona.

Gabriel parted from me, giving my waist one last squeeze before swiftly collecting the tea towel and ice cubes. I stopped him as he made his way through the kitchen. “Are you going to tell Fergal, about Iona I mean?” I paused. “When he turns seventeen it's going to affect him, too,” I said.

“I won't say anything to Fergal, not until Iona's all right, and not before I have spoken with her alone. I need to be absolutely sure she is Of Elfi before I offer up information to her.”

Gabriel directed Fergal into the living room, and I stole the opportunity to take Brooke to one side, knowing that our time here with the Sealgaire was nearly up. I gripped her elbow tightly and ushered her away from the living room door.

“While it's nice to see you alive, I'd remind you what I said about
pushing
.”

“I need you to tell me,” I said, annoyed that Brooke was now busy straightening out the creases in her dress and only half listening to me. “Brooke.”