Lailah (The Styclar Saga) (30 page)

“I have visions of the past, memories of times gone by. They are windows into my own lives, events I can’t remember.”

“You said that the wound wouldn’t kill you again. That it was two hundred years old.”

“Sometimes when I have a vision, I don’t just watch the past. I don’t know how, but I fall back into my body and I relive it. Today, I had a memory of my first life, when I was mortal. I relived the very moment I was killed. Somehow the physical trauma transitions into my present reality, but the damage seems to recede. I feel it, but it doesn’t affect me in the here and now to the same degree. That’s why it didn’t kill me again.” I was whispering. I wasn’t sure why. It was just he and I alone.

“And you’ve lived for two hundred years?” he asked, his face absent of any emotion.

“Near enough, that’s what Gabriel tells me. When I was killed, I woke up again. Only I was different, I was changed. I became immortal, and before you ask, I don’t know why.”

Lightening to gray, the day was dawning, and I shivered. Jonah removed his jacket and secured it around me, taking the edge off the chill.

“Thanks.”

“So you knew Gabriel back then?”

“Yes. When I died he left. He thought I was mortal, finished. I found him again when I found you.” I pulled Jonah’s jacket tighter. “Every time I die, I wake up. I don’t remember anything about the past. I have some fragile recollection of who I am, who I was.… The memories, the visions are the only insight I have. Some days, they seem more of a curse than a gift.”

Today was one of those days.

“You don’t know what you are?” Jonah asked.

I felt my eyes well up. It might have been the question; it might have been my mind conjuring images of Gabriel against my will. Regardless of the situation, he always teetered on the fringes of my consciousness.

“Hey, it’s okay. You don’t need to get upset,” Jonah said, rubbing my arm with his firm hands, and I allowed him a small smile.

“You can’t tell the others. Gabriel knows—he’s gone off to try and piece it all together. The others … well, they mustn’t know.”

“Our secret, I promise.” His reply was definite and unwavering.

We strolled for a while, lost in thought. I broke the silence first. “Ruadhan and Gabriel have warned me away from you.”

“I know,” Jonah said. He hovered as if he wanted to tell me something.

“What is it?”

“Nothing, it can wait; after all we have nothing but time. That goes for both of us apparently.”

“I beg to disagree. Seems the hands on my clock are about to stop ticking.”

“You reckon because they seek you out it’s the end. I got news for you—your story’s just beginning.” Jonah was confident, knowing. And strangely, that remark made my heart feel even heavier.

He smiled widely in an attempt to lighten the mood and, without asking, whisked me up, throwing me on his back, and we sped down through the fields. Looping my hands together around his neck, I clung on tightly.

Despite my troubles, I felt exhilaration racing through me as we moved faster than lightning back to the front door.

TWENTY-ONE

C
LINGING TO
J
ONAH AS WE POUNDED
across the landscape had somewhat emptied my mind of all the heavy thoughts that had been weighing me down. I jumped to the ground as we neared the house and he swung around to face me.

“Fun?”

“Very!” I said.

“Listen, Cessie, I don’t want to add to your complications, but…”

“But what?”

“It’s just … you and Gabriel. I get that you have a history, but you know that can’t work, right?”

I was about to answer when my phone rang. I pulled it out of my pocket. Gabriel.

I left it; I didn’t have anything to say to him.

“I’m hungry,” I told Jonah. “I’m going to grab some breakfast.”

I made my way to the basement entrance, up the stairs, and into the kitchen. He didn’t try to pursue the conversation any further. Instead, he took up a seat on the corner sofa, flicking on the TV.

Gabriel must have called ten times as I made myself tea and toast. I guiltily continued to ignore him.

Eventually, Ruadhan came and sat next to me at the table as I munched on my slightly burnt piece of bread.

“I’ve got Gabriel on the line for you.”

He handed me his cell and, now cornered, I took it off him reluctantly.

“Yes?” I said.

“Take yourself somewhere private.”

Nodding politely at Ruadhan, I pushed my chair back and heaved open the glass doors, which led into the garden, sliding them firmly closed behind me.

“I’m alone.” I tried to sound standoffish.

“I have a lead. I’m traveling to Boston to try and find an Angel called Azrael. I think he may have the answers we need. I should reach the city in a few hours. I’m hoping he’s still there. Then I’m coming to get you.” His words were quick. “Are you okay?”

“What about Hanora, where is she?” I asked bitterly, ignoring his question.

“Lai, she’s the last person you should be concerning yourself with.”

“True, you’re concerning yourself with her enough for the both of us.”

“I don’t understand?”

“I dreamt of you in the bar, with Malachi. Then I saw you walking into a motel room.” I paused. “For a friend she has a funny way of greeting you!”

He didn’t say anything. I took his silence to confirm my worst fears.

“Well?” I could feel the blood rushing to my cheeks.

“How much did you see?”

“What does that matter? I didn’t need to see much to know what you were doing.”

“Lai, you’ve got it wrong. You need to trust me, okay? I know it’s hard, being apart, but I will be with you soon. Please, just have some faith in me.” He sounded sad, but he hadn’t exactly gone out of his way to explain what I had witnessed.

I was finding it difficult not to burst into tears, so I finished the call. “I have to go.”

Needing a few moments to gather myself, I wandered over to a seating area built out of stone, but as I was about to sit down, a huge bushy tree—balancing precariously against the high wall—distracted me.

“Everything okay, love?” Ruadhan stepped out onto the decking, but his face fell when he saw what I was looking at. “Ah, you found it then?”

“Why is there a tree from the mountains in the garden?” I asked.

“I got it for you! It’s a Christmas tree, a real one!” His smile sat high on his cheeks. “Just because we’re in hiding doesn’t mean we shouldn’t celebrate, now does it! I picked up some decorations in the market, so let’s take it inside and get started!”

He was so sweet, I didn’t want to disappoint him by wallowing, so I forced a smile as he hoisted it onto his shoulder and carried it through to the living room.

An hour later, the entire household—Brooke included—was well under way with the decorating; though we had spent the first thirty minutes arguing about the color scheme of the tree.

Brooke felt that the tree should be contemporary and elegant, which meant no tinsel and just the one color: silver. Jonah had strangely suggested a two-tone scheme of black and white.

I, on the other hand, was just desperate to layer it with everything we had.

“You’re making it uneven!” Brooke snapped at me.

“Hey, the bottom’s my area, you worry about your own,” I said.

“Now, now, girls,” Ruadhan said. “It’s looking grand!”

I wasn’t so sure. Unable to reach a compromise, we had split the enormous tree into three sections to decorate as we each wished. Given they were Vampires and they could jump ridiculously high, I’d ended up with the bottom layer. On the plus side, it was the widest compared to Jonah’s, who’d pulled the short straw, getting the very top.

Ruadhan had opted out of having his own section. Instead, he had the pleasure of selecting an ornament for the highest point, which he had yet to reveal.

While we worked, he made up some mince pies and mulled wine to get us in a festive mood. Given that I was the only being in the house who actually ate regular food, I had a feeling I was going to end up disliking mince pies once I’d forced down the large batch that he was halfway through creating.

Decorating the tree, coupled with the sweet smell of mulled wine drifting from the kitchen, reminded me of the only Christmas I had ever spent in any company.

A few years ago, I had been traveling through Scotland, and I’d been lucky enough to meet Mrs. Kynoch. She was the proprietor of a B and B, and had been kind enough to give me a job cooking and cleaning in her establishment during the busy seasonal period, in exchange for full board.

I’d decorated the tree there with an eight-year-old girl who was staying with her parents. She had enthusiastically rammed every last ornament and piece of tinsel onto the green branches that she possibly could. Through the eyes of a child, that tree couldn’t have been more beautiful. But it was the joy she’d shown as she dressed it that made it truly special to look at. For every piece that twinkled only reflected the happiness of the girl who had placed it there.

On Christmas Day, I had sat down with the guests and eaten a full turkey dinner with all the trimmings. We’d pulled crackers, sung songs, and danced like no one was watching. It was the only Christmas, until now, that I hadn’t been totally alone.

While I hadn’t expected to be spending Christmas this year with a group of Vampires, I was suddenly grateful that I was. No matter how strange, they were a family. And as long as I was with them, I was part of that, part of something. Just as I had been, once before.

“I’m done!” Brooke chirped victoriously, bringing me back to the task at hand. Brooke stood back to admire her middle layer, and I had to admit, it was pretty.

“Hmm, Ruadhan, you got any more of these clear fairy lights?” Brooke asked.

“Maybe. There’s another boxful in my room, have a rummage.”

She was gone in a split second.

Jonah plopped down on the floor, his legs crossed, observing while I crammed star shapes and reindeer—two at a time—onto the lower shoots.

“Not sure what look you’re going for, beautiful. I’m starting to think Santa’s workshop exploded and somehow landed on your part of the tree!” he teased.

I laughed, and I was surprised that I had managed to put my concerns and hurt feelings to one side, for a few moments. “I don’t know how they do it across the pond, but in the UK, well, the more Christmassy the better!” I said.

I reached down to pick up a piece of red tinsel and brushed Jonah’s hand accidentally as he passed it to me. A short, sharp shock tingled under my skin, but I ignored it and carried on.

“Thanks,” I said quickly, scrambling around the tree, bobbing and weaving the long strip through the foliage.

Dusting myself off, I stood and admired the conflicting decor.

Jonah’s baubles were dangling neatly and I tilted my head as I pondered his choices.

“Dark and light can be a striking contrast. Don’t you think?” he said, crossing his arms and standing beside me.

“I guess; looks like it’s a bit undecided though, the way it’s all mixed up. Why don’t you split it into two halves, so when you stand behind the tree it’s black, and when you’re in front it’s white?”

“I don’t know, I think it takes a certain eye to appreciate the two blended together—”

“We’re out of fairy lights!” Brooke zoomed back into the room and stomped her feet.

“Ah, never mind,” Ruadhan called from the kitchen. “Come, let’s put the finishing touch on the very top.”

He slammed the oven door and strolled over.

Reaching into a small cardboard box, he lifted out an ornament of an Angel dressed in white, complete with a wire halo above its head. I raised my eyebrows, surprised.

“You don’t like it, love?” he asked.

“No, no, it’s not that. It’s just funny, with the halo and wings and all … it’s not really … accurate.” I stopped myself. If Ruadhan believed the Bible, then to him, this was how he saw things. So I veered off. “Just thought you might pick something else.”

“Well, now. I think in this family it’s only right we have an Angel. After all, we have our very own to thank for us all being here, together.” He gestured over to me, so I stepped toward him and he handed me the ceramic figure. “And, as the newest addition to our little family, I think you should be the one to place it on the top, sweetheart.”

I turned to the towering tree, which nearly brushed the ceiling, and considered that we couldn’t possibly have a ladder tall enough for me to climb in order to reach it.

Bear-hugging me from behind, Ruadhan leapt into the air, hanging off a beam on the ceiling, and I remembered I had something better than any ladder.

Unfortunately, as I attempted to pop the Angel on the top of the tree, I leaned over too far and unbalanced the both of us. As Ruadhan lost his grip on my waist, I fell headfirst into the pine, knocking it over as I went down with it.

“Ahhhh!” I screamed, plummeting.

Jonah, as ever, was the fastest to react. He jumped into the air, meeting me halfway to the floor, and landed on his back with me on top of him.

I gawked in horror as the tree came crashing down.

Brooke was speedy, just about managing to stop it from hitting the flat-screen TV on the wall and saving some of the decorations in the process.

Before I knew it, I burst into laughter. Ruadhan was still hanging one-handed like an uncoordinated monkey from the beam above; Brooke was struggling to balance the enormous forest tree, shouting profanities; and Jonah had me sprawled out on top of him, pinning him to the floor. I rolled off his chest and cried with hysteria.

“What is so freakin’ funny? You’ve ruined my glass snowflakes!” Brooke wailed. She only made me laugh harder.

Ruadhan landed on all fours and helped Brooke pull the tree back up to a standing position, observing the Christmas massacre strewn everywhere. He glanced at me wiping my eyes and started bellowing a deep, hearty laugh. Even Brooke started to giggle, though she moved her hand over her mouth to try and mask it, trying her best instead to maintain a deep scowl.

Jonah sat up and, for the briefest second, his hard bad-boy exterior faded away as he looked at me. Shaking his head, he laughed in a way I had never heard him laugh before. It was a beautiful, happy sound—one I was sure I would never be able to forget.