Lailah (The Styclar Saga) (34 page)

“Does he know about the company you keep?”

I wasn’t sure how comfortable an Angel would be in a house of Vampires.

“Yes. He’s not altogether happy about the situation, but he is, well, accepting. Listen, I have to go. Is everything okay? Are you all right?”

His words were smooth and caring and I felt safer just hearing his voice.

“We’re all still in one piece, but I … I feel terribly alone. I miss you,” I said, letting my hurt feelings take a backseat to my overwhelming need to connect with him again.

“I miss you too, Lai; we’ll be together again very soon, I promise. And once we have all this sorted, well, we have forever to figure out the rest.”

I heard a female’s voice in the background.

“Is that Hanora?”

“Yes. I should go.”

I felt betrayed all over again.

“Right, you
should
go. To
her
.”

I hung up.

*   *   *

I
COULDN’T STAY IN
MY ROOM FOREVER
. Showered and dressed in jeans and a plain T-shirt, I climbed the stairs up to the living area.

I found Brooke throwing her phone and her lipstick into a bag before pulling her arms through a denim jacket.

“She emerges at last!” Brooke smiled hesitantly at me, tidying the stray bangs around her forehead and eyeing my modest attire. “Really?” she scoffed. “I know you don’t care about your appearance, but for my benefit could you at least try to look less like a homeless person!”

Ignoring her, I asked, “Where is everybody?”

I headed for the fridge and helped myself to some orange juice.

“Ruadhan’s in the study, where he always is. Jonah hasn’t been back since we left him.” She was careful with her words in case Ruadhan was listening.

Grabbing her car keys from off the table, she eyed me curiously. “Jonah’s texted. I think you hurt his feelings, if that’s possible. He wanted to make things easier on you and give you some space. I’m heading out for a drive now, to see if I can find him.”

Good, I was glad I had hurt his feelings. I hoped he stayed away and that I never had to see him again. I had been so foolish thinking that he had anything good inside of him.

“See you later, Cessie.” She put on her massive sunglasses and began to walk out of the sliding doors.

“You know it’s winter. I don’t think you need those ridiculous glasses.” I couldn’t resist getting my own back and poking some fun.

She turned and faced me, lifting the glasses from her eyes.

“I don’t wear them for fashion.”

Her expression was serious.

“Then why do you wear them?” I shot back, washing my glass in the sink.

“Old habits die hard. When I was human, well, I always wore a pair. I couldn’t see. Later!”

I stood, paralyzed, and watched her leave. The glass slid out of my hand and shattered in the sink. Brooke had been blind. She was the girl in the house, the night Ruadhan and Gabriel found Jonah. Ruadhan said she had died and she had, but Jonah brought her back; he turned her into a Vampire.

The terrible things I had said to him flew through my mind. Ruadhan said she reminded Jonah of his sister. A sister he hadn’t been able to save. So he’d saved Brooke instead. It all made sense, the way he treated her so delicately, catering to her requests and protecting her from a life of hardship.

I darted to the doors, but she was already gone.

I sped back to my room and threw on some sneakers and grabbed my phone. I needed to find Jonah. I had to apologize.

I ran and ran, shouting his name. I tried his cell repeatedly, but his phone was switched off. I hadn’t the first clue where he’d be, or if he would even want to talk to me if I did find him, but I had to try.

*   *   *

I
’D WALKED AN HOUR
away from the house; green fields spread out as far as the eye could see. Finally a stream with a small brick bridge caught my attention. The sky was overcast and the chill in the air made the hair along the bare skin of my arms stand on end. It was so quiet out here.

So few people; so few anything.

I made my way to the bridge. The air grew damp, making me cold and uncomfortable. I called Jonah’s name once more and then, like magic, a figure appeared next to the stream. I was too far away to make out his face, but I decided it had to be him. “Jonah!”

The figure dissolved and reappeared with his back to me at the center of the bridge. I ran toward him, thinking of what I might say. I hoped he would forgive my unkind words; I hoped he would accept my apology.

As I neared, he disappeared again.

“Jonah?”

I peered down at the water. A thin layer of ice had formed on the top of the stream and I hesitated as I urged my feet to move forward. The side of the bridge was only as high as my knee. A bramble snapped on the other end and I knew he must be waiting. As I made my way across, the wind suddenly whipped at my cheeks and in a blink he stood directly in front of me.

Only it wasn’t Jonah.

“Ethan?”

He was still wearing dated clothing, and his dirty-blond hair was swept away from his face, tied in a loose ponytail behind his neck. He studied my expression, before he raised his finger to my lips and made a low shushing noise.

“Lailah … you’re alive.”

He used my name, my first name, my only name.

I nodded, his finger still pressed against my chapped lips.

“You should be long dead and so should I.”

He spoke in the smoothest and most elegant South East accent I had ever heard; even the wealthiest men I had met from London sounded common by comparison. His black pupils were dilated and I couldn’t tell if he meant me harm or not.

I should have been scared, standing nose-to-nose with a Vampire, but instead I felt sadness. The images I had seen flickered through my mind, of a time when he was just a boy, and I was just a girl. When we were both someone else, and something to each other. I was able to see beyond his deadly exterior now, to the friend I had once known.

“You owe me some retribution.” He forced an unhappy smile.

So he did mean me harm.

I spared a second to peek down at the icy stream below as the thought of jumping crossed my mind. His eyes flashed from mine to over my shoulder. The rickety bridge wobbled underneath us with the slamming of heavy feet, and I was thrown to the side as another body launched over me, knocking Ethan onto his back. I regained my balance just in time to see Jonah glance at me, while Ethan, growling, pulled him down by his ankles.

As Jonah’s body fell to the ground, his tremendous weight knocked into me and before I could grab onto him—grab onto anything—I tripped and fell over the ledge.

Jonah’s hand reached out for me but, trapped by Ethan’s grasp, he wasn’t nearly close enough as I slammed chest-first into the icy water.

The sound of the world around me gave way to an inaudible force of nature as the undercurrent swept me downstream. The fall had winded me and now water filled my lungs as I gasped for air. The sheer pain of the freezing cold ate its way to my core, as though it were stripping me of my skin.

The ice formed a thick covering here, and I desperately hit it, as my body traveled against my will, to no avail. My eyes were open but the water was murky. I realized with heavy dread I was going to die and I would be right back to square one: a blank page in an unfinished novel.

I clung to my fragile life. As the impossible task of staying alive raced through my mind, so too did an image of Gabriel’s face, imprinted in my memory till the true end of my days.

First my arms failed me and then I could no longer feel my legs. I became unable to hold off the darkness that was filling me. As the water slowly suffocated me, static pulsed in and out of my mind like an old, broken TV failing to pick up reception.

But then something—someone—grabbed my arms and propelled my body out of the water, breaking through the white seal. I couldn’t open my eyes, I couldn’t breathe; I was barely aware of anything around me.

“Cessie! Cessie!”

The voice was distant; I thought I might be underwater still. Only the superhuman strength of a Vampire shaking me violently could break through my semiconsciousness. I might be immortal, but I was cursed with a delicate human form.

Fresh air traveled through me as I felt lips parting mine. The water in my lungs was heavy, and I choked, leaning to the side and coughing up the dirty liquid. My rescuer rubbed my back painfully hard, helping me expel it.

Eyelids twitching, the blur in my vision began to refocus. The bridge looked far away, covered by fog. Now sitting on the bank of the stream, I began to tremble uncontrollably.

“You’re okay, beautiful, I’m here.… Just breathe.”

There was a softness to him and, in my confused state, I could have almost mistaken his comfort for Gabriel’s. Jonah pushed my soaked hair back from my face, scooping it behind my shoulders.

“I’m so sorry,” I began, while he rubbed my bare arms, trying to warm me. “I should never have said the things I did.”

“You were right, Cessie. I’m no better than them,” Jonah said, taking my icy hands in his. “Don’t worry, take your time. That was quite a fall.”

I absorbed his glowing hazel gaze. I reached my fingers to his cheeks and stroked them softly. “You’re not a monster, you were saving her. You love her like you loved your own sister.”

He jerked backward, his brow creased with a sense of incomprehension.

“Ruadhan told me what happened. The night you decided to change. The night you saved Brooke from them. I didn’t know it was her until now. I had to find you, tell you how sorry I am for judging you.”

He paused contemplatively and was cautious as he spoke. “I didn’t know it then, but if I’d let her die, if I hadn’t intervened, then they—Gabriel’s people—would have come for her and she’d have existed somewhere else, somewhere better. Instead, she’s like me, an empty vessel with a stolen soul. I took her goodness and made her dark; for that I can never be forgiven.”

“But you didn’t know! You did what you thought was right.”

Smelling the damp grass beneath my body, I knew my lungs were clear once more.

“Jonah, please accept my apology.”

I hung my head, ashamed, and he fingered my tangled hair in return.

“Do you know who that was back there?”

I kept my head down. I had briefly forgotten about that little secret of mine. “His name is Ethan. He was the one who gave me this.” Pulling out my chain, I played with my ring; the chill inside me was receding and I could feel its shape against my skin.

“Your old fiancé was a Vampire?”

“He wasn’t when we were engaged. I don’t know what happened to him. He pounced on me the night you and I met. I didn’t recognize him then. He was with me in the market.”

“I knew something, someone, was there with you. Why didn’t you tell me? Come on, you’re in danger, we need to move.”

He started pulling me to my feet, but they wobbled underneath me.

“No, no! It’s okay, he’s alone. I know he is. We have unfinished business. I need him.… I need to know what happened to me.”

I tugged at Jonah’s arm as he tried to drag me off.

Twisting around to me, his voice raised, he said, “And how do you reckon he would know that?”

“He was the one who killed me.”

Jonah’s eyes grew larger, his gaze burning.

“He might know what happened to me after, what I am, why I’m like this.” I hoped Jonah could see that I didn’t want to go back to the house, not yet.

“Cessie, you’re a Vampire. You don’t need him to tell you that!”

The words shot from his lips too fast for him to reclaim them, and I fell backward.

“No.” My voice cracked louder than the ice had when I’d fallen through it. “I’m not a Vampire.”

Inspecting me carefully, considering his next move, he said, “Maybe not like me. You’re more powerful than I am, but you are certainly some form of Vampire.”

“I think I would know.” I stifled a worried laugh under my breath.

The clouds above me seemed to be misbehaving, swirling and parting, making way for some impending rays of daylight. Yet they soon changed to a duller gray; a formidable downpour was getting ready to burst.

“I drank from you. You are nothing like anyone else I have ever tasted. Not even remotely similar to a human, and different than a Second Generation Vampire. Your blood fused with mine and made me so strong and so fast, like…”

“Like what?”

“Like a Pureblood.”

I turned away from him, but I did so too fast and I became aware of a stinging sensation in my waist. My back to him, I lifted my T-shirt and, sure enough, there was a large gash running across my skin.

“What’s wrong?”

The fragrance of my fresh blood took no time to reach his senses and he darted forward, placing his hand over the cut.

“It will heal,” I said through gritted teeth as I watched the fireworks set off in his eyes.

Lifting his stained hand to his mouth, he licked a trace of my blood slowly and thoughtfully.

Suddenly and hurriedly he yanked my top back down with his free hand, furiously revolving his face away from me.

“Jonah, it’s okay. You won’t hurt me.”

Dropping his fingers from his lips and gripping his hand in my own, he seemed locked in concentration.

“Is it painful?”

“What?” His eyes flashed to me.

“Not being able to, well, you know—”

I watched his Adam’s apple plummet as he gulped.

“Yes.” He flicked his eyes down to my waist and then back up to my face. “It’s like a thousand suns burning inside me and the only way to put them out is to…” He didn’t finish his sentence.

“A human’s blood wouldn’t do that to you?”

He shook his head.

“And the female Vampires, is that how you’d feel before you ended them?”

He shook his head again.

“I have fed on female Vampires and, yes, I’ve drained them to their end. They don’t compare—not one bit—to the way you’ve made me feel. Still don’t believe you’re some sort of Vampire?”

“I have never drunk human blood. I’ve never killed anyone!”

That was true as far as I knew.