I homed in on us, Gabriel weaving his fingers through the ends of my long hair, my eyes closed. Skimming his hands down my arms in front of him, he tickled them, grazing his fingertips along my pale skin.
He breathed into my neck as he nuzzled into me lovingly. I viewed him stroking my face, engulfed in light and happiness. My former self opened her eyes and I knew that I had been pretending to sleep. As he gazed adoringly into my eyes, a tremendous ache gripped my heart. He had pined for me so deeply.
The tips of our noses brushed together before finally our lips met. It was a deep lingering kiss. The kiss of two lovers. It was so strange experiencing the emotion of our first embrace from Gabriel’s perspective, but not at all unsettling. I was elated by it on every possible level. As our lips parted the memory froze, suspended in that last image.
Lailah.
Time to go back. I didn’t want to leave; I wanted to see what happened next.
Lailah. He was calling me out, back to the now. But I preferred it there, in the past. By all accounts, it seemed far less complicated.
It’s time to come back.…
I still held on, staring at that last image.
Lailah … He called my name differently this time, reaching and pulling me out.
I found myself back in the library, hand still cupping the pawn, Gabriel’s still resting on top. I flicked my wide eyes to his.
Entirely enchanted by him, I couldn’t stop smiling.
TEN
“WE WERE A COUPLE BACK THEN?” I asked finally.
Removing his hand from off the top of mine, he shifted in his chair, taking his time to respond. “Yes and no. The first time I met you, I was completely and utterly captivated and intrigued by you.”
“By me?” I found that difficult to believe. I had never considered myself anything special and Gabriel was so unique and beautiful.
“Yes, by you. Don’t seem so surprised! You were innocent and so full of life. Everything about you captured me. I manufactured ways of bumping into you, and reasons for us to spend time together. But even back then there were … complications.”
His smile fell away and the creases in his forehead made a reappearance.
“What complications? That you were an Angel?”
“Well, that was an issue in itself, but you didn’t know I was an Angel. I was going to tell you, tell you everything, but I was too late.” His face dropped and his body tensed.
Perhaps it was wrong but I tried to connect to him; I hoped he was still open from what we had just seen together. He instantly seized up.
“What are you doing?” he asked. I could tell he wasn’t happy, but his words were still soft.
“I just want to understand. Why don’t you show me what happened?”
“There are some things I never want you to see, and I won’t be the one to show you.”
He seemed to be trying to protect me, but I couldn’t help feeling frustrated. This had been my life as much as it had been his. I was entitled to know all of it, not just the bits he deemed appropriate to share.
His expression cooled as he gathered himself. “There were a number of situations that made things difficult. I don’t want to go through all that now. I just wanted you to feel the happiness we shared back then. You need answers, but that’s enough for now.”
I screwed up my face to protest, but I knew Gabriel meant what he said, and if that was all he was ready to reveal today, that was it. Instead, I tried to be grateful for the memories and feelings he had given back to me.
“That said, I think I should teach you to play again.”
The grin returned to his expression and he nodded at the soldiers who were prepared for battle in front of us. His face lit up brightly again as I conceded.
“Ruadhan will take you for a tour of the village at twelve, so we have a couple of hours.”
“You kept this all those years?” I asked quietly as I concentrated on the pieces in front of me.
I was immediately drawn to the knight.
“I hid it for all those years, yes.” Gabriel unbuttoned his cardigan and rolled up his sleeves. He meant business.
“Let’s start with the characters, shall we?”
He spent the next hour naming each chess piece and explaining how they could move and what the rules of the game were. Although it all seemed new to me, I found myself moving some of the pieces instinctively.
As he continued the chess lesson, my mind wandered and his words echoed around it. I was mortal when he met me. Then I had died and returned, a different girl than who he had fallen in love with all those years ago. I was changed forever and I couldn’t be sure myself if any remnants of the innocent Lailah were left.
I watched how delicately Gabriel handled the pieces. I could barely bring myself to take my eyes off him. Finally, checking his watch, he signaled that it was time to finish our game for the morning.
He began packing the characters up and I cradled the knight in my hand; the cold ivory was so smooth to touch. I hid it carefully in the box and Gabriel placed it back under the floorboards.
He wrapped his arm around my waist and whisked me from the library to a patient Ruadhan, who was standing at attention in the kitchen.
“Hi, Cessie, you ready to go for a walk?” he said.
“Yes, that would be lovely.” I grabbed my jacket and looped my satchel over my shoulder before turning to say good-bye to Gabriel. “What will you be up to while I’m gone?” I asked.
I wondered if he would follow on this particular outing.
“Ruadhan will take good care of you. Michael and I have some things to catch up on.”
I took that to mean that he trusted Ruadhan, unlike Brooke. And I had to remind myself that he was working to make sure the Purebloods and their Vampires were not hot on our heels.
“Okay,” I replied, sending a grateful look his way.
As we left the kitchen, Gabriel called, throwing me an apple.
I caught it one-handed.
“A late breakfast snack?” he suggested.
I actually wasn’t hungry, I’d never had much of an appetite, but I tucked it away in my handbag anyway.
As we stepped onto the driveway I could sense Gabriel’s reluctance to let me go, but clearly he thought it was good for me—even if he didn’t like it. And he needed time to strategize with Michael.
We made our way down the drive and onto the road. It was a long walk to the village; I was quickly learning this group liked to maintain its distance and privacy. I took the opportunity to take in Ruadhan properly. In his late forties in human years, he was certainly very elegant, wearing a tweed jacket over pressed trousers and leather shoes. His dark hair had flecks of gray running through it at the temples and he had bushy eyebrows of the same color. His pale skin had faint freckles across the cheeks and over his nose, and he had a small bit of stubble on his chin.