Gabriel lay several feet away, covering Hanora’s body entirely with his own. I moved my lips, but stopped as the air around me began to warp, like the atmosphere underneath a rocket when it takes off.
In slow motion, I was forced to observe his strong arm move behind her back as he smoothed her hair away from the wounds that ran down her blackened neck. Her eyes flew open and with every frantic bat of her eyelashes her orbs grew bigger, brimming with desire. She pulled him close by the collar of his torn shirt into a long lingering kiss. I didn’t see him pull away as his lips touched hers. The moment spiraled, and the invisible hands of the clock ticking in my mind resumed normal speed.
Suddenly, like two race cars slamming into each other head on, our connection collided. For a flicker of a second, I felt a sense of love pass through him.
Instantly he twisted around, his surprised eyes capturing mine. I sprung my body up by the palms of my hands. As I teetered back to my feet, I resented Gabriel desperately scrambling away from Hanora to get over to me. I wanted to run far away, and this time from him.
I didn’t have long to listen to the moan of my heart as it tore in two: I was elevated off the tiles by a tremendous hand lifting me by the back of my blouse. I squirmed as the pain of his fangs swiftly bore through the skin of my neck. It was like boiling water cracking a frozen car window, splintering down every last vein inside me. His poison was paralyzing; even my thoughts seemed to slow.
The creature dragged me backward through the kitchen, though he was careful to weave me past the destruction toppled all around. I watched Gabriel racing to follow, but it was like he had hit an invisible force field that he couldn’t get past. He was pounding against hidden walls, unable to penetrate them. I didn’t have to see my captor to know that it was Eligio; I could feel his darkness pulsating through my arteries.
The Pureblood was suspending Gabriel as he stole me. I wanted to blink everything away, but my eyes remained wide; I was completely immobilized.
Suddenly, my figure fell as the creature was knocked away from me. I couldn’t turn to see what was happening. Whoever now had the Pureblood’s attention had allowed Gabriel to break through and he hurtled past me. My body bounced against the tiles, as an incredible weight struck them from behind me. I wished I could scream, move, run, anything! Jonah appeared and hauled me into the corner. Cradling me into his body, we formed a perfect ball, just as the brightness of a white sheet—just like the one before—flashed next to us.
Patterned red and white plates rained down over us, bouncing off Jonah’s back. The porcelain clattered, shattering next to me into a thousand pieces; they might as well have been my heart. As the glow faded into nothingness, the poison evaporated from my veins. Eligio was gone and I was still here, thanks to Jonah.
SIXTEEN
“YOU ALL RIGHT?” Jonah was slumped beside me, panting.
I extended my unsteady hands in front of me as life began circulating through them once more, and attempted to wiggle a finger. “Yeah, I think so,” I said, casting my gaze to him.
He was sporting a white polo shirt with the collar pointing up, teamed with dark denim jeans that were torn and ripped from his efforts. He ran his hand through his thick, matted hair, tugging at the back as he watched me watching him.
His eyes were cooling, reverting back to his regular shade, and the concern that edged the downturned corners of his lips brought me some comfort. Jonah cared about me, he came back and had saved me. His intense stare pulled me in. He was an itch I needed to scratch somewhere I couldn’t quite reach.
Ignoring my common sense and desperately needing someone to embrace me, I dismissed all thoughts of Gabriel, Hanora, and everything else. Rising from my knees, I burrowed my face into his shoulder, his waiting arms wrapping around me. I let him hold me and as I looked up to his eyes I found myself edging nearer to his dry lips. He took a deep breath, nervously anticipating my next move.
“You don’t owe me anything,” he began.
But the sheer fact that he wet his lips told me that he wanted me.
I met my mouth with his, and pushing my inner turmoil to the pit of my stomach, I gave him the sweetest of kisses. He didn’t need any more of a green light. Placing both his hands against my cheeks, he parted my face from his, his thumbs exerting a gentle force against my cheekbones. His expanding pupils oozed black, like a knocked-over inkpot, overpowering his hazel flecks. Taking control, he crushed his mouth against my own more fervently, and I could tell by his urgency that he had been waiting too long to kiss me.
He was wrong; I did owe him something, and I was quite certain that this was his preferred method of payment. He was surprisingly soft and oddly he tasted sweet, like cinnamon. He was fast becoming my guilty pleasure.
In this moment of time, where only he and I seemed to exist, I suddenly became aware that Gabriel was getting near to us. I sensed him, and then heard his footsteps growing quicker and louder, striding through the mess.
Watching Gabriel kiss Hanora only confirmed everything that I had suspected about his feelings for me. Anything he claimed to feel for me was simply him desperately searching for someone I used to be, not who I was now. After I died, he had clearly moved on. Perhaps now I needed to as well.
Reluctantly Jonah pushed me away, bobbing his head to the right; he had heard Gabriel too. Planting a last quick kiss on my parted lips, he removed himself, putting a decent amount of space between us.
Gabriel came behind me. Securing his arms under my chest, he pulled me to my feet. He inhaled my hair as he clung to me tightly. Jonah stood up and shook off the shattered shards of porcelain from his shirt. I wiggled out of Gabriel’s grasp and stood next to Jonah.
“Eligio fell back into the third dimension,” he began. “He was able to command the rift.”
I looked to Jonah and noticed his brow crinkle with trepidation.
“That’s new,” Jonah replied.
Gabriel reached for my hand and pulled me back in to him. “I told you to leave. You could have been killed or worse.…”
His eyes sprinted down the length of my body, which was still trembling. Not only was I soaked through, but now I had a mixture of Michael’s remains and several other Vampires’ covering me. This fact dawned on me quickly and, disgusted, I threw myself over to the tap, now absent of any sink, and began splashing the water, scrubbing my hands and face.
The smell of burning paint and the fumes of the stifling smoke had evaporated; the house was no longer blazing to the ground and it was free, for now, of any enemies.