With my back to both of them, I said through gritted teeth, “Luckily, Jonah was here for me.” I tried to drop Jonah’s name like an anchor, to emphasize my point.
“I didn’t know you were here,” Gabriel replied quickly, keeping it clean for Jonah’s benefit. He still didn’t trust him with the secrets we were keeping. “Not until—”
I cut him off swiftly. “Speaking of which, hadn’t you better go and see to Hanora?” My words were cutting. I tried to infuse as much bitterness as I could muster into each one. I spun around to meet his eyes in order to gauge his reaction.
He looked back at me, puzzled. “She’ll be okay, she’s a Vampire. Her wounds will have healed by now.”
Swinging in through the doorway, kicking a large chunk of plastic that had once belonged to the fridge from her path, Hanora appeared. Her skin that had blackened from the impact of an explosion was fresh and white once more. “My ears burning, love?” she said.
Her words were delicate and decisive, and unlike me, she didn’t appear as though she had just been caught in the middle of World War Three. Her tiny frame was back to its annoyingly perfect self, her glossy waves cascading down and framing her slightly freckled creamy skin.
I couldn’t be in the same room with her. If he wanted her, he could have her. Though the very thought made me want to throw up.
I dug my way past the battered, broken pieces to the hallway, passing Gabriel, my head bowed deliberately. I had to see if my documents were still in the dresser upstairs. It was time to go.
There’s nothing between Hanora and me, Lailah.
He was quick to speak to me, but the very fact that he didn’t utter the words aloud where she could hear irritated me. I stopped for a second, my heart pounding and jealousy gushing through me.
So to make sure he knew precisely what I had seen, I remarked: Didn’t look like that when you were kissing her. You love her, I felt it.
As I was about to continue, Ruadhan—unaware—interrupted, bounding up to me.
“Cessie love! What are you doing here? I thought Gabriel sent you off? We need to get Brooke and Michael, we have to make a move, folks, it’s not safe.”
Hanora and Jonah shifted forward to meet him, but I traveled past to what was left of the stairway. As I attempted to climb it, I addressed all of them. “Michael’s gone. I’m wearing half of him.” I gestured to my grayed blouse, caked in his soot.
At that point, the house fell quiet; the rushed conversations were immediately swallowed up by my revelation. Gabriel looked perplexed as he came after me up the stairs, but I carried on climbing.
“Eligio ended him. Seems cutting a deal with a Pureblood isn’t always the cleverest move. Michael told him where we were, that’s how they found us.” I partly needed to inform them, but also wanted to add a hint of a warning, just in case anyone else was considering doing the same thing. Though I genuinely didn’t believe any of them would.… Well, except possibly Hanora.
My attention flashed to Jonah briefly, who had braced his hand against his temple, digesting the news.
I worked my way into what had been my bedroom. The wardrobe was smashed and the bed had been torn apart. I clambered over to the ornate dresser in the corner, which surprisingly was still intact, almost. As I slid open one of the drawers, it scraped against the sides. I found the envelope, removed my fake passport and driver’s license, and then banged the drawer shut.
“Can I help you?” I asked Gabriel.
I sensed that he was hesitating on the landing; I kept my back to him.
He strode across the room and, confidently now, he stood behind me. “You didn’t experience me feeling love for Hanora. Our connection found one another, that’s why you felt what you did. I don’t love her and I have absolutely no reason to lie to you.”
His words were matter-of-fact, unemotional, certain.
“Then why were you lying on top of her and why’d you kiss her?” I asked, still facing the now shattered mirror on the dresser.
He pulled my body in to his own, cocooning me in his warm, muscular arms. He placed his chin on the top of my head and sighed. “I didn’t, I was covering her from the light. I was ending Vampires. If the light had hit her, she would have been ended along with them. I was protecting her. And I didn’t kiss her; she kissed me—there’s a difference.”
I felt myself waver. I didn’t have any reason to distrust what he told me and, after all, I had witnessed Hanora pulling Gabriel in to her. As my resolve began to weaken, immensely helped by how he held me so dearly, a vibration went off in my pocket. I pushed my hand deep inside and found Gabriel’s cell; I still had it.
Hanora’s name appeared at the top of the text.
TIME TO GO MY LOVE
IT WILL BE NICE TO SPEND SOME TIME ALONE
I broke from Gabriel’s grasp and chucked him his phone. A bewildered look spread across his face as he caught it. “Lailah?”
Snatching my backpack, which still remained fairly unscathed underneath the debris in the far corner, I managed to tug out a jacket. I looked back at him as he read the message that I had seen. “She’s going with you.” It wasn’t a question.
He nodded at me softly.
“Well, I hope you enjoy your alone time. Thanks for your help, I’ll pay you back, but I think I’ll be leaving now.”
I didn’t look back, I couldn’t. My insides felt as though they were being scrambled with a whisk. I jogged down to the opening of the house, ignoring Jonah and Ruadhan, and proceeded up the long driveway. I’d have to find somewhere else to wash and change my clothes; I wouldn’t stay here another minute.
I hadn’t even made it halfway down the driveway when Gabriel caught up, standing above me with his six-foot height, preventing me from moving any farther. “Do you really think I am just going to let you walk away?”
I stared back at him with hurt, puffy eyes. “I don’t think you get to decide, and why are you bothered anyway? You have Hanora, you’ve had her for a hundred years! You’ve known me ten minutes! All I bring you—all of you—is trouble.”
He tried to take my hands, but I shrugged him away and stepped around him. It didn’t stop him blocking me once more and reaching for my arms. “I’m not letting you leave on your own. I’m telling you the truth when I say there is nothing between Hanora and me.” He huffed, rubbing my wrists gently.