I scratched my back underneath my coat and blouse, feeling for the elongated scar. Sure enough, it was still there—a constant reminder of that night, of that Vampire I had foolishly befriended.
“Well, don’t you worry, love, you have us,” Ruadhan said without taking his eyes off the road. “We’ll keep you well hidden while we wait for Gabriel.”
I half thought Ruadhan mentioned Gabriel for Jonah’s benefit as I caught him glimpsing at Jonah in the rearview mirror. I wondered how much Ruadhan really knew.
“Any particular reason we’re going to France?” I asked, trying to take the conversation away from my Angel.
“We have a property in a village called Neylis,” Ruadhan replied. “It’s an hour or so by car from the airport, the middle of nowhere by all accounts. However, should we need to leave quickly, we can be in Andorra in no time, over and into Spain. We can connect to Africa via Perpignan or Marseille—”
Brooke interrupted him. “And we can get to Milan—shopping in Italy is amazing!” she chirped.
I found her upbeat attitude surprising considering the danger she had been in only an hour ago. “You’ve been?” I asked.
“To Milan, yes, but not to Neylis. Bit too quiet for my liking, but this lot likes to keep us separated from the rest of civilization!”
“I wonder why,” I muttered under my breath.
I wanted to ask about Gabriel, but I held back. I would talk to Ruadhan when we were alone.
No one spoke for a while and when we hit the motorway, Ruadhan encouraged me to sleep, but my body was still buzzing, fueled with adrenaline from the mammoth events of the day.
“What happened to Eligio?” My inquiry met with no reply, so I turned to Jonah.
“Seems when Gabriel struck him with light he fell into a rift to the third dimension and it closed, Gabriel’s light sealing it.” Jonah seemed relieved.
“Why didn’t the light kill him?”
“It’s not powerful enough to end a Pureblood the way it does the rest of us. But it is weapon enough to have some effect,” he answered.
“How did Eligio open the rift into this world? Was he waiting for more of them to come through?” I pushed.
Ruadhan coughed, signaling to Jonah to stop, but I gestured for him to proceed.
“Don’t know,” Jonah said. “We didn’t think they could command the rifts like that. He was dragging you toward it; he opened it to take you through with him.” He stopped there and my stomach turned over.
Ruadhan butted in. “Jonah doesn’t know that for sure, Cessie, he’s surmising.”
“But Gabriel told me that light souls are taken through the cracks by Angels and that dark souls seep through the rifts to this third dimension. Surely I would just disappear if I were taken through into their world?”
I didn’t quite get it. If I were to pass through either rift, to either dimension, my energy would feed through, if it matched either. Gabriel had led me to believe that my soul was pure and good, so Eligio and his kind would gain nothing by destroying my human form if they took me. Jonah must have it wrong, I decided. He didn’t know as much as Gabriel, and Ruadhan had been talking about Heaven and Hell, not different dimensions. I had convinced myself until Jonah piped back up.
“Perhaps you have a dark soul, perhaps there’s something about you that makes you different, so that you wouldn’t just evaporate like the rest of us.… Maybe you’d keep your form.…”
Ruadhan slammed the truck over to the hard shoulder and came to a swift halt. Releasing his seat belt he twisted to Jonah, directing a menacing expression his way. “That’s enough! She’s not one of us! Gabriel has made it quite clear that she is an innocent and furthermore this little gem is human! Stop scaring the poor girl!”
With that, he snapped back to the wheel and pulled back out into the road. I glanced at Jonah, who met me with raised eyebrows and a grin creasing his cheek.
As I let the words sink in it dawned on me that Jonah’s theory, as uncomfortable as it made me, didn’t feel that far off.
SEVENTEEN
THE ROADS WERE QUIET so the journey didn’t take long. Ruadhan had booked a room at the hotel adjacent to Stansted Airport, so we could all change out of our bloodied clothing. Jonah stood outside the room, guarding the door while I showered. Ruadhan and Brooke went to the ticket counter to sort out our flight.
Emotionally drained, I unzipped my backpack and pulled out a fresh pair of skinny jeans, a T-shirt, and a hoodie. I hesitated as I scooped the items up, placing them into a neat pile on the dresser, and rummaged for the smartphone inside my pocket. No missed calls, and no messages. I threw my phone onto the bed and made my way into the bathroom.
Stripping off and stepping into the shower, I ran the water as hot as I could, steaming up the tiny room immediately. I scoured my skin in an attempt to rid myself of the Vampires’ remains that painted my neck and arms. Allowing the water to run down my face, I twisted, letting it soak through my hair. I dug into my scalp with my nails and made a mental note to thank the good people of this establishment for providing soap and shampoo. As content as I could be that the Vampire I had conversed with only yesterday was now safely down the drain, I carefully tiptoed out of the shower, wrapping myself in the fluffy yellow towel. Once covered up, I continued through to the bedroom.
I found Jonah waiting for me, perched next to my cell, scrolling through my lack of messages.
“Spying on me?” I inquired, not bothered about my appearance. It seemed our relationship had gone beyond the realms of childish embarrassment.
“Nope, just waiting for my turn to wash down. Seems I’m quite dirty.” Winking, he stood up and handed me my phone. “Fancy helping me clean off?”
He moved in a little closer. I hesitated and blew out a small puff of air. “What’s with you? One minute you’re, well, soft—almost kind—and the next…” I wasn’t sure how to finish that sentence.
He tilted his head and laughed a little, his seductive mouth curving up at both ends with a dazzling smile. “Now don’t go around telling everyone about my softer side, I’d prefer to keep my ‘bad boy’ persona intact!”
He squeezed my shoulder as he stepped past me, but stopped and hovered. I clenched my towel a little tighter around my chest. He leaned in and tugged my heavy hair above my neck, detangling my chain.