His fingertips tickled the nape of my neck as he slid my ring back down to its rightful place: at the center of my collarbone. He held it there for what felt like too long and I finally engaged him, unable to avoid meeting his eyes with my own any longer. He didn’t say anything; he didn’t need to. His mien had turned back to calm, tender. I paused as I inhaled the sultry wood scent that drifted out of his pores.
“Where’d you get this, beautiful?” he asked, twisting the chain above my gold circle.
“Not sure, I’ve had it as long as I can remember,” I murmured.
He scratched his head and said, “Well, it looks like an engagement ring to me. Something we should know?”
A strange sensation of déjà vu floated over me. I had never considered it, but he was right, it was an engagement ring. I shook myself and as his words sank in I repeated, “We?”
“Me and Gabriel. By the look of that rock we both have competition.”
I opened my mouth, but Jonah cut me off by kissing the top of my head roughly and caressing the back of my arm with his palm before walking off to the bathroom.
I stood in silence, trying to concentrate on the misplaced memory, but Jonah broke through the crux of the issue. “Offer’s still open, beautiful. I could use you in here.”
I replied by grabbing the handle and slamming the door just as he was stepping into the shower, catching an eyeful of his bare back.
“Now who’s spying on who?” he shouted playfully.
* * *
IN RECORD TIME WE WERE READY to board the plane. Ruadhan was on constant lookout, making sure that we were not being followed and that there wasn’t anyone—anywhere—who might mean me harm. The queue for the flight was long and Ruadhan insisted that we board last as he swept the line for anything unusual. I left my place in line and went to find him.
“You okay?” he quizzed, looking over my shoulder. He wasn’t taking the operation lightly.
“I have a question.…” I trailed off. It didn’t quite seem the time or place, but then when was?
“What’s worrying you?”
“There were two Purebloods and two clans in Creigiau that came for us. But only Eligio and his clan came to the house tonight, right?”
He pondered this for a moment, never stopping his scan of the immediate boarding gate. “Seems Eligio thought he would go it alone. The note Thomas left for Gabriel indicated that he would; there was only his clan attacking us, but then…” He teetered off.
“Then what?”
“There was another Pureblood with them; I saw her moving through the hallway.”
I hadn’t seen any other Pureblood; I hadn’t even seen Eligio … well, not entirely. Then I heard him properly. “Her?”
“She was prowling through the house. I tried to reach her, but I was struggling to end the Vampires that were surrounding me. Kids, really—well, compared to me. But there were too many.…”
It struck me like a bomb exploding at my feet. He’d seen the girl in shadow. She must have passed through the hallway to get to the kitchen; that was the next recollection I had of her after she had appeared. And it made complete sense. She was dark to the core and it conveyed through to her physical form, always shrouded in blackness. I recalled that Frederic had halted at her presence. She was stronger than him. She’d ended him. But then I thought that she had disappeared as Gabriel’s light had soaked through her being. Where had she gone and where was she now? More importantly, if she was one of them, then why had she been protecting me all this time?
“Love, are you okay? You’ve gone a bit green.”
“I … I just need to use the bathroom.”
I stumbled backward, finally spinning myself into a sprint to the nearest sign for the ladies’ room. I found it tucked away in the corner, but stopped before entering, dropping down in a heap on the ground. Burrowing my head in my lap I tried to stop the multitude of worrying thoughts from racing around my head, bouncing off one side of my brain to the other. My forehead ached when I tried to concentrate on the image of her.
I jolted, releasing my hands, and as I watched the people rushing past ahead of me, through the mass of bodies he stood like a monument, unmoving, in front of the giant wall-length windows at the opposite end of the room. His eyes blazed red and his dirty-blond hair was swept back, allowing me to absorb his sharp features. I didn’t move. I think my heart stopped as he began slowly pacing through the horizontal traffic of bodies, in a straight and purposeful line, coming right for me. It was the Vampire I had met the night Jonah and I had come under attack; the exact same one I had seen in my vision, disbanding from the Purebloods outside the blazing house in Creigiau. Still he wore dated clothing—a frilled white shirt tucked into straight-legged trousers—and as he neared, the sockets that held his flaming orbs broadened.
From just a few feet away he extended his hand, beckoning me to meet him in the middle. I didn’t dare move or flinch; if I ran there would be bloodshed. As he was on the cusp of reaching me, his eyes left mine; he was intrigued by something below my neck. I followed his gaze to my gemmed ring. Only then did he stop. His expression turned from menacing to intrigued.
“Jeez, do you gotta run off like that? We’re gonna miss the damn flight! Come on!” Brooke had emerged at my side, hauling me off the filthy floor.
I snapped back to where he stood, but he was gone, as if he had never been there. How had he disappeared so quickly?
Searching the crowds with my eyes, I couldn’t find him. As Brooke whisked me to the boarding gate, I reasoned that I might have conjured him myself, a figment of my imagination. I didn’t know anymore. I didn’t know anything.
She handed the flight attendant our boarding passes and passports and we met with Ruadhan and Jonah, who were waiting at the door. Jonah peered down at me, sensing that something wasn’t right. He gestured to Brooke and Ruadhan, and they walked ahead, leaving him to tighten his arm around my shoulders, steadying me onto the plane.
The flight was full and we had only just managed to get seats side by side. Jonah placed our luggage into the compartment above. I searched ahead to find Ruadhan and Brooke scattered on aisle seats a few rows ahead. I stiffened a smile at Brooke as she looked back unhappily at the seating arrangements. She wanted to be next to Jonah. Ruadhan made the same motion a few minutes later, with an equally disgruntled face but for different reasons. He was worried about me.