“I don’t know what Jonah’s game is,” he said. “But I’m sure you didn’t kill him, Lai.”
I sobbed a little. “Don’t be mad; I know you’re upset, but Jonah’s been really good to me. He’s looked out for me and kept me safe.”
Gabriel squeezed my hands reassuringly. “I should have been here protecting you. I’m sorry I had to leave.” He kissed the top of my forehead and mopped up my tears with his fingertips.
“I need to tell you something extremely important, Lai.”
He was deadly serious and as I raised my face up to meet his, I braced myself for the worst. Was he about to tell me that he had been with Hanora after all?
“It’s about when we first met—”
A voice cut through our exchange. “Sorry to interrupt this little heart-to-heart.” A man appeared next to us, eyeing me with interest.
As he stood a few feet away from me, I felt the strangest sense of déjà vu creep over me. I had never met him before, but I felt like I knew him. And in some strange way, he looked like me. His skin was milky white, and his large eyes were a unique shade of blue that was strangely similar looking to my own. Most important, he seemed uncomfortable in his surroundings. As though he were a fish out of water. He could only be the Angel whom Gabriel had brought back with him.
Gabriel stood up, startled by his sudden and uninvited arrival, and I quickly followed suit.
“Azrael, this is Cessie.”
My ears pricked at Gabriel’s choice of name for me, and I took it to mean that Azrael hadn’t yet earned Gabriel’s trust.
“Delighted.”
He extended his hand to mine, his eyes narrowing as I reached out politely. As his cool skin stroked my own, I was overwhelmed with the strangest vibration that caused goose bumps to run up my arms.
My mind was filled with an intense light that finally burst into droplets of silver and gold, exploding like an enormous firework.
I yanked my hand away and stumbled, grabbing for something to steady me. Gabriel wrapped his arms around me and we both stared at Azrael, whose expression was unreadable.
He finally nodded and smiled. “Seems I’m your Creator. Or would you prefer Dad?”
I looked to Gabriel, astonished. His expression mirrored mine.
TWENTY-SIX
I PACED ANXIOUSLY AROUND the living room. Eventually Ruadhan interrupted my racing thoughts.
“Sweetheart, sit down. Let me make you something to eat; I haven’t seen you touch a bite in two days.”
I stopped briefly. He was right; I hadn’t eaten since before I had fallen into the stream.
“I don’t want to eat, I want to hear what they’re saying!”
Azrael had called a council with Gabriel. Alone. I was stuck out here while they discussed me. It was hardly fair.
“I know, love, but patience is a virtue! Let me whip you something up. What would you like?”
I had an idea. “Eggs.” I knew we didn’t have any.
“I’ll check.” Ruadhan scrambled around the fridge and the cupboards, scratching his head as he came away empty-handed. “No eggs.”
“That’s okay, I’ll pop out and get some. Jonah said one of the distant neighbors has chickens.”
“No! Not by yourself. I’ll go fetch some; I can be there and back in a few minutes. Just stay put.”
As soon as he sped off, I tiptoed down the wooden stairs and sat on the last step. Gabriel and Azrael were just outside the basement, but their voices were muffled. The chessboard momentarily distracted me, as I saw that Gabriel had now put me in check. Worse still, on closer inspection, I realized that he had actually put me in double check; having brought his bishop diagonally across the board, now both it and the knight—two equal forces—were threatening my king.
I scanned the board and, though I tried hard, the white and the red just seemed to merge; I couldn’t see a way to escape.
Great. I wasn’t getting any better at this game.
Straining to hear, I crept slowly along the side of the wall, hiding behind the half-open door.
“She was infected. She’s not like you or I. You need to understand that.” Azrael’s voice was calm but assertive.
“There’s no darkness in her; you’re wrong.”
“She was created from light, but she was infected and changed by the most terrible evil and then she was born into this dimension. That makes her more powerful and destructive than any being in the three dimensions,” Azrael said.
“I won’t accept that. I’ve seen nothing of her that would suggest it is true!” Gabriel’s raised voice made my hairs stand on end.
Then there was silence.
I was trying desperately not to react, holding my breath, but Azrael’s revelations caused my heart to thud hard against my chest. The emotions rising inside me must have given me away: Gabriel appeared in the basement.
“You wouldn’t make a terribly good spy.” He crinkled his forehead and extended his hand to mine, leading me through the doorway.
I kept hold of Gabriel’s hand and addressed Azrael. “You know what I am?”
He looked to Gabriel and then back to me. His eyebrows raised, he seemed surprised that I had dared to interrupt their private conversation.
Tilting his head Azrael said, “Yes, Cessie. There is a reason you are different. You were created in the first dimension—our home—as an Angel Descendant, but something happened to you.…” He trailed off as Gabriel bore holes through him with his stare.
“It’s okay,” I said. “Tell me what happened?”
“You were infected by a Pureblood Vampire, when your mother—my Angel Pair—was carrying you. Not just any Pureblood Vampire; his name is Zherneboh. He was the first Pureblood to emerge from the third dimension. Your mother fled and it seems she gave birth to you here in the second.”
Gabriel took his hand from mine and wrapped his arm around my waist, as if bracing me for the worst of this wild story.
I shook my head. “But I am … I was human. It was only when I died that I woke up and I was different.”
“You were born here. In your first death, your mortal, human-self indeed ceased to continue. But you came back immortal, inheriting your true lineage.”
“You mean I became an Angel?”
“No. You might have been created in our world, but when the Pureblood infected you, it mutated your DNA. You have your light, but you also have darkness now—”