“He wouldn’t tell me if you two were alive. I had no way of knowing. . . .” My voice was low and strange, and my eyes were very dry. Since my parents’ death and Gabriel’s appearance in my life, I’d cried a ridiculous amount of times, enough to be embarrassed and maybe even ashamed.
But I couldn’t seem to cry any tears of relief even though I wanted to.
Actually, I felt only halfway here. Not quite numb, but not quite me.
I pulled away from them, but Inola hugged me again. Her scent of damp, soft earth was just as comforting as my mother’s vanilla perfume.
“Kara, I am so happy you are ok. And I’m so sorry Elias did this to you,” she said.
I nodded, looking away from their worried expressions. His name was razors on my skin, and the blackness of that wooden room suddenly loomed before me, and I shivered.
Someone said my name, but the sound was watery and distant. Once again I felt the chains around my wrists and the dryness of my throat and mouth.
The headache, the numbness of my fingers, the knife in my shoulder.
My blood running down the wall.
My hands went to my temples, clenching. I backed away and touched something cold. I screamed bloody murder.
“Kara, it’s ok! It’s me!”
Arms closed around my chest. It made me scream louder.
Elias. Elias was here to kill me. He was here to finish me. I wasn’t safe.
When had I ever been safe?
The arms spun me around and hands gripped both sides of my face.
“It’s Gabriel! Look at me, Kara. Look into my eyes. You are here with me.”
It was hard to focus, but I managed to find myself as I stared into the shimmering emeralds.
“Gabriel?” I whispered, my lips trembling.
“I’m here, heart. I will always be here,” he said as he caressed my face.
I was shaking so hard my teeth were chattering. “What’s wrong with me?”
“Post-traumatic stress disorder,” Thomas said grimly. “Not very surprising, given the circumstances.”
Inola clasped her hands together. “I am so sorry. I should not have mentioned . . . Please forgive me, child.”
“And I am also surprised that Gabriel didn’t contribute to your PTSD. Instead, it seems like he is your painkiller,” Thomas said.
Gabriel’s eyes darkened when he looked at Thomas, but Thomas shrugged.
“Just saying the truth. You lucked out on this one, buddy.”
I didn’t want to think about Thomas’s words, especially when I’d just told Gabriel that I had forgiven him fully.
I remembered another question, and I tried to be careful with how I worded it; I didn’t want to set myself off. Adrenaline buzzed through my veins, gearing me up for fight-or-flight.
“How did you find me?” I asked.
“I had to dispose of Felicity and Emma.” Gabriel’s words were slow and precise, every single word spoken with extreme care; he was obviously being careful with his words as well. “Emma was easy to find because she agreed to meet with me, but I honestly think Felicity had a death wish. Felicity was over nine hundred years old, and there were signs over the last few decades of her becoming weary of living. She didn’t even try to fight me when I found her.
“I went to Jasmina so I could tell her about their betrayal, and also to ensure that we were safe from the coven because I killed Emma and Felicity without permission. Jasmina drank my blood, and she heard Emma’s words through me. Because of the circumstances, she was not that angry that I acted without her permission, as the coven had been searching for them anyway, and Jasmina had suspected I was correct about their involvement.”
Cold flitted along my veins. I felt myself go pale at the thought of Jasmina drinking Gabriel’s blood.
Gabriel’s features softened, and he kissed my temple. “Kara, don’t worry that she had to drink my blood. She searched quickly within me to find her answer so a connection could not form. Anyway, it took me longer than I wanted to figure out where you would be. I was panicking, but I finally realized he would want you where his end began. I figured out you would be by the same lake. The only thing different was the cabin; he must have rebuilt it.”
Inola smoothed my hair. “Gabriel didn’t even tell us—he just took off,” she said, frustration in her voice. “He was halfway there before calling us to tell us that he had figured it out.”
“We brought you here because we don’t know who in Violet Memory we can trust. Christopher had a thing for Felicity, but the coven has been informed of her betrayal, and he knows not to touch you. While I do not think anyone else there would mean you harm, Gabriel does not want you around a bunch of vampires, excluding us, of course. He doesn’t want you to be afraid,” Thomas said.
I allowed all of that to sink in before asking another question. “Why didn’t you just bring me here instead of keeping me at the mansion from the start?”
“Would you have come?” Gabriel asked. “And I thought it was better for you to be around vampires that could destroy him if necessary.”
“You could have made me come,” I argued.
“I was trying to get you to not hate me, Kara.”
I relaxed into Gabriel’s body. “I would have hated you regardless,” I said truthfully.
Thomas laughed. Inola gave Gabriel a pitying look that swam with relief.
Thomas gestured out the door. “Come on, I have food ready for you.”
“Can I brush my teeth and take a shower first?” I asked.
“No,” Thomas replied so seriously I almost believed him. I smiled when he laughed at my surprised face.
Inola showed me where the bathroom was. When I was done, she came inside and bandaged my shoulder, her touch as light as a feather. I was glad she did it instead of Gabriel; I didn’t want him to see the wound.
When I came
