I had a feeling he was not going to let me be alone anytime soon, and I was grateful for that.
I could only hope our enemy had not Controlled me to do anything else.
Gabriel’s house was small, but it was cozy, warm, and colored in silver and black. His paintings adorned the walls, their strokes and scenarios familiar. The largest was in the living room above the fireplace, a painting of Lucy dressed in a white gown. Her hair hung in perfect ringlets around her face, and the faintest golden light shimmered around the top of her head. Her eyes looked into the distance, and the fragility and sadness in them made my heart squeeze painfully.
I stopped beneath the painting, unconsciously touching the bandage at my shoulder.
All of this because someone loved you so much. Would Gabriel be reduced to the same state if something similar happened to me?
The pain in my heart was suddenly no longer my own. It was a sharper pain, more intense and intimate, and the entity inside of me longed for the girl in the painting so much that it burned my chest. I froze completely, but the sensation faded quickly.
“Are you all right?” Gabriel questioned quietly, rubbing my side.
I nodded. I didn’t want to acknowledge the truth.
I went into the dining room adjacent to the kitchen. The mahogany table was set with a variety of items that made me smile softly. Three steaming cups of hot chocolate with peppermint sticks were placed at each chair, and there was a cup of coffee for Inola. A large chocolate cake sat next to a plate of greasy pizza.
I looked to Thomas. “I’m gone for just a little while, and you lose all of your cooking skills?” I teased.
Thomas winked at me. “I thought comfort food would be a welcome sight this day, although I did make the cake. It will be the best cake you’ve ever had, I promise.”
“I can attest to that,” Gabriel said eagerly, his eyes on the cake.
Inola smiled softly at Gabriel and led me gently to a chair.
“Eat slowly, child,” she instructed me. “Do not rush. You don’t want to make yourself sick, but please make an effort to eat what you can. You are absolutely skin and bones.”
It was hard to eat without feeling nauseous. I appreciated Thomas supplying my favorite food, but maybe pizza hadn’t been the best choice on his part. After Inola saw my face turn green, she grabbed some carrot sticks and apple slices from the refrigerator, and I ended up eating those instead of the cake and pizza.
We ended up at the table for two hours. The atmosphere was peaceful and heavy with relief, and no one brought up anything unpleasant, but there were lingering anxieties that were nearly tangible. Thomas and Inola just seemed happy Gabriel and I were there, but their eyes worriedly lingered on me as Inola coaxed me to eat.
Gabriel ate half of the cake himself. When I unconsciously wiped a smudge of frosting off the corner of his mouth, his eyes lit up with glowing happiness, but it was followed by a smoldering protectiveness so fierce I could barely maintain eye contact.
Weariness soon filled me. None of them knew the things that had transpired within the wooden room, and the questions hovered in the air unasked. Even I couldn’t remember everything; so much of it was a blur of pain and darkness.
But I knew Elias had given me his blood, and I had no idea why.
It made feel guilty. Elias’s blood was actually inside my body. Being around vampires for so long, I was familiar with their way of thinking. Someone else’s blood besides Gabriel’s was inside of me, and even though it had been to save my life, and even though I’d had no say in the matter, I felt like I had betrayed Gabriel.
Had I imagined the alien pain when I’d stared at the painting? Had it only been my fear twisting my emotions when Elias had come at me that last time in the wooden room? Surely Elias had not given me enough blood to try to form a blood connection. Why would he do such a thing?
I didn’t realize how lost in thought I was until Gabriel rubbed my arm.
“Are you tired?” he asked carefully.
Surprisingly, I was tired. “I know I’ve been asleep for a long time, but I am feeling drowsy,” I confessed.
“Don’t worry about it,” Inola reassured me. “You rest as much as you need to.”
“What she said,” Thomas agreed. “Besides, you weren’t really sleeping.”
I smiled at them. I was so happy they were ok and here with me.
Gabriel took my hand and pulled me gently to my feet.
“Come with me,” he said.
Chapter 4 Guardian Angel
Many of my worries drained away due to being alone with Gabriel again.
As soon as he closed the bedroom door, he pulled me into his arms, and I sighed against his black T-shirt. The comforting scent of pine needles filled my nostrils, and the smell even made my heart slow down a bit.
He held me for an immeasurable amount of time before I broke the silence.
“Are you ok, Gabriel?”
He tilted my chin up. “Why would you ask me that?”
“It’s just . . . you must have been so worried and scared. I know I would have been.”
He looked at me tenderly. “Worried and scared is an understatement, heart. In my eyes, the world was ending. It was crashing down around me, and I didn’t know how to stop it. . . .” He ran a finger along the length of my cheek, sending flaming butterflies across my skin with his touch. “How very like you, my dearest Kara, to worry for me when it is you who have truly suffered.”
“You’ve suffered,” I countered.
