Inception

by Teal Haviland

  He placed Lucas back in her arms, and she looked at his face. She wondered what was happening to him now and what was going to happen to him later.

  ‘Go now, Gabrielle. I’ll be back to you soon, I promise. This won’t take long.’

  Amaziah and the others were gone before she could reply, although really, there was nothing to say. She made her way back to Emma’s home, looking at Lucas’s face the entire time. He hadn’t moved at all in her arms, except for an occasional rise and fall of his chest, too far apart to be humanly possible.

  She couldn’t believe how rapidly everything went wrong. She was almost to Emma’s when he tried to say something. It was barely a whisper, but she thought he said her name and then the word why. A few moments later, she heard him say, “How could you, Gabby”?” It didn’t make sense to her.

  Maybe he was wondering how she could have stopped watching for trouble, why she let him be taken, why she wasn’t there to protect him. She didn’t know, but she was happier than she could have ever imagined being just because he said those few words. If there were words, there was a Lucas, and no matter what happened to him or what he became, she loved him.

  When she entered the living room, she found not only Emma but the entire Daniels family, minus Chloe. Gabrielle scanned the room and realized she would be rather awe inspiring to everyone except for Emma, so she manifested her human form.

  “Emma, get me a glass of water and some warm clothes for Lucas. I want every human in this house to make sure they have a cross in their hand or around their neck at all times.”

  She looked at Ben, Lizzie, Nonie, and Nate, who all shared stunned expressions with a look in her eyes and scowl that said now, and everyone went out the door except Lizzie. Gabrielle stared at her to see why she wasn’t listening.

  Lizzie must have understood. She reached her hand under the neck of the sweater and pulled out a cross that hung on a short chain.

  “Never take it off.”

  Gabrielle moved through the house toward Lucas’s room, laid him on the bed, then grabbed an afghan and covered him. Lizzie entered the room right behind her. Gabrielle heard Emma come in and place the items she’d requested on the nightstand.

  “Gabrielle, what’s wrong with Lucas?” Emma asked.

  “I’m not sure,” Gabrielle responded as she was getting Lucas situated. “When I found him, he was alone on the ground.” She turned to face Emma, placed her hands on her arms, and moved to sit on the end of the bed. “There’s a problem, but we don’t know what to make of it yet. So please, try to stay calm. Amaziah has sought council. Until we know, we have to take precautions.”

  “Precautions?” Emma looked at Gabrielle and then to Lizzie, who was rubbing the cross between her fingers. She looked back at Gabrielle and then back at the cross.

  Lizzie stopped playing with the pendant. Both women understood at the same time. Lizzie let out her breath hard and put her hand to her mouth as she stared at Lucas.

  Emma sat on the edge of the bed. Tears began to spill from her eyes as Gabrielle held her. They stayed like that until they heard footsteps near the room.

  Ben, Nate, and Nonie entered, took one look at the scene in front of them, and immediately thought the worst—that Lucas was dead. They didn’t know that death wasn’t necessarily the worst thing that could have happened to him. Lizzie shook her head and hushed them with her finger before they had a chance to say anything. Everyone looked at her, waiting for an explanation. She motioned for Lizzie to take her place next to Emma and stood to face them while she explained what she knew.

  “I don’t know everything that happened tonight. But at some point,” she said, speaking through a knot that had been in her chest since she realized that she was purposely distracted by Cecily, “Lucas was attacked by a Qalal.” The room was silent. She knew she couldn’t offer them much more, but she continued talking for lack of knowing what else to do. “There’s something wrong, though.”

  Nate spat out a sarcastic snicker. “Like there isn’t something already very wrong about this?”

  “Nate Daniels!” That was all Lizzie had to say.

  “Of course, Nate, that’s wrong enough. But the real questions are: Why is his heart still beating? And why is he still breathing?”

  Nonie stepped forward and walked over to Lucas. She stared at him for a moment before she spoke. “What normally happens?”

  “Normally, if the person isn’t killed, their heart would completely stop beating from the infection, their breath would cease, and they would become a Qalal. That’s it. No other variation has ever happened.”

  “So what?” Nate asked as he joined his sister. “Lucas is going to live through a vampire attack?” Nate smiled and looked at Gabrielle. “That’s good, right?”

  Gabrielle raised her brow and shook her head. “We just don’t know. But with his heart and breath being so slow, it isn’t a good sign he’s going to come out of this unscathed.” Gabrielle was about to say more, but she sensed Amaziah manifesting in the next room. “Amaziah’s here. Maybe now we’ll have an answer,” she said as she looked toward the door.

  Amaziah came into the room and walked over to Emma. She stood quickly, throwing her arms around him. “Amaziah. Please help him.”

  He moved her back from him slightly and smiled.

  “This is something no angel can fix, Emma … I’m sorry.”

  Emma sat back on the bed again, and a fresh stream of tears ran quietly down her cheeks.

  “What did you find out?” Gabrielle asked.

  He nodded to the Daniels family, then turned his attention back to Gabrielle.

  “It’s a mystery. Yahuwah knows why he wasn’t killed and why he’s not a Qalal, but not what he will become. That remains to be seen.”

  “What do you mean? How can He not know?” Gabrielle sat next to Lucas. She looked at his face. He seemed so peaceful. She couldn’t imagine anything bad was going on beneath his skin—behind his eyes.

  “His blood isn’t completely human. It’s part Divine. That’s why he wasn’t killed and why his transformation to a Qalal appears to be only partial.”

  “Of course.” Gabrielle stood and walked to the window, raising the blinds. “A Qalal can’t kill an angel or turn them. I hadn’t thought about that.”

  Emma spoke, and Gabrielle could hear the hope in her voice when she did. “Then he’ll be okay?”

  “Emma,” Amaziah began, “he’s still mostly human. Just how human he remains—we can’t calculate. Yahuwah did not create whatever it is that Lucas will become … which is why even He isn’t sure what Lucas is now. As hard as it’s going to be, we have to wait and see.”

  “How long?” The desperation was heavy in Emma’s voice.

  Gabrielle closed her eyes to fight back her own tears. She’d messed things up so badly. She should never have chosen to live among humans. This was all her fault, and she couldn’t change any of it.

  “We don’t know that either. His body will change, but because of the circumstances, the changes will be very different and may take longer than what’s normal in these cases. Or it may be more brief in its duration. Patience—”

  “Amaziah, if you say patience is a virtue, I’ll do anything I can to make you regret it.” Gabrielle didn’t turn to look at her friend, but she felt bad as soon as the words escaped her lips. He was so good to her, and all he was trying to do was comfort everyone the best he could.

  She felt his energy draw closer to her until she knew he was right behind her.

  “I’m sorry, Amaziah. I didn’t mean to—”

  “I know, Gabrielle.” She felt his hands on her shoulders, and she couldn’t hold her tears back anymore.

  She turned and buried her face in his shoulder, crying harder than she ever had before. The tears weren’t only for Lucas or their love being in peril but also for her shame. She’d fallen so far. Not like Javan. Not like the thousands of others cast from Heaven, but she’d fallen in her own way. She was so far from wh
at she’d intended that she wasn’t sure where she was going anymore or if Heaven would lend a hand to help her redeem this mammoth mess she created.

  She just wanted to cry. To not be strong for herself or anyone else. To feel all her pain, all her shame, all her fears—feel it, and somehow come out the other side with the answers to the problems she faced.

  So that’s what she did. She cried into the shoulder of the angel who’d been there through it all and still held his arms out to her. She wasn’t sure how long she wept, but when she let go of Amaziah, the only person left in the room other than Lucas, who still lay just as he did when she put him in bed, was Emma. She had pulled a chair from the front room and was sitting in it, staring at Lucas.

  Gabrielle looked into the face that was her friend’s. He smiled warmly at her, and she hugged him tightly. “What would I do without you?”

  She felt him chuckle quietly.

  “Let’s not find out.” He held her a little longer, and then he made her look at him. “You’re being too hard on yourself, Gabrielle. This isn’t your fault.”

  “But it is. If I’d stayed and kept watch over him like I was supposed to, this wouldn’t have happened.”

  “But it would.”

  Gabrielle looked at him quizzically. “What do you mean?”

  “Your vision. The attack on Lucas was going to happen. There were things done by Lucas or the twins, maybe even you, that changed the how of it, but the result was the same.”

  “So no matter what I would have done, Lucas was going to be attacked.” Gabrielle paused for a moment to let that fact sink in. “Then what was the point of Yahuwah putting me in his life to protect him?”

  “Lucas’s real need for protection and guidance is just beginning.”

  “The choice he has to make,” she murmured. The battle for Lucas’s soul, for the existence of every living thing, had begun tonight. And it was her job to help him make the right decision. Maybe, she was the only one who could.

  As she watched his resting body, struck by how frail and precious human life truly was, she prayed his love for her, their love for each other, would be enough. If it wasn’t, hope for every living thing was lost.

  CHAPTER SEVENTY-NINE

  GABRIELLE ~ AWAKENINGS

  Two days passed before Lucas began to move, and even then, he didn’t wake.

  Gabrielle stayed with him continually, pausing time when she needed to work. No one could predict how Lucas was going to act when he woke, and she didn’t want to take the chance of someone getting hurt.

  While she watched him, he still seemed like her Lucas. His face and body appeared the same. His infrequent breathing and heartbeat had remained unchanged. So far, the only difference she noted was that his skin seemed smoother. She thought it was her imagination, but his lips appeared more red, too.

  Emma had held it together after her initial meltdown. Since then, she’d devoted herself to tending to Lucas and Gabrielle. The two of them spent many hours talking, sometimes even laughing, because of something Emma told Gabrielle about Lucas as a child. If she felt animosity toward Gabrielle for what had happened to Lucas, she was doing a good job of hiding it. It might have something to do with the long conversation Emma had with Amaziah after he comforted Gabrielle two nights earlier. She never asked Emma what they’d talked about, but when she returned from the conversation, she seemed to be more focused and smiled at her as if she understood something.

  Gabrielle walked to the window. Outside the light was growing dim as the sun relinquished its hold on the day, turning control over to the moon and shadows. It had been a sunny day, and now the stars were beginning to speckle the cloudless sky. She’d been standing there for some time when she suddenly felt an energy right behind her. She spun quickly and found herself staring into Lucas’s eyes.

  Only they were different.

  They were still blue, but more brilliant, and had taken on violet strands that constantly mingled with the blue. They were mesmerizing.

  She wanted to throw her arms around him, but she felt the need to be cautious. His expression and body language were unreadable, and more than his eyes were different; he’d been able to move out of the bed and across the room without a sound. Even a full Qalal couldn’t move quietly enough for Gabrielle not to hear them coming. His stealth unnerved her.

  “Lucas … how are you feeling?” Gabrielle didn’t move, but she readied herself in case she had to switch forms. Lucas looked at her with the same lack of expression. After several moments, Gabrielle reached out to touch his face.

  He stopped her hand with a movement that was so fast she barely saw it. She continued to look in his eyes. Something was clearly wrong, and it wasn’t just that he was something that had never existed. It was in his eyes, something she felt was directed at her. After a few more seconds, Lucas let go of her hand, turned around, and began to make his way down the hall.

  “Leave, Gabrielle.” It was his voice but silkier, deeper, like he’d grown from a teenager into a man in the two days that had passed.

  “Why? Lucas, wait!” Gabrielle manifested in front of him. They were in the hall that led to the rest of the house, facing each other. Lucas didn’t stop moving. When he reached her, he just moved her to the side without making eye contact.

  Why is he treating me this way?

  She expected he might be different, but she got better treatment from Qalal she’d never met, much less one that was still part human or at least part angel—someone she loved and she thought loved her, too.

  Lucas stopped at the kitchen sink and bent over to drink straight from the tap like it was a water fountain. Gabrielle waited for him to finish, knowing water wouldn’t quench his thirst. When he did, he fluidly moved the three steps to the refrigerator and opened it, taking out a can of soda. He popped the tab and tilted his head back to drink, then tossed the empty can into the sink.

  “I told you to leave,” he said, bitterness spiking his tone.

  “I asked you why.” Gabrielle wasn’t going to just leave even if that really was what he wanted. There was too much he needed to know and too much she still didn’t know about him and his condition. He was going to have to deal with her whether he liked it or not.

  “After what you did, I don’t think I owe you an explanation. What happened? Did Javan let you down again?” Lucas shut the door to the fridge and turned his exquisite, pooling eyes on her. “Did you decide you still wanted to play with the human?”

  “Lucas, I don’t know what you’re talking about. Javan won’t ever have the opportunity to let me down again. I told you I could never be with him again after his betrayal. Why are we discussing him, anyway?”

  Lucas smirked, then let out a sarcastic laugh that sent a chill through Gabrielle. There was definitely a more malicious side to Lucas, now.

  “Were you the one who had the life sucked out of you, Gabrielle? You’re not really going to act like you didn’t betray me with Javan the other night, are you? Are you going to deny you pretended to be on the brink of death, helping Javan sucker me into getting him that book by saying it was the only way he would release you?”

  “The Book of Barabbadon?”

  “Yes. The fucking Book of Barabbadon.”

  Lucas started toward Gabrielle aggressively. She transformed before he reached her, stopping him temporarily, but then he closed the rest of the distance in two more quick steps.

  He didn’t touch her. Just glared.

  “What was worse,” he continued, “you stood and watched as that bitch made a snack out of me.” Lucas narrowed his eyes. “You smiled. Are you going to try and deny that, too? Or were you hoping, since she didn’t kill me, I would somehow forget?”

  Gabrielle felt like she was going to break into pieces. She manifested her human form again.

  “I deny all of that, Lucas.”

  He sneered and turned. She turned him back, and he shoved her hand off his arm.

  “Lucas, what you think you saw wasn’t real.
It wasn’t me.”

  “What? Are you going to tell me he had you under a spell or something?”

  “It wasn’t me!”

  How was she going to convince Lucas it wasn’t her he saw? She frantically searched her mind to try and figure out a way to make him believe her. Whatever happened to him, whatever he thought he saw her doing, was embedded in his mind. And she didn’t know what to do about it.

  She couldn’t imagine what he must have gone through—thinking she was doing those things to him or that she stood by and watched him being killed with a smile on her face. How was she ever going to get him to see the truth when he saw it with his own eyes? Gabrielle didn’t think she was going to be able to get through to him, but she had to try to help him work through what had happened.

  “Do you remember the attack?”

  “It’s a little hard to forget something like that.” Lucas’s tone seemed to have softened but only a little. He turned to face her, then took a seat at the table. Gabrielle sat across from him. He didn’t look at her as he continued. “Even if I didn’t remember, I heard enough about what happened from you, Amaziah, and Gran to put it together.”

  “I didn’t realize you could hear us. I’m sorry. If I’d known, I would’ve made everyone talk about it somewhere else.”

  “It’s not a problem. Besides, I think you would’ve had to go a couple of blocks away—at least. My improved hearing is annoying, but I’m starting to figure out how to tune in to only what I want to hear. At least, I think I am.”

  Gabrielle raised a brow and wondered what other abilities he now had. ‘Lucas, can you hear me?’

  She waited several seconds and tried again.

  ‘Lucas, can you hear me?’

  Lucas turned his head toward her slowly. She heard his voice, but not with her ears.

  ‘Are you kidding me? Am I hearing your thoughts?’

  Gabrielle smiled. Whatever he held locked away in his angelic DNA had apparently been awakened.