Lailah (The Styclar Saga)

by Nikki Kelly

  I remembered her long dark hair streaming down her back, which had brushed my cheek. But as always there was a gap, a hole in my memory. All I could recall was that she appeared, and then … nothing. Did I see her disappear when Gabriel’s light overflowed from the porch, or was I imagining that? Of course, Gabriel had hardly given me the chance to tell him, given how I had found him. Still, I knew I wouldn’t have been able to explain the girl to him. To add to that, there was a strange, unsettling feeling swelling in my subconscious as soon as I began to think of her.

  A warning not to think too hard, I had decided.

  Brooke interrupted my inner turmoil. “Erm, Cessie … I’m sorry about last night. I was just, well, trying to help you.… Anyway, no harm, no foul. You look fine.” Her apology was barely halfhearted, I could only assume it was given at Jonah’s insistence.

  “It’s okay.…”

  “Well anyway, by way of seeking your forgiveness…” she half chuckled, “I packed some of your clothes this morning. I figured you’d abandoned most of my hard work when I saw that tired-looking backpack of yours.… So don’t worry where we’re off to, at least you’ll be dressed in style.…” She trailed off as Ruadhan slammed the truck into a deep bend and zipped around the winding roads, heading for the motorway.

  “Oh, thanks. Where are we going exactly?” I looked over my shoulder to anyone for an answer.

  “Ah … Oui, oui! Carcassonne, South of France,” Ruadhan joked. His Irish-accented French was awkward, but I appreciated him trying to raise my spirits.

  I looked at Jonah and he replied by stretching in my direction. “Don’t worry, Cessie, he’s gone. Frederic is dust. You said so yourself.”

  I shivered at the mention of his name. I guess offering that tidbit in the cottage had given away where I had been at the time.

  “Something I’m missing?” Ruadhan’s tone lowered to a murmur.

  “No, no,” I said. “I just had a slightly bizarre experience with a Vampire in Nice a couple of years back is all.” I didn’t want to have to explain myself for a third time.

  I scratched my back underneath my coat and blouse, feeling for the elongated scar. Sure enough, it was still there—a constant reminder of that night, of that Vampire I had foolishly befriended.

  “Well, don’t you worry, love, you have us,” Ruadhan said without taking his eyes off the road. “We’ll keep you well hidden while we wait for Gabriel.”

  I half thought Ruadhan mentioned Gabriel for Jonah’s benefit as I caught him glimpsing at Jonah in the rearview mirror. I wondered how much Ruadhan really knew.

  “Any particular reason we’re going to France?” I asked, trying to take the conversation away from my Angel.

  “We have a property in a village called Neylis,” Ruadhan replied. “It’s an hour or so by car from the airport, the middle of nowhere by all accounts. However, should we need to leave quickly, we can be in Andorra in no time, over and into Spain. We can connect to Africa via Perpignan or Marseille—”

  Brooke interrupted him. “And we can get to Milan—shopping in Italy is amazing!” she chirped.

  I found her upbeat attitude surprising considering the danger she had been in only an hour ago. “You’ve been?” I asked.

  “To Milan, yes, but not to Neylis. Bit too quiet for my liking, but this lot likes to keep us separated from the rest of civilization!”

  “I wonder why,” I muttered under my breath.

  I wanted to ask about Gabriel, but I held back. I would talk to Ruadhan when we were alone.

  No one spoke for a while and when we hit the motorway, Ruadhan encouraged me to sleep, but my body was still buzzing, fueled with adrenaline from the mammoth events of the day.

  “What happened to Eligio?” My inquiry met with no reply, so I turned to Jonah.

  “Seems when Gabriel struck him with light he fell into a rift to the third dimension and it closed, Gabriel’s light sealing it.” Jonah seemed relieved.

  “Why didn’t the light kill him?”

  “It’s not powerful enough to end a Pureblood the way it does the rest of us. But it is weapon enough to have some effect,” he answered.

  “How did Eligio open the rift into this world? Was he waiting for more of them to come through?” I pushed.

  Ruadhan coughed, signaling to Jonah to stop, but I gestured for him to proceed.

  “Don’t know,” Jonah said. “We didn’t think they could command the rifts like that. He was dragging you toward it; he opened it to take you through with him.” He stopped there and my stomach turned over.

  Ruadhan butted in. “Jonah doesn’t know that for sure, Cessie, he’s surmising.”

  “But Gabriel told me that light souls are taken through the cracks by Angels and that dark souls seep through the rifts to this third dimension. Surely I would just disappear if I were taken through into their world?”

  I didn’t quite get it. If I were to pass through either rift, to either dimension, my energy would feed through, if it matched either. Gabriel had led me to believe that my soul was pure and good, so Eligio and his kind would gain nothing by destroying my human form if they took me. Jonah must have it wrong, I decided. He didn’t know as much as Gabriel, and Ruadhan had been talking about Heaven and Hell, not different dimensions. I had convinced myself until Jonah piped back up.

  “Perhaps you have a dark soul, perhaps there’s something about you that makes you different, so that you wouldn’t just evaporate like the rest of us.… Maybe you’d keep your form.…”

  Ruadhan slammed the truck over to the hard shoulder and came to a swift halt. Releasing his seat belt he twisted to Jonah, directing a menacing expression his way. “That’s enough! She’s not one of us! Gabriel has made it quite clear that she is an innocent and furthermore this little gem is human! Stop scaring the poor girl!”

  With that, he snapped back to the wheel and pulled back out into the road. I glanced at Jonah, who met me with raised eyebrows and a grin creasing his cheek.

  As I let the words sink in it dawned on me that Jonah’s theory, as uncomfortable as it made me, didn’t feel that far off.

  SEVENTEEN

  THE ROADS WERE QUIET so the journey didn’t take long. Ruadhan had booked a room at the hotel adjacent to Stansted Airport, so we could all change out of our bloodied clothing. Jonah stood outside the room, guarding the door while I showered. Ruadhan and Brooke went to the ticket counter to sort out our flight.

  Emotionally drained, I unzipped my backpack and pulled out a fresh pair of skinny jeans, a T-shirt, and a hoodie. I hesitated as I scooped the items up, placing them into a neat pile on the dresser, and rummaged for the smartphone inside my pocket. No missed calls, and no messages. I threw my phone onto the bed and made my way into the bathroom.

  Stripping off and stepping into the shower, I ran the water as hot as I could, steaming up the tiny room immediately. I scoured my skin in an attempt to rid myself of the Vampires’ remains that painted my neck and arms. Allowing the water to run down my face, I twisted, letting it soak through my hair. I dug into my scalp with my nails and made a mental note to thank the good people of this establishment for providing soap and shampoo. As content as I could be that the Vampire I had conversed with only yesterday was now safely down the drain, I carefully tiptoed out of the shower, wrapping myself in the fluffy yellow towel. Once covered up, I continued through to the bedroom.

  I found Jonah waiting for me, perched next to my cell, scrolling through my lack of messages.

  “Spying on me?” I inquired, not bothered about my appearance. It seemed our relationship had gone beyond the realms of childish embarrassment.

  “Nope, just waiting for my turn to wash down. Seems I’m quite dirty.” Winking, he stood up and handed me my phone. “Fancy helping me clean off?”

  He moved in a little closer. I hesitated and blew out a small puff of air. “What’s with you? One minute you’re, well, soft—almost kind—and the next…” I wasn’t sure how to finish that sentence.r />
  He tilted his head and laughed a little, his seductive mouth curving up at both ends with a dazzling smile. “Now don’t go around telling everyone about my softer side, I’d prefer to keep my ‘bad boy’ persona intact!”

  He squeezed my shoulder as he stepped past me, but stopped and hovered. I clenched my towel a little tighter around my chest. He leaned in and tugged my heavy hair above my neck, detangling my chain.

  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.

  Jonah fastened my seat belt for me and I wriggled the iPhone free; still no messages. My connection to Gabriel was still present but like a horizon you moved away from—it was becoming a tiny dot in the distance. It seemed that the farther apart we were, the weaker our connection became. I couldn’t feel him near my invisible tunnel and I decided that the very fact he had handed me my phone meant he wouldn’t be able to meet me in my mind. Apparently that little trick didn’t work long distance, at least not properly.

  For the first time in what felt a very long while, my thoughts were my own again. It felt desperately lonely.

  “You gotta switch that off, we’ll be on the move soon.” Jonah took my rejected phone and handed it back to me; the screen turned black. “Cessie—”

  I cut him off. “Just … just hold me, please.” I snuggled my face into his chest and obediently he slid his arm behind me. I got away with my silent sobs, but my chest-jerking gave me away.

  “Shhhh, beautiful.”

  I fell asleep nuzzled into Jonah. Bizarrely, on this frosty winter night, he was the only thing that would keep my soul warm.

  * * *

  HE WOKE ME AS THE PLANE
came into a bumpy landing, hitting the tarmac and bouncing up and down before coming to a complete stop. I pawed my tired eyes with curled fists and reluctantly peeled myself from Jonah’s chest.

  “Did you get some rest?”

  “Don’t sleep, remember,” he said. He smiled a sweet, sincere smile that put me at ease.

  “Right. Thanks for, well, you know…” I offered, unbuckling my seat belt.

  Ruadhan and Brooke waited for the seats to empty before finding us and we traipsed down the aisle, the flight attendant wishing us a pleasant stay as we made our way down the steps. Brooke attached herself to Jonah, so I held back and joined Ruadhan.

  “We’ll be out of here in ten minutes, it’s a shed of an airport. I’ve got a rental waiting for us. We’ll be in Neylis in less than an hour and a half.”

  It hadn’t occurred to me that the French security might have a problem with my passport. Jonah and Brooke had gone through no issues with theirs, but when I stepped up to the window the old French woman with graying hair eyed my passport and me for a prolonged period of time.

  She called over another staff member, who looked me up and down, at which point Ruadhan stepped in. When her tone didn’t respond positively I was rendered speechless: I witnessed him capture her stare, speaking extremely slowly in her native tongue. She then nodded, repeating what he’d said, and signaled for me to move on. The wrinkled lines of her crow’s feet ironed out as she moved on to the next foreigner.

  “What did you do to her?” I whispered, pacing quickly to the baggage claim.

  “Vampire ability, the power of influence … One of the few traits we have in common with our Angel friend.”

  “What was wrong with my passport?” I asked, taking it from Ruadhan’s large hand and dropping it into the top of my backpack. I couldn’t remember how I had obtained it, sometime in a life gone by. Of course, it was fraudulent.

  “Some confusion over your photo, she didn’t think you were the same person. I told her … young folk dye their hair, wear contact lenses and whatnot.” He rushed over to the conveyor belt, grabbing the first of Brooke’s suitcases coming through and chucking it to Jonah.