Inception (The Reaping Chronicles, 1) (26 page)

“The simple answer is I don’t have to work within your time, so I don’t. I make your time work for me.” Lucas looked confused. Gabrielle tried to clarify. “Really, it’s a moot point unless I’m in human form. When I’m here, I pause time so I’m not missed, and I don’t miss anything I need to be a part of. In mortal time, my job would take much, much longer than a full day. I mean,
every time
I take Yahuwah’s orders and hand out karma. So my time moves very swiftly when I’m in my home, while yours, in comparison, moves incredibly slow for me.” Lucas still seemed to be having a hard time understanding.

“The full answer is really too hard for you to understand. Try to keep in mind that anything is possible for Yahuwah even if something seems impossible to you. You don’t have to have answers for
everything
. Life would lose so much magic, all its wonder, if you had all the answers to every question you ask. It’s nice to have unknowns, sometimes. It allows for imagination. It’s a shame people don’t use theirs much, anymore.”

Gabrielle adjusted to face him, still holding his hand as she did. It seemed they always had to be touching if they were near each other, like some invisible power pulled their bodies closer. Lucas smiled as if he read her thoughts.

“Does that help?” she asked.

“Some, but I still have more questions. Why do you call God, Yahuwah and Satan, Ramai?”

Gabrielle laughed.

“Because Yahuwah is His name, and Ramai … it’s what Angels began calling him after he fell. It means deceiver.”

He smiled, then drifted into his own thoughts. The break allowed things to enter her mind that she didn’t want to dwell on.

She kissed him on his hand to get his attention. “How about we take a break from this and get some fresh air? Want to take a walk? I need a little more distraction and a little less reality.”

“Fresh air sounds good.”

The last thing she wanted to think about right now were the laws she was supposed to conduct herself by when it came to relationships with humans, or that being allowed romantic interaction was pretty much unheard of. She had plenty of time to think about it later when he wasn’t with her. She planned on enjoying the happiness and peace being with him brought her while she could, knowing, at any moment, it could end.

Chapter Forty

Gabrielle ~ A Vision

A
fter Gabrielle had changed clothes, she and Lucas slowly made their way to the park a few blocks from her townhouse. She had spent a lot of time there over the summer months, watching mothers pushing strollers and joggers pushing themselves to their limits. Almost everyone had ear buds in, drowning out the sounds of birds singing, insects buzzing, and wind blowing through the leaves, causing the trees to sound as if they were giggling as the breeze tickled them. It made her sad that all the simplicity and beauty surrounding people was lost to them. So many pleasures and miracles went without notice.

It was a perfect early fall day, and Gabrielle was glad to enjoy it before it passed. The leaves were showing hints of the colors they would be turning, becoming trimmed or dappled with the reds, yellows, and oranges that spoke of fall’s approach.

By an unspoken decision, Gabrielle and Lucas stopped at the playground, and each took an available swing. After several minutes of silence, Gabrielle slowed hers until it was barely moving. She slipped off her flip-flops and played in the sand with the tips of her toes, drawing formless squiggles and unidentifiable shapes.

“So, how about I get a round of questions?” Gabrielle’s mood was still edgy, and she worried her request sounded more like a demand. Lucas didn’t seem to notice or mind.

“My book is open to you, sweets.”

“
Sweets
?”

“I thought it would be a little premature to call you love … love.”

Lucas was flirting, and Gabrielle was enjoying it.

“Sweets doesn’t always describe my mood, so it may not be an appropriate pet name. And
love
may be a little pre—”

“But … I
am
falling in love with you, Gabby. I don’t see a reason to deny it. Facts are facts. Love is love—
love
.”

Lucas smiled his crooked smile, making him irresistible. She abandoned her swing and made her way to the human she too felt she was completely, recklessly, falling in love with.

“You shouldn’t interrupt your elder,” she said. “Or a lady. I was going to say, a pet name of
love
may be a little premature, but I like the sound of it anyway.”

“Oh.” Lucas stood. He placed a hand on each side of her face and caressed her cheeks with his thumbs. He didn’t make a move to kiss her, and she was glad. There was something very important about the moment Gabrielle didn’t quite understand. She felt the connection between them growing, stitching them together as they looked into each other’s eyes. This was one of those moments, a little miracle, she felt people didn’t thoroughly absorb. She was glad he seemed to want to linger in it as long as she did.

A Frisbee that had lost its way landed at Gabrielle’s feet, moving them back into the world they’d removed themselves from. As Lucas threw it back, Gabrielle looked up and smiled, wondering if it was Yahuwah’s way of getting her back on track.

“What’s that smile for?”

She took her gaze off the heavens and let it fall back on Lucas, still smiling. “Oh, nothing … so, back to you being in the hot-seat.”

“Ahh … yes,” he responded a little apprehensively.

“I need to know what happened between you and Mara. I want all the details. How you met, things she said, maybe something that happened you thought was
off.”
Gabrielle didn’t want to come right out and tell him Mara was a demon.

Finding out a demon was in his life first … then me. That’s a lot to accept.

She wondered how he’d take the news that he’d … been involved … with one of the Fallen.

Lucas laughed, but there was no humor accompanying it. “
Hmm
… I’m not sure where to even begin. The whole thing was trippy,
off
, like you said.” He took her hand, and they started to walk again. “I met her after school let out for the summer. She’d just moved here from some little town up in Kentucky. I can’t recall the name. She was really cool, at first. And with her being easy on the eyes and possibly fun to hang with, I thought what the heck? Then, after about three weeks of some
really
hot times together …” Lucas looked at Gabrielle, seeming to realize what he’d just said.

“Don’t worry. I won’t say I
want
to hear everything, but I need to. I can handle it.” She smiled at him for encouragement though she hated hearing about him with Mara.

“Well, I’m sure you get the gist without those details. Long story short, she became strange. She started showing this unusual mean streak, seemed to get pleasure from other people’s pain—emotional and physical. She just generally became—well—evil, or something. She went from wearing bright colors and girly clothes to wearing dark, mostly black clothes. There’s nothing wrong with black, but when it matches the person’s mood, it isn’t quite the same thing as a simple color preference. And her eyes, they were this pretty shade of hazel, but they turned more yellowish-green. When I asked, she said she had contacts, but I didn’t believe her. I sensed something was very wrong, so I made a break from her.”

Lucas stopped at a bench, and they sat down.

“But why were you so angry with her when you saw her at school last week? What was that about?”

“Patience … love.” He said the last word as if he was testing the waters. “I didn’t hear anything from her for a couple of weeks, and then she shows up at my front door. I caught a glimpse of her when I was coming to open it and asked Gran to tell her I wasn’t there. Now that I think about it, Gran seemed leery about answering it herself. I guess she sensed there was something wrong with her before she even saw her. When she opened the door and told Mara I wasn’t there, she shoved Gran across the room and screamed, ‘
You lying bitch!’
She just went psycho, like a switch flipped inside her. I think the only reason I got Mara out of the house so easily was because I caught her off-guard. She had to be extraordinarily strong to send Gran flying across the room like that. I guess I should have thought it was stranger at the time, but it still freaked me out.

“Anyway, I tackled her with so much force that it sent both of us back through the open door. We ended up on the porch and almost down the stairs. I got up and told her to leave and not to come back, or I’d call the police. Then, I went back in and closed the door. She laughed this wicked laugh. Seriously, Gabby, it was more like a cackle. It gave me chills. I heard her outside talking to herself and laughing that laugh for several minutes until she finally left. That first day of school was the first time I had seen her since.”

“That certainly explains your hostility.”

“There’s more. That day you saw her with me and got upset,
that
was the creepiest. I didn’t tell you about it before because I thought you would think I was a loon.” Lucas paused to consider his words. “It’s hard to explain. And it might all just be in my head.”

Lucas went on to tell her what had happened, and Gabrielle listened carefully. By the time he’d finished, she determined he hadn’t made the connection that Mara was more than
off
.

“I bet the Mara you met originally is still in there, just pushed so far down she can’t get out. Possession is more common than people think, and it’s very powerful. A demon can be sneaky in its possession, only come out from time to time, or it can be all-consuming and just take full control abruptly. It sounds to me that, for Mara, it’s the latter. I can help her, if it’s Yahuwah’s will.”

“Why wouldn’t it be? Why would He want someone to be possessed?” Lucas asked in a baffled, almost angry tone.

“Lucas, you have to have faith He has a plan even when you don’t think His hand is in a situation at all. He knows
everything
that’s happening. Well, with the exception of some things He agreed with Ramai to be in the dark about, but that’s a story for another time. But if it isn’t His will, He intervenes or uses it to His advantage. It all works out in the end, as long as the person has faith.”

“I get the faith thing. Really, I do. But if you’re right and she is possessed by a demon, it just doesn’t seem to be fair. She seemed like a decent girl—a little loose, maybe, but who am I to judge? She wasn’t alone in fooling around while we were together. But other than that, she seemed really decent. What made me any better? Why’d she get possessed and not me?”

“Lucas, you didn’t know her long, and I don’t know her at all. We don’t have enough information about her to understand if she was somehow inviting a demon into her life. Even if she didn’t know what she was doing. A lot of times, that doesn’t even matter. If a demon wants to possess a human, there isn’t always a way to avoid it.”

“I’d still like to see her okay again—to be a normal teenager.”

“I believe the use of normal and teenager together in the same sentence is what is called an oxymoron—
isn’t it
?”

Lucas shot her a playful warning glance. Before Gabrielle could get two steps away, she was lying on the ground with Lucas on top of her, tickling her sides as she laughed and begged for mercy.

Mercy came as his warm lips pressed firmly against hers, and she surrendered to him without protest. She didn’t know if she could resist if she wanted to.

As the sun reached its rays out to touch their skin one last time before it fell asleep for the night, Gabrielle felt Lucas press his body hard against hers like he was trying to melt into her. She was glad it was getting dark. There was nothing except how he made her feel and how she made him feel in return.

The images flashed so quickly she almost didn’t pay attention. When they came the second time, they weren’t as fleeting. She sucked in a sharp breath as the vision, full of screams and terror and death, played out in her mind. Gabrielle sat up so quickly she nearly threw Lucas to the side, leaving him scrambling the rest of the way off her. He knelt next to her with a stunned expression.

“Gabby! What’s wrong?”

She didn’t answer. She couldn’t. The vision was vivid, playing in front of her like it was on a movie screen.

“Gabrielle! Please! You’re scaring me!”

The panic in his voice broke through her concentration as she tried to figure out how she might be able to stop the vision from happening. As the images in her mind faded away, she focused on Lucas. He looked at her with wide, expectant eyes—desperation dominating his expression.

“Lucas … I’m sorry. I just had a powerful vision, and it took me by surprise. I saw …” She wasn’t sure how to tell him or even if she should.

“What, Gabby?
What
did you see?”

“It was you. You, Nate, and Nonie. You were being attacked.”

“What? By who?”

Lucas began to calm slightly. Maybe he didn’t think what she saw was as alarming as he’d thought, but it was. He just wasn’t thinking about the right kind of attacker or, in this case, predator
.

“The appropriate question is
by what
, Lucas.”

He looked at her, puzzled. She could tell he was losing patience with her as she began to get lost in the vision again when he let out a huff. She looked at him for a moment longer and hoped he would be as accepting of this information as he had been about her.

“Lucas, you’re
really
going to have to have an open mind about this and trust me when I say there are things that people don’t believe exist but are quite real.”

His head moved quickly in an exasperated nod.

“You were being attacked by the Damned, Lucas—by the Qalal.”

Lucas’s expression was one of confusion. She realized he didn’t know them by the name she gave.

“Humans call them vampires.”