NEWBORN: Book One of the Newborn Trilogy (23 page)

Silence!
I roar at her.

“You’re staying with Merri,” Gabriel says,
finality to his voice. “You’re getting sleep. There’s real danger
out there, Nora. We could run into a vampire coven out hunting.
There’s no telling in these woodlands, in this part of the
country,” he adds darkly, his face illuminated in the licking
flames.

I’m too exhausted to argue more. I do have
class tomorrow. Homework I haven’t done. Still haven’t read
Sordello
…

“Fine then,” I tell Gabriel. “If you’re going
to be a jerk about it I’ll stay.” But I can’t keep the grin off my
face as I say this, which subsequently ruins the terse effect I
planned. “Go off and hunt without me. Never mind the fact I’ll be
here getting eaten! Look,” I remark, gesturing to the rounded stone
grate, “the vampires have a fireplace to cook me on right here. How
convenient!”

Gabriel is staring me down. “That’s not
funny. Not funny at all. For your information, vampires don’t cook
their meat. They like it raw and runny,” he says slowly, his eyes
flashing. Is he trying to freak me out? “So stay
here
, Nora.
Stay where you are safe! Promise you will stay put?”

“What am I, a child?”

“Promise you will,” he repeats.

I roll my eyes. “Fine, I will.”

“Promise!”

“Alright, alright,” I say, raising my hands.
“I promise!”

Geez, he needs to get a grip.

Gabriel sighs and stares into the fire. “Go
to sleep. Merri will be keeping guard. Stay awake, Merri,” he
instructs his owl, patting her plumed feathers. “Keep Nora safe for
me while I’m away. She may need you.”

“She doesn’t need to stay awake for me,” I
tell him. “She must be tired after her hunt. Let her sleep.”

Gabriel shakes his head. “Merri’s fine. She
slept all morning. It’s nothing for an owl to stay up at night.
They sleep during the day, remember? They must have taught you in
school. I can never imagine what they spend all those years
teaching you Immags when you’re not learning magic.”

“You’re rubbing it in, aren’t you?”

Turquoise eyes are alight. “Not at all. I’m
curious.”

“Well,” I begin, “In first and second grade
we –”

“That,” Gabriel interrupts grandly, “is a
subject for another time. Now you must sleep. Merrifeather must
guard. I must hunt. We can talk about how wizard and Immag syllabi
differ later.”

Merri hoots gently at the fire.

Stretching with a yawn, I lay down on the
couch as Gabriel stands, his wand twirling in his hand. Plumping a
pillow, I lay my head on it softly. I can’t help but feel my wizard
friend is waiting for something. I get a suspicion. “Are you
waiting for me to go to sleep so you can curse me?”

“Never!” he exclaims, looking injured. “You
think I’m cowardly?”

I say, “I didn’t say that.”

Gabriel narrows his eyes as he gazes at me.
Nearly prostrate before him. “You basically did,” he says, “but I
can’t think about that now. I must go. Promise again you won’t
leave until I return.”

Sighing, I look up at him. “You must think
I’m a complete idio –”

“Promise!” he exclaims.

“I promise!” I’m rolling my eyes.

Geez, is he always like this at night?

“Good,” he says. “Merri is here. The charms
are in place. Go to sleep.”

Curling up against my pillow, I stare up at
him while twisting my hair around my finger. “I need one more thing
before you go.”

He looks wary. “What?”

“Can’t you guess?”

Hardly missing a beat, Gabriel leans down and
kisses me on the lips. Once, swiftly. He’s gone, running off
through the trees. Now I’m all alone. All alone in this clearing
except for Merrifeather. I stare at her. Her head swivels in all
directions, her enormous amber eyes missing nothing.

Readjusting to get comfortable, I gaze into
the fireplace. I wonder how long the fire will burn. It’s already
outlived any fire I’ve ever known. It’s probably never-ending.
Maybe Gabriel has to cast it out with his wand.

My body weary, my thoughts go on for a time
until they grow weary as well. My eyelids droop first. Then my
consciousness, cascading down a flight of stairs until it no longer
sees the world. Everything feels fake – manufactured like Gabriel’s
fire in the night. It’s wonderful, too. So wonderful…

* * *

White abounds in every direction. I feel as
though I can see for miles despite the tree fringe obscuring my
view. I blink against the whiteness. It’s almost blinding but not
quite. I can see. I’m glad I can. So glad.

Gabriel and I are lying next to each other on
a bed of white linens. No covers or comforters – simple sheets. We
are between the layers. Naked. At least I am. I can’t see all of
him from this angle, but I can see enough.

Turquoise eyes burn in contrast to the white
while blond hair is messy atop his head. We’re facing each other.
His skin is so… so smooth to my eyes. How about my fingers? Slowly,
so slowly, I reach out a hand and caress his face. The flesh is
warm beneath my touch. So smooth. So warm.

Moist lips open, but I brush my thumb across
them, silencing him. My ears must rest while my touch is so alive.
Cascading skin flows down a muscular neck into a chest of marble.
I’ve never seen Gabriel shirtless before. Now he’s before me, half
naked at least and ready for my caress.

Gingerly, I slide fingers down his cheek to
his neck, feeling electricity pop between us. It’s wonderfully
sensual to my consciousness. I see he wants to speak, but his lips
remain still. Have I silenced him permanently? Maybe
I
am
magical, too? Oh the wicked things I would do…

My touch travels his midriff, playing his
button a moment before sliding up his side and curling around his
left nipple. My thumb strokes him there. Turquoise eyes are upon
me, seeming robotic.

“Have you a secret to tell me?” I ask.

A long moment. “Nora Saynt,” his lips say at
last, “or are you Nora Rae? Who are you? To whom do you
belong?”

I stare at him. The turquoise of his gaze is
unmoving. “Oh, Gabriel,” I tell him, swooping in for a kiss, “you
must know I belong to you! Take me as your witch, won’t you? Take
me to Magasant! I want to learn magic! You must, Gabriel! This
Immag world is wrong for me!”

“You,” Gabriel murmurs.

“What?”

Turquoise eyes close. “You…”

“What?” I repeat.

He smiles against his pillow. “You’re the one
with the secret…”

Panic explodes. “I don’t understand!”

“Never tell it to me,” Gabriel says, opening
his eyes. “Your secret. If you do, we can never be together.
Understand?”

“No!” I’m aghast. “I don’t!”

“I know,” he says, eyes drifting shut again.
“I always know, Nora. I am a wizard. I know everything a wizard
ought to know. Including your secret. Have you not pieced together
what I’ve said? We can never be together because I
already
know. This is the end of everything you desire!”

“No!” I yell at him. “You must be
mistaken!”

“I know,” he tells me quietly, “about the
wolf…”

Horror striking, I open my mouth. To tell him
he’s mistaken. To tell him there is no other. To tell him I’m his
for eternity.

My mouth opens far wider than I intend. For
turquoise eyes are open and terribly still. Death stares at me like
the single, long werewolf claw emanating from Gabriel’s heart. I’m
screaming. Louder than I’ve ever screamed in my life.

The bed is soaking in blood. It flows over
the marble of Gabriel’s white flesh, is matted in the blond his
hair, and fills his pupils obscuring turquoise. Blood soaks me to
the bone, covering my skin and filling my insides where it travels
up to my throat, splattering the night with a scream.

* * *

I bolt upright. My scream dies in my throat
when I recognize the clearing. It’s dark. I’m shaking all over and
covered in sweat. I can still see Gabriel staring at me through
red, dead eyes. My heart is beating madly. My eyes reflecting the
blood-splattered white of cool linen sheets. I can still feel
them.

I’m hungry for the first time in a long
time.

But I can’t think of food. My nightmare is so
real. We were
here
– in this clearing – except on a bed, not
a couch. Gabriel… something so eerie about him. Yet his flesh was
so good, so warm, so ripe for plucking.

Looking around, my eyes are blinded by
darkness. It was so bright in my dream, the whiteness complete. Now
the darkness is enveloping. When my eyes adjust I don’t see
Merrifeather anywhere. I’m more than a little dissonant. She was
supposed to stay! Perhaps she got hungry.

Lying back against the couch, I stare up at
the stars. They are populous as ever, strewing the sky with their
starriness. What an odd nightmare. I hoped my first dream with
Gabriel would be positive…

My thoughts a twisted mess, I relax my body.
Before long the cushioned couch is a swaying hammock. I wonder – if
I’m safe in neither the waking world nor the sleeping world, where
am I safe?

Something is
eating my foot. Blinking the sleep from my eyes, I sit up. Merri
stops pecking my shoe long enough to offer me a hoot. I brush my
hair back with my hands. “Good morning, Merri.”

The clearing is sparkling in morning
splendor. A spattering of dew covers everything and bird calls are
issuing around me. The chorus is so loud I’m surprised I wasn’t
woken by it. The sunlight shining through the trees is happy and
unrepressed, as though recently freed from a smothering cloud.

Stretching, my back issues several cracks.
Gabriel’s fire has dwindled to embers. So much for magic! I wonder
if it rained. I’m dry as fresh laundry. Gabriel’s ‘safety spells’
might guard against it though.

I feel silly about last night. I was
frightened about nothing. Nothing came to hunt me. Nothing came to
hurt me. My courage is dauntless now daybreak is here. Light is my
savior, for with light I can see my enemy and run.

I watch a squirrel bury a nut. It’s so
peaceful here. I take in the scenes of a forest busy about morning
– chipmunks running in all directions, birds swooping everywhere, a
gopher trundling by in no particular hurry.

Eventually I get to wondering. I have no idea
what time it is. Am I missing class?

Where is Gabriel? I assumed he’d be back in
the morning. How far could he have gone? When will he be back? How
long does he expect me to wait? Questions buzz in my brain like
bees looking for pollen. They don’t find any.

Come on, Gabriel! What’s taking you so long?
You can translocate!

He’s forgotten about you
, remarks my
alter ego.
You’re forgettable, Nora.

Wish I could forget you!
I tell
her.

I’m beginning to worry. What if something
happened to him? What could happen? He said no vampire could take
him. Unless ambushed…

Fucking shitballs!

What if he got ambushed? He could need my
help! Yet here I am stuck in this clearing. What if he’s tied up or
something? What if Amoretta is having her way with him? Yet here I
am sitting on my hands!

Gabriel told me to stay. Geez, he must think
I can’t do anything. I may not have magic or sharp claws and teeth
but I’m smart. That’s my weapon, I realize. I can fight their
weapons with my brain!

Refreshed and ready for action, I leap up.
Merri hoots warningly. I should ask her. Going to her, I pet her
white plumage.

“Do you know where Gabriel is?” Amber eyes
stare at me, unresponsive. Then, all of a sudden, the owl launches
from the couch and flies into the trees without so much as a hoot.
“Wait!” I cry after her. “Wait for me!”

I dash forward and stop, staring at the edge
of the clearing. Gabriel told me not to leave this enclosure, this
safe zone. He’d be furious if I did. He
may
be in trouble,
though. He can’t be mad if I rescue him.

Where did Merrifeather go? To get her master?
Am I supposed to follow? Whose directions am I supposed to follow –
Gabriel’s or Merri’s?

Stupid owl! She is supposed to stay with me!
Gabriel said she would. Ugh! I can so easily see Gabriel’s
patronizing gaze as I explain why I left the safety of the
clearing. I can also see the incredulity on his face as I explain
that Merri flying off into the woods was too cryptic an
instruction. Geez, it’s easy to imagine Gabriel being critical.

Do I stay or go?

I feel my anxiety creeping over me. It’s like
a living thing, with a pulse and evil intentions. It wants to
consume my soul. I shake it off but it keeps coming – its claws
jagged and tingly. Then it’s all over me, inside me, wreaking havoc
on my consciousness. I must be free of it! I can’t take this
anymore! I’m looking for Gabriel!

Breathing heavily, I walk across the
clearing’s boundary.

Nothing happens.

Gabriel made such a big deal about staying in
the sphere of protection I imagined
something
occurring –
sparks popping or a shield melting. Nothing. The fact boosts my
confidence. I’m striding into the loam without a backward glance.
Following Merri’s path, I embrace the forest as my own.

I wonder as to Gabriel’s whereabouts. If
something captured him, what chance do I have? He’s a fully trained
wizard. I’m a clumsy human. The odds aren’t great. I think of
Merrifeather. What if she’s captured, too?

It’s up to me to save both of them. I must
face whatever captor is tormenting them. Vampire or werewolf. What
would a pack of werewolves do to a wizard? Wolf’s words pop into my
mind. Maybe. Would they torture him?

They better not torture my wizard! Not my…
lover
. Last night’s dream flashes before my eyes. I see
Gabriel, white as marble on the bed. I see the radiance of his gaze
and feel the electricity of our connection. White falls to red – to
blood – so my imagination is soaked through. Dead.