Embrace the Night

Page 192



She stared up at him, her arms hanging limply at her sides. "It's July first," she said, her voice ragged.
Gabriel nodded, not comprehending.

"It would have been our fourth anniversary." Tears welled in her eyes and cascaded down her cheeks. "Natalie would have been two."

"Sarah…"

"Why?" She screamed the word at him. "Why did it happen?" Sobs shook her body as she pummeled his chest with her fists. "Why didn't we stay home that night? Why didn't I die, too?"

She hit him again and again, needing to vent her anger, to unleash the rage she had kept carefully bottled up for the past six months. And all the while she asked the same question over and over again: Why, why, why?

He had no answer, only stood there while her tightly clenched fists pounded against his chest and tears streamed down her cheeks, until she collapsed against him, like a puppet whose strings had been cut.

Murmuring her name, he swept her into his arms and cradled her against his chest, holding her effortlessly.

And still the tears came, with no sign of letting up.

Gabriel glanced around. There weren't many people wandering through the park at this time of night—a couple of kids pawing each other in the shadows, a vagrant snoring beneath a tree—yet Gabriel felt the need to get her inside, away from prying eyes.

Settling her more firmly in his arms, he started walking.

It took several minutes for Sarah to realize they were leaving the park. "Where are you going?" "I'm taking you home."

"No! I can't go back there." She couldn't face that dark, empty house, couldn't face the memories that were waiting to engulf her. She shuddered, as though overcome with a chill. "Not tonight."

"All right."

She went limp in his arms, trusting him without knowing why, or maybe simply too emotionally wrung out to care what happened to her.

She closed her eyes, her cheek resting against his chest. Cool air feathered over her face as he walked along, his footsteps light and even, as if he were floating instead of walking. She seemed to hear his voice inside her mind, urging her to relax, to rest, assuring her that everything would be all right. And she believed him. It felt good to have someone taking care of her again, even if that someone was a stranger.

He'd gone only a few blocks when he felt the tension drain out of her and knew she'd fallen asleep. It was a long walk to the mansion, but he carried her easily, using the power of his mind to cloak their