Embrace the Night

Page 219



wearily. "I've changed my mind."

"You loved her very much, didn't you?" "Yes."

"Why didn't you make her a… a vampire?" "She didn't want it."

He stared at her a moment, his gaze deep and mesmerizing, until she was hopelessly lost.

When she came to herself again, she was at home, sitting on the sofa with the blanket draped across her lap.

"Good-bye, Sarah," Gabriel said quietly. "I won't bother you again."
She blinked, and he was gone as if he'd never been there.

She sat there for a long while, their conversation replaying in her mind. She had lived before, had known him before. Memories crowded her mind, memories of Maurice and Antonina, of performing onstage at the Paris Opera, of living in the orphanage, of Sister Mary Josepha. She remembered sitting in a wheelchair, remembered the panic she'd felt as fire swept through her room. And she remembered Gabriel carrying her into the night, his dark eyes frightened. He had given her his blood, saved her life, restored strength to her legs so she could walk and dance.

He had loved her until the day she died…

It couldn't be true. She didn't believe in reincarnation. She didn't believe in vampires. The very thought was frightening. But fascinating.

Suddenly too agitated to sit still, she went into the kitchen and fixed herself a cup of hot chocolate, and all the while memories flooded her mind, memories of another life, and woven deep into the fabric of those memories was Gabriel: Gabriel reading to her, singing to her, holding her in his arms.

Gabriel begging her to go away that day she'd found him in the cellar… "Gabriel, my angel, please let me help you."

"Angel… angel…"He had laughed then, a horrible sound that bordered on hysteria. "Devil, you mean. Go away from me, Sara, my sweet Sara, before I destroy you as I destroyed Rosalia."

"I'm not leaving," she had said, and she had crossed the room and taken him in her arms. "Gabriel, please tell me what to do," she had pleaded.

With an inhuman growl of despair, he had whirled around to face her. "Go away!"

She had stared up at him, at eyes that blazed in the darkness like hell's own fires, and knew she was looking into the face of death.

"What's happened to you?" she had asked.