Embrace the Night

Page 243



back gate.

The horse came to a gravel-scattering halt when they reached the block wall. With fingers that trembled, Sarah opened the gate, then drummed her heels into Necromancer's flanks once again.

She could hear Sydelle calling her name, but she paid no attention. Gabriel, she thought frantically. She had to find Gabriel.

The stallion's iron-shod hooves clattered loudly as he trotted down the middle of the street.

The horse snorted and shied as they reached the bottom of the hill. Sarah screamed as two dark shadows crept up behind her. Delano and Sydelle! How had they gotten there so fast?

With a shriek, Sarah jumped to the ground and sprinted up the walkway to the front door of the vacant house. With a sob, she flung the door open and raced inside.

"Gabriel!"

"Here."

She peered into the darkness, acutely conscious of the two vampires entering the house behind her.

And then she saw Gabriel. He was sitting with his back against the staircase. Moonlight poured through the sliding glass door a few feet away.

"Gabriel?" She ran to his side, Delano and Sydelle forgotten as she saw the dead vampires sprawled on the floor. Nausea rose in her throat when she saw Quillan's body. A wooden stake pierced the vampire's heart. "What happened?"

But Gabriel wasn't looking at her. He was staring at the door.
Afraid of what she'd see, Sarah glanced over her shoulder.

Delano and Sydelle stood silhouetted in the doorway. Even from across the room, Sarah could see the blood hunger burning in their eyes.

"The stake, Sarah," Gabriel said quietly. "Get it."

She looked at him as if he'd lost his mind, her whole being recoiling in horror at the thought of pulling the wood from the vampire's body.

"Do it!" Gabriel hissed, and only then did she notice how pale his face was.

Her gaze swept over him, and she saw the blood, blood so dark it was almost black, seeping from a hideous wound in his chest.

"Hurry," he said urgently.

She glanced at Delano and Sydelle, saw the rage contorting their faces. Bloodred tears welled in Delano's eyes as he stared at Quillan's body.