Embrace the Night

Page 244



Closing her eyes, Sarah wrapped her hands around the wooden stake and jerked it free, and then she scooted back toward Gabriel.

"What now?" she asked, but she didn't need or expect an answer. Everything she needed to know was written on the faces of the two vampires as they slowly stepped into the entry hall and closed the door.

Sarah was shivering now. Cold sweat beaded across her brow and ran in cold rivers down her back. Try as she might, she couldn't draw her eyes from the two vampires. She was going to die, she thought, here, tonight.

There was one brief moment when everything seemed to happen in slow motion.
A soft grunt of pain escaped Gabriel's lips as he stood up.

She saw Delano bare his fangs as he lunged forward, his hands looking like claws as he reached for Gabriel's throat.

And then Sydelle sprang toward her, and time ceased to exist. The vampire's strength was incredible. Sarah gasped as she was driven backward. The breath whooshed from her lungs as she fell against the staircase. Her head struck one of the steps and bright lights flashed before her eyes. She felt Sydelle's hands wrap around her throat, heard a blood curdling growl as the vampire attacked her. Using her teeth and her fingernails, Sydelle savaged Sarah's face and neck.

Fear lent strength to Sarah's limbs and she began to struggle wildly. Lifting her arm, she jabbed the stake she was still holding into the vampire's side.

With a roar, Sydelle plucked the stake from Sarah's hand and flung it aside. And then Sarah felt the woman's fangs at her throat. There was a sharp pain, and then everything went out of focus. The room and its occupants seemed to blur. As if from far away, she heard sounds of a struggle. Gabriel was fighting for his life, she thought numbly. She had to help him. But her arms and legs refused to move, and then everything went black…

She was drifting, floating on a sea of darkness, when she heard his voice. He was crying, and the sound of his heartache made her want to cry, too.

Crying, she thought, and she knew in that instant that Gabriel was crying for her, because she was dying.

The knowledge didn't frighten her as it should have. She looked around, puzzled by the darkness. Where was the tunnel and the bright light everyone talked about, she wondered.

And then she heard his voice again, sobbing for her to come back, pleading with her not to leave him again. Begging her to forgive him for what he was about to do.

She tried to speak, tried to tell him that everything would be all right, but she no longer had the power to speak.

She heard his voice grow faint as she floated farther and farther away. She tried to call his name, tried to tell him she would find him again no matter how long it took, but it was too late… too late…

She was on the very brink of oblivion when a sudden warmth filled her. It was thick and hard to swallow, but it drew her back from the edge of the abyss. She felt it course through her body, and then