Embrace the Night

Page 247



"You're sure?"

Sarah frowned at him. "Why wouldn't I be all right?"

Wordlessly, Gabriel carried her up the stairs into the kitchen, sat her in one of the antique ladder-back chairs she had bought on one of her shopping sprees.

Going to the refrigerator, he poured her a large glass of orange juice.

Handing her the glass, Gabriel sat down in the chair next to Sarah's, his gaze intent upon her face as she drank the juice.

"What do you remember about last night?" he asked. "Last night?" Sarah shook her head. "I don't remember any…"

Gently, Gabriel pulled his hand from hers. Going to the window, he stared into the lowering darkness. It was going to storm again. He could hear the thunder in the distance, smell the rain. If he let his mind open fully, he could hear the conversation of the people in the next house, smell the exhaust of the cars on the street below.

"Gabriel?"

"You almost died last night," he replied quietly. "I couldn't let you go. I couldn't. Do you understand?"
"No." She stared at his back, wondering why he sounded so troubled, whyhewouldn't look at her.

"Forgive me," he said, his voice raw with self-reproach. "I couldn't hold you in my arms and watch you die again." His hands balled into tight fists. "I gave you my blood, Sarah. That's why you can hear my thoughts inside your head so clearly. It's why you're feeling so strange, why you're afraid to let me out of your sight."

Slowly, he turned around to face her. "You are a part of me now, bonded to me by the blood we share." Will you be my slave or my equal? His words, spoken weeks ago, echoed in her mind.

She remembered the night she had given him her blood. Am I your slave now? she had asked, and when he had assured her that she wasn't, she had blithely replied that she wouldn't mind being his slave. Now that it seemed to be a fact, she wondered if that was still true.

"What does it mean, exactly?" she asked. "Being bonded? How long will it last?"

"It will last as long as you live," Gabriel replied. "No matter where you go, or what you do, I'll be able to find you."

"And will I be able to find you?"

"Yes, always," he promised, though he knew that, should he desire, he could shut her out of his mind, but that was something he would never do.

"Can you make me do things I don't want to do?"