Embrace the Night

Page 6



"Watching you."

Thatfrightened her. He saw it in the way she shrank back against the pillows, in the sudden widening of her eyes as she realized that she was alone, and helpless.

"Watching me? Why?"

"I have watched over you since you were a child."

She smiled then, a faint expression of amusement and disbelief. "Are you my guardian angel?" "Exactly."

"And is your name Gabriel?"

He ignored the sarcasm in her voice. "If you wish."

She glanced at the bottle in her hand. "And have you come to take me to heaven?" "No," he said sadly. "That I could never do."

"To hell then?"

He shook his head. His sweet Sara would never see hell, he mused, unless she looked into the depths of his eyes.

On silent feet, he closed the distance between them, and took the bottle from her hand.
Too late, she tried to snatch it back.

"No, Sara," he said, shoving the bottle into the pocket of his trousers. "I'll not let you take your own life. Not now. Not ever."

"I have no life," she retorted bitterly. "I've never been anything but a burden, first to my family, and now to the sisters who must take care of me."

"That's not true."

"It is! Don't you think I know it is? Why else would my mother have abandoned me?"
"Sara." He whispered her name, stricken by the depths of the pain in her eyes.

"I'm nothing but a burden," she said again. "The sisters say they love me, but I know they'd be relieved if I was gone."

"Ah, my poor sweet Sara," he murmured, and before he quite realized what he was doing, he was sitting on the edge of the bed, drawing her into his arms.

How lovely she was, with her silky blond hair and eyes as blue as a robin's egg. Sweet Sara Jayne. So lovely. So fragile.