Embrace the Night

Page 45



"I can't explain it, cara. Only trust me. Believe me when I tell you that there's nothing to fear."

But she couldn't help being frightened. All day, she had avoided asking herself these questions. In the light of day, she could pretend everything was all right, that nothing out of the ordinary had happened to her. But she couldn't pretend anymore. She'd been badly burned, but it didn't hurt. Already, the signs of injury were disappearing; in a few days they'd probably be gone.

A soft oath escaped Gabriel's lips as he saw the anguish, the confusion, in Sara's eyes. Two long strides carried him to her bedside. Sweeping her into his arms, he carried her to his chair and sat down, cradling her in his arms as if she were a child.

He gazed deep into her eyes, bending her will to his. "Go to sleep, cara. There is nothing to fear. Sleep, cara mia. Sleep…"

He felt the tension drain out of her as her eyelids grew heavy. Moments later, she was asleep.
Chapter Eight

With the power of his mind, Gabriel willed Sara to sleep throughout the next day.
He rose with the onset of dusk. Changed his clothes. Left the catacombs, bound for the orphanage.

Dissolving into mist, he entered the building that had been Sara's home for the past thirteen years. In all that time, he had never ventured into any room but hers. The acrid smell of smoke hung over the house.

He moved down the hallway, peering into the kitchen, the parlor. A large room filled with books and toys, easels and paints, was located at the end of the hallway. Inside, two nuns watched over a dozen children engaged in a variety of activities.

Instinctively, he passed by the chapel, and the small rooms where the nuns slept.

The upstairs was mostly bedrooms. The room above Sara's was only a blackened shell. Part of the floor had burned away; he could see where the flames had burned their way down the wall behind Sara's bed. It was a miracle she had survived, that she hadn't been burned even worse than she was.

He found several of the nuns gathered together in a small upstairs room, quietly discussing the fire, and the condition of one of the children who had been badly burned. He heard Sara's name mentioned several times.

And then Sister Mary Josepha entered the room.

"I spoke to Father Andre," she said. "He thinks I imagined the whole thing. But I didn't! I know what I saw." Tears welled in the old nun's eyes. "He took Sara Jayne," she said, her voice filled with despair. "That monster took her."

"Perhaps we should notify the police," one of the nuns suggested.

"What could they do against such evil?" Sister Mary Josepha shook her head. "They probably wouldn't believe me any more than the good father did."