The Kingmakers(149)

Blinking her eyes against the new light, Adele realized she was back in Greyfriar's Kirkyard. She was alive, even though her stomach was twisting this way and that. Her neck hurt. The world spun, and the only thing that grounded her were the arms wrapped around her.

Gareth!

She turned her head, and her mouth opened in a scream of silent horror. His face was charred almost beyond recognition. His fangs protruded cruelly through lips that were burnt away.

“No, oh God. Please no!” Tears streamed, her throat convulsing as she choked on her wrenching sobs. “Gareth!”

This wasn't supposed to happen. She embraced him, not caring what he looked like, rocking him back and forth.

“Don't leave me. Please come back. Just open your eyes.”

But he did not stir.

The graveyard was serenely still except for her terrible weeping. There wasn't another living soul around them for miles. There was no one to be strong for anymore. Hours passed. Eventually, her tears dried on cold cheeks. Sounds came softly to her: a small bird's cry, a gentle wind rustling a tree branch. Life was returning to the kirkyard, all life but one.

Her fingers touched his blistered cheek. “Wake up, Gareth,” she begged him. “I need you.” But he didn't. He lay curled on his side, his terribly blackened head in her lap.

Baudoin had been right. She had been the end of Gareth.

No.

Mamoru had. His body still lay near them, a swath of blood pooled at his side. He was dead. He had once meant so much to her. He had always been there for her and this was how he showed his affection, controlling her like everyone else, everyone except Gareth. And now Mamoru had taken him from her also.

“You will never control me!” she shouted at the lifeless body. Tears were falling again, hot trails bleeding across her cheeks. “You think I'm weak. I'm not. My power belongs to me!”

There was such anger in her along with the anguish, but it had nowhere to go. She was alone. She hunched over Gareth, weeping. Her strength had fled from her, and she could do nothing but hold him.

“It isn't fair. We could have been happy.”

She fumbled for his hand, and she felt something soft. Her eyes widened. Charred skin was peeling away, leaving healthy pink flesh beneath.

His hand was healing.

Her body flinched when he took his first shallow breath. “Gareth!”

He stirred, unfolding from a fetal position, ash falling from him.

“Gareth! Wake up! Open your eyes!” Her body trembled so hard she thought she would fly apart. “Can you hear me?”

His eyes slitted. He blinked repeatedly as if trying to focus. His left hand lifted. “A-Adele?”

“Yes. Yes.” She choked and squeezed his hand. “I'm here.”

“Are we dead?”

“You were.”

His breathing quickened. “I was burning.” His other hand touched his face, where his skin had almost completely healed.

“I don't know how, but you're alive,” she told him.

“I drank your blood,” he whispered.

“What?” She reached up and touched her neck. There was dried blood on it.

“When you were gone. I wanted to be one with you before I…I thought it would…end my pain.”

“It should have. I don't understand. All the other times my geomancy almost killed you.”

“You tasted different. Like wind and rain. Clean. You've changed.”

“No. The Earth changed.” She swallowed hard. “All I remember is that I had to save you. I rearranged the ley lines to stop the flow of energy.”

“You did more than that. I'm different. I shouldn't be able to touch you.” Gareth shoved himself to a sitting position with her help. He touched his chest with a frightened expression. “Have I become human?”

Adele embraced him, her sobs now a joyful noise. His arms lifted around her as well. She laughed with a hiccupping breath as she pinched him as hard as she could. “Can you feel this?”

“No.”

“Still a vampire, I'd say.”

“Oh.”

“Don't sound so disappointed.”

Gareth held her head against him and whispered gently, his voice thick with uncustomary emotion. “I'm not. I just didn't expect to see you again.”

Her arms tried to clutch him, but she couldn't make them respond any longer. Her breath started to shudder as the shock of the last few hours captured her. She was too exhausted to speak, but she drank in the sight of him.

Gareth lifted Adele and carried her into the church beside them, away from the body and the blood on the ground. The sun shone in through the shattered windows, creating honey tones along the length of the building. Gareth found a small alcove under one of the intact arches. The dark timber in the ceiling was like the wings of a protector spread over them. He laid Adele gently down, kneeling over her as if she were the only icon he would ever pray to.