Moonless Night

Chapter 14

  "I wouldn't do that if I were you."

  "Who's there!" Gabriel demanded, moving swiftly away from the door, pulling me along with him. We now stood halfway between the strangely familiar voice and the Kurans.

  Without a sound, even to my heightened senses, a tall unbelievably beautiful yet familiar man stepped through the front door. As soon as I saw him, my heart went ablaze and my body went rigid.

  "Stella?" Gabriel said, worry in his tone.

  I would've been surprised by that but I was too busy being burned by the...the presence of the newcomer. I hadn't gotten a good look at him, though, as my eyes went white hot. Heat burned in my chest and began to expand, consuming my whole being instantly. It was like being struck by lightning. Bolts of heat and electricity flowed through me wave after wave.

  But there was no pain.

  Unlike when I connected to Evan, there wasn't an ounce of pain to the heat. The fire flowing through me at this moment was different. It was stronger. Purer. Raw power flowed through my veins hotter than blood.

  My heart beat stronger and harder, but not faster. It slowed unnaturally to calm, even sporadic beats belying the fiery heat coursing through me. Along with the heat came an addictive strength I'd only felt once before. The feeling of having complete, no, absolute control over my body and mind.

  The newcomer had given me great ecstasy, but who was he?

  My vision returned in a flash and the heat receded to my heart once again, only leaving a dull trace and my new strength. The newcomer appeared before my eyes and I couldn't help wondering exactly how long I'd been standing there in my own burning trance.

  'Only a second.'

  I stared at the man who's harmonious voice resounded in my mind. He was tall and had ivory smooth skin. He wore a long, black trench coat that flowed all the way to his ankles, and knee-length boots that had so many straps I wondered how he had the patience to do them all. That normally would have taken my attention, as I love boots like that, but my attention had been taken by the man's face.

  He was even more beautiful than the Seventh and Gabriel, and that's saying something. Even though he looked only about twenty, the man had long snow white hair that flew around him like a curtain of snow. It was surprising but what shocked me the most was his eyes. They were emerald. My emerald. And I had only seen one other person with that eerie shade of green.

  It was the man who rescued me from Leance Simmons. That was obvious, but why did he suddenly just appear? And why was Evan sighing in relief at his presence? Could he possibly know the stranger with my eyes?

  "You're...what're you doing here?" I asked in surprise.

  The man smiled at me, showing his perfectly white teeth, but said nothing.

  Gabriel stared down at me. "You know him?"

  I frowned. "You could say that..."

  "Where have I heard that before?" Aliss murmured to Kaspian not-so-quietly.

  Gabriel glanced at her and shook his head, rolling his eyes. He turned back to the man. "What do you mean? Why shouldn't I do it? We had a deal. And who are you anyway? What are you? You don't smell like a human, but you don't smell like a vampire either."

  I blinked. How could that beautiful man be neither? Are there other creatures than humans and vampires in this world? Well, there was no evidence disputing it but... Wait, this is not the time to be thinking this!