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Blood Is Chapter 16
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Do I really have to mention that I don't own Castlevania? If I did, we would have gotten to see Julius curbstomp Dracula, the storyline would have been neatened up a bit, and Dracula and Alucard would have just HUGGED already after the reveal in Lords of Shadow 2.
Summary: Lords of Shadow Continuity: AU to Mirror of Fate and Lords of Shadow 2: Trevor wasn't the only one that had the truth of his parentage kept from him by the Brotherhood.
A/N: I keep picturing Gabriel wearing Dracula's coat, even though he doesn't have it here.
A/N 2: For those of you that dislike crying!Gabriel (And I KNOW that some of you do.) he's pretty much done now. There will still be a few tears here and there (like when he meets Trevor) but this is really the last hurrah for the tears pouring, deep sobbing version of him.
16.
Your parents didn't want you, Gabriel.
It is your time, Gabriel.
You are a good man, Gabriel.
Greatness awaits you, Gabriel.
"Gabriel?"
Search your soul, Gabriel.
Come to us, Gabriel.
Come to the front, Gabriel.
"Gabriel?"
God doesn't love you, Gabriel!
"Gabriel, wake up."
"Marie?" He didn't bother to open his eyes. He was tired, and he wanted to sleep a little more. He would see about hunting down a rabbit for dinner like she wanted later. He just wanted to rest... He yawned, and he heard a soft chuckle, and a blanket was pulled over him, followed by a hand that ran gently over his hair.
"Get your rest, Gabriel. We'll talk later."
******
The sun was going down, and he was thirsty. He heard five other heartbeats close to him, one right next to him, a second a few feet away, two others several feet further, and the last quite some distance away. A familiar scent touched his nose as he woke up, and he realized as soon as he opened his eyes that he was still in his and Marie's bed. A wool blanket had been pulled over him, and his head was resting on Marie's pillow. He raised his head and saw a tall man, wearing chain mail armor and carrying a large two handed sword standing by the bedroom door. It was his heart beat that was only a few feet away, so where was the closer one...?
"Hello, Gabriel." came a familiar voice, and he looked to the left of the bed and found the last person he expected sitting there.
"You came here for me." he said quietly, and Edeline Cronqvist – his mother - smiled faintly and nodded.
"I did."
"Why?"
"Because I wanted to make sure that you were safe, because I want you to come home, and because I love you."
Gabriel sat up. "Why?"
"Because you are my son."
We had named you Mathias.
Gabriel was born Mathias Cronqvist.
He turned his head away and stared at a loose thread in the quilt. "They took me away. They took me from you."
Edeline nodded slowly. "When you were four days old, they attacked the house while your father and I were away. They killed everyone that stood in their path, and they had long vanished into the night with you by the time your father and I made it home." She stood up and moved to sit on the bed beside him, and she reached out to touch him. He allowed it this time, and he closed his eyes as she gently ran her fingers through his hair. "We looked everywhere for you, but we had nothing to tell us who had taken you. Everyone that got close to those men died, even your nurse died protecting you. There was no ransom, and it was as though you had vanished off the face of the earth." Her hand slid off of his hair and came down to cup his cheek. "We had to give you up as dead, forever lost to us, but I spent every night begging God to return you to me somehow, and.. here you are." Her hand dropped away.
Gabriel closed his eyes and bowed his head. "I heard them talking about me." he said after a few minutes had passed in silence. "I heard everything. They took me, and then they told me that I hadn't been wanted! They lied to me!" He took a shuddering breath, and his next words came out as a miserable sounding croak as a few tears ran down his face. "Why did they do that to me?"
"Gabriel..." He opened his eyes and looked at his mother's face. Her eyes, which were as green as his own, were also damp, and she opened her arms and wrapped them around his trembling shoulders. He felt her try to tug him over, and he resisted, but...
"I just want to hold you, Gabriel, while you are upset. Please let me do this for you."
… he couldn't resist that plea. He sighed and let himself be pulled over to her, and he laid his head down on her shoulder and closed his eyes again. So this is what a motherly hug felt like. One of her hands came up to run through his hair while the other rested on his arm. He could feel her arm against his back, and he relaxed into her embrace without thinking about it. This... this was nice. He took a deep breath, sighed again, and allowed himself to relax.
Around them he could hear the sounds of the night, the crickets, the owls, and other nocturnal creatures. He could hear the soft murmuring of the two men in the other room, as well as the breathing of the one standing guard at the door, but above all of that, he could hear a heartbeat, his mother's heartbeat. It sounded in his ears: steady, constant, and oddly comforting.
"I'm sorry." he whispered.
"Whatever for?"
"I didn't believe you when you were only trying to tell me the truth."
"In your place, I don't think.. I would have believed us either. I imagine it all seemed a little too good to be true to you."
"I don't know what to believe right now." He felt the arm around his back tighten for a second.
"I never want to let go of you again." He felt a kiss on the back of his head. "I love you."
He sat up and looked at her and did his best to ignore the heartache he felt when her arms let go of him. "Are you here to try and convince me to go back with you?"
"That was part of my reason for following you, yes." Her hand ran through his hair again. "I can't make you do anything that you don't want to, Gabriel, but I needed to see that you were safe, and... your father and I do want you to come home."
"Why isn't he here too?"
"Because he has duties that he couldn't leave. He did want to come; he's probably worrying himself sick about us right now, but he just couldn't get away."
"You're not telling me something. What is it?"
His mother sighed and bowed her head for a second before she looked up and met his gaze. "You uncle, your father's brother, did not like you presence in the house, and your father feared that he would try to do something without your father around to keep him under watch."
"Because I'm a vampire?"
"That's part of it, I'm sure. Gabriel, when you vanished from your cradle, you uncle's son, your cousin Adelar, became the heir apparent, the one intended to inherit when your father passed on. With you and Trevor -"
"Who is Trevor?" Gabriel looked at her sharply. "I keep hearing that name. Who is he?"
She looked at him for a long moment without answering. Then: "He is your son."
"Son? I have no children. Marie and I -"
"You do. Marie had him while you were away for a year, and somehow Volpe and the others managed to convince her to keep knowledge of him from you. After we took you from the castle, you father went and took Trevor from the Brotherhood, and he is at home, waiting for you."
No, that couldn't be right! Marie wouldn't never do such a thing! "No! Marie and I never had any children!"
"Yes, you did, Gabriel, and Volpe had plans for him as well. He really did not want your father taking him."
"Plans..."
Trevor as well. His destiny is intertwined with Gabriel's, so we need them both.
Gabriel bowed his head and hid his face in his hands again. What did this all mean? Thinking about it was giving him a headache.
"I need to feed," he said quietly as he slid off the bed and stood up, "before I do anything else." He started to walk out of the room, but his name being called stopped him at the door.
"Gabriel." He turned to see his mother still sitting on the edge of the bed, and she turned her head to look at him. "Even if you don't want to come back with me, please at least come back here, so I can say goodbye. Will you do that for me?"
He paused with on hand resting on the door frame. Then he nodded. "I will." He then quickly moved out of the house, and into the surrounding forest.
His ears quickly picked up the heartbeat on a nearby deer, and he stalked after it, his mind awhirl with everything he had heard over the past three nights. It bounded away to try and escape, but he streaked forward, grabbed it by the antlers, wrenched its head to the side and bit down deeply into the large artery running down the side of the its neck. A spray of hot blood hit the back of his mouth, and he closes his eyes as he drank.
We had to remove him.
We couldn't risk him ever finding out the truth.
Gabriel will soon be back within our grasp and under our control once more.
I never want to let go of you again. I love you.
Your father and I do want you to come home.
He is your son.
He groaned in confusion as he shoved the animal's dried up husk away from him and clutched his head in his hands. Why? Why did the Brotherhood take him? Why did they lie to him? Why.. why had they taken his son away? Why hadn't Marie told him! He slumped down to the ground and curled up into a ball. What was the point of leaving him all alone? Had Volpe known what had happened to him? Why hadn't he tried to help? He threw back his head and howled, and the sound sent the birds flying from the trees and the ground animals running away in terror. Why!
He heard running footsteps crashing through the underbrush, and two heartbeats approached him.
"Gabriel?" came his mother's voice as she knelt down beside him. "Gabriel, what happened? Are you all right?" He felt her hands on him, nudging him into a sitting position, and as he sat up, He looked at her face. At the concern he could see there, concern for him, concern and worry. Marie had looked at him like that on multiple occasions, back when they were younger and getting into trouble, but he'd never been looked at that way by a parental figure. His childhood minders had worried about him when he'd gotten hurt or fallen ill, but it was not the same as what he was seeing on his mother's face.
He needed another hug.
"Gabriel?"
He leaned into her, felt her arms come around him and pull him close, and he laid his head down as her heartbeat sounded in his ears. He knew that someone else was standing close by, a guard most likely, but he ignored him. He had been waiting his entire life for this, and nothing was going to spoil it. He let out a small "Mmmm," of contentment when one of her hands began to stroke his hair, and he heard her chuckle quietly.
After a few minutes, she shifted, and he sat up, which allowed her to stand. She then tugged him to his feet and looked up at him.
"What do you want to do, Gabriel?" she asked him, and he heard her heartbeat quicken as the faint, sour scent of fear touched his nose. She was afraid, afraid of his answer, afraid that he would walk away and leave her behind.
"I want..." he looked down at his booted feet as his thoughts ran in circles again. "I want..." He forced himself to raise his head and look at her. "I want to go home..." Her face fell. "... with you."
Her aged face lit up with a wide smile, and her clouded green eyes shone as she tugged his head down so she could kiss him on the forehead. He smiled; he was quickly learning to enjoy parental affection. She stepped to the side, slipped an arm around his waist, and began to walk him back to the cottage. The guard followed them, and once they were back inside, she looked around the living room, and asked:
"Is there anything you want to take with you?"
He looked around, ignoring the guards scattered about, and looked over everything that he and Marie had accumulated during the course of their five years of marriage. He stepped away from his mother's side, and began to walk slowly through the cottage. He ran his fingertips over furniture, clothing, blankets, the few books that they possessed. Books, being rare and expensive, were a rare sight in most households, and their neighbors considered it a sign of great wealth that he and his wife owned a total of four of them.
No, there was nothing in the front of the house that he wanted. He wandered back into the bedroom and looked upon their bed, where they had lain together so many times, talking quietly about their future in the dark, children they hoped to have, expansions to the house that would be needed to accommodate them all, figuring how Marie would care for the children and household alone while he was out on long missions. He ran his fingers over the quilt top, and then he pulled if off the bed and bundled it up into a ball in his arms. He bowed his head over it and walked out into the living room, where he found everyone else preparing to leave.
"Are you ready to go?" his mother asked him, and he paused for a moment, before he nodded without saying a word. "The carriage is down by the road." He looked up as she turned to the guard that had followed her to check on him. "Sir Pershan?"
"Right away, my lady." The older man nodded, and he turned to one of the other guards and began issuing orders. Gabriel tuned most of it out, but he heard enough to know that he was sending the other to make sure the carriage was ready and to ensure that no one was watching them. They waited for a few minutes, and then they began to file out of the house and walk down the narrow drive towards the road.
About halfway down the drive, Gabriel stopped and turned, and he looked at his old home one last time. He stared at it for a long moment, and then he forced himself to turn away and continue walking as his felt his mother's arm come around his waist again. He bowed his head again as they walked down the dirt drive, and he never looked up, not even when a carriage door opened just in front of him, and he climbed right without hesitating. He sat down on the bench inside, and it was then, as his mother climbed in with him, that he raised his head.
"I've been in this carriage before." he said as she sat down across from him. The door closed behind her, he heard the four guards climbing up into saddles, and then there was the crack of reins, the neighing of horses, and the carriage began to move.
She smiled at him. "You have." she said. "We brought you home from the castle in this carriage."
"You went all the way over there? To get me?"
"As soon as we found out you were there."
"Could you tell me about it?"
She smiled at him again, moved to sit next to him, and he leaned against her as she began to speak.
"We realized that you might still be alive when we saw Cardinal Volpe at the market, and..."
Gabriel smiled faintly as her arm came around his shoulders, and he closed his eyes and listened to her voice as the carriage rolled down the road through the night.
******
The sound of the horses' hooves on the dirt road, the creaking of the carriage wheels, the chirping of birds, the murmured conversation of the guards, all of those filled Edeline's ears as she dozed, leaning against the corner of the carriage walls. Gabriel was lying on the bench beside her, asleep with his head on her lap, and one of her hands idly stroked his hair.
Their journey home from Gabriel and Marie's cottage had so far mirrored their return from the castle, with the biggest difference being that Gabriel was awake and aware of himself. Like they had before, the stopped at inns along the way, but Gabriel did not sleep like he had before. Instead he would hunt for the blood he needed once everyone else was asleep, and then he would return to the inn and sit out the night, talking quietly with whichever guard was on watch. He would then sleep away the day while they were riding in the carriage.
When they were awake at the same time, he would ask her for stories: about the home and family he was returning to, about her, about his father, about the son that was waiting on him. When she couldn't tell him stories, Sir Pershan could, and she often fell asleep to his voice, telling Gabriel hilarious stories of Wolfram as a child, stories that would probably make her husband blush beet red once he found out. When they weren't talking about family, they spoke of the training that each had undergone, their fellow knights and soldiers, and the battles they had fought. It made Edeline smile to hear Gabriel bonding with Sir Pershan, and she hoped that one day they would be as close as Wolfram was to his old friend.
One thing they had encountered that no one, not even Gabriel himself, had expected was that Gabriel could eat normally. Like a human, he found the smell of food and drink enticing, and he had tried some once they had stopped the night after they began their return journey. He couldn't eat very much, because he felt that his stomach would revolt if he ate more than he should, and no one, not even him, knew what happened to the food he did eat, but he could do it. Since then he had joined them for meals, and Edeline found that she greatly enjoyed sharing a meal with her son.
A deep rut in the road rocked the carriage, which jolted her to full awareness. She raised her head and blinked her eyes as she looked around, and then she looked down at Gabriel. The hard jolt had not disturbed him, and she tucked the quilt that they had brought from his old home around his shoulders before she knocked on the side of the carriage and called out to the guard.
"How much longer?"
"We should arrive home sometime after midnight, my lady." Sir Pershan responded, and she nodded in satisfaction. The sun was nearly down, so they were only a handful of hours away -
"Stay in the carriage, my lady!" came the voice of one of the guards, and Edeline sat up and looked out the window as she heard the voices of several men shouting as they came out of the woods towards them on horseback. For a moment, she thought back to the day the highwaymen had attacked, but then a hated voice fell upon her ears as the carriage came to an abrupt stop.
"At ease, sir knight," came Volpe's voice from somewhere up ahead. "We mean no harm."
Beside her, Gabriel came awake instantly, and he sat up and looked around with wide eyes. Edeline scooted over to him.
"No one is going to take you from me again, Gabriel." she whispered in his ear. "I will not allow it, and neither will Sir Pershan and his men." He looked at her, and the fear in his eyes, the anger, the hurt, and the betrayal made her want to borrow Sir Pershan's sword and face down Volpe herself. No one hurt her baby!
"Why have you and your people stopped us, Cardinal?" Sir Pershan asked, and Edeline wrapped her arms around her son and held him tight against her.
"We are searching for one of our own." came a second voice, and she felt Gabriel flinch. "He needs to be returned to his home, so that we may care for him properly."
"We have not seen anyone from your Brotherhood on our journey," Sir Pershan replied easily, "but if we do, I will certainly see that he is safely returned to you."
"So you haven't encountered Gabriel at all?" Volpe asked, and though his tone was amicable, Edeline could hear the steel underlying his words.
"Gabriel Belmont died at the hands of highwaymen." Sir Pershan said firmly, sticking to the story that Wolfram had come up with. "Lord Cronqvist told you that."
"Of course, of course, but... perhaps we might look inside the carriage?"
"Absolutely not. You have no cause to disturb Lady Cronqvist."
"Are you hiding something in there?" a third voice demanded. "Why would a lady travel alone anyway?"
"My lady's business none of your concern."
"Be reasonable, sir knight." Volpe said. "There are four of you, five if you count the driver, and there are twelve of us. There is nothing that you can hope to do to stop us."
"Killing most of you would be a good deterrent." Gabriel closed his eyes and shivered.
"You have that much confidence in your skills?"
"I do."
"What about your men? Are they as skilled as you? All it would take was to let us look in the carriage, and you can be on your way. What are you hiding?"
She heard the sound of blades being drawn, and Gabriel abruptly wiggled out of her arms, and he was off the bench and out the door before she even realized he was moving. She quickly followed him out, and when she hopped down to the road, she found him standing in front of Sir Pershan, facing Cardinal Volpe. The approaching sunset along with the tall trees on either side of the road cast long shadows that sheltered him from the sun.
"Stand back, my lady." Sir Pershan told her quietly. "We will be on our way soon; just let us handle this."
"I see that rumors of your death are greatly exaggerated, Gabriel." Volpe said in a calm tone.
"What do you want?" Gabriel demanded. "Why won't you leave me alone like you were so eager to do before?"
"Gabriel," Volpe smiled in a way that was supposed to be friendly, but the sight of it made Edeline shiver, "we simply did not know you were alive. If we had known -"
"Don't lie to me anymore than you already have! You knew I was at Bernhard Castle, and you left me there!"
"Then perhaps you should have come home, instead of hiding yourself away."
"You know well why I did not. You could have sent someone to check on me, and you did not."
"Gabriel, I am disappointed in you. You were only sent to end the spell that separated the earth from the heavens. At no point were you intended to do any more than that, and now you blame us for your own failure to return home? We were all so worried about -"
"Shut up!" Gabriel snapped, and all sound from the forest stilled for a moment. "Leave me alone! Don't speak to me! Don't try to reach me! Just leave me alone!"
"Gabriel, that is enough with this foolishness." Volpe said, and again his words were lined with steel. "It is time for you to return home."
"I am returning home! My home! The home that you stole me from!"
Volpe frowned, and Edeline started forward, but Sir Pershan's hand clamped down on her shoulder and stopped her. She looked at him, and he shook his head slightly. He then indicated to the right with a small tilt of his head, and she looked around then to see that his other three men had spread out behind the Brotherhood, who were all focused on Gabriel and Volpe. Even their driver had climbed down from his seat and was in position, sword at the ready.
"You are obviously ill, Gabriel and not thinking clearly." Volpe said. "It is time for you to return to us, so we can care for you properly."
"I do not need you to care for me." Gabriel snarled. "I can care for myself just fine."
Volpe just waved his men forward. "Grab him. Do not worry about injuring him; he will heal."
Sir Pershan let of her shoulder as he ran forward, and as much as she wanted to run to Gabriel, she didn't dare. The first of Volpe's men reached him, and he easily knocked the man aside with one swing of his arm, while the second got a nasty kick delivered to the middle of his chest, which sent him sprawling.
"Lord Gabriel!" Sir Pershan shouted. "Don't kill any of them! Run back to your mother!"
"Yes, Gabriel." Volpe said mockingly as Gabriel sent another man flying. "Run back to your mother. The mother that threw you aside like the trash!"
Gabriel went absolutely still then; he didn't move even as two of Volpe's men grabbed him by his arms and tried uselessly to drag him away. He stared at the cardinal, and then he roared in rage as he threw the two holding onto him aside like nothing. Edeline blinked as Gabriel seemed to vanish from where he stood, and her eyes located him just in time to see him leap at Volpe, screaming incoherently. He wrapped his long, clawed fingers around the old man's neck and his forward momentum propelled them both down to the road.
"Gabriel!" Edeline screamed, and she ran forward as Sir Pershan's men began to disarm the remaining Brotherhood knights. "Gabriel, no!"
"Why did you do this to me!" Gabriel screamed as he pinned Volpe to the ground. "Why did you lie! You knew what was going to happen! Is this what you wanted! Why, goddamn you! Tell me why!"
"Gabriel!" Edeline knelt of the ground beside her screaming son and saw that Volpe's eyes were bulging out as his face began to turn blue. "Gabriel, don't do it! Don't kill him! You won't get your answers if you strangle him!"
Gabriel didn't seem to notice her, and his eyes were glowing like they had been during the highwaymen attack. His power, dark and powerful, flared around him, making the hair on her arms and neck stand up. "You ruined everything, you miserable bastard! Why!"
She grabbed his hands to try and pry his fingers away, even as her stomach clenched and cold sweat broke out on her forehead from being so close to him, but his vampiric strength had given him an iron grip, and she could not budge him. "Gabriel, please! Let go before you kill him!" She stood up, took him by the shoulders and tried to tug him away, but it was like trying to move a statue. "Don't do this, Gabriel! I promise you will have answers, but we need him alive to give them!"
She dimly realized that Gabriel was crying - "You left me to die!" - as Sir Pershan knelt down on his other side.
"Gabriel." the older man said quietly as he squeezed Gabriel's wrists. "You need to let go of him. Killing him will only cause trouble. Now let go."
Edeline gently turned Gabriel's head to face her. "Please, Gabriel. He's never going to hurt you again. Let go."
Gabriel looked at her, growling low in the back of his throat, his eyes dilated and glowing, but then slowly, awareness seemed to come back to him. He blinked at her, and his aura began to subside. There was a feeble gasp as he relaxed his grip, and he allowed her to tug him off of Volpe and back towards the carriage. He grabbed onto her as he stumbled and fell to the road, pulling her down with him, and he buried his face in her shoulder and began to sob. She wrapped one arm around him and stroked his hair with her other hand as he cried.
"Look!" she heard Sir Pershan order as he walked in front of the other Brotherhood knights, who had been clustered together into a group. "Look at your savior! Look at what he has been reduced to! All on the orders of that man!" He pointed at Volpe, who was still lying on the road, catching his breath. "Look at Gabriel Belmont!" He grabbed one of them who had turned his head away and forced him to look. "Look at him! You would have taken him to where he would have been thrown into a dungeon cell to rot until he was needed again!" Edeline jumped; is that what Volpe would have done with him? Had Wolfram entrusted the knowledge to his longtime friend?
"You would have stolen him from his family – again!" Sir Pershan continued, and Edeline watched Volpe's men wilt under the blistering lecture. "Gabriel Belmont is the son of Wolfram and Edeline Cronqvist, and you would have taken him from his mother as she was trying to take him home! To his son! Go home! Leave Gabriel Belmont alone! Or I will personally see each and every one of you hang! Am I in any way unclear?" There were frantic nods all around, and Sir Pershan turned his back to them and walked over to her.
"On your feet, Lord Gabriel." he said as he helped her pull him to his feet. "If you will take him back to the carriage, my lady, we will be on our way soon."
"Wait," Edeline said as he turned to walk away, and he looked back at her. She gestured for him to step aside, which he did, allowing her a clear view of Volpe, who had gotten to his feet with help from a few of his own men.
"William Volpe," she said formally, "I am hereby ordering you to present yourself to myself and my husband at our home within the next ten days. You will then answer the questions put to you about your abduction of our son. Failure to make yourself available with have very lethal consequences." As Lady Cronqvist, she had some power, not as much as her husband did, but she knew that he would back her on this. "Am I understood, Cardinal?" He didn't answer at first, and she gave him a moment to finish catching his breath. "Cardinal!"
"I understand, Lady Cronqvist." the man wheezed, and Edeline turned sharply on her heel and began to walk Gabriel back to the carriage. His cries were quieting, but he still clung to her, and it took quite a bit of soothing words and prodding to get him to let go of her long enough to climb up inside. As soon as she climbed inside and sat down next to him, he grabbed a hold of her again and held on, even as the door shut and the carriage began to move.
******
They reached the manor just after midnight, like Sir Pershan had said they would, and Edeline gently called Gabriel's name and ran her fingers through his hair to wake him from the light doze he had fallen into. He blinked his eyes open and slowly sat up, and he looked around for a second with tired eyes.
"We're home, Gabriel." she whispered, and he nodded faintly in understanding. She draped his quilt over around his shoulders and stood up just as the door opened. She noticed he was shaking as she and Sir Pershan helped him step down to the drive, and he was clearly wrung out as she stepped down to join him. His face was pale, even for him, his tired eyes were ringed with dark circles, and he was gripping gripping the quilt both hands as they walked through the front doors.
"Let's get you fed, Gabriel, and then you can go lie down for a while." she told him as they walked through the entrance hall. Most of the household was asleep, and there were no servants to greet them. Sir Pershan stayed with them as they walked through the house, even as his men went on to their barracks to grab a meal and then get some rest themselves.
It was as they were walking through the deserted hall that Wolfram found them. He looked as though he'd just been shaken awake, and he was half dressed as he rushed up to them.
"Gabriel! Edeline!"
Edeline nudged Gabriel ahead of her, and he didn't resist at all as his father ran up to him and embraced him. "Oh thank God, you're all right. I was so worried about you." Gabriel laid his head down on his father's shoulder, and Wolfram walked him over to the nearby table, scrubbed and ready for breakfast, and sat him down. "You look exhausted. Here, sit and rest." He looked up at her. "Has he been fed tonight?"
Edeline shook her head as she sat down on Gabriel's other side. "No, not tonight."
Wolfram looked at Sir Pershan. "John, if you would?"
"I'll get right on it, my lord." Sir Pershan said with a nod, and then he walked swiftly out of the hall.
Wolfram turned back to Gabriel. "I'm so glad you're home." he whispered as Gabriel leaned against his side with his eyes half closed. He looked at her again. "How was the journey?"
"Fine until a few hours ago. I'll explain later." she said at his questioning look. "Let's get Gabriel fed and into bed, and then I could use some sleep myself. I'll explain everything in the morning."
Wolfram nodded, "I understand." and he smiled faintly when Gabriel dozed off. "He looks so tired."
"If you knew what had happened," Edeline muttered as she brushed her hair out of her face, "you would understand why. I have much to tell you tomorrow."
Sir Pershan returned then, and he was carrying what might have been a wine bottle at one time, but instead of wine, it was filled with a familiar red liquid, and Gabriel's eyes opened as he approached. He drank down the contents without a word, and Sir Pershan left to find his own bed, taking the bottle with him, as Edeline and Wolfram stood Gabriel up and began to walk him out of the room.
It was a quiet walk through the halls, and they were undisturbed during the trek to Gabriel's room. Just as they arrived, two of their knights arrived and took up station by the door as they walked Gabriel inside. The room was cold and dark since the fireplace was not lit, but it was not needed in the warmth of the early summer. (Had it really been three months already?) Gabriel was quiet and passive as they dressed him for bed, and he was asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow. They covered him with the quilt he had brought from his old home, and he sighed softly as he settled down.
"What in the world happened, Edeline?" Wolfram asked as she sat on the edge of the bed, running her fingers through Gabriel's hair.
She sighed and kissed Gabriel on the cheek before she stood up. "I'm too tired to explain right now, Wolfram. I just want to sleep for a while. Let's have a late breakfast with Trevor, and I will explain then."
Wolfram looked at her for a moment, and then he looked down at Gabriel and smiled. He then looked back at her as they began to walk out of the room. "You found him; you brought him home." He kissed her on the cheek. "How can I ever thank you for that?"
She playfully shoved him away as they walked into their own bedroom. "Tomorrow night, darling. Right now my pillow is calling louder than you are." She moved over to her side of the bed and began to to peel out of her dress, and Wolfram laughed as he laid down on his side. A few minutes later, she laid down beside him, and felt his arms come around her as she fell asleep.
Family: 15 -- Family 17Back to the Main Archive
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Well, SOMEONE is watching over Gabriel at least... XD
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