ShadowChancer
Chapter 16
by MistThing, published on March 23, 2001
Gabriel, confounded, studied Grace's face, his eyes narrowing. "Now, what the hell did you mean by that, Grace?" - he asked - "Immortality?"
Grace's strange smile still hovered over her lips as she looked at Gabriel, making him reach for her upper arms and close his fingers firmly around them.
-"Talk to me, Gracie" - he said sharply - "That's the only way it goes. Are ya getting' any of it through your head?"
-"Let go, please" - Grace didn't move under his fierce hold - "There's no need for that."
He still held her arms too tightly, overpowered by an upsurge of anger and frustration that he didn't know existed. "Grace ..." - he said alarmingly, his tone non-compromising.
Grace took another trembling breath. "Promise me you won't ... uh, sh*t, here goes..." Her eyes closed again as she went back to the movie inside her head, and Gabriel's hands slid down her arms as he loosened his grasp.
-"You were down there, hanging on to my voice coming through that headset, and I was with Emilio Baza in our room" - Grace said vaguely. "I was hanging on to your voice, too ... scared sh*tless through those large gaps of silence when I couldn't hear you. I had a long talk with Baza" - she paused, obviously distressed.
-"Go on" - Gabriel's eyes clung to her face, leaving no room for escape - "Tell me about your little ... talk."
-"...'There's something I've been wondering', I told Emilio" - Grace's fists clasped as she accurately recited her own distant words -"I read about the vampires looking for the Wandering Jew. He exists, doesn't he? And it has something to do with the blood of Jesus?" - Grace looked vacantly at Gabriel, her mind's eyes seeing only Baza's ghostly image.
Gabriel stared at her reliving a haunted conversation, a sudden stab of fear piercing his soul. "What the f*ck ..." - he whispered.
Grace went on, her manner almost hypnotic. "...'The vampires didn't get the blood of Jesus, but someone else did', I said ... and he told me ..." - Grace stopped, and Gabriel's hands went tight around her wrists without him realizing it.
-"Told ya what, Gracie?" - he hissed through clenched teeth - " What , for God sake?"
-"Baza was really Ali, son of the Brotherhood's Head Master" - she said flatly - "He accompanied Jesus back to Jerusalem, watching him teach there for three years, watching the prophecies coming true ... After the crucifixion, it was Ali who drank the blood of Jesus, in a desperate attempt to save the promise of the Kenosh Kania, the Divine One, the open portal between Man and the Infinite ..."
Gabriel cursed silently. "The Brotherhood" - he gritted - "Them damn bloodline-weavers ... I tried to forget all about them charming bastards ..." He laughed hoarsely.
-"Yeah ..." - Grace squirmed under his painful hold on her wrists - "Baza became the Kenosh Kania, having his power, but unwilling to use it ... 'Not for anything, Grace', he told me ... except, later ..."
-"Except later what , godd*mn, Grace!"
-"Stop, you're hurting me!" - Grace's face was pale, and silent tears streamed down her cheeks again.
-"Talk to me, Grace" - rasped Gabriel, ignoring her obvious distress and the strange looks they were getting from anonymous faces in the crowd.
-"I ... guess you could call me a carrier, Gabriel" - Grace's face was a white, hollow-eyed mask - "a carrier ... of the divine, if you will ..." - she laughed a short, dry laugh through her tears, struggling against Gabriel's grasp.
-"Sh*t, Grace ..." - Gabriel's jaw dropped, and he released his hold on her - "What have you done?"
Grace rubbed the red marks that his fingers burned around her wrists, her skin now drenched with cold sweat.
-"What have I done, Gabriel?" - she whispered huskily - "You tell me ..."
Gabriel looked at her as if he'd never seen her before. "You drank his blood, Gracie ..." - he mumbled, the words dragging slowly out of his mouth - "Didn't you?" - He leaned closer again, his face almost touching hers - " Didn't you ?"
Grace nodded slowly, her labored breathing hot on his face.
-"So ..." - Gabriel whispered with painful effort - "Are ya f*ckin' immortal?"
-"A carrier, Gabriel ..." - Grace's voice was soft, barely audible - "A carrier only ..."
-"The question you still have to answer is damn f*cken why ..." - his face was in her hair and his hands went reluctantly up to her pale face, cupping them gently - "Why, Grace ..."
She stared determinedly straight into his eyes. "I can't tell you that, Gabriel ..." - her tone was desperate - "Not now."
Leigh was beside them again, a disturbed expression on her face. "I think we've been made out" - she said - "Time to move on. Come on ... We're splitting from this place."
Last update: October 25, 2007
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