Lailah (The Styclar Saga) by Nikki Kelly

fog brewing on top. An idyllic setting, totally secluded.
    “Wow,” I mumbled.
    “Twenty acres roughly,” he said, answering the question I hadn’t yet asked.
    “Beautiful.”
    “Secure and well equipped. There are cameras everywhere and we know this village like the back of our hands, not to mention the booby traps,” he returned. “Are you all right for a little exploration?” he quizzed, nodding in the direction of my shoulder.
    I didn’t answer as I began strolling down the slate path. “What’s Gabriel doing?” I said, gazing toward the back door.
    “Sorting some stuff out,” Jonah answered. I rolled my eyes at him, knowing he was purposely withholding details. “Fine. He’s holding a mini-briefing.”
    “With who and about what?” I inquired, shivering a little in the chill.
    “With everyone who lives here. Letting them know you’ll be staying and laying down the ground rules, I’d imagine,” he replied. I slowed and he said, “You know, no drinking the girl and all that.”
    “Oh, great.” I examined the setting ahead and viewed the opening to the woods. Nestled inside was another building. The path veered off and a track took its place through the trees. “Who’s Hanora?” I tried to keep the quiver from my voice.
    “What do you mean?”
    “Who is she to Gabriel?”
    He thought for a moment. He was slightly ahead of me so he slowed down. “She is Gabriel’s oldest companion. He freed her back in the early nineteen hundreds. She was the first one he saved. They’ve been traveling together a long time, so they’re, shall we say, close.” His eyes glanced at me sideways, checking for my reaction.
    His words stung. I didn’t like the idea that Gabriel, my Gabriel, was close to any female. I felt betrayed. But how could I? It wasn’t like he belonged to me. I still didn’t know what he was to me or even what he had been to me in another lifetime. I gulped hard, but tried not to give anything away.
    I rubbed my hands over my arms as the chill continued to sting me.
    “You’re cold,” Jonah observed. “Here.” He whipped off his dark leather jacket and stood in front of me. Placing it around my shoulders, he pulled the collar edges together. Glancing down thoughtfully, his pupils swelled a little larger, inviting me in. I was captured momentarily by his expression, a wicked grin spreading across his face. I knew he was dangerous, and not only because he was a Vampire.
    He stepped a little closer and bent down suggestively, so he was almost nose-to-nose with me, his unwavering stare meeting my own. He held my gaze as he placed his hands into the pockets of the jacket hanging on either side of my body, brushing his thumb against my bare waist as he moved under the bottom of the shirt. I didn’t falter. He moved in a little closer, his hips now touching mine. I was the first to break.
    Self-consciously I jolted away, fluttering my eyelashes furiously, escaping the exchange. Bowing my face down I scratched at my head; he threw his own back and roared a little.
    He snatched his hands out of the pockets and produced a pack of cigarettes and a lighter. Embarrassed, I hid my blush as he stepped back. Lighting his cigarette high in the air, he blew out the smoke through his nose. “Want one?” he asked, extending the box in my direction.
    I inhaled, letting the secondhand smoke pollute my lungs, but shook my head. “I’d say they’d kill you, but I guess that doesn’t exactly apply.”
    It took us about ten minutes to reach the woodlands. We entered the opening and the pathway led to a pretty but rather decrepit outbuilding. I lit up and Jonah offered to show me inside. “Gabriel’s been doing some restoration work to it. It won’t fall down now but it’s a long way from finished yet.”
    It was small but perfectly formed. I creaked open the old wooden door and was presented with an entranceway that featured a beautiful tile floor with a sun design. Four rooms came off it—a