Read Online Gabriel by Nikki Kelly - Free Book Online

that way,” he said.
    â€œWhy? She’s my mother.…”
    â€œAnd Azrael is your father. It didn’t stop him striking a deal with the Arch Angels to bring about your final end for his own gain. No. We take no chances. We trust no one .” Gabriel’s tone oozed authority. There was no point trying to argue; this topic was clearly nonnegotiable.
    I looked to my chain, dangling from Gabriel’s fingers contemplatively. “Why do you think she left me her crystal?”
    â€œI don’t know. You’d been infected by a Pureblood; she wouldn’t have known what the result of that would be. Perhaps she was trying to give you every possible chance at survival.” He paused and to further iterate his point added, “That was a long time ago, Lai.”
    â€œI know it was. I don’t understand—your crystal is embedded into your neck. Mine is attached to a ring; it’s not part of my body.” I ran my fingers over the blades of wet grass.
    â€œOrifiel, when he first passed through the rifts, was holding a piece in his hand. But he and the other Arch Angels were created organically from the crystal itself. They don’t need them to pass through the rifts or to keep their gifts here; they only need them to command the rifts.” He paused. “It’s not the same for us Angel Descendants; we need the crystal gems. I would suspect that they were placed into the neck so as to be fully integrated with our physical form. That crystal wouldn’t give a mortal any talents, Lai. It’s not a transferable deal. You have to have the light within you, from the crystal in Styclar-Plena, for it to work, and you always had plenty of that. You still do.”
    â€œLet’s not forget I also have the venom of a Pureblood, and they certainly have a lot of similar traits.”
    â€œThat’s true,” he said. “Only perhaps, given your Angel lineage, the Pureblood’s traits were heightened or stronger within you.”
    â€œCan Vampires become invisible, too?”
    â€œNope, that’s reserved for us Angels. Why’d you ask?”
    â€œBecause I’m pretty sure I have masked myself before. So I guess I need this crystal to keep my ‘Angelic’ powers, right?”
    â€œI’d have agreed, if I hadn’t just watched you place it down away from you. Even without the crystal, you still absorbed the sun, the same way an Arch Angel would.”
    â€œThat’s … strange.”
    â€œYes. But that’s good news. If you were parted from the crystal, you wouldn’t lose your gifts.”
    â€œOr my immortality,” I said at the same time as I realized this.
    â€œYour immortality could stem from either your Angel heritage, or, well, you know.”
    Despite his history of saving Vampires, Gabriel had a real issue with using the word Vampire with any reference to me. But it was hardly as though I could just disown my Vampire lineage any sooner than I could my Angel side. The second I rejected either, I didn’t know—nor did I want to try and guess—what might happen to me.
    â€œI think I’ll hold on to it anyway.” I looked to my ring once again, hanging below Gabriel’s palm. It was the only possession I had that was as old as I was. The one thing I had held on to throughout my entire existence.
    Gabriel took my hand in his and lightly kissed my ring finger. “Yes. But if you don’t mind, I’d prefer to have it taken out of this band. I’d prefer it if you weren’t wearing something that symbolized your promise to someone else.”
    â€œEthan is gone, Gabriel. He’s gone because of me. If anything, I think the ring represents the friendship he and I had, long ago.”
    He didn’t say anything, but his gaze remained fixed on the bottom of my chain, where my mother’s devotion and my best friend’s commitment to me hung low.
    At my strained