Page 53 of Inception

It wasDominic. He was doing this to me—immobilizing me with his bite like the tainted venom of a pernicious snake, and all I could do was clasp onto him harder as hot tears burned disgraced tracks down the contours of my face.

The world was spiraling out of control around me, nauseating me with every rotation as an insidious, deafening, buzzing noise filled up the space in my head, drowning out all other sounds, including my own vitals. This was it. I was either going to black out from the blood loss, or worse, I was going to die because he wasn’t going to stop.

My lids, too weighty for me to keep open anymore, slipped closed by their own accord, and my arms soon followed suit, dropping heavy to my sides. I was limp now, deadweight in his arms, and then suddenly, I was falling, crumbling to the ground.

Had he released me?

Or was I dead?

It took every bit of strength I had left to pry open my eyes from the noxious slumber and watch as a dark-haired stranger ripped Dominic away from me and hauled him off in a backwards bear hug.

“What have you done?” he hissed, throwing Dominic back several feet onto the ground.

The man stood glowing under the overhead spotlight. Tall and resolute, with strong, angled shoulders and the kind of warm, caring face you wanted to believe in, and for a moment, the way he looked at me, I thought maybe I had died and he was an Angel coming to collect my soul and carry me away to the hereafter.

Dominic’s chilling laughter assaulted the air as he picked himself up from the ground and brushed the dirt off himself. “Hello to you, too, Gabriel. Is that any way to greet your only brother?” asked Dominic, grinning wildly as he stumbled back a few steps, looking almost intoxicated.

His brother?

“You’re a damned fool,” replied Gabriel, his voice a quiet fury. “They’re going to kill you for this, and you know what, Dominic? This time, I’m not going to stop them.”

“It was worth it, brother. She tastes even better than she looks, if you can conceive of it,” said Dominic, taking a predatory step towards me as though hungry for more.

Gabriel stepped in his path, keeping his back to me. I pulled my legs up closer to my chest and trembled violently. I wasn’t sure if it was from the blood loss or fear. Probably both.

“Ever the martyr,” laughed Dominic. “I suppose that means you’re not interested in indulging in her then? I assure you, there’s no better elixir than the blood of aSlayer.”

I winced.

It made me sick to my stomach to realize he knew what I was all this time. That he was just playing with me—preying on me—waiting for the perfect moment to strike. But how? How had he been able to control himself all this time?

“We can always get rid of thebodytogether,” continued Dominic callously. “I’m sure it would make for a wonderful, brotherly bonding experience.”

Gabriel’s head spun around at the sound of my whimper. I hadn’t even realized I was crying.

He started to move towards me but stopped abruptly, choosing instead to keep a safe distance between the two of us. “Are you okay?” he asked me, his voice soft but commanding, a flawless harmony that matched his face perfectly.

I wanted to answer him. I wanted to tell him hownotokay I was, or lie for that matter and tell him that I was perfectly fine and just wanted to be on my merry way, but I couldn’t say anything. I just sat there in a ball, frozen on the ground with my back against the stone wall, trying to stop my body from shaking.

“I’m not going to hurt you,” he said, crouching down a few feet away from me. His short hair was longer in the front and covered his forehead and part of his eyebrows, and even though I couldn’t make out the color of his eyes in the dark, I knew they were soft and I instantly felt safe gazing into them.

“He’s telling you the truth, angel,” said Dominic as he took another gut-churning step towards me. “You have nothing to worry about. He only kills our kind. Isn’t that right, Gabriel?”

I didn’t even attempt to understand what he was saying, I already knew not to trust a word of it. Everything he said sounded like a lie, a threat, and it turned my skin to ice.

“Can you stand?” asked Gabriel, ignoring him.

I wasn’t sure. I’d been too petrified to move.

Gabriel nodded gently, encouraging me to try. I couldn’t explain it but there was something about him that I wanted to trust. Something telling me I would be safe to try with him here. He had, after all, just saved my life.

Slowly, and with his protective eyes on me, I angled my legs to the side and reached for the wall behind me as I began trying to wrench myself up. Gabriel rose with me, mirroring my gradual pace as I tried to stand on shaky legs.

“Looks like I took a little too much,” goaded Dominic. “Gluttony’s always been a tough one for me.”

The sound of his cackle, and the surge of blood rushing from my head to my legs, threw me into a tailspin and sent me tumbling forward through the air. I only felt the fall for a second before Gabriel’s arms were around me, steadying me against his chest.

The last thing I remembered were those moss-colored eyes.

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