“What is it, Gabby? You know I’m always here for you. You don’t have to be scared of me,” he said nervously. He paused for a long moment and then slowly he asked, “Is it about a boy?”
“Yes, sir,” she replied, very close to bursting into tears.
His face turned pale and his eyes narrowed watching Gabrielle intently. He tried to keep his voice low and calm and asked, carefully annunciating each word, “Are you pregnant?”
“No!” she exclaimed in utter shock, her cheeks suddenly flushing red.
His face showed visible relief, but he was still concerned. “Well then, it can’t be that bad, can it?” he said. Gabrielle gulped and then, taking a deep breath, she went into the ugly details of her experiences with Marcus. Arielle watched Dr. Taylor’s face change as Gabby spoke. He looked like he might go into utter shock.
He remained silent, listening to Gabrielle without interrupting. He seemed to be lost in thought as Gabrielle went on to explain what Robert had found in the old newspapers about Marcus. As he listened he frowned, rubbed his temples, and shook his head. The thought that his beloved daughter had been engaged in something so bizarre and frightening was difficult for him to absorb.
After she finished speaking Gabrielle bowed her head for a moment. Then she looked up at her father apprehensively, jaw set and lips tight.
Finally he coughed and cleared his throat. “Well, we have to go to the authorities,” he finally said, standing up, and added, “You did the right thing coming to me. You have no idea the horrible memories you’ve brought back into my mind. I’ve a vivid memory about this incident. I remember the distraught faces of the unfortunate parents of the girls that were missing. I remember your mother and I feeling extreme anguish for those poor girls and their families, and…” He didn’t finish his sentence. Turning towards Gabrielle, he stared at her in sheer horror. “Good God, child! You could have been his next victim!”
He reached for Gabrielle and she fell into his arms, breaking into tears. He held her tightly and ran his hand up and down her hair, caressing his only daughter with love and understanding. “You girls are going with me to the police station right now. You’ll have to provide the police officers with all the information that you have so far.” They nodded in agreement as he walked back to his desk and pressed the intercom. “Stephanie, please cancel my last appointment. I’ve got an emergency I have to deal with.” Then he picked up his coat and they were on their way.
The police station was buzzing with people. Dr. Taylor walked to the front desk with the girls on his heels. To the officer at the desk, he explained the purpose for their visit, and they saw the constable’s surprised look. He immediately picked up the phone, said something inaudible, and in a very short time a man in plainclothes appeared at a side door. He looked at the constable, who pointed in Dr. Taylor’s direction with a very serious look on his face.
The man approached Dr. Taylor with a brief smile, extended his hand, and introduced himself as Inspector Thornton. “Are you here about the Marcus Fairchild case?” he asked, and Dr. Taylor nodded. The inspector looked at the three girls, nodded at them with a soft smile, and then asked them to follow him to the back. They walked through a couple of long hallways and reached a door that displayed the sign “Chief Inspector.”
The inspector stopped and knocked firmly. “Come in,” said a strong, deep voice. The detective pushed the door open and stepped aside to let them in.
As they crossed the doorway they saw an older man with silver hair and a kind face sitting behind a desk filled with piles of papers. He lifted his head as they entered and stood up. He reached out to shake Dr. Taylor’s hand, introducing himself as Chief Inspector Conway. He invited them to sit down, pointing at the chairs in front of his desk as Thornton walked over and stood by the chief’s desk. When they were seated, he gazed at the three girls with clear interest, and finally his eyes rested on Dr. Taylor.
“How can we help you?” he asked in a gentle voice.
Eva’s father handed him the newspaper clippings and told Gabrielle’s story in detail. The more he talked, the more Conway seemed to be absorbed. When he was finished, there was a deafening silence for a short period of time as the officers exchanged meaningful glances.
Finally Conway spoke. “You have no idea, young lady, how very lucky you are,” he said, looking at Gabrielle, who was visibly nervous.
“The information you see here,” he said, shifting the clippings between his hands, “is a couple of years old. However, there have been four more similar disappearances of young ladies your age that we have tried to keep quiet to avoid panic from spreading across campus.” His eyes were narrowed to slits, but he was now smiling in pure satisfaction. “I’ve been after that bloody son of a bitch for five years, and I haven’t been able to get one little thing on him, but now I’ve got him!” He pounded his fist on the desk in a clear sign of gratification.
“I’ll need you to show me the places they hold those meetings and the places he and his friends frequent. We’ll set up surveillance and we’ll catch them in the act. We’ll finally round up the whole dirty bunch; this time, he isn’t going anywhere. I am determined to give justice to all those poor parents that had to bury their young daughters,” he said, adding a curse under his breath. “Thank you so much for bringing this to our attention,” he finished, and stood up, extending his hand toward Dr. Taylor and shaking it with clear pleasure. “And you… thank you, young lady, for having the courage to tell your father,” he said, turning toward Gabrielle.
Gabrielle turned to smile at her best friends.
They left the police department pleased. Marcus was a murderer, and he was going to pay for his crimes. Chief Conway now had all the information he needed to follow the activities of Marcus and his followers, bring them to justice and put them away where they couldn’t hurt another soul.
“I just can’t believe I got caught up in his world,” Gabrielle murmured as they left the police station. “I never thought of what the consequences might be. Thank you so much,” she whispered, embracing Arielle and Eva one at a time.
Dr. Taylor embraced his daughter warmly and planted a huge kiss on her forehead. “I’ll be home for dinner tomorrow night, Daddy,” Gabrielle said as he dropped them off at their car back in his parking lot.
“Come and visit soon,” he said, extending his gaze to Eva and Arielle. “Mrs. Taylor will love to see you.”
“Thank you,” Eva and Arielle replied in unison, and Dr. Taylor went back into his office.
“Well, now we can go back to our normal lives,” Eva said as they reached out and hugged each other one more time before piling into the car.
“I’m sure that it’ll take some time to really feel normal again, but for a start, why don’t we go out with our friends and have some fun?” Arielle said. She was overwhelmed with relief that Gabrielle was out of Marcus’s reach.
Later in the evening, they went back to their flat, poured three glasses of wine and sat around the front room together. They laughed and talked, just as they used to do in the days before Marcus. To them it seemed a perfect ending to a perfect day.
The next day Paul called and asked Arielle if he could come over. Gabrielle and Eva had decided to go out, and since Arielle had a little studying to do, she had stayed behind.
About half an hour later, Paul showed up at their door. He looked excited and anxious to talk. What could it be? she wondered. Paul was studying archeology and she always enjoyed sitting with him and listening to the wonderful stories he had to tell about the exciting, far-away places that he was going to visit when he completed his studies. But this time something in his manner made her think it wasn’t archaeology he wanted to talk about.
“Can we talk?” he asked in a low voice as he came into the flat.
“Sure,” she said smiling. “Come on in.” She waved toward the sofa. “Is there something wrong?” she asked.
“No, there is nothing wrong,” he said, “but I’d like
to talk to you about something that is pretty important to me. Are you alone?”
“Yes,” she replied, a bit confused.
He stopped and looked away from her as if he were wondering whether to continue with what he had to say. Finally he took a deep breath, and then said, “Arielle, it’s very difficult for me to convey to you how I feel. So I hope that you will just listen to me and not take lightly anything I’m going to say.”
Now she was worried. She thought maybe something terrible had happened. Still, she told him with a smile that she was listening.
He took her hands in his and pressed them softly. When he spoke again his voice sounded worried. “I’ve tried so hard to hide my feelings,” he said. “I was afraid that I might destroy our friendship. I’ve desperately fought the desire to talk to you about what I’m about to say, and I’ve lost the battle.”
He put his arm around her and drew her close. “I’m desperately and utterly in love with you,” he said quickly, afraid that he might lose his nerve.
Arielle was speechless. She tried to say something but she couldn’t think of a single thing to say.
Then Paul kissed her, and she felt a sudden desire sweep over her. But it was gone just as quickly as it had come. She could see the sincerity in his eyes and she knew that he genuinely meant what he had said.
“Paul, I love you to death,” she said, finally. “But not in the same way. I don’t want to hurt you, and I definitely don’t want to lose you as a friend. I love you. But I’m not in love with you.”
She watched his face change as he pulled away and looked back at her, hurt in his eyes. She started to say something, but he stopped her.
“You’re not going to lose me,” he said in a soft, husky voice that she could barely hear. “I’ll always be here for you, Arielle. I love you unconditionally, and I don’t expect anything in return.” His voice barely a whisper, he added, “I thought you might have the same feeling for me, so I decided to talk to you about it.”
“Paul, please forgive me,” she said. “I didn’t know. I had no idea!”
“There is nothing to forgive,” he said with a soft smile, and as he said it he touched her cheek tenderly. “You will always be my number one girl.”
“Thanks Paul,” she said, daring to chuckle. “You know, you’ll always be my number one guy as well.”
And what she said was true. She couldn’t imagine being any fonder of anyone. They looked at each other and laughed softly.
“You’re an incredible girl,” he said.
“You know, Paul,” she said, “though I can’t return the same kind of love to you, I want you to know how important you are to me.” Then she hugged him warmly.
He stayed for a little while longer, but soon decided that it was probably time for him to be going home. “I hope this doesn’t make it awkward between the two of us,” he said. “I mean, you know. I hope it doesn’t damage our friendship.”
“Don’t worry about that,” she said. “I don’t think there’s anything you could do to make me not want to be your friend. We’re going to be okay,” she said. She knew that seeing him around would only intensify the pain for him, but she just couldn’t cut him out of her life.
Arielle had been looking for the kind of love she had been reading about in her favorite books: Pride and Prejudice, Romeo and Juliet, Wuthering Heights. And she had always wondered if she would ever find her Mr. Darcy or her Heathcliff. Paul was wonderful as a friend, but he just didn’t fit the blueprint of a soul mate.
It was coming to feel like a more and more remote possibility. But she knew that what she really wanted was to find someone who would make her feel the way Liz Bennet felt for Mr. Darcy. She knew it was a dream, but for right now she knew she had to hang on to that dream.
Chapter 8
JUNE 30
I am so happy to be back in St. Jean de Luz. There is something magical about this place. It may be just the sheer beauty of it all; then again it may be the incredible warmth that surrounds our family when we are here. Everything around us is so serene and so comforting: amazing white-sand beaches, crystal-clear ocean, and wonderful weather. My parents enjoy taking long walks through the beautiful gardens, admiring the splendor of it all. There are days that the three of us take drives down to the beach to admire the beautiful sunsets, and on the way we take pleasure from the wonderful lush greenery and cascading waterfalls. I am trying to enjoy as much time as I can with my parents because I know my life will be changing once I am out of school.
That was what Arielle wrote in her journal in the first few days of her summer holiday back in the South of France. She was so happy to be there again!
This time she visited several bookstores in town and purchased some compelling new novels to get lost in while sitting by the pool or the ocean. Her iPod was loaded with music by her favorite bands. Each and every morning she headed to the beach or to the pool with her beach bag.
Almost two months later, she was still totally unsuccessful in getting the perfect tan, but she wasn’t giving up. She was going to forgo the pool and head to the beach with the sole purpose of achieving her goal, a nice dark tan.
What she loved most about being in the South of France was that when they were there, she spent most of her time alone. It was wonderful to have peace and quiet with no thoughts and no worries that belonged to other people.
This was the year she was turning twenty-one, and little did she know it would also be one of those summer holidays in which her life would take an unexpected turn into the unknown.
One Monday morning, about two weeks before their holiday was to end, she woke up feeling exceptionally well rested. She decided to enjoy staying in bed just a little while longer. She closed her eyes again and tried to plan her day. Maybe she would lie on the beach, maybe she would do a little shopping, and maybe she would call Margaret, one of her summertime friends, to have lunch at one of those little sidewalk cafés on the boardwalk.
When she opened her eyes again the sun was shining through the slats in the blinds. She got out of bed and pulled the blinds up, flooding the room with sunlight. She put on her little blue bathing suit, grabbed her beach towel, and headed outside to find that it was a glorious, sunny day.
The sun kissed her skin and she felt the kind of warmth that automatically makes you feel happy. She smiled to herself as she got into the car and drove to the beach.
Several people had already placed their beach chairs, blankets, and beach towels, and had claimed spots as close to the water as they could. Children were running, laughing, and splashing in the ocean without a care in the world. There were several guys sitting on their surfboards, waiting to catch a wave. The place was just dripping with charm.
She decided to take a walk along the beach. Digging her toes into the warm white sand she looked for a familiar spot, away from all these people whose thoughts she could hear. She was desperate to get away from them.
As she walked by one lady, she could hear her thinking, I wish I could be on a cruise ship with a gorgeous looking man and a cool martini in my hand, rather than being here running after these darned kids. She put her head down as she walked past so the lady couldn’t see the smile she was suppressing.
She walked for a while longer and finally came to a lovely, quiet cove. No one else was there. It was perfect. She spread her beach towel on the soft sand and took her iPod out of her bag. She plugged her headphones in and, turning the music on, she lay down and closed her eyes, hoping to spend a couple of peaceful hours there listening to her favorite music.
She had only been there for a few minutes when she had a strong feeling that she was being watched. She sat up and took a careful look all around, but she couldn’t see anyone nearby, or anyone looking at her. Yet the feeling that she was being watched was unbelievably intense. She lay back down, and closed her eyes. She was hoping that today she might finally get a tan.
The next time she opened her eyes she realized that she had fallen asleep. Integ
ral by Pet Shop Boys was playing through the headphones. Arielle sat up slowly, reached for her iPod, and shut it off. She looked around and noticed that the beach was completely empty. The sun was going down, and the water had lost its bright blue color. Now it looked dark and uninviting. She pulled the headphones out of her ears and threw them into her beach bag along with her iPod and the unused tanning lotion. She rose to her feet, took another look around, and decided that it was time to head home. She bent over, picked up her beach bag, and threw it over her shoulder. With the other hand she picked up the corner of the beach towel and turned around to shake the sand off.
She was absolutely panicked when her eyes fell on a young man standing about ten feet away from her with a soft smile on his face. She felt a strong sudden jolt course through her body and fear overcame her. She couldn’t imagine where he had come from or how she could have missed seeing him standing so close.
He was shockingly beautiful, as if he had jumped out of the pages of a fashion magazine. He was tall and thin with broad shoulders, a muscular body, light, sandy hair, and the most captivating, intense green eyes she had ever seen. His features were flawless. His lips were sensuous, beautifully curved into a soft smile, showing a set of perfectly white teeth. He was wearing a pair of jeans and a light blue shirt open in the front, revealing his muscular chest. She felt an unusual shiver slide across her muscles. She stared at him and quickly swallowed. She wondered how long she had been standing there watching him, completely mesmerized, when his voice made her jump.
“Bonjour!” he said, his lips curved slightly.
Her throat suddenly felt swollen. She realized she was completely alone on the beach with a stranger. Not a good situation.
As she started to speak their eyes met, and immediately her mind went blank. She felt a jolt that made her body quiver, and extreme heat surged through her veins. She was in a complete fog with absolutely no clear thoughts at all. Time stopped as their gazes locked, and a strange sensation coursed across every muscle, intensifying the heat that was already enveloping her. She had absolutely no idea how long she stood there gazing into his eyes. When she finally decided to move she felt off-balance, frozen in place. What a strange feeling! She didn’t remember ever having had such a reaction to any other human being. The man was so beautiful that she literally didn’t have the strength to take her eyes off of his face.
Arielle Immortal Awakening (The Immortal Rapture Series Book 1) Page 8
