The Mark of a Fallen Angel

4: Tell Me The Truth

My eye lids felt heavy, they dropped on their own accord. I wasn't confused anymore. This felt so right. But why? Gabriel has been my best friend for years and I'd never thought of him in that way... Okay, that was a bald-faced lie. A few times he'd caught me staring at him whenever I wondered what it would have been like if I'd let myself see him differently. Even as his mouth moulded to mine, for some reason I felt like he was made for me.  

His lips slowly parted mine as his tongue slid in deepening the kiss. Whoa. I actualy gasped. How could he kiss... like this? I melted slightly into him as I moved my hands down his neck, ending on his Adonis sculptured chest.  

That's when I remembered.  

He'd obviously heard my train of thoughts because he broke the kiss by saying, "Don't,"  

I ignored him and started unbuttoning his shirt. He didn't stop me. It didn't take me long to do it because of it only being half buttoned. When I finished I stared at his six pack and the small hair trail going into the waist band of his jeans for a millisecond before pulling his shirt off.  

I gasped at his right side.  

The marks I felt on his arm looked like a tattoo but it was brown. It was in the shape of a tribal tattoo. I touched to the side of his collarbone. It didn't feel like one. It was raised; like it was placed on him. It spread out slightly on his chest but most of the patterns were on his shoulder and the top half of his arm. I touched it all.  

I tried to turn him around so I could see his back but he stopped me.  

"What is this?"  

He frowned.  

"Gabriel, what the hell is this? A tattoo? I've never seen one like this before."  

"It's-"  

"If you say nothing I will kick your ass." I said seriously.  

He sighed.  

"Gabriel, you basically strangled Tommy without touching him, you can hear my thoughts, and you have some crazy tattoo covering your right side. There is absolutely nothing you can't tell me that will surprise me. Unless you've joined a cult. Then that will be shocking."  

He laughed without humour. "Trust me, there is so much I can't tell you it's breaking me into pieces."  

I put my hands on either side of his face. "Please tell me."  

He moved backwards so he was at least a couple of yards away from me. "I can't tell you."  

Looking at his marks from afar, it looked so much like a tattoo. "Gabriel, I'm not going to push you into telling me anything. But I know now that there is something going on and it's completely... weird."  

He nodded.  

"Can you at least tell me two things?"  

Now, he became guarded.  

"Can you read my mind?"  

He smiled and nodded.  

Not normal. The thought was like a flashing alarm going over and over again in my head. I shook it away and asked, "Can I read yours?"  

He furrowed his eyebrows. "I'm not entirely sure. When you answered my question earlier today I thought it. I didn't say it out loud."  

He thought that?

"Whoa..." I paused before I started laughing nervously.  

He looked at me as if I were crazy.  

"Shit like this doesn't happen, Gabe. We live in North Carolina for goodness sakes. This isn't real. This isn't a fantasy."