by Kelly Oram
Gabriel listened again for quite a long moment. “But do you not see?” he said. “If we could find the supernatural who is responsible, then we would not have to contact any humans at all. We could save that family and no one would ever know.”
Gabriel then went silent for so long I thought for sure the one sided conversation would kill me. But I could also imagine the kinds of arguments the Councilor was making and figured it was probably better I couldn’t hear him.
Eventually Gabriel spoke again, but all he said was, “I had not thought of that possibility. Do you really think—”
Another maddening wait.
“Of course, sir. I understand. Yes, tomorrow then.”
“What?” I asked the moment he hung up.
“He is going to help us.”
Gabriel had gone pale and was barely whispering.
“What is it? What’s wrong?”
“The Supreme High Councilor is worried it might be a council member behind these visions.”
“What?” I gasped.
“I cannot see visions concerning only humans. I never have. The Councilor is worried that whoever is doing this is someone with the specific knowledge of how my power works.”
“So they placed a spell on a human as a way to avoid being caught by the Seer,” I said. “And of course they would have no way of knowing that I would be able to see them.”
“The Councilor has agreed to look into this Danielle, but he has asked us not to say another word about it to anyone until he knows more. He has asked us to be patient and if we see anything else, to call him and only him. I am afraid I agree with him on this point. Is that something you can live with?”
I wasn’t sure I liked sitting and doing nothing anymore than I liked leaving everything up to the Supreme High Councilor.
“Danielle,” Gabriel said desperately. “I know you do not trust him, but I do, so will you trust me? Will you wait just long enough to see what he can find out? If we learn anything else, or suspect he is not doing anything, then I promise, we will seek out the council. But please, give him a chance. He hates humans, true, but he hates supernaturals that threaten the safety of their own people even more. He will see whoever is doing this as a traitor. He will not act kindly, nor take his time in stopping them.”
Gabriel looked so sure of himself that I relented. “All right, I’ll wait. But I won’t wait long, Gabriel. I can’t just sit here and let somebody steal the blood of a newborn baby.”
“No,” Gabriel said with a breath of relief. “Nor can I.”
After the phone call, we went back to the bed. We each got in on our own side and went back to sleep. I was restless, however and noticed that Gabriel seemed to be keeping away from me. Had he gotten scared because he’d lost control of himself and kissed me? I wasn’t sure if he thought I was upset or if he was afraid he’d do it again or what.
In all honesty I’d been so upset about my vision that the meaning of that kiss got buried. The memory of it came flooding back to me when I opened my eyes the next morning and saw Gabriel sprawled on his stomach with the covers completely kicked off him and his pillow on the floor as if he’d slept as restlessly as I had.
He seemed peaceful enough now though, and as I watched him sleep I felt the urge to touch him. I’d felt that way around Russ too before I left, so I told myself it was just the cravings, but with Russ I’d always managed to control myself. Right then, with Gabriel, my hand reached out like it had a mind of it’s own.
My fingers naturally went to the tattoos on his back. I began tracing the patterns on his smooth skin until he was roused from his sleep. That’s when I realized what I’d done and tore my hand away from him. I scrambled back stumbling over an explanation. “I’m sorry, I—I don’t know why I did that. I think it’s the cravings. Usually you sleep—I mean, not that you should have to—I’m sorry.”
Gabriel looked flushed until he noticed my hands, then he was nothing but concerned. “Danielle, you are shaking.” He sat up and pulled me into his lap.
I shuddered when I came into contact with his skin and his energy washed over me. I hadn’t realized what a difference not touching him all night made.
And I thought I’d been hopelessly addicted to Russ? I swear. Look up the word ‘pathetic’ in the dictionary and you’ll find my name.
“You should have awakened me sooner,” Gabriel reprimanded as he eased me back down.
“I didn’t realize I was so—” I forgot what I was going to say when he started running his hands up my arms and over my back. It was all innocent—well it probably was on his part—but after he’d kissed me all the way to cloud nine the night before, the physical contact was driving me mad.
I wanted him.
I wanted him more than I’d ever wanted anything in my entire life. But it wasn’t real. It couldn’t be real. I didn’t love Gabriel. I didn’t even know Gabriel. It was just the cravings making me crazy, and I wasn’t about to go, you know, there, with a total stranger. Husband or not.
I was so desperate to escape him before I acted on all the urges I was feeling that I started thinking of home and imagining things that weren’t there. Things like the smell of coffee so strong it could have stirred me from my sleep, and, if I wasn’t mistaken…no...it was! But…. It wasn’t possible. I sat straight up. “Do you smell that?”
I’d startled poor Gabriel, but he knitted his brow in confusion. “Yes. What is that?”
I wasn’t imagining it. “Banana pancakes!” I said and shot out of bed.
I ran out into the kitchen and sure enough the table was set with my all-time favorite breakfast of coffee, bacon and banana pancakes. I told myself it was impossible until I felt the prickle of magic and suddenly out of nowhere a cup of red Jell-O appeared on the plate in front of me.
I looked around but there was no one in the room. I thought I might literally explode with anticipation until I finally heard a voice behind me say, “I knew breakfast would drag your lazy butt out of bed.”
He was leaning against the back of the couch watching me with a very satisfied smirk.
“Russ!” I squealed and threw myself at him so hard I nearly sent us both tumbling over the back of the couch.
Russ caught me in his arms and spun me in circles while I cried tears of joy and laughed impossible hysterical sobs.
After our sailor’s homecoming moment Russ finally put me back on my feet and I swayed a little. Russ was more than happy to have an excuse to pull me back into his arms. “What is it? What have they done to you?”
“It’s nothing, sorry. I just haven’t changed forms in so long. Shifting species is a bit disorienting you know.” I laughed a happy laugh again. “I can’t believe you’re here! What are you doing here? No, wait. Let me guess. You’re Luke Skywalker, and you’re here to rescue me?”
“Please. If I’m anyone from Star Wars I’m Han Solo. But no. I actually came to say I TOLD YOU SO! ”
“You cannot still be mad at me for telling about the werewolf thing. Newsflash smarty-pants. They were going to take me no matter what.”
“I still told you so.”
Though the words were music to my ears, they brought with them a flood of emotion. The giddiness and excitement of the moment melted into tenderness. “I can’t believe you’re really here.” My voice shook and it made Russ squeeze me tighter.
“Of course I am, and I’m never letting you leave my sight ever again. Life’s not the same without you. I don’t have anyone to bust on Deputy McHale with.”
The mention of home made me pull back far enough to look into Russ’s eyes. He seemed to know what I was going to ask before I said the words. “How are my parents?”
Russ’s face clouded over. “How do you think they’re doing? Their daughter disappeared.”
My eyes started to burn, but I refused to cry. I buried my face in Russ’s shoulder and soaked up as much strength as he had to give me. He didn’t have the supernatural power that Gabriel had with his pure aura,
but he lent me an entirely different kind of strength. It was amazing what the feel of his arms around me could do to lift my spirit.
No one knew me so wholly as Russ, and no one could make me feel the way he could simply by holding me. I shuddered in his embrace and it has nothing to do with my cravings. I released a contented sigh.
“I have to find a way to let them know I’m okay.”
“We will,” Russ promised.
Russ held me a minute longer and then killed the moment by sliding his hand down my back to the lacy boyshorts I was wearing—the ones that matched my lacy cami, thanks to Gina. “Nice undies. Much sexier than the last ones I saw you in.”
I groaned and pushed him away from me. “Did you really come all this way just to be a jerk? How did you even get up here?”
Russ grinned. “Apparently even the abducted get visitation privileges. Though when he told me it was a reward for good behavior I was sure he was bringing me to see the wrong girl.”
“He who? The Councilor?”
Russ glanced across the room and I finally noticed Duncan sitting in a chair in the corner with a book in his hands. “You brought him here?” I asked.
Duncan looked up from his book and winked. “Thought you could use a little cheering up after your fight with the Councilor yesterday. It has to be a short visit though. The Councilor will be back in a few hours and I didn’t expressly get approval for this visit.”
“You went behind the Councilor’s back on my behalf? Why Duncan, you rebel. I like you so much better now.”
Duncan laughed. “I’ve done nothing wrong. I have been ordered to keep your identity secret. Russ already knows. I would have told the Councilor my intentions had he been here, but he left abruptly in the night before I got the chance to bring it up.”
“He left? He was supposed to talk to us! Where’d he go?”
Duncan frowned. “Actually, the whole thing was very strange. He seemed upset and wouldn’t tell the council where he was going or why, just that he would be back by the end of the day today. I think it was about you, Dani. He ordered me to keep you in my sight until his return and then asked me if I knew of any other safe place besides the consulate where we could keep you hidden.”
“What?”
Duncan shifted uneasily. “After your fight yesterday, and when the Seer took your side, I believe the Councilor thinks he’s made a mistake putting the two of you together.”
Gabriel, who’d been standing in the doorway to the kitchen, finally decided to join the conversation. “The Councilor wishes to separate us?”
In my excitement I’d forgotten Gabriel was there, but the thought of being separated from him made me panic. I gasped and instinctively retreated to his side. I let go a breath of relief when he pulled me tightly to him. “He wouldn’t!”
“The thought crossed my mind,” Duncan admitted hesitantly.
He didn’t get the chance to say anything else because Russ snapped his cap. “WHO THE HELL IS THIS?”
That’s when it finally donned on me that Russ and Gabriel were both standing in the same room, and that I was going to have to introduce them to one another. Uh, yeah. Ever since I woke up married that had been near the top of my list of things I hoped I’d never have to do.
When dealing with Russ, putting on a strong front is always best, so I stood up straight and said, “The Seer, duh. Who else would it be? His name is Gabriel and you’d better be nice.”
“Nice?” Russ growled.
Gabriel held out his hand to Russ. “It is a pleasure to meet you. Danielle speaks of you often.”
Russ was too busy glaring at me to pay Gabriel any attention. “You want to tell me what he’s doing here with his arm around your waist and looking like he just crawled out of bed?”
Oh, great. “You didn’t tell him?” I shouted at Duncan.
“Tell me what?”
Duncan lifted his hands defensively. “Hey, I like to be the bearer of good news. Not news that’s likely to get me doused in holy water.”
“Gee thanks. I thought you were supposed to be my protector.”
“I can’t be your protector if an angry young warlock has turned me into a toad.”
“Tell me what?” Russ demanded again.
There was no easy way to say this so I held up my left hand and showed my ring to Russ. “I got myself hitched. Thanks for the warning, by the way, that your kind tend to give away their women as mates to whomever they see fit.”
“Our kind,” Gabriel corrected out of habit.
Russ glared at him then yelled at me. “You got married?”
“It’s not like I had a choice, you moron!” I yelled back. “One minute I was passed out on a floor about to meet my maker after weeks of torture, and when I woke up I was a newlywed.”
“And what, the guy’s got some impressive abs and a killer spread so you figured why the hell not go along with it?”
“Oh, yeah, I jumped for joy and had a big party when I found out. Of course I’m not okay with it!” As soon as the words were out of my mouth I regretted them. “I’m sorry,” I said quickly to Gabriel. “I didn’t mean—it’s not you.”
“I understand.” Gabriel tried, unsuccessfully, to cover up the fact that he was disappointed.
Sick as it was, I felt awful. I didn’t want to disappoint Gabriel. Apologizing didn’t feel like enough so I did it again just for good measure. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it how it sounded. I told you, I really am trying. Please don’t feel bad.”
Russ stared at me like I’d lost my mind. “Who are you?” he asked with equal amounts of disgust and wonder in his voice. “What did they do to you?”
I pretended that his words hadn’t hurt. “What do you mean?”
“The Dani I know doesn’t say she’s sorry to anyone. My Dani would have ground up that piece of crap ring in a garbage disposal if someone tried to force her into matrimony.”
Russ took in my appearance again with a new set of eyes and the blood drained from his face. “Are you sleeping with him?”
“Of course not!” I gasped, thoroughly embarrassed. Then I got angry. “Not that it is any of your business what I do or don’t do with my husband.”
Russ was so shocked he stumbled backward. He looked to Duncan for help and Duncan winced. “I suppose I should have explained at least a little.”
“You think?” I muttered.
Duncan ignored me. “You’re right. She’s not the same Dani who left you that day.”
“What are you talking about? Of course I am.”
Duncan shook his head. To Russ he said, “The supernatural bond she shared with you has been broken.”
“That’s impossible,” Russ argued. “To do that you’d have to completely starve her of all her supernatural energy and that would be....”
“Torture,” Gabriel whispered, shuddering at the memory. “For over two weeks. It nearly killed her.”
“They tortured you?” Russ gasped.
Duncan placed a hand on Russ’s shoulder when it looked like he might explode with anger. “Dani is the strongest supernatural I’ve ever seen,” he said. “What the Supreme High Councilor did to her would have killed anyone else. Even the Seer would not have lived through the torture she endured. The Councilor was watching her very closely. He waited until the last possible moment. One more hour and there would have been no bringing her back.”
Russ’s anger vanished. He looked as sick as I felt. He pulled me to him and looked me over for any evidence that I wasn’t the same girl he grew up with. It made me feel self-conscious. “I’m still me.”
“But not exactly the same,” Duncan argued. He turned back to Russ. “She was completely broken.”
“I cannot begin to describe what she was like when they brought her to me,” Gabriel added. “I did not believe she would ever recover.”
“I’m still me!” I shouted.
I sounded defensive because I knew that wasn’t true. At least not completely. I buried my fac
e in Russ’s chest and welcomed the arms he put around me. It made me think of the difference between the cravings and true comfort. I was amazed.
Duncan continued to speak from somewhere behind me. “She probably wouldn’t have recovered if the Seer’s aura weren’t as strong as hers. The bond the two of you shared has been dissolved and a new one created with the Seer in its place, but that bond is very unnatural. Dani’s been nursed back to health on his energy alone. I was watching them together yesterday and their connection is more than just the cravings. I don’t think she can physically be separated from him. I think it would make her sick.”
I looked up, startled, and all three of them were watching me with worry in their eyes. Russ was clearly overwhelmed by the news and couldn’t seem to pull his thoughts together. But when his hands clenched into fists I knew what he was going to do.
“No!” I threw myself in front of Gabriel just seconds before Russ swung. “He saved my life, Russ.”
“Sure, after he tortured you so bad your life needed saving.”
“Gabriel’s done nothing except try to help me. He wasn’t the one who tortured me! If you want to hit someone wait until you meet the Councilor. He’s the one you should be mad at.”
“Fine!”
Russ turned and stomped away. Duncan was blocking his exit before he even reached the door. “Where you going?” he asked casually.
“To find the Councilor and beat the hell out of him.”
Duncan laughed. “You’d never be able to touch him.”
“Move!”
“Getting yourself thrown in supernatural jail won’t help anything, Russ.”
“You’re right,” Russ said and suddenly hit Duncan with a magic spell that threw him across the room and into the bookcase, knocking him out cold. Duncan hit the ground and the entire bookshelf fell on top of him.
