by Kelly Oram
I gasped, but told myself over and over that this wasn’t real. At least not yet.
Blood poured from Gabriel and spilled into a matching pair of golden chalices. A sudden wind from nowhere whipped about the room and everything began to shake.
The cloaked figure disappeared behind a tall red velvet curtain and left Gabriel alone and dying on that altar to face what I assumed would be the Angel of Death. Just as a thick dark cloud of smoke formed above Gabriel the vision ended and I sat up so fast I smacked my head on something very hard.
It took me a minute to remember where I was and then the bright yellow plastic surrounding me came into focus. I was in a park with Gabriel. We’d separated from Alex and Russ and collapsed here for what little was left of the night. The sun was bright enough now that I guessed it must be past the early morning hours and working it’s way toward afternoon.
Obviously Gabriel hadn’t shared my vision. Not only can a seer never witness their own fate—unless that seer happens to be me—but Gabriel was still so deep in sleep that he hadn’t noticed my return to consciousness.
He looked so peaceful I hated to wake him but his impending death took precedence and I shook his shoulder. “Gabriel.”
A half conscious Gabriel saw me, pulled me down against him, nuzzled his face in my neck, and went back to sleep.
I shook him again. “No, Gabriel, wake up.”
“Must I?”
“If you don’t want to be sacrificed,” I snapped.
Gabriel responded to the worry in my voice and became alert. “What is it?”
“Something’s changed,” I said, climbing out of the play structure in a panic. “Something we did has changed everything!”
Gabriel followed me to solid ground and stretched his tall body before resting his hands on my shoulders. “Danielle, calm yourself. What did you see?”
I looked up into his dark beautiful eyes so full of life, and forced back a lump in my throat. I couldn’t say the awful words, so instead I held out my hand to him and replayed the nightmare.
Gabriel stayed still and silent through the vision and once it was over stared calmly into my eyes. “We will change it, Danielle.”
“How? We don’t have the slightest clue what we’re doing! We’re all alone now. We’ve been trying for days and haven’t done anything at all except make things worse. We’re in over our heads!”
Gabriel regarded me cautiously. He let me have my moment to freak out—which, believe me, I did for at least a good five minutes. He sat down on a bench allowing me to pace back and forth in front of him, ranting about how I was just a stupid nobody from nowhere Pennsylvania and could not be expected to save the world.
Eventually I had no more steam left, and when I sat down next to him he smiled. “Danielle, I am going to ask you to do something that will not be easy for you.”
I looked up at him already defeated. “Saying goodbye to Russ and Alex last night was the hardest thing I have ever had to do. Compared to that, everything will be easy. If you have a plan, by all means share.”
Gabriel gave me a knowing smile and shook his head. “It is time for you to swallow your pride and your resentment. You are right about the two of us being in over our heads. We need the help of the Councilor. We need to go back to the consulate.”
My face turned an angry red and my whole body tingled with intense energy. I had to swallow back my frustration because if I opened my mouth right then I would have bit Gabriel’s head off.
Gabriel knew how angry I was, and how frustrated, but he stared me down with conviction. He was right and he knew it. Unfortunately, I knew it too.
“How did I know you were going to say that?” I grumbled when I could finally speak.
Gabriel’s face brightened and he pulled me into his arms. “Because you are a lot smarter than you give yourself credit for.” He brought my face to his. “You are not nobody, Danielle. You are—”
I kissed him before he could get all mushy on me again.
He still seemed surprised every time I kissed him. Whether because he still couldn’t believe I wanted to, or it was still so new to him, or because he was simply overwhelmed by how much he enjoyed it, I couldn’t say. But the way he always started out shy and then became utterly ruled by his desire when his hormones kicked in made me melt from the inside out. If he had any idea what I would let him get away with just to be kissed like that, I’d be in serious trouble.
I pulled back gasping for breath. “All right, all right! Let’s go to the freaking consulate before I drag you back in that tube and give you the hands-on version of the birds and the bees lesson.”
Gabriel’s chest was still heaving, and his arms were still pinning my hips against his, but he managed to pull his head back and frown. “The birds and the bees?”
His eyes drifted back to my lips and I shuddered. “Don’t worry. I’m sure I’ll explain that one a lot sooner than is probably ladylike, but we have other things to worry about right now.
. . . . .
We had to walk for an hour to find the nearest train station, but, on the bright side, Alex had been taking us north so we really weren’t that far from the city. In fact, we were back in good old Newark. We’d be at the consulate in half an hour.
Gabriel was more on edge than I’d ever seen him. “I do not like this,” he grumbled as we boarded the busy train.
It was busy enough that there weren’t any available seats, and some guy around my dad’s age dressed in a business suit graciously offered me his, but I had to say no thank you when Gabriel refused to let me get more than a centimeter away from him.
“We are not hidden right now, Danielle,” he whispered. “We really should stay as close to one another as possible.”
If there were room, he would have been pacing the train car, dragging me along without even noticing. At the next stop two seats became available next to one another and I forced him to sit down.
“Gabriel, relax a little. These people are just regular people. Nobody who cares about us has the slightest clue where we are right now. If anything we need to be the most careful once we get to the consulate. That’s where Robert is and we don’t know who else could be working with him.”
Gabriel grimaced. “Yes, I see your point.”
Gabriel threw his arm over my shoulder and had just managed to release the tension from his muscles when suddenly it was my body that went rigid. “What is it?” he asked.
I looked around the train at all the people. Everyone looked completely normal and no one seemed to be paying the least bit of attention to us. That I could tell anyway.
“What is it Danielle?”
I was going to give Gabriel a panic attack if I didn’t answer him. “Are there any other supernaturals on this train besides us?”
Gabriel was startled by my question. “Not in this particular car. Why?”
“Magic,” I whispered. My hand instinctively reached for the amulet resting around my neck. Gabriel looked confused so I elaborated. “The warlock inside me is trying to surface. I feel magic in the air around me.”
Gabriel removed his arm from around my shoulder and grasped my hand. “Are you sure?”
I nodded. “Since I came into my powers, I’ve always been able to feel magic. It’s how I knew the Councilor was a warlock when we met.”
I looked around the train car again and my mind raced. Could it be spelled? Something to keep Gabriel and I trapped in here? Or perhaps to keep other supernaturals out? Could there be someone right here with us, watching us, safely hidden beneath a cloaking spell? The thought made me shudder.
“I think we need to get off this train,” I whispered when felt a slight stir in the air. “Like now.”
Gabriel nodded and when the train pulled into its next stop I started to stand. Gabriel held me back, shaking his head. “Wait until the very last second,” he whispered so quietly against my ear that I barely made out the words.
The doors opened and I watched passenger
s file on and off the train. “Ready?” I asked. When Gabriel didn’t respond I turned back around to look at him. “If we wait any longer we’ll miss—”
Gabriel was not sitting next to me. The hand that had been clinging to Gabriel’s was now clutching my amulet. I hadn’t even noticed I’d let go of him.
“Gabriel?” I whispered.
Nothing.
I sprang to my feet. Gabriel was not on this train. I heard a banging coming from behind me, and whirled around to see that another train was parked on a track next to the one I was on, and somehow Gabriel had been transported onto it. He was screaming my name, but all I heard was the muffled pounding from where he was beating on the train window.
“Gabriel!” I shouted pounding my own window in frustration and fear.
I tried to run for the exit but the train doors had already closed so I could do nothing but watch in horror as our two separate trains went speeding off in opposite directions.
I ran from car to car to the back of my train, having no clue what I was going to do but I was unable to stand still. By the time I got to the end, Gabriel’s train was long gone and all that stared back at me from the window was an empty track.
I took a moment to catch my breath and then plopped down in an empty seat, stunned. I was so gone that I don’t even remember what happened next. I don’t know how long I sat there, just that I was startled out of my shock when the train plunged into darkness as it entered a tunnel beneath the Hudson River.
I sighed with relief—I knew I would be in Manhattan in minutes. As much as I hated to admit it, the Councilor would be able to help. Then, just as I had the thought, as if fate were playing some kind of cruel joke on me, the train came rumbling to a stop. The electricity went out and for a moment everything was pitch black before the dim emergency lights flicked on.
When the conductor announced our mechanical difficulties, everyone on board the train groaned collectively and a few of the more colorful individuals chose to go with a Russ-like reaction and spout profanity. I couldn’t blame them. I had a few choice words of my own I’d liked to have said, if I weren’t so busy having a heart attack.
I jumped up from my seat to look out the windows. I couldn’t see the light from where we’d entered the tunnel anymore. It couldn’t be coincidence. This train was spelled to break down. I was stranded. Intuitively I knew that Councilor Mason didn’t want me getting to the consulate in time to stop him.
I fell back into my seat just as I was coming to a very frightening realization. Gabriel was gone. I was the Chosen One, and I had just failed. The thought brought on an onslaught of emotion and I sobbed like I’d never sobbed before.
I heard someone laugh and saw a mother get up and shuffle her kids into the next train car but nothing could make me stop. I’d never felt more hopeless in my entire life. Russ was gone. Gabriel was going to die. The freaking Angel of Death was about to be set free to kill off the human race. And I’m pretty sure the Creator was getting ready to smite me for being such an epic failure.
“I am so getting tortured again when the Councilor finds me,” I muttered through my tears, and then laughed maniacally because I could almost hear Gabriel’s voice of reason in my head. He’d say something ridiculous like, “Do not despair Danielle. The Creator chose you for a reason. I know you will find a way.”
If Russ were here he’d just tell me to stop being stupid and man up. Both of them would probably be right.
That was enough to pull me out of my pity party and make myself think. I was on my way to the consulate already, and I still had the vision. Gabriel wasn’t going to be sacrificed this very second. It wasn’t over yet. I had to keep trying.
I searched the train car until I found an emergency box with a large flashlight inside. Perfect. Then I looked out into the scary black tunnel and took a breath as I forced open the door.
“What are you doing?” I heard someone call out behind me.
“Nobody tries to sacrifice my husband and gets away with it,” I grumbled and then jumped out of the train.
There was a narrow utility walkway on the side of the train that looked to run the length of the tunnel. I jogged alongside it, making my way toward the front of the train in the direction of the city. If anybody on board saw me they didn’t try to stop me. I wondered why until the tunnel swallowed up the dim lights of the train behind me. Somebody would have to be crazy to wander into this place.
“Or desperate,” I whispered aloud. My voice, even as quiet as it was, bounced off the walls in creepy echoes.
If I thought I felt alone on the train I was sorely mistaken. For a brief second the world spun around me. I was filled with an all-consuming grief just like the blackness around me. At first I mistook it to be fear of my bleak surroundings, but as I continued to walk down the tunnel my body became restless and I recognized the emptiness inside me.
The cravings were flaring to life, only they felt different this time. It was like I could literally feel Gabriel getting further and further away from me. Duncan was right. Gabriel and I were connected, but it was more than just our bond. He was a part of me, not just his energy. I felt his loss now, but I could still feel him. Somehow, I knew he was still out there, waiting for me to find him again. Just like I knew I would feel it if anything happened to him. The thought of such a loss was enough to make me forget my fear and tear down the tunnel as fast as my legs would carry me.
I caused quite a ruckus when I ran through the lobby of the Woolworth building. People stared and some shouted, but among the chaos I heard one very excited squeal. “Dani!”
Just as the elevators opened a very hyper and extremely well dressed werewolf nearly tackled me.
“Don’t touch me!” I screamed and she was able to change course just before I took her form. She went tumbling into some guy in a suit who was just stepping out of the elevator.
I apologized as she helped the guy pick up the papers he’d dropped in the collision. “Sorry. I just can’t change forms right now. I have to stay a Seer.”
The man looked up sharply at me so Gina pushed him all the way out of the elevator and quickly hit the button to shut the doors. “Girl, are you crazy? This place is rumor central, and I’m pretty sure the council is going to great lengths to keep you secret considering the way they made you disappear.”
“I’m not the only one who’s going to disappear if I don’t get up to the consulate.” I was pushing the button for the fifty-sixth floor but nothing was happening.
Gina pulled out a plastic key card and swiped it through a scanner. A light flashed green and when she hit the button marked fifty-six the elevator whirred into motion.
“This ride takes a few minutes,” she said folding her arms over her chest. “So start talking. I tried to come up and visit you after my shift ended that day and I was hit by a supernatural security roadblock in a major way.”
“Well they couldn’t exactly let you visit when they were busy torturing me could they?”
Gina gasped.
I opened my mouth to tell her everything but our ride was already half over. “Okay,” I said. “There is way too much to explain it now, but I promise you I will give you every last detail—especially all the details about how the council forced me to marry the Seer—”
“GET OUT!” Gina screamed.
I held up my ring to prove it. “Every last detail,” I said again, “if you do one thing for me.”
“Anything.”
“Give me your cell phone.”
Gina handed over her phone without question. It was black and bedazzled with rhinestones. I thumbed through the phone numbers in her phone and immediately dialed Duncan. My heart sank when it went to voice mail. I slipped the phone in my pocket and looked at Gina. “Find Duncan. He’s the only one I really trust right now.”
“But they sent Duncan off on some secret council assignment. He hasn’t been here for two days.”
“I don’t care how you do it Gina. Just find him. Find him
and have him call me on this phone. As quickly as you can.”
The elevator doors chimed open and I shot into the hall without waiting for Gina’s response. I breezed past the reception desk and a woman behind the counter jumped up and hurried after me screaming that I had to sign in.
“I have to find the Councilor!” I told her.
“He’s in a meeting with the Council. You can’t just see the Councilor anyway. You have to request a meeting.”
I ran straight for the conference room and the woman chasing after me began yelling for security. Four men came up behind me as I burst through the conference room doors. “Wait!” I screamed. “Don’t touch me! Councilor, tell them they can’t touch me! I need to keep the vision!”
The entire council was on their feet and the Councilor yelled, “Let the child be!” just before a big burly werewolf could grab me.
“Thanks,” I said, bending over to catch my breath.
“What is the meaning of this?” Councilor Torres asked.
I scanned the room for Robert Mason. He wasn’t there. My heart seized with panic and I prayed I wasn’t too late.
I met the Councilor’s eyes with a graveness that scared him. “I need to speak with you.”
“Danielle, where is Gabriel?”
My eyes flickered around the room again. “In private,” I said.
The Councilor debated for a moment and looked unhappy to be giving in to my request, but he stayed rational. “To your apartment then.” He looked back at the council, who was already arguing, and said, “Continue in my absence. I shall be back as soon as I can.”
His word was final and we left immediately. As soon as we were in the elevator I said, “Where’s Robert?”
“Wait, Danielle,” the Councilor said, “everywhere within the consulate is monitored by security except for the council’s private quarters. If you wish this conversation to stay between us you must wait.”
