“I'm fine. Thank you for your help." She glanced towards the closed door behind him. Caleb didn't move from in front of it. "I'd like to go now.” She cringed as her voice squeaked.
Caleb raised an eyebrow. “Now why do that? Right now is the perfect time for us to have that chat."
Echoes of his words outside of the Gasworks rang in her ears. But she also remembered Gabe's threat to him.
“You can’t keep me here."
“I don’t intend to, our friend Gabe will be here any moment, I expect. We should have a chat before he arrives and tells you what a bad guy I am again."
Lorelei looked pointedly at the girl lying on the floor.
"Now come on; that wasn't me!"
"You attacked me last time we met, remember?"
Caleb rubbed an eyebrow. "Sorry, I lost my temper. I can be a bit volatile sometimes. I'll do my best to stay calm."
"Do your best?"
"As I said, I'm not used to people saying no to me."
There it was. That edge to Caleb’s voice she'd heard before. She shivered, remembering how quickly his mood shifted when she didn't co-operate with him last time. Caleb's intentions were unclear and, even though he was keeping his distance for now, if his mood did change there was nothing she could do, nowhere to try to run to this time. If Gabe was coming, as Caleb said, then she needed to keep him calm and do as much of what he asked as she could.
But a doubt niggled her—even if Gabe arrived, what were his intentions towards her?
"Ok, we can talk. Tell me what this is all about," she said, sitting back down on the edge of the bed, facing the door.
Lorelei teetered on the edge of her reality, and her mind shut down to keep her from stepping over the edge and into the alternative offered to her tonight. One where men with animal teeth killed girls at parties.
Caleb sat close to her, their legs almost touching. “Gabe still keeping you in the dark, is he?”
“We haven’t had much chance to talk.”
“Such a shame for him to miss his chance. To be honest, I wasn't expecting to find you quickly. He must be slacking. But look on the bright side—at least I don’t have to go looking for you again. Just a shame about tonight's mishap.”
Lorelei stared at his untroubled expression. “Mishap? There’s a dead girl in the room!”
“Lorelei, in the scheme of things, her life wasn’t worth much anyway.”
“Who gives you the right to decide if someone’s life is worth anything or not?”
“I never said I did. I only meant that the girl was unimportant. So many people are. But some are more valuable than they could begin to imagine.” Caleb extended a hand to tuck a strand of her hair behind her ears, and she recoiled.
“Like me you mean?”
Something about the intensity of his gaze unnerved her further, secrets behind his eyes she needed to know but didn't dare ask. She didn't want to know.
And there was something else there—quiet awe in his expression as if he couldn’t believe she sat with him.
"Like you," he said softly.
"I don't know what any of this is about. But I don't want to be involved," she said.
"If only that were an option for you."
"Whether I'm involved or not is my choice!"
"Sometimes choices can't be made. Sometimes you have to make a decision based on what you have. Choices are taken away from you. Very soon, Gabe will come through that door. He'll tell you I'm a bad person. He'll want you to trust him over me. Please think—do you know either of us enough to trust?"
Lorelei rubbed her temples, searching for an answer in her racing mind. Every moment that passed she moved further and further from reality. Sitting next to Caleb dizzied her, dulling the horror of the situation she was in. There was no logical reason for her to react to him like this.
The smug smile tugged at one corner of Caleb's mouth, as he lifted a hand towards her face. For one frightening moment, she thought he was going to lean over and kiss her.
The door crashed open. Gabe crossed the room, pulling Caleb violently away from her. Before she could blink, the two figures hit the wall at the opposite end of the room, sending a picture crashing to the ground. The struggle continued as each man tried to hold the other immobile until Gabe managed to securely pin Caleb against the wall by his neck, their faces inches apart.
A sense of deja vu crossed Lorelei's mind. The two men focused on each other again. She bolted towards the open door, and it slammed shut in front of her.
“Stay there!” demanded Gabe, not looking away from Caleb.
She turned to him. Gabe shut the door?
Glancing around, Gabe evaluated her quickly. “Are you injured?”
Caleb said something Lorelei couldn’t hear, and Gabe grabbed him by the hair, slamming his head against the wall. “What did you do to her?”
“Nothing. Why do you think I should?” replied Caleb, a teasing tone in his voice.
Gabe slammed Caleb's head against the wall again.
Lorelei flinched, but it didn’t appear to hurt Caleb. “We were having a little chat while we waited for you to arrive,” he said. “Weren’t we?”
"He hasn't hurt me; he helped me."
Gabe glanced at Caleb who shrugged. "I guess I'm a good guy after all."
Gabe's grip on Caleb slackened, and his eyes widened in horror at the girl on the floor. "What have you done?"
Caleb waved a hand dismissively. “Oh her. That wasn’t me. Don’t stress, I clear up my mess.” He pulled away from a shocked Gabe. “Let’s discuss this. Persuade Lorelei to join us. Work together. We could be powerful—like we once planned." He paused. "You know we’re not so different you and I….”
Gabe struck Caleb hard across the face. “Don’t ever compare me to you; we have nothing in common anymore. I should never have involved myself. Look at what you do—look at her!”
Caleb looked down at the girl’s body, shifting Gabe’s attention back to the floor. Gabe rubbed his face, considering what to do and let Caleb go as he crouched down to examine her. Caleb side-stepped Gabe brushed himself down and winked at Lorelei. He backed away from Gabe, a slow smile spreading across his face as he closed his eyes and started murmuring to himself.
Opening his eyes, he focused on Gabe who flew backwards, picked off the floor and thrown across the room. Caleb immediately stepped towards Lorelei and with unnatural speed Gabe moved back between the two of them, holding a hand up, palm outwards. Caleb halted, unable to move any closer.
“Oh… very clever, Gabe, protective magic. Are you allowed to dabble in such things?”
“Why do you think your idiotic followers aren’t by your side now?”
Caleb shrugged. “Because I haven’t asked them to be?”
“Wrong. They can't hear you, that's why. Call them up here, and I think you’ll find my power blocked them.”
"I didn't orchestrate all this to leave without Lorelei. I can still get the help I need from somewhere." Caleb's eyes darkened, his breathing slowing as he spoke to himself in low tones.
Shadows in the corners of the room behind him melded to form figures. Dark outlines grew in the walls and upwards towards the ceiling, turning into solid shapes. Peeling themselves from the wall, no longer part of it, the shadowed creatures lurched into the room.
Lorelei's mind took another step from reality. Half as tall again as Caleb, wild manes of black hair cascaded down their hunched backs, orange eyes shining like torches in the dim.
Still facing Caleb, Gabe moved towards Lorelei and pushed her back. A shock of energy jolted through as his hand touched her arm.
Caleb crossed his arms over his chest. "What was that you were saying about idiot minions?"
The three demonic creatures waited behind Caleb, grinning through rows of sharp teeth. They turned their gaze to Lorelei, green foam dripping from their open mouths, across the black-scaled faces.
Lorelei's mind let go, unable to hold her away from the situatio
n any longer, and she screamed.
“Do you trust me, Lorelei?” whispered Gabe.
Lorelei tore her gaze away from the monstrosities in front of her, looking instead into Gabe's eyes. A small crease on his brow betrayed his uncertainty.
She was trapped. The only thing between her and the demons was Gabe and Caleb. And Caleb brought them into the room.
One of the demons stepped towards her, extending three huge talons, as sharply curved and long as scimitars.
Caleb's words echoed inside her mind: 'we're not so different you and I'. She wasn't safe with either of them. She turned to the door.
Gabe stepped in front of it. “I'll keep you safe. I promise.” He glanced back at the demonic creatures, holding a hand out to her. “We have to get out. I don't know what he’s summoned. I don't know if I can stop them.”
Lorelei backed away from him. "No—I don't want to go with you—open the door and let me out."
"Lorelei, please..."
She pushed past him, pulled down on the door handle and screamed for help when the door wouldn’t open. Gabe raked his hands through his hair. He glanced back at Caleb who smirked at him, flanked by his demonic allies.
He needed to do this— there was no other choice. Gabe pulled Lorelei into a strong embrace, holding her arms by her sides to stop her reaching up to him.
A scream caught in Lorelei's throat. The intense physical reaction which coursed through her body when they touched outside the Gasworks magnified, as every nerve in her body tingled painfully. She struggled against him, terrified.
Terrified by everything happening in the room.
Terrified by not knowing what was real anymore.
"Let me go." She shook, voice muffled against his hard chest.
"Please Lorelei, you're not safe on your own now. You can see the danger you’re in."
Physically and mentally, Lorelei spiralled down into darkness, unable to hold on any longer. Her grip on the reality that existed before she entered the room slipped away.
Through the darkness, she saw herself falling towards a speck of white light, her hands grasping at the surrounding nothingness. The light grew, the closer she got, blinding her, turning her vision white. Like Alice, she was falling far down a hole into a different world, lost to a new reality. The light surrounded her, and she faded into unconsciousness.
Chapter Eight
He didn’t know how long he sat watching her for signs of life, cursing Caleb over and over in his mind. The unconscious girl lay on the small sofa in front of him, her breathing shallow, and he’d no idea how to help. Darkness surrounded them, no streetlights filtered through the curtains of the small cottage hidden amongst the trees. Gabe closed his eyes, alert to any sign of Caleb or his followers.
In time, he opened his eyes again and gazed at Lorelei, unable to imagine how the experience would affect her. Ugly bruises on her neck and arms marked her fragile skin, and dark rings appeared under her sleeping eyes.
The moment he was forced to hold on to her in the bedroom, was the moment he became painfully aware of Lorelei as a human girl, not a Host to protect. The sensation of holding her, burnt every nerve ending where their bodies met and his physical craving for her shocked him.
This is the reason why he kept away from humans. He'd seen the path Caleb chose. Now Caleb dragged him into the world he hovered around the edge of. Protecting Hosts shouldn't be this hard. They shouldn't need to know who they are.
And he shouldn't need to fight his desire to touch her sleeping face—to hold her again.
This must be a test—someone trying to stop Gabe from succeeding. His job had now become impossible.
Lorelei's body jumped back to consciousness as she opened her eyes, hoping she was in her own bed and suffering another dream.
She lay on her side, on a sofa, in a room she didn’t recognise, muscles aching and head pounding. Not at home; not a nightmare.
Gabe sat in a chair opposite her looking straight ahead unblinking, lost somewhere in his own thoughts. She groaned and pushed at the soft blanket half-covering her. Without looking, Gabe walked behind the sofa, and she heard a tap running. Lorelei pulled herself into a sitting position; her head lurching as she did.
He returned with a glass of water, awkwardly holding it out to her. She took the drink in her weak arm then drained it.
“Thanks.”
Lorelei didn't look at him but fought through the haze fogging her brain, taking in the simple surroundings, locating the nearest door. The small room contained the sofa she lay on, a small wooden table and chairs but very little space. There was a low door to the kitchen, and the front door was metres away.
Lorelei’s mind sprang back to her last conscious moments—Caleb flanked by the inhuman apparitions and Gabe clutching onto her, trying to get her to leave with him. Events scarier than being trapped in a room by a man who could be a crazy stalker. She hadn't drunk anything at the party, but surely she'd hallucinated.
“What were those things I saw? Did I really see...creatures?”
Gabe rubbed his face and sat forward, head in hands, saying nothing.
Sweat formed on her brow as she tried unsteadily to get off the sofa on trembling legs. Where had he brought her?
"Okay, I need to leave. I'm going to the police—or something."
Gabe looked up in alarm. "No, not yet, it's not safe."
Lorelei ignored him and managed to stand, taking a hesitant step towards the door.
Gabe watched her but didn't move. "Why would you endanger yourself like that? It's still dark out there, and you don't know where you are."
Ignoring the dizziness, she stumbled across the room. When she opened the unlocked door, she knew why Gabe hadn't tried to stop her. They were in the countryside somewhere, the environment so dark she could barely make out the shape of the car parked a few yards away from the front door. The only light came from the cottage behind her, shining across a narrow, pebbled pathway. Somewhere an owl screeched, and Lorelei startled, slamming shut the door. She couldn't leave because she had no idea where she was.
She leaned back against the closed door, resting her head and looking upwards at the low ceiling. "Okay. Now you’ve moved on from stalking to abduction?"
"I brought you here so you would be safe."
He sounded surprised, which didn't make sense—how else did he expect her to react?
"I don't feel safe. Where the hell are we?"
"You're free to leave whenever you want."
Lorelei rested her head against the door. "And you know I can't. I've no idea where I am."
"You're safer here."
"Why didn't you let me go? I told you I didn't want to go with you—as I told him, I don't want to be part of this." She felt inside her pocket. "Where's my phone?"
"I don't know."
Lorelei looked at him suspiciously. "Where’s your phone?"
"I don’t have one."
"Everyone has a phone."
"I don't. I don't need one."
About to accuse him of lying, she opened her mouth, but his face was clear. He told the truth. She rubbed her head and hesitantly sat on a chair, as far away from Gabe as possible in the small room. "I saw a car out there. Take me home. I don’t know what you want from me, but you can’t do this."
"I don't want anything from you."
Lorelei stared at Gabe. For a kidnapper, he didn't seem keen on sitting in the same room as her. She tried again.
"Listen, I need to go home, I don't know what's happening, and whatever you're doing to try to help is scaring me."
"Scaring you more than what you saw in that room at the party?"
"What were they? What is he?” She paused. "What are you?"
Gabe turned his face to her, fixing her with his pale blue eyes. She should be terrified, run out the door screaming, but whatever waited in the dark countryside could be more dangerous than staying in the room with him. Lorelei rubbed her face with both hands and held her hair awa
y from her face.
"Tell me what's going on," she demanded. "Or I will walk out of that door, and I don't care what's out there."
Gabe's brow puckered. "You can’t deal with this situation on your own. Surely you can see something perilous threatens you."
"Like you? I've seen you in my dreams for as long as I can remember. But they weren’t dreams, were they?"
Gabe shifted in his seat. "Yes. I've always been around you. I am here to watch you. Not hurt you."
"Why? That is all kinds of wrong."
His expression darkened. "Because I have to."
"Why?" she repeated.
Gabe pushed his fringe back from his eyes. He never expected Lorelei to react like this, but he’d never spoken to a Host before or imagined this would be their reaction. Why wasn't this fragile human girl grateful he'd helped her?
"I don't know what to tell you," he said.
"How about everything?"
"You wouldn't believe me."
Tears pricked Lorelei's eyes. The dreams and nightmares of her childhood weren't a symptom of mental illness. He was real. It was all real. She sucked in a breath, refusing to let the tears flow.
"Try me. After the last few hours, I don't feel like I'm on this planet anymore. You chose to step out of the shadows into my life. Now tell me why."
She watched, confused, as he took a set of car keys from his pocket and placed them on the table.
"My car is outside, and you can leave at any time, but I would advise you not to. Not yet. I'll try to explain to you what I can. Then you can choose whether to stay with me until I can ensure your safety. Or you can go."
He paused.
"I brought you here against your will because you were in immediate danger and I couldn't leave you there, but now I can't interfere with what you choose to do.”
Lorelei closed her eyes, wishing if she opened them she'd be at home in bed. As if that was going to happen. She opened them and studied Gabe. His long-limbed figure sat awkwardly at the table, dark blonde hair falling into his face. His face’s perfect symmetry drew her gaze, and his blue eyes watched her warily.
Hidden (Her Immortal Guardians Book 1) Page 5
