Erin charmed the nursing staff into allowing Lorelei to leave, so they moved into the waiting room while the nurses prepared her discharge papers. Gabe returned soon after, asked Lorelei a brief question about how she was feeling but no more, focusing his attention on quiet conversations held with Erin. This riled Lorelei, and she told them in no uncertain terms she wasn't co-operating unless they included her in the discussions. Following her outburst, Gabe spoke to neither of them, pacing in and out of the waiting room and never sitting.
Lorelei watched him as subtly as she could, finding it hard not to stare at him—as were a few other women and girls around them. He’d changed while he was away and now wore a loose black T-shirt over a pair of loose cut jeans with black sneakers. Even dressed nondescriptly he looked amazing. His dark blonde curls brushed his brow, his full mouth set in a serious line—why had she never seen anyone else in her life who made her heart jump across her chest in the way it did just by looking at Gabe?
Erin watched him too, occasionally glancing at Lorelei. Once or twice Lorelei caught Erin regarding her with a small frown but as soon as Lorelei caught her eye, she broke into a broad smile.
The gleaming, blue BMW outside was conspicuous and not the kind of car she imagined Gabe driving. Not that she could clearly remember the last car he owned, apart from it was difficult to steer with large animals on the roof. He told Erin to travel separately in case Caleb's followers watched them, then a taciturn Gabe escorted her to the car, still not in any mood for conversation and this reticence continued as he drove.
Chapter Twelve
Lorelei sat in the passenger seat of Gabe’s car, the late summer warmth making her drowsy again. She'd spent too much of the last twenty-four hours asleep and wanted to stay awake. The first couple of hours, she mulled over events in her head, trying to form questions to ask him which wouldn't sound as inane as they did when she repeated them in her mind. So far, he’d only told her half a story.
The buildings thinned as they moved further away from the town and soon they drove along the monotonous motorway, the gentle burr of the car lulling Lorelei towards sleep again. The tension emanating from Gabe lessened too. Lorelei stifled a yawn and rubbed her eyes, stretched out, and tried to get comfortable in her seat. Gabe’s hands gripped the steering wheel a little tighter, exhaling.
“What’s wrong?” she asked looking at the road behind them expecting to see pursuers.
Gabe shook his head. “Nothing”.
Lorelei stole another of her many sideways glances at him, taking in his perfect features and his slender-fingered hands holding the steering wheel. “Are you okay?” Gabe glanced at her, concerned. “You look like you're going to be sick.”
For the first time that day, Lorelei laughed. His further confusion caused by the reaction made her laugh even harder. The tension and experiences of the last twenty-four hours spilt out, as she put a hand over her mouth, shaking her head and stifling the noise.
Gabe frowned at her. “You're very strange.”
He looked back at the road.
"And the pot calls the kettle black."
"What?"
"Nothing"
Lorelei looked down at her hands in her lap. "What you said about Keys and me being a Host—that's all I am in this world then, Gabe? Half a person."
"No, you're a whole person, just with a little extra." He turned his head to her, the smile blowing all her thoughts and feelings straight from her mind.
"I’m definitely human?”
“Undoubtedly.”
"And you're definitely not human?"
"I'm not."
Lorelei fiddled with the edge of her top. She needed to get the answer he refused. “You said we classify supernaturals, what class do you fit into? And Caleb too?”
"Those definitions I gave you are the clumsy human attempts to pigeon-hole what they don’t understand. There are no neat categories for what you call the supernatural. Those from the place I belong don't normally look like this. I have a human form currently. Otherwise, I wouldn't exactly blend in and be able to do my job."
Lorelei blinked, dismissing her immediate appreciation of how good his human form looked. The downside crept in. What did he usually look like?
"If you're asking am I good or am I evil, then hopefully I shouldn’t need to tell you.”
“I know you aren’t evil—I can feel that. But…” She paused. How could she say this and make it sound okay? “Neither is he.”
Gabe said nothing for a moment. “No. But what he wants to do is.”
“Well, with a name like Gabe, I’m convinced you’re an angel—my guardian angel,” she teased.
The car veered off the road as Gabe swung the steering wheel sharply to the left and stopped abruptly in a lane.
He switched the engine off and turned to look at her. His cool blue eyes narrowed, undisguised fury in his darkened expression. “I am not your guardian angel, Lorelei. That is a stupid concept—one I am surprised you believe in.”
Lorelei's heart rate picked up again, perspiration pooling across her neck. “I wasn't serious… I don’t believe in guardian angels. But I didn't believe in demons or werepanthers until yesterday.”
Gabe turned away, looked straight ahead, gripping the wheel so hard his knuckles turned white.
Lorelei swallowed, she hadn't expected this reaction from him. “Okay, I’m sorry. It's easier to believe a fantasy sometimes."
"Fantasy?"
"I used to imagine that was who you were—when I was little."
In her mind's eye, Lorelei saw herself as the little girl sitting up in bed, drawing a picture of a man with wings—trying to turn the figure she sometimes glimpsed into a fairy tale.
Gabe stared out the windscreen. "I suppose you would," he said finally.
"Finish telling me what you started last night, Gabe, I need to understand more about what I am. This Key or power or whatever—it’s inside me, right?”
“The Key isn't inside you. It's a part of you. The best way I could describe it is an extra part of your soul.”
“I don’t believe in souls,” she retorted.
“Aura, then? Personality? There is more to Lorelei than the physical being.”
Lorelei looked into the bright blue, calming eyes. He told the truth, she could see. And for the first time, he looked at her properly, studied her as if looking into the soul he spoke about.
“I wish you wouldn’t do that.”
“Do what?”
“Stare at me. I know you’ve been watching me for most of my life, but it’s unnerving for me.”
“You're different."
“Different to who?” She ignored the jump inside her stomach.
“Different to any of the others.” He held her gaze again, and she tried to fathom what thoughts sat behind those ice-blue eyes.
“The others you have needed to watch over?”
“I don’t have to watch. It’s my choice. It’s my way...back.”
“Back?”
“Home.” Gabe looked down at his hands and spread his fingers out on the steering wheel.
“But I thought you were chosen?”
“No, I was given a choice. It was a way to make up for my transgressions. It seemed like a good idea at the time.”
He gave a half laugh to himself, and Lorelei wondered if he regretted his choice. She remembered the loneliness in his eyes she glimpsed before.
“How long have you been here watching?” she asked quietly.
Gabe fixed his eyes on hers. “Over a hundred years. You’re not the first.”
Lorelei paused her questioning, not sure how to react.
“Now, I’m stuck here, in this form. Until I go back.”
Lorelei stared at him, a guy who looked like he'd stepped off the pages of a magazine. Oblivious to his attractiveness. There were a lot of people who would be happy to be stuck looking like him. But over a hundred years...
"More than a hundred years of watching and wait
ing. Keeping my distance. And then you.”
“Me?”
“You.”
The tired look he gave her was loaded with emotion she couldn’t fathom. Was he angry? No, but something.
Gabe shook his head slowly. “So much is different this time. It means something. You mean something more.”
Something more? To him? No... She caught her breath. That's not what he meant.
Gabe's expression betrayed something more though. It was there, in the intensity of how he looked at her now. Time stopped as her attraction to him reflected, pupils darkening his eyes. He blinked, brow dipping, and she wanted to reach out to him. As the thought formed in her mind, his eyes widened, and he looked away. Had he seen her thoughts? She heard his last night when the car keys fell to the floor.
In the snug surroundings of the car, she was physically closer to him than he allowed before. He was evidently uncomfortable judging by his quick movements each time his hand almost touched hers. If she wanted to, she could lean over and touch him, trace those lips with her fingers. There was something hidden in his eyes, thoughts she couldn't read, and she had a strong feeling he wanted to say something more.
Gabe closed his eyes and exhaled. "Guardian angels don't exist, Lorelei. In some ways, Caleb was right when he said I'm no better than he is. But I will keep you safe."
Gabe looked away and slowly pulled the car back onto the road, their journey returning to an uncomfortable silence.
Chapter Thirteen
Lorelei awoke with a start as the car stopped abruptly. She'd slept with head tipped back and saliva dribbled out of one side of her mouth. She wiped it away, glancing at Gabe, relieved to see he wasn't looking at her.
Lorelei rubbed her eyes and gazed out of the window. He'd parked in a narrow lane between two tall buildings which hunched over them, blocking the grey sky. Evening already? It wasn't somewhere she'd choose to go at any time of day, and not in a darkening evening sitting in a model of car which invited crime. Even if she was with someone, she was sure would be impossible to rob.
The car door closed with a solid thud as Gabe climbed out. The windowless building stretched down the alleyway, a series of doors and signs nailed to the old brick walls. Gabe approached a grey metal door and knocked, glancing up and down the narrow street. Unsure what to do, Lorelei waited in the car, a wary eye on the side mirrors, convinced something or someone would appear in them. The door opened, and Gabe spoke to someone hidden in the doorway. He turned around and beckoned her over. Lorelei climbed out and hurried over to him.
A woman stood in the doorway at the top of a narrow metal staircase. Lit by a single lightbulb hanging above her, the stairs ran down into a neon-lit hallway of breeze block walls. A nameplate to the side of the heavy door read "Hawking Industries" in fading black print.
"Hello, Erin," said Gabe, nodding curtly.
Erin studied Lorelei with fascination, and the intensity of the woman's gaze unnerved her.
"Everyone's here." Erin said, addressing Gabe. "They are happy you finally decided to meet with them."
"I wish I were," he said.
"I've been telling you for years— you can no longer do this alone, not this time." Erin stepped back to allow them through the door.
"I know, but that's the problem," he said, indicating Lorelei should go down in front of him. Did they think she might run away or something?
She wrinkled her nose at the rank smell, and there was evidence of people sleeping rough amongst the cardboard boxes and mounds of refuse in the corridor downstairs.
"It doesn't really look like this," Erin said to Lorelei. "It's a glamour."
"A glamour?"
"A magic disguise," said Gabe
"Well, it doesn't look a lot better than this, but this is enough extra to keep most people away. Plus, they can't see this door." Erin tapped on the wall near the end of the passage then turned to Gabe. "Have you warned her?"
"Warned me of what?" Her eyes darted between Erin and Gabe. "What are they going to do to me?"
"Nothing, it could be a little..." Gabe paused, looking for the right word.
"Weird?" asked Lorelei.
"Confrontational," said Erin with a glance at Gabe as she opened the door.
Lorelei pictured lofty chairs and a row of stern faces looking at her across a long table like attending an interview. Instead an assortment of people—she presumed some of them were people—sat around a large circular wooden table. The softly lit room smelled odd, a sickly smell of herbs reminiscent of Christmas time. The walls pulled her attention away from those in front of her, covered with tableaus representing otherworldly creatures dominated the room. The picture closest to her depicted wolf men fighting demons in the woodlands, in vivid detail as if they could step out at any moment.
Three men and two women sat around the table, five sets of eyes studying her with both curiosity and hostility. Lorelei stiffened, fighting her instinct to run as she looked from person to person, gauging each of their responses to her.
"Presumably this is her?" asked one of the men. Dressed immaculately in a well-cut business suit, he paused from sending a text on his phone to look at her. His carefully styled dark hair and arrogant turn to his mouth put Lorelei on guard.
"Yes, this is her," said Gabe, turning to Lorelei and pulling a spare chair towards her. "Please sit down, and I'll introduce you."
Lorelei sat.
"She don't look like much," muttered a man almost twice the width across the chest as the other men at the table. He studied her with uninterested brown eyes, beneath thick eyebrows.
His lack of engagement was preferable to the open hostility from the woman sitting closest to Lorelei. A small woman, probably not much older than Lorelei, narrowed her green eyes as she looked at her, animosity clear in her hard features.
The woman sitting next to her was some years older, vibrant red hair hanging to her shoulders in loose curls. In contrast to the hatred from the other woman, her brown eyes were kind, and calmness emanated from her as she smiled at Lorelei.
A man occupied the last seat at the table. He leaned back, one hand placed under his chin as he eyed Lorelei with fascination. As tall as Gabe but with a slender build, he wore the clothes of a teenager—scruffy T-shirt and hooded jacket, black contrasting his pallid skin. The strangeness of his pale eyes captivated her. He gave her a slow wink. Was this group human?
"What in the goddess’s name are you doing bringing that in here?" The younger woman practically spat the words across the room at her.
The older woman touched the girl's arm. "Rowan, don't be so uncivil," she said in a calming tone. She turned to Lorelei. "Welcome."
"Just lead them right to us, why don't you?" The girl's vehemence now turned to Gabe. "How long have we kept ourselves secret and now look! Idiot!"
Despite her rising panic at the weird situation, Lorelei was mildly amused, wondering if anyone spoke to Gabe like this before. She glanced at him, and he appeared non-plussed by her outburst, watching the girl expressionlessly.
"We will always offer sanctuary to people who mean us no harm, Rowan," said the older woman.
"Oh right, so when we're pursued by demons his 'friend' brought to this world, he's nowhere to be seen. And then suddenly he wants our help, and suddenly he's here, and we all bow down to help him!" Rowan continued.
"Rowan, calm down, you know it's in everyone's interests to keep the Key from Caleb."
The red-haired woman's attempts to soothe Rowan appeared useless—the girl's face reddened as she looked at Lorelei with disgust.
"Maybe I should go." Lorelei glanced at the door.
"No." Gabe's tone was emphatic.
"If she's staying then I'm leaving!" pouted Rowan.
"Rowan. Stop behaving like this. What would your kind think if they knew their representative was painting them all in this light?"
The older woman's voice scolded this time, the kindness edging out of her tone.
Rowan stood and
looked down at the woman. "You never lost anyone."
"I know, but anger and hostility will not bring back the lost, it will only mean others will follow."
Rowan hesitated for a moment before sitting again, glowering at an unmoved Gabe.
"Shall we get on with the meeting?" asked the business-suited man, addressing the flame-haired woman. "I don't have much spare time today. Get the introductions over with, Jonquil."
"This rather impatient gentleman is Garrick," said Jonquil. He raised an eyebrow at her.
"Next to him is Grant," she continued indicating the broad-chested man. "And at the end is Nathaniel."
The pale man nodded at her with a small smile.
"And Rowan's name you have already heard," she finished.
Lorelei wasn't sure what she should do or say and glanced back at Gabe; he sat stiffly and looked as comfortable with the situation as she did.
"It's very strange seeing you all together," said Gabe. "All your races I mean...I never thought you could do that. Not really."
Jonquil nodded. "We meet when we need to, but mostly, we keep our kinds apart."
"Yes, this is supposed to be secret, remember? What's the point if you're going to invite humans here?" Rowan interjected loudly. "Especially that one."
Rowan's attitude no longer worried Lorelei. Instead, she irritated her. Lorelei dug her nails into her jeans, fighting her desire to say something to Rowan's high school attitude.
"I appreciate you're concerned, but I wouldn't have asked to meet with you all or brought her if I didn't think it was a necessity. Her safety has to be a priority."
"Her safety?" asked Grant. "That's your job. Nothing to do with the Council."
"I am perfectly aware of that, but it has reached the point where I need help. Otherwise, I would not be troubling you all." He faltered, and Lorelei glanced at him, realising how hard it was for Gabe to ask for help.
"As you know, Caleb has amassed a significant number of followers, and in recent years their numbers have been growing faster. If you want things preserving, we need to unite," said Jonquil.
Hidden (Her Immortal Guardians Book 1) Page 8
