by Sariah Skye
"Yeah but…what would they want with Kit? I mean, even to get to me, seriously, to risk exposure to a human?" I shook my head. "Something doesn’t seem right."
"No, it does not." Maxxus heaved a heavy sigh.
"So, who’s watching the other portal on the other side?" Gabriel asked.
Maxxus smiled. "Your Grandfather, actually."
I perked up. "Grandfather? Really?" I started to rise, by Maxxus pulled me back down.
"Not a good idea, Leorah. The second you cross that portal, guards will be all over the top of you," he said. "Both him and your brother have been coming by regularly to make sure you aren’t mistreated if perhaps you do get over, although they both know there is little chance you’d come. But, he just wanted to be sure."
I stuck my lower lip out, defeated. "Fine. That sucks. So close yet so far."
Gabriel spoke up. "Do you really think they’d kidnap Kit?"
Maxxus shrugged. "I don’t know what the threat is against Leo, but if it’s bad enough, they just might."
Gabriel and I exchanged doomed glances.
"Please. Go back and see if you can find anything out," I requested, giving him a slight nudge.
"You do know they won’t tell me anything, knowing that I’m associated with your grandfather, right?" Maxxus asked.
I nodded. "But someone, somewhere had to of seen a human if she was brought over, right? Who else could it be?"
"Worth a shot," Gabriel said.
Maxxus nodded, rising to his feet and reaching out his hand for me. Gabriel glared, but Maxxus ignored him. Reluctantly, I took it and allowed him to help me to a standing position although I didn’t really need it, knowing that Maxxus was bound by dragon traditions.
"I will do what I can," he said, as I handed him back his jacket.
I half expected him to bow or something equally as ridiculous, but he simply waved as he turned and headed towards the portal. Before he stepped through, he turned to me. "Do be careful, will you?" It was a solemn statement, not a question.
"You too," I said, with a nod.
Gabriel said nothing, he just stood there with his arms crossed over his chest, looking stone-faced and gruff.
Maxxus gave the sorcerer an inquiring once over, but said nothing further. He gave a small smile and a slight nod of the head before stepping through the portal and disappearing.
Gabriel snorted. "What a— "
I immediately turned on him, angry. "What the fuck was all that?" I challenged, meaning to give him a small shove but I actually made him stumble backwards on his feet.
"What the fuck, Leo?" Gabriel regained his balance, brushing off some dust he kicked up on himself.
"Don’t throw my swear words back at me!" I fumed, glaring at him. "What the Hell was with the attitude with Maxxus, Gabriel? Huh?"
"That? Oh my God Leo, you are kind of oblivious. He was like— " Gabriel stammered, trying to find the appropriate words, "—well, with all the royal shit, and the jacket and—"
"—he’s a gentleman, Gabriel!" I fought back. "I know, it’s an odd concept for humans to understand, but we have manners and protocol over there. Not that anyone has ever displayed them for me, but…still…" By now I was standing on my tiptoes and pointing my fingers in his face with each word, trying to emphasize my anger.
"So, why him, then?"
I threw my hands up in exasperation. "Okay, let me explain things to you. My grandfather is an Elder. Which means he’s older than ninety percent of all the dragons out there. Even older then the King and Queen. Well, they aren't very old but that's beside the point. In our Court, an Elder is a very valuable member of Dragon society…if the King and Queen were to both die at the same time, and they do not have anyone appointed to secede them, the Elder would be responsible for appointing the next successors. Which, would be my grandfather. As a direct descendant, that kind of makes me some sort of a big deal. Had I not been pink, I would be revered to a degree. I might even have an official title! But regardless, they are required to show me a certain amount of manners—it’s our protocol."
Gabriel’s demeanor softened. "Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t know, I’m sorry. I just thought he was flirting with you."
I squinted my eyes at him. "Unbelievable…" I stalked off away from him, towards Kit’s car.
He wasn’t far behind. "Leo? What are you doing?"
I was opening up the driver’s side door again to re-open the hood.
"Hot-wiring the car. I need to get it out of here," I said dryly, pulling the hood release knob under the dashboard, causing the hood to pop open.
"Um…you don’t hot-wire a car from under the hood, it’s on the dashboard," Gabriel said hesitantly.
I re-emerged from the car only to glare at him. "Oh." I climbed back in the car looking for…whatever it was you use to hot-wire a car with. I started feeling around the dashboard for…whatever. I’d only seen this done in movies before, surely there had to be something that would stand out.
"And…you don’t need to do that, anyways," he said. "I can do the magic-thing and start it for you. You know…electricity and all." He gave a little awkward smile.
"Oh." I leaned back against the driver’s seat, purposely knocking my head on the headrest and sighed.
Gabriel knelt next to me on the ground, and dared to rest a palm on my leg. My first reaction was to shoot him another dirty look.
"What does it matter if he was flirting with me, anyways? He’s certainly had every opportunity to do so for the past year or so, and…nothing. Like I said, even though Maxxus likes my grandfather, any kind of dragon having a relationship with me is social suicide. It doesn’t matter anyway; we’ve been together all of like…five minutes."
Gabriel exhaled. "Leo, you’re right. I don’t know what came over me. I don’t have any place in being jealous, now or ever. But I’m not going to lie…there’s just something about him I can’t stand!"
Despite myself, I let out a small chuckle. "Why?"
"Seriously? Did you look at him? Guys like him made life miserable for me growing up. Tall, good looking...looks like he could be an actual Disney prince, and acts like it too! God, my brother would be falling over himself over him!" Gabriel laughed, leaning against the open door frame.
I had to laugh. "I suppose, I never really thought about it, actually."
Gabriel appeared thoughtful. "Wait…you said, ‘We’ve been together all of five minutes,'."
I bit my lip so he couldn’t see the smile forming. "I guess I did, huh?"
"So…I mean…we’re going to…" he stammered, motioning back and forth between us, blushing profusely.
I shrugged. "We can see what happens," I said, wanting to scream inside but trying to remain calm. "I can’t predict what’s going to happen…I mean, the whole dragon thing, I—"
Gabriel cut me off by leaning over and placing a tender kiss on my lips, silencing me. My eyes slid shut as I enjoyed the sensation, flicking the fire that was lit and extinguished earlier inside me awake again. I started to kiss him back, but pulled away, remembering I was still sitting in Kit’s abandoned car.
"Shit, what a crappy friend I am. Making out in my best friend’s abandoned car when I don’t know where she is."
Gabriel put his palms on my shoulders and looked at me intently. "We’ll figure it out. Somehow. We’ll find her."
I nodded slowly. "I hope so. In the meantime…what do we do?"
Gabriel shrugged and shook his head. "Not sure…call the cops and report her missing?"
I considered this. "Maybe. Maybe she was taken somewhere and they drove her car here, and she’s just somewhere else."
"Could be," Gabriel said hopefully.
"But, I don’t want the cops finding her car here," I said. "Too close to the portal. I doubt they’ll find it, or even be able to see it but since we don’t know what crossed…"
Gabriel nodded knowingly. "I see what you mean, but I highly doubt that they’re going to be looking for her car out here…or
even find it even if they do. Just in case it is part of a foul play we don’t want to tamper with the crime scene."
"Crime scene?" I yelped, but he was right. "Okay…I guess." I sighed. I climbed out of her car and shut the door behind me. As I did, I had a thought: "Finger prints!" I said, wiggling my hands. "Won’t they find my fingerprints everywhere on her car?"
"Yeah but…. you’re her friend, right? That’s pretty reasonable," he said. "Did Maxxus touch the car?"
"I think so," I said.
"Hmm…." he was thoughtful, scratching his chin. "Too bad?"
I shot him a glare, and he held up his hands in surrender, laughing. "Okay, okay! Well in all seriousness…he’s a dragon so it’ll be nearly impossible for him to be found even if they find the car and dust for his prints, right?"
"Probably," I said.
Gabriel sighed. "Well, I can help on the outside but the inside? Shit out of luck unless we want to ruin the car," he said.
I nodded, shutting the door and stepping away. Gabriel took a few steps back from the car, and closed his eyes, with his palms together as he always did when he was conjuring an element. After a moment, I saw drips of water coming from his hands and he slowly spread them apart, his eyes deep in concentration, muttering something to himself. He pulled his hands apart slowly further and further until a large, formless water puddle formed between them. He pushed his hands towards the car and seemed to be scrubbing the car with the summoned water, starting with the front, moving along the sides and the back finally tossing it on the roof of the car before letting it disperse, causing the water to splash all over the car and pour down the sides before pooling on the ground below.
I grinned. "That’s fucking awesome!" I said, as he stopped next to me and I wrapped my arms around his waist, giving him a small, appreciative hug.
He wiggled his brows. "Watch this now. You can help with this part, actually."
"How?" I asked, stepping back as he clasped his palms together again.
"You’ll see," he said, pulling his palms apart again, and while I didn’t see anything I felt a slight breeze blow across my shoulders.
"Oh!" I let out a giggle, excited at the prospect of doing magic again. I closed my eyes and exhaled, imagining my breath being carried along a strong wind blowing through the clearing. I felt the air grow more intense, as it blew my skirt up around my ankles and knees, and shot my hair in different directions. I opened my eyes and was watching Gabriel spin the wind into a small spiral and moved it across the car, drying the drops of water on it.
I grinned. "Never gets old."
Gabriel smiled back, taking another pass over the car with the tiny summoned tornado and finally allowing it to disperse, but not before shooting a quick gust of wind at me again with a sharp gesture of his hand, causing my skirt to nearly blow up to my waist if I didn’t immediately push it down with my hands.
"Damn you!" I laughed, as the wind dispersed, letting my skirt fall back and my hair rested along my back and shoulders again.
"Sorry, Marilyn," he retorted with a snicker. I gave him an odd look of "Huh?" and he just waved me off. "Best I can do. Some fingerprints might survive but…hopefully that got most of them, and what’s left hopefully it made them hard to find or indeterminate."
I nodded, looking over the sparkly, clean yellow Beetle. "Looks good. Kit would be thrilled," I said, with a wistful laugh.
What if whatever had invaded my dreams last night…. what if that has Kit? I must have looked worried, because Gabriel wrapped an arm around my shoulders and pulled me under his arm. "We’ll find her."
I just nodded, and allowed him to walk me back to the truck and help me inside. He got in on the driver’s side and we drove off, leaving Kit’s treasured car in the clearing, hoping it would stay safe for her when she was found. Knowing how much she loved that car, something must have really gone wrong to get her to just abandon it here.
I so hoped she was okay.
I had just hung up with the police after making my missing person’s report on Kit. I sent the cop I spoke to a picture in my phone of Kit and all the information on her I had; I also told him she had a sister—Melanie—who lived in the Cities. I’d never met her, but she should probably be contacted. I didn’t know when she’d return and I needed someone to make some legal decisions or whatever on the shop, to make sure until she returned it didn’t go belly up. They said they’d search for her but made no promises; it’d help if I could give them any information about her. I tossed my phone in frustrated defeat on the coffee table and scrubbed my face with my hands. I was going to have to go to Kit’s tomorrow and see if I could find any information on Melanie or any other family member she might have. All the while dodging whatever threat might be after me tonight, or avoiding any possible contact with the Court that was surely searching for me. Besides Braeden and my grandfather, no one besides Kiarra had any idea where I lived…and I wasn’t confident that she wouldn’t spill the beans.
"So much for our date," Gabriel said, with a heavy sigh leaning back against the couch.
I glanced over at my wall clock: 9:23pm, it read. "Well, what did you have planned?"
He shrugged. "Well, we were going to walk around the park, watch the sunset, and while I didn’t really have a lot of notice to look into what there was to do out here—took hours’ worth of effort just to figure out how to make that spaghetti—I figured we could find a private corner somewhere in the park…and…"
I raised my eyebrows. "…and, what?" I asked, a playful smile spreading across my face.
"Well, I was going to say try your hand at some magic, but if you want to think dirty thoughts…" he trailed off, a flirty lilt in his voice. "…well, I won’t stop you."
I rolled my eyes, and gave him a playful shove. "I think you got enough of that earlier, don’t you think?"
Gabriel puffed out his lower lip. "Okay, I guess. If that’s my only other option."
I smiled, and an uncomfortable thought occurred in my mind. "Hey so…when it comes to…that…" My cheeks lit on fire at the thought and I just stopped mid-sentence.
"What? Magic?" he asked. I shot him a pointed look. "Oh. Oh! You mean, sex?" he let out a nervous peal of laughter.
"Yes, that’s what I mean. I take it by your laughter it’s not a comfortable subject, and I will drop it," I said, with a sigh. I reached on the coffee table for the remote and dismissed him.
Gabriel leaned over and grabbed my hand. "I’m sorry…yeah it’s a little uncomfortable but I mean, I can talk about it if there is something you want to know. Not that there is much to tell…" he added under his breath.
I chuckled. "So, I mean…we’re both in our twenties…in human years anyways," I said with a laugh. "I imagine you have…before?"
Gabriel groaned, slapping his hands against his face with a smacking sound. "Ugggh…. yes, I have."
I forced a smile. "You have. Well…how many times?"
Gabriel exhaled uncomfortably. " I did some stupid things, after I graduated college. My first time was with…" he sighed again, recalling something he clearly didn’t enjoy, "someone I met at a club. I think her name was— "
I cut him off, "—I don’t want to know her name!" I insisted.
He smiled slightly. "Okay. Well, I knew her first name only, anyways. For a short time with some friends I frequented some local clubs…and I met this chick at one and we…" He sighed. "It was in the back of her car. How romantic is that?"
I snorted, avoiding his eyes. I was desperately trying not to think of him entangled in the back seat of some car somewhere fogging up the windows, but it wasn’t working. I became very interested in the buttons on the remote control I was currently holding. "Is that the only time?"
Gabriel smiled sheepishly. "Well…no. But it was the stupidest. I did have a girlfriend for a long time. We met in my college calculus class, I was supposed to tutor her because she was having issues…well it lasted for about two sessions before we hit it off and…" he stopped mid
-sentence, shuffling his hands uncomfortably in his lap.
"How long were you together?" I asked, trying to muster up some sympathy for him but was finding it hard as I’d never experienced a break up before.
He exhaled. "Nearly two and a half years. We broke up about nine months ago…I proposed to her, she said no…that was pretty much the end of it." He forced a smile to lighten his mood. "What can you do?"
"She said no? Why?" I asked, incredulous.
He shrugged. "I don’t really know, except that she kept thinking I was hiding something from her…she thought I was cheating but really, it was just…" He clapped his hands together and produced a small lightning spark from his hands.
"You never told her about all that?"
He shook his head. "I just…I knew she’d just take off on me anyways. She was a super religious person, never missed a Sunday in Church. I don’t know how it worked. I don’t know why I ever thought it would work in the first place. We were very incompatible anyways, but I proposed to her on a whim one night after we got into another fight…well, it just wasn’t meant to be."
I frowned. I was trying to get a mental picture of him making out with some other woman out of my mind and it was making me partially ill. I tried to hide my dismay by reaching over and trying to give him a sympathetic grasp of the arm. "I’m sorry."
He shrugged it off. "It’s okay. I mean it should have ended like, six months into our relationship anyways but…I was just afraid I’d never find someone again."
I choked down the rage welling up in me like a deluge at the thought of not only someone touching him that way—which was totally irrational—but someone breaking his heart. Instead I tried to smile…I kissed my fingertips and held out my palm and blew gently… literally blowing a kiss at him, complete with pink dragon sparkles and all.
He smiled. "Now that makes it all better," he said, reaching over and pulling on my arm, urging me to lean into him. I knew if I did, I would probably become very relaxed and drowsy and I wanted to fight the urge…but I couldn’t for long. I gave in, and leaned into his body, resting my head on his chest, his arm draped around my back. His free hand pushing my hair out of his face and smoothing it down my side.
