by Barbara Taub
Luic seemed to fight a battle with himself as well. Finally, his arms fell away from her. “He’s worried about you. We’d better go.” He lifted her impersonally, and Thomas joined them, carrying Leila. From their vantage point above the trees, they could see Max with half a dozen of his soldiers, dressed in dark clothes with knit hats and faces smeared with dark streaks. They had spread out to surround Gaby and Leila’s four pursuers, two of whom were down and not moving. As Gaby watched, the remaining two ran for the cliffs. She turned her head away as they threw themselves onto the rocks below, but beside her she could hear Leila’s faint but unmistakably bloodthirsty growl of approval.
Luic landed, and for a moment his arms tightened. Then he let her go and stepped away. She looked up, and Max was staring at her. Gaby took a breath and turned toward Max. Then she was running, and his arms were around her, and she was finally crying, sobbing, and whispering his name. One of his hands held her head for his desperate kiss while the other gently searched for her wounds. When he came to the towel taped to her side, she winced. His voice was fierce but his arms gentle as he picked her up. “You are never to get kidnapped again. My heart can’t take it.”
“That’s just because you’re such an old man.” Gaby looked up with a shaky smile. “My next fiancé is going to be much tougher.”
Max groaned and his arms clenched around her.
Luic watched as Max carried Gaby to the waiting limo, leaning over to speak to the driver as Thomas and Leila joined them. Max held out his hand to Luic. “Are you coming?” Ignoring the hand, Luic got into the car. Thomas was already there with Leila in his arms. Without comment, Max swept Gaby onto his lap. She rode back to Seattle with her cheek pressed against his heart.
They stopped at the hotel only long enough to pick up their suitcases and for Max to clean and bandage Gaby’s side before all of them left for the Metro. And the whole time Gaby held onto Max. She couldn’t even hope because in her heart she knew, and sure enough, the Metro didn’t have a ticket for him. She knew he was waiting for her to say she wouldn’t go. He didn’t touch her, and he didn’t try to persuade. Incongruously, she wondered, Is this what Luic felt when he walked away from me? I’ll have to tell him I understand now.
“Max,” she begged. And then, “Please.” She didn’t know what she was asking for. His arms were around her and his lips were desperate, and then she knew. She was asking him to say good-bye. When she stepped up onto the train, his hand was clenched around the ring she’d returned to him.
Leila told her later the trip back was the worst yet. The Metro plunged and screamed, and they thought it could break apart at any moment. But Gaby never knew because after she watched Max from her window until she could no longer see him, she quietly and gratefully fainted.
1891, Seattle
Leila came out of the room and closed the door softly.
“How is she?” asked Luic.
“She says she just wants to sleep.”
Thomas immediately crossed the room and put his arms around Leila. He couldn’t seem to stop touching her. I should probably do something about that, she thought. As his arms tightened and her cheek pressed to his chest, she could hear his heartbeat. Well, maybe it can wait.
Luic looked at the exhausted young couple and shook his head. “I’ll watch here. You should sleep.”
Leila opened her mouth to protest, but Thomas firmly picked her up and swung around to their suite’s other bedroom. “We need to get you to bed.”
Kicking the door closed behind them, Thomas stood Leila by the bed. “You’re not the boss of me,” he told her fiercely. “You don’t get to tell me I have to live if you die. But mostly, you don’t get to die.” Her careful, laughing lover was gone. In his place was a frantic giant who ignored the pop of buttons, dragged her dress off her, and ruthlessly threw off his own clothes in a desperate need to press his body against hers and know she was still alive for him.
Leila was just as single-minded as she drew him down onto the bed. A moment later, he reached for his carpetbag and pulled it toward him. Peering over his shoulder, she saw the enormous box of condoms. “Wow,” she gasped. “I don’t know whether to be worried or very, very happy.”
And at last Thomas was laughing as he kissed her, and she knew she was home safe.
Gaby opened her eyes in the dark room and watched Luic sleeping in the chair across from her. Will I always be able to tell he’s there? It was a long time before she closed her eyes again.
When she woke up, the room was light and the chair in the corner was empty. Leila came in wearing one of the 1890 dresses and carrying another. She told Gaby she’d requested a bath be sent up and asked if she needed any help with her bandage or with getting dressed.
Gaby let her run down before she spoke. “Who are you and what have you done with my real roommate?”
Leila rolled her eyes. “Get your butt moving because Thomas is going to start eating the furniture if we don’t head down to breakfast soon.”
“And the Earth,” Gaby observed, “resumes its proper axis…”
After a strained and quiet breakfast, they gathered around the small table in their suite. Leila spilled out the jewels, and Thomas covered them with his heartknife. Leila and Thomas put their hands over the pile. Gaby held her hand out to Luic. They all looked at him as he hesitated. He took Gaby’s hand and covered Thomas and Leila’s clasped hands. At first there was only a slight vibration, but it steadily increased until all of their hands were shaking. Then … nothing. Of course it was Leila who spoke what was on all their minds. “You had to know it wasn’t going to be that easy. Now what do we do?”
Thanks to Max’s foresight, they had a large cache of 1890 dollars, so money wasn’t going to be an immediate issue. From the newspaper Thomas bought at breakfast, they discovered the date was August 28, 1891, four months after the one day they had all been in Seattle. As Thomas pointed out, he and Leila were fairly well-known. They could, he reasoned, stay there and set up another restaurant or other business.
Luic moved to the window and gazed out impassively.
Gaby had been sitting in silence, staring at her little knife and remembering Rag’s words. “There’s a good chance your real task is not harmony but justice.” Suddenly she stood up. “No.” Three pairs of startled eyes swung to her. “That’s just not going to work for me. Twice now my heart has been carved up and pieces left at that damn Metro station. I’m tired of this whole game with people only telling us parts of the story while the hurting and the dying just keep going on and on.”
Hands on her hips and feet planted apart, she took command. “We’re going to start from the beginning and make a list of everything we know, every clue we’ve found, and every theory any of us have had. And when we’re done, I’ll do what I do best.” She looked at them, one by one. “There just has to be a pattern.”
Thomas looked at Leila. “We’re going to need more food.”
“And a lot of coffee,” she agreed.
After Thomas and Leila left on their supply run, Gaby looked at Luic. “You’re going to have to talk to me eventually.” He looked out the window.
“Oh, Gaby.” She addressed his back. “It’s so good to see you again. So much has happened to me, and I can’t wait to tell you all about it. And of course, I want to hear everything about your life as well. Where should I begin? I know, I’ll start with the part where I was a complete dickhead and ignored everything you tried to tell me about Harry and then spent a century farting around acting all tragic and noble…”
The corners of his mouth were twitching as he turned slightly toward her. He held up a hand. “A complete dickhead?”
She nodded solemnly. “Completely.”
“Gabrielle…”
No more Gaby-mine, she thought. Well, fair enough.
“Before I died…” The word fell between them. He paused and started again. “I wasn’t a good person; I told you that. I cared about Harry and then about you. I think I woul
d have cared about Carey and Connor too, but that was about it. I don’t know why Harry wanted me to infiltrate Haven or even if it was really Harry. But after a while, I did know that I cared about the people I met there. They were like you, just trying to make a normal life for themselves and their families. It took years, but finally I was in position to push to end the war.”
He finally looked directly at her. “Sometimes I told myself I was giving you up for a bigger and more important cause. Or sometimes I pretended other women would do just as well. God knows I tried plenty of that. Then I saw you at the Convocation, and you were so much more beautiful even than I remembered. I watched you laughing with all the men there, and I saw how Sebastian Chapel looked at you. And I knew you were not there for me.”
He shrugged. “So the next day at St. Helens I told you I had another cause and I was releasing you from your promise. Then I watched as Sebastian Chapel came for you.” He took a step toward her. “After last night at the Metro station, I think you know how I felt when I walked away from you.”
Brown eyes met blue ones, and she smiled faintly.
“But your Max is a better person than I’ll ever pretend to be.” He managed a wry grin. “When you were kidnapped, he turned to me for help, even though it must have been the last thing he wanted to do. Thomas pointed out that we worked together, Gift and Haven, to find you. I don’t know if I helped end the war, but I think it is at least a start.
“So, Gabrielle, it took over a hundred years and a couple of really bad Metro rides, but you’ve finally taught me how to say it. Thank you.”
She stretched out her hand. He held it tightly for a moment and then let go.
When Thomas and Leila returned bearing massive quantities of food and a pot of coffee from the restaurant downstairs, Gaby and Luic had her notebook open and were already starting on the lists.
Leila stared for a full minute. “What happened to you two?”
Gaby looked at Luic. “We grew up.”
By the next afternoon, they had each gone over their own stories, adding to Gaby’s growing lists of What We Think We Know. With furniture pushed against the end walls, Gaby’s lists covered the entire center of the room.
The others sat back and watched as Gaby rearranged two of the pages. She frowned at them and moved a few again. Another frown. Finally she said slowly, “What if nobody lied?”
In the silence that followed, her eyes focused on the three people watching her. “Nobody was telling us the whole truth, but what if everything people did tell us was true?”
Leila snorted. “Except for Alex Menard, of course.”
“No. Especially Alex Menard. And much as I hate to admit it…” Gaby turned to Luic. “Even Harry.”
Luic smiled at her.
“Then what do we have?” Gaby waved at the lists.
Thomas immediately clapped a hand over Leila’s mouth. “Rhetorical question.” He grabbed a pad of paper and wrote as Gaby ticked off points on an invisible list.
“First. We have four groups: the two human groups, Gifts and Haven, and the two Nephilim Courts, Watcher and Fallen. All of them should have been working together to watch over Null City.
“Second. We have at least two other groups: Angels who are manipulating the first four so they can’t work together to protect Null City, plus at least one other person who might be working for us—the one who left the jewelry with Cécile.
“Third. We have the pivot point tying the Metro to Null City.
“And fourth. We have the Book —whatever that is— which is somehow necessary to the start of Null City.”
She sat back and beamed at them. “Don’t you see the pattern?”
Leila looked at the others. “Uh, that would be no.”
“It’s all about Null City.” Gaby waved impatiently at the lists. “It’s the center of everything. We have to go to Null City.”
“But Gaby…” Leila shook her head sadly. “Our whole problem is that we can’t get to Null City.”
Gaby looked at Luic. “It was Alex. Remember what he said?”
Luic said slowly, “Alex said you don’t need the Metro to get to Null City. He knew how to get there.”
Gaby’s smile was his reward. “It might not be our Null City, but there must be one here somewhere. And Alex can get us there.”
Leila’s eyes began to glow. “That’s the best news I’ve heard in days,” she growled. “There are a number of things I’d like to discuss with Mr. Alex Menard.”
“And,” said Gaby with a cold, eager fury in her voice that had even Leila blinking, “I think I know just where to find him.”
GABY AND LEILA, Chapter Twenty-One
1891, Seattle
Luic and Gaby stared at the horse-drawn wagon for a long moment before he turned to her and raised an eyebrow. With a shaky laugh, she took the hand he held out and climbed onto the wagon. Luic settled beside her on the rear bench. Thomas reverently handed up the picnic hamper the hotel had prepared. Swinging Leila up to the wagon’s front seat, he climbed in himself and picked up the reins. Gaby marveled at his driving skill as she directed them along the back road she’d travelled after escaping from Alex so long ago.
The little cabin set back in the woods was deserted. Gaby wrinkled her nose at the mismatched chairs and table, liberally strewn with dirty clothes and dishes. “Alex has decorated since I was last here.”
Luic touched the small wood stove that now occupied the corner. “Still warm. He’ll be back.” They moved the horse and wagon up the road about half a mile and settled down to picnic with Thomas’ twin assurances that he would hear anyone coming and that he would die without immediate sustenance.
“There’s something I still don’t understand.” Leila waved a fried chicken leg at the group. “Why us? What is so important about the four of us that everyone had to go to so much trouble to get us here together?” She pointed the chicken bone in warning as Gaby looked up. “And I’m getting darn sick of your patterns. Just tell me in normal English.”
Gaby laughed. “It’s your favorite thing, actually. Blood.” Leila’s automatic Ewww was somewhat distracted as she attempted to defend the last cookie from Thomas’ grab.
Gaby grabbed a stick and drew a small box in the sandy soil. “That’s Null City.” Then she added four boxes spaced around it. “Haven, Gift, Watcher, Fallen.” She pointed to each in turn. “Here are all the players we know about. And each of us fits into one of the boxes. Luic is Haven, I’m Gift, Leila is Fallen, and Thomas is Watcher.” She frowned down at the ground. “I guess I’m also Null City, although I would have thought…” She shook her head and continued, “I think Null City and the Metro need to have all those things in their foundations. If I’m right, when we’re in the right place, we’ll need to do more than just touch the jewels.”
Leila looked up, cookie dangling from her fingers. “Don’t say it.”
Thomas snatched her cookie and mumbled around a mouthful of crumbs. “You mean you’ll need blood from each of us?”
“Next time I save the world,” Leila promised, “there will be absolutely no blood allowed.”
Just after dark, Thomas whispered, “Horse coming. Maybe ten minutes out.” A moment later, his head swiveled to the side. “No, wait. Another one.” His chin came up, and he tilted his head at several other angles. “Bloody hell.”
He looked at Luic. “They must have known we were here. They’re coming in from all sides. I count eight, at least two of them Nephilim. If they have their wings and we try to fly Gaby and Leila out of here, they might be able to pick us off.”
“The cabin,” Luic decided. He picked up Gaby as Thomas took off with Leila. Landing outside the cabin a moment later, Thomas and Luic knocked aside the boards nailed across the window openings and all headed inside.
Thomas listened again. “They’re still a couple of minutes away—taking extra time to get into position all around the cabin.” He reached behind his back for his knife. Gaby, who had been searchin
g the cabin’s meager furnishings, held up a length of rope as well as the little knife from Raguel.
A gun appeared in each of Luic’s hands. Without comment, he handed one to Leila along with a small sack of ammunition. She checked that it was loaded and nodded. “What’s our plan? We do have a plan, right?” They all looked at Luic.
He reasoned aloud. “Thomas and I have trained for battle, and I’m guessing most of these guys didn’t. But we’re all Nephilim, so we all have pretty much the same strengths as their two Nephilim. Thomas and I will need to take them out first.”
“Not our strengths…” Gaby turned to Leila. “Remember the message from the man who gave Cécile the jewelry? He said we should trust in our faults. And Rag told me the same thing.” She looked at each of them. “What are our faults?”
Silence.
“Okay, here’s what I’ve seen. Leila has anger issues.”
Leila growled. “You think?”
“Thomas has abandonment issues.” Thomas opened his mouth to argue and then nodded ruefully.
“Luic has … almost too many faults to name, but I’d say they all come under the heading of trust issues.”
He raised an eyebrow but smiled slightly.
She frowned. “I can’t think of any faults I have…”
Leila coughed, “OCD.” She snorted at Gaby’s indignant face. “Think of your desk. Now imagine that I’ve just put four pencils down, and they’re all pointing in different directions.”
Gaby grimaced.
“Now picture your room. I’ve put up four pictures at different heights on your wall, and not one is hanging straight. And then…”
“Okay.” Gaby held up a hand. “So maybe I am a teeny bit obsessive. Most harmonia are.”
A gunshot shattered the air outside the cabin. In the silence that followed, Alex’s voice rang out. “We don’t want to hurt anyone, but we’ll burn the cabin if we have to. All we want is Raziel’s Book. Give it to us and we’ll let you go.”