by Sariah Skye
"But…who? The only ones that know about Gabriel besides you and Braeden is— "
Kiarra.
I felt the fury burn my cheeks at the revelation. "Gabriel!" I called to him, insistently.
"What?" Footsteps bounded as he came running into the bedroom in a panic. "What’s wrong?" He appeared worried until he saw my angry face.
"What? Long raid queue?" he kidded, motioning to my computer screen.
"Ha. No, it’s Grandfather…he thinks someone may have alerted the Court that I’ve met you. The only ones that know about you are him, my brother and— "
"—Kiarra!" he finished.
I nodded, my eyes narrowing at the thought.
"You don’t think she—" he couldn’t even finish his thought. "I don’t know. It makes sense, though."
I turned back to the computer and started typing again, Gabriel peering over my shoulder as I did.
"Kiarra is the only one besides Brae and yourself that knows about Gabriel’s being here. She just thinks he’s a—" I gulped nervously, blushing at the thought as I typed, "boyfriend but I’m sure Brae might have said something, or she figured it out somehow. I knew there wasn’t something right about her!"
There was a pause before Grandfather typed back: "How would she know about the knights? The Order is top-secret, hardly anyone knows of their existence."
"Perhaps more than he realizes," Gabriel offered dryly.
"Obviously," I said aloud. "Gabriel and I still think there’s something up with her."
I could almost hear him sighing at the screen, in his chambers. "I will talk to Braeden."
"Guess that’s all I can expect for now, huh?" I let out a low breath, shaking my head.
"I guess." He chuckled. "God you can just feel the tension pouring off of you."
"A sorcerer thing?"
"No, just a hunch." Gabriel grasped my shoulders and squeezed gently. "Yup. Tense."
"Oh jeez…that’s…" I trailed off as my neck and shoulders went slack as Gabriel massaged my shoulders.
"Is this normal for a dragon? I swear your muscles feel like…tires," he mused.
"I don’t think so…it’s been a rough day," I said, closing my eyes and taking a deep breath. My computer kept making chiming noises but I ignored them for the time being.
"Yeah…hmm, I wonder if teaching you how to meditate would help?"
My eyes flew open. "Meditate? Sorcerers meditate?" I tittered, an image of Gabriel in long robes sitting silently atop a mountain, cross legged and palms folded together in front of him. The image made me chuckle to myself.
"Well, no not typically. It’s something Daniel does to help him when visions are particularly disturbing or disruptive. He taught me a little. Perhaps it would help?" Gabriel stopped rubbing my shoulders and I groaned.
"No…maybe a spell? Like protection?" Gabriel fumbled for his phone out of his jeans pocket and started tapping at it.
"You know who’s good at that stuff..." I began.
"Kit," he finished for me. "Perhaps it’s worth giving her a call, if she’s around. Practical magic is not my forte. I can summon fireballs, create small earthquakes but when it comes down to mixing potions and stuff…well that’s beyond me."
"Can’t you summon like some protective wind?" I suggested. "A soothing rain?"
"Well, yes but…to sustain it? I’d get awfully tired after about an hour. Now if you conjure the elements and channel their energies into a potion; well…that would be much more realistic. I’ll see what I can find…"
I sighed. Grandfather had messaged again, insisting that he didn’t think Kiarra was up to anything sinister. He was no help there. Of course I didn’t have any proof—just a hunch—so I let the subject drop. Since I had no plans to go back to the dragon realm anytime soon (at least until the search for me had been forgotten—which more than likely would never happen) I could avoid her anyway and she shouldn’t be any kind of threat. Braeden didn’t know much about Gabriel in any event, so there wasn’t much she could get out of him.
My phone chimed then, and I pulled it out of Gabriel’s kangaroo pocket of his shirt I was still wearing (and refused to take off!).
Leo? It’s Maxxus? You get home all right?
I did, thank you. Wait...he had a phone now? He must have followed my advice. New phone?
Pause. Yes. With the info you gave me it was pretty painless. Again, another pause between messages.
You’re not alone, are you?
I smiled to myself. He was a nice one; one of the very few who wasn’t related to me to actually be nice. No, I’m not.
A pause. That fireball guy with you?
Yes. His name is Gabriel.
Ah. Okay. I wasn’t aware you were seeing anyone.
I snickered, and blushed. We’re just—I stopped. I was about to say we were just friends, but, I wasn’t entirely sure. So I deleted it and said instead: I’ll be okay. Just watch out for Grandfather for me, please.
I will. Take care of yourself.
You too. Thanks, Maxxus.
"Who’s that?" Gabriel chimed in. He was sitting Indian-style on my bed, fervently tapping and flipping the screen on his phone.
"Oh, just Maxxus, making sure I got home okay," I said, nonchalantly.
This caught his attention. Gabriel looked up, brow raised.
"What?" I asked innocently.
"Sounds like a lot of trouble to go through for someone who’s just a guard," Gabriel said.
I waved him off. "Oh, it’s nothing. Since I can’t fly I have to wait for someone to come get me when I go over there, and it usually takes about thirty minutes or so to wait for my brother to fly over. To kill time, we just talk or whatever. Really, he wants lessons on how to use the internet, no big deal."
"Right…" Gabriel sounded unconvinced.
"Aww, you’re jealous?" I giggled. "You think the big, bad green dragon likes little ol’ me?"
Gabriel’s face flushed immediately. "No! I mean it’s—" he cut himself off, swallowing nervously. "Not that I have the right to get upset, even if you guys were like…whatever…"
I giggled again. I got up from the computer and sat down next to him on my bed, patting his leg for reassurance. "We may have just met, but I’ve known Maxxus for a long time. He’s only a friend. It’d be social suicide for anyone to have much to do with me, especially romantically, over there. He’d probably lose his position as a guard and get demoted to like…sewer management, or something else nasty. Even if for some unknown reason he did like me like that, nothing would ever happen."
Gabriel forced a thin smile. "It’s really not my business I guess but like you said we did just meet so, I don’t have any reason to feel anything like jealousy."
"You don’t? You don’t feel anything at all?" I fluttered my eyelashes innocently, letting my lower lip puff out.
He smirked, but remained silent.
"Fine." I turned back to my phone, mindlessly flipping through my old text messages.
I felt a gaze on me and I glanced up momentarily. "What?"
Gabriel smiled. "You’re still wearing my shirt."
I looked down at his red, worn sweatshirt and wrapped my arms around myself. "It’s comfortable." And plus, it smelled absolutely fabulous…
"No, it’s okay. It’s cute on you." I blushed, yet again and he chuckled. "This might sound stupid, but I’ve never had a girl wear something of mine. It’s kind of one of those guy things, you know? Like in high school, you give your girlfriend your football jersey to wear the day of the big game for good luck? The girls would always look so proud wearing them." He exhaled. "No one was lining up to wear my messy stage crew t-shirt." He frowned, looking down at his palms in his lap. He grunted. "Pretty stupid, huh?"
"No, not stupid at all," I said, sympathetically. I looked him over. With his strong jawline and dreamy eyes, I had a difficult time believing no one ever had any interest in him. I mean, perhaps he wasn’t traditionally man-pretty enough to grace the cover of GQ (
although, with the right suit…I shivered at the thought). I think it was that non-traditional, not-overtly so in your face gorgeousness that struck me. No, he wasn’t perfect but I think that was part of his charm. That and his shyness created a certain mystery about him. I didn’t know much about human women but if they chose over and over again to pass him up, I didn’t have much of a positive opinion on them for sure.
"No one?" I said, unconvinced.
He shrugged half-heartedly. "Not for a long time, anyway. Well, I went out with a couple of girls but, the rumors always surfaced, even after high school. After I graduated from high school I couldn’t wait to move away and start somewhere else, but I was too chicken shit to ever say anything to anyone, afraid that somehow they’d know my secret or that I would have to keep hiding it from everyone." He grinned and placed his palms together. He opened them again between them floated a small ball of water. "I don’t have to hide it from you."
I nudged him slightly. "No you don’t. And you realize you’re the only human ever to see my dragon form?"
He beamed brightly. "Nice to just be yourself for once, huh?"
I nodded in agreement. "Can’t deny that. Although it’s way more embarrassing to have you see—" I motioned around my room at all my cheesy fangirl loot.
He laughed. "Oh it’s not that bad. One of the guys in my classes turned his entire bedroom to look like the bridge of the starship Enterprise."
"Really?" I asked, amazed. "Wait, when you say ‘one of the guys,’ you really mean yourself, right?"
He smiled nonchalantly and shrugged.
I just chuckled. "That’s not so bad."
"Ha, no really it was. I did a bad job. Tried to turn my bed into a captain’s chair," he shook his head, making a sour face. "Yeah. Bad." We giggled a moment, and I tried picturing him in a Star Trek uniform, sitting on a bed with Spock sheets. I had to stifle a huge laugh at that thought.
"What?" he questioned, as I tried to avoid his gaze. I just shook my head, and tried to choke back the laugh.
"What!?!" This time he was more insistent. He took his index finger and hooked it on the side of my chin, moving my face gently towards him. "You tell me. Now."
Still trying not to laugh, I did the most distracting thing I could think of; I grasped each side of his face and kissed him right on the lips. Instantly, he stopped protesting and kissed me back. Hard.
And just as suddenly as I began, I pulled away and stopped.
Eyes still closed, he just sat there, motionless. I giggled.
"What…what was that?" he stammered, slowly opening his eyes, an expression of surprise still on his face.
I shrugged. "Well, you did it to me, once. Now we are even. Are you mad?"
He blinked a few times, and finally opened his eyes. "No," he replied with a nervous chuckle. "No, not at all, just…surprised."
"Good." I said smugly. I pulled the sleeves of his sweatshirt over my hands so they were tucked inside and hugged the sleeves across my chest.
"Why?" he asked, still puzzled.
"Well, there’s a couple reasons. One, because I’ve never really kissed a human before myself, and I was curious. Two, because I wanted to kiss you again. Three, because I wanted to stop laughing at the fact that I was picturing you with Spock sheets."
He laughed heartily. "Ah great. So I’m an experiment and a distraction!"
"A fun one, though!" I insisted.
Shaking his head, he laughed.
"I’m sorry," I said, "it’s just despite the bad things going on…it’s nice to have some company. You know?"
"Yeah…I do know," he sympathized.
"And…because I don’t want to give you back your sweatshirt," I kidded, pulling the blanket up to my chin.
"Well then…if you’re not giving that back, I need to go get more. If you’re feeling up to it, can we go back to my hotel and get the rest of my clothes I left in the washer? You saw all that I have with me...and I don’t dare leave you by yourself so I need you to come with? If that’s okay?"
"So…basically you’re telling me that at least for the time being, you’re going to use my stuff, crash in my apartment and basically co-habitate with me? And we’ve only known each other a couple of weeks? Is that normal for humans?" I asked. In the movies it happened all the time but I had learned in my time here that movies and TV weren't always a realistic depiction of human life.
"Hmm…not unheard of but no, not normal," he replied. "Look, it’s weird I know. But until we figure out the—"
I waved him off. "I know, I know. That’s why you’re here, right? Just to make sure I don’t die?"
Gabriel reached over and pulled down my blanket, and grabbed my arm and gave it a squeeze. "No, that’s not the only reason I’m here. Sure, okay, so my calling obligates me to be here. But it doesn’t obligate me to like you, care about you or be attracted to you, does it?" He pushed the sleeve down, exposing my hand and pulled it to his lips. "And, even though it hasn’t been long, I really have started to care about you, a lot. And I enjoy being around you. Okay?"
I smiled. "Okay."
He stood up, and pulled me along with him. There I stood, looking up at him, him looking down at me with his big eyes and handsome face for a moment.
Even though I’d just kissed him, the affection in his words and the tenderness in his stare made me feel slightly weird. Dragons—or people—didn't look at me that way. I almost was starting to believe he did have feelings for me. I felt the shivers again up my spine, and the fluttering in my tummy, so hard this time it shocked me.
My shiver seemed to bring him out of his daze. He forced a nervous grin at me, and chuckled uncomfortably. "Well then. Hey if I’m going to crash at your place, the least I can do is supply you with food," he said.
I chuckled. "I don’t think you have that kind of money."
He smirked. "Well, we can try at least. You up for some shopping before we stop by the hotel?"
I began to wrinkle my nose but my stomach betrayed me and offered an obnoxious growl indicating that I was probably hungry. "Well, I’m not, but my stomach apparently is. Let’s go, I guess," I said, with a laugh. "You know where to go?"
He nodded, pulling a set of keys out of his pocket. "Yes. I have been here a couple months, remember?"
"Right, right…" I grabbed my purse, locked up behind us and climbed into his truck.
Pineville only had a small convenience store, so we opted for the larger one in the town of Waseca just south of us. It was a nearly silent fifteen minute or so drive, except for the music mix he played in his truck from his iPod. I recognized none of it but didn’t protest; after all, it wasn’t my vehicle. It wasn't bad, but I did decide if we were going to be driving together anymore I was putting a copy of my 90s mix in here, stat.
We parked and entered the sliding glass doors to a spread of marked aisles filled with food and other supplies. I grabbed a cart and headed for the frozen aisles.
"Leorah?" a familiar voice from behind me chimed.
I spun around from scanning the cooler for my favorite frozen pizza, while Gabriel frowned, claiming frozen pizza was gross because his brother spoiled him with homemade, healthier options. Madison’s small, blonde self was behind me carrying a basket full of things.
"Oh, hi!" I greeted.
"I thought you were going somewhere for a couple of days?" she questioned, the highlighted brown hair tied in a knot on top of her head bobbing with each word. She was dressed in her school danceline sweatpants and sweatshirt and had an embroidered bag draped across her chest and along her side. Her brown eyes looked tired and her skin slightly flushed, I assumed she just came from danceline practice—which I just recently learned is a little like cheerleading but…not. At least that’s how she described it to me.
"Yeah I was but things changed," I replied.
Madison eyed Gabriel hintingly, as he stood silent, shyly looking down as he shuffled his feet. He looked up momentarily and blushed. "Um…I need to grab something o
n the other side of the store. Meet you in about ten minutes?"
I nodded and he nearly tore off down the aisle like a racecar. I had to choke back a laugh.
"So…he finally asked you out huh?" Madison raised her eyebrows. "It’s about time!"
I just smiled uncomfortably, because I couldn’t tell her the real reason…and I was a little embarrassed because he technically hadn’t asked me out at this point. But, he was crashing at my apartment and we were buying food together like an old married couple.
"Uh-huh…" she grinned. "Things must be okay, then if you’re here together at the store in the middle of the day no less. Did you…you know…?" she asked, giving me a coy expression.
"Did we…?" I started, confused. Then I realized what she was talking about. "Oh! No! No!"
Madison appeared disappointed. "Why? I mean I know you’re shy but…come on! You can totally tell he wants to! Hell, he’s a man, they all want to," she said dryly, with a roll of the eye.
I shrugged. "I’m just not sure how I feel about stuff yet. Things are just kind of…weird." I wished I could explain the real reason to someone—anyone—even young Madison. Kit was nowhere to be found and I really had no one else.
"Hmm. Well I know you have to feel something, after all the guys that have come into the shop fawning over you, this is the first time you’ve ever seen one outside of work," she said knowingly.
"What guys?" I asked, taken aback. I certainly had never noticed this, but then she’s right, I didn’t really pay attention. Dating a human, it never occurred to me. Until now.
She chuckled. "Oh you’re so modest. Lots of guys, but none of them have been as obvious as that one," she said, pointing vaguely in the direction that Gabriel had walked off in. "So, what is his name, anyways?"
"Gabriel," I replied, feeling a slight flush in my cheeks
Madison grinned. "You do like him. I never see you blush!"
I shrugged. "I think I do, but…"
"Well, do you feel nervous around him sometimes, like your stomach is flopping around like a fish?" She set her basket down, filled with junk food (a girl after my own heart!) like chips, candy and pop and crossed her arms over her chest, the index finger of one of her hands tapping at her chin thoughtfully.