Chapter 13

Gabriel's POV

I felt my heart clench at Santana's obvious pain. I was only trying to protect her.

"...you are free to leave me alone." She said in a broken voice.

I couldn't. It was impossible to leave her alone, believe me I had tried. She was intoxicating and the best part about it was that she had no idea. Last night I had almost kissed her and I was so upset with myself I didn't sleep not even a little bit. So I had called Fabio in as a desperate move and maybe...just maybe I could take a step back.

My efforts were laughable. My plan had backfired because the thought of someone else training her was more than I could bear but I resisted the urge to go to Fresh Hell.

Then she came to my office.

I snapped. I was trying to stay away yet there she was tempting me.

I literally saw red when I heard her scream during her training. Payne was once "under arrest" for losing control and hurting several trainees. He wasn't allowed to work for almost 10 years. So when I heard Santana scream, a thousand horrible bloody scenarios flashed in my mind and before I knew it I was dragging her across the field.

She just didn't get that I was trying to protect her. And also I was immensely drawn to her by a force I couldn't name or resist.

Now she was waiting for me to say something but what do I say? How can I tell her that she was driving me crazy after four days of knowing her without scaring the crap out of her? How was I to tell her she put my mind and feelings in turmoil without seeming crazy? I had spent half my life learning to control my feelings and my mind and within four days this innocent, enchanting little creature had torn down all my defences. I was in unfamiliar territory.

Now she was turning away from me to leave. She probably would be avoiding me like the plague after this and that's the last thing I wanted. If I let her go now I would lose her. At this point even though she might hate me, I knew I had to keep her close. I had to say something.

"I can't." I blurted out.

She stopped and turned. "What?" She whispered.

I had to say something again. Racking my brain, I said. "I can't leave you alone." No! Not that! Say something else. "I'm drawn to you like a moth to a flame. I can't leave you alone." It seemed my tongue had a mind of its own.

I anxiously waited for a reaction from her. I got none.

Santana was staring at me with a blank expression on her face. I couldn't blame her.

"What do you mean?" She whispered with a slight frown.

I took a step closer to her trying not to look intimidating while she was looking more fragile than I've ever seen her. I felt a tug on my heart strings. She was probably confused by my behaviour, hell I was confused by my own behaviour.

"Gabriel..." She prompted.

"I want to protect you." I said in the greatest understatement of my exact feelings.

She shook her head. She clearly hadn't been expecting me to say that. "I can learn to protect myself." She said determinedly. "Look, Gabriel-"

"Then let me teach you." I interjected before she tried to walk out on me again.

She smiled lightly. "We tried that already. You bailed. And I completely understand. Soon I'll be ready and we can go and find Nana and I will be out of your hair." She shrugged her slight shoulders in resignation.

Then she will leave.

And never come back? Well that was the initial deal wasn't it? That she help find Shelly then she can leave. Well I couldn't stop her from leaving but I wanted to make her remember me forever because I certainly wouldn't be able to forget her in a hurry. How pathetic was I?

"Okay. I will make you a deal. Fabio will conduct lessons with you but you will practise with me. I will teach you tricks and shortcuts that will make your life easier." I offered.

She was shaking her head again! "Gabriel, I..."

"Just consider it." I interrupted her again. "Please." My patience was stretched to its limit yet I was still standing her literally begging her to spend time with me. It was happening already and if I let events unfold all my efforts to control myself would have been in vain. But I couldn't help myself.

Santana was silent thoughtfully tapping her chin. She sighed. "Fine. I accept the deal."

Joyful exclamation. I smirked in an effort to hide the smile that was creeping up in my lips.

"But I'm the boss of me." She set the condition with a smile.

It was only then that I noticed the sun which seemed to shine a lot brighter.

"That's debatable." I responded giving in to the urge to smile.

Santana's POV.

I felt the warmth of his smile to my very soul. We had made up! No more fighting. For now, my subconscious sneered. I ignored it.

Maybe he didn't hate me as much as I thought he did. I wiggled my toes inside my sneakers. My stomach was flipping uncontrollably.

"No its not really." I replied.

He tilted his head to the side. "Agree to disagree?"

I chuckled happily. "I'd better go back for my training."

"No! I'm ending you and Payne. For now no more physical training." He said firmly. I pouted. "I mean it. You can go for gym but no trainer for you."

Okay so I may have manipulated Payne to do what I wanted but...well. "Okay fine. You win." I jumped up and stood on a tree stump. "This time..." I added with a smirk as I towered over him.

He smirked back at me. "Come down from there, you will hurt yourself."

I rolled my eyes exasperated. "Oh, take your wedgie out grandpa."

I teased leaping to another nearby stump.

"How far had you gone with those wrestling lessons?" He suddenly asked.

"Hmm, we had just started. Why?" I frowned at him trying to understand his angle.

"Because..." He surprised me by jumping up on the stump I was standing on, smirked at my surprised expression, gripped my body tightly around his and jumped back on the ground. I swear the whole thing happened in the blink of an eye.

I jumped away from him in alarm. "What the hell are you doing?"

He grinned at me. "Well, to shock you and save you from that crumbling stump." He pointed at it, I looked at it and realised it was so termite infested it couldn't have supported my weight for two minutes.

"Well you definitely contributed to its demise." I remarked dryly.

"To save you." He justified himself.

"But how did you do that?" I was still amazed by his little stunt.

"Years of practice, Lioness." He said simply with a shrug.

"Teach me." I demanded. Now that I was on smiling bases with Gabriel I could make demands, right?

He frowned. "You'll learn eventually."

"Teach me now!" I demanded louder.

"Did you say high school kids bullied you?" He asked and I nodded. "Seems to me like you were the bully."

I chuckled. "I wish." I merely said I didn't want to spoil the mood with my depressing academic career. "Speaking of school-"

"It's not time to revisit the subject." He interrupted me. "I have a tonne of work to do."

"Oh." I felt a tinge of disappointment but I tried not to let it show. "Okay. That's fine."

He locked gazes with me turning serious all of a sudden. "Santana, don't fight me. Work with me, okay? I'm on your side." He said to me.

I nodded grimly. "I'll try not to fight you." I replied.

He nodded then side stepped me to head back to the house.

"Gabriel!" I called after him and he turned back to me. I just went with my instincts and ran towards him and threw my arms around his neck in a hug.

He went tense and I thought he was going to push me away. If he did that I would just die in embarrassment. He really wasn't the affectionate type, was he? Well, I wasn't too but...I don't know, it just felt right.

Just when I was about to pull away, his arms came around me and enveloped me pulling me even closer to him.

"I'm sorry, I just..." I started.

"Shhhh..." He shushed running his hands through my hair. "I know."

I doubted he knew anything because I hardly knew why I did it myself but I was glad I didn't have to explain.

I sighed then I pulled away from him with a shy smile and a faint blush covering my cheeks. He probably thought I was affection deprived.

He smiled at me back then he turned to leave without another word.

I watched him disappear into the  woods.

I'm drawn like you like a moth to a flame. I replayed his words in my mind. What did he mean? When I asked him about it he had totally avoided the question and now all I was left with was my own rationalization. I mean he had been mean to me all this time and he suddenly says something like that. I really just didn't know what to make of it. Had I just set myself up for more rejection? It sure felt like it.

Moth to a flame. Did I burn? Like if he came close to me he would get hurt? But how? He was likely to hurt me because I was as harmless as they come.

I sighed heavily. Soo much confusion.

Well, I guess I should just go with the flow. When my job here was done I'd just go home and put all this behind me. I sighed and started heading for the house. No more wrestling for me I guess.

I trudged in the tiny foot path in the bushes until I came to the clearing. I walked towards to towards the gym exit door my cheeks coloring when people stopped their game to stare at me. I increased my pace wishing the door to come closer. Just before I reached the door, Gisele got out and grabbed my arm pulling me back away from everyone's eyes towards the direction I was coming from.

"Hey!" I screamed as she pulled me in an iron clad grip. Why was she so strong? "Why do people keep pulling me?" I asked when she finally released me. I rubbed my arm which had the imprint of her steel fingers.

"Maybe it's because you are such a royal pain in the ass!" She snapped at me.

"And why are you so strong? This is going to bruise!" I yelled pointing at my arm.

"I'm a vampire, you dimwit." Gisele said.

I pursed my lips. "What do you want, Gisele?"

"What were you talking about with Gabriel?" She asked putting her hands on her perfect hips.

"How is that any of your business?" I frowned.

She narrowed her eyes at me. "Don't mess with me, Santana. Consider this a warning." She glared at me for a long moment before she stalked off leaving me confused.

I shrugged then continued my 'walk of shame' into the house. I had an uneventful walk to my room. I guessed that most people were still having their various training. I hadn't seen Cedric in almost two days. I kinda missed him.

*         *         *

"Santana! Santana, wake up?!"

Someone was shaking me awake. "Hmm...what? What do you want?" I huffed irritatedly.

"Wake up!" The voice insisted sounding panicked.

I finally opened my eyes. " Finn, what is it?" I asked as I looked up at him. He was wearing a pair of sweatpants and a jacket he had clearly hastily thrown over his sleeping attire.

Once he saw that I was awake, he frantically ran to the window and peeped out. I could tell it was just the crack of dawn. I had gone straight to bed last night after having dinner with Finn and Cedric in the dining room. I sat up in bed rubbing my eyes.

"What?" I asked again.

He didn't respond, he continued staring down outside.

"Finn! What the hell is the problem?" I stepped out of bed and slipped my feet into slippers then I wore my robe.

He turned suddenly and gripped my shoulders. "Something is happening. I don't know what but we are under some kind of attack."

"What?" I rushed to the window and peeped out. It was still kinda dark and I couldn't see anything. "I can't see anything, Finn."

"They are not here yet." He replied also coming to the window to look outside. He looked panicked.

"So how do you know?" I frowned then it dawned on me. "Oh! Was it a dream?"

"Yeah. It was terrifying. There were men in masks and they were shooting fire arrows at the house. There were so many of them, Santana and we couldn't fight them off!" He ran a hand through his hair obviously on a state of panic.

"Oh my God. Was anyone hurt?" I asked my level of panic also raising.

"There was no time to see anything. I got shot by an arrow." He said clutching his shoulder.

"What do we do? How do you know it wasn't an ordinary dream?"

"When I woke up my shoulder was in so much pain." He frowned as he said that flexing his shoulder. "Trust me. I know."

"Okay. I believe you." My heart was pounding so hard in my chest. "Do you know when this is happening?"

"Today."

"What?!" I screamed.

"In a few minutes from right now. It was just at the crack of dawn." He told me.

"Ohhhhhh." I whispered going in a frenzy. "We have to tell Gabriel."

"I don't know his room! Do you?" Finn almost yelled.

"No. But...but. Oh!" I remembered that Gabriel had given me his room phone number.

Running to my bedside table, I find the pad which lay open on the table. Flicking through it, I located the number and I dialed the number as quickly as I could.

On the third ring: "Hello?" His husky sleep ridden voice answered. "Santana, are you okay?"

"Gabriel. We have a problem."

"What is it? Are you hurt? I'm coming down." He was instantly awake and before I could say anything, he slammed the phone down.

I turned to Finn who was pacing around he biting his nails as I placed the receiver down. "He's coming."

"Why do you have his number?" He asked with a frown.

He wanted to play brother now? "Not now, Finn. How many did you say they were?"

"I don't know. Too many. And it's about to happen, Santana! It was almost as dark as it is now outside. He has to hurry."

"Let's go meet him then." I said. "I need to get dressed." Just as I said that my door burst open and Gabriel walked in towards me.

"Santana. What's wrong?" He demanded grabbing my arm.

"Aww." I placed my hand over his and tried to push it off me. "Except for your iron grip, I'm fine. But..." I motioned towards Finn. Gabriel turned and saw him for the first time. He released my arm immediately.

"What's he doing here?" He demanded.

"Well, he saw something. Tell him!" I urged Finn.

Finn then explained the dream to him and Gabriel's face became grimmer with each word.

"We have to get moving." Gabriel said as soon as Finn was done explaining. "They are hunters. They don't usually come to fight but if they want a fight, we will give them a fight.

"Farah, Boyd, Gibs. Mobilise. You have two minutes." Gabriel whispered as he headed for the door.

"Who were you talking to?" Finn asked the question I was thinking.

"We have to mobilise. From what you say we have about five minutes. Finn, stay close to me we might need you." He was all commander now.

"What about me? What do I do?" I asked running after them in the corridor.

They both stopped and looked at me.

"Well, get dressed for one." Finn said disapprovingly looking at my short cotton robe.

They continued walking. Embarrassed, I ran back to my room and threw the closet open. I hastily put on the first thing my hands landed on: a pair of denim shorts and a zip up sweater and ankle boots.

I ran down the corridor and took the stairs two at a time. It's a wonder I didn't fall. I reached the landing with a loud skid. Causing the group of people who were  in the entrance hall to look down at me.

"What's the plan?" I asked once I steadied myself.

"The fighters are about the stand in position." Finn supplied as everyone went back to their planning and plotting.

"Okay so what do I do?" I asked Finn.

"You go hide under your bed like a good little girl." Gisele, who I had not noticed before put in.

"Shut up." I snapped.

"She's right. " Gabriel surprised me by butting in. "You will go and hide in Fresh Hell until it's over."

What? "No way."

"You and Finn are the least trained here and at least Finn is a-"

"Man?" I angrily interjected.

"I was going to say he's a Seer. And he can help." Gabriel put in.

"If you think I'm going to let my little brother get hurt..."

Gabriel leaned closer to us leaving the fighters to discuss strategy.

"I don't want any argument from you. Do as you are told. Don't..."

The rest of his words were drowned by a whizzing sound. I screamed as the windows at the front door shattered and several arrows flew in and most hit the wall but one laced through someone's shoulder and she cried out in pain.

They were here.