Chapter 26

The first place I went to look was his office and his room but he wasn't there. After that I went to the kitchen, fresh hell and everywhere else looking for him. I also asked several people but no one had seen him. Was he even here? I was starting to wonder. The house was quite huge so I spent several minutes of searching i decided to give up. Gabriel wasn't here. Maybe he had errands to run.

After running into Farah, I discovered that he had indeed gone for some errands because apparently there was a ball tonight to celebrate the return of Shelly. I wondered if she knew about it. She hadn't mentioned it to me. It was probably a surprise, I thought as I headed to my room. According to Farah, the ball was to be in 4 hours from now, after dark. But I had to pass by Finn's room and confirm this.

I rapped on the door twice before i let myself in. Instant regret.

Finn was lying shiftless on his bed between the vampire twins. But thankfully they were both dressed.

"Oh God!" I screamed covering my eyes. "What the hell?!" I screamed.

"Oh stop it, we weren't doing anything!" Finn said sounding amused.

"Then why are you naked?" I asked my eyes still covered.

"If you removed that hand from your face you'll realize that I'm actually not naked." He said flatly.

I sneaked a peak through my fingers and found the twins sitting up but Finn was still lying down. I removed my hand completely. "Don't tell me, I don't wanna know." I proclaimed.

"I wasn't going to tell you." Finn put in with a smirk.

"Good."

"Did you want something?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Is it true that there's a ball?" I asked stiffly.

"Yeah, they announced it about an hour ago." One of the twins replied.

"Why don't they just call a party?" Finn asked.

"Because it's too elegant and dressy to be called a party. You need to pull out all the stops." The other twin said with a happy smile.

"We are wearing Vera Wang." Twin 1 said smiling at Finn. "I think you will like it." She traced his arm with her finger.

I shuddered. "I have seen enough!" I turned away and ran out of the room. I reached my room and I shut the door behind me. I shuddered again as the image of a girl caressing my brother printed itself in my mind. At least he had someone. The only guy I couldn't stop thinking about wasn't here for me to thank him. But surely he should be back for the ball. He wouldn't miss it coz it was for Nana.

But what would I wear? What would I wear that would knock him dead? I walked over to the closet and opened it. Hmm...there were too many choices and if I really wanted to impress Gabriel I would need help.

Cedric.

I grinned.

*

Soft music was playing downstairs as I walked down my corridor. With Cedric and one maid's help, I had settled on an off shoulder, body hugging silver mermaid dress. And black strapy heels to match my black clutch bag. The maid had stylishly piled my hair on top of my head and she had also done my makeup well enough to cover the bruises. I felt great! And this was confirmed by Cedric who was walking towards me in the corridor ready to escort me to the ball.

He whistled appreciatively. "He is going to pass out when he sees you." He said looking me over.

I blushed. "I'm not trying to impress anyone!" I linked my arm with his.

"Like hell you are not." Cedric laughed as we walked hand in hand down the stairs.

My heart was pounding in tune with the music as we inched nearer. I could see elegantly dressed supernaturals wandering about and standing in little groups.

I could see Finn and his twins standing close to the foot of the stairs. Almost on cue, one of the twins turned towards us.

"Oh my..." She said loud enough to attract the attention of people around her.

I blushed uncontrollably as people turned to look at me. Little by little everyone's face had turned towards me and Cedric. I was so nervous I was considering turning and heading back upstairs but it was then that my gaze landed on him.

The room seemed to have evaporated and it was just Gabriel standing at the center of the room staring wondrously at me. He was wearing a tuxedo almost as black as his hair. He had never looked more handsome. My legs touched the landing and it was only then that I zoomed out slightly. There was a manicured hand decorated with rings resting on his upper arm. I zoomed out even more and found Gisele drapped on Gabriel's arm. The spell broke and the whole room came back into view.

I found myself standing between Finn and Cedric. I didn't have time to feel the pain of jealousy because the twins were gushing over me.

"You look amazing!" One was saying.

"When did you get time to shop?" The other asked.

"Im surprised you had time to get dressed." I put in giving them pointed looks.

"Give them a break, Santana." Finn rescued his blushing girlfriends.

I shrugged in resignation. "You look great, the both of you." I smiled.

I turned the Cedric. "The supernaturals throw a mean party." I said looking over at the spot Gabriel had been. He had disappeared into the crowd and so had Gisele. Had he been with her when I was looking for him?

"... hardly have much to celebrate." Cedric was saying. We were walking slowly through the crowd.

"The Return of the Queen." I said. "Sounds like a movie title."

He laughed. "It does! But this party is also for you. The first female Guardian to live." He replied. "And you brought Shelly back! You are a big hit!"

I frowned. "I'm not. Don't you have some women you want to dance with or whatever?"

"Are you kidding? Im with the most popular girl, I don't need any of these monsters." He replied with a somewhat cautious look in his eyes.

He had seen me look at Gabriel with Gisele. It was sweet of him to stand here to comfort me. It was sweet of him but-

"The buffet!" He suddenly screamed and started pulling me.

"Hey!" The table we were running towards was overflowing with food. We reached it and Cedric was reaching for the wine. He handed one glass to me and took one for himself.

I sipped it and let my gaze wander again. "Why is noone dancing?"

"We have to wait for the guest of honor. She should be down in a few minutes. I didn't know you liked dancing."

"I've never actually danced with anyone before though I had lots of lessons." I replied.

"I find that hard to believe." A small group of people had just joined us at the table. "You look like you gave those high school kids a run for their money." One of the guys in the group was saying.

I laughed. "Hardly."

"Santana, you've met Timothy, Sandy and Kay." Cedric introduced.

"The mortals could never understand how I did quadruple flips when I was a cheerleader." Kay said flipping her hair gracefully.

"The humans never understood me. Hell, I never understood me." I said with a shrug.

"Those people can be oblivious." Sandy muttered with a mouthful of chips.

"I have never lived with the mortals. Except when I was pretending to be a damn history teacher." Cedric rolled his eyes.

"Is it true you hit him with a desk the first time you met him?" Timothy asked.

I laughed. "I didn't mean to! He provoked me and I had no control over my powers. So I trapped him against the wall with a desk." I laughed even harder. It was funnier than I thought it was.

Everyone but Ced laughed along.

"It's funny now but you hated me so much then." He said punching me playfully.

"I didn't hate you at first." I said remembering my momentary crush on him. It would have been so much easier if it had been him I had fallen for.

There was a ripple in the crowd and everyone turned to the stairs once more as Shelly came down. She looked glorious in a black flowy dress with rhinestones all over the bodice. She reached the foot of the stairs and waved at everyone.

Several people were drying their tears. It had been a long journey for them but finally, their leader had returned.

"Thank you all, my children." Nana spoke up. "I am happy to back home. Happy to see that our safe place has not fallen in my absence. You have all been strong and fought so bravely. But I am here now and you can all lean on me once again. Enjoy the festivities." She smiled that luminous smile of hers that brightened the room.

We all clapped and she descended the rest of the stairs and disappeared into the crowd.

The music immediately picked up tempo and volume. The dancing could begin.

"Thank you, Santana for bringing Shelly back to us." Kay said grabbing Timothy's hand and pulling him to the dance floor.

Sandy grinned at us and wandered into the crowd.

Cedric turned to me with a lopsided smile. "Think you can attempt not to step on my toes?" He said holding out his hand.

"Think you can keep up?" I returned challenge placing my hand in his.

He spun me around in his arms as we walked to the dance floor. Cedric took the lead wrapping his arms around me and moving me to the beat of the music. I tried to recall some of my many hours or dance lessons and I tried to apply the technique as I sashayed in Cedric's arms. He was actually a pretty decent dancer.

"You are not too bad a dancer." He said with a grin.

"Well you are just terrible. Im doing all the work here." I teased.

"Bitch please, I'm totally destroying you." As if to prove a point, he spun me and dipped me.

I rolled my eyes as I came back up. "If you drop me I swear to god I will murder you."

He laughed. "You love me too much to murder me."

The music changed slowing by increments until it became nice and soft. I wrapped my arms around his neck and we just slowly moved together.

"I don't think I thanked you for what you did for me at Eastlea, your father's base. I don't know how you did it but...just thank you." He said his mood evened out by the music.

"You would have done the same for me. And besides I had dragged you into that mess." I smiled up at him.

"I forced myself into that mess. No way I could let you go there by yourself." He said.

"Well, thankfully it's all over."

We danced silently for a few seconds.

"Hey! What did you mean when you said you didn't hate me at first?" Cedric asked remembering our earlier conversation.

I blushed. "I don't know what you are talking about."

"Santana! Tell me." He prompted.

I laughed. "Its silly you will laugh at me." Not to mention embarrassing.

"I won't, I promise." He said.

I looked up at him for a second. "When I saw you, I had a bit of a crush on you." By this time my face was scarlet.

The grin slipped off Cedric's face. "You're kidding."

I shook my head. "Not at all."

"Really? So what happened?" He asked.

"You insulted me and you made me mad. And you came to my house uninvited. Scared me by your wolf powers and oh,you made me hit you with my car. You also almost broke my hand." I said a smile creeping to my face.

He laughed stiffly. "So I messed it up. It could have been me you were in love with but I messed it up." His voice sounded strangely constricted.

I frowned. "Are you okay?" He was acting really strange.

He let out a harsh laugh. "On your list of stuff that made you stop liking me, you forgot one thing."

"What?"

"You met Gabriel." He said all emotion gone from his eyes. He had stopped moving and was just staring down into my eyes. I had never seen him act this way and the look in his eyes made my heart pound so hard.

Freaked out, I pulled away from him and stepped back. "I need some air." I muttered and I walked away from him towards the stairs. Cedric had just suddenly turned cold on me and I had no idea what his deal was. I climbed the stairs past my floor and continued climbing. I was going for the roof. I could have stayed and asked what his problem was but when he mentioned Gabriel I just stopped functioning

As I reached the top most floor, I continued my way up to the roof door. I opened it and the cool fresh air hit my face. I closed my eyes on the threshold as i breathed in the freshness of the night air. It smelled like paint, a bit of smoke and ... men's cologne? I snapped my eyes open. I could pick out that cologne out of thousands of crap, poop and dirt.

He was standing by the railing his back to me. Gisele was nowhere in sight. I walked slowly towards him not caring much about walking quietly. He already knew I was here.

I reached him and I stood next to him. He didn't turn to look at me but instead continued to look straight ahead.

"You are a hard man to find." I muttered also staring straight ahead.

He said nothing for a while. I could still hear music from downstairs. Just when I thought he was never gonna say anything he spoke up his voice a little hoarse.

"Cable bruises, second degree electrical burns, two black eyes and countless bruises." He stated.

"Is that an invitation to hit you?" I teased with a grin for his profile and drawing my little fists.

"I'm glad you can make jokes." He said in the same hoarse flat voice.

"My body is a blob of disgusting purple blotches. Humor is all I've got." I shifted on one foot as I further attempted to lighten the mood.

He finally turned to look at me. In his eyes pain was etched. "You probably hate me. And I don't blame you."

I frowned. "Why would I hate you?" Apart from coming to the ball with Gisele!. "You saved me!"

He stared at me for a few seconds. "I didn't save you, Santana." He whispered his expression tortured.

"Yes you did! What are you talking about?" I was very confused now. He looked like he was about to jump off the roof.

"You should stay away from me." He whispered arching his back slightly as if he had stomach pain.

I watched quietly in confusion as he struggled with his feelings. I inched closer to him and I put my hands on his shoulders and pushed him lightly so he could face me. I looked up into his eyes trying to understand what was going on with him.

"Gabe, what's the matter?" I asked softly.

"Santana, if you hate me, you are completely justified." He said looking down into my eyes guilt all over his handsome features.

"Just tell me, what is it?" I prompted.

"It was my fault you got hurt. It was all my fault." He stepped away from me and ran his hand through his hair.

My heart was pounding hard. "What do you mean?"

"I knew that Schwartz has a weakness for women. And i still took you there putting your life in danger." He said frustratedly.

I sighed in relief, I thought he was going to say he sold me or something. I laughed. "Oh, like I would have let you leave me behind here."

"This isn't funny, Santana." He frowned.

"You are being funny! What's the matter with you? You saved me, Gabriel. Do you realize that if you had been a second late I'd be..." I sighed getting emotional again. "You saved me." I whispered my chest swelling. "And im fine. It's just a few bruises and burns. I don't know how you could possibly be feeling this way."

He brushed his hand through his hair and sighed so heavily. "Santana, I-"

"Gabriel, you are killing my buzz. I've been wanting to thank you all day but I guess I can come back when your mood has improved."

I backed away from the railing and slowly turned to head back inside. Just as I passed him, he grabbed my arm in a tight grip and pulled me back towards him. He released my arm and suddenly his arms were around me pulling me to him in a hug.

"Im glad you're okay." He whispered into my hair thus sending a shiver down my spine. I put my arms around his neck and he pulled me even closer. So close I could hear the pounding of his heart. Or was that my heart? Either way, being in his arms made perfect sense to me. There was nowhere else I'd rather be at this moment.

He released me and stepped back to look into my eyes. His expression was still a little guarded.

"Are sure you are okay?" He asked adopting a concerned frown.

I grinned. "Never better." I drew away from him and leaned my back against the rails. Gabriel followed suit and we stood there in silence for a few minutes.

"How exactly did you find me though?" I asked. "When we went to the location, we were blindfolded and coming out, you had been poisoned." I frowned.

"We woke up at the helipad and everyone was there... except you." He scrowled as if he was recalling a very bitter taste. "Schwartz's cars were already gone..." His expression became distant. He was probably reliving the whole thing.

"The fact that we had Shelly was completely dampened by your absence. Finn literally lost his mind." He said quietly his voice getting a little thick. "To think of what have possibly happened to you..." He had turned his face away from me but I could see is throat convulse as he swallowed hard.

My chest tightened. Even if it wasn't my fault, the thought that I might have caused Gabriel the slightest discomfort did not sit well with my stomach. The last thing I would ever want would be to cause him pain. I wanted to reach out and comfort him but something just kept me rooted to my spot. And also likely that Gabriel would be too proud to receive comfort from me.

We stood there in a moment's silence each dealing with our own emotions all we could hear was a slightly faint Passenger song.

He suddenly cleared his throat. "So Fabio decided that we take Shelly home then we could come back and try to find you. So we did just that and dropped Shelly and Finn here and Fabio, Farah and I went back. We had no leads, no tracks to follow, no information, all we had was drive. At that point nothing seemed more important than finding you. We tried all we could followed all possible leads but we got nothing." He explained.

"So how did you find me then?" I frowned. If they had no leads how could they have found the base?

"You called me." Gabriel said simply looking right into my eyes.

"What?"

"You called my name. Through telepathy. I had been trying to send you telepathic messages all day and failing but while we were searching, your voice came through suddenly, loud and powerful. We all heard it."

How was this even possible? I couldn't remember successfully mindlinking with Gabriel or anyone else during my time with Damien the devil.

"What did I say exactly?" I asked.

"Gabriel." He replied huskily his gaze still locked on mine.

I just stared at him. The supernatural never ceased to amaze me. There was always something new happening everyday. I couldn't remember calling Gabriel but I certainly remembered wishing he'd come and save me. I swallowed hard. "So...you knew then where I was?" I asked in a choked voice.

He nodded. "You helped us find you, Santana. Your cry led us directly to you. Being in protector mode, our powers were so potent that defeating the mortal guards and fighters was not a challenge at all. We knocked all of them out of the way. Then I heard you scream..." He looked away from me again.

I remembered this point, I had been on the verge of giving up my fight because I had started losing. What I hadn't known then was that another war was being won on my behalf.

"Then you came for me and you knocked the door and the guard into the room." I continued for him speaking softly as I relived the moment. "I pushed that disgusting asshole off me. Then I looked up and saw you." I turned to Gabriel and found his intense gaze on me. It was not quite as black as it had been yesterday but it was still intense. "I almost passed out from relief and gratitude and joy." I stopped as a lump rose to my throat.

"You were amazing. You fought so hard. If you hadn't fought, we'd have been too late." Gabriel put his large hand over mine and squeezed it.

I pushed off the rails and stood directly in front of him and looked into his eyes. "Thank you, Gabriel." I said with all the sincerity I could muster.

He gazed down at me for a few seconds then he reached over and cupped one of my cheeks in his large hand. "It was an honor." He whispered.

My insides were in a frenzy as they squirmed under the intensity of his gaze. His eyes were a dark grey pool of emotion and the atmosphere was electric. My breath was coming in small puffs as my stomach continued to flip uncontrollably. His eyes suddenly dropped to my slightly parted lips and at this point I forgot how to breath. He was going to kiss me and everything in my body was ready for it and so was he because his head was inching nearer and nearer.

"May I have this dance?" He whispered at the last possible moment his head merely inches from mine.

My mouth was dry. "Umm...er yes..."

He placed his hands on my waist and pushed off the railing. He gently pushed me back and I back paddled until we were a safe distance from the railing.

In some kind of a trance I put my arms around his neck. They were play some soft song I possibly could not have recognized at that moment. Looking into each other's eyes, we swayed along to the faint beat.

"You look stunning by the way." He said his voice low and hoarse.

"You like it? I don't usually doll up like this." I said a blush coloring my face. Thank God for the dim lighting.

"You are perfect." He replied pulling me closer.

I smiled shyly. "You are sweet."

He grinned at me. And he spun me around in his arms then he dipped me. I giggled as I kicked my foot in the air during the dip. He raised me and pulled me back to my former position on his chest.

"I can't believe it's all over." I whispered. "We have her back."

"It's a little surreal but you did it." He replied.

"I didn't do anything. I just got captured twice. I think I caused you more trouble than benefit." I laughed.

"You put everything in motion. I had failed at this so many times I was over correcting. But you just dived straight in and sprung everything into action." He said with a rueful.

"You might have been a little over cautious." We laughed together at that. "I'm glad I came though." I said softly and I leaned in and lay my head on his chest.

"Me too." He whispered his arms tightening around me.

We swayed silently in the dark of the night. This was perfect. Dancing with the guy I was hopelessly in love with under the stars. Our hearts beating to the same tune and for once I wasn't angry with him over something. I wished the moment would last forever.

"So are you going to leave?" Gabriel finally asked the question that had been hanging in the air the whole night.

I looked up at him and found a guarded look in his eyes. To be honest... "I don't know."

The music had changed so we just stood there in each other's arms. I didn't know if I was going to stay but if I was going to stay I needed to know how Gabriel felt. If he didn't...if he couldn't share my feelings I don't think I could handle staying in the same place with him. It would break me. But how could I ask without seeming needy though I was needy. I sighed.

"What do you think i should do?" I asked cautiously.

He just stared down at me the air becoming more tense by the minute. Why was he quiet? Maybe he just didn't want me here. But if that was the case why did he look like he was about to kiss me? His head was coming closer and his hands pulled me against him. His head was just a few inches from mine.

"Santana-"

"Gabriel?"

The spell broke and we both broke away then looked at the source of the voice. Gisele.

"Whats going on here?" She demanded.

"Gisele, we are having a private-" I started annoyed.

"Shut up, little girl." She snapped. "Is this why you left me downstairs by myself?"

"Santana and I had things to discuss. And we weren't finished." He said with a hint of a warning in his voice.

"We had a deal!" She said viscously.

"I am aware of that." Gabriel said coldly.

"What deal?" I asked but noone heard me.

"This is my house! Are you trying to hurt me by being with this slut?" She spat.

"Who are you calling a slut, you bitter old bloodsucker?" I bit back.

"I warned you to stay away from him!" She said coming towards me.

Gabriel stood between us facing Gisele. "Calm down." He warned.

She stopped then she stared at him for a second. "Maybe it's time to let you out of the deal." She hissed before she spun on her heel and marched back in to the house.

"Wow! What was that about?" I asked shaken by her anger.

Gabriel turned to me. "I need to go and talk to her." He said and before I could say anything he strode to the door and he disappeared into the house.

I stared after him hardly daring to believe he had picked her.

I guess I had the answer to my question.