Chapter 7

The rest of the morning was kind of a blur, I couldn't remember a time in my life when so many people who are not part of my family made me so happy.

But then again this was a little like family.

Everyone wanted to say something to me and though it was heartwarming, I had never been more terrified of screwing up in my life.

We had formed a bond that I really was almost desperate to keep.

I had to find the Queen.

It was the only way.

Though even after meeting all these people, I had not met the other Guardian. And no one had mentioned him or her so I was a little afraid to ask.

I knew Gabriel had been quietly watching me all morning just like he was doing yesterday as if he was waiting for his moment to pounce on me.

Now there were just a few of us left in the dining room. Finn was sitting between attractive female twins, a bulldozer couldn't have pulled him from there. Gabriel had left ages ago.

I turned and offered Cedric a smile. He had sat next to me all through breakfast and fielded some of the questions I couldn't handle.

"You alright?" He asked.

I nodded vigorously with a grin. "Never better."

"Well, I'm glad you are having fun. We can't have you bored now, can we?" He grinned pushing me slightly with his shoulder.

"No, we can't." I replied pushing him back.

"Hey, did you know that you have a lot of hair?" He asked flicking my high ponytail.

I snorted. "Really? I thought it was just a squirrel camped out back there." I said sarcastically rolling my eyes.

He mock grinned. "Seriously though you are going to get a headache from that knot." He said pointing at the knot my scrunchy made.

It already was giving me a headache but no way I was letting my hair loose. "You let me worry about that." I mumbled.

"Wanna see something interesting?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, but I don't trust you..."

"Oh come on." He stood up pulling me with him and before I knew it I was being dragged through countless flights of stairs.

"Cedric. Where...??" Was all I managed to get out breathlessly.

"Almost there." He replied.

And sure enough the stairs ended and we were at the roof door. He took a key from his pocket and unlocked the door. He stepped out into the sun again pulling me with him.

"Wow..." I whispered. Everything was so...green. Lots of trees and grass. I could see some plains here and there but it was still very vegetated.

"Why are there so many trees?" I asked Cedric who had walked to the railing.

He smiled. "Come see for yourself." He directed his gaze down to the ground.

What was down there? I walked to the rails slowly.

My breath caught and goosebumps made their way across my arms and i involuntary backed away from the railing. I had never seen anything like it before.

"Are th-those...werewolves?" There were tonnes of them emerging from the bushy trees. And they were huge. There were like three wolves at the front leading the rest - a black one and two brown ones.

"Yeah. " Cedric responded with a slight smirk.

"Wow!" I breathed. It was scariest breathtaking scenery I couldn't tear my eyes from.

"I know. They are coming from hunting. The vampires shouldn't be far behind." Cedric supplied.

My head whipped up. "Hunting?" I glanced back down my heart pounding. They'd better not be hunting what I thought they were otherwise I was out of here. "What were they hunting, Mr Mclain?"

He gave me a flat look before he replied. "We don't hunt humans if that's what you are asking. We hunt animals. "

"Even the vampires?"

"Yes. They don't hunt humans. At least some of them." He mumbled the last part but I heard him all the same.

"What do you mean some of them?" I asked my eyes wide.

Cedric smiled lightly. "Yeah. Not all immortals are good, Santana."

I held his gaze a while longer then I looked back to the ground. The werewolves were nearing the house and sure enough a small group of people - well vampires, I assumed was emerging from the trees.

"Vampires?"

"Yep." He nodded.

They moved decidedly quiet and they seemed a little gloomy compared to the werewolves. From this distance i couldn't see their faces but it was the air surrounding them that was a little...I don't know... heavy.

"They sure are a happy bunch of people." I commented dryly.

Cedric glanced at me momentarily then he nodded. "They have issues."

"What kind of issues?" I asked. Something was going on here and sure the queen was missing but there was something else going on.

"The kind that I can't talk about." Mr McLain replied.

"Can't or won't?" I asked feeling the edges of irritation.

He looked at me and smiled. "I actually can't, Santana."

"Tell me." I demanded.

"Nope, it's not my story to discuss." He replied adamantly.

"Mr McLain." To which he groaned. "You promised me answers today and I will get answers." I started my tone going deliberately cold.

"You will get answers but not from me. My job was to bring you here which I did. The rest is not up to me." He told me.

"Who is it up to then?" I pushed.

"I'll take it from here." A familiar voice said from behind us.

Naturally we turned.

Gisele.

She was dressed in a tight black dress deliberately designed to flaunt her ridiculously ample curves.

She smirked at me. "Cedric." She drawled. "Gabriel is waiting. Things do not look good. The child needs... enlightenment."

"Back from hunting already?" Cedric asked looking annoyed.

"I didn't go. I had to take care of... business. Come on, let's go with the child." She replied turning back to the door.

"It better not be me you are calling a child." I said trying to keep my annoyance in check.

"How old are you? 15?" Gisele asked as if she was trying to prove a point.

"How old are you? 50?" I shot back.

"Oh for the love of god, let's go to Gabriel." Cedric said in exasperation. Our silly bickering was getting to him.

I snorted only to earn a disapproving look from Gisele who swivelled elegantly and sushayed towards the door and started descending the stairs.

Cedric gave me an exasperated look then rolled his eyes before he followed Gisele.

"What? She started it!" I defended myself following closely behind him.

"And you indulged her." He replied with a deliberately disgusted tone.

I snorted again realising that I had no argument. It didn't matter because finally I was going to get answers and I could go home as per our agreement. I liked it here but this wasn't my house. And I needed to check on Lola. She still hadn't replied any of my messages and I was getting really worried.

I had to focus on this for now because too many people were depending on me and I couldn't afford to mess this up. Although my mind continuously wondered to the closet. I had never been to this place before but why did I dream of this closet? It was puzzling.

We reached a landing and Cedric took a right and I followed him down the corridor until we reached an open door.

The first thing I noticed were two guys standing at the far end of the office talking quietly.

Gisele was already inside sitting on Gabriel's desk brushing his shoulder with the tips of her fingers but Gabriel amazingly remained immune and continued reading whatever was on his desk. He looked almost stoic sitting there with his head bowed and a bit of his hair falling on his forehead.

My breathe hitched.

I entered the room slowly enable to tear my eyes from Gabriel. He was truly a living and breathing work of art. It was like-

"Oh my God, Santa!" Gisele suddenly exclaimed looking at me wide eyed. "What the hell?"

"Oh, I know she did not just call me Santa." I said indignantly.

Her exclamation had obviously called the attention of the other guys in the room - including Gabriel. And they were all staring at me months agape.

"What?"

No response.

I glared at Gisele. "What are you all staring at?"

"The...thing on your head!" Gisele frowned pointing at my head.

My heart automatically started pounding. What was it? A rat? A mouse? A spider?!!

I reached up and touched my hair slowly. "Cedric...?"

"I...I think your scrunchy snapped..." Cedric mumbled.

"My scrunchy... Ohh." Relief. "Oh." Realisation. "Oh." Panic! My mane was loose! I started pulling my hair to one side.

"Get rid of it!" Gisele squealed.

"I'm trying." I mumbled losing the fight with my hair.

"No. Leave it" One order from Gabriel was enough to make me drop my arms to my sides.

"Yeah." Cedric put in studying my hair closely. "Leave it. It's big. And red. And curly. And long - "

"Fond of pointing out the obvious, are we?" I snapped at him.

"And gorgeous. Wow. Is this the natural look of your hair?"

"What?" Did he say gorgeous?

"Hie, I'm Jonathan. You must be Santana." One of the men i didn't recognize came to me hand extended.

"Er...Hie. Yeah that's me." I stammered nervously tucking a lock of hair behind my ear. Oh why had I forgotten that blasted hair straightener. From now on I'd carry it in my bag at all times.

"You are very beautiful." He said grinned.

I blushed. No one had ever called me beautiful before except my parents.

"She is definitely something." The other guy put in coming to stand next to his friend his eyes traveling from my head right down to my sandaled feet. I cleared my throat nervously. "I'm Liam." He said.

"Um... Thanks?" I mumbled and through the corner of my eye I noticed Gabriel still staring at me. I cleared my throat suddenly feeling rather hot.

"No!" Gisele jumped up from the desk. "Look at that! She looks like she has flames on her her! It really becomes you. " she rolled her eyes.

Whats going on?

Had Gisele just complemented me?

"Must have been painful to admit that, Gisele." Gabriel sa- Gabriel said. "She looks like a little feisty lion. This is your true nature, Santana, you must embrace it." He told me.

My eyes widened. "My true nature is to look like an animal? How nice." I retorted sarcastically.

Cedric laughed. "My true nature is an animal."

That earned laughs from all of us.

"We don't really get a lot of female Guardians. This should be interesting." Liam, I think, said.

"I've never even seen a female Guardian before. And from the looks of things we should have more." Jonathan winked at me.

I furrowed my eyebrows. "Well, as much as I love the attention," I said sarcastically with a roll of my eyes. "don't we have issues to discuss? Hmm, Gabriel?" I raised an eyebrow.

His gaze held mine for a fraction of a second longer than was necessary then he nodded.

"Leave us alone." Gabriel said. "All four of you."

Wait, what?

Sure enough they all turned to leave without argument.

"Cedric." I grabbed his arm.

He smirked at me. "Good luck." He said extracting him arm from my weak grip.

"Santana." Jonathan had stopped right next to me. "What are you doing later? I thought maybe I could show you around."

Was he asking me out? I had never been asked out before unless going out for drinks with Lola's boyfriend counted of which Lola had forced me to go.

"I...er.." What do I say?!

"That's my job, Jonathan." Cedric intervened looking annoyed.

"Come on now, Santana has work to do." He pulled Jonathan out forcefully closing the door behind them.

And now I was alone with Gabriel.

I swallowed hard.

"Sit down."

I obeyed sitting on one of the two chairs opposite Gabriel separated by the large mahogany desk.

"Are you afraid of me?" He asked his gaze boring into my very soul.

"You are an intimidating man." I replied trying not to show my weakness.

"And you are an intimidating woman." He then chuckled. It was a deep pleasant sound that gave me goosebumps. "I'm sorry you are no woman. You are a girl."

Dicknuts.

I pursed my lips together. "Can we make it snappy, I have a date with Jonathan."

That wiped the stupid smirk off his handsome face. I smiled inwardly pleased with myself.

"Alright." He opened a drawer and took out what looked like a picture frame. He held it in both his hands and stared at it for a short while before he handed it to me.

For some reason, I felt nervous as I accepted it with shaking hands. I looked down at the picture in the frame.

I gasped loudly.

It was a woman. Red hair - wild and curly red hair, striking defiant green eyes. And she had the most beautiful happy and warm smile on her lips.

Gosh, the word beautiful did not even begin to do her justice. Her skin was literally glowing as if someone was shining a light from inside her. I just wanted to get a tiara and place it on her head. She was a goddess.

She looked just like me! Well, she was a lot more beautiful. But still...

"Who is this goddess and why does she look like me?!" My voice was shaking.

"I guess some would say she is a goddess."

"What?"

"She's our leader, the Queen, if you like. That picture was taken several years back." Gabriel told me watching me closely.

My heart slammed painfully against my ribcage.

"And ...the second part of my question?" I whispered.

"She's Rochelle 'Shelly' Marino." He paused for effect. "Your grand mother."

Gabriel's POV

I watched colour drain from her face and she looked down at the picture again. The time she studied it more closely her grip on the frame tightening by the second. Her knuckles had turned white.

I gave her time.

Tick tock tick tock tick tock tick... I wasn't a patient man.

"Santana."

She didn't respond.

"Santana." I said louder.

Her head jerked up. She looked confused. "She looks so -"

"Young" I supplied.

"-and -"

"- happy?" I supplied again.

Santana nodded. "I don't remember her like this."

"She was 46 when the picture was taken. You probably were too young to remember." I was 15 when the picture was taken. Santana must have been four.

"My memories for her are nothing like this." She fingered the picture gently.

She didn't know how to react, I could understand that.

"Didn't you say she was the Queen?" She asked as if she had just remembered her face suddenly changing.

I nodded.

"She was your leader?" She said disbelievingly. "This woman was crazy! We wrecked the family and my life." Colour had returned to her face it was an angry red now.

"She wasn't crazy."

"Yes, she was and guess what? She's dead." Santana stated tossing the picture frame on the desk. "She died twelve years ago when I was seven. So booyah! You brought me here to find a dead person." She snorted.

I couldn't believe that she was acting this way about her grandmother. "She isn't dead, Santana."

She laughed and my stomach knotted. It was the first time I had heard her laugh even though it was humorless it still made my stomach knot.

"I think I would know if my own grandmother was alive. I went to the funeral, Gabriel." She spat.

She looked angry like I had somehow violated her. She had no idea how much like her grandmother she was. I gritted my teeth trying to remain controlled.

"Santana- " I started.

"No no Gabriel. I gotta go. This is too much of a joke." She stood up. "So werewolves are real and I can move stuff but bringing people people back from the dead is ...I can't, I just can't."

Pushing back her chair she walked away from the desk towards the door.

Gritting my teeth wasn't working. Santana was too strong willed probably because she too was a Guardian so I didn't have much power over her. But I still used my Voice on her.

"Sit down."

She paused. Turning her head slightly to look at me. Normally, people would obey without even thinking about it. But she, she was like an equal. It was exciting.

"Sit down. Let me break it down for you." I repeated more calmly.

"Mr-?" She prompted.

She wanted to call me by my surname? Really? No way.

"Gabriel is okay."

Santana glared at me for a second. "Mr Gabriel. You have two minutes."

Oh, joy, I thought dryly watching her as she walked back to the chair. She sat down brushing her hair to one side. I sighed and continued to hold her gaze. She was strong. Nothing like the sweet white chocolate that had touched me senses the yesterday when she had arrived. Since then I had not allowed her to drift into my senses. But with her sitting like that and challenging me, I was tempted to.

"One minute." She stated taping her naked wrist.

"Your grandmother is a banshee."

"The hell is a banshee?"

"She has instincts about mostly danger. When she senses danger she screams. It's a soul scream. You will hear it soon enough. We have a few banshees living here." Why am I sweating?

"A few months after that picture was taken we were attacked by hunters. Hunters are a group of people who are hanging in the middle of the supernatural and the mortal. They are destroyers hunting mostly us supernaturals. We have been in conflict with hunters since the beginning of time. Some vampires joined the hunters so they became stronger than us. We were scattered all over the place because the humans were starting to discover us so we were weak. So this time they attacked us and killed alot of our children and lots of our families were destroyed. The attacks continued but Shelly began to see them before they happened and they knew they had to take her out because she was a threat to their operation. One day, they kidnapped her right in her living room and faked her death so we wouldn't look for her.

It was tragic, Santana. All the supernaturals ran away and we became scarce. Everyone led secret lives for a while. The hunters started making trouble again and some photos leaked and we found out she is alive. So that's why you see all these people here to help find her. After searching for three years with no success, we had to find you, the third Guardian. The link had to be complete. Guardians are alot stronger when they are together. And also you have a blood relation to Shelly. We all want to find her." I stopped so I could look at her.

Her head was bowed.

"Santana?"

"Can I see the proof that she's alive?" She whispered.

My heart clenched painfully at her pain. But I said nothing. I reached into my bottom drawer and took out the envelop that had the pictures. Holding it out to her, she hesitantly took it.

I watched as she opened the envelop and took the pictures out.

She gasped and covered her mouth with her hand.

I knew what she was looking at. It was Shelly. Shelly looking like a refugee in a hideous brown dress. She looked so thin and broken in those pictures. The pictures were about five years old and she must have been fifty-six but she looked seventy. I could tell that she was a slave.

A Queen, a goddess living like a slave.