"I'm going to take care of you, Gabriel. I'm very dependable that way."
He hoped she was since he was fairly certain he was going to pass out. Three seconds later, he did.
Chapter Two
"That's good, Futon, pull him into the backseat."
Loraine knew she looked crazy to anyone who watched her talk to the dog the way she did. When others heard Futon all they heard was barking. But for Loraine she could actually hear his words just as well as she could hear them from any person who spoke to her. Most of the time she tried not to address him so openly but given the strange circumstances with Gabriel, she'd let her guard down.
Well, that and the fact that he was so handsome that he might be found on the cover of a romance novel didn't help with the distraction part. She shook her head.
"You're meant to find him attractive
."
Loraine rolled her eyes at Futon's remark. He was always saying cryptic stuff like that. Other animals spoke to Loraine in small basic sentences. They were mostly concerned with finding food and what the weather was going to be. Occasionally, a passing cat said something snarky.
But Futon was different.
He'd shown up when she was five years old and never left. As far as she could tell he'd never aged a day. In fact, he claimed to be three times older than she was. Loraine was never sure if that was in dog years or people years. It didn't matter. That was one of those questions Futon would refuse to answer.
He'd been sent to her to relay messages from the Earth. He'd told her that on a Monday afternoon many years ago while she'd been hiding in her room after escaping school. Some mean girls had locked her in one of the stalls of the bathroom. To this day she had no clue what he meant by 'relay messages from the Earth' but so far he'd not steered her in the wrong direction. If he said go, she went.
Two days earlier he'd walked into her duplex as she'd been getting dressed to go to her job as a fourth grade teacher in the same school where she'd once been tormented. He'd told her to pack her bags and quit her job. It was time to join in the war.
Stepping on the gas pedal of her SUV, the car jolted forward. Admittedly, she was a very, very bad driver. Her grandmother, who had raised her, had told her that she was always driving to a car accident.
At seventeen, she'd not found that funny, but now at thirty, she could appreciate just how clever her grandmother had been. She always said things like that.
Plugging in the address Gabriel had given her into her GPS system, she saw that it would take approximately forty-five minutes to cross over the bridge that led from North Shore back into New Orleans, and then travel uptown to the street address. Loraine had no sense of direction and was always immensely grateful that she lived in a time where things like navigation were as easy to manage. Otherwise, she'd always be driving in circles.
Glancing in the rearview mirror, she looked at her charge. Whatever war Futon wanted her to join had something to do with this strange man. "Gabriel Ward," she said his name aloud, hoping it wouldn't rouse him.
His moniker felt nice on her lips. It flowed well. Gabriel Ward.
"Stop daydreaming and watch the road. It'll be all I can do to keep you from dying in a car wreck before you ever find the demon
."
At Futon's words, Loraine almost drove off the pavement. "Did you say demon?"
In the backseat, Gabriel groaned and after making sure she wasn't about to plummet into Lake Pontchartrain by driving off the bridge, she took a deep breath. Fortunately, the middle of the day seemed to be a light traffic time for the area. There weren't too many cars on the bridge with her, which was a good thing considering that Gabriel didn't seem to have very good luck when it came to water.
What was the deal with that wave? It was like something out of a nightmare. Why hadn't he moved out of the way?
She bit her lip on all her questions. Her life was odd. Why shouldn't his be?
Pushing down on the accelerator, she really wanted to get over the bridge as soon as possible. If another wave like that came after Gabriel, she didn't want to be stuck in the car.
Risking another glance in the rearview mirror, she sighed at his reflection. They really should have changed him out of his wet clothes before they shoved him in the car. But into what? His house was gone with, presumably, all of his stuff. She didn't want to strip him naked with nothing else to dress him in. But maybe that was just what she should have done.
"Will he be okay, Futon?"
"I have no knowledge of that
."
That was his standard line when she asked him things he didn't know or couldn't answer. In many respects, Futon was just like any other dog. He chased squirrels, barked at cars that passed the house, and hated the mailman. But then sometimes he spoke in riddles, talked of destiny, and was, evidently, a bit obsessed with wars and demons.
She shrugged. Her grandmother had been the only person other than Gabriel she had been so open with about how she communicated with animals. The woman who raised her had been unconcerned, although she'd advised Loraine never to tell anyone else. Up until today, she'd followed that wisdom.
Gabriel, with his dark hair, dark eyes, and pouty mouth that he used to express massive amounts of profanity had immediately gotten under her skin. Watching him get swept away under water had made her feel like she herself was drowning. Futon had taken off like the hounds of hell chased him and dove in after Gabriel.
It wasn't until he'd resurfaced with Gabriel in tow that she'd started to breathe again.
Turning off the bridge onto the highway, the traffic around her large vehicle picked up speed. She increased hers accordingly as she continued to daydream about the guy in the backseat. He was in no way her imagined version of a fairytale prince. Not that she'd ever believed those existed. Gabriel swore, he lashed out verbally in anger, and he didn't share much information.
So why did the sight of the brown stubble on his chin make her heart flutter? Why was the fact that his hair was long, dark, and wet make her want to run her fingers through it while it was spread out over her breasts? Her cheeks heated at the thoughts. Her breasts had never been bare for anyone to see and she had a pretty good idea that the he-god in the backseat of the car wasn't going to want
her
when he woke up and regained the use of his legs.
Her carrot top hair and freckles did nothing to hide the freakish shade of her blue eyes that made people stare at her in horror. The color contacts she'd bought to hide them when she taught her classes were stored in her glove compartment. She put them in every day but they made her eyes itch and she'd neglected to do so during the drive to Gabriel's house. Once she'd arrived and saw the wave coming for him, there hadn't been any time to spare. He'd officially seen her in all her freakish glory.
Sighing, she pulled off at the next exit after the mechanical voice of the GPS instructed her to do so.
"I think he's going to surprise you
."
"Is that just one of those things that you know?"
Gabriel coughed. "Are you talking to me or the dog?"
She smiled. He might think she was nuts but at least she didn't have to hide it when she spoke to Futon. "The dog."
He coughed again. "I figured. His barking woke me up."
"How are you feeling?"
"Lousy. I never ever get sick." He stretched his hands over his head. "The good news is that my feet seem to be working again." He lifted one soaked sneaker in the air to demonstrate.
"That's great. Maybe you should take off your shoes."
He nodded. "I guess that's a good idea. Like I said, I never get sick. I have no idea how to handle myself."
She chewed on her lip. She never got sick either. In her whole life, she'd never had a cold. That was kind of odd that he said the same thing.
A thought dawned on her. "I actually have a blanket, kind of an old one that I sometimes give to Futon. You can have it. I'll just pull over here, get it out of the trunk, and you can take off your wet clothes then wrap yourself up in it."
"No," Gabriel pointed out the window. "You're not pulling over in this neighborhood."
She looked around. "Is this a bad neighborhood?"
It looked kind of run down, like it hadn't started to be built up again after the hurricane but not so terrible that they couldn't quickly do some removal of wet clothing. She had no intention of staying around to hang out.
"This is a particularly bad neighborhood. It always was, and now it's much worse." He tapped the window. "I used to spend some nights hidden behind that red house. The lady there wouldn't call the police on us. Might have been because she was so far gone on drugs she didn't want the cops looking at her too closely. Anyway."
She watched in the rearview mirror as he shook his head.
"We're not stopping here. I'll let you know when it's safe."
Loraine didn't like proclamations from men. It was one of the reasons she had a hard time dating. It seemed that all of the people with XY chromosomes she encountered had also been born with a tendency to tell her what to do. Maybe it was because she hadn't been raised in a home with any men that she found it so completely tiresome to hear them order her around. Her grandmother had ruled their life with an iron fist and as an adult Loraine was more than capable of handling herself.
But neither was she stupid. If Gabriel said it was an unsafe area, she'd believe him even if she didn't like his tone of voice when he issued his command.
"Where are we going anyway?" she asked, hoping she sounded bright and enthusiastic. At the very least, she was going to try to pretend she didn't have a pit of lead forming in her stomach from nerves.
"To see Alexa."
Loraine felt her bottom lip quiver and she forced down the upset feelings that answer caused. Wouldn't it just figure? The first man she'd met who stirred any level of interest inside of her ever and he's taken? By someone named
Alexa
.
Oh, well. She tried to inwardly shrug and failed. Right or wrong, it really bugged her that he was spoken for.
"How long have you been together?" Inwardly she rolled her eyes at herself. Why was she making him say something that caused her to feel pain? Why did she always do that?
Gabriel yawned. She could see in the rearview mirror that his eyes were bloodshot. Whatever was happening to him, and she was going to get him to tell her what it was, he was clearly exhausted.
"Alexa and I have been together, pretty much, since we were babies." He tapped on the window as if pointing at the street. "Pull over here."
She nodded and when the traffic moved out of her way enough for her to comply, she did as he instructed. Putting the car in park, she thought about what he'd just said. They'd been together since they were
babies
? Wow, that was amazing. Almost unheard of for people to be that loyal to each other in this day and age. You really had to respect his level of commitment.
What was their story? Had they grown up together, and then slowly over time fallen in love? She pressed the button underneath her steering wheel to pop open the trunk. Opening her door, she hopped out of the car and walked to the back as Gabriel opened his door and stepped out.
The air felt hot and moist, almost stifling and slightly hard to breathe, like if she wanted to run she wasn't sure would be able to for very long.
"Hopefully you won't have to run then
."
She laughed at Futon's remark.
When she looked up Gabriel regarded her with a raised eyebrow. "What did that dog say to you?"
"How do you know he said anything?" Loraine pulled the blanket out of the trunk.
"Because he barked and you laughed."
"It's a private conversation between me and Futon."
Handing Gabriel the blanket, she stepped back to look at the neighborhood where they had pulled over. It didn't look any different than the one Gabriel had insisted they not stop in. Shotgun houses lined the street in all different kinds of pastel colors. Some of them appeared to be in good condition, some of them were not, but Loraine had heard that New Orleans was still recovering from the decimation of Hurricane Katrina so it probably wasn't unusual to see homes still being rebuilt.
"Why is this place safe when the other was not?"
"It just is." He leaned against the car. "When you grow up here, you can tell the difference."
Gabriel pulled his hair out of the rubber band. Flipping over his hair, he shook it out and Loraine's heart stuttered at the sight. If she'd thought it looked amazing pulled back, it was nothing compared to how it looked loose.
Long and silky, it fell past his shoulders. She'd thought it was dark brown but now dry she could see it was all kinds of shades. Some of it was a deep brunet but most of it was auburn or chestnut colored.
Tying his hair back up, he met her gaze and she felt her cheeks heat. He knew she stared at him. Quickly, she looked at the ground. This was a man in a deeply committed relationship with a woman—
Alexa
—that he had known since they were
babies
. For all Loraine knew, they were married, even though he didn't wear a wedding ring. Not all men did or maybe he'd had it off for some reason while he'd worked on the dock of his house.
Without another word, she walked back to the driver's side of the car and slid into the seat. Turning the key in the ignition, she pumped up the air conditioning. Her body had already formed a layer of sweat from the heat outside. At least she hoped it was the hot weather that had done it and that she hadn't broken out in perspiration just by looking at Gabriel's hair.
If that was the case, she was going to take one of her coworker's advice and 'just go get laid' at the next possible opportunity because clearly she was hard up. Pushing down the rearview mirror, she looked at herself in its reflective glass. Mostly, she didn't want to be tempted to look at Gabriel as he pulled off his clothes on the side of the street.