23: Discoveries

Somehow Nate's clothes got changed when I switched their houses. Probably a master controller thing. Oh well. Also, there's the mention of the cauldron which I forgot to buy, but I intend to get it so I'm mentioning it anyway.

adult language

"I'm a what!?" Gabriella nearly screeched to her mother in disbelief.

Marge didn't waste time by waiting for her daughter to recover from finding out she was a witch. "You need to go to my house and in my closet there is a false back wall. There's a notch below one of the shoe racks. Lift it and go down the stairs. You need to do this today before August forces me to take him there and get the stuff out of that room. Take Nate with you and drive the truck."

Gabriella's head swam with another influx of unexpected information. "Take Nate with me?" she asked a question about the one thing she could handle.

"Please don't make a big deal about this, Gabby. You need him. August is going to be ready to attack the second you leave the property."

"How do you know?" she asked.

Marge's voice got quieter now. "Gabby, it's strange, but I just know without trying." She looked at her with a trace of fear in her eyes.

Gabriella walked out into the living room in a daze to find Nate sitting on a chair reading the paper. He looked up as she walked in and waited for her to speak.

"I assume you heard?" she asked him.

"I, of course, tried to tune you out, but yes, I heard." he said without emotion as his attention returned to the paper in front of him.

"Fine, then let's get this over with." she said as she walked towards the front door.

Nate stood up to follow her, and he wished he knew what to say to her to make her anger towards him go away. He could barely put up with the anger he had towards himself, but the anger coming off of her was unbearable.

"You wanna drive?" he asked so he'd have something to say.

"No, that's fine. I can just tell you where to go." she said with an angry gleam in her eye as she thought of all the places she longed to tell him to go.

The ride was quiet for a while as they drove to Marge's.

Nate couldn't stand the silence anymore. "Gabriella, please don't move out. I don't for a minute blame you for hating me, but moving out would just be too dangerous."

"Then that's just something I'll have to deal with on my own."

"You can't!" Nate banged his fists on the steering wheel, cursing stubborn women everywhere. "If August comes after you..."

"Then that's my problem, not yours. And he won't need me anymore once he has control of Mom." she snapped.

"Please don't move out." he begged quietly as they arrived at the house.

Gabriella ignored him and got out of the vehicle. Nathaniel hopped out and quickly looked and listened for August to be anywhere. What Marge had said in the house worried him. He relaxed once he realized the coast was clear.

He walked up and got in Gabby's way on the front walk. He hopped back and forth to stay in her way as he said, "Gabby, listen. What I did was wrong. Everything is my fault. It's my fault we didn't immediately go after them. I was terrible for trapping you in the house like that. I was only trying to keep you safe. Please don't hate me."

Gabby put her hand on his mouth to shut him up. "I don't hate you, Nate. I'm just really pissed off. There's nothing we can do about it now, though, is there?"

Nate shook his head no while he brought his hand up to take hers, "I'll never forgive myself."

"Yes you will, though it won't be for a long time now." she said and got distracted from thinking about how she was certain she knew that as she tried in vain to free her hand. "Why do you always do that?" she asked as he kissed her fingers.

"Because it bothers you. Your have beautiful hands, Gabriella, and I can't resist." He took the other hand as well.

She worked at keeping her breathing even as he tenderly kissed each and every one of her fingertips, being sure to maintain eye contact. No, I'm mad at you.

"Don't be mad at me." he said and kissed the palm of one of her hands. "I'm mad at myself enough for the both of us."

Gabriella stayed quiet. She worried that if she opened her mouth she'd say something nasty she might later regret.

Nate was grateful her anger wasn't as overpowering as it was earlier this morning even though he, of course, heard the terrible things she thought. At least she kept them to herself.

They walked up to the front door after Nate released one of her hands.

The hand that was still in his possession he kept at his mouth. Damn, she smells good, he thought as he traced his mouth and nose along the inside of her arm up to the elbow.

Gabriella tried to ignore what he was doing and instead got out the house key from her pocket with her now free hand. Don't think I don't know what you're doing. The seduction tactic won't work. I'm still mad at you.

"Ah!" she softly cried out as his tongue teased the inside of her elbow. She promptly dropped the key from being startled because what he was doing tickled yet felt really good. He held fast to her arm while she tried to pry it from his fingers.

"Nate, stop." she begged as he started moving further up her arm. "You're always so worried about my safety, how about your own? You're literally going to burn up if you don't let me unlock this door." She desperately wanted him to stop because she didn't want this feeling like her insides were melting. She was still mad at him, after all.

"So unlock it." he murmured, now at the back of her neck. His free arm snaked around her waist, pressing her back against him.

"I dropped the key!" she protested, irritated that she didn't sound as aggravated as she wanted to sound.

He chuckled, and his breath against the nape of her neck made her want to shiver. "Then pick it up." he said, pointing out an obvious solution.

Gabriella huffed in exasperation. Fine. She bent at the waist to retrieve the dropped key.

Holy shit, Nate thought as Gabriella bent at the waist, pressing her butt up against him.  I suppose I asked for that, didn't I? He held his breath as she stood back up and unlocked the door.

Once the door was unlocked, he brought the two of them into the house, grabbed the key on the way, and pressed Gabriella against the wall.

Gabby gasped at her sudden change of location. I hate it when he does that, she thought as she attempted to gain her bearings. All she could see was him as he completely filled her vision, his face mere inches from hers.

"No, Nate. I told you. I'm mad at you." she said in response to the burning look in his eyes. She stood there trying to catch her breath. Looking for a way to distract him, she asked, "How is it that you're in here without being invited?"

Nathaniel blinked a few times as he realized she was right. He didn't have to be invited. "Marge must be more vampire than human now." The thought sobered him right up, and he took a step back from her, unable to meet her gaze.

Which means Gus could enter the house at any minute if he picks up our trail, Gabby thought to him as she made her way to her mother's room.

She found the latch and lifted it. A small click was heard and the wall to their right moved like a door coming ajar. Curious, they followed some stairs to an underground room.

Gabriella felt as if she'd stepped back in time to some medieval lair. There were sconces on the walls that looked like burning torches, but they hadn't lit them. Yet, they were burning just the same. In one corner stood an actual crystal ball. Gabby wanted to laugh, wishing this was all some kind of joke or TV show, but she knew her mother wouldn't joke at a time like this.

"Something tells me this isn't for soup." Nate said as he approached a cauldron and looked inside its depths.

"Only to cook little boys." Gabby answered cheekily.

She wandered over to a podium that held a large volume on it. Next to it were huge bookshelves, but the book in front of her really caught her attention. She walked over to read it.

Nate came up behind her and asked, "What's all this nonsense?"

"It's not nonsense." Gabby argued, annoyed at his close proximity.

"Sure looks it to me."

"It's just talking about putting somebody in a better mood, that's all." she explained and wondered why he thought that was nonsense. They sure could use a better mood between the two of them.

"You can read that?" Nate asked, shocked.

"You can't?"

Nathaniel shook his head no as she turned to look at him.

"Hm." Gabby said and turned back to study the now even more interesting book in front of her. "You use that speed of yours and pack all this up. I wanna look at this some more."

"Fine." Nate agreed, realizing he could get the job done faster anyway.

I still can't believe this is real. My mother is a witch. Um, I am one too, at least that's what she says. She wants me to have all this stuff now. What on earth am I to do with it?

 Why did she never tell me? That seems like information I needed to know!

This all looks so confusing. How am I supposed to learn any of this without her help?

"All done." Nate walked in and said after a too-short, to her thinking anyway, amount of time went by.

"Then lets get out of here. This place gives me the creeps." she said and passed him on her way to the stairs, carrying the large volume in her hands. She carefully tucked it in one hand as Nate motioned her out the front door.

When they walked outside they saw Gus causally leaning against the truck, waiting for them.

"Hello, kidnappers." he said, glaring at the pair of them.