24: Powerful and Weak

"Kidnappers? Well, that's the pot calling the kettle black, wouldn't you say, August? Seeing as how you kidnapped Marge to begin with." Nate countered Gus's accusations.

"I'd hardly call rescuing her from her wrecked car kidnapping." Gus smiled sardonically. "I saved her. Who knows who could've come along and harmed her?"

"I can take a guess." Nate answered.

Nate continued, "Gee, could it be a sadistic vampire that considers killing and turning innocent mortals a way of 'saving' them?"

"Of course I'm saving them! You were about to die! She would eventually die!" Gus said with a false sense of compassion. Then he smiled as he said, "Besides, I'm thoroughly curious to see how someone with that ability will be as a vampire. And, since the cosmos has refused me Gabriella, then I'll just take the more mature specimen... the one that knows how to use her gift." he taunted Gabby. He paused for a moment before he quipped to them, "But since mine's been kidnapped..."

In her surprised fear, Gabby dropped her book as Gus suddenly grabbed her and pulled her a few steps away from Nate.

"You stole mine, so I'll steal yours. Seems fair enough, doesn't it, Nate?" Gus taunted him as Gabby froze in fear.

"Hardly seems a fair trade since you've already turned yours." Nate decided to spar words with him in hopes to keep him from running off. He was afraid. This was too damn near what was supposed to happen before Nate would have to hurriedly turn her or have her die in his arms. He took a few tentative steps in their direction, but Gus sped off a few more meters away.

Gabriella forced herself to calm down and think. It wouldn't help her one bit to panic. She knew there was no way to break out of his hold since he was infinitely stronger than her, but there had to be a way to get out of this. Panic nipped at her heels and started making its way into the forefront of her thoughts...

No! This is not the way to do this! Gus wants me because I'm psychic. It's high time I used it to benefit me. 

What am I going to do to get out of this? She sent out the question to whatever it was out there that sent her the visions.

It answered her!

How in the world am I going to do that? Gabriella wondered as she stopped struggling and froze.

"Why look so shocked, Nate?" Gus asked him, misunderstanding the look on his face from sharing Gabby's vision. "You honestly didn't expect to be able to keep me away from her, did you?" Gus laughed then dipped his nose to the nape of her neck. "She smells even more exotic than her mother. I wonder what she tastes like?"

No! Gabriella screamed in her head. Get OFF!!

Nate watched as some strange pulsing light wave seemed to come from Gabriella. It was so strong physically that it knocked August right off of her, and it sent him to the ground as well. However, unlike Gus, he didn't get knocked unconscious. The wave appeared to die out quickly, not even affecting the nearby house, but since August stood right on top of her, he got the full force of the attack.

Forcing out the ball of energy or light or whatever it was took a lot out of Gabby. She suddenly felt extremely weak. Her world tilted on its axis as the ground started rushing up towards her.

Nate was there in an instant and caught her in his arms just before she passed out from exhaustion.

 "How is she?" Marge asked as she stood at the end of the bed.

It had been a few hours since Nate had carried Gabby and held her in the truck as he brought her home. He'd left everything in the truck bed as he'd carried her into the house and put her on his bed.

He looked worriedly over at Marge and said, "She won't wake up!"

"Nate, you have to give her poor body time to recover. That literally took a lot out of her." Marge explained.

She walked around the edge of the bed to get a better look at her daughter.

Nate suddenly realized something. "You knew, didn't you? You knew that was going to happen, and you didn't warn us?"

Marge sheepishly brushed something off of the dress she borrowed from Gabby before she answered, "I did warn you, sort of."

"Sort of?!"

"It's complicated." she finally said.

"I've got time." Nate said, indicating for her to explain herself.

Marge nervously rubbed the back of her neck before she said, "You see, if you'd have known you wouldn't want to take Gabby. Gabby needed to go to learn about that thing she can do. To do that she needed to be put in that threatening situation. Also, it was going to happen in a way that you weren't supposed to know so I couldn't tell you."

"Sounds almost like you were self-fulfilling your own prophecy." Nate said, trying to keep his anger at a minimum.

Marge threw up her hands and exclaimed quietly, "Of course it was self-fulfilling! That's how it was supposed to be!" She huffed a little and continued, "Plus, I didn't have all the details, as usual, so I wasn't sure. I just knew you needed to be there, and if you were there, things would be okay."

"Yeah, I did a lot of good just standing there."

"You were needed. Surely August is awake now, and look at her! If you hadn't have been there to take her away from him, all of it would've been for nothing and he'd have her again."

"So I'm a pack mule?" Anger dripped from his words as he continued, "Oh, sure, let Gabby do all the work and leave Nate to carry her off when she's done! Sure! Because he's not good for anything else!"

Certainly 'mulish' behavior, Marge couldn't help think. Aloud, she said, "Calm down, Nate. You're only looking for an outlet to let out your worry, and I'm not going to argue with you." Men and their egos! "You know you're important to her, surely, Nate." she said in a more sensitive tone.

"No, I don't. All I get are constantly mixed signals. I guess it depends on the day of the week how she feels about me. I never in the world thought I'd ever meet a woman that blew hot and cold more than she." He huffed. "Oh, but she flat hates me now because of what I let happen to you."

"I'm not having that argument either with you, Nate. You know you saying she hates you is bullshit. And for that matter, it's not your fault. Hell, it's not my fault either. It's August's damn fault. Or fate. At any rate, I saw it happening before it happened. It happened so that means it was supposed to happen. I don't want to hear another damn word about this being your fault, understand?"

Yes, ma'am, Nate thought sarcastically, Marge reminding him of his mother. For that matter, does that make her my sister if we share the same maker? So does that mean I'm Gabriella's uncle? But then if I become her maker then I'm uncle daddy who's also boyfriend? Oh, this is so weird.


Marge very calmly looked off into the distance as she said, "I think I'm going to go be sick and then sit down for a while." She couldn't help but be saddened by her whole nonchalance about going to go be physically ill due to her changing. Talk about going through 'the change'. She left the room to go take care of her nausea then go to try to read a book.

Nate also left the room to go and get a few of the strange items out of the truck bed. Not knowing where else to put them, he put them upstairs in the spare space next to the exercise equipment.

Gabriella stirred. Her head was killing her where the ponytail pulled the hair on her scalp, so she removed the ponytail and fluffed her hair out around her shoulders. Nate heard her wake up and was at her side in seconds.

"You're awake." Nate said, plainly stating the obvious.

"Yes." she responded. "So, it worked?" she asked, referring to what she'd done earlier to get Gus off of her.

"That was amazing, Gabby! I've never seen anything like it, and the shock I registered coming from August tells me he hasn't either."

"I have no idea what that was. I don't understand it either. I only knew I could do something like that because, well, I saw myself doing it." Her look of shocked amazement turned into a small smile as she looked up at him and said, "And you caught me before I could crash into the dirt."

Nate shrugged, "Of course." After I stood there not being able to save you myself.


"And brought me back here." A look of sudden worry crossed her face as she said, "My book! Did you get it off the ground where I dropped it?"

"Yes. Don't worry." He said as she relaxed against the headboard again. He smiled all of a sudden as he said, "August is going to be so pissed when he finds out we got all that stuff right out from under his nose. He was so distracted by wanting to make us panic that he never thought to take any of it while he had the chance." His spirits lifted when he saw Gabby share in his smile. He reached out to take her hand, happy she didn't turn away from him in a disgusted manner.

"Gabby, I'm so sorry I couldn't be more help. I hate that I stood there lamely, forcing you to have to come up with some other way to get us out of that situation." he said in a subdued fashion.

"Nate, you can't be the hero every time. There was very little you could've done really. If you'd have tried to attack, one of you might've hurt me. We needed something Gus wouldn't expect. I just wish it hadn't wiped me out like that. Maybe Mom can explain it..."

"She did." He continued to answer the question in her eyes, "She called it something like a psychic energy rebounding shield or something. At least, that's how I understood how she described it. It's my guess that it quite literally takes a lot out of you in order to do it."

"Sounds like something off of a video game. I used up too much mana and passed out."

He couldn't help but laugh when he thought about it. Then he looked at her with a more serious expression and asked her, "Gabby, are you okay?" His thumb traced invisible lines against the back of her hand.

Gabby looked down at what his thumb was doing as she told him she was fine, just tired. She had a hard time reminding herself to be mad at him. Him sitting there looking at her with that look of loving worry made it even harder. It would be so much easier if she could just hate him, but she couldn't. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't stop herself from loving the man in front of her.

The walls felt like they were closing in on her, and she desperately needed to get off this bed! She sat up so she could do just that.

Nate surprised her by kissing her as soon as she sat up. At first, she just let him, hoping he'd get whatever it was out of his system and let her go on her way when he was done. When he didn't stop when she thought he should, she moved to pull away.

Nate had had enough of Gabriella's anger. After their tumultuous and emotional day, he desperately needed her. Then, listening to the tender thoughts in her head didn't help one bit. Knowing she could sense his changing mood and wanting to escape because of it, he snagged his chance to catch her before she slipped away.

It felt like ages since he'd kissed her last. His left arm moved around to hold her to him by pressing onto the small of her back while his right hand moved up her arm. That hand had to quickly move to the back of her neck in order to stop her from pulling away. He felt like his heart would burst if he didn't take more of this kiss that he so desperately needed. He needed her to know he loved her, that he was sorry for his part in what was happening to her mother ... and that his body craved hers. No, her trying to pull away was not going to stop him this time.

He shifted himself on the bed in anticipation of what he wanted to happen next. He could feel her fear, anger, and anxiety, but he could also tell she wanted this every bit as much as he did. She just didn't want to admit that she did. He needed to convince her of it. As he pushed her back onto the mattress, she made a feeble sound of warning in the back of her throat which he ignored.

No, she thought to him. "Yes." he mumbled back to her as his hands found their way to the hem of her sweater, his intent to pull it up and off.

Nate! You just got back in my good graces, and now you're going to ruin it with this?! she angrily thought to him now.

Damn woman, even when I've got her mouth to shut up she knows she can still gripe at me with her thoughts. "I'm not ruining anything!" he said, but still let her scramble out of the bed.

He rolled himself out of the bed as well and stood there, waiting to see what she would say.

"You just had to go and ruin the moment, didn't you? There I was... sitting there finally starting to forgive you for locking me up in my room this morning, or yesterday, or... you know when I mean! There I was.. you know.. and then you have to go and start doing that."

"Seducing you?" he asked with one eyebrow raised.

She blushed and got even angrier. "Yes!" She let out a huff and continued, "That! Doing that while my mother sits somewhere in this house, suffering!" She threw her hands up in the air like she'd made enough of a point according to her.

"Are you finished?" he asked, calmly treating her like a child throwing a temper tantrum.

"Maybe. That depends." she said and looked at him with warning in her eyes.

Nate shifted his weight back and forth for a few seconds before he countered, "First of all, I wasn't 'ruining the moment' like you say. I was making it better. Second of all, don't say you've started forgiving me when you have forgiven me. Third, and best of all, you wanted it too." He stood there and dared her to deny it before smiling while he watched her as she figured out she couldn't.

He rolled his shoulders as he said, "And yes, your mother isn't well obviously, but she knew what was going to happen and she's just about come to terms with it... so you should too."

My mother won't even be my mother in a matter of hours, she couldn't help but think. She meant that Marge wouldn't be the same person anymore.

Nate took offense at the thought. "Of course she will be! You think I'm not the same person I was when I was human?"

"I wouldn't know." she said, but something about what she said felt a little off. Her brows came together as some memory wiggled around on the edge of her mind, but right now she had to forget it and focus on getting out of Nate's bedroom.

Nathaniel felt momentarily amazed at what he thought he saw on the very edge of the spectrum of Gabriella's thoughts. How could... But he had to stop the thought because Gabby darted towards the door.

"Don't!" he said as he caught her.

"Let go, Nate." she said with mild pain and fear in her voice.

"Absolutely not. What was that?" he asked. The split-second picture that she just thought looked like a memory, but that was impossible.

"I don't know what you're talking about. Please, just let me go."

"No." he said, and to prove his point, he pulled her closer. "And I'm talking about that picture that you thought when you said you wouldn't know anything about me from when I was human, yet how could you..."

"I said let me go!" she shouted as she struggled against him.

Again, he refused to let her go, but instead he turned her to face him as he said, "That was my house, Gabriella! How could you possibly know that?!"

Gabriella felt afraid by the wild look in his eyes. "I don't know! How should I know?! You and I both know that I tend to just know things! I'm psychic, remember?" she argued, finally accepting the fact that sometimes she did just know things and couldn't explain how she knew them.

"But that wasn't the future, Gabby, that was the past! Now, I know you're not a mind reader, so how did you know that!" he exclaimed as he shook her as gently as he could manage, desperate to read past this block he now sensed.

Gabby started crying. He was terrifying her now. She found herself repeatedly mumbling 'I don't know' over and over while shaking her head no.

He felt terrible how he was frightening her, but he had to know. "Gabriella, please. I'm not trying to scare you." scared...


"But you are." she said in between sobs.

He reached up with one hand to gently wipe the tears off of her face. He whispered, "Darling, please don't cry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, okay? I'm sorry." Nothing is worth making her terrified of me. He started tenderly kissing the tears away while lightly running his fingers through her hair.

When she'd finally stopped crying, Nate couldn't stop himself from lovingly caressing her lips with his. He didn't know how that split-second picture memory of the house he grew up in came to be in her mind, but he decided to figure it out at a later date.

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Oh yeah, I keep forgetting to mention that I've put Gabby and Nate up on MediaFire. I really don't know what I'm doing when it comes to stuff like this, but they're there. The links are on the Scrapbook tab. ^^