37: Unlikely Allies

     "I'd really rather you wait out here." Robert said as politely as he could manage, turning to face Nathaniel. They'd lightly tied off Reggie and Desi to some nearby trees.
     The entire house was surrounded by woods; no road led to it. Gabriella doubted it would even be visible from the air due to the cover of the tall trees. Nathaniel began to understand the 'we' the dog had mentioned. The whole place stank of them, indicating more than one.. more than two. In fact, he could hear four heartbeats inside. Although, one was curiously faster than the others - almost bird-like.
     Gabriella, sensing Nate's mounting anger, said, "You already should know I'm not going anywhere without him." She saw Nate relax the tiniest bit next to her.
     "Also," Nate smiled almost menacingly at Robert, "don't forget I'm outnumbered. Surely your 'pack' can handle a single vampire." He continued to smile and show his fangs, indicating he didn't believe his own words.
     Robert ignored him and turned to Gabriella to say, "You'll be safe with us. We're wanting to help you. We have a common enemy."
     Gabriella rubbed the back of her neck, wishing to avoid a fight. "Nate is on the same side then. Either bring your friends out here or let Nate come inside with me."
     "Bring the vampire inside if you must!" the three of them heard coming from inside the house.
     Robert snorted out a huff and leveled a small glare at Nathaniel before leading the trio into the house, grudgingly inviting Nate inside.

      Nate's anxiety rose to an eleven as they entered the house. He stopped Gabriella from entering the room in front of them. Here before him he saw three. Where was the fourth? He could hear the different heartbeat off to the right of the room, and there was something else... Something smelled absolutely delicious, even to a 'vegetarian' like him.
     Gabriella allowed Nate to stop her. It didn't take a genius to understand his anxiety. She surveyed the room in front of her. Standing in front of the fireplace stood a very muscular redhead. When he spoke, she realized it was his voice she'd heard from outside. His expression seemed the most welcoming of the small group. The other two present, however, appeared to agree with Robert that Nate wasn't welcome. Her eyes traveled to them. A woman with slanted, yellow eyes glared at both of them as she stood behind the sofa with a belligerent look on her face. A man with black hair and - blue - highlights lounged on the sofa. Gabriella knew without trying that the macho persona he tried to portray was a fake, a coverup. He was uncomfortable. The woman was furious.
     "Calm down, Rob, all of you. If we're going to work together we need to learn to trust each other." the redhead said.
    "It's bad enough you want me to trust the witch," the woman spat, "but asking me to trust a bloodsucker is more than I can do."
     "We need Nathaniel's help as much as we need Gabriella's." the redhead said to the room.

    "That's not what you said when you sent me out to get her!" Robert advanced on the redhead with an accusatory glare.
     "If I'd told you that, you would've been even less eager to go and fetch her. I guessed correctly she wouldn't come alone." the redhead said.
     "You know my reasons for not wanting to do what I just did, Derek!"
     "Well, too bad. We need them." the redhead, Derek, said and shrugged his shoulders.
    "We could send Bella!" Robert bellowed. Nate and Gabriella heard a little frightened squeak coming from the room to the right of the one they faced.
    "Calm yourself, brother. You know very well we couldn't send her into a house with two vampires." Derek calmly countered.

     "Oh please!" the woman in the corner threw out to the room. "Let's just go! I'll rip the house to shreds with my bare hands if that's what it takes!"
     Derek turned to her and said, "Oh? And what would you do if we found it? We still don't know for sure that that's where it is."
     "I'm not scared of him! Let me at him! You'll flank me, right, Rocky?" she turned to the man on the couch next to her.

     "Shut the fuck up, Jeanine." Rocky responded without even turning to look at her. "You're an idiot to underestimate a thing that old."
     "Do you mean Gus?" Gabriella asked.
    Jeanine howled with laughter at the nickname. "Gus! I love it! Why the hell didn't I think of that?!"
    Derek turned to Gabriella and said, "Yes, we mean Gus. He has something of ours, and we intend to get it back."
     "Don't tell her!" Jeanine suddenly barked.
     "How the fuck is she supposed to get it for us if she doesn't know what the fuck it is?!" Rocky growled back at her. He felt grateful for his sunglasses as he stared at the witch in the doorway. She don't look like no damn Gabriella if you ask me. 
     Derek ignored the two arguing in the room and asked, "Gabriella, come here so I can better explain what we need you to do for us."
      "Why does she have to come over there for you to explain it to her?" Nate argued.

     Arabella watched as the pretty witch turned to her terrifying vampire to kiss him and whisper that she'd be okay. Bella knew she just had to be a good witch. She didn't sense any evil around her, except her vampire... but even that vampire wasn't as scary as some she'd seen. She saw the vampire start to glance her way, and she darted out of sight as quick as she could. I don't think he saw me.
     "Because I can't even touch its copy, and she needs to see it to know what I'm talking about." Derek answered Nathaniel's question.

     "I'm going to vomit." Jeanine complained about the two kissing. "Get Bella to show her."
     Bella scoffed at Jeanine's suggestion. She turned to her and shook her head no, out of sight to all but Jeanine from where she stood close to the wall. She quickly darted into the kitchen while the vampire was distracted.
     "Coward." Jeanine taunted, but Arabella ignored her. She'd feel a lot better once the vampire left.

     "You'll stay right there, old timer." Rocky said as he finally showed he was capable of getting up off of the couch. He felt much more confident with his beta standing right next to him and the bitch, really, Jeanine, behind him.
      Nate scowled at the three of them. If they honestly thought they could best him in a fight they had another thing coming. After all, he had August as a maker. The alpha said they would need his help as well, yet they were not acting very hospitable. Still, he wanted to hear them out to find out what they needed with his Gabriella. Also, if they were enemies of August, then he should count them friends. He felt filled with resentment at the pack of assholes in the room in front of him.
     Derek sighed exasperatedly and said, "Would you three cool it? Will you ever learn not to judge a book by its cover?" Then he walked over to his desk and pulled out the drawer to show Gabriella what it contained.

     Gabriella looked at him with confusion written on her brow. "It's a rock."
     Jeanine couldn't help it, she cracked up laughing. The woman calls herself a witch!
    Derek did his best to keep from rolling his eyes at Jeanine, thinking Gabriella might take it to mean he rolled his eyes at her. "Yes, it started out as a rock, as did its parent, but it is so much more."
     Gabby looked once more at the sparkly sphere in the open drawer of the desk. It looked to have all the colors of the rainbow contained in it. She asked a question that she thought he would have answered already, "Why can't you touch it?"

     "Because doing so would cause me extreme pain, as Robert experienced when he fetched this one for us." he explained.
    "I'd rather that part of the story be kept quiet. It's not relevant." Robert piped in, still keeping watch over the bloodsucker.
     Derek let out a mildly aggravated huff before he continued explaining, "It's been enchanted to only be handled by a witch or wizard."
     "So I can touch it." Gabriella stated.
    "Yes, but even with the pain it would cause us should we decide to handle it, its magic is extremely weak. We only hid its sire when we discovered another pack was after it. Caitlin assured us she knew a perfect place to hide it in her mother's house, but we don't know if her plan succeeded."
     "Because she was mugged and killed."
     "Yes, but we believe it was a hired thug sent to take it from her, somehow knowing it was in her purse, mostly because of the threat she received before she was killed."
     The first time she was mugged. Then something occurred to Gabby, "Wait a minute. You said it could only be touched by a witch or wizard."
     "Yes, and Caitlin had it in her blood, even if she didn't possess your mother's ability."
     Nate spoke up from the doorway, ignoring the three in front of him, "What does it do?"
     Derek turned to the vampire and responded, "When held in the hands of someone with magical blood with the light of the full moon upon it, it can drastically lessen the pain of a were's transformation. Later, it was discovered it also makes us fantastically more powerful as an added bonus."
    "Which would explain why the other pack wants it so bad." Nate finished. "If they mugged Gabby's sister, how do you know they don't already have it?"
     "Because they're not showing signs of having it in their possession. The hired thug failed to do his job properly. We can only guess he saw that she had no money or obvious valuables on her and left it all in aggravation. By the time the other pack discovered he'd failed to retrieve it, they slaughtered him. We're not even sure Caitlin had it in her purse at that moment."
     Nate continued, "Then why not search Marge's house while she's been gone all this time?"
    Jeanine growled, "We did. We couldn't find it. Derek wouldn't let me rip the place apart." She glared accusingly at Derek. "It must be hidden in some place we didn't know about." She started pacing around the room.

     Gabriella stood straighter as Derek walked back over to her and said, "Then I have a pretty good idea where it is, and I'm kicking myself for not taking everything. Either she knew about that room and hid it there, or Mom got it when she acquired Caitlin's possessions from the police."
     "Or those bloody bastards at the station confiscated it, hid it, stole it..." Rocky growled, leaving the statement open to more possibilities. "Haven't seen someone trying to sell it on eBay, but I've been keeping a watch out."
     Derek again succeeded in keeping his annoyance hidden. He'd had it up to 'here' with Rocky's distrust of authority figures. "So, you have a good idea?" he asked and saw Jeanine stop her pacing out of the corner of his eye.
     "Hold up." Nate intruded on the conversation again. "Why should we help you get it? Who's to say you're any better than this other pack?"
     Robert decided to answer the question. "Because we've allowed you to live right under our noses. We just want to live our lives as comfortably as possible. Derek deemed you weren't a threat."
     Jeanine piped up, "Didn't stop me from wanting to kill you. I hate that that ancient one got away." She growled loudly. "Arg! I want another go at him!"
     Gabriella asked Derek, "So Gus knows about you then I take it?"
     "Yes."
     "And how am I supposed to get it and get away with it? From what you say, they're back and living at my mother's old house."
      Jeanine quipped, " 'Living' hah!"
     Derek's voice rang with authority, "Hush, Jeanine!" Then he closed his eyes for a few moments to get his temper under control.
     "Ask it, Gabriella." Nate said from the doorway. She knew what he meant. "What's going to happen."
     Jeanine looked like she desperately wanted to say something sassy again.
    "Okay." Gabriella whispered and sat down in a nearby chair. After a few minutes, with her face screwed up in worry, she said, "Nothing. It gave me nothing. That's never happened before."

     She stood up and said to Derek, "However, I will help you. I know you're telling the truth. I wish I knew how Caitlin came to know you all, but I'm going to hope that she knew what she was doing."
     Derek answered, "Let Robert tell you that story when he's ready. Thank you. I have to figure out what it is we're going to do now that I know we have your help. Give us a few days and return here. It would be better for us if we stayed here."
     Gabriella nodded, understanding, and turned around to walk back over to her Nathaniel.

     She led a very relieved vampire from the house. He surprised her a little by pulling her into his arms before they'd even left the porch. She could hear the arguing start up inside the house.
     "Gabriella, I don't trust them." Nate said to her.
     She reached up to caress her fiance's face as she said, "I know. I'm mildly anxious myself."
     "Why do they have to have you do it?"
   "Because before, they had Caitlin. Now they have no one to help them. It's logical they turn to Caitlin's sister don't you think?"
     "I don't give a rat's ass if they get help. I don't like the way that Robert said 'we let you live' like they'd been watching me. There's something sinister about that."
     Gabby shook her head a little and said, "Not when you think about it from their point of view. A vampire moves into their neighborhood? I'm happy they decided to watch you first to determine whether or not you were a threat. That's one of the reasons I know we're on the right side. They didn't pick a fight with you."
     "I can't believe I never knew they were around."
     "Don't worry about it. Apparently, they're good at hiding."
     He kissed her lightly before he said, "I'll work with them for your sake, but I don't like it."
     Gabriella sighed, "Let's just go home."