Madness or Purpose (23 page)

Zoe emerges in some of her new clothes. She is wearing a tight dark green tank with a tight zip up hoodie, jean skirt leggings and chucks. Her amulet set in the hollow her of neck and her mark pulses just barely peaking out the top of her tank top. She grabs her bag, pats Relic on the head and pauses for a moment before grabbing my hand and leading me to the door. I snag my jacket off the door knob and keys from the hook. Zoe races me to the truck and as she climbs up into the passenger seat I’m just a bit excited. I mean I should be thinking seriously, I mean I should be worried. We are meeting up with two other guardians to plot out a dangerous rescue mission to save a five year old boy we’ve never met to unlock the secret of who Zoe is, and how we are supposed to save our race. At the moment I can only think of how lucky I am and just how badly I want to make a life with my best friend. The truck roars to life and we’re off to the diner. I just hope that same waitress isn’t working tonight. I guess with Natasha there Zoe won’t zap her ass or anything, but she won’t be thinking straight if she is. I mean this whole thing depends on the connection in her head to her half brother who, we don’t even know if he can speak. I slip my hand over hers squeezing gently.

“So I know Dominic knows about your brother, but I don’t think Natasha does. I mean I know Natasha would do anything for us, but we need to make sure we approach this right. Dominic is a sure thing, I mean he loves you like a sister and he barely knows you, but I understand that there is some type of connection between you. He’d do whatever you asked of him. Not in like a creepy love sick sort of way. Do you know what I mean?” She sighs just slightly and scoots closer to me. “Of course I understand. Natasha and Dominic are in our lives for a reason. I think I’m beginning to understand how much of my life has not been random or really of anyone’s choice. I feel a connection to Dominic, but it’s like the best brother I never had sort of thing. Natasha is well; she’s your b.f.f. and one hell of a mentor. I have confidence that they will help us. I mean who gets the chance to save their own kind while fulfilling the whole purpose of our existence? Not to mention who gets invited to go on a cross country road trip to an unknown destination in the middle of the country?” I just laughed with her and we finished the trip in silence.

Blueprints and Attraction

As we approach the diner door we both take a deep breath and then I open the door. Dominic is seated at a booth in the back corner waving us over. I see a smile spread over Zoe’s face and if I didn’t know better I’d think the smile was more than just excitement to see a good friend. Zoe is amazing and when she’s happy she radiates this invisible glow, everyone wants to be near her. Over our youth it wasn’t seen much, but then again when you feel like an outcast, you tend to keep to yourself. Dominic has already ordered us a plate of chili cheese fries and himself a soda. Zoe slides in next to Dominic so when Natasha arrives she doesn’t have to sit next to a total stranger. “So, how goes it all? Any new developments I should know about?” Dominic’s grin is mischievous and yet he really means nothing by it.

Dominic seems giddy like a little kid! I mean I know he has his enthusiasm, but damn! I’ll give him this though, if we need someone to liven us up it’ll be him! “I have some more details, Leo has been reaching out to me,” I say touching my temple. “However, I think we should wait for Natasha to arrive.” Gavin sits across from Dominic, I know he isn’t threatened by him in terms of our relationship, but he has every intention of protecting Natasha from anyone who has any type of intentions for her. He is like an over bearing brother. This is going to be interesting, especially since I seem to have some odd extra sense about things lately. At that moment Natasha steps through the door the bell above it announces her arrival. I raise my hand to waive her over and Gavin turns to look at her, so he misses Dominic’s eyes bulging out of his head! I feel a hand on my thigh and normally I would smack it away maybe even electrocute the man it belonged to, but it was Dominic. He was panicking. He was practically ready to hyper ventilate, but if you didn’t know him you wouldn’t notice.
“IT’S

HER!”
If I wasn’t so observant I might not have noticed Natasha pause as her eyes landed on the table.
“Don’t freak out, and don’t be an ass! Play it cool. If you piss her off, no matter how connected you are supposed to be, she’ll kick your ass! And you better move your hand or she just might kick mine!”
With that the connection between us dropped and his hand found its place, where I don’t know, but not on me!

Gavin introduces Natasha to Dominic and when he offers his hand she simply nods at him in acknowledgment.

For a brief moment he has a hurt look in his eyes, but it quickly disappears.

Dominic is not easily detoured, but then again if you are half a soul and you find your other half, you cannot deny the connection. There is a deep longing inside of you deep down in your bones, in your inner most being. You can’t deny two telepaths and well, I’m not even sure what else they can do, well; you can’t deny that type of match. “So, I feel a bit behind the ball, why are we here before work again?” Natasha’s brows rise just a bit as though she is insinuating something like a match making session. We all laughed just a bit, Dominic is just a bit reserved, but who can blame him. The answer to all his searching, all his loneliness, all his desire is sitting right there in front of him and she won’t even shake his hand. “Well,” I pipe up, “there’s a lot going on and a lot to catch you up on.” “Well then, girl, catch me up and do it fast! I sense we have more pressing matters to attend to than the background details.” Gavin must have told her something, but I know he only divulged enough information to get her to come out before our night of work.

I spent twenty minutes or so going over everything and we all ordered food. We paused a while so we could stuff our faces and then I went into the details from the past 24 hours of mental contact from Leo. Dominic jumped into my head once or twice while eating to ask me questions about Natasha, like where she was from and how I knew her. I just glared at him mentally and he stopped. I remind him now is not the time, but that I will tell him everything I know later. Once I shared everything I knew about Leo, the situation and where I thought he was hiding everyone seemed to let out breaths they were holding?

“So, we need to get to Nebraska and then go from there?” Natasha asks what everyone else is thinking.

“Pretty much, I mean I don’t know where he is just now and I don’t really want to let him know I’m coming or that he’s getting through to me until we are closer.

I mean I don’t know how well his thoughts are protected. Being that he is what, five now, I can’t be sure I wouldn’t tip off the dark guardians after him. I have some idea of where he is and as we go I’ll pay attention to more details about where we are going. I am sure that once I let him know we are coming he’ll be able to help with letting me know what small town he has hidden out near.”

Dominic pipes up for the first time in a while. “So, when do we hit the road? Do you think we can all just up and leave like this? I mean you are all established here.” He has a point, he is the only one who has recently blown in and he can easily just walk out of town and set up roots wherever he ends up next. With Natasha here he would only do so if she did, or if it would protect her from some sort of harm.

Gavin is the one to answer. “Zoe is the chosen one. She is to bring all guardians together. It’s been foretold. Dean has been waiting for the moment our journey was to being. The only person here who might need a few days would be you, Natasha. Do you have anyone to look after your salon and shop?” Natasha has been twisting her long golden hair around the tip of her index finger for a while. Her brow furrows and she purses her lips. I can feel Dominic’s leg bouncing up and down like a nervous child. I feel something project straight from him across the table to Natasha. I can almost see it, like the waves in the air the heat makes. I have never seen that sort of thing before. I know he is pushing a message straight to her. It’s not like any telepathic thing I had ever imagined. It isn’t just words; it’s chalked full of emotion and something physical. I mean more than anything I’ve ever done.

Suddenly Dominic’s hand is on my thigh and Gavin’s foot is out of his shoe touching my ankle. I felt like a pin up girl surrounded by horny teenage boys!
“Zoe, I’m scared I need to talk to you now! I’m freaking out! I don’t know what I’ve just done!”
Dominic is first.
“ZZ what the hell is going on? Is there something I need to know?

Is his hand on your thigh?”
I can feel heat rising up my leg to my thigh and in just a fraction of a second Dominic wrenches his hand away and jumps in his seat. He starts blowing on his hand and then Natasha throws her glass of water at his hand missing and drenching his already tight t-shirt. “That’s enough, “I yell standing up and stepping out of the booth. “Dominic, is your hand ok?” He swallows slowly like he has peanut butter in his throat. “Yes.”

“Ok, so we can talk later. And you,” I say turning to Gavin with daggers in my eyes, “outside now!” I can feel my eyes flashing and I can feel the electric charge in my own skin. Natasha lets him out and he looks at his feet.

“Zoe, I will find a friend to watch the shop, can we have a couple of days to work out the details and get things together? Do we have that kind of time?” Natasha looks concerned and genuine as always though she seems to always wear and impish grin unless she is angry or crying. I don’t know how I know all of this, but I seem to be picking up people’s general characters and habits just by interacting with them now. I need to remember to thank her for keeping on task while the little boys got all selfish and needy. “We should be ok if we leave in a couple of days. We don’t want to waste too much time; I don’t know how close they may be to finding him.

He is so young and scared.” With that thought my heart sank. He was my brother, my only hope for figuring out this mess. I needed to save him if not for the sake of right and wrong and him being family, but because I needed all the information he had for me. Stepping out the door I find Gavin leaning up against the building with his hands in his hoodie frowning at himself.

“You have got to chill out!

You’re like a child. Gavin, look at me!” He slowly lifts his head and his eyes are flashing and his skin is flush like he is trying to subdue the angry hot demon welling up inside of him. “You have to trust me. I have loved you since the moment I realized girls could love boys. That first moment you took my hand my heart was yours. I don’t see other men. Dominic is like an annoying, but smart older brother.” His eyes hold my gaze, but he isn’t really hearing me.

Jealousy is muting my voice and I just can’t have that. I close the space between us and reach my hand inside of his pocket and cover it with mine. Gavin’s skin scorches mine, but I refuse to flinch or even acknowledge the pain. Our proximity seems to begin to extinguish the flames inside of him. Again I look him in the eyes this time inches from his face. “Gavin, I only want you.

Besides that, his heart belongs to Natasha.” Gavin’s head cocks to the side.

“Really, those two,” I just laugh. “Believe me she will make him work for it, you know that better than I do, but yes really.”

With that I lean in and kiss his lips, electricity flows between us and I feel a cooling sensation on my hand and his eyes flash once. The sting from the burn is subsiding and Gavin is grinning. “See, I can heal just as well as destroy.” I just shake my head. “We better go check on those two; if she hasn’t kneed him in the balls by now I’ll be surprised!” Heading back into the diner we see Natasha pinning Dominic up against the back of the booth with a blade to his throat. Quicker than I thought possible Gavin rushes past me and drags Natasha off him. I haven’t gotten used to his speed yet, he doesn’t use it much so I forget. Natasha is mumbling some run of Russian profanities under her breath and Dominic is left catching his breath. “I’m going to walk her to the store and then bring her to work once I calm her down. Take the truck and you two get over there and let Dean know what’s going on.” Gavin tosses me the keys and I reflexively catch them. “See you there. Natasha, remember what you told me?” Her eyes flash to mine, but she doesn’t seem to understand what I am asking her to recall. “It was only a text message one day when I was low. It said, ‘love is a funny thing, it finds you when it is ready, not when you are and you’ve no choice in the matter. You must dive heart first into it.” Natasha gives a quick nod and Gavin practically drags her out the door.

Dominic places more than enough money on the table and walks towards me. The grin I am coming to love spreads over his face. I shake my head and he falls in line behind me. Once we get in the truck I turn to him and ask, “what did you do?” His grin fades a bit. We both put our seatbelts on and I start up the truck before he has his answer. “Well she sat in the booth next to me when you went outside and when she put her hand on the table I reached out and touched it. She was on me in a flash. I had no idea she had a blade and damn does she look sexy when she’s pissed! I mean if it wasn’t her I probably wouldn’t have done it. Zoe, it’s her! I mean I’ve been waiting. I’ve been so jealous! I have been seeing her in my head, I’ve dream walked with her. She knows it’s me I know she does! Why does she hate me?” He is like a horny boy who forgot to take his medication.

“Natasha knows something. I mean I would assume that if you dream walked with her she knows it’s you, if it’s as vivid as you say it is, but we only know what you saw. Maybe you didn’t have the same definition in her head as she did in yours. If that is so, she is probably feeling confused. I mean I saw what you did at the table. I mean I actually saw a wave in the air like when it’s really hot outside. If she doesn’t know it’s you then that may have scared her. How did you do whatever it was you did?” I patiently wait for an answer as I navigate through traffic. I don’t have to wait long because Dominic is like the energizer bunny today.