Chapter 4

Shopping. The one word that sends shivers of fear down most men's spine. That was what Gabriel was having to endure right now. Though, it would have been going much better if 'The Girls' knew what they wanted to buy. Gabriel wondered why they couldn't go in and get out with what they wanted. Like he does. But no. 'The Girls' would stay in one section and look at stuff (for far too long in Gabriel's opinion) and not even buy anything. They'd just move onto the next section.

And they had turned him into the ever infamous "Bag-boy". You know the type. The boy that stands outside of the dressing room, holding bags full of whatever 'The Girls' have bought. And the one that guarded their purses with his life, by holding them while sitting on the bench.

Yes, Gabriel thought he was in hell. All of this happened when Dawna found out that Holly did not have every brand of clothing known to man. Dawna apparently thought that that was a mortal sin, and set out to rectify the situation. And then it escalated when Dawna and Rachel both thought that it was time for them to update their wardrobe.

Gabriel had throughly told them "NO" when they asked if he needed anymore clothes. Even Rachel's pouty look (the weapon she used against him to make him fold on a subject) didn't even work when she asked him to get a few more sets of clothes.

He pretty much hated shopping with vigor. Rachel found this out when she came out of the changing room for what seemed like the hundredth time and asked how she looked in the new jeans. "They make your ass look big," He lied, just to piss her off. But it only irritated her. She knew that he hated being at the mall.

This was the eighth day that he was a resident of the Wilson household. And he pretty much had no complaints, even though they were still holding back some secrets from him. But he promised not to push, and Gabriel always tried to keep his word, if at all possible. But he really did hate going to malls. The only thing that seemed to pacify him at all was that Rachel told him that after the shopping excursion was over that he would move onto the next level of his training. That would be Thought Manipulation from a distance.

And this time they would do it on a complete stranger. A stranger of Gabriel's choice.

The reason they were going to do it on a stranger was because Holly firmly drew the line when it came to messing with her thoughts. His fascination with his powers never diminished, more to the point, they grew since that first "training" session with Holly. For the last few days, even Gabriel had to admit that he and Rachel had run Holly through every emotion that was possible.

They only touched rage once, though. That was not very fun. Gabriel found out that a fully pissed-off Protector could be a very dangerous thing. She destroyed half the den and threw Gabriel about nine feet before Rachel intervened and calmed her down.

But the thing that had amazed Gabriel the most didn't have anything to do with mental powers. It was the way Rachel had acted after their first "training session" with Holly. After it was all over, she had basically told him that she didn't care who he slept with, as long as she held his heart. Which made Gabriel do a double take, but he didn't complain. In fact, he loved having sex with Holly. But if he was truthful, he loved Rachel more. And that had nothing to do with sex.

Gabriel looked over to his left as a man sat down beside him. He was a short plump little man with a light brown purse in his lap. The man's face was drawn and he looked tired when he looked Gabriel's way. "How long you in for?"

"'Bout five more bags." Gabriel replied promptly.

The man winced in sympathy. "My wife has two bags left."

<'Oh quit being a baby, Gabriel. We're not that bad.'> Rachel's voice rippled through his head.

<'You just remember that when I want to go to Auto Zone, Darlin'.'> Gabriel replied smugly. There was no reply to that but worried silence.

The reason he was taking going to take a trip to Auto Zone was because he wanted to tweak his new car. My car. He thought with a rueful shake of the head. Nine days ago he would never dream of owning the brand spanking new Dodge Durango that was currently setting outside in the parking lot. He insisted on Driving himself, while 'The Girls' took their own vehicle.

Getting Dawna to make him accept the Durango was sort of like pulling teeth from a hen, though. He had refused for three days straight, but on the fourth he finally caved and Dawna drove him and Rachel to buy a new Dodge. Rachel's was red, his was black. He had to smile as he remembered that one said "His" on the plates and the other said "Hers". It was Rachel's idea.

Rachel had told him to make sure to stay close to them when they left, in case a cop pulled them over. That way she could "conveniently" make the police officer "forget" that he was fifteen and exactly what he had pulled him over for. Gabriel thought that the plan had merit, so he tail-gaited the women of his life all the way to the mall. But neither of them got pulled over and arrived at the mall quite safely.

And that was four hours ago. He thought bitterly. And to top it off, he was pretty sure they were going to be there for another two hours. Fuck that. I'm going for a walk. He thought as he stood up, walked up to the door of Rachel's changing room and knocked quite loudly.

The love of his life stuck her sandy-blonde head out of the room. "Can't you wait till we get home to see me naked?" She asked with a rakish grin.

Gabriel couldn't help but smile back. But then he promptly shoved Rachel's purse into her hands. "I'm going for a walk. Call me when you're done." He stated, leaving no room for debate.

Not that Rachel would have argued. She knew that Gabriel was getting a bit stir crazy. "Ok, just don't leave the mall, not that I'm telling you what to do, but if you leave the mall it will be harder for me to "call" you." She replied.

Gabriel gave a shrug of the shoulder and a small grin. "Whatever." Then he promptly turned on his heel and started off on his walk.

The mall was fairly large so he knew he could walk quite a bit if he wanted. The reason that he wanted to walk (beside escaping 'The Girls' and their shopping illness) was so he could think. He always thought better when he was walking. And Gabriel wanted to think of the powers that Rachel said he had. He had no more doubts about it, if Rachel said he had them, he had them.

What had she listed off I could do? He tried to remember. Ah. She said I could read the thoughts of mortals easily and manipulate them. From a distance no less, without touching. Although, she also said that I could manipulate emotions without touching as well, just takes more concentration. Then there's the telekinesis. Gabriel paused his thought process for a moment. Telekinesis was what he was the most afraid of, since he almost killed Rachel with it once.

Then there's what I did in the street tournament. He thought.

Gabriel continually walked around the mall and quickly became bored. Then he decided to sit down and practice reading people's thoughts. He had been practicing this on Rachel and Holly (with their permission, of course) for the last few days. That and building mental shields. He had trouble reading thoughts with his mental shield up. Rachel told him not to worry about it, though. He would get the hang of it sooner or later.

Gabriel was sitting next to a big cement water fountain that shot water about five feet in the air. He looked across the walkway and noticed a Gap store, and promptly shivered from the idea of more shopping. But he noticed something else. A girl.

The girl had long, dark red hair that fell to the middle of her shoulders, that was also french-braided. And the braid was placed through the back of a blue Dallas Cowboys ball cap. She was also wearing a plain white t-shirt and a pair of Wranglers that looked painted on. She had the smooth grace of someone who liked sports and she looked to be no older than fourteen.

Gabriel decided to practice on her. He narrowed his eyes as he concentrated. He found out something real quick that Rachel forgot to mention. She and Holly had shielded *some* of their thoughts... And apparently Normal's didn't have this option. Gabriel was bombarded with images of the girls past and her thoughts of the future, not to mention that the images were very vivid. Gabriel literally saw the girl's life flash before his eyes. He didn't know that he virtually downloaded the girl's mind, instead of just reading her thoughts. It was completely by accident. There were so many images and thoughts hitting him at once that he felt more than a little dizzy. The next thing he knew, he was in total darkness.

But before the darkness overtook him, he saw Rachel coming his way. Concern was etched deep in her facial features... Then there was nothing but blackness.

His last thought before he blacked out was: 'Guess I should have waited for her to teach me before I jumped in head first like a fuckin' idiot. Then there was nothing.

The dull ache in his head was receding quickly as Gabriel slowly opened his eyes. It took a while for him to get them into focus as well. For a minute or two there were about three Rachels standing side by side. Guess I should talk to the one in the middle. He thought dimly. He could only catch bits and pieces of what Holly and Rachel were talking about, but he knew that it was Holly. He knew by the voice.

"... I can't believe he did this! I expressly told him not to try to use his power unless supervised!"

Ohhh, I have an irrate girlfriend on my hands. Gabriel thought ruefully.

"... If you have to lay blame, Rach, you should lay it on me. After all, he did it on *my* watch..."

Holly sounded very dejected to Gabriel's ears. Why would she sound dejected? Then it all started to rush back to him, reliving the girl's life (Connie was her name) in a matter of seconds and that pushed his mind into an automatic shut down.

"No, Holly, it's my fault. I'm his trainer, I take full responsibility for it."

Gabriel shifted his head to Rachel and seen that she looked *very* distraught and worried. Holly really didn't look much better. I'd better say something before they go completely into full mother hen mode. He thought ruefully. "Didja girls catch the number of the truck that hit me- twice." He said with a horse chuckle.

"Well, I'm glad to see you think this is amusing, Gabriel Brice," Rachel replied in a biting tone, she couldn't help it. Whenever she felt helpless, she always seemed to fall back on anger. But, for Gabriel, her eyes and voice softened somewhat. "You overextended your mental abilities. From what I read from your mind, you took in Connie's entire mind. And now it's stuck there until you learn to get rid of it. And so far, there hasn't been a Chosen yet that has been able to do that."

She didn't bother to tell him how impressed she was. It took most Chosens years to learn to do what he did on his first try. She wasn't lying when she said that he took in the entire girl's mind. It was buried somewhere in his complex mind. If he wanted to think about it, he could recall everything about the girl like: Memories, emotions and hopes. Hopefully he wouldn't pick up her personality quirks, there was a 50/50 chance of that happening, but they would fade in time. But nothing else would fade.

Gabriel looked around to see just where the hell he was, and wasn't really surprised to find that he was in his bedroom. He looked calmly (even though he was quite sure that someone had placed a Jack hammer in his head and was using it at a menacing rate) around his room as he rubbed his temples. It had changed in the last eight days.

For one, there was another bed in it, a queen-sized waterbed. That was for Holly. She meant it when she said that she was going to be near him when he slept. In truth, he would have been happy if Holly just slept with him and Rachel.

But that was where Rachel drew the line. She didn't mind him having sex with the beautiful Protector, but she would be damned if she stole cuddling time away from her. That flattered Gabriel in a small way, a little anyway.

Gabriel was drawn out of his revery by the sound of Holly's voice. "I'm sorry I wasn't there when you needed me. I know I screwed up."

Gabriel gave her a blank look, because he hadn't the faintest idea in hell what the young Protector was talking about. Then it came to him: She thought she wasn't there, or didn't get there quick enough. "Don't worry about it, Holls. Hopefully I won't be dumb enough to do this again." Then gave the beautiful brunette a wink, followed by a small chuckle that escaped his chest. It seemed to pacify her somewhat and that made Gabriel feel a little better. He really didn't like anyone to feel bad about something he did. Because if there was one thing he knew: It was what it was like to feel bad. He learned that well in foster-care.