Chapter 16

She was gone for quite a while, leaving him alone in the bedroom. Her bedroom? It was a safe bet. A glass case in one corner held a number of wind instruments, some easily recognized, some quite bizarre. A violin, its wood showing the deep, rich luster of very old wood very lovingly tended over decades, maybe centuries, was hung carefully on a hook by the bed. One corner of the large room was given to a small, hardwood dance floor, complete with mirrored wall and dance bar. Another corner held a harp taller than a man, its rosewood frame ornately, but tastefully, carved and accented with touches of gold and ivory. The walk-in closet was huge, its open door revealing a space larger than most bedrooms. But there wasn't a single image of her in the entire room. Not one. Baby pictures and printed out snapshots of her sister were taped all around the mirror on the large vanity, but she wasn't in any of them. Other than the pictures and the instruments, though, there was nothing individual about the room, nothing personal. It didn't feel really 'lived in'. The bed, when he lay back on it, was extremely soft, except for something hard jabbing him in the ribs. He reached under the blanket and pulled out a set of pan-pipes, left under the covers as if she'd been sleeping with them like another girl might cuddle a favorite stuffed toy.

When he examined it with his new vision, he found that the room was surrounded by a glowing blue and purple cage that throbbed faintly, as if bound to a beating heart.

When he looked, he couldn't see past the 'cage', either, so he couldn't tell if there was anything leading to it, or what the rest of the house was like magic-wise. Gabriel nodded to himself, making the connection between the colors and Tandi's aura, and wondered what it was, exactly.

He was alone for about 20 minutes before the door was pushed open. When he looked up, though, there was no one there. He sat up further and looked down, seeing a cat with long white fur and a gold aura. "Well. Hello there."

It looked at him disdainfully, then hopped up on the bed like it owned the place. Stretching out so as to stay as far from him as possible, it daintily sniffed a lock of his hair. The hair, appearing nervous, jerked away and curled into a huge knot at the back of his head. The cat looked at him with a definite smirk, and began washing itself.

Gabriel raised an eyebrow. "Interesting. Are you Pandora's kitty?"

It gave him a look of utter disgust. He was being ridiculous, he suddenly realized. That was just stupid. Of course he wasn't Pandora's kitty. Pandora was his human, and Gabriel, himself, was an idiot.

Gabriel said, in his most reasonable tone, "But Pandora's my human. How can she be your human too?"

The cat's eyes narrowed dangerously, and his claws slid out, easily sinking into the soft bedspread. He fluffed his fur, and a low growl throbbed in the air.

"Well ... look at my aura. See?"

The cat snarled, and then reached out with a paw and sliced through a drifting tendril of auric light. It hurt. Bad. Gabriel felt rather like he'd been cut by a knife, then looked down to find the cat 'holding' a little pool of red-gold light between his furry paws and looking at him with smug superiority.

Gabriel's eyes widened. "No. That's not acceptable. Besides, do you really want her to have to stay here with her parents? Or do you want to come with her and live at my place?"

The cat rubbed its cheek gently along the little sphere of red-gold light, purring and watching him suspiciously.

Gabriel smiled. "There are mice."

One white ear perked up attentively.

Gabriel nodded. "Mice. It looked like a whole family of them. And that was just in one room. I haven't looked anywhere else."

It looked at him assessingly. Then it stood up, taking the bit of aura in its mouth like a kitten, and slowly circled him, sniffing and looking him over. It paused at his right hand, the one whose claws had marked Pandora, and its ears flattened and it growled at him angrily.

Gabriel said, quietly, "It wasn't intentional. I've only had them for a day. But I can't promise it won't be intentional in the future, if she wants me to do it. I'll give her anything she wants."

Gabriel was suddenly made aware of the fact that only stupid people let kittens play under the lawn-mower, no matter how fun they think it is under there.

"I won't do her permanent harm," he said. "But there's a difference between pain and harm."

The cat sniffed indignantly and sat down again, tucking his aura 'baby' back beneath his front legs. The thought arrived in Gabriel's head that he'd been terribly rude. Couldn't he tell when a female was already claimed? Didn't he understand the common courtesy of asking to court one's charge?

He chuckled. "She showed up on my doorstep with her mind already made up. I didn't do anything except surrender gracefully."

The cat gave him a long suffering look. Females ... what could you do with them?

Gabriel quirked one side of his mouth. "If you figure it out, will you tell me?"

Well ... there's always making kittens. Pandora-kittens would be especially pretty. Dear little things, all fluffy and bright.

Gabriel nodded, smiling. "They would. When she's older, well ... it's definitely something to consider."

The cat looked him up and down again. Then it lay down, seeming to absorb the bit of aura it held. The color didn't return to the spot on Gabriel's ... though bits were starting to bleed in from the sides ... but the 'wound' at least stopped hurting. Trying to get that bit back, he now 'knew', would result in much silver blood spread upon Pandora's bed, and she wouldn't like that. Best to leave it where it belonged.

Gabriel smiled, accepting the truce for what it was, and waited for Tandi.

Tandi came in about 15 minutes later, her whole demeanor 'cautious'. She looked at the cat curled on the bed and smiled. "Ah. You've been checked out, I see."

Gabriel nodded, then looked at the cat. "Would you excuse us? This should be private."

Cats don't care about 'private'. Cats stay where they wish.

"I understand that," he said. "But I think Tandi would be more comfortable alone. And I'd think you'd want to go see Pandora."

The cat stood, stretching and yawning. Pandora would give him cream. As was his due. He hopped off the bed, curling around Tandi's ankles, then strutted leisurely out the door.

Gabriel watched him leave. "You might want to close the door." He looked up at her. "Can you talk to him? Well, understand his replies, I mean."

"I don't have anything to hide," she said, with a slight smile. "And she's uncomfortable enough with me here alone, as is. And yes, sometimes. When he wants to be heard."

Gabriel nodded. "Okay." He shifted slightly on the bed. "She's afraid you're going to kill me, you know."

She smiled predatorily. "I know."

"Are you?" he asked.

"Maybe. Depends."

"On what?" He sighed. "Look. She doesn't know what I'm about to say, although I did promise to tell her afterwards. Tandi ... I don't want to take her away from you. I really don't. You've supported her all this time ... that wouldn't be right, and I'm not going to do it. That's why I told her what I did. It's not because I'll get anything out of it."

She smiled knowingly. "I know."

Gabriel looked at her. "You said you thought I might be fun to try. If you want to, that's okay, but I want to make sure you understand that it's not required. If you'd rather, I won't touch you. I'm not..." He stopped. "I'm not sure how to say this, actually. If I say I'm not interested in you sexually, that sounds ... wrong. It's not that I'd object to the idea, I think. But I'm not going to pursue you. I didn't suggest this to get two girls into bed with me."

She sighed. "If I really, really thought you had ... I would have killed you first, and worried about keeping her alive until the pain from the broken bond eased afterwards."

"I've been completely honest with you."

"I think so. I can't be sure yet, but I think you have been, to the best of your abilities."

He sighs. "I have been. I can't prove it, I guess, but I have. So ... will you grant me the same respect?"

"I haven't lied to you," she protested.

"I know. But I'm about to ask you a question that I'm not sure you'll want to answer," he said.

"Then I can't say I will. I won't lie about it, though."

Gabriel nodded. "Okay. I want to know..." He sighed. "I'm not just asking to be nosy, okay? But ... are you in love with her?"

"I love her. I want her ... but so does everyone else. 'In love'? Honestly, I'm not even really sure what that means."

His lips twisted wryly. "Well ... I'm not sure I can help you there. It's one of those things that really doesn't translate to words very well. I guess ... what do you hope for out of this? Not what do you want, not what do you expect ... what I'm trying to figure out is what you hope for."

"Hope? I hope not to lose my sister. But you're taking her away, anyway. She won't stay here, not anymore. Maybe for a very, very little while, but it'll hurt her too bad and she won't be able to do it for long. And I'll still be stuck here, and without her, my psycho-bitch mother might start looking at me, and then life is going to royally suck, especially without her here to offset the badness."

Gabriel hesitated. "I ... um. Wait. What ... exactly ... did you talk about?"

She closed her mouth tightly, stubbornly.

He nodded, slowly. "Then ... you're welcome in our home anytime, Tandi. If it gets too bad..." He shrugged. "I'll do what I can. I don't know what that will be, but..."

"See, there's not anything you can do. Or her. No matter what she offers. There's just no legal way to leave home at thirteen without your parents' permission."

He sighed. "I know. Not unless she gets bad enough that we could try to get custody."

"And if you did, and then we did, then that could be a whole pile of trouble down the road."

Gabriel raised an eyebrow. "Worse than if we didn't have custody?"

"Yep. Trust me ... it'd be much worse if you were standing in loco parentis for me. Especially if they decided you'd sued for custody solely for the purpose of debauchery. That comes under the heading of 'defrauding the court' and such."

Gabriel shrugged. "Tandi ... you're forgetting something. It's very likely that any jail sentence would be a death sentence for me. I'm not human."

"No. You're not. And you wouldn't be locked up unless you let yourself be. Witches might can stop you. I might can kill you. But you don't have to worry about human law unless you choose to. Maybe you haven't realized that yet, but it's the truth. You can always pop Underhill and turn up in another fucking country."

Gabriel looked at her thoughtfully. "Well, in that case ... there's no danger at all, is there?"

"Not to you, no. But humans don't belong Underhill, and from what I've heard, they're not welcome except as toys. She'd lose you. It might be fifty years from now when you pop back out. They'd put her in 'protective custody'. It'd kill her."