Sacred Bloodlines (10 page)

They looked at each other.  Gabe worried that he was about to be asked again about his inappropriate sniffing habits, but instead Sophie burst out laughing.  They both fell to the floor giggling hysterically.  Gabe felt a rush of relief.

Once they regained their composure they made their way to the front of the fire on their hands and knees, collapsing in front of it, exhausted from their near escape.  A moment later, Gabe watched curiously from his spot in front of the fire as Sophie searched around the chair until she found a bag she had tucked away earlier.  

The bag was a faded pink canvas and covered in ink doodles.  He saw scribbles of clouds and rainbows with flying unicorns soaring around in random areas on it.  Gabe thought it fit Sophie’s day-dreamy personality perfectly.  From inside, Sophie pulled out boxes of candy.  There were sweet tarts, gummy bears, dots, licorice, jelly beans (the ones with all the weird flavors), mini peanut butter cups and whoppers.  Gabe started laughing.

“What?” Sophie asked in a defensive tone.

“Nothing,” Gabe replied smiling.  “Now I know you love books, dancing and you really love candy!”

Sophie leaned over and punched Gabe in the arm.  “Shut up, I have a sweet tooth,” she insisted in a defensive tone.

“Clearly,” Gabe retorted motioning to the mountain of candy boxes.

“Just hush it and eat.”  Sophie replied with a sheepish grin.  

Gabe was actually pleased she had brought snacks.  Eating one meal a day, no matter how large, was not good for anyone but especially not for him, a growing teenage boy.  Gabe started in on the licorice while Sophie went straight for the peanut butter cups.

“So...” Sophie began after a few minutes of candy pilfering had past.  “What do you think of us so far?”  

Gabe still had a lot of questions.  He certainly had not drawn any conclusions about The Guardians.  One thing he was sure of, though, was that he was quite infatuated with Sophie.

“Ummm... well, hard to say really.”  Gabe tried to think of an answer that would conceal his crush.  “Everyone seems really nice.  Just a lot to take in, you know?”

Sophie nodded and flowed right into the next question.  

“So, Uri was telling me you live in a group home for boys?”  Gabe was impressed by her forwardness and a little embarrassed at the same time.

“Yeah, I’ve been in several foster homes as a kid, but now St. John’s Home for Wayward Boys is where I rest my head at night.”  Gabe was careful not to sound too bitter about his plight in life.

“Do you like it?  Do you have friends there?  Do you miss it?”  Sophie rattled off the questions with barely a breath between them.

“Wow, umm, gee,” Gabe replied laughing a little at Sophie’s rapid fire of questions.  “I am not sure I would say I like it.  It’s not good or bad.  I suppose they feed me and the priests that run it seem nice enough.  Just the kind of place you keep your head down and get through your time, you know?”

“Well, do you have any friends you miss?”  Sophie asked the question again.

“I suppose the closest thing I had to a friend was Dominique, my roommate.  We ate together sometimes but he is a pretty big metal head.  We don’t really have a lot in common, I suppose.”  Gabe explained, wondering if Dominique had even noticed his disappearance.

  Sophie nodded in recognition of Gabe’s struggle to establish close friendships.  She thought about her struggle before she had come to find Michael and Uri.  They continued with small talk for a few minutes. 

“So how did your parents die?” Sophie asked out of the blue without hesitation.

Gabe was so shocked by the bluntness and randomness of the question his mouth literally fell open.  He marveled at her bold nature.  

“I’m sorry,” Sophie said seeing Gabe’s obvious discomfort at the topic.  “Just forget I asked.”

“No,” Gabe added quickly.  “I don’t mind.  You just took me by surprise.”

“It’s just...”  Sophie paused, her chipper and happy tone had become quiet and sad.  “I lost my parents at an early age, too.  I was nine.”

Early age, Gabe thought.  He would have given anything to have his parents for that amount of time.  He struggled every day to even remember what they looked like.  He wondered if Sophie realized how lucky she was to have had them as long as she did.  

“It was a robbery.”  Gabe explained, the old helplessness nagging at the back of his mind.  “I don’t remember a lot about that day.  I know we had spent the day together.  I have glimpses of memories that contain a park, a playground, even a kite.”

“That’s awesome your last day with them was so special though.”  Sophie added in an effort to bring Gabe some small piece of comfort.

“We used to have movie nights once a week.”  Gabe continued.  “We would rent a family movie and then always pick up what my dad called movie candy at the store on the corner.”  Gabe stopped and looked down at the ground.  He felt his chest begin to ache and his eyes fill with tears.

Sophie reached out a hand and touching Gabe’s arm gently asked, “What is it Gabe?”

Gabe kept his head hung low as he shook it no, trying not to think about the emotions that were stirring inside him.

“You can talk to me.”  Sophie insisted.  Gabe believed her, he had never really discussed that night, not even with all his different therapists.  Something felt different as he spoke with Sophie.

“I don’t know Sophie,” Gabe began as he hesitated for a moment.  “It’s not really something I like to open up about I guess.”

“Have you ever tried?” Sophie asked.  “Maybe it would make it better in some way.”

“Maybe,” Gabe replied.  

Taking a deep breath Gabe closed his eyes for a moment and decided if he was ever going to have a little trust in someone, why not right now with Sophie?  Without any more thought, Gabe spoke. 

“I blame myself.”  Gabe couldn’t believe he had even allowed the words to escape his lips.  He had never shared that with anyone.  He continued to stare at the floor in hopes his tears would dry up.

“Why would you blame yourself?”  Sophie asked in a soft and caring tone.

At last, Gabe looked up at her, his eyes barely able to dam the swelling rush of salty tears.  “I have always gotten these feelings when something bad was going to happen.”

“Auguries,” Sophie interjected.

“Yeah, I guess,” Gabe replied, recognizing the term from earlier conversations.  “I had gotten a feeling that night when my parents suggested the candy run, but I didn’t say anything.”

“Gabe, you were so young.  You didn’t know and even if you had said something, you don’t know if they would have listened to you.  It’s not your fault.”  Sophie insisted gently.

Gabe looked into the fire, replaying the night in his head.  He was remembering clearly for the first time.  Maybe this sharing thing had something to it.  

“My arms were overflowing with sweet treats.  We didn’t notice what was going on at the register.  A man had come in a few moments before.  The stranger had demanded cash from the register and apparently he had a gun.  Not realizing what was happening we made our way to the cashier when I saw an entire container of pixie sticks.”  Gabe shook his head, no longer able to hold back the tears of shame and helplessness.

Sophie inched closer to Gabe, wrapping her arm around him in a comforting way.  

“I know.” She added, trying to relay her familiarity with the loss.

“It was my fault…”  Gabe whispered.

“Gabe, what do you mean?”  Sophie asked.

“When I saw the pixie sticks, I reached for them and a box of milk duds that was balancing in my arms fell to the floor with a rattle.  I don’t know, I guess the noise startled the man.  He turned and pointed the gun at me.  Seeing the danger I was in, my dad...”  Gabe’s chest heaved as he struggled to tell the story.  The entire violent scene was playing out in his mind.  

“He was just trying to protect me, you know?”  Gabe added.

Sophie nodded, rubbing her hand along Gabe’s back in a circular motion.  Gabe continued, “When my dad yelled my name and moved towards me, the man shot both my parents.  He was just trying to protect me.  If I hadn’t dropped that box, he may have never noticed us.”

“You can’t do that,” Sophie said trying to comfort Gabe.  “If you play out all of the ‘what ifs’ in your head, it will drive you crazy.”

“That bastard killed them and then let me live, I don’t understand why he... I wish he would have...”  Gabe felt a tear roll down his cheek.

“Gabe” Sophie interrupted.  “It wasn’t your fault.  You were a kid; there was no way you could have known.”  

Gabe nodded, knowing deep down what Sophie was saying was true but wondering why he couldn’t shake the overwhelming feeling of blame he had carried with him all of these years.

“My dad left us when I was little.”  Sophie began her story in an effort to illustrate to Gabe there were some things you can’t blame yourself for.  “It was always just me and my mom.  Don’t get me wrong, she was all I ever needed.  She was amazing.  When I was nine, my mom told me she wanted to throw me the biggest and best birthday party any nine year old girl ever had.”  Sophie said looking at Gabe, her eyes also filling up.  

“There were streamers, balloons, confetti, and the biggest birthday cake I had ever seen.  She had invited all our friends and family.  She even hired a clown.  It was going to be the most amazing event in my life.  Two men had arrived to inflate the bouncy house when my mom got a call that the cake delivery driver was sick and they needed us to pick up our own order.”  Sophie let out a heavy sigh as she thought of that day.

“My mom called everyone she could think of to pick the cake up for us.”  Sophie continued.  “But nobody was available.  I can still see her.  She looked at me and said ‘What kind of party would it be without a cake?  Why no party at all.’  Minutes later we were on our way to the bakery.  It was so fast I can’t even remember the actual accident.  I just remember waking up in a hospital bed, my entire life changed.  Apparently we were hit head on and the only reason I even survived was because my bloodline had been activated and with a Guardian’s natural ability to heal, I lived.  Our healing ability is part of why we live so long.”  Sophie stopped, her breath getting caught in her throat.

“You know, I even convinced myself she wasn’t dead for a little while.  I would wake up in the hospital and ask the nurses if my mom was there.  I did it for weeks.  It wasn’t until Michael found me and I came here that I really allowed myself to fully admit she was gone.”

“Sophie,” Gabe didn’t know what to say.  How could he comfort her when he had the same feelings of guilt?  The same frustrated helplessness.

Sophie turned and pressed her back into Gabe.  She pulled one of his arms around her head, using it as a pillow as she lied on the floor in front of the fire.  Gabe moved in closer to Sophie, draping his arm over her side.  They both took in a deep breath of air, their bodies heaved against one another in grief.  

Gabe thought better of saying anything else as he did not want Sophie to reconsider her positioning.  A moment later their bodies gave into the exhaustion and fell fast asleep in one another’s arms.

Chapter Eight

Gabe awoke, his hands tingling and pain shooting up his arm.  He went to move but saw that Sophie was still asleep on his arm.  Gabe quickly froze, hoping with everything in him to prolong the moment.  He had never felt like this for anyone, honestly he had never let himself get close to anyone.  Looking down at peaceful her face , he wondered if this was what sleeping beauty look like.  

Gabe found himself questioning what he was doing.  There was a reason Gabe didn’t let himself get close to people.They ended up dead.  Sophie had almost been killed once because of him.  He wasn’t sure what he would do if something happened to her.

“Good morning, love birds.”  Uri’s sarcastic tone cut through Gabe’s thoughts.  With that, Sophie popped up and frantically looked around assessing the situation.

“Shut up, Uri,” Sophie said flashing Uri a nasty glare.  She frantically turned and gathered up her boxes of candy, shoving them into her nearby bag.  Uri started to laugh in a deep bellow.  

“I’m serious, Uri, you better shut up!  Nothing happened.”  Sophie insisted.

“Sure, whatever you say, Soph.”  Uri said with a huge grin across his face and flopped down on the bed, hands behind his head, ankles crossed.  The arrogant pose seemed to enrage Sophie.

“Whatever.” Sophie said in a huff, grabbing her bag and exiting, not a word to Gabe.

Gabe sat there dumbfounded, not sure what to say.  He looked over at Uri.  “You should learn to knock.”  Gabe was annoyed his moment with Sophie had been stolen.  Uri continued to smile mischievously.  “You know, she is telling the truth, Uri, nothing happened.”  Gabe added.

“I know.” Uri said sitting upright.  “You’re not her type.” 

Gabe sank at his words.  He thought Sophie and he had an incredible connection, but Uri  had him doubting that confidence in an instant.  Had he just read into things?  Was she just being nice to the new kid who she thought saved her life?

“What do you mean I’m not her type?”  Gabe asked deflated and a little wounded.

Realizing he had upset Gabe, Uri quickly tried to put his statement far from Gabe’s mind.  “Never mind, don’t listen to me.  Ready?”  Uri popped up to his feet and walked to the door.

“What?”  Gabe asked, still fixated on getting a real answer from Uri about his observation.

“Training, remember?”  Uri asked acting a little irritated while glancing back at Gabe.

“Yeah, I mean of course.”  Gabe acted as though he had not forgotten.  “I need to shower first though.”

Uri began to laugh.  “Nonsense, you’re fine.  You will really need a shower when I’m done with you though.”  Uri turned around and walked over to where Gabe still sat on the floor.  He extended a helping hand. 

“Come on, you will need a good breakfast however.”  Gabe took his hand and stood.  “No promises you will be able to keep it down though.”  Uri laughed again.  Gabe was beginning to think he was not particularly fond of Uri’s sense of humor.

“My clothes?”  Gabe asked walking towards the wardrobe.