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"Maybe we all could use a little wine and company," Savannah replied. "Gabrielle, you come join us when you're ready. We'll be in my place."
"Okay. Thanks."
The two women moved off together, speaking quietly, their arms linked as they walked up the snaking corridor toward Savannah's and Gideon's apartments. Gabrielle wandered in the other direction, not sure where she wanted to be.
That wasn't actually true. She wanted to be with Lucan, in his arms, but she'd better get over that desperate wish, and quick. She wasn't about to beg him to want her, and assuming he made it back from tonight's raid in one piece, she had better prepare herself to put him out of her mind completely.
She strolled toward an open door down one quiet, dimly lit spoke of the hallway. A candle burned somewhere inside the empty chamber, the only light in the place. The solitude, and the smells of faded incense and old wood drew her in. It was the compound's chapel; she remembered passing it on her tour with Savannah.
Gabrielle walked between two rows of bench seats, toward a raised pedestal at the front of the chamber. It was there that the candle burned, a thick red pillar of slow-melting wax, its flame nestled deep in the core radiating a soft crimson glow. She sat down on one of the front row benches and simply breathed for a while, letting the peace of the sanctuary wash over her.
She flipped open her cell phone. The message symbol was blinking. Gabrielle hit the voicemail button and listened to the first call. It was from Megan, time stamped two days ago, around the same time she'd been calling Gabrielle's apartment following the Minion attack in the park.
"Gabby, it's me again. I've left a bunch of messages for you at home, but you haven't called me back. Where are you? I'm really getting worried! I don't think you should be alone after what happened. Call me back as soon as you get this - and I mean the very second you get this, okay?"
Gabrielle erased it and moved on to the next message, left last night at 11 P.M. Kendra's voice came on, sounding a little tired.
"Hey, there. You home? Pick up if you are. Shit, I guess it's kinda late - sorry about that. You're probably sleeping. So, I've been meaning to call you guys, try to hook up for drinks or something, maybe hit another club? How about tomorrow night? Call me."
Well, at least Kendra was safe as of a few hours ago. That took away some of Gabrielle's concern. But there was still the matter of the guy she'd been seeing. The Rogue, Gabrielle amended, feeling a shiver of fear for her friend's unwitting proximity to the same danger that was currently dogging her own heels.
She skipped to the last message. Megan again, from just a couple of hours ago.
"Hi, sweetie. Just checking in. Are you ever going to call me and tell me how it went at the station the other night? I'm sure your detective was glad to see you, but you know I'm dying to hear in detail just how glad he was."
Megan's voice was calm and teasing, perfectly normal. Completely changed from the panic of her earlier messages at Gabrielle's home and on the cell.
God, that's right.
Because to her, and to her cop boyfriend as well, there was no reason to be alarmed about anything since Lucan had wiped their memories.
"Anyway, I'm meeting Jamie for dinner tonight at Ciao Bella - your favorite. If you can make it, swing by. We'll be there at seven. Save you a seat."
Gabrielle clicked erase and checked the clock on the cell phone: 7:20.
She owed it to her friends to at least call and let them know she was all right. And part of her longed to hear their voices, her only connection to the life she knew before Lucan Thorne turned her entire world upside down. She speed-dialed Megan's cell and waited anxiously as it rang. Muffled talking came over the receiver in the second before her friend said hello.
"Hi, Meg."
"Oh, hey - there you are! Jamie, it's Gabby!"
"Where is that girl? She coming, or what?"
"I don't know yet. Gabby, are you gonna join us?"
Gabrielle listened to the familiar chaos of her friends' chatter and wished she could be there. She wished she could go back to the way things were, before...
"I, ah... I can't. Something's come up, and I..."
"She's busy," Megan told Jamie. "Where are you, anyway? Kendra called me looking for you today. She said she went by your apartment but it didn't look like you were home."
"Kendra stopped by? Have you seen her?"
"No, but she wants to get together with all of us. Sounds like she's done with that guy from the club."
"Brent," Jamie supplied loudly and dramatically over Megan's voice.
"They broke up?"
