Raven Saga 01 - Raven

completely resting. I'm the one who should be sorry. Not you,” he smiled as he patted my forehead again.
    “I'll wait for Gabriel to come back and then I'll leave you to get some sleep. Do you want me to help you to your bedroom? Or would you rather I brought you an extra blanket in here?”
    I opted for the blanket, knowing that trying to move too much might make me sick again and I was already so embarrassed at having thrown up in front of him.
    Oliver came back from my bedroom with my duvet cover and another pillow. He then went into the bathroom and returned with my tooth brush, tooth paste, a glass of water and a bowl.
    “I figured you might want to brush your teeth. It might make you feel better,” he said handing everything to me like a father would probably treat a sick child.
    I told him I was grateful even though my mouth was completely full of frothed up toothpaste. I grinned in an effort to make him laugh. It worked, as he shook his head, chuckling at me.
    Just as I spat out the water, we heard the door open and Gabriel announce he had returned home. He greeted Oliver like a son and looked at me with concern.
    Oliver explained that I'd been sick and so Gabriel reassured him that he would look after me, giving Oliver his cue to go home.
    “Well, I'd better go now, Lilly, but I'll be back in the morning... er, if that's okay with you Gabriel?”
    Gabriel smiled and said “Yes of course, provided Lilly wants you to come back, that is,” he chuckled.
    “I certainly do,” I answered, as he leaned down and gently brushed my cheeks with his lips.
    “Try and get some sleep. See you in the morning. Goodnight Gabriel,” he said as he wrapped up for the cold.
    “Goodnight!” he yelled again before the front door shut behind him.
    A minute later I heard the revving of his car and then there was silence. Just the sound of my breathing, before Gabriel came and sat down opposite me and then I could hear his gentle breath too. He didn't say anything. He just let me fall asleep in peace.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

    I slept right through the night. Not a single dream managed to wake me from my stupor. The shock of the previous day's events must have taken its toll and pretty much knocked me out. That and the fact that Oliver had come over to have our date at home. Snuggling under the duvet, I slowly forced my eyes open to see rays of sunlight through the window. It soon dawned on me that Gabriel had left me to sleep in the living room. My leg throbbed beneath the covers and as I turned to try and manoeuvre myself off the sofa, I heard voices coming from the kitchen. Gabriel was not alone.
    I could easily identify the voices of Gabriel, Meredith, Wyatt and Rose. I came to the conclusion that they had joined forces once again to talk about me or my father. Either that or they were waiting for me to wake to talk further about the news they'd hit me with a few days earlier.
    Or were they eager to find out who had rescued me from my close call yesterday?
    As I tried to stand up, I managed to knock over a bottle of water with my leg. It crashed to the floor.
    Hurrying in, they all made a fuss of me. Meredith offered assistance where I needed it the most. Having a shower with a broken leg isn't the easiest thing to do, so she ran me a bath and helped me in. I was grateful. Although I felt such a nuisance and a hindrance, I also felt a massive sense of gratitude for having such caring people around me. It would have been a very different story had I been in England with Vivian and my father. Goodness only knew how I would have managed.
    After I'd struggled to get dressed, Meredith helped me back to the sofa where I lay down, exhausted. Barely a minute went by before Rose whizzed in with my breakfast on a tray. A lovely hot cup of tea and a plate full of eggs and bacon. I was thoroughly spoilt, and I relished it.
    The others joined me while I ate and we chatted about general things like the weather, friends and neighbours as well as our plans for Thanksgiving and Christmas which were fast approaching.
    But ultimately I knew the conversation would move on to more pressing matters. The unusually large raven's feather was cause for some concern, as Gabriel explained to me. When our ancestors had first changed, they morphed almost magically into the bird's actual size. He had never seen or even heard of anybody having the ability to change into a raven the size of a human. Yet there we were presented with evidence to suggest it