Love Beyond Time

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by Rebecca Royce


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  Love Beyond Time

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  What good was anticipating what was going to happen if

  you couldn't do one damn thing to stop it? He shrieked his

  command to halt, even tried to physically stop Nathan by

  throwing himself at him, but ultimately it became a matter

  of timing.

  He couldn't protect Isabelle and prevent his friends

  from being hurt at the same time. Amazingly, it wasn't even

  a choice he had to consciously make. His body reacted for

  him, and Kal threw himself with all of his will on top of the

  woman next to him just as the bullets started flying.

  The chanting singsong music that Kal knew as well

  as he knew the sound of his own heartbeat began pounding

  in his ears. The chanters let him know that this was a

  justified moment and that he was acting as he ought to

  behave.

  In a move, that given all of the things he had seen in

  his life shouldn't have surprised him and yet still did, the

  police officer arriving on his motorcycle pulled out his

  second revolver and continued shooting at the small crowd.

  Nathan, the most exposed, was hit first. His body stalled

  mid-run, blood exploding from his chest. Kal knew he was

  instantly dead. He could almost smell Nathan's soul leaving

  his body.

  In their shock, Doug and James did not hit the

  ground quickly enough and each took several rounds into

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  their fragile flesh as well. He could smell the stench of

  death on them too. Death had always had an odor to Kal—

  as a person who had been designed to kill and destroy his

  enemies, he could tell the second something was dead,

  whether it was animal or human, and he knew his friends

  had left for their next plane of existence, whatever that was.

  Kal could feel the blood rushing through his body

  and pounding in his head. He had told Veli he would

  protect Isabelle but that had nothing to do with why he felt

  so compelled with every part of his body screaming at him

  to do so. He knew that even beyond Veli's command he

  would somehow protect this woman until he had no breath

  left in his body.

  The shield he had instinctually placed around their

  bodies ebbed and pounded as he moved, not wanting to

  release his charge to danger. It had kept any bullets from

  coming anywhere near them. He was keenly aware that it

  hadn't saved his friends. Guilt, like a hard, cold blanket,

  formed around his body and made way for anger to push its

  way out of his veins. Wasn't he supposed to be a protector

  of humans? He knew he'd have to face those demons later

  but at that moment he could no longer deny his very nature.

  He was born to be a warrior and the only way he

  knew how to protect Isabelle and end this disturbance was

  to simply put an end to it. It wasn't going to be pretty and

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  Kal hoped she wouldn't hate him for being a monster.

  He stood up, removing the barrier from himself but

  not from Isabelle. Behind him he heard her smack her hand

  on it and he was impressed that she even knew it was there.

  Plenty of Outsiders wouldn't have been able to feel it so

  acutely.

  Silently, he called the elements to him as he raised

  his hand to the sky. Electrical current tumbled down,

  piercing through his body but it didn't cause him pain.

  Instead the rush was familiar and exhilarating. Every hair

  on his body stood at attention and a grin came to his mouth.

  The familiar chanting of voices unseen plowed into his

  head. His body began to slowly shake as he channeled the

  power from him into the man who had ceased to be a being

  of any worth to Kal.

  In that moment, the creature on the motorcycle was

  evil personified. Maybe he was just a pawn to the Darkness

  but he wasn't going to be gentle with him. Kal would treat

  him like he was the Darkness itself.

  That man, possessed or not, had just killed three of

  his friends and was now threatening the life of the petite

  woman whom Fate had placed into his keeping. Or if the

  strange voice was to be believed, belonged to him. Besides,

  Veli had always told them that in order to be possessed by

  the Darkness, you had to be willing to accept it inside of

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  you. This man might be wearing the costume of one of the

  most honorable professions on the planet, but he had made

  a decision and that decision was going to cost him his life,

  not that of Isabelle.

  Bullets flew everywhere but they felt like gnats to

  Kal, as they did not hit him or break his personal shields.

  He snickered. In the ecstasy of the energy surge he hadn't

  even realized he'd raised a barrier around himself. His

  body, of its own volition, had taken on a protective armor

  encasing both him and Isabelle in its safety. As time

  seemed to change into slow motion, it occurred to Kal that

  he was more powerful than he had ever been before and he

  felt fantastic.

  Kal had his own rules when it came to morality and

  now it was time for a little eye for an eye action.

  The police officer fell from his bike, fire pouring

  out around him as he slowly began to turn to dust. The

  current that flew out of Kal should have easily roasted a

  normal human being in a matter of seconds, and it was an

  indication of the supernatural powers in the other man that

  he had lasted as long as he had against Kal's fury.

  Silence descended on the street. Kal had been in this

  position before. The best way he could describe it was that

  the universe paused to account for what had just happened.

  His breathing was shallow and his hands shook violently.

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  He knew what he needed to do. It would be all about the

  struggle now. The tension to win against the rising rage

  inside of himself. The need to calm down and face the

  woman beside him, who must have been out of her mind

  with fear. Kal fell to his knees, his hands over his ears. He

  could hardly hear anything over the deafening chanting that

  was taking place in his head. Breathe, he tried to tell

  himself, breathe. Why couldn't he get it? Where was the

  control?

  Sweat dripped down his forehead, across his cheek

  and fell to the ground. He was lost; he wasn't sure he would

  ever come back. Rocking back and forth, he wondered who

  would protect Isabelle when he was gone. All coherent

  thought left his mind. In that moment, he felt the energy of

  the earth taking his soul.

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  Chapter Five

  Pushed back on her rump on the hard concrete of

  the strangely deserted highway, Isabelle knew she should

  be te
rrified. She supposed she actually was terrified, maybe

  even in shock. After all, she had just seen three men

  gunned down in front of her and the fourth man, who she

  had been secretly fantasizing about, had suddenly become

  something out of a teenage cult movie, with strange

  abilities and voltage flowing out of his body.

  But the truth was, she felt pretty okay.

  When Kal had stood up she had heard the strangest

  melody in her head, a chanting almost, of voices she

  thought she recognized from somewhere. It had seemed

  natural; as if she had known all along that Kal could do

  these things and her own body had called out from inside of

  her to participate somehow, to help him and to make him

  stronger. She hadn't known how to fulfill its demands as

  every pore on her skin stood at attention and her eyes got

  moist, not in terror or sadness, both appropriate emotions,

  but in awe and approval. Remotely, she wondered if she

  was a sadist.

  A shiver travelled up her spine. She knew the

  danger wasn't gone and they needed to keep moving. She

  wasn't going to question her instincts; they had kept her

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  alive this long and at least she wasn't hearing voices.

  Kal stood up off his knees directly in front of her.

  Silent and unmoving, she could only guess at the battle

  raging inside of him. Did this type of thing happen to him

  all the time? Did he have a shut off button that let him go

  back to behaving normally so he could help her get away

  from whatever had just happened? She should be shaking-

  in-her-boots frightened of him, but all she wanted to do was

  soothe him and help him cool down.

  Walking quietly behind him, she placed her hand on

  his arm gently, moving like she might do with a hurt child,

  or a wounded animal. Something inside of her was calling

  to him, begging him to return from wherever he had gone

  and come back to where she was. She would deal with

  these strange instincts that possessed her later, she thought.

  For now she had to go along with whatever was happening

  and hope that it was the right thing to do.

  "Kal," she exhaled. "Are you alright?"

  He whirled around suddenly, a strange magnetic

  glow coming from his eyes as he gripped her arms and

  pulled her to him. The strength in his hands pressed down

  on her flesh and she tried not to flinch, understanding that

  he didn't know what he was doing and would control

  himself if he could. She knew deep down that whatever

  was happening, this would not end in his hurting her.

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  "Did you get hurt, Isabelle? Did a bullet hit you?"

  He shouted at her, his voice filled with a strange timbre that

  made him sound hoarse and powerful, like the sound of a

  broken television speaker. He seemed to be speaking to her

  on two different octave levels.

  "No, Kal, no bullets hit me. I'm not hurt. You saved

  us. Come back now, I think we need to keep moving. I

  don't think we can be caught here. No one will believe us

  and your friends are dead."

  She hoped that her words were reaching him,

  although his eyes remained the same and there was no

  evidence he had heard her. He pulled her even closer,

  forcing her body against his. She could feel his heart

  beating in his chest and the perspiration on his body. He

  seemed to have become electrical energy itself as his mouth

  came suddenly down on hers, claiming it as his own.

  Something inside of her that she had only hoped existed

  came alive in triumph. Yes, this was what she'd always

  waited for.

  Isabelle could no longer be rational at all. Coherent

  thought had left her body, possibly for all time. All she

  could do was react to the feel of Kal's mouth on hers. He

  had surprisingly tender lips, although the rest of him didn't

  feel tender at all; he was all hard muscle and strength.

  Sparks flew between them but they didn't hurt her and only

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  added to the arousal that was hitting her everywhere.

  The chanting began again in her ears. She knew she

  would never be able to kiss anyone else again and feel

  anything at all. The truth was she wasn't sure she had ever

  felt anything kissing anyone else in the first place.

  His mouth pulled back and then met hers again. It

  was more erotic than anything else had ever been. Her

  blood pulsed through her body, matching the rhythm of his

  kisses and the singsong chanting began getting louder as he

  deepened the kiss. All lack of sexual experience aside, she

  felt like she knew exactly what she was doing. She was

  sure she knew how he liked to be touched, how he liked to

  be handled. At that very moment he had become the man

  she dreamed about for her entire life. She dug her

  fingernails into him and pressed, if it was possible, even

  closer to his core, wanting to taste every ounce of him even

  as her mind begged her to slow down.

  Desperate to not be forgotten, Isabelle's good sense

  was struggling to be heard.

  This had to be some sort of reaction to what had just

  happened to them. She was in shock; she thought suddenly,

  and had lost all sense of reality. She didn't even know what

  had just happened. How was it that she was accepting this

  as if it was normal? What was going on?

  Kal's body stiffened as if he had felt the slight

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  resistance happening inside of her. Part of her wanted to

  beg him not to stop, not to release her from what she had

  been waiting for her whole life, but the other part was

  relieved, hoping if she could get some distance, she could

  get some clarity about what was going on. She slowly

  pulled her mouth off his, feeling her lips tingle as the fresh

  air hit them. They were both breathing heavily and her

  hands trembled on Kal's arm.

  "I'm sorry, Isabelle." Kal exhaled, starting to sound

  like himself again, if a little guttural. "You must be so

  confused, so terrified, and I'm afraid you are right, we do

  need to get going."

  Isabelle felt her feet hit the ground beneath her and

  she realized that she had been off the ground. She hadn't

  been aware of that rather large fact. He had literally been

  holding her entire body up.

  Isabelle watched as Kal scanned the scene around

  them, emotion starting to show in his eyes as he looked at

  his now deceased friends.

  "We don't have time now." Isabelle poked him in

  the chest and then widened her eyes as she looked down at

  her outstretched finger. "But when we are safe you are

  going to explain to me what is going on, what just

  happened, and why I am not shaking in my boots with

  fear." Or why I'm shaking with lust when I should be
>
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  running away screaming, she thought but didn't say out

  loud.

  * * * *

  Kal looked up, shocked at the woman in front of

  him. She had shown more courage than he could have

  imagined possible and now she was ordering him to move

  on. Generally speaking, no one ordered Kal around so he

  was slightly surprised by how easily he responded to her.

  "You're right," he answered, feeling amused and

  quite certain it showed on his face. "Let's go. Get in the car.

  I'll change your tire and we'll get moving. We need to get to

  my family. They'll know what to do."

  He bent over the tire, finishing the job she'd

  obviously started earlier. Veli, he called in his mind, tell

  Leonardo, Marina, and Charma that we need to meet on

  the island. It's serious.

  We're all there already, Veli answered simply.

  Marina says that she feels a strange pulsating in the air

  that she thinks is coming from your power. What

  happened?

  I've had to put down an enemy, Kal answered

  gravely. When had they started using that disgusting phrase

  to describe what just happened? He would have to speak to

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  Veli about finding a different way to describe the killing of

  one's enemy in battle. Putting someone down sounded like

  they were talking about euthanizing an animal. Veli had

  always preferred that they dehumanize their enemies but

  that particular phraseology was maybe going too far.

  Isabelle is remarkably fine but I've lost three of my friends

  in the occurrence.

  Get her home and worry about the collateral later.

  They aren't collateral, Veli, they were human beings

  and friends of mine, who had dreams and families and who

 

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