"I'm an Outsider." Colin smiled. "Any chance you met my brother?"
"Brother?" Drew drooled, some of the adrenaline wearing off. "Christophe said he had a brother. Is that you?"
"It is. He's okay?"
"Last I saw him, he disappeared into thin air. But he seemed fine before that."
Colin smiled. "He'll do that."
This had gotten way to chummy for Sebastian's taste. More screaming needed to happen. Right away.
He turned up the machine. Hollering never sounded so sweet.
* * * *
Alexa got off the plane in Portland and stretched her arms over her head. The airport was quiet. She'd had to change planes in Atlanta to go directly into Portland. New Orleans International had been busy, Atlanta extraordinarily crowded, and Portland, Maine downright quiet in comparison.
Gabriel had never answered her e-mail, which had made her want to throw the computer out of the window. Instead, she'd broken a vase. Shaking her head, she walked toward baggage claim wheeling her carry-on behind her.
She'd opened her power, the one that let her find all the members of the cult, and felt for Gabriel. With the exception of one person who was, ironically, in New Orleans down the road from her, the others had all congregated in Maine. So she'd boarded a plane and went on her way.
Gabriel would be seeing her whether he wanted to or not. He had to get her in so she could destroy them.
She smiled at a woman and then stopped abruptly. She didn't look right. Alexa could see colors around her head. Alexa rubbed at her eyes. She'd never seen auras before. Was she having some kind of headache? Looking to the left, she saw it on another woman, only her aura didn't have greens and blues, but rather she was almost black.
Turning toward Alexa, the woman smiled.
"Welcome, Alexa. The battle has been waiting for you."
Alexa shrieked, grabbing her bag and running down toward the baggage claim. How had that woman known her, and why did she have black all around her head? Everyone she looked at just seemed…wrong.
She shook her head. Hell, she'd bang her head against the wall if it would make it stop. Finally, things started to right themselves. The halos around everyone's head faded until they vanished completely.
Her breathing regulated itself, and she stuck her hands in her pockets. What had just happened? People stared as they walked by. She couldn't blame them. If she saw someone acting like she did in an airport, she'd stare too.
"Sebastian," she said aloud, "I'm a big giant mess without you." And not a hot mess, either. A huge disgusting version.
With her head held high, even as her soul felt like it might drop down to her feet, she kept walking toward the baggage claim. She had a plan; she needed to stick to it.
The cult members needed to die. She could lose her mind after that.
* * * *
Zane stared at Gia as he sipped his beer. They'd been hanging out together now for the better part of a day. He still hadn't told her what he was doing in Portland, and she hadn't asked.
Why couldn't he want to fuck this woman? She was hot. He just didn't care.
"So, I came to Portland because a voice told me to. I've been sort of constantly harassed by voices since an old woman told me I was something weird, something other than human." He took a large pull at the beer. "Are you wanting to run away now?"
"No." She drummed her fingers on the table. "Come with me."
He stood up, following her from the room.
Hopefully, she wasn't going to take him to either the loony bin or anywhere where she expected to have sex. He wasn't drunk enough and didn't know if he could bring to mind the image of his fantasy woman. The one he'd made up in his mind, the only one who could get him hard. His perfect girl, who was engulfed in flames.
If the Outsider crap proved true then he had a soul mate. Maybe he'd be able to get it up for her too. A guy could dream.
Gia took him up the back stairs of the bar into an apartment above it. "You live up here?"
She nodded. "When I came to town, I told the owner to give it to me. He moved the current tenants out, and I moved right in."
"How did you manage that?" In Zane's case, he would have called on his voice to make it happen. The special talent he tried not to use.
"I let him touch my arm. After that he did whatever I wanted. In your case, I let you look at my boobs. But that didn't seem to work on you."
"Nope. Sorry." She walked toward her bedroom, and he halted. "Look, I have this problem. You're a really beautiful woman, hot as hell, but I'm not interested. It's very difficult for me to perform. And it's really all about me and nothing about you."
She turned to smile at him, her eyes sad. "I hate sex."
"You do?" No one had ever said that to him before.
"It's awful. I try to avoid it at all costs. So you can count on the fact that I'm not bringing you in here to sleep with you."
"Okay." He moved toward her. "Then lead away."
She brought him into her bedroom where paintings covered the wall, ceiling to floor. All sorts of images, mostly in black and white, of scenes that looked like they'd come out of a fantasy novel.
A man stood on a hill, his arm raised with a staff pointed toward the sky. In another picture, babies floated through the air propelled somewhere off in the distance, a mother and father wept as they watched. A third picture showed a man carrying three babies in his arms as he ran from some unseen foe.
The whole room showed scenes like them. He pointed to the walls. "Are these yours?" "Yes." She nodded.
"You're very talented."
Gia shook her head, her strawberry blonde hair falling on her shoulders. "Thank you but that's not why I wanted you to see them."
"Then why?" The motives of women were always unclear to him. Maybe he'd spent too much time in orphanages with only boys. In any case, he really didn't want to say the wrong thing and make her start yelling.
"Because they're scenes I was told about, part of a story a ghost told me when I was a child." She ran her hands through her hair, little lines appearing next to her eyes that told him she felt stressed. "Not just any ghost. The spirit of my actual mother. I was adopted as a baby by a really nice couple. Nothing wrong with them. They wanted kids, couldn't have them. Very quiet, middle class life. But I knew they weren't mine. I knew it from day one."
"And she told you this story, which you then painted." He moved until he could see them closer. "Who is this guy? With the staff?"
"Do you not know the stories of the Outsiders?"
"No. I mean I know that word. That's what the old woman told me I was. I'm glad to hear you know it, too. But, no, I don't know the whole thing. Or anything about it, really."
Her eyes glazed over, and as he watched, it appeared Gia stared somewhere else other than at him.
"A man named Abraxas Moore led the Outsiders. He was their leader but he could not stop them from doing what they did."
Zane crossed the room and sat down. He wanted to hear this story even as part of him told him to flee. Once he heard the tale, he would not be able to un-hear it. And then what would he do? He'd be invested in what happened.
There would be no denying what he knew anymore.
"The Great One saw a prophecy. Eighteen children born on the same day. Each one was half a pair; nine couples. And a nineteenth child, born far away. A demon."
Great. The demon again. He'd heard about that guy. An epic battle. Zane didn't do epic battles. He robbed safes, stole, sold goods, and moved on. Fighting a demon? Not that interesting to him. Still, he shifted in his seat as his blood pressure rose.
"The demon was foreseen to be the end of the Outsiders, and the elders disobeyed Abraxas. They tried to trap the demon and failed, instead bringing the demon and the prophecy to fruition."
That seemed pretty dumb. Zane wouldn't have involved himself in something like that. Poor decisions were often the result of group thinking. Better to stay alone and keep from getting caught up
in crap like that.
"The Outsiders, who had always been in the universe, who had kept the balance of good and evil, had to go into hiding, had to abandon their homes on the hill. And just as was predicted, no matter when the babies were conceived, eighteen very old souls came to the Outsiders on the same moment of the same day."
Zane's heart rate kicked up. Up until that point, he'd been able to keep a distance from it all, but when she uttered those words about the babies, he'd known them to be true.
"Thirty-two years ago," he whispered.
Gia nodded and continued speaking. "The babies had to be saved. Abraxas did his best. He sent them magically over a great distance to his friend Veli. But not all the babies went where they should have."
He sat forward. "Why?" He'd never thought he was meant to be in that orphanage, alone, parentless with no one in the world to care what he did or didn't do.
Every orphan felt that way, but he'd felt so sure. So pathetically confident that his fate had not been to be there.
"It wasn't clear. The evil one's influence, perhaps? Fate had always been a fluid, shifting thing. Veli received three children. The rest were parted, left to search for their other halves, their soul mates, so they could complete the destiny they'd been brought here for."
Zane rubbed at his face while Gia's eyes returned to normal. She blinked rapidly, her skin taking on a reddish hue.
"You okay?" He wanted to make sure she wasn't going to faint. "Need some water?"
"Sometimes that happens to me. It's what it feels like when I paint. Like I can really see all of it."
"Must be weird."
She smiled. "To say the least."
Gia stood up, and he followed suit. "So we're those children. The eighteen. You and I are part of it.
"You're the first one I've met. But, I've been traveling around looking for so long. Bartending, staying off the grid, living on cash. I just knew that eventually I'd have to find someone else." She shook her head. "Or lock myself up."
"But we're not soul mates because, don't be offended by this, I'm not attracted to you."
She smiled. "I tried sex a few times, tried to deny what I knew. Hated it, as I told you. Finally, I just had to believe that when I found the right person I would know. The other half of my soul. And, no, it's not you."
"Gia." An idea formulated in his mind. "We're not soul mates so there'll be no sex." Still, he needed to care for her. He'd been born to be a protector, to take care of those around him. Zane blinked rapidly. What the hell?
"Obviously," she answered, thinking he must be done.
"We can stay together. I can…take care of you." It was hard for him to get the last four words out. They felt like they'd been wrenched from his soul, like he'd waited to say those things forever.
"I shouldn't like that." She looked at her feet. "Only, it feels nice to have someone want to. It's not really fair for me to feel that way. I had a family; they loved me, even though I was so strange. They'd take care of me, if I asked."
"It feels nice that I want to do it. Someone like you. Someone who gets it."
Speaking to Gia made his chest untighten. He could take a deep breath for the first time in his life.
She smiled, her face lighting up the room. "That's it. And yes. I'd like to stay together. We can take care of each other. Like family."
He nodded. "Like family."
"You were family. Cousins, actually."
Both of them jolted.
"You heard her, too?" he asked Gia.
She nodded, laughing. "It'll be nice to have someone else around. Cousin."
His stomach rumbled. He needed to eat and wanted to make sure Gia got something in her too. They had to be careful. If the demon was looking for them, they'd be at more at risk together than apart.
"Here's the thing." He needed to tell her the truth before she agreed to something she didn't understand. "I'm a criminal. A thief. That's how I make my living. I'm good at it. I'm not a good guy. I want you to understand that up front."
"I don't have anything for you to steal." She looked around the apartment. "The only thing I like in this whole place is my coffeemaker. Please don't take that."
He smiled. The woman was funny. "I rob safes. I'm not going to take your stuff. How many bedrooms are in here? Maybe we need a new place altogether."
She pointed across the room. "There's a second bedroom over there. You can have it. It's smaller than mine." Gia took a deep breath. "Don't get arrested here, okay?"
He extended his hand, and she shook it. "It's a deal."
"And Zane?"
"Yes, Gia?" It was nice to have someone to talk to, someone who he didn't have to lie to, who could hear strange things and wouldn't think him a lunatic.
"I don't want to fight this demon. I hope you don't think I'm a coward for saying that, but the very idea of a demon hunting for me? It makes me shake in my boots. I'm not a tough girl. I think the fates made a mistake sending me down here."
He nodded. "I think that goes for both of us."
Chapter Ten
Christophe woke up slowly. His body felt stiff, like he hadn't moved in a long time. An odd sensation for him since he always came alert all at once, ready to go. He looked down, his heart speeding up when he realized Ruby lay on top of him. She'd sprawled over his chest, her arm embracing him in a hug while her hair covered his chest.
He couldn't see her face but her little snores told him she slept soundly. A smile crossed his face, and joy lit up his soul. His Ruby. He had her as his own. They'd made love. Christophe wanted to howl to the world that he'd gotten his girl.
But just as joy threatened to overtake him, the reality of their situation brought him back down to earth. Colin was missing, tied up, and being tortured. Ruby needed a cane from a preacher who had been trying to kill her most of her life. He was going to have to kill the preacher for that alone. The thought didn't even frighten him. Only the day before, the idea of killing a man would have repulsed him. Now? He'd gladly destroy anyone who came after Ruby.
They had to find out what had happened to Ruby's friend, Marina. Had she woken up? And the other man who had gone missing? Had he returned?
The house sounded quiet. He looked at the clock. It read four in the morning. He'd passed out around nine in the evening. Poor girl. He'd have to make it up to her. If any of the other Outsiders were home—and he didn't even know where he currently was, outside of Ruby's bedroom—they were probably asleep.
He moved slightly, and Ruby stirred, her eyes fluttering open. She rubbed at her nose while he grinned at her. She looked breathtaking in the morning light.
"Hi," she whispered, a red hue staining her cheeks.
"Good morning." He kissed her hand. "I apologize both for waking you up and for falling asleep like that last night."
"You worked hard. It had been a…long day."
He pulled her to him, kissing her on the mouth. It felt wonderful to have the right to do that. "I would not call anything about last night work, mon coeur."
"Well." She patted him on the chest. "You're right. It wasn't at all work." Her face fell. "Christophe, we have to go get Colin."
Yes, his brother. He hadn't forgotten him. Well, maybe he had for half a night. Hopefully, Colin would forgive him.
"And your preacher must be dealt with."
She nodded. "First, Colin."
"I appreciate that." He sniffed her hair. She smelled like lilacs. He wished there was the time to simply lie there and revel in her for a while.
She got out of bed, her naked ass begging for him to just lean forward and…she turned around to look at him.
"Are you staring at my rear end?"
"Yes." No point in lying about it.
"Good. Keep thinking about it. Maybe you'll get to see it again after we get your brother back here."
Christophe groaned. How was he to resist now that he had a taste of heaven? He stood up and crossed to her. With a tug, he pulled her into his arms. "You smell
like flowers."
"I guess it must be my soap." Her voice hitched.
"It's four in the morning. I am going to take a little more time with you. There is nothing we can do until everyone else gets up and, besides, I have no clothes."
She sucked in her breath when he licked her neck. Yes, he wanted to take her like this, from behind. He'd pleasure her until she couldn't see straight. The chanting he had heard the night before started in his head again. Would they join in every time he made love to his woman? He didn't mind. It just made the whole thing more sacred.
He tweaked her nipple, and she shuddered.
"Put your hands on the wall." She did as he asked.
He loved how she listened, how she wanted it, too.
"Christophe, please." Her voice sounded husky.
"I want to give you what you want."
His cock had hardened so fast to the point of pain he couldn't believe it. For years, nothing and now thinking of Ruby's naked ass brought him to the point of explosion without her having even touched him.
He ran his finger up her back, tracing her spine. "Do you know what it was like to want you like that? All those months in New York, thinking you hated me, wouldn't even look at me?"
"I was afraid." She shuddered. "And I thought you looked at me with disdain."
He shook his head, kissing the back of her neck. "We had our signals very crossed."
"We did." He ran his hands around her naked body. "But now we don't."
Christophe inserted one finger into her warmth, relieved to feel how wet she already was. "You're hot and wet, mon coeur. I think that means you are ready for me, yes?"
"Oh, Christophe, I could explode from the sound of your voice."
Grabbing onto his throbbing cock, he pushed himself inside of her. Yes, he needed to stay inside of her. Always. He belonged in her warmth.
He pulled out and then pushed back in, groaning as pleasure surged up his spine.
She hissed, leaning back so her head rested on his shoulder. His penis ached, he wanted to spill himself inside of her but not until he'd given her all the pleasure in the world.
In and out—her hips meeting his. Ruby lifted her head from where she'd laid it on him. He grabbed her hips, pulling her against him when he thrust forward. The slickness between their bodies filled the room with the sounds of their lovemaking.
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