He'd hated having to force her to look her destiny in the face. But she'd been dead, blown up, and he wasn't going to let anymore unspoken truths get in their way.
When Gabriel hadn't popped back down in the caves first thing, Drew had immediately known why. Being sent back to New Orleans wasn't just going back to his roots for Gabriel, it was, like it or not, a revisit with Alexa.
The time had long passed for the Outsiders to collect her. Gia and Raquel, too. Everyone had to get together so they could finally break into their individual teams. If they were never going to be a well-formulated, giant machine of power, they would have to take down Sebastian as small cells working independently.
Take down one, the next one would strike.
"You look like you're about to die. What have you done to yourself?" Gabriel shouted at who Drew had to presume was Alexa in the middle of an alley. For the woman's part, her eyes had turned totally black. He'd seen such a display before but it had been from Sebastian, not an Outsider.
The woman needed help. He'd met her former persona in the other time. Alexa was powerful and not to be trifled with. They'd be better off getting her fixed up and back on track. Her soul mate should be doing it. He'd not met Leonardo in the other setting.
Not all of them lived through the battle, even when they won. Another reason to get all of their collective heads on straight.
"You're making a scene." He landed next to Gabriel. "And we don't need any more attention."
"Drew." Gabriel's eyebrows shot up. "What is going on? One second I'm asleep, the next I'm here with her." Gabriel pointed at Alexa like Drew couldn't see her.
"I'll explain everything." He nodded toward the shivering Alexa. If he didn't know Outsiders couldn't be addicted to drugs, he'd swear she was coming down from some high and needed a fix. "Take her with us. Enough is enough. Back at the caves. Now."
Gabriel cocked his head to the side. "You're giving fucking orders now?"
"Yes. Bring her back." It was time. They needed Alexa, she was present, no more leaving her behind.
* * * *
An hour later, Drew still hadn't gotten to do anything about the ache in his heart from making Marina sad. How could he? The entire Outsider community—save two who were still missing—had gone into an uproar. He'd been prepared for their horror at their unremembered deaths and his announcement that they were going to have to split up to make this work. He hadn't been ready for Alexa to go into convulsions on the floor.
Jason was huddled behind closed doors with her now. Drew closed his eyes, letting his senses travel to the pathway that still connected him to Sebastian. It remained fully shut. The physical activity he'd engaged in during his time in the other dimension solidified more than his muscles, his powers were better stitched together than they'd ever been before.
Sebastian wasn't getting through his defenses unless Drew wanted him to.
"I can't believe you did this," Leonardo said through clenched teeth.
They were alone in the room together, the same way they'd been before everything blew up the last time. Different in this version, however, was the Outsiders patrolling the borders of the cave. Sebastian wasn't going to fire bomb them again. Marina strengthened the wards and Eden didn't see any sign of danger in their immediate future.
Of course, she'd not seen it the first time around either. The problem with the unpredictable seers.
"You're finally speaking?" Drew cleared his throat. "I thought you'd spend the whole night sulking."
"Who died and made you our supreme leader?" Leonardo didn't hold back and the sound of him shouting almost made Drew grin. At least it was some kind of reaction.
Drew shook his head. They'd had this talk once, only Leonardo wouldn't remember it. Erased with the night where they died, lost forever to the oceans of nothingness.
"You're not fit to lead anymore. Whatever happened to you—whether it started when you killed Veli or since then—you've lost the path. I've seen you when you are at your best. This lifetime isn't it. If you won't do what's necessary, I will."
He knew he was going to get punched seconds before Leonardo did it. Drew didn't back up even a step. He took the hit square to his jaw before he lifted a hand to defend himself. Leonardo needed to get this shit out and, truthfully, Drew had been aching for a good fight for years. The first generation of Outsiders were so damned polite all the time.
His cheek burned as he raised his hand to slam Leonardo in his jaw. The two of them went down into a pile of fists and curses. He really had no idea how long they pounded on each other before they were wrenched apart.
Drew turned to spit blood onto the floor of the cave. Leonardo had gotten in a good bunch of slams. It took Drew a second to recognize Kal was the one holding him back while Samuel did the same for Leonardo.
"Come on now, children." Kal laughed as Drew tried to surge forward again.
He didn't feel done and from the rage in Leonardo's eyes he'd guess neither did his opponent. Sweat, spit, and anger were a good cure for a lot of what ailed them.
"Marina." Samuel called over his shoulder. "Any chance the demon is spell-casting a lot of douche bag behavior into the room right now?"
His love entered the room and leaned against the side of the doorframe. Like a blast of cold air, his temper cooled.
"Afraid not." She shook her head. "Just general nonsense. Jason is busy using all his talents to try to fix Alexa. He doesn't need to come out here to mend you asses because you decided a good fight was in order."
"She's right." Drew pulled at Kal's hands. "I'm good. I won't fight anymore."
"Well, I'm not necessarily done." Leonardo snarled. "You brought here when it was never your business to do so. You don't know the first thing about how important it is to me she stay away."
"What could she have done to you, Leonardo? Unless I am very much mistaken, you have never met the woman."
"Drew." Marina's voice caught his attention and he regarded her for a second when Kal finally let him go.
She shook her head no. A fast left and right of her head, which told him he should not have said what he just did.
"What?"
She'd been all but avoiding telepathy with him for hours. He wasn't going to let her disappear from them. By contrast, he intended to hold on with both hands.
"Shit, Drew."
Her only response before Leonardo snapped his reply.
"What is my problem? She has been having sex with the demon."
Drew tried to steel his reaction, but the gasps sounding in the room spoke volumes to the other's responses. Sex was a big deal to the Outsiders. Not all of them were virgins before meeting their soul mates but for the most part the same report came in each time it was discussed—a sense of not caring one bit about it until the deed was done with the right person.
Drew had no idea how much Leonardo engaged in the act or if he did at all. But knowing Alexa had been intimate with the enemy? Yeah, that would likely screw up their joining pretty badly.
"I'm going to bed. Come and see me when you're done screwing up this life for all of us."
His love had clearly known and not shared the Alexa information with him. And now he'd stuck his foot in it in a big way. She turned on her heel and walked from the room.
"You tell me. Would you be so anxious to want Marina around if she had been screwing the demon?"
He rubbed his chin. However he navigated this, he had to be careful. "Since we got together, I think I would find the idea of Marina being with anyone else absolutely horrifying. I love her. I always have. I've had the benefit of knowing her most of my life, at least subconsciously. Here's the honest to gods truth, I'd do anything for her, forgive her anything. If she cheated now, we'd work it out. Before we mated, she was free to do whatever she wanted. I had no say in it. That being said, would I be thrilled she slept with the demon? No, of course not, mostly because I'd be concerned for her safety."
He'd want to kill anyone who touched her only he'd have to keep the urge to himself. She belonged to him. He knew it, Marina knew it. But in their modern world, in their dimension, he didn't get to have an opinion on what—or who—she did before him. Even if he didn't like it.
A scream sounded in the room and Samuel dropped Leonardo, gripping his head. "Eden." His voice was a croak seconds before Eden half-walked, half-fell through the door.
The blind seer was paler than usual. "Two of them." She pounded on the floor. "There are two demons."
Chapter Eleven
Marina paced her bedroom. Where was Drew? Didn't he understand the first rule of pissing her off? Come by and either argue with her or apologize. Why wasn't either one of those things happening? She bit her thumb nail and tried to breathe through her nose. He came back from the other dimension so cold and determined. Even when he'd been remote, keeping himself away from her, she'd been able to feel the same insecurity in him she knew the others of their kind shared.
This Drew who suddenly knew all the answers—conclusions she didn't necessarily agree with or think true—wasn't working for her. He needed to snap out of it and come back to her the way he had been when, what felt like for her, she'd seen him only hours earlier.
The door swung open, banging the wall as Drew strode into the room. "We have to go."
"That's not how this works. 'I'm sorry I'm such a complete jackass' would be a good start." How could she both want to punch him and kiss him at the same time?
"We have a demon problem." He shook his head. "Take a shot at me verbally later."
What the hell was he talking about? "I warded us from Sebastian. They're sound. I can see them now. All around us. You should be able to as well."
"Yes, you warded us from him. What about from his mother?" He extended his hand. "Marina, less arguing, more doing. Please."
She moved before he finished speaking. They'd had dealings with Sebastian's family before. His sister had almost ended Charma and Jason before they'd even begun. Now they had another member of his family to deal with? What was going on?
"You're right." She said as she ran with him as fast as her legs would take her. "They're not going to prevent another demon from causing trouble."
"Forget trouble. I think this ass of a demon killed us."
She shivered, a cold sweat forming all over her body. Drew was right and they weren't going to get another chance to not die.
"I have to see the demon. I have to be in its presence to get a reading for it."
Drew skidded to a stop. "What?"
"You heard me." Why had they stopped moving? "What's the problem?"
"I can't take you out there."
"Why not?" She reached up to stroke his face. "I've been around demons many times."
A muscle in his jaw ticked. "This one has killed you before."
"Not me specifically. It took you out, too. You saved us. Let's do something about."
She didn't know where the demon was. Drew did. And yet he didn't move.
"Drew."
"Okay."
One second they stood in the hallway, the next they were out in a field. She'd never gotten used to popping in and out of places but she had to admit, even though it screwed her with her center of gravity, she appreciated the ease with which Drew and Gabriel did it.
Drew sucked in his breath and pointed further in the distance. Standing underneath a tree was a beautiful little girl. Blond, cherub-looking, she was no one's idea of a demon. By contrast, she'd probably be cast in the part of an angel.
"Is that her?" She whispered although she needn't have bothered.
Either the demon knew she was there or she didn't. Hiding and whispering didn't work very well with the supernatural.
Drew nodded. "The creature that killed us all."
She rubbed his arm. He had a memory of something she never would.
Somehow she had to manage to keep it in her head he'd been through years of trauma while she'd had none of it. "I can see her power."
It was huge, bigger than Sebastian's, and he was the most evil creature she'd ever witnessed in her lifetime. When he'd "died" and gone incorporeal, his magical abilities had only gotten stronger. But they were nothing like the child demon in front of her.
"Can you see this?" She gripped Drew's arm to steady herself. "I've never seen…"
"One of the things I learned when I was with the others was about the classification of demons."
Marina raised her hand, letting her fingers trace the patterns in front of her. She had to manage a counterspell to block the magic. For every movement of evil, she'd counter with one of her own. If she could manage, if she didn't fuck the entire thing up big time.
And get them all killed. Again.
"The mother and father of this group are the real deal. If they were our constant nemesis we'd be all dead already. They don't make the same mistakes Sebastian does with us. But that's the point. We are, if you like, his training ground. He makes his mistakes. Or his sister does. And when they are finally deemed ready, they'll officially wipe us out of existence."
She shook her head as a surge of angry denial threatened to make her body shake. "Not. Going. To. Happen."
Marina took a step back. "Take me back inside. I've got this."
"No, Outsider." The booming voice of the mother demon shook the air around them. "You don't."
She felt the blast of heat before it hit her. Marina pushed her arm out in front of her, using every ounce of willpower to surge her own energy back toward the onslaught and even as Drew cried out his warning—it all stopped.
Marina needed a second to contemplate what happened. The demon had attacked and Marina had…stopped her.
Across the dark field, the blonde, non-cherub took a step back. Goosebumps broke out on Marina's arms. She. Had. Done. It.
And she'd not even really needed to think about it at all.
"Drew." She held what amounted to a force field in front of her stopping the demon's powers. "Can you see this?"