He walked from the room and looked around. Who would be the best target to get the most effect? It didn't even take him long to decide. Kill Charma and the whole lot of them would tumble like dominoes. She kept their emotional health in check. If she was hurt, the Outsiders would be left twitching in the corner.
If Drew went after Charma, he'd either manage to kill her or they'd all destroy Drew. Either way, Sebastian won.
Voices in the distance caught his attention and he moved in the direction of the sound. Fortunately for him, Drew didn't talk very much. If he was lucky, he wasn't going to have to converse. He could just go ahead and get the job done and then float out of there before anyone caught on.
The Outsiders who were awake had gathered around a counter in what looked like a fairly well-functioning kitchen. They were drinking coffee. Sebastian didn't miss eating, but Drew's stomach growled. He clearly needed to eat.
Oh well. Maybe Drew would die a hungry man.
"Hey," Gabriel called out to him when he entered. It was everything Sebastian could do to control his disdain. "Where is your other half? I need to talk to her about that cool shit she did last night."
Sebastian ignored him. The person he wanted was in his grasp. He just had to reach for her. Without comment, he picked up a knife off the counter. Foolish Outsiders, leaving things all over the place.
"No."
He jolted backwards. What the hell? Hitting the wall drew the crowd's attention and they all stared at him. Damn it, that would not do. How had Drew gotten any semblance of control back of his body?
"Big fucking mistake, asswipe. You don't threaten a woman. Not around an Outsider man."
Sebastian gasped as his a sharp pain filled his stomach.
"Drew," Gabriel said, "you okay?"
Marina rushed into the room. "It's not Drew. Sebastian has taken him over."
"That's right, I have." Sebastian laughed. "I had this idea to kill Charma. Apparently, Drew didn't like the thought."
With his words, predictably, Jason put himself in front of Charma. As if the healer could do anything if Sebastian wanted her.
"But now I have a better idea. I can't get to any of you. Fine. I still have him. I'll lock us away. You won't see us ever again. Drew can cause me all the pain he wants. We'll all age. You'll die. I won't. When your bodies are gone, I'll simply float back out of hiding and take over the earth."
Marina pointed her finger at him. Sebastian could feel the surge of power she plowed in his direction. He shrugged. Safe in Drew's body there wasn't a thing she could do to him. "I like my idea more and more."
"Not going to happen."
"Your boy thinks he can stop me, Marina. It's pathetic, really. Such a small sense of how powerful I am."
Her face paled. Sebastian wasn't at all certain why only if he'd upset her then there were certainly grounds for celebration.
"Drew." She closed her eyes as Loraine came to stand next to her. He watched as the two women took hands.
What was the show of support about?
"You should have spent more time really trying to understand emotions. It's really too bad for you that you don't know what's about to happen. Goodbye for now, Sebastian. I'm sure we're going to meet again."
What?
His arm raised and the hand still holding the knife plunged into his chest. He gasped as his hand opened and he stared down at the knife sticking into him. Drew had stabbed himself in the heart. Sebastian had not a second to even gasp before he plunged from the other man's body.
Damn him. He'd killed himself?
A surge of power hit him and he stared down from the ceiling as Marina aimed for him again. Oh no. He wasn't getting trapped in the jar with his mother. He had to go feed. Then he'd be back to end them once and for all.
* * * *
Marina had fixed all the wards. She'd never be cocky again. Every night before she slept, every morning when she woke, their protection would be strengthened. It was the least she could do.
Jason and Charma were behind closed doors with her love. Marina banged her head on the wall. They had to save them. They just did.
Loraine came up next to her and, like the moment in the kitchen, took her hand. Strength. Acceptance. It was what they gave each other. Movement caught her eye as Eden appeared. She'd been knocked unconscious by a spell. Another thing Marina stored in her ever piling up stock of guilt. She'd stopped the mother demon and nearly doomed them all. Eden strung her fingers in Marina's other hand.
Isabelle appeared next. The woman who had started their battle, the reason they'd stopped running. She smiled at Marina before she took Loraine's hand. Ruby was next. The shy woman had finally started opening up to all of them. She was a genius and a fighter in her own right. She took Eden's outstretched offering.
No one spoke. What was there to say, really? Charma was busy or she'd have been there too. The men fought the battles—except lately Marina found she did, too—and the women were the strength. Arguably more powerful than their male counterparts, she didn't have to ask to know they understood her pain.
"Does Leonardo still have Alexa locked up?" Anything to take her mind off Drew stabbing himself in the heart.
Isabelle nodded. "She's tough. Loraine and I tried to go in there and she threw us out. She radiates power."
"The evil kind." Loraine groaned. "And Gabe blames himself."
"I need to talk to Zane. He won't like what I have to tell him. His woman's in trouble. He's going to have to get her."
Marina stared at Eden's profile; the sadness in her eyes seemed more palpable than usual. "Well go do that."
"Not yet. I'll tell him soon."
Marina would never understand prophecy. It made so little sense. Sometimes it was right, often wrong and she didn't envy Eden. Not for a minute.
Charma appeared in the doorway. She was paler than usual, her eyes huge. "He's okay. Well, he's sleeping but he'll be fine. Jason repaired the damage and I found the hole. The one where Sebastian gets in. When he did it this time, he was sloppy. It was huge. I repaired it. All of it. Emotional tie to Sebastian is gone."
Marina dropped her hands and rushed to throw her arms around Charma. "I love you; my sister."
The hug that answered her felt exhausted. "Jason's already out cold and I have to join him. Too much these last few days. Between Alexa being maybe unfixable and now this? We're a mess."
"You're a goddess."
"Well, maybe I'm that, too."
* * * *
Drew looked around. High tide was in and the ocean pushed at his feet, burying his toes in the sand as it pulled back. How had he gotten here?
"You're not crazy."
He turned around at the sound of Marina's voice. She sat back a bit, watching him, an amused grin on her face. "Sebastian burned our garden. So I built this."
Drew walked toward her, every step feeling like it took too long until he could pull her into his arms. "This is a dream?"
"You're asleep. And they tell me you really need your rest. I'm not to wake you. Only, I can't leave you alone. So I took a nap."
He looked around at their ocean paradise. "How did you do this?"
She shrugged. "I'm full of tricks."
She was so beautiful, his woman. So consistently unexpected. She never stopped gaining powers and her heart was so big, so full, so generous he didn't know if she even understood how tremendously fabulous she was.
He loved her so completely he might burst from it.
With no other choice, he kissed her hard on the mouth. She opened for him, his Marina. His heart. His woman.
"You put a knife in your own heart." She slapped him on the chest. "And you nearly stopped my life when you did."
Drew smoothed the hair off her forehead. "I'm sorry. I had no other choice. But I know what it would have cost me to see you do the same. Forgive me?"
"No." She kicked him lightly in the shin. "I'm not going to. Ever."
"All right. Fair enough." He picked her up in his arms before he laid her down and the lay beside her on the sand. "We'll just lie here in the sunset on the beach and you can be mad at me."
"Sounds like a plan." She snuggled up against him. "Can I ask you something?"
Whatever she wanted to know must be bad or she'd never have asked the question. "Anything. Always." She placed her hand on his chest covering his heart. "It's still beating."
"And only for you."
"Would you do it again? Keep us apart for as long as you did?"
"No." He closed his eyes and listened to the ocean. His woman pressed to his side made him feel warm and complete. "I'd rush in the first day I found you. The day with the sheriff, when Leonardo killed Veli. And I'd never leave you again. I thought I was protecting you. Foolish. Stupid." His mouth felt heavy, his tongue as though it didn't want to form words.
"Rest, my love." She kissed his side. "This might even be too much for you. Heal. Sleep. I have to go anyway. Leonardo wants a meeting."
"Is it bad I'm not even a little bit sorry to be missing it?"
She snuggled closer. "Get some sleep. I'll be here when you wake up."
* * * *
Every Outsider they'd gotten to come with them had gathered in the room waiting for the meeting Leonardo had insisted on having, save two. Alexa hadn't been invited to join, and Marina wondered if or when her circumstances could change. If the others were to be believed, she seemed downright feral. Eventually Marina would try to make friends and reintroduce herself. She didn't have the energy for the endeavor. Not yet.
And Drew remained safely asleep in their room. Jason had checked on him before he'd come in. Rest was all he needed. The healing sleep of the Outsiders…
"Can I say something before you do, Leonardo?" Marina stood up.
She hated making speeches yet there was something to be said. And even though she'd not had the chance to speak with Drew about it, she believed he'd take her side. He always did.
Leonardo nodded. "By all means."
"Drew came back from the other place in time and he said we had to separate. He was sure of it. We weren't built like the first Outsiders, our former selves. The versions of us that I can see, sometimes in my sleep, I hear them talking. All of them, us. Not just the first group but all of them. Drew thought our differences made us weak. But he's wrong." She shrugged. "I can see why he made his mistake. They were powerful, coherent, and with memories from the other side, they knew exactly what they were to do. They didn't have millennia of this battle to wear them out."
Leonardo cleared his throat. "You're not about to go off the deep end again, are you? I can't go wake Drew to snap you out of it."
She held up her hand. "Let me finish. My point is this. I don't care what they did or how they did it. This wasn't their world, Sebastian wasn't always their demon. They didn't have our circumstances. They did teach Drew something which mattered. Magic doesn't make mistakes, and what that tells me is none of us are wrong. We're all exactly who we should be. The battle will come—and I'm not going to say maybe we'll win anymore, I'm going to say we are, because, damn it, we all need some positive thinking here—and we are exactly as we were meant to be. Ready to kick some ass."
Drew's presence in the room caught her attention. When had he roused? "Look at you with all the foul language."
His comment sparked laughter and she grinned. "My point remains."
"And it's true. We got this. For once, let's believe it." He strung his hand with hers. "I had to wake up to hear your speech, beautiful. You don't make them all that often."
Eden interrupted. "Now is when I tell him. Zane," she addressed the newest member of their bunch, outside of Alexa, and he startled at her calling his attention.
"Yes?" He shifted his weight from one foot to the next.
"Gia needs you. She's on fire. Austin, Texas. Gabriel, take him. They're in a house near Lake Travis. You won't miss it. Follow the smoke."
She gripped Samuel's arm, a pained expression crossing her face before she grabbed her forehead. "Go."
Gabriel grabbed Zane and seconds later they popped out of the room, silence following in their wake.
"Well, that was dramatic." Kal whistled. "Never short of something happening, that's for sure."
Samuel said, "I'm going to take Eden to rest. She's been blocked from speaking all day. It's been horribly painful."
Leonardo walked to Eden and extended his hand. "Hold on a second. This is what I wanted to discuss. Eden, you're going to show everyone what I mean. Give me your hand."
"I don't know…" Samuel spoke for her.
"Trust me."
From her vantage point across the room it was hard to hear Leonardo's soft-spoken words but Marina made them out.
Eden placed her smaller fingers in his. Nothing happened for a moment but then she jolted, standing up straight; her color looked better, her unseeing eyes less strained. She cried out, a sharp startled sound.
Samuel grabbed her hand back. "What did you do?"
"I'm a power enhancer. And from now on I intend to do what I was put here to. I'm going to make you all stronger. Whether you like it or not. We aren't going to fall apart after every battle. From this point on, we're the aggressors. Game on."
Marina looked at Drew and he squeezed her fingers. They'd always been at war. With Drew by her side, she intended to win.
They were born to succeed. Together.
To be continued in
Love Beyond Flames
: Book Seven of The Outsiders
About the Author
As a teenager, I would hide in my room to read my favorite romance novels when I was supposed to be doing my homework. I hope, these days, that my parents think it was worth it.
I am the mother of three adorable boys and I am fortunate to be married to my best friend. We've just moved from New Jersey to Texas where I am learning to love barbecue!