Love Beyond Loyalty (23 page)

With that said he stormed from the room. She spun around, having not spent a lot of time focused on where they landed. She'd not been in this room before at the Outsider complex. It was empty but it had a great view of the ocean from windows that decorated nearly every wall.

"Why did you kick him out? He can't understand me
.
"

"No, but he can understand me and I think you have some explaining to do that might go over better outside of Gabriel's protective ears."

"There are things I shouldn't explain
.
"

"At least you've moved on from can't to shouldn't." She sighed and walked to one of the windows. Staring down, she was impressed with the beauty of the rocky, white beach below.

"You've changed. Just in the few days I was gone. Gotten stronger, more sure of yourself, more connected to your destiny. It's a good thing
.
"

She raised an eyebrow and wanted to laugh. "I might think that a strange comment if you didn't help raise me."

"You want me to tell you what I am and explain to you why the demon reacted to me the way it did
.
"

Turning around, she glared at her dog. "For a start."

"All right, here's the deal. Things went awry for all of you thirty years ago. Abraxas, your former leader, his intentions were good but he bumbled the attempt and sent all of you into the world without so much as a clue where most of you would end up
.
"

She'd never heard the story in its completion but she knew that was essentially how they had all been divided. It was a spell meant to save all of them from the demon that went wrong in unexpected ways. In her case, it had landed her in Tucson and Gabriel in New Orleans.

"What does this have to do with you? It was thirty years ago?"

"We were the reason you all made it out alive. You and the demon are not the only forces involved here. Some of us who should remain neutral, who shouldn't be involved, couldn't let you all die. So we interfered where we shouldn't
.
"

She nodded as she tried to digest this. "And that was you? You were involved in that?"

"I was. Once we'd gone that far, we decided that since we'd already gone past what we should, we might as well find other ways to help. And I was sent down to monitor you because you were so important. You're all vital
.
"

"But why me? What made me needier of help than the others?" It seemed bizarre to her. She'd had her grandmother. Gabriel and Alexa had been left on the street. Certainly, they could have used Futon's help more than she did.

"Your powers are delicate. Outsiders used to be lost to them. Some might decide to stay forever in their animal shapes. Your father disappeared for a year as lion. We knew that, left alone, you would be in bad shape
.
"

"So why not send me down with Kal, Charma, and Leonardo? Why put me on my own at all?"

"That wasn't my decision. I really am just a dog. An angelic dog but a dog nonetheless. They said go to you and I went. I was glad to."
She could hear the smile in his voice.
"You were a joy to be around. Now I'll stay with you until this is settled
.
However, my role will have to be limited. Now that the demon knows we're involved, he's likely to bring his own side to the party
.
"

"Why are there rules at all? Who decided this?"

Futon sighed.
"That's above even my knowledge
.
"

"Where did Sebastian send you?"

"Away. To another place. That, I'm not going to tell you
.
"

Loraine walked forward and patted Futon on the head. "You'll stay until we win?"

"Loraine, I will stay until the end
.
"

"Are you deliberately leaving out the word win?"

"With the way things are going, I'm not sure we're going to get there. But I won't leave you—any of you—until it is over."

She swallowed that news. It couldn't be a good thing when an angel dog thought there was a chance they'd lose a war against a demon.

"Then I guess we're going to need to find a way to turn the tide of this."

"Let's hope you can
.
"

* * * *

Loraine walked around in circles inside the Outsider house for a while before she found where she had to go. It had to be the hugest structure she'd ever visited that wasn't a museum or an airport. She supposed she could use her telepathic abilities to get Gabriel to direct her but she wasn't sure if he was angry with her, and she didn't feel like hearing his 'tone' if she contacted him.

Someone was going to have to explain to her how the house got built in the first place.

Finally, she moved into a room with a large thin dining room table. Gabriel stood at the end of the table next to Leonardo and the others, with the exception of Kal and Isabelle, surrounded it. The books Gabriel had sent back from Sebastian's were open.

Gabriel looked up as she walked in. "Done with the dog?"

She nodded as she approached him. "For now. Mad at me?"

He laughed. "No, I just wish I could understand Futon so I could give him a piece of my mind."

"I think he knows exactly how you feel about it." She grabbed his arm and leaned against him loving the smell of him, loving the closeness. "What are we doing here?"

Leonardo looked up at that. "These books you and Gabe rescued…"

"Just Gabe, I didn't do anything."

Gabriel shook his head. "Not true, sweetheart, you identified the room was filled with them and refused to leave."

"Fine. That was my job." She shook her head in amusement. "Go on, Leonardo."

"They're priceless. Some of them I can't read and I'm a classics and history professor. Someone somewhere can, and I will find him or her. But most of them, I can. This one here…" He held up a book as he spoke.

Loraine thought he looked like a kid receiving his first bike. It was clearly a joyful day for Leonardo.

"It has a list of all the powers we should have. Abraxas was amazing. He knew we were the prophesied children. He wrote down our parents and all we should do. It's amazing. And this book here…" Leonardo pounded on the book. "This is filled with magic we can learn. It's what Sebastian used against us. It's what we should have always been taught and were not."

Loraine swallowed, Futon's words still fresh in her ears. "Maybe this will turn the tide of our war. Maybe we'll be able to win this."

Jason, who had stood at the other end of the table, spoke. "What is this maybe stuff? Of course, we're going to win."

Gabriel looked at her and smiled. She spoke into his head telepathically.

"We've spent a lot more time with Sebastian than the others have. You lived with him for years. I think that's why we're feeling so pessimistic about this
.
"

He stroked her hand gently.
"Don't get pessimistic on me now, darling. I think we are going to win."

They'd been quiet for too long. Finally, Loraine spoke. "All right, Leonardo, give me a book. Let's start compiling some research. I worked for a summer as an assistant to a professor in college. I know how to compile notes."

If that was what she needed to, she would do it. She would do whatever it took until they had all the knowledge they needed to defeat the demon.

Chapter Eighteen

Leonardo walked through the dark corridor into the kitchen. He badly needed some liquid refreshment, preferably one with alcohol in it. His mind was filled with numbers, data, and reading material that would keep him awake for weeks. This was what he missed from his job. Finally, something was happening in his life that he could really get behind. He could make things better for all of them.

Lost in his thoughts, he didn't even notice Marina in the room until he'd practically collided with her.

"Sorry." She laughed and set her coffee cup on the table. "I guess you must be pretty involved in your mind right now."

He smiled. Marina did
know
him as well as anyone did. "Absolutely lost." He cleared his throat. Truth was he'd been pretty awful to her prior to leaving for New Orleans. Maybe his feelings on the matter had changed since he'd been hung from his wrists from the ceiling by a demon but he felt really badly about some of his behavior lately.

Leonardo could have groaned at the thought. Damn Isabelle and her meddling ways. He so didn't want to start concerning himself with day-to-day niceties and relationship building.

"I heard that Drew came here for less than a day while I was gone."

Marina picked up her drink and took a sip. She looked out the window as if she could see anything in the dark. "He did. I'm sorry, I wasn't able to make him stay."

It was past time for him to come clean on this subject. "Look, I think we left my soul mate down there in New Orleans. She's living with the demon. I never saw her but I've always had a feeling my other half is coated in evil."

Marina stared at him. She worried on her lower lip. "Why would you leave her?"

"Gabriel tried to get her to come. They've known each other since they were babies. She wouldn't and I'm such a coward, I didn't even try."

The words burned on his tongue as he spoke them but they were the truth. He couldn't expect more from Marina than he did from himself.

Her smile surprised him. She reached out and took his hand. The day Veli rescued her from the orphanage where she'd lived in Russia had been a great day. It was one of the few good memories he had from his childhood. As if they'd always known each other, she'd become as much family to him as Kal or Charma.

She shrugged her shoulders. "Drew says we all have our chapters to write in this story or something like that. I don't know if that's true. Drew says a lot of things. As for me, I'm tired of waiting for him. I'm not going to do it anymore."

Marina let go of Leonardo's hand and stepped back. She set down her drink and raised her arms like she wanted to fly. "I'm just going to let the universe guide me where I'm supposed to go."

"That's very profound of you, 'Rina."

She laughed, a loud jolt of a sound. "If there was anything I picked up in those books in there, it was that there is so much going on here I can't possibly hope to control any of it."

She made a certain amount of sense. Leonardo leaned back against the counter and contemplated it. "What you're suggesting then is that I not worry about the fact that my soul mate is likely sharing a meal with the demon right now?"

Marina nodded. "Exactly. Just like I'm not going to wonder where in the world Drew has run off to now. Either he comes back or he doesn't."

"Just one problem with this scenario…"

She held up her hand. "Don't talk to me about prophecy, Leonardo, until you manage to decipher the thing."

He nodded. "Fair enough."

Marina patted his arm as she walked out of the room. Left by himself, Leonardo banged his head against the refrigerator a few times to jar himself out of his somber mood.

Part of him wanted to ask Gabriel what Alexa looked like. What type of partner had the universe picked out for him? The other part didn't want to know at all. He shivered at the thought. He couldn't shake the feeling that the first time he saw her would be the death of him.

* * * *

Drew boarded the plane to St. Thomas with a heavy heart, which he was doing his very best to ignore. He was lying to himself, which meant things had gotten really askew, especially since he was aware of his self-delusion.

Sitting in his seat, he opened up his cell phone and looked at the image that was his wallpaper on the display. It was Marina. She'd been staring off in the distance at something when they'd been trapped together on the roof of the mental institution in New Jersey. She didn't know he'd snapped her photo with the phone.

Her face was in profile, her gaze determined and her long brown hair flowing in the wind. Gods, she was gorgeous and she was his. Even though he would never have her. Distantly, he realized his hands shook and he turned off the phone.

He wouldn't touch her with his hands. Not after what he'd done. He wouldn't taint her. So he needed to put as much space between them as possible. An ocean wouldn't be far enough but since space travel was out of the question, the sea would have to do. Glancing down at his ticket before he stored it in his carry-on bag, he checked the time for his connecting flight to St. Croix. No planes flew directly to the smaller island. That had been the idea when he'd picked it. He couldn't go anywhere it was easy to get to but he couldn't be cut off completely just in case…

Shaking his head at the thought, he called himself a hundred different names. Even now he couldn't completely disconnect. What was it going to take for him to give her up?

* * * *

Eden sat on her bed, staring up at the cartoon poster she'd affixed on the wall shortly after moving in. It was stupid. She was an adult; she shouldn't have children's decorations on her wall.

In her own way, it was an act of defiance. Her mother had never let her have those sorts of things when she'd been growing up. They'd been, to quote her mother, the devil's creations and they had no place in her house.

Eden's first act of independence was to put one on her wall directly in front of her bed. That way she could see it first thing in the morning when she opened her eyes. She would always immediately know where she was upon waking.

Tonight, however, it brought her no joy. A tear slipped from her eyes. It was one of the sporadic few that had been plaguing her since she'd hidden away in her room earlier. Her head was too clouded to be much use going over books. Besides, the only book she'd ever read was the Bible. Trying to make sense of the strangely stated words was like asking her to read Greek. She'd like to help but she was afraid it was rather fruitless.