Love Beyond Flames

by Rebecca Royce

  Zane didn't have as much of a relationship with Leonardo as Kal suggested. Maybe he would but they weren't there yet. Although to avoid the future around him, he'd fucking play matchmaker if he had to and force their leader into compliance. If such a thing was possible…

  "I'll do my best."

  "That's all any of us can do." Kal nodded to him. "Good luck."

  The same sick feeling of vertigo that assaulted him earlier took him again, he grabbed on to Raquel who still seemed frozen in time as the ghost energy moved them, spun their bodies, and generally threw them back through time until they landed on their asses on the floor of their room in the cave.

  Raquel shrieked before she lifted her head to look at him. "What happened?"

  "We got sent back. Saw what we needed to." He needed a break.

  Was it possible for an Outsider to take a vacation? Take his girl and go sit on a tropical island for a while? Probably not.

  He got to his feet and offered her his hand, which she took.

  She gave him a small smile before she spoke again. "This is going to be life, isn't it? I mean it was never dull for me. I get stalked by a madman who wants me to set things on fire and kill people. But, we're going to be living in a constant state of trauma?"

  "Looks that way." He leaned forward so he could breathe her in.

  She smelled of cinnamon. He wanted to lick her

  from her mouth to her pussy. All day.

  Their kiss had been too short, he wanted more. "Weird to think we signed up for this, isn't it? Somehow in some dimension somewhere the eighteen of us stood up and said, 'Choose us, we'll fight the battle over and over again'."

  "Doesn't sound like me."

  He kissed her cheek, her skin was so soft. "You were pretty brave shoving yourself out there to holler at the demon. And then there was the whole setting the zombies on fire bit."

  She smiled and the room lit up. "Well, maybe I can be brave when I'm utterly terrified. But stick me in front of a spider and I'm a big, giant baby about the whole thing."

  "I'll keep that in mind." Her hair had fallen in her eyes. Raquel had experienced a hell of a day. "Not exactly the way you thought today would turn out when you woke up this morning, is it?"

  "I…" She let out a long breath. "No."

  "Right. Let's get out of this room…"

  Her arms stopped him from speaking. "Which is not to say I would change it. I didn't wake up this morning thinking I would get to know you. I'm so glad I did."

  He took her hand and they walked together this time, making their way out into the caves. Nothing weird happened, no ghosts who shouldn't be there stood in their way.

  She squeezed his fingers. "I don't know about you but I think we should take Leonardo up on his offer to train."

  "You're not too exhausted?"

  She shook her head. "No. Do we tell them? The others? What we saw?"

  "We tell them something for sure. I don't know what to leave in and what to leave out. Subtlety has never exactly been my thing."

  They stepped out of the caves into the clearing. It was the same place they'd been before but this time it was daytime and no one was dead. Not yet, anyway. There was time to not send themselves into that horrible future. There had to be time to win.

  He stopped to watch the others as they each used their powers on a target Leonardo had set up in the distance. Kal called lightening from the blue sky and exploded the mannequin made to look like Sebastian into pieces. The warrior was very much alive. For a second, Zane hadn't believed they'd all be okay when he got back. It was hard to go from reality where they were dead to reality where everyone lived.

  "Show off," Zane called and everyone turned to

  look at him.

  Kal smiled and Leonardo raised an eyebrow. Their leader called back to him. "You decided to join us?"

  "We have to talk." He looked at Raquel who nodded. She didn't let go of his hand and he was glad for the support as he called out again. "Something has happened."

  Before he could speak again, Raquel gasped, her eyes getting huge.

  With her free hand she pointed. "Zombies."

  "How?" He didn't have an answer to his own question as he rushed forward, dropping Raquel's hand. A huge crowd of zombies rushed toward their group. "It's zombies. Hearts. Gotta take the head. Or burn them to kingdom come. They will kill you."

  He didn't have a sword, only once again the certainty he could do what needed to be done. Jumping over a large rock, he grabbed the first zombie he could see and ripped the dead heart from it's should be dead body.

  The creature fell to the ground.

  "Zane"—Raquel's voice summoned his attention—

  "duck."

  He hit the ground hard knowing what she was about to do. If he'd had a second to think he would have stopped her. There were more zombies coming at them than earlier in the other timeline. She was going to be wiped out after she did it.

  The heat of her flames moved over his body. He gritted his teeth against the temporary discomfort. For someone as sweet as Raquel, she wielded a wicked power. The second he could, Zane jumped to his feet and ran to her. She swayed and he pulled her against him.

  "You didn't have to do that." She was so tiny. How was he supposed to protect her if she kept stepping in the way?

  "Seemed simpler."

  Her eyes rolled back and he caught her when her knees buckled. Simpler his ass. When she woke he was going to have a serious conversation with his soul mate about when and how she risked her well-being. Fainting every time she took a life was her body's way of telling her to stop doing it. Twice in one day had to be too much.

  Zane looked up to find the others surrounding him with equal expressions of amazement and horror on their collective faces.

  Kal nodded toward Raquel. "That was badass."

  "Yeah." That wasn't the word he would have used.

  Jason walked toward him and put his healer hand on her arm. After a second he looked at Zane. "She's wiped.

  Sleep should fix it."

  "I know." Shit. He really wanted her help in the telling. But there was no time to waste. Not if the zombies were storming their area already. "Almost all of you will be dead very soon. Unless we do something really quickly. I think training is over for today. Time to go inside and talk about what we saw and how we can stop it."

  He'd never been wonderful at delivering bad news. Having friendships could be a huge drag. Zane hadn't cared before whether other people lived or died. Now he had this whole crazy crew to concern himself with.

  And a soul mate who he'd walk into fire for. And probably would before too long.

  *****

  Raquel woke alone. Her body was stiff and her mouth felt like she'd swallowed cotton. Yeah, she'd really overdone it. But watching Zane rush at the zombie without a weapon pushed her over an edge she hadn't known she straddled. Nothing could happen to him.

  She rubbed at her eyes. The soul mate thing had certainly set up them all up to be invested in each other's safety. Where was he? The sheets she lay on smelled like him—male and strong. She rolled over and smoothed the other side of the bed. He wasn't in it, which meant he hadn't lain down with her after he'd brought her in.

  They'd never done that together, slept. She'd passed out twice, however, which was getting a little embarrassing. Raquel swung her legs over the bed and padded her way to the door. Who thought she'd ever be living in a cave?

  The door swung open and Raquel jumped back in time to stop Alexa from throwing herself at her.

  "I heard you were here." The other woman kept her voice down. "I've been trying to sneak out of my room all day to see you."

  Raquel's heart wept. The last time she saw Alexa, in a bar when the chanters had told her to help Alexa, she hadn't thought that the other woman could look any worse. She'd been wrong. The other Outsider had lost at least ten more pounds on a frame when she had none to spare. Raquel would never be Mother Teresa and had no interest in running around help
ing those in need—her life as an Outsider meant she was already in a battle she couldn't say no to—but Alexa was a wreck. Raquel wanted nothing more than to figure out how to help her.

  "Are you okay?"

  Alexa shook her head wildly. "No, I told you. We have to get out of here before these people make us start believing their lies."

  The slow, rhythmic sound of chanting she always associated with her ancestors communicating to her started in her head. She wasn't even a little surprised. They'd wanted her to help Alexa for some time. If only she could figure out exactly how to do so.

  "I do believe them. I belong here. I'm an Outsider. So are you."

  Alexa screamed, grabbing her head and shaking it up and down. "I'm not. I wish everyone would stop saying that."

  "Alexa." Not knowing what else to do, Raquel pulled the other woman into a hug. "How else do you explain it? What you can do? Regular humans don't have your powers. Use your brain. You're smart. I know very bad things have happened to you and you're feeling out of sync with things, but trust me? Please? You belong here just as much as the rest of us. Everything is going to be fine."

  Unless they couldn't save Alexa and then Raquel had seen the future that came with that eventuality. No thank you…

  The door swung open and Zane strode in. He stared at her holding Alexa who hadn't reacted to Zane even a little bit before he spoke. "Everything okay?

  "I think we're doing just fine."

  Her soul mate, who she thought she knew from the descriptions their ancestors gave her over the years but who, in person, was so much more layered and complex, walked over to Alexa. He was complicated in their dreams but nothing compared to this. "Everyone is looking for you."

  She shuddered. "They want to lock me up."

  He patted the other woman's back. "They want to keep you safe until you can keep yourself that way. Let's go back. You can visit with Charma for a while."

  Zane had been nothing but gentle to Raquel. Still, watching him really be calming with Alexa made her smile. He'd hate the description but he was soft inside where more people would never see it.

  "I'm not a child." Alexa let Zane lead her from the room and Raquel followed behind. She needed some water and some food very fast. "You people are all evil. They've gotten to you, Raquel, I can see it."

  "They have." Or at least the sexy man, who for some reason had been picked for her, managed to wind his way around her heart and soul very quickly. "But we're not evil."

  "I'm a little evil," Zane answered flatly.

  Raquel snorted and covered her mouth when she made the sound. Ugh. So unladylike. "I don't know that now is exactly the time to be making jokes."

  "Who said I was kidding?"

  They rounded the corner and Zane eventually brought Alexa to a doorway where Gabriel waited. He took the other woman by the arm and led her inside. Raquel waited outside, watching the exchange.

  "Does she stay in there all day by herself?"

  When Leonardo answered her, she jumped. She'd not heard him approach. "She's dripping in Sebastian still. We can't clear it from her. Charma and Jason no sooner make progress than the evil covers her up again. We have no solution to this. Ruby and Christophe have been searching texts but, as far as we can tell, no Outsiders have ever done to themselves what she has before."

  Raquel regarded Leonardo for a moment. Spending her life on the fringe of the world she'd gotten good at reading those around her. Leonardo struck her as a man who held a lot of secrets. He rubbed at the back of his neck. He was tired, too. And all of it had to do with the woman in the other room dripping with demon.

  "I assume by now Zane has told you what we saw."

  He nodded, a muscle ticking in his jaw. "He has."

  "And you realize she has to be saved. Alexa has got to be made whole again or that is where we are all going."

  He looked her square in the eyes. "I hear your

  words. And from what I understand, I'm the first to get dead after she gives up on life." His phrasing was funny but however he wanted to deal with the facts was his own business. "Tell me, fire starter, how do you suggest I manage such a feat?"

  "Fire starter?"

  He smiled and Zane walked over, placing his arm on hers. "Everything okay?"

  "Oh sure," Leonardo answered. "We're simply getting to know each other a little bit. When Marina first saw you—after she gained the ability to see our past lives—she called you the fire starter. I've been waiting to see who this person would turn out to be ever since. You're very unassuming for wielding so much power."

  "And you enhance us. Isn't that your role?"

  He nodded. "It's not glamorous. But it's mine. I also temper power. I can take it if I have to."

  "You seem like a smart man. From what I've heard about you, from the stories I've been told, you're really accomplished. Most of us haven't had the benefit of the kind of schooling you had." She'd barely finished high school and doubted she could even get ahold of her high school diploma should she need it since it was under a fake name.

  He raised his eyebrows. "Do you have a point?"

  "For such a smart man, do you think it's the right move to leave a woman, who was so lonely she took up residence and played house with a demon all day by herself, with only the company of worried healers to speak to? Is that how you see this getting better?"

  Leonardo waved in the direction of Alexa's room. "Feel free to go spend time with her."

  "She's with me." Zane kissed her head. "I think what she was politely trying to tell you, boss, is that you have to clean up your own mess. None of us asked for these cards. Play your hand or you're going to end up dying. I can't imagine it'll be pretty either."

  "Hey," Marina called out into the hall, "we're all waiting on you. A team meeting, so to speak. Can you guys get in here?"

  Leonardo stormed by them toward Marina and Raquel grabbed Zane's arm. "I'm starving. I can't do any kind of powwow until I eat and drink something."

  He nodded. "They can wait. Come with me."

  Zane laced their fingers together and took her into the kitchen. She'd never had someone so interested in what she needed before. When she was hungry, she'd had to either find herself something to eat or go without. He dropped her hand and started pulling food out of makeshift cabinets.

  She grabbed his arm. "I can do it. You don't have to cook for me."

  "I like to cook. And I want to. So go sit down. We need to talk out of earshot of the others anyway."

  Dorstore, who basically considered himself her would-be pimp for all things fire related, ordered her around. Otherwise no one did. Still, Zane telling her he wanted to feed her was different than the way things had been before. She actually wanted to do what he said.

  Taking a seat, she watched him as he turned on a working gas oven and started to heat some water. His gaze rose to meet hers. "Anything you don't eat?"

  "I've never been in a position to have enough food around that I can make choices like that. I mean I'm not allergic to anything. So, no, I'm not picky."

  He leaned forward until he could touch the top of her hand. "I know what it is to be hungry, too. You won't be anymore."

  She believed him, which filled her insides in a different way than food did. And, for the first time, she realized the sheer security he offered, the feeling of belonging mattered as much as any other basic necessity.

  Raquel had been living without it for so long.

  Her whole body shuddered.

  Zane raised a dark brow but didn't comment.

  Instead, he walked to the small fridge—how did they get those things to work in the cave—and took out a bottle of water. She took it from him and drank deep finally quenching her thirst.

  "What did you want to talk about?" She admired the way his arms looked chopping vegetables. How bad was it she'd not even thought to ask him what he was making? It didn't matter. She already knew it would be the most delicious thing she ever put in her mouth.

  "About you ri
sking yourself starting that fire to kill the zombies. That was twice in one day. Not again." His eyes were hard when he looked at her. "I mean it. We'll talk about it before you do it. And if I say no then it's no."

  Raquel set down her water. So Zane had a real domineering side to his personality it would seem. "Like you discussed it with me before you ran at them weaponless? We were supposed to stop and chat in the middle of an attack? Oh, gee, Zane, do you think it'd be okay for me to do what I was born to right about now or would you prefer me to wait until it's more convenient for you?"

  He could be domineering—that was fine. She reserved the right to be pissed.

  Chapter Four

  Zane hadn't anticipated Raquel getting angry at him. All the moral indignation he could muster while she'd been passed out cold had put him on the right side of the argument each time he'd thought about it. She was his soul mate. She shouldn't be risking herself— hands down. End of story.

  He set the vegetable soup he made in front of her and to his relief she took a spoonful before she pointed the utensil right at him and continued to yell. "And if you think for even two seconds I'm going to sit back and act like I don't have an aggressive power which can help win this war you're out of your frickin mind."

  "Raquel, up until yesterday you weren't even part of the war. You weren't anywhere near us and you knew about us, so you can't claim ignorance as the reason for not participating. That was a choice. How can you claim to be gung ho now? I don't want you to be hurt. I want you to be safe."

  She didn't speak for a moment. "I come with a lot of baggage. Particularly from a man named Michael Dorstore who has made my life hell since I first…popped into Austin. He took me around the world making people's lives hell. I was his personal fire starter. I did a lot of bad things.