Beyond The Veil: A Paranormal & Magical Romance Boxed Set

by Multiple Authors

  "I want to share myself with you, but I don't know how," he says quietly. "And I think if I do and you reject me, the pain will be too much."

  His words stun, classic Alek mood swing in action here. "You're pushing me away, Alek."

  "I'm trying to protect myself from you."

  "What do you mean? I said I'll stop if I'm draining you, we can both stop."

  "No, Rose, not from you taking my energy, but from you taking my ability to stay inside myself and protect myself from hurt. I want you. But not just the part of you that I physically crave; I want us."

  The sadness etched on his features, in his downturned mouth and confused expression, tugs at my heart. "Then you have to give yourself to us."

  “I’ve already given you a lot more than I ever have before – alive or as this. This terrifies me because everything I feel is so sudden and out of control.”

  “That’s the energy connection, though.” Is he really saying he feels more than that?

  "Can you see I'm saying these things without touching you? To prove to you this is more than the physical ache I have around you?"

  "Alek, you're carrying a lot of pain with you. I don't know if it's from your isolation or from your life before you died, but let some go instead of turning it to anger."

  He touches my cheek with his fingers. "I'm trying; but you make me feel vulnerable, as if you've got your hands around my heart and you could tear it out at any moment."

  The usual physical intensity between us is eclipsed by the words and the painful truth in his eyes. We've been pushed together, into a shared reality, and touched part of each others’ lives. We’re lost souls who have connected; and what’s growing between us is more than physical.

  And that scares me more than anything else, too.

  "Let me in, then. If you feel vulnerable, don't lash out at me, or that's what will happen."

  Alek strokes a damp strand of hair from my face. His lips touch mine; a soft buzz sparks into life whatever lives inside me that wants Alek physically. He inhales and we both fight the growing intoxication. I turn my head away and bury my face into his chest, and Alek, hesitantly, wraps his arms around me. We haven't held each other since the night in his bed, as if we only can if everything else is satiated.

  "Help me make this right," he whispers into my hair. "Make me believe someone as beautiful inside and out as you could possibly have room for me and my darkness."

  My heart flips at these words coming from Alek, at the sad earnestness from the depths of a lost soul. As he strokes my back, I know this can't last and we'll give into the building surge of arousal. But in this moment, I can understand how Alek feels about me - us - is more than I believed; how I feel for him is more than I admit.

  Chapter Twenty

  The Alek I wake up with the next morning has loosened, his eyes less guarded than before. We shared a bed last night, despite my better judgement. Inevitably, our comforting embrace became something physical and intensely sexual, but we fell asleep together, and I awoke wrapped in his arms. A voice niggles I’ll regret him using me again but after our conversation last night, I’m more comfortable with the situation.

  Alek sits at the table as I get ready for my hospital shift, eating toast as he watches me move around.

  "Are you working tonight?" I ask him.

  "I'm not leaving you alone in the house until we figure out where the stronger Shades are coming from."

  "I fought the last one, Alek. I'll be okay."

  "Maybe, but I don't want to risk losing you."

  I don't want to revisit last night's conversation. "We've been invited to a party."

  "A party? Whose? You don’t know anyone." He smirks. "Don't tell me... the ghostbuster?"

  I hit him on the head with the teaspoon I'm holding. "He's not a ghostbuster. Why are you so horrible?"

  "Because he's a sad geek?"

  "One day, I think you’ll eat those words. He's helping you. Us."

  "I'll think about it." He shoves toast into his mouth. Funny, we still have to sustain our bodies; the need for people's energy is in addition to food and not instead of it. In a way, I'm happy; I can't imagine a life without junk food.

  I haven't seen Lizzie since yesterday and when I mention her, Alek gets cagey. A creeping feeling he's not telling me everything grows.

  On the way to work, I check my phone. There are a couple more messages from Finn, which I ignore, but ignoring Finn forever isn’t an option. I check my jobs list when I arrive for my shift and groan when I spot ICU on there. Suspiciously, Finn's roster always matches mine, so I suspect he's working today.

  Finn goes one better and hovers outside the entrance to the porters' locker area as I arrive for work. He leans against the scuffed, magnolia-painted wall, legs crossed at the ankles and hands folded across his chest. He isn't dressed in nurse's blues; instead, he has long legs in dark denim and a black shirt over a T-shirt. His tattoo is visible, snaking around his wrist.

  "Hey, Rose," he says as I approach.

  "Finn."

  "I really need to talk to you."

  "What about?"

  "About what's happening. I get the impression you think I'm killing people.” He cocks a brow.

  I want him to leave. "Someone is."

  "Correct. Not me."

  I step to one side as a guy passes us to get into the room. "Who?"

  "Tom gave you the wrong story. Yesterday, when I saw you in ICU, were you checking up on me?"

  "Tom?" I rub my head. "When did you speak to Tom?"

  "Yesterday. Nice guy, invited me to a party." Amusement sparkles in his eyes. "Are you going to the party?"

  "Maybe."

  "With Crazy Boy?"

  I ignore him. "What did Tom say?"

  "Look, why don't we sit down?" I eye him dubiously. "I'll buy you another cup of tasteless coffee?"

  Curiosity overrides common sense and I sit at the scratched wooden table, wiping away crumbs from the last occupants. Finn queues with the two cups in his hands, waiting to pay. Has this become our unofficial meeting room? His height is noticeable around others, but he's not as imposing as he could be. I study people around him, as if their reactions to him were a measure of his nature. A young guy leans around him to pick up a sandwich from the display and their arms brush. No reaction. I guess it's just me who gets frozen pain when he touches; otherwise, how else could he be a nurse? The public has more of a problem with me than with Finn.

  Finn returns and drops two chocolate chip muffins onto the table next to the cups. I pick one up and tear open the plastic wrap. "Thanks."

  "No problem."

  The first time we sat and chatted, he was confident and aloof. This time Finn sits stiffly, tapping his long fingers on the side of his cup.

  I lean down to get my phone from my bag and he startles. I frown. "I'm not leaving."

  "How long until your shift starts?"

  "Half hour."

  Finn rubs a broad palm across his face. "There's so much more going on than I thought," he says. "I thought this was about you, but they've thrown me right into the middle of shit."

  His stronger language surprises me. "So you did... come here for me?"

  We're in a corner, at a table as removed from everyone else as we can get. I sip my coffee, grimace at the lack of improvement in taste, and then look expectantly at him.

  "That Tom guy, he's deceptive-looking."

  "What do you mean?"

  "He has a lot of knowledge and looks so ordinary. He threw all these questions at me about Reapers, knew things I didn't think humans did."

  I flinch at Finn using the word human so casually, putting people in a different box to us. "He has a network."

  "He said. I'd like to get to know him better. Maybe he can help me, once he realises I'm not the bad guy here." He studies my attempt at an impassive face. "You do believe I'm not the bad guy?"

  I slump back and study him. "You don't have a bad vibe about you but I'm not the best jud
ge, am I? I saw you with someone; someone Tom believes is killing people in the hospital."

  “Who?”

  "The doctor I saw you with in the ICU room where the patient died.” I study Finn’s reaction, hoping to gauge the truth.

  “He’s nothing to do with me! He knows who I am, and I’ve been trying to counteract what he’s doing. The doctor, he's a demon and a powerful one. He's orchestrating the deaths and calling on the Dark to take their souls."

  "And you’re not involved? Tom thinks you might be Dark."

  "No, Rose! I’m not a Dark Reaper!"

  "What are you then?"

  Finn rubs his hands across his face. "Fuck it," he mutters, and drops his hands, fixing the intense blue eyes on mine. "What do you think a Reaper is, Rose?"

  "Someone who takes souls when people die?"

  "It's a little more complicated than that. People are assigned their time of death before they enter the world and follow their human lives until that moment. Then, Reapers arrive at the allotted time to take the souls into the next world. We never kill people; we go to them when they’re dying. Dark Reapers want to take the souls for themselves instead. They interrupt the natural course of someone’s life by creating an accident or event and wait for them to die. If we don't get to those dying quickly enough, their souls are lost to the Dark. Anyone who is taken by the Dark is tortured day after day until they break and agree to become a demon."

  "The Dark Reaper came for me and Jamie?"

  Finn scrunches his face in the way people do when you know they're going to give you bad news. "Jamie's time was due to end; yours wasn't, so I was there to take his soul. You weren't supposed to die, too; when I saw you dying and saw the Dark Reaper, I knew he'd come for you. I was on my own and I didn't know what to do."

  "What did you do?" I whisper.

  "The Dark had his hands inside you, taking your soul. I wasn't assigned to help you Over, so I was going to leave you until I saw you fighting against your fate." The world retreats into the distant memories from the night, and I shake the feeling away. "I left Jamie...I interrupted the Dark and we fought until I managed to banish him. I shouldn't have, but I couldn't stand seeing your pain and knowing what your soul would suffer if he took you. When I won, I was happy because I thought I'd saved your soul and could send you Over with Jamie.”

  "But you didn’t? Why didn’t you?"

  "Other Reapers appeared, screaming at me for interfering. I didn't understand what I'd done wrong. They told me I wasn't allowed to take your soul because the Dark Reaper had torn into it. Your soul was broken and your physical body dead. They told me to leave you, but I couldn't. If I'd left you, you'd be stuck in the Void, or the Dark would come back for you and it would be my fault."

  The image from the fog, from the dreams and of the men around me, contained him. I always knew. "So how am I here?" I ask hoarsely.

  Finn inhales and closes his eyes. "I gave you life and returned you to the living again, not understanding what a fuck-up that would be."

  "Is that why I'm... like this? Because I have no soul?" I whisper.

  "You do have a soul but it's broken. You’re tainted by the Dark, and that's why you feed off human energy to counteract the demon tainting you after that night."

  I squeeze my fingers around the warm cup. "Demon? I'm not a demon!"

  Finn closes his hand around mine and the icy sensation travels along my veins again. I snatch my arm away. "Tell me I'm not a demon!"

  A young guy carrying a tray containing a sandwich and fruit glances at me oddly, and I look down at the table. I pick the chocolate chips from the muffin and eat them. I can't comprehend what he's telling me, but my gut instinct is it's true. What does my existence mean now? It’s not one where I eat muffins and work a dead-end job, that’s for sure.

  "Not really," says Finn. "You're Between."

  "Between. I know, Alek said I'm between worlds."

  "But what worlds, Rose?"

  "This one and the dead."

  Fin shakes his head. "The demon realm and the angel realm. You're alive but damaged."

  I stand, chair nearly tipping. "I can't listen to this..."

  "Rose. Stay. Listen." He grips my sleeve, careful not to touch me. "You're powerful, that's the whole point. That's why you're a danger to us and the Dark want you. Because you’re Between, you have the ability to cross into any of the realms - demon, angel, the Void. Nobody else can do that.”

  Finn pauses and rubs the back of his neck; the wary look in his eyes worries me. “What? There’s something else, isn’t there? What else?” I ask.

  “I created you, so you also have some of my power; you can heal people, maybe even give them life. That makes you more dangerous – and more desirable to the Dark."

  “How can I? I take human energy when I’m close.”

  “You can choose not to.”

  A sick churning in my stomach accompanies everything Finn tells me. This is his fault. "You made me this creature, Finn?"

  He looks at the table. "I didn’t realise what I was doing, but at least I saved you from going to Hell with the Dark.”

  The cafe bustles around us, the scraping chairs and low voices on the periphery of my thoughts and life. I didn’t ask for this. "I wish you hadn't interfered, Finn."

  "I wanted to help you. I still do." Finn shakes his head slowly, focusing on his cup.

  "How? How can you possibly help me? You were sent to fix the mistake - me."

  "I don't know, but I'll do everything I can to fix you, not the mistake. I don’t want to harm you, Rose"

  I blink back at him. "I have to go…"

  The blood plummeting from my head toward my toes is cold, not from Finn’s touch but from everything he’s told me. He doesn’t follow me, so I pause and place a hand on the cool hospital wall.

  I fight the fog. And I win.

  Chapter Twenty-one

  The idea of going to a party when earlier today I discovered I'm part demon (or something) doesn't exactly appeal. How will other people react to me while I'm there? I dress in leggings and a short, blue-cotton dress, topping the outfit with a blue cardigan because I don't want my scars showing. Slipping on a pair of black flats, I head downstairs.

  Alek sits on the sofa with a beer in hand and stands when I enter the room. I haven't spoken to him about Finn yet, and Finn's words have churned around my mind since our meeting. What about Alek? Who created him?

  "Why are you looking at me like that?" he asks.

  "No reason. Are you going to work?"

  "No, I'm coming with you to the party." He places his bottle on the coffee table.

  My stomach turns at the thought of Alek, Finn, and a houseful of happy ghost hunters. "I didn't think you were going?"

  Alek picks my phone up from beside the bottle and holds it out to me. "I wasn't going to, but it appears your Reaper will be there."

  "What the... Alek, how dare you!" I snatch the phone from him. I’ve had a few texts from Finn asking if I was okay since our talk. "What are you doing reading my messages?"

  "What are you doing sneaking round with him?" he demands.

  "I am not sneaking!"

  "You know he can't touch you, right?" Alek's arms are folded tightly across his chest; normally he'd approach me and touch me.

  "Are you jealous? Do you think I want him to or something?"

  Alek snorts. "As if. I'm pissed off with you putting yourself in danger, that’s all."

  "Danger from what? Dying properly so I'm not stuck in this weird life?"

  "You can't die!" snaps Alek. "You'll end up stuck, which is worse than this. The only way to die is..." he pauses. "You can't die."

  "What? Tell me what you mean! How?"

  Alek's face darkens and he shakes his head as if shaking a thought away. "You can lose your existence, but your soul will always be lost. That's why we need each other." He approaches me, holding out a hand. "I need you, Rose," he says softly as he winds my long hair around his hand. "And y
ou need me."

  I brace myself for one of Alek's hungry kisses, ready to resist. Instead, he presses his lips softly to mine and rubs his nose against my cheek. This intimate, almost-loving gesture takes me by surprise and has the opposite effect to what I intended.

  Any attempt to fight against what connects and sparks between us is useless. Anger with him is washed away, and for the first time, how terrifying this is strikes me. I don't want to need someone or be needed. However good this feels, or amazing the sex, I will always struggle with having choices made for me. How can I be strong, as Finn says, if I depend on Alek?

  Alek slides his hand down my back and pulls me closer, his body fusing to mine as if we were always meant to fit together. He nudges his face into my hair. "Come on, I promise not to attack anyone. Even Finn."

  ***

  The noise from Tom's house carries toward us as I walk down the street with a hunched Alek. His arm is wrapped protectively around my shoulders, and he rubs a thumb along my neck. I shift away.

  When we arrive, I'm surprised by the number of guests; I didn’t take Tom as the popular kind. A lot of them look like students. There’re one or two faces I recognise from the hospital; colleagues of Tom's, I suppose. Tom greets me like his best friend and introduces me proudly to anybody who cares. Not many do, but I expected that. He and Alek exchange short greetings.

  "I'm glad there are plenty of people here," Alek says, close to my ear, and then disappears into the kitchen. He bumps into a girl in the doorway, and he puts a hand on her arm to get by. An unfamiliar feeling grips me at the sight of Alek touching someone else. Jealousy. The blonde-haired girl steps away from him and rubs her arm, but she watches him walk into the kitchen. As he disappears from sight, she rushes to another girl and whispers something. The girl cranes her neck for a view of Alek.

  If only they knew. I turn back to Tom. Alek returns and skulks in the corner of the lounge, beer bottle attached as usual. The loud music makes conversation difficult, and I'm amused when Tom decides to turn it down. Alek watches and after his talk of 'need' before, the intensity of his gaze unnerves me. I'm confused and unhappy; being at a party with people my own age sharply focuses my new reality.