Love Beyond Expectations

by Rebecca Royce

  Did the stranger not feel the cold?

  "Are you trying to go there?" She spoke with a foreign accent Alexa couldn't place. Maybe Eastern European? Alexa hadn't been enough places to really tell these things. Travel would come after justice was done.

  Having a real life would come then.

  "Are you going to answer me?"

  Alexa smiled, trying to do her best impression of the Southern belle she had very briefly been. "I do apologize. I'm afraid I'm lost in my own thoughts. I'm told that I can't get out there right now. At least for a few days. But, yes, I hope to get there eventually."

  The woman nodded. "Yes. The weather is bad. Consistently bad right there. Even when it's clear here." She pointed to Portland. "The weather over there"—the woman motioned over the island—"is always bad. Why do you think that is?"

  "I haven't the foggiest idea." She shrugged like she didn't care. However, the woman's words didn't surprise her in the least. A magical cult would of course know how to rig the weather to keep people out.

  "Right." The woman stuck out her hand. "I'm Raquel. I'm going to be staying here in town for a while. If you need anything, come and find me. I'd like to see what's on that island, too."

  "No." Alexa shook her head, and the dark-haired woman raised an eyebrow. "I mean, I appreciate the offer. I do. But, you don't want to go over there. Not ever. Those people are…not good souls."

  "Then maybe I'll fit right in." She looked Alexa up and down. "And so will you."

  Her words burned Alexa. Was the taint on her soul so obvious? Had her lack of confidence in Sebastian become a visible mark people could actually see?

  "I'm trying to be a better person."

  Raquel threw her hands in the air. "Let me know how that goes for you, Alexa."

  Raquel turned on her heel and walked away. Wait. Alexa had never told the other woman her name. How did she know it?

  "Hey."

  She called after her, but Raquel had rounded the corner away from the docks. Although her shoes were not made for running, she sped up her steps to catch wherever the really creepy stranger had gone. But when she reached the top of the street, Raquel had vanished. "Oh. What the hell?"

  The wind blew her hair, and she shuddered. Shouldn't it be warmer? New Orleans was getting downright balmy. But maybe it was all the cult's fault. Perhaps after she destroyed them, things around the area would warm up.

  In the meantime, if she couldn't get onto the island right that second, see Gabriel, and begin her plan then she had to get lodging. A hotel room with a hot bath and a pay-per-view movie.

  Her mouth watered, and she tried to push away the feeling. It wasn't food she wanted, and there was no way on earth she was going to start drinking blood. She'd rather die.

  * * * *

  Gia swept under one last table. After she finished this, she'd be done for the night. Then she could go upstairs, put her feet up, and wait for her roommate to come back from whatever he'd done with his day. She didn't want to ask. There were laws. If he ever got arrested, she'd really like to be able to say she had no idea where he went day to day.

  Truth was, she loved having Zane around. For the first time ever, she could take a deep breath and not worry that someone might discover her secrets. Zane knew them, he shared them.

  If only she could just love him. But apparently, he wasn't her soul mate.

  "Because that would be too fucking easy." She shook her head, returning the broom back to the closet where they kept it.

  A cool breeze traveled up her back, and she shuddered. Like someone walked on her grave.

  All day she'd had those kind of thoughts. It was like someone harmed her, but every time she tried to identify where her malaise came from, she couldn't put her finger on the cause. She shook her head. Most likely it would turn out to be nothing. Just a little spooky mumbo jumbo traveling through her mind. Her mother would have said it was hormones.

  Not that she really felt like she ever had any. Considering she had no sex drive.

  She turned off the lights and headed upstairs. About halfway up the stairs, she ran. With no understanding of why, she busted through her door like the devil himself chased her. Her mind immediately went to the demon that she had to battle. Perhaps someone from hell was chasing her.

  The door took forever to open. She got inside, closed it behind her, and locked it. Her heart beat so fast she feared she might pass out. Sinking to her knees, she tried and failed to control her breathing.

  "Gia?" Zane walked out of the back. He must have been shaving, there were bits of cream on his neck that he'd missed.

  "Zane." She pounded on the floor. Somehow she had to calm down.

  "What are you doing?" He walked toward her, kneeling down. "What's the matter?"

  "I ran." She panted but could feel herself calming with his presence.

  "Yes? Why?" He looked up at the door. "Is someone out there?"

  "No." She stood up, feeling shaky but okay. Gia wasn't alone. Zane had her back. If she knew anything, it was that Outsiders were clearly not supposed to be alone. Even if she wasn't with her other half, it felt so much better to have another one of her people with her.

  "Then why…?"

  Foolishness swept through her, making her cheeks heat up. "I don't know. I guess I just got scared. I can't really explain it. Doesn't that ever happen to you?" She waved her hand to wipe away the question. "Forget it. I can already tell it doesn't."

  "I have been afraid." He sat down on the floor next to her and wiped away the stray shaving cream.

  "Yeah?" She rubbed at her eyes, suddenly exhausted. "When would that have been?"

  "I grew up in some pretty rough places, but nothing was as bad as this one time in New York City. It wasn't the Big Apple of now. Back then, things could be really rough on the streets. I'd run away from a foster home. Who needed that crap? Anyway, I saw some things that night that I now think had to do with the demon."

  She rubbed her nose. "What did you think they were at the time?"

  "Really fucked up drug addicts." He shrugged. "I'd taken some stuff myself. I'm not proud of that. But, I was in a pretty desperate state."

  "Right. Drugs don't work on us like that. It's even hard to get drunk."

  "Yeah. Well, I didn't know that." He stood up. "So I thought I was seeing things because I was fucked up. Now, I know I'm an Outsider, which means the fact that two guys were walking around ripping out the hearts of other people in a club probably happened. In real life. Not just in my imagination. I was pretty terrified."

  "You saw hearts ripped out?" She shuddered. "Yes, that would be pretty scary."

  "Why don't you go relax? Take a bath. I'll cook dinner."

  "You cook?"

  He grinned. "Yeah."

  "All right. I don't cook. But tomorrow I'll order in for us."

  "It's a deal."

  Yeah, she really, really liked having a roommate.

  * * * *

  Zane stepped out into the hall. Gia didn't know why she got scared. That much was evident, and she'd gone out of her way to calm herself down. However, that didn't exactly mean she'd been wrong to have fear.

  He opened the door. Breaking into safes, using his voice to make people do what he wanted, speaking to ghosts—they were all small powers. But his blood pounded in his ears, telling him that he needed to get rid of whatever had freaked out his roommate.

  Closing the door behind him, he stepped out of their apartment. It was freezing out in the hallway. He sniffed the air but didn't scent anything out of the ordinary. Closing his ears, he listened.

  Other people couldn't do it—they were human. Zane could hear things. The smallest tick in an unbreakable safe allowed him to simply open the dial. If there was something in the hall, he wouldn't be able to see it or smell it but damn, he'd be able to hear it.

  Nothing struck him at first, and then the whispering started. He almost missed the sound because the chanting in his ears, the ones he heard so rarely, the ones tha
t told him that he did the right thing, made so much noise.

  "Quiet it down, please." Amazingly the singing became barely a flicker of noise. That's when the whisper he'd been pretty sure he heard became clear to him.

  "Die, Outsiders."

  Zane raised his eyebrows, not opening his eyes.

  "Want to say that again?"

  "Die, Outsiders."

  He immediately ruled out the demon. No way would that thing be sitting in the hall saying Die Outsiders. If his eyes were open, Zane would have rolled them.

  "Yeah, that's what I thought I heard." Zane shook his head. This was some run-of-the-mill, pissed off ghost.

  The demon would have concerned him. This just made him mad.

  "You will all die."

  "We might." He couldn't deny that fact. Zane knew nothing about epic battles. He could barely manage to put one foot in front of the other. They might die. "It won't be because you're out here threatening a woman, chasing her up the stairs."

  "She should know pain and fear."

  "If you come near her again, I will search high and low until I find some sort of ghost remover. And then I'll be sure you get sent some place awful, some place downright uncomfortable. Got it? Go away. Or I'll give you pain."

  Zane walked back into the apartment and closed the door. Frickin' ghost.

  "And if you start to rattle bars or windows, or bleed the walls, I'm taking you out too. No contact. Got it?"

  If Gia came out of the bathroom, she'd think him insane. Who shouted to himself in the living room?

  He walked to the window, his mind shifting to thoughts of dinner. He'd just throw together some spaghetti and meatballs. It would be fast. He didn't know what she liked to eat. But everyone liked spaghetti. Or at least, he thought they did. If she didn't, he'd figure it out fast.

  Zane stared down at the street. A woman looked back up at him. He blinked to make sure he hadn't imagined her, but she remained there. Skinny with short black hair, she wore a skirt and a T-shirt.

  His heart turned over in his chest, and he forgot to breathe. Dressed so, she must have be freezing. She was the single most breathtaking creature he'd ever beheld. Her face was long with high cheekbones. Although it was dark, except for the streetlight below, he could see her eyes, small and slightly slanted, like a pixie staring up at him.

  She must be freezing. His heart picked up, and like Gia had moments earlier, he panted as if he'd run a race.

  Tears streamed down her face, and she turned away, breaking their seconds of eye contact.

  He knew in that instant she meant to leave. He couldn't—wouldn't—have that.

  Charging as fast as he'd ever moved, he stormed out of the apartment. His feet stomped loudly on the stairs while he made his way out the back door of the bar. He rounded the corner and knew before he even got there that it would be too late.

  His fantasy woman, who looked exactly like he'd always pictured her, had vanished.

  Left and right, he ran around like a lunatic. She wasn't fucking there. He kicked the side of the building several times.

  His woman had been crying. What had been wrong? He shook his head, calling out to the sky for some answers.

  When none came, he slowly made his way back to the apartment. His cock ached. For the first time in his life, he wanted a woman. His soul mate. Although she might not be more than a ghost.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Christophe stroked Ruby's hair. He loved the softness and how easy it was to run his hands through it. But they didn't have time for his amorous thoughts. Not when he had to deliver some devastating news and then figure out what to do about the preacher.

  She studied her books. The whole group had decided to go with them to get Jacob Talbot's cane. But, the general consensus had been that it made sense to wait until after there was some kind of news on Marina. Christophe wanted to do whatever Ruby wanted.

  His cell phone rang, and he stared down at it. In the chaos of everything, he'd forgotten he had one. The idea that they had cell service on the island didn't fit with the remote, "we're safe here" vibe they had gone for in creating the place. Who would be calling him?

  The number on the screen told him it was his mother trying to reach him. He sighed. How long could he put her off? Ruby raised a questioning eyebrow while she watched him. She would probably do anything to speak to her human family again, and he had been avoiding his for too long.

  He answered. "Hello, Mother."

  Deliberately keeping his language in English so Ruby could hear at least his half of the conversation, he knew it would throw his mom off for a second. But, like everything else she managed to do, switching to English would not be a problem for the woman who had raised him.

  "Hello, Christophe. Are you well?" His mother's voice wavered. He hoped she wasn't going to start to cry.

  "I am well." He stared at Ruby. "Better than that, actually. I'm deeply in love."

  Ruby squirmed about until she sat more closely next to him on the bed.

  "You are?" This time he couldn't mistake the sucking in of her breath for anything else. His mother cried. He hoped some of it was tinged with happiness for him.

  "Who is this girl?"

  "A fellow professor at Columbia. She's wonderful."

  "An American?" He could picture her pacing the living room.

  "Yes. An American." Sort of. None of them were really anything. Then again, his mother would know that. She had to; she'd not, after all, actually given birth to him.

  "I always expected you'd come back here and when you were ready, marry a French girl." His mother sighed. "I suppose you'll be staying there then, yes?"

  "Her name is Ruby." He couldn't deal with her expectations; he'd had enough of his own to get over.

  "That's lovely."

  "Yes." He waited a beat. There was no delicate way to ask her what he needed to know. "Were you ever going to tell me the truth of where I came from?"

  His mother fell silent. Had she hung up? "Mom?"

  "How did you know?"

  He rubbed at his forehead. Why hadn't he realized this would be hard? "Because there are others like me. People who are…different."

  "You were my gift. You appeared out of nowhere. We couldn't have children. We'd been told. And then there was you…"

  He cut her off. This was more than he could deal with at the moment. "Listen. It's okay. Everything will work out the way it's going to. But, it's going to be a long time until I can get home. There are some things I have to do. When it's over, we'll come see you."

  "I see." She sucked in her breath. "I always knew you were special. You had to be. Whatever this is, you'll be careful?"

  "I will." His already upset mother did not need to hear the details of this whole thing. She wouldn't believe it anyway. Or maybe she would. Either way, he had to get off the phone. "I love you, and I'll call you when I can."

  "I love you, too. Be safe." He disconnected the phone.

  Ruby ran her hand up his back. "You okay?"

  "Yes." Since giving out bad news seemed to the be the way this day had been set up to go, he might as well get it all out on the table. "I get to make you upset now."

  "Oh?" She moved until she sat in front of him on the bed. "What's going on?"

  He reached out to stroke her arm. "You're so beautiful."

  "Thank you. But that doesn't make me upset. In fact, it makes me feel really good inside."

  "Unfortunately, mon coeur, that is not what I have to tell you. I just had to say it because it happens to be true."

  "Whatever it is, get it out." Her gaze met his. Where did her tremendous patience come from?

  "Right before I got here, I took one of my unexpected trips. I landed on a farm. It was dilapidated. Inside, I found a very upset ghost."

  Ruby shivered. "I can't believe you talk to ghosts. I'm really happy to have not gotten that gift."

  "Right. It's not the worst actually. Usually they have something interesting to share, or some way I ca
n help them." He shook his head. "But that is neither here nor there."

  "What did the ghost do or say?"

  "Well, Ruby. To be honest, she was your mother. I didn't realize you were the Ruby at the time, but it seems rather clear to me now." He took her hands in his.

  "My human mother is a ghost?" She shook her head. "Why would she have stayed here? Why remain a ghost?"

  She stared at him like he could offer her some kind of explanation. He'd do his best but knew it would be flimsy at best.

  "I think she remained so she could pass on information to me. Something I needed to know."

  The muscles in her throat clenched. "What?"

  "That a preacher—and I would place all my money on it being Jacob Talbot—convinced her to kill herself. She realized after the deed was done, so to speak, that it was in order to get to you. He manipulated your mother to get to you. In the worst possible way."

  Ruby stood, pulling her hands from his. Her eyes were huge. "He wanted me?" She tapped her hands to her chest. "Well then, he's going to get me. And we'll see how he likes it."

  "Ruby…"

  "No." She shook her head. "No more waiting. Jacob Talbot killed my mother? I guess he's going to see what happens when an Outsider gets really pissed off."

  He sat up on his knees. Ruby was beautiful in her fury. He'd never seen her not gorgeous but had to say that in a rage, Ruby stunned.

  "What do you think you'll do?" He really did want to know. The way the woman's brain worked consistently amazed him. If she came up with a plan, it was bound to work.

  "I don't have a plan. I'm just going to, for once, think on my feet."

  "Sweetheart, I don't know if that is sound. Perhaps we could put our heads together and sort this out."

  "I'm tired of being thoughtful. I feel the need to kick some butt. I know you know what I'm talking about. You've been ranting for two days now, needing to pummel something." She walked to him and took his hand. "Just do it. Take us over there, and we'll handle Jacob Talbot like the bug he is. We'll squash his sorry ass."

  "I don't think saying take me to Jacob Talbot is going to particularly…"

  He felt the pull over take him and could have cursed himself for speaking aloud. Ruby held his hand. He'd uttered the words. They were, like it or not, being taken to Jacob Talbot.