Love Beyond Lies

by Rebecca Royce

  “Right. Goodnight, Gabriel. Thanks for the lift.” Colin squeezed her fingers and dragged her down the hall. He was significantly taller than she was and she had to speed up so she didn’t end up stumbling.

  Finally, when they were a good distance away, she dug in. “Colin, you’re going to take off my arm.”

  “Sorry.” He slowed down. When he got monosyllabic like this he was really pissed off. They got to their set of rooms. He opened the door, brought her inside and closed the door behind him, all without saying anything.

  She wanted to scream but forced calm. “Colin?”

  “The wards in here are strong. Marina is on her game. I don’t believe anything we don’t want to get through is going to get through, at least not while the scribe lives.” He rushed to the corner and took off his jacket. When she’d told him they were going out, he’d changed into the black garment. Why hadn’t she told him how good he looked in it? Why didn’t she ever think to do those things? Why were they that busy?

  She looked around. The wards were never visible, and though there was a constant buzzing outside, she’d gotten to where she didn’t notice the sounds unless she was listening for them. Yes, the room seemed very well protected at that moment. They’d had very little evil intrusion in the last few months. When Marina was really working her powers, things tended to go as they were supposed to.

  “Yes, it’s good in here. Can we talk about what happened?”

  He shook his head. “No time. Christophe and Ruby are… busy. I’m going to go break into their private area and get a book or two that I need.”

  “What do you mean busy? And why can’t you just ask him for the book.”

  Colin rounded on her. “Because that would require me to tell him what the hell we just unleashed and I have no intention of doing that. I need the book to learn the method of getting the shadow guy away. I’m perfectly capable of doing it. I love my brother, but if I tell him, he’s going to get all rule-following on me and tell Leonardo. Then we’ll all have to discuss how you and I fucked up tonight. I’m not sure I can take anymore holier than thou from anyone else at the moment. No one has to know about this except you and me. It’ll be over. Soon.” He squared his shoulders. Going invisible more than once an hour exhausted him. Yet, he was going to do it and she knew he’d be successful because Colin always was. “And by busy I mean they’re having sex.”

  She sucked in her breath. “They’re having sex and you know this how?”

  He shrugged. That was his go-to move lately. He shrugged. Gabriel shrugged. All the guys were doing it. Did anyone care about anything anymore or were they all just over their lives?

  Finally, he spoke. “I know because it’s a twin thing. If I really want to know what he’s doing, I can kind of tune in. I don’t, most of the time. These are extenuating circumstances and presumably they won’t be going at it forever. Unfortunately, he tends to know when I’m there, invisible or not, and I don’t want him catching me. Be back in a bit.”

  Gia’s head swam with this new information. “Does he know when we’re having sex?”

  There was that shrug again. “Do you want me to ask him?”

  He blinked out of existence like he wasn’t there at all. His invisibility floored her and she should be used to it by now. The problem was that most of the time Colin didn’t use that power. He was super strong and that came in handy a lot more during battle. He’d basically become Leonardo’s enforcer when it came to managing the things they had to fight.

  She sank into her chair. They were far away and the wards were helping but she could still feel the shadow there, at the corner of her mind. He wanted in.

  She’d poked him with her powers. He’d had a taste, and he craved more.

  Gia stared at the door. Colin would be back soon. He’d get this done. He always saved her. She swallowed. Just once she wanted to be the one who made a difference. She wanted him to look at her and say, “Yes, that’s my soul mate. She saved the day.”

  Now

  In their current circumstances, Gia could still feel the shadow trying to get in her brain. This was different. In their past life Colin had effectively cut the thing off—and they’d thought killed it. It seemed even stronger now, pounding at her head.

  “Colin, I know this is just one more thing to deal with but this thing is on me like it’s officially attached to my brain. In the last year, I’ve been mostly able to elude it. This is different.”

  He kissed her forehead. “Not getting you.” He looked up at the sky. “Hey, I need Drew or I need Gabriel and I need them now. Or Alexa. I hear she’s popping around now, flying or some shit. I know you can hear me up there, ancestors. Eden needs to have a vision or Drew or whoever the fuck. I need someone here right the fuck now.”

  She didn’t know if that was going to be particularly effective. The ancestors never seemed to listen to her pleas. They felt perfectly within their rights to fill her head with visions of the past that she couldn’t say no to, and she had to paint over and over. But, listen? Nah, that never happened.

  Gabriel popped into view. His eyes were huge. She hadn’t seen him in this lifetime and he looked quite different than the last time she’d seen him. His hair was long, to his shoulders, he had a slight beard on his face, and he was significantly more muscular than she could ever remember him being. To that end, Colin was stronger too. Did they work out all the time?

  Also missing was his bored, uninterested gaze. He ran over to them. “You guys okay? Hi, Gia. Good to see you. Loraine will be excited. The women are missing you something fierce.”

  “We need to get back and fast. As soon as we’re in, Marina has to close the wards. Hard. I’ll have to explain. I’m going to be up shit creek with Leonardo. Or maybe not. His head? I don’t know anymore.”

  Gabriel nodded once. “I’ve got your back, brother.”

  He did? She held onto Colin’s arm. Who was this person in this lifetime? He was very, very changed. She drew her gaze to Colin. Who was her soul mate? What had changed so drastically while she’d been trying to keep them all safe from the trouble she brought with her?

  Colin had said things were bad. How much worse had she just made them? Gabriel put his hand on both their arms. “Hold on.”

  In an instant, she was in a living room of a house. Commotion buzzed all around them. She was quickly pulled away from Colin and into someone’s embrace. It took her a second to realize it was Charma.

  “You’re here.” The other woman squealed and she grinned. Charma and Gia had always been close. Well, everyone loved Charma. It was hard not to.

  “And she’s brought something with her.” Marina tugged her into a quick hug. “What has attached itself to you, girl?”

  “I…”

  Colin answered, stopping her from having to explain. “I did something fucked up in our last life. Well, I’ve done something bad in almost all of our lives, but this specific one was from the previous life. Something worse than Fitz. It’s followed us here.”

  Kal stepped forward. Surreal didn’t begin to describe the feeling of seeing all of these people again after so much time apart. That had never happened before. They’d all been together, always. “How bad, Colin?”

  Christophe put his arm around Colin’s shoulder. “Can’t be any more screwed up than the rest of us. What’s happening?”

  In an instant, Jason appeared in the room with Drew and Zane. Drew set Zane down on the couch and Jason rushed over to him. Zane had always been tough… the most emotionally remote of any of them and to see him writhing in pain was an image she wasn’t sure she’d ever witnessed before. They’d briefly lived together in Maine.

  Was he hurt?

  Leonardo rushed down the stairs. “How badly is he hurt?”

  “Badly,” Jason snapped back. “Get the fuck out of my way and let me fix him.”

  Oh, and that was a big change too. Leonardo stepped back. “Let me know if I can help.”

  “Go get your soul mate back. T
hat would help a ton.”

  Leonardo looked away and caught sight of her. He walked toward them. “Gia, thank the heavens. You’re here. Finally something moving in our direction. Good work, Colin.”

  “You might not want to thank me. We’ve brought something else with us.”

  Leonardo ran a hand through his hair. “Tell me.”

  Gia tried to catch her breath. There was a lot to process. Gabriel’s southern accent and Christophe’s French one. Everyone talking all at once. Eden was blind.

  Gia knew one thing for certain, Colin was about to take responsibility for her screw up, as though he’d been the one to get them into this.

  Drew disappeared and then reappeared, this time with Raquel. She threw herself down next to Zane. “Jason?”

  “I’ve got it under control.” That was good news.

  Gia finally found her voice. “I used my powers on some kind of shadow in the last lifetime. We thought we dealt with him. Thing is, he’s here. Again. And after me.”

  Silence fell over the room. Marina snapped her fingers and the pressure on her head lessened. She’d clearly strengthened their wards. Gia took a breath.

  “Why are we only hearing about this now?” Leonardo looked between her and Colin. “What do you mean you handled it?”

  Colin answered. “It was my idea to not tell any of you last time. I thought I killed it.”

  Leonardo nodded. “And you didn’t tell me because you hold me in such disdain that you’d rather keep this shit to yourself than ask for help?”

  “Well…” Colin visibly swallowed. “Last lifetime I did. This time? You’ve really screwed things up, but I like you better. Are we going to go all emotional now and talk about our feelings?”

  Charma sighed loudly. “You could use some emotional counseling. All of you. Don’t knock it ’til you’ve tried it.”

  Marina stepped back. “What I did won’t hold off a wraith for long. You can’t kill a shadow. You can trap it. And, unfortunately, to do that…” Her voice trailed off.

  “We need Alexa,” Leonardo supplied.

  Across the room, Kal laughed. “Of course we do.”

  In some ways it was just like being back at home. And in some ways this place, these people, were brand new, as though she’d never met them before.

  Three

  Leonardo

  The world burned around him. Not in his wildest dreams could Leonardo have ever imagined that he’d be sitting around in a park with a view so clear of New York that he could see the buildings burn. And instead of fighting for the people of this planet, he was talking to a fucking demon.

  Sebastian had changed sides to fight against his father. He was untrustworthy and absolutely their enemy. But since Sebastian had helped Zane escape from the prison of his own mind, Leonardo had begrudgingly agreed that they could use his help for the time being in taking out Sebastian’s father. Afterward, they’d kill Sebastian too.

  Leonardo sighed. Of course none of that was happening if he couldn’t win back the love and trust of his soul mate, Alexa. Given that everything wrong with his relationship with Alexa stemmed from the fact that this demon had literally fucked up their relationship, Leonardo was having a hard time not going nuts on the demon right then and there.

  In his corporeal form, Sebastian looked every bit the southern gentleman—down to wearing a seersucker suit. Sebastian had spent his early human years in New Orleans. He certainly learned how to dress the part.

  “So let me get this straight.” Sebastian laughed. “You traveled out of your body in some kind of near death out-of-body experience and you saw your soul mate having sex with me. The experience made you so angry that you left her to my tender care, allowing me to abuse that girl for as long as I wanted. Then when you got your head on straight, remembered that you’re not a coward afraid to fight for what’s yours, you expected her to just, what? Forgive you for being an asshole?”

  He didn’t want to discuss this with Sebastian. Not even a little bit. And he wasn’t going to anymore. “We need to talk about your father. It’s not any of your damned business what did or didn’t happen between Alexa and me. I need to understand your father’s weaknesses.”

  This moment might very well qualify as Leonardo’s own personal hell.

  “You know she thought she was human, right? She had no idea she had a soul mate. Human women in this day and age enjoy sex. With multiple partners if they want to. And you slut-shamed her.”

  Leonardo got to his feet. “Do you want to do this another time? Or never. I’d be good with never.”

  “Not to mention, Captain Leonardo,” Sebastian grinned at him, “you killed Veli didn’t you? All those years ago when your buddy Kal met Isabelle and this whole thing started—or at least you thought it had—you killed Veli. Outsiders don’t kill Outsiders, Leonardo. I cannot imagine what the karma is for having done that. What do you suppose is going to happen to you? That’s not easily forgiven.”

  Leonardo went very still. Of course the demon had found the one thing he tried never to speak about. He’d own how he failed Alexa seven ways to Sunday, but he never discussed Veli, the man who had raised him. “You possessed him with evil and he tried to kill Kal. He had to be stopped. I did what I was forced to do for the good of the group.” He’d say his piece and then he’d get the fuck out of here and on to things that might actually be productive. Leonardo had gone cold inside but he was used to that feeling. He spent most of his time that way.

  “Excuses. Excuses.”

  Leonardo was done. “Here’s what I know. I’m not a hero. I’ve never been a hero. I never pretended to be a hero or acted like I was. In no world or dimension would I ever have looked at another soul and said I was anything other than what I was. I am the leader. It’s too late for that to change. I also know that I always had a soul mate too good for me. You don’t know jack shit about the Outsiders, not when it really comes down to it. You only see us for short periods of time. So you don’t know that Alexa will never let us down. She never has and she never will.”

  Sebastian groaned. “Keep telling yourself that, big guy.”

  If his fist wouldn’t have gone right through Sebastian like he was nothing but air, Leonardo would have started swinging. But he’d come here to get info on the father and he wasn’t going to get that because Sebastian was too busy being a demon asshole to focus. So be it. There was another question he had before he went back to the war he should have been fighting instead of dealing with evil incarnate.

  “We have a problem beyond your father.”

  Now he’d apparently caught Sebastian’s attention. The demon sat forward. “What’s that?”

  “Gia has rejoined us.”

  Sebastian spun his finger in the air. “Whoop-dee-doo. Is she the hot one who for some reason likes Colin?”

  The demon didn’t hold to the idea that the Outsiders needed their soul mates to battle evil. Leonardo didn’t really give two shits what the demon did and didn’t think. From the get-go of this mess millennia ago, it had been that way. The prophecy always said that the Outsiders had to be all together to win. That much was clear.

  He decided not to respond to Sebastian’s taunt. Why bother? “She has a shadow creature attached to her. Apparently it’s been after her since a previous life. We didn’t know.”

  “Ugh.” Sebastian darted to his feet. “One of those disgusting things is here on my Earth? No. Bad enough the last time, but here? I hate those parasites.”

  Leonardo hadn’t seen it yet, but anything that rattled as tough a character as Colin Knight wasn’t to be taken anything but seriously. “What do I do about it?”

  Sebastian groaned. “You don’t do anything about it. I will see Gia and Colin and deal with the infestation.”

  “Oh no, you will not.” Sebastian didn’t know where they lived. It had been warded against him and Leonardo had no intention of changing that anytime soon. “You’ll instruct me. I’m very smart.”

  Sebastian’s eyes
glowed red. “Only demons can fight the shadow people. We dwell in the same sort of power. Yours will be useless.”

  “Bullshit.” He might be stuck with Sebastian for now, but Leonardo had certainly not been born yesterday.

  “Why would I bother to lie? I’m going to have to work Gia, and presumably Colin because there’s no way he’ll let me near her without him. I have better things to do, trust me.”

  Leonardo took a deep breath. All right, maybe that was possible. But it wasn’t going to be in their newly formed, not-yet-burned-down Outsider lair. No way, no how.

  “They’ll meet you somewhere else. You’re not going where we live.”

  Sebastian shrugged. “Fine.”

  “Great.” Leonardo walked toward the edge of the park. He’d start shouting until Eden had some kind of vision and sent one of the travelers around to collect him.

  “Leonardo,” Sebastian called out to him and Leonardo stopped. The sound of the burning city wafted toward his ears. There was a sound to a city burning, different than any other noise he’d ever heard. Maybe it was the noise of dreams dying.

  The humans had finally cued in that things were ending. Some called it the apocalypse. Mass amounts of people were attending religious services. They were frightened. They should be. New York City had been Leonardo’s home and yet there it was...almost entirely gone.

  “Yes?” He turned to regard Sebastian.

  “My father has lots of weaknesses. More than I can even count.” Sebastian walked toward him. “That’s not true, actually. I can count them. There are eighteen weaknesses. Let me count them for you. Kal. Isabelle. Charma. Jason. Gabriel. Lorraine. Eden. Samuel. Ruby. Christophe. Drew. Marina. Zane. Raquel. Gia. Colin. You.” He pointed at Leonardo. “Alexa.”

  Leonardo rolled his eyes. “That’s not helpful. We get it. We’re all what can beat him. Blah. Blah. I get it.”

  “I thought you said you were smart. You know what? I think I preferred Zane. At least I knew going in he was going to be a blow hard.”