Love Beyond Lies

by Rebecca Royce

  But right then in his memory he knew they were losing. The group was depressed. They’d been so certain of their superiority over the demons. Little did they know…?

  Colin sat on a porch. It was actually the day before they’d start to die. Colin would be among the last to go that time. But he knew none of that when he sat on the couch feeling glum. It was weird to watch himself.

  Why had his brain taken him here?

  The door swung open and Gia stood in the doorway. “Hello, everyone.”

  All eyes rose to look at his love. She wore all black, her hair falling down her back. She held up a box. “Look what I got everyone. Cookies.”

  They weren’t really cookies, not like he knew them on Earth, but in his human body he saw and heard everything the way he understood it.

  “We are all going to have a little sugar.” She set down the box. “And then we are all going to say something funny even if we don’t feel like it. After that, we strategize.”

  She winked at him and he grinned at her. The others jumped up practically attacking the box with the treats in it. He rubbed at his eyes and then blinked when a cookie appeared in his vision. “Come on, big guy. Eat. You’ll feel better.”

  That was Gia. When the chips were down, when all hope was lost, she always put others first. Even when it was difficult. Even if doing so seemed to go contrary to what anyone wanted her to do.

  He pulled her into his lap. “When was the last time you slept?”

  “Who knows? I’ll sleep when all of this is over.”

  He loved her so frickin’ much. “No, you can sleep now.”

  “After we go around the room and say something funny.”

  Colin nodded. “After that.”

  He gasped as he was bounced back into the present. Charma swayed next to him before she righted herself. “Got her.”

  She stretched out her hand and Christophe took it. Colin was glad they all remembered what they were supposed to be doing since he stayed in the past. In his head, the memory continued. They’d all made stupid jokes and he’d gotten Gia to sleep for a little bit. The calm before the storm that had taken them all out one-by-one after that.

  Charma gripped onto his arm. “You’ve never let her die first.”

  “What?” His mind didn’t want to work. He had to pull himself together. Fuck.

  “In all of the years—endless years—that we have all been doing this, you have never let her die first. Colin, I didn’t realize that. How have you done that?”

  Heat hit his cheeks and he ignored the sensation. “She doesn’t die if I’m alive. It’s a… promise made a long time ago when she was scared.” He shook his head. “She’s different now. I don’t know that she would need that promise anymore.”

  In their first life—where she’d shown up with the cookies—she’d been terrified of the end. “It was hard to encounter death, mortality, and the end of everything, even when you know that you’re getting another go around. We were young.” He didn’t want Charma thinking badly of Gia. They were all supposed to be brave, all the time. Public displays of weakness didn’t work in their world. “And...”

  Charma shook her head. “Colin, I’m still terrified every time. I’ll be afraid this time, too. I think most of us are. We have no guarantees and sometimes there’s pain.”

  He swallowed. “You’d think they could erase our memory of that as sort of a courtesy for doing this over and over. Or maybe now, maybe the fact that we keep doing it and get to remember what that was like is what makes us brave.”

  Jason walked over and put his arm around Charma. “Or stupid. Whichever of those options you like. Come on, Christophe is ready.”

  So was Colin. More than.

  Traveling with Christophe wasn’t as easy as traveling with Drew or Gabriel. But, they couldn’t follow Gia’s soul and his brother could. So he took the hard landing and the jolt to his system as par for the course.

  He looked around. They were on a street that was partially on fire. The heat hit his face and he backed up two steps as he adjusted to it. The sirens were loud and it was everything he could do not to cover his ears.

  He whirled around. Where was Gia? She was here?

  It was hard to see through the smoke. And to even think through the noise was a challenge, but he pushed through. If she were here, whatever she looked like, he’d find her.

  “It’s possible that I got the distance wrong. We should spread out,” his brother shouted to the group.

  But that wasn’t at all necessary. He spotted her a second later. Well, to be fair, he found the shadow man. Colin would know him anywhere. With anger pushing through his veins he ran forward. If he could grab onto Sebastian, he could grab that shadow, too. This was a new power and he was getting used to it.

  A thought dawned on him. Why make it easy on the shadow? His body heated as he turned on his powers and went invisible. It was an odd sensation but one he’d gotten used to a long time ago. In this lifetime, he’d stumbled upon his ability to do it by accident. He’d known he should be able to do it but hadn’t done it successfully. And then—boom—walking down the street, there he was, invisible.

  He hadn’t even known he’d done it until someone crashed right into him like he wasn’t there. Colin could be unseen but the rest of the laws of physics still applied. He still took up space which made it his problem to stay out of other people’s way.

  That was an issue in crowds like this. Still, he…

  Gia, in another person’s body, caught his attention.

  It was her.

  He was certain of it.

  His love. He’d know her in whatever form she wore, period.

  And she was running into the fire in a very human body.

  He returned to his normal form in a flash. What was she doing?

  “Gia!” he shouted her name and out of the corner of his eye saw Christophe whirl around. That was good if the others had heard. They could help. Screw the shadow, he was going after her. Colin ran fast. He was a big man but he could move quickly when he needed to.

  He tore after Gia, ducking out of the way of a first responder trying to stop him from doing just that. The world was burning down. These people were exhausted. They couldn’t have stopped him even on a good day and today was not that day. They were incredibly brave and he admired them. But Gia was in there.

  Black smoke was everywhere. He choked. It wouldn’t hurt him past the point that Jason could heal. “Gia,” he called again.

  She turned around. Although he didn’t know this outside form, he could see Gia in the woman’s eyes. She was right there. “Colin? How?”

  “Long story. What are you doing?” he shouted. “This building is done.”

  “There’s someone in it,” she yelled back. “We have to help them.”

  Yes, this was so like her, total disinterest in her own safety. “Love, you are not an Outsider. You will die in here soon.” He grabbed her, tugging her out. “If there is someone in here, I’ll grab them.”

  “Colin?” Christophe yelled behind them. “We all have to get out.”

  He knew it was a caveman move, but right then he didn’t care. Her safety trumped personal choice. Colin scooped up Gia and passed her to Christophe. “Get her out. Now. I’ll see if I can save anyone.”

  His twin nodded. “I won’t let you down.”

  That was a funny thing to say. What did he mean? Colin would find out later. He rushed forward, the sound of his name being called in a voice that was new to him yet belonged to Gia, chasing him into the flames.

  Somewhere, someone moaned. Gia had been right. Someone was inside. Colin kept rushing forward. The person might be okay. Maybe there was a bubble of…

  The flames pulled back. They were lessening? What in the hell? He spun in a circle. He wasn’t imagining it, the flames were going away. The truth hit him. Raquel. She was somewhere nearby and she was calling back the flames.

  She could do this sometimes. It took a lot of her power. She
made fire and she destroyed it. Each time she always ended up fainting. Zane was going to be a wreck.

  Drew popped in before him. “Couldn’t wait for backup?”

  “What’s backup?”

  Drew nodded. “And therein lies the problem.”

  Colin pointed in front of him. “Someone’s in there.”

  “Okay.” Drew grabbed onto Colin and before Colin could stop him, popped him back outside before vanishing into the building. Seconds later he returned with an old man in his arms. Firemen quickly grabbed him and Colin bent over to breathe. In and out. In and out.

  Where was Gia? Colin lifted his head. Christophe had this version of her in his arms. The shadow pulled at her, but Christophe wasn’t letting her go. Colin’s twin battled hard. He rushed toward them but knew what was going to happen before it did.

  The shadow was taking her. Colin jumped forward, tackling the shadow and had the benefit of seeing actual shock resonate on the creature’s face for one second before it puffed into smoke encompassing Gia as they both vanished.

  “Damn it.” Colin pounded on the ground. “Gia, I am coming. I’m coming.”

  Presumably, she couldn’t hear him shouting but it didn’t stop him from doing it nonetheless. Sometimes he just had to shout.

  The silence of the area was what struck him as he lay on the ground. Colin lifted his head and looked around before rising slowly to his feet. They’d been seen. In the past, when humans saw them a lot was dismissed. People were the same in every dimension. What they couldn’t understand they dismissed. But, with the world ending, it seemed things were too big to be ignored.

  Drew had popped in and out. Colin had been invisible and reappeared. A shadow monster took Gia. Raquel, who now leaned on Zane like she couldn’t quite keep herself upright, had made the fires stop.

  “Who are you?” a man called out. “Can’t you save us?”

  No one spoke. Shouldn’t one of the others be saying something? Why were they all looking at him? He was never this guy. It wasn’t his role. He sighed. “We’re no one. We don’t exist. Stay out of the cities until this is over. Get out. Hide. Don’t congregate in large numbers.” He ran a hand through his hair. “Tell me you still have her trail, Christophe.”

  His twin brother stared at the ground but nodded. “I tried to keep her. I’m sorry.”

  “Why are you sorry? Time to move on. Let’s go.”

  He wasn’t going to lose. Not even if he had to chase her all over the planet.

  Eight

  Gia

  He’d found her. That was all Gia could think as she trailed after the shadow to wherever they were going now. This was the strangest experience of her millions of years living and dying. Walking after a shadow.

  Colin had found her. He would again.

  “Your soul mate is more resourceful than we thought.”

  She glared at the creature. “People underestimate him all the time but he’s really the glue that holds the Outsiders together. When he’s on, the Outsiders are on. When he’s not, we lose. Everyone knows it but him.”

  The shadow didn’t answer her. “You ran into the building. That was not planned. Why did you do that?”

  “Because someone needed help.” And she wasn’t going to go into that more than that answer. If the shadow really didn’t get it, she couldn’t help him.

  “We wanted to own you. We didn’t know this about your personality. You would have been hard to own.”

  She sighed. “By own, do you mean possess? Like exorcist possess?”

  The shadow raised its dark eyebrows. “An antiquated word.”

  “Wow, okay. Sorry. Didn’t know. My bad.” She rubbed her eyes. “Are we done with this little parade around? Can I go back to my body now?”

  The creature shook his head. “This is a graveyard.”

  “What?” She hadn’t even stopped to consider where she was, but now she whirled around. Yes, indeed, she was in a graveyard. She didn’t know how long she’d been traveling around but wherever they were now it was dark and the moon was in the sky. She took a moment to appreciate the beauty of the Moon. She was a deity to the Outsiders, always had been.

  The ancestors couldn’t talk to her in her human body. But she wanted them to know she was grateful to them. For their lifetime of help. If she could reach out and touch the moon she would.

  Anything to anchor her in the here and now and not let her get lost in the mess that was this situation.

  “This is a graveyard,” the creature said again. “We require a response from you.”

  She almost told him where he could go shove his requirements. But, he was her captor and she really wasn’t looking to make things harder on herself. Colin was coming for her. She knew it.

  He’d found her once—she still wasn’t sure how—and he’d come again. He would never leave her and then they’d figure out this mess together.

  “Yes, it’s a graveyard.” If they wanted to discuss the obvious, they could go ahead and do that. “We are in a graveyard.”

  The shadow pointed further in. “That woman. She weeps.”

  Gia’s body went cold. Yes, indeed. There was a woman standing quite a bit into the graveyard. She bent at the waist, her body shaking with sobs Gia couldn’t hear and yet recognized. She’d seen this pain many times.

  It was the same. In every dimension.

  “Why does she cry?”

  She looked over her shoulder at the shadow. “She has lost someone. She’s grieving.”

  “Why does she grieve?”

  “Because she loved whoever is dead.”

  Not able to stay where she was, Gia walked forward quietly. The last thing anyone in the midst of that kind of pain needed was to be bothered by a stranger. Gia sighed. Or maybe not. Maybe that was exactly what this person needed.

  Gia approached her slowly. She wasn’t quiet about it. If the grieving woman wanted to tell her to go away she had ample time to do so. Instead, the weeping woman lifted her head at Gia’s approach and bit down on her lip.

  “I know the entire world is melting down.” The stranger spoke. “But he died last month and I… and I… I can’t seem to be okay with it. Even though the troubles of one person shouldn’t matter very much.”

  Gia sighed before she sat down on the ground next to the weeping woman. They were just two humans sharing a moment. Gia had never been human before and if she lived through this she never would be again. Right in that second, there was nothing more than the two of them—unsure of their place in the universe. They were there for each other because they weren’t sure anything or anyone else ever would be.

  “Maybe it matters more than anything.” Gia cleared her throat. “Maybe it’s the one-to-one things that matter really. I mean, what can any of us do about the big picture? So what if the world is burning down if you’ve lost your whole world?”

  The woman touched Gia’s arm. “That’s it, exactly. He was my whole world for forty years. What is there now?”

  “There is tomorrow. There has to be tomorrow.”

  The older woman wiped her eyes. “They’re saying it’s Armageddon.”

  “They’re wrong.”

  She vanished. Or maybe Gia did. The next second she was alone in a dark cavern with the shadow people again. She blinked. That was right. There were people. It wasn’t the only one speaking to her, but hundreds of them. They all stared.

  Gia swallowed. For the first time since she opened her eyes, intimidation rode her hard.

  “Is that love? One person in the entire universe matters?” the one who had been speaking to her, asked.

  “Or people. But, yes, those you love matter more.” That was a fact. She could care about the whole universe, and did, but Colin would always come first. And the other Outsiders. They were meant to save worlds. That didn’t mean they weren’t first beholden to each other.

  The shadow nodded. “You say that. Then you risk yourself to save others. You speak to strangers in the dark. You aren’t carefu
l. How is that love?”

  “Well, that is just how I’m built. I’ll always be there for whoever needs me. And Colin, he’s my soul mate, so he gets that.”

  Or at least she thought he did. They’d had so many misunderstandings. Even with so much time behind them it was crazy, but they still had to get to know each other. Maybe that was all couples. Maybe after forty years together that woman was still getting to know her husband up until the day he left her.

  Could anyone really know someone else? Even if they were soul mates?

  These were questions she didn’t need to be pondering except that these creatures were asking her questions like, what is love and now her mind wouldn’t shut down.

  “She is worthy and if she is representative, then we will help them. I will not lose our food source.”

  Gia lifted her eyebrows. “Food sources?”

  They didn’t answer her but she was fairly certain that meant humans. She gagged. That was just… gross. “Worthy of what?”

  The shadow extended his hand. “Our power.”

  “Your power?” She felt like a parrot. They said one thing, she repeated it. Back and forth. Back and forth.

  The shadow leaned forward. “You’ll see.”

  He grabbed her arm and the world went black.

  Gia leaned against the wall in Outsider headquarters and sipped a cup of tea. She looked up at the sky, the moon still present despite the early morning sun trying to make its way into this part of the world. “If you could find Colin and send him home, that would be great.”

  The ancestor’s touch moved through her like a brush of butterfly wings. They hadn’t abandoned her, despite her new… circumstances. The shadows had messed with her but she didn’t feel particularly different.

  That didn’t mean she wasn’t. Presumably Alexa didn’t know immediately when the darkness washed over her. But Gia really didn’t feel any differently.

  She sighed. Maybe she’d get some coffee. Caffeine had little effect on her but she liked the taste. Particularly the sweet kind. Of course that was more sugar than anything else.