Love Beyond Expectations (7 page)

She grabbed the phone in her pocket and pulled it out. With shaking hands, she dialed Leonardo's number. It took her longer than it should have, she couldn't seem to stop hitting the five when she wanted to hit the two.

"Come on," she called aloud to any being in the universe that might be listening to her, "I need a break here."

Finally, she managed to get the number entered. It rang twice before Leonardo picked up.

"Ruby?" He said her name as opposed to hello. She'd never been so relieved to hear his commanding voice in her life.

"Something horrible has happened."

She walked quickly, the phone pressed tightly against her ear, her head down to avoid the onslaught of the wind.

"What?"

"There was an explosion and Christophe vanished and…"

He interrupted her. "I don't understand what you're saying. Where is Marina?"

How could he? She wasn't making any sense. Taking a deep breath, she tried again. "Marina is hurt. Drew is missing…or at least I can't find him. The coffee shop we were in exploded when we were leaving. They're putting Marina into an ambulance. I'm not sure what to do."

"Listen to me very carefully. You need to get yourself some place safe. Do you understand? I don't know about Drew. He's like a cat; he'll land on his feet, whatever has happened to him. I'm sending Jason to Marina now. He'll catch them at the hospital. You need to get out of there. If Sebastian blew up that coffee shop and killed innocent humans, he's upped his body count drastically. I need to know you're safe. Do you understand?"

She nodded and after a moment realized he couldn't see it. "Yes. I'll get somewhere safe and call you when I know where I am."

Ruby stared in front of her. Two men stood in the distance observing the scene behind a barricade. One of them she didn't know but the other one, an older man leaning on a cane, she recognized him immediately. Jacob Talbot.

Her heart raced. Jacob Talbot, the preacher she'd set out to find, watched the scene in front of him without a single expression on his face. She'd witnessed his sermons for years on television. He had more of a reaction to being told that someone hadn't been to church in years than he did to seeing a building burn and people suffering.

She stormed forward, Leonardo's words fleeing her mind. Safety couldn't be paramount, not when Jacob Talbot was so close. They'd traveled out to get his cane. She intended to get it.

"We need to rush this one. I'm losing her pulse."

Ruby whirled around.
Shoot
. She couldn't leave Marina by herself, despite what Leonardo said or her desire to get the stick from the old man. In two strides, she reached the ambulance and grabbed the arm of one of the paramedics.

"She's my friend. I'm going with her."

The man opened his mouth, and she suspected he wanted to argue with her about going in the ambulance, but he didn't. Instead, his eyes scanned behind her for a moment before he nodded.

"Whatever you'd like. We're getting ready to leave."

Ruby turned around to see what had made the paramedic so nervous. Christophe stood behind her, looking fierce with his eyes narrowed and his hands on his hips. Her shoulders sagged. They didn't know each other, not really, but she'd never been so glad to see another person in her entire life.

"You're okay." He didn't ask it but spoke the words as if he felt certain she hadn't been harmed.

She swallowed. "I hit my head and had the wind knocked out of me during the explosion."

Christophe pointed to the ambulance. "Then you should get in there."

"No." She swallowed through the lump in her throat. When was the last time anyone had cared about whether or not she'd been hurt?

Ruby grabbed his arm and pulled him a distance from the paramedics. "These people can't help us. They can't help Marina. Only Jason can do that. Leonardo's going to send him to her to fix her. I can't leave her alone. Drew is missing. And you're okay," she said fast, all in one breath.

The whole day had been so
off
. Ruby dealt in order, in facts, in things going a certain way. She didn't know how to handle demons, fire, and explosions. Her breath came in and out rapidly. She also didn't hyperventilate, and yet she couldn't seem to stop the progression of panic forming inside her body.

"Listen to me." Christophe took her cheeks in his hands. "All will be well. You'll see. Whatever is going on here, it is destiny, yes?"

She loved the way his warm hands felt on her cooled skin. "Yes. I guess so. It's all part of a destiny. Not one where we necessarily win but a fate, of some kind, I guess."

"Right." He smoothed her bangs off her forehead. "So we go to the hospital with Marina, and then you will come with me to rescue my brother from the demon."

What?
"Your brother is with the demon?"

"He's been captured…it's where I went when I
went
."

"I have to go find this preacher who has this cane that we need."

"We'll sort this out later. Get in the ambulance before they leave. I'll meet you there."

That seemed like a good idea. Christophe made sense. In the midst of the confusion and chaos, he could walk a straight path. She nodded and climbed into the vehicle to go with Marina.

Everything would be fine. It had to be. Still, a niggling thought threatened the calm she wanted to embrace. Who had that man standing next to Jacob Talbot been, and what had happened to her after the explosion?

Had she really heard a voice in the flames?

Because if she had, she needed to admit two things. First, it hadn't been Sebastian's voice beckoning her, and second, she had wanted to obey the words in her head. She'd almost run right into the flames.

Grabbing Marina's hand, she squeezed. "Don't worry, hon. Jason is coming." Where the hell was Drew?

* * * *

Ruby took a sip of her coffee and waited outside of Marina's room. Jason had told her to guard the door. Of course, what she was supposed to do if someone came and tried to get into the area while he worked on Marina had been left out of her instructions. She barely stood over five feet tall. Did he want her to throw herself onto someone?

"Is she okay?" She jumped at Christophe's voice.

How had he managed to sneak up on her?

"Sorry, I didn't mean to frighten you."

"No." She waved her hand in the air, trying to seem more nonchalant than she felt. "I'm not usually this jumpy."

"I bet you don't usually have reason to be."

She nodded. "Fair enough."

"Marina okay?"

"Jason managed to get himself in there. Talked his way into her room and got the other doctors out of there. I have no idea how. They all kind of just left."

Christophe leaned against the wall. She wanted to smooth away the small dark circles under his eyes, to offer him comfort. It pained her to keep her hand at her side, but she couldn't reach out and touch a man she'd only spoken to a few times. Even if he, technically, happened to be her soul mate.

"Is that one of his powers?"

She had to get her head back into their conversation. "I don't think so. Maybe Charma helped him from afar or something."

"When he takes Marina home, we need to talk." His dark eyes bored into hers.

"Sure." God, she needed to stop sounding so ditzy when she spoke to him.

"You know I study gemstones."

The loud noises of the hospital faded away. Jason might get caught doing whatever he did to fix Marina. She really didn't care. Not when Christophe looked at her so intently, not when her body filled up with heat, making her feel like she wanted to melt into a puddle on the floor in front of him.

"I know. You're teaching science to freshmen, but you're really some kind of big deal in Europe, aren't you? You study big, high-tech uses for gems. That's what the other professors said, anyway."

He grinned, a crooked smile. "I teach science to eighteen-year-old English majors because I saw you."

"What?" Her heart fluttered.

"Ruby." He stroked a finger down her nose. Why had she thought she couldn't touch him? "I had to be wherever you were."

On a sigh, she said his name, "Christophe."

What was happening? Nothing so intense should come on so fast. She preferred to ease into things, to take her time with them. This felt foolish. And wonderful. And perfect.

"Rubies have always been thought to have mystical qualities."

She smiled. "Is that so?"

Christophe could tell her anything he wanted. All she wanted to do was listen to his voice. Forever. Even if somewhere in the back of her mind, she knew this obsession she'd lost control over would prove to be a very large problem.

Chapter Six

Jacob opened his wallet, disgusted at having to pay the man who stood in front of him. Usually, his office held the devout, his parishioners seeking guidance from him because of his close, personal relationship with God.

As the sun set outside, however, a very different kind of person sat with him. Tall, dark-haired, with a smug expression on his face, the man currently lounging in the chair across the desk from Jacob called himself a "dealer". His name, Mr Grey—which Jacob suspected had been made up—had been referred to him by a parishioner who had recently repented and given up his life of crime.

Jacob hired him to deal with Ruby Brannon. And the middleman wanted to be paid for shoddy work, because Ruby still walked amongst the living. So, Grey was going to be very, very disappointed.

Jacob gripped the top of his cane, holding it always gave him a great deal of strength. "Your person failed."

"No." Grey shook his head holding his eye contact steely. "You told us to watch for her arrival. We did that. She got off the boat and we tracked her to the coffee shop. The fact that she didn't happen to be in the coffee shop at the moment of the explosion was not our fault."

"I hired you to kill her."

"You hired my associate to blow up a building that Ruby was in. We were very specific in the wording of our contract. If you were not as careful in the reading of it, that doesn't concern us." A muscle twitched at the side of Grey's mouth. "You wouldn't want to be negligent in paying us. You won't like what happens."

"Are you threatening me?" Mr Grey might think himself a powerful man but no one had more clout than Jacob. God himself communicated with him.

"I don't make threats." Grey stood up and outstretched his hand. "I want my money now, as agreed. Five hundred thousand dollars cash."

"You will get your money when the job is completed to my satisfaction."

Jacob's heart rate pick up. Grey's steely stare felt like it could pierce metal objects. Still, he refused to back down. He hadn't created his empire by being a wimp.

"I want to be very clear on a subject. I work with very dangerous people. Folks who can't go out in public because they are wanted on every imaginable list. One of my clients firebombed a coffee shop for you today. If you think I'm not capable of exacting the most excruciating of punishments on you then you don't understand who I am."

Jacob stood slowly. "If you do anything to me, the wrath of God that will assault you will be the stuff of legends."

Grey took two steps forward. "And you are so sure that the almighty is on your side?"

"Entirely."

The other man rubbed at his chin. "I guess we'll see, won't we? You can expect to hear from me one way or another."

Temper surged through Jacob's veins. He had tolerated enough of this insolence. "Finish the job."

"We'll certainly be finishing something."

Grey exited the room, back stiff, his arms hanging straight at his sides. The man didn't make a sound when he walked.

When the door closed firmly behind his unwanted guest, Jacob dropped to his knees.

God?
He prayed fervently.
Please hear my prayer
.

* * * *

At least when the whole yucky scenario had ended, Sebastian would no longer have to listen to Jacob Talbot whine and pretend to give two shits about it. Now he wanted him to—
what?
—smite the person Jacob paid to blow Ruby up?

No, this Grey person happened to be just the kind of person Sebastian wanted around when he took over. No morals, nothing to make the man want to fight back against so-called objectionable things.

Jacob's problems with Grey were entirely human issues and nothing to do with Sebastian.

His little preacher could spend all day on his knees, praying about this one. Maybe the actual God would answer him.
But probably not
.

Sebastian turned his attention back to Colin Knight. The man hadn't moved from where he'd put him earlier, which was good. He turned his consciousness into the room. Thousands of miles away from Maine, Colin languished, attached to a machine designed for torture. A small house on a street otherwise occupied by much more extravagant homes, no human would ever imagine that the center-hall colonial held a torture chamber in the basement.
Just the way he wanted it
.

As he floated around Colin, he wondered if the Outsider had any idea that he wasn't alone.

"I do know you're there. I've always been aware of your presence."

Sebastian laughed, letting the sound resonate around the room. He could have spoken directly into Colin's head but considering his presence hadn't surprised Colin, he might as well not waste the energy of telepathy.

"Then how did you let yourself get caught?"

Colin had been downright easy to imprison. He'd expected more. In fact, disappointment reigned supreme when all he'd had to do involved plucking the Outsider up and depositing him in the basement. If only he could have simply burned him to death. Or shot him. Or done any number of things to end Colin's pathetic life.

But Outsiders were ridiculously difficult to kill. They healed really well from things that would kill regular humans. He'd learned his lessons with Drew and Samuel. It made no sense to kill and walk away. Outsiders had a way of turning up again when they were supposed to be dead.