Love Beyond Sight
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Cover Artist: Reese Dante
Editor: Jason Huffman
Love Beyond Sight © 2012 Rebecca Royce
ISBN # 9781614952367
Attention Readers:
This book uses US English.
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Trademarks Acknowledgement
The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of the following wordmarks mentioned in this work of fiction:
Band-Aid
: Johnson & Johnson Corporation
Abita
: Abita Brewing Company
Wizard of Oz
(including Dorothy): Turner Entertainment Co.
Dumbo
: Disney Enterprises, Inc.
Chapter One
I'm alone in the house
.
Eden Roan swallowed away the lump in her throat. Why hadn't she known everyone was leaving? Her heart rate picked up, thumping hard against her ribcage. She hadn't been alone in six months. Not since Charma and Marina had found her, nearly comatose, locked up in a mental institution in New Jersey.
She swung around, calling out into the living room. "Hello? Anyone here?"
Even as she called out, she knew she need not have bothered. No one was home. She could feel the emptiness around her. Loneliness assaulted her soul and she nearly doubled over from the feeling before she pulled herself together. Wow. She was being really, really ridiculous.
It didn't mean anything that everyone had left and no one had said goodbye. Probably, they didn't mean to all leave. Each one must have thought someone else remained in the house. No way, no how would she be left by herself, in their huge house on their private island in Maine.
Except that it was December and getting back and forth from the island in the middle of winter took advanced planning. They would all have had to board the boat at the same time. Marina would have had to spell cast the water to keep it calm…
No, there was something terribly wrong. She took off at a run. Her large, sturdy feet bracing her body for the run she made down the hall. Sebastian, the demon, must have gotten to them. They were all dead. That was the only explanation.
"I've got your mind, Eden." She heard the voice of the demon resonate through the halls of the too empty house. Even though she had personally never spoken with him before, she had no doubt he was who tormented her now. "I've killed the others and now I'll spend eternity torturing you with just what I want you to see."
With a jolt, Eden sat up. She panted like she'd really been tearing down the hall instead of sleeping in her bed. Her white cotton floor-length nightgown felt soaked and she realized she'd drenched it with cold sweat. Wrapping the covers around herself, she shivered as she lay back down on her pillow.
Through the slight cracks in her drapes the light of the early dawn illuminated her bedroom in the dampened colors of a new day. December in Maine proved to be an unforgiving month. She'd lived in cold climates before but never what she faced on the small private island the Outsiders called home. If she tried to get up now, soaked to the bone as she was, she'd freeze. The heating system in their house wouldn't kick into full gear until more than just she got up and moved around. It was supposed to be ecologically friendly.
As Eden always awoke—usually in a panic—hours before everyone else, she couldn't help but think it really, really sucked. A tear slipped from her eye and she brushed it away, scratching her cheek slightly with a nail she really needed to trim.
She sniffed. There was no denying the truth any longer. The dreams were getting worse. Nightmares were no longer a sometimes occurrence. When they happened every night they had to be called what they were: a chronic problem. Added to the still uncontrollable premonitions she couldn't seem to learn to handle, Eden spent more and more time lost in hellish visions presented to her by her own mind.
A slight tapping on her door startled her and she rolled over, pulling the covers up around her neck. Her nightgown hid her better than most dresses did but she'd been raised in a world where modesty ruled and she suspected she'd never get over her prudish nature.
"Come in." Her voice sounded like a frog had taken up residence in her throat with no intention of ever leaving.
The door creaked open and the face of Charma, one of her fellow Outsiders, peeked around the door. Her petite friend smiled at her through barely opened eyes. Charma always looked put together, even with her pixie cut hair sticking out in a million directions. Eden suspected her own strawberry-blonde hair had plastered down to the top of her head when she'd sweated in her sleep.
"I woke up and felt like you needed me." After silently closing the door, Charma padded quietly to her bed. "Scoot over."
Eden obeyed without thought. Charma and the other Outsiders had become family to her in the six months she'd been with them. She trusted them implicitly, which was a good thing considering they were all expected to kill a demon together. Charma climbed into the bed next to her.
The bed dipped as Charma adjusted herself. Eden couldn't help but smile. She'd never had a sister. This must have been what it was like.
"Did you have another dream?"
"Nothing new." Eden stared up at the ceiling. "Jason doesn't mind you abandoning your marriage bed to come in here and deal with me this early in the morning?"
Charma groaned. "First of all, Jason is happily snoring away. I don't even think he noticed I left the room and even if he had, he wouldn't care. You're like his sister. We're both worried sick about what is happening to you."
Great
. When both the physical and emotional healers of the Outsiders worried about you, it couldn't be a good a thing.
"Second, you're never a bother. You're important to me. You're family. And finally, third… marriage bed?"
Eden snickered. "Every once in a while my rural-hickness rears its ugly head in my vocabulary."
Charma covered her mouth to restrain her laughter. "The things you say. Jason and I aren't married."
"You might as well be. You're soul mates. That's probably more important than marriage."
Not that Eden would ever know. Her own soul mate refused to show himself, speaking to her telepathically in times of crisis but otherwise staying out of sight.
A knock sounded on the door and they both turned to look in that direction. The door cracked open and Marina thrust her head through the opening. Her dark curls swung slightly in front of her.
"You okay?" Marina walked into the room and closed the door behind her. "I just had this feeling that you needed me, Eden." Marina stood still, staring at the scene in front of her. "Clearly, Charma had the same thought and she beat me to you."
Charma scooted over. "There's room for all of us in this huge bed."
Marina grinned. "Like a sleepover in Eden's bed at five in the morning."
"Exactly." Charma yawned. "She had another dream."
Marina climbed into the bed on the other side of Eden. "I'll be fine, ladies."
The truth was she wasn't used to this much attention from other people. Her problems had always been her own to handle. Now, her fellow Outsiders, whom she adored, wanted her to share all the time. It made her feel exposed. Not to mention she'd never actually shared a bed with anyone before.