Love Beyond Sight (5 page)

From the moment he'd stepped off the boat onto the island he had known he'd made the right decision. He couldn't
feel
her at all. For a while there he'd thought there was nowhere he could go where he would be free from the pull she had on him.

Drew walked slowly away from the beach, holding his coffee in his hand. He took a sip as Marina's lovely face appeared before his eyes. Biting down on his bottom lip, he pushed away the image. Why should he be surprised? He'd been completely connected to her from the time they were children. It wasn't like he could easily rid himself of the habit of obsessing over her.

Plus, it didn't help she was so darn lovely that all he wanted to do was lick her all over until he could smell his own scent covering her body. Yeah, he was a sick bastard.

He needed to stay away. St John might not prove to be far enough.

* * * *

Ruby couldn't believe what had happened. No matter how hard she tried to control it, she couldn't seem to stop it from happening. She looked down at her living room. It was filled from top to bottom with things that shouldn't be there.

She bit down on her thumbnail. This was bad—very bad. All she'd done was think about daisies. She liked daisies. During her daydream on the subway, she'd thought how wonderful it would be to have the cute French professor with the snotty attitude give her daisies. Not that he would do that. He preferred to stare at her with disdain.

Well, whatever he saw in her to dislike, he might be correct because she was clearly a freak of nature. This had been happening to her since she was a child. If she thought about something too long, she ended up somehow calling the object to her.

In this case, apparently she'd managed to decorate her entire room with daisies. Everywhere she looked—there they were. She'd also managed to acquire vases she hadn't had earlier.

Ruby paced the room. She did not need this right now. Who did these daisies belong to? Whose vases were they? She wanted to scream but she didn't need her nosy neighbors banging on her door or complaining to the building manager. The walls in her way-too-expensive New York City apartment were too damn thin.

At least it wasn't diamonds. Oh heaven help her the day she'd dreamt about diamonds. The whole city had searched for a jewel thief. The gemstone swipes of the century. It still baffled authorities why someone had 'taken' them and returned them in a bag mailed anonymously to the district attorney.

Were flower shops bare all over New York City?

She couldn't let anyone in her apartment until she worked out what to do, not even the cleaning woman who came once a week. This wasn't an easy disposal situation. Not like when she'd been a child and she'd found all her friends toys in her bedroom. A quick trip out back to shove the toys into the garbage cans had taken care of those items she hadn't meant to own.

"Bags."

Ruby grinned. Yes, that was what she needed. Very large, black garbage bags would do the trick. She could take them out slowly and put them down the garbage shoot a little at a time. No one would notice small doses of daisies in the garbage. It wouldn't look strange.

Grabbing her purse, she rushed toward the front door just as a huge ton of black garbage bags appeared out of nowhere landing with a boom on the living room floor.

Ruby backed up, until she leaned against the wall. She covered her mouth to stop her screams from traveling out of her mouth.

This was bad. Very, very bad. It had never been this intense before. Why was this happening to her?

* * * *

Zane Walsh knew trouble when he smelled it and the whole operation from start to finish made his 'run' radar go off. Still, he wasn't the type of person to cut and run so he didn't do as the voices in his head instructed him. He'd gotten good over the years at ignoring them. After all, only crazy people heard and spoke to themselves. Zane wasn't particularly happy with the idea of being nuts.

Scooping his black hair out his eyes, he pushed the long strands up his forehead. He'd been paid to rob the safe of this rich old lady's house. Something about a will being in dispute. He didn't really care about the details. As long as the money was green and placed in his offshore accounts, the reasons behind the deal were inconsequential to him.

He'd never failed at a job and he wasn't going to lose now. If he had to, he'd use his particular skill set and walk out the front door undisturbed.

As he found the final number that would open the device, he couldn't help his grin. It had taken years to become a master safecracker. But he'd always figured if he could build them, he could break them and this particular baby had been one of his own designs.

It was ironic. When the police needed help catching criminals they came to him, not knowing he was on some of the most wanted lists in the country. They just didn't know his name—and that was how it was going to stay.

The safe practically purred as it opened silently. He smiled at the sound. Maybe his radar had been off-kilter. This was going to be a walk in the park.

"Freeze."

Zane didn't turn around. Obviously, he'd gotten hopeful too soon. The voice that spoke to him sounded old and prickly.

Not the cops
.

Not that it would matter. But the police would make things more complicated. The person catching him in the act was clearly the broad he'd been hired to rob.

"I've called the police." He heard the distinct click of a gun—a .45 he'd guess from the noise—and, although he hadn't turned around, was most likely being pointed at his head. Could the old lady shoot? He had no idea but some of the old timers he'd encountered over the years were ten times tougher than their younger counterparts.

"You don't want to do that." He wouldn't pull out his
voice
unless he really had to. The woman was old; he didn't want to cause her permanent brain damage.

"Turn around."

Zane grabbed the envelope stuffed inside the safe and did as he'd been instructed. It was dark in the room but he could see the outline of the elderly woman just fine. Her hands shook as she held the gun but he wasn't foolish enough to believe she wouldn't fire it. Desperate people did desperate things. The trick would be to convince her she really wasn't in any trouble.

"Look, I'm not taking anything from you that you can't get back."

She let go of the gun with one hand and flipped on the light. Zane's eyes protested the onslaught of sudden brightness but he kept his features bland and unthreatening. He was not going to end up shot because he reacted badly to the lights being illuminated.

Pointing at him, she gasped. "You."

"What?" He shook his head. As far as he could tell, he'd never seen the lady before—ever.

"They told me you would come and here you are." She grinned like she'd been given the best gift ever.

"Shit." Zane shook his head. "You're crazy, aren't you?"

* * * *

Alexa Lane waited until Sebastian had left to go find coffee before she ran to the bathroom to vomit. Oh god, what had she done getting into this sexual relationship with Sebastian? What was wrong with her that she couldn't enjoy it?

He was a gorgeous man and he loved her. Her body heaved as her stomach tried to empty her already vacant insides. Sweat broke out on her forehead. Maybe she was just built 'wrong' because it had always felt like she should never have sex with anyone. Not one man had ever turned her on to the degree that she wanted to spread her legs and invite them inside.

Doing it with Sebastian… well, she was woman enough to admit that she'd been jealous as hell that Gabriel had gotten a girlfriend. Not because she wanted Gabe, that felt icky to even think about, but because he had found someone to love him. So, she'd forced it with Sebastian and now here she was puking because the only guy who had ever loved her made her cringe internally when his hands met her naked skin.

Chapter Four

Eden tried not to look at Marina as she shoved all her clothes in her suitcase. Well… as she shoved all her clothes in Marina's suitcase. Eden didn't actually have her own luggage. She'd arrived on the Outsider Island with just the clothes on her back. But Marina had one and even though the other woman objected—vehemently—to Eden's leaving, she was letting her borrow her luggage.

"Where will you go?"

Eden placed her last item of clothing into the bag and zipped it up. "Not sure. Guess I'm going to make it up as I go."

"That's not a very good plan."

She knew that, but she wasn't going to give Marina the satisfaction of agreeing with her. "Well, it's the only one I have."

"Eden, you're smarter than this."

"Really?" She looked up, finally staring at Marina. The other woman was her friend. She cared about her—felt like a sister to her, really. But, right at that moment, she wanted to strangle her. Why couldn't everyone just leave her alone to live her life and stop telling her what to do? "Because you all treat me like I'm either an imbecile or a child."

"No, we don't."

Eden stood. After a second of fiddling with it, Eden managed to get the handle of the suitcase pulled up so she could roll the thing behind her. "Yes, you do. And I'm not arguing with you on this matter. Leonardo basically called me useless. I won't be that. I won't be a burden. I'll make my own way."

"What will you do if you have a vision out there in the real world and it incapacitates you?"

Eden shrugged like it didn't matter when the reality was that idea terrified her more than anything. What if she got incapacitated and a car ran her over? It was why her family had shoved her in the demon-infested mental institution to begin with.

"Then I guess I'll die if I can't get myself under control." She tried to smile and suspected she failed. Doubt threatened to eat her up from the inside out and yet still she had to maintain her cool or this would be all for naught. "Leonardo said it was time to put up or shut up."

"Leonardo must be in one of his moods. You know not to listen to him."

Marina might be able to dismiss Leonardo like his opinions didn't matter but Eden could not. She hadn't grown up with their designated leader. She didn't think of him as an annoying brother but rather as a colleague she'd rather impress than continuously disappoint.

Eden had spent her life as the weak link. She didn't want to be that anymore.

"Do you have any money?"

That stopped her in her tracks.
Money
. Yes, in the real world you needed some of that to get by. It had been years since she'd needed any.

"No."

Well, there went her big idea of running off on her own. If she didn't have cash, she wouldn't be able to even get a taxi to take her anywhere when she got off the boat on the mainland. What the hell had she been thinking?

"I have three hundred dollars in my wallet. You can have it."

Eden felt tears threaten at Marina's generous offer. She looked away before they fell, spoiling her dignified retreat. "I can't take your money, 'Rina."

"It's not any more mine than it is yours."

Eden stared at Marina. "What?"

"We spell cast it. Need money? Sure, we can have some appear. That's how Veli never had to hold a job all the years he dragged us all over the world. It belongs to you as much as it does to any of us. If you need more, we'll make more."

Eden could remember all the years of driving around with her parents in the caravan of God's Light and Children. They'd obsessed about money. There were certain towns where they knew the populace gave them a lot whenever they drove through to preach. They'd hold on to that like fiends, hoping it would last through the places where people had less to give.

After that, some unknown benefactor had paid for her years in the mental health facility. She still didn't know who had forked out the money for that. She'd never thought to ask how the Outsiders supported themselves. As it turned out, apparently, they magically made money.

"We couldn't do what we had to do if we all needed to keep up with our day jobs, so to speak."

That made sense and Eden tried to smile to cover her new unease. If she'd been so completely unaware of how they functioned in this place for the last six months, could she possibly expect to make it anywhere else? Maybe Marina was right. Maybe she shouldn't trek out on her own.

Except if she didn't do it now, if she didn't force herself out the door, then she would never leave. She was thirty-one years old and she'd never ever go anywhere. She'd spend the rest of her life in this place, not getting control of her powers, letting everyone down, and then eventually dying when the demon defeated them all.

If she was ever going to be strong, if she was ever going to be worthy, she had to go now.

"Thanks for the help, Marina. I will take you up on the money. But I'll pay you back, even if you can always get more."

That was the only way she was going to feel okay about it.

Her friend ran forward, grabbing her on the arm. "Why are you doing this? You're family. You don't have to leave. Leonardo is shitty to me all the time too. It's just his way."

"I don't like what my role has turned out to be in this family."

And that was the truth. If there was ever a chance she could help the Outsiders on their quest to bring down the demon, she needed to know she could stand on her own two feet.

She wouldn't allow herself to be the one they all had to worry about. Not anymore.

* * * *

Eden felt the rough onslaught of the wind off the Atlantic pound in her face. She sat, gripping the edge of the boat as Kal sped through the rough water toward the mainland of Maine. She'd done this trip once before but she had no memory of it.

Thank God
.

If she'd remembered just how nerve racking the actual transportation had been, she never would have thought she could do it again in a million years.