Love Beyond Sight (6 page)

"It's okay, I do this all the time." Kal shouted to be heard over the noise of the boat and the roar of the wind.

She knew that to be true. Although Gabriel, one of their kind, could transport people across space, it exhausted him too much to ask him to do it all the time. Plus, the overuse of unnecessary magic could give the demon an 'in' on getting past Marina's wards. Eden shuddered at the thought. Sebastian didn't need any extra help.

She looked up at Kal. When he'd met Isabelle and taken the first steps to defeating the evil that hunted them, things had started to change. It was like his rediscovering his soul mate had triggered something in all of them. Something that had finally brought them together, that would eventually make all eighteen Outsiders join forces.

A pulse started in her head and she rubbed her forehead to try to make it go away. After a few seconds, it did. She shook her head. That had been a weird feeling.

"Hey," Kal yelled again. "Do you need any money?"

Eden would have smiled if the whole thing hadn't been so disastrously sad. "No, Kal. I'm good. Marina took care of me."

That had been the truth. But when Eden came back, she wouldn't need anyone to do that for her anymore.

The boat slowed down as it approached the dock up ahead. "Now, you're sure about this?"

Eden swallowed. Was she? "Yes, I'm good, Kal. I appreciate the concern but I need to prove something."

"To who?"

She really, really wished he would let this go. "To myself, to Leonardo. I don't know… to the world, I guess."

"Look, if this is about Leonardo…"

She cut him off before he could follow it to the same conclusion Marina had made. "It's not. It's about me."

"All right." The boat came to a jolting stop as Kal threw the knotted end of a rope around a pillar on the dock. She guessed it acted like some kind of anchor but she really didn't know anything about how floating devices functioned. Before she'd looked out her bedroom window six months ago, she'd never seen the ocean before. Heck, she'd never even see anything that amounted to a large lake.

Her life had pretty much amounted to long travels over large passages of land. Maybe that was her problem. Maybe all the water around her made her powers go awry.

Maybe she was just lousy.

* * * *

Eden wandered the streets of the beach town, feeling more alone than she ever had before. Her feet hurt in her soaked-from-the-snow sneakers and they squeaked with every step she took. Her fingers had long since stopped hurting from the cold and she knew she needed to get inside soon.

Forcing one foot in front of the other, she sloshed forward just as a new batch of snow descended from the sky to cover her already-wet head. Kal had said he'd wait until eight o'clock that night in case she changed her mind and wanted to come back. He'd also insisted she take her cell phone.

This would be the moment she'd turn around if she was going to. Instead, she fisted her hands and tried to make out what the very dirty, un-illuminated sign said. She thought it said 'Beach Cove' but it could have said 'Beach Dove.' To be honest, she wasn't exactly sure but it didn't matter one way or another.

If the office was open and they had a room, she'd be staying there that evening. After she knocked on the outside door of one of the buildings that she assumed acted as the check-in area, an older man opened the door.

Eden took in his appearance as she tried to smile despite her freezing body. He looked to be in his late sixties. What hair he had left, appeared silver around the top of his bald head. His eyebrows, which were still dark brown and fuzzy, furrowed downward as he regarded her in what was clear concern. She couldn't blame him. At the moment, she had to look like something had swallowed her up, digested her, and spit her back out again.

"Can I help you?"

"Yes, hello." Eden held her chin up. She had to stop cowering everywhere she went. This was an easy transaction. They had rooms—she hoped—and she needed one. "I'd like a room please."

"They're not for free." The man cleared his throat. "Not even in this weather."

He thought she couldn't pay? "I would expect to be charged for it."

"I see." He looked her up and down, which made Eden stand up straighter. Whatever her appearance might currently suggest, she wore nice clothes and Marina's bag was of fine quality. No way could he think there was anything inherently 'wrong' with her appearance. And even if he did, to steal a phrase from Gabriel, fuck him.

Eden had been judged her whole life. Usually, she could ignore it. Maybe it was simply a compilation of the entire day but she wanted to wring the old man's neck. Wandering the streets of random towns with her parents, wearing dresses that looked like they belonged to women who had lived during the revolutionary war with her hair braided down her back was hard enough. At least she could understand the stares. But she looked normal now—well, as normal as she could, given her extreme height and red hair.

"Are you in some kind of trouble?"

"Can I have the room or not?" She wasn't going to answer this man's questions. Not while he stared at her rudely and hadn't opened the door so she could come inside and get warm.

"It's fifty dollars a day."

"Fine." Eden dug into her coat to look for her wallet. "I'll pay you every morning."

"There's no maid service this time of year."

She nodded. "That's fine, too. I'm used to taking care of myself. I've been doing it my whole life."

"This is room 1C. It faces the ocean and it has heat."

Well that was something. She needed the heat, badly. Her hands looked blue and her nose felt like it might fall off. Concerning the ocean, for a woman who had never seen one before six months ago, she had gotten used to the constant noise it made and the way it made everything around her ebb and flow. She'd be glad not to lose it yet. Wherever she ended up might not be near the beach.

"Is there some place to get something to eat?" She wasn't hungry at the moment but she would be at some point. Better to ask this man all the questions she might have right away since she wasn't sure what was going to happen two minutes from now.

"This time of year?"

She bit down on her tongue to stop her retort and opted for short answers instead. "Obviously."

"It's a ways down the road. There's a restaurant called Eppie's. It's open twenty-four hours a day."

Well, she wasn't going to walk there now but maybe in the morning the snow would subside and she'd give it a go. "Thanks."

As she dragged her bag behind her, she reminded herself that things could be worse. She could be sitting back on the Outsider Island obsessing about being left behind while they all went off and saved the world without her.

She might be wet and cold but she was proactive. That had to count for something, somewhere.

Finally reaching her beachfront room she opened the door to the smells of mold and dust. She sneezed as she pushed forward, compelled to get warm no matter the level of cleanliness. For one night, this room would do.

It looked to be sparsely decorated. The floors were wooden and appeared to have seen better days. There was a queen size bed in the corner with sheets folded on top of the comforter. A television that might or might not work sat across from it. There was also an unplugged refrigerator and a door that she assumed led to the bathroom.

She set Marina's bag down gently before throwing off her coat. The act of undressing set the shivers upon her and by the time she'd gotten out of her wet clothes her skin burned from the change in temperatures.

"Okay, Eden. You're okay."

Maybe if she said it aloud often enough, she'd believe it. She dug through the suitcase, pulling out her sweatpants and a long sleeve shirt.

"Things could be much worse."

She shoved on her sweatpants, her hands shaking the entire time.

"You could have had a vision out there in the snow and ended up face down on the ground. You'd be dead before morning and then where would you be? Well, that's the million dollar question."

She pulled the shirt over her head and tried to force herself to take deep breaths. Whatever else was wrong with the hotel room, the heat pumped well. It felt like heaven in her little hotel room.

Wanting to be closer to the heater, she walked to the window and stood right next to the heating unit like she could make the warmth seep into her bones by vicinity alone. From this distance, the snow actually looked pretty, not like the wicked, cruel devil it actually was.

"I did it. I found shelter. That is the hardest part."

Eden wasn't really certain why she kept speaking aloud, but hearing her own voice sounding normal, sounding like she wasn't about to fall into a pit of self-made despair filled with stupidity, made her believe she might actually be okay.

A movement caught her eye and she leaned closer against the window. What was that out there? A person?

Standing on the beach looking decidedly like he stared right at her—even though she knew she had to be paranoid in thinking that was what he did—was a man dressed in full winter regalia. Unlike Eden, he had come prepared for the cold. His jacket was black, standing out against the white world the snowflakes created on the beach. She couldn't even see the ocean through the thick blanket but she could hear it as it roared its fury onto the sand.

Whoever stood there must certainly be brave to take on the elements on a day like the one they were having. Why was he just standing there staring at her room?

She gasped and took a step back. Could he be a minion of the demon? Could he be Sebastian himself? In her haste, she tripped over the bag she'd set on the floor and hit the ground hard. For a moment, she couldn't move as her leg started to throb. She'd really banged it. A pool of blood formed at a gash she'd made and she had to look away. She'd never been very good at handling blood.

After crawling for a moment, she grabbed the side of the bed. Although she struggled, she managed to pull herself to her feet and limped to the window to see if the man who had stared at her room still remained. Only the swirling snow greeted her eyes and she let out a sigh that quickly turned into a half-sob.

She'd rushed from the window like some poor stranger wanted to harm her. In the process she'd managed to injure herself. Looking around the room, she decided the bathroom towel would have to do to stop the bleeding on her leg because she didn't have any bandages and she doubted the guy at the desk would give her any if she asked.

Could she be any more pathetic? She sat down to place the towel on her bloodied leg when her hands started to tingle. Oh no. This was not the time for a vision.

The world whirled in front of her face and she climbed up onto the bed in preparation for passing out. If she didn't have to bang herself up any further that evening, it would be a really good thing.

Seconds later even as she fought her damndest to stop the occurrence, the world went black around her.

Chapter Five

Samuel stomped through the snow, his heart rate increasing rapidly with every step he took. Eden was in trouble. She'd looked just fine, as he'd watched her from his spot on the beach. For a second, it had seemed like, even from a distance, their eyes had met and it had been the best moment of his life. But something had gone askew. He could feel it. Her distress was like a metal taste in his mouth and every particle in his being insisted he find out what went wrong and fix it.

He moved as quickly as he could toward her motel room door but the snow made even the small bit of travel difficult and it took some time. He could kill the other Outsiders. What had they been thinking letting her go? Someone should have chained her to her bed before allowing this. Eden's safety had always been paramount in his mind, and if he ever got the chance, he would pound the others for obviously not feeling the same.

Finally, he got to the door. His snow pants were covered midway up his calves in white powder. He'd pulled off his gloves and banged on the door when it occurred to him that he had no idea how he was going to explain to her who he was. What would be his excuse for showing up at her motel door? Although he knew her well, she had no idea who he was other than a voice in her head that occasionally made her feel insane.

Eden didn't answer. He waited a beat. Was she just not answering because she was scared of a stranger banging on her door? His gut clenched and he debated sending his consciousness to her just to see what was going on. But that would leave him standing outside of her door with his mind elsewhere. If she were to open the door, it could be a disaster.

He gritted his teeth and knocked one more time. "Hello? I'm friendly. I'm just lost in the snow."

Maybe that would work. Eden was openhearted and her upbringing had led her to believe that she'd basically been born to serve others. If he claimed to need help, there's no way she wouldn't—foolishly—open the door to him. Samuel meant her no harm but others could take advantage of her good nature.

Which is why she shouldn't be alone without any protection
.

Still nothing. Something was wrong. All of the years of stealing faces and moving locations had taught him certain skills he wasn't proud to possess. However, not feeling 'proud' didn't mean he felt guilty. He didn't. Times like this one warranted a little know-how that wasn't necessarily legal.

Reaching into his ski-jacket pocket, he pulled out the screwdriver he always carried with him. There were certain things that he brought with him always. The screwdriver, dental floss, and a tootsie roll lollipop were among the group. After a second of jimmying with the door, he got the lock open. It was a good thing it was one of the old fashioned locks that required a regular key to get in. The newer hotels with the sliding cards were more complicated to open.

He pushed open the door, half expecting Eden to whack him in the face, screaming at the top of her lungs that a lunatic had broken into her hotel room. Silence met his entrance and Samuel poked his head inside to see what had occurred. Eden laid spread out on the bed, a large gash in her leg bleeding onto the exposed mattress.