Love Beyond Sight (7 page)

Even as he moved, he sent his consciousness out toward hers. She was having a vision. He struggled against his powers, which wanted to meld with hers and join her in the prophecy. There was no stench of the demon in her mind, which meant they had more pressing concerns—like her bleeding leg and her current living situation.

Samuel's face started to itch and he pushed away the sensation. His appearance was going to have to last a little while longer despite his close vicinity to Eden. He looked around the room. This place was a dump. It might suffice during the summer when people just wanted a place to crash after spending all day at the beach but for winter lodging? No way was Eden going to remain in it, not during a winter storm.

The trick was going to be getting her out. He couldn't wait until she awoke so he could ask her to go with him. She'd be nuts to go running off with a stranger and he doubted she'd let him get very far in his explanation to even get the chance to ask. That left him few options except to do something he would really prefer not to do.

Sighing, he knew he had no choice. Hell, he'd already broken into her hotel room. What were a few more laws? He stared down on the floor at the pathetic winter coat she'd ventured out into the cold wearing. His Eden hadn't prepared well for her sudden venture off the island.

Samuel's face felt like it was on fire—a sensation he'd actually lived through once and he didn't particularly care for having to endure it again. Using only his sheer force of will to control the panic that threatened to overtake him, he made himself stay in the present. He couldn't help Eden or himself if he freaked out.

He tugged off his own coat and wrapped Eden up in it. The car he'd 'borrowed' and intended to put back—just where he'd found it—wasn't far away. It wasn't like he could purchase his own vehicles. He didn't even have a driver's license although he knew how to operate just about every type of car, motorcycle, or boat he encountered. How could he go to the DMV and have a picture taken when his face altered all the time? If he got pulled over, the cops would assume he'd stolen the car.

Fortunately for Eden, he didn't mind bending the law when it was absolutely necessary. This was one of those moments.

"Okay, pretty girl. We're getting out of here. Just after I wrap up your leg and then I'll fix it when we get back to my place."

He darted into the bathroom and used one of the towels to make a temporary bandage that would have to do until he could take care of it more properly.

After he put Eden in the car, he'd come back for her bag. The thought did occur to him that maybe he should find a way to bring her back to her island but then he was afraid she'd simply leave again. Plus, he wasn't certain the other Outsiders even deserved her anymore since they'd done such a lousy job of caring for her needs.

He placed her gently in the front seat. She was really out of it, which meant whichever vision she currently had to live must be a doozy. His heart wept at Eden's constant struggle with her power. What must it be like to constantly be dragged into a world that was a vision of a possible future?

Before he had to leave her again, he'd find a way to make it better. There had to be a way. One more quick run into the hotel room to grab her bag and he was back in the car. As he placed her bag in the backseat of the car, he felt it. Like an alarm system that his psyche had created on the day he'd nearly burned to death, he knew the demon was close. Goosebumps appeared on her arms and a rage that made him want to murder growled in his stomach.

He looked around, right and left, to see if he could actually sight the demon. Nothing visible at the moment but that didn't mean anything. Sebastian was close. Samuel didn't need to see him to know he was there. Maybe this was the time to finally get the demon.

Samuel whirled around to look around again. He had to get Eden to safety, and if the demon wanted to track him there, then he'd show him how he had prepared for him. He was never going to get caught unaware by the thing. No one would ever again get the chance to lock him in the closet and burn him like a victim.

If he had to kidnap the soul mate he could never have to keep her safe, then that is what he would do. One way or another, Eden would get well and the demon would pay for what he had done. Samuel knew that to be true like he knew that the sun would come out every morning and that sometimes life just sucked no matter what you tried to do about it.

It took him a few extra minutes to get back to his apartment. The snow made driving nearly impossible but the car he'd temporarily acquired had four-wheel drive and they managed to eventually get there. He pulled the car in his driveway. The first thing he would have to do after he settled Eden in was to return the car. Maybe the owner would never know that it had been temporarily swiped. Samuel could only hope. Luck didn't tend to run on his side.

If any of his neighbors were staring from their windows, he didn't want to know about it. Usually, he was so careful not to be stared at that he went to great lengths to make sure he never drew attention to himself. There was no time for that at the moment. Eden needed to be put inside and the car had to go back.

Scooping the still unconscious Eden up in his arms made his stomach twist. She smelled like strawberries. He wanted to lick her from her chin down to her feet. His cock jumped to attention even as he fiddled with his house keys to bring her inside. The temperature outside felt freezing but Eden had lit a flame inside of his body that might cause an inferno if he wasn't careful about it.

Not to mention his skin wanted to peel off his face. It took all of his concentration to not scratch the itch desperate to be taken care of. His apartment felt blissfully warm compared to the outside. In two seconds he had crossed the relatively small place and laid Eden down on his bed. Her leg had stopped bleeding but it still looked nasty. The car could wait a few more seconds because he needed to take care of her leg.

As he bounded into the bathroom to look for his first-aid kit, the reality of what he had just done dawned on him. As a rule, he liked to complete tasks and sometimes the doing of the job blocked out any emotions he should deal with during the chore. If he could focus on the actual doing, he didn't have to handle everything else.

But it was impossible to ignore the fact that Eden lay on his bed, in his apartment, and they'd spent the last half-an-hour in the closest vicinity they'd ever been together. It was what he'd always wanted.

Samuel crossed to the medicine cabinet and tried to focus on getting out all the stuff he needed. If he didn't do something about his face, it might peel itself off. Somehow, his magic didn't want to work while Eden was around. Like his internal power monitor that allowed him to steal the features of other peoples—lucky considering what happened to him—rebelled against the idea of Eden seeing him as anything other than what he really looked like.

Well, he snarled at his fake reflection in the mirror, that wasn't going to happen. No way would he let her see what he himself couldn't stand to witness: the horror of his scarred monstrous face.

There was no way he could find a new appearance in the middle of a snowstorm. This one had to last.

"Damn it."

He stomped out of the bathroom, aware that he was acting like a lunatic. There wasn't a thing he could do about any of this. Eden needed to be away from him so he could maintain his cool and keep his skin in place. But he couldn't have left her alone in that hotel room.

Somehow, someway he'd make do, and as soon as the snow stopped, he'd get her back onto that island where he would find a way to make sure she stayed put.

* * * *

After he'd put the car back where he'd stolen it from, checking to see if there was any evidence the owner had noticed a lack of the car and finding none, he hoofed it back to his apartment complex. Even though he knew how to dress properly for the cold, by the time he got home he felt frozen to his core. The cold air had helped his burning skin to relax for a while. Maybe he could get one more day out of his new features.

Maybe
.

He'd unlocked the door but hadn't stepped inside more than an inch when the first blow struck him on the side of the head. He saw stars as he hit the ground. What the hell? He could hardly think. Shit. What had hit him?

Using force of will alone, he barely managed to roll to the side before the next whack nearly struck him again. A streak of strawberry-blonde flew by his eyes.

"Eden?"

He heard a gasp. "How do you know who I am?"

Samuel managed to open one eye long enough to see she stood above him holding a chair leg over her head. She looked fierce and stunning like some kind of warrior goddess taking down her prey. Hell, she'd broken his chair.

"I know you. It's hard to explain." Or maybe it wasn't but he couldn't be sure. His head felt heavy and he couldn't make sense of much. Everything looked sort of blurry.

"Your voice." Eden's lovely face came into focus for a moment before it blurred out again. Her eyes furrowed as she tried to make sense of things. He didn't blame her. This whole thing was damn confusing.

"I know your voice."

He tried to nod and had to close his eyes. Wow, she'd really gotten him. "Yes, you do."

"You're the one who speaks in my mind." She gasped. "You're him."

She dropped to her knees next to him and the scent of her strawberry aroma, which matched the glorious color of her hair, wafted to him. He wished he could roll around in it.

"I hurt you. I don't understand what's going on here. How did I get here with you?"

"In the bathroom, there is a first-aid kit. Bring it, would you?" He would explain when he could figure out how he was going to explain it all.

"Sure."

She ran off and in a second returned with the kit. As she bent over him, he got a really good view of her breasts. They were large, more than a handful, and poked through her shirt so that he could see her nipples. His cock hardened and he couldn't help wondering how it was possible that in one hand he was seriously hurt and in the other his hormones were still in fine and working order.

"Oh wow." Her gaze bore down on him, shining with concern. "I really hurt you. You're bleeding. I think you might need to go to the hospital."

"No, no hospital." He shook his head and it made the pounding he already endured even worse. He'd have to remember not to do that again. "I heal fast. It's part of our genetic makeup."

Eden should know all about that. She'd been living in close quarters with the other Outsiders for months. Hadn't they taught her anything?

"So, you just want me to bandage it up?" She touched it gently with a piece of cloth and he flinched. Wow, he was really not acting as macho as he would have hoped and this was not the way he'd imagined their meeting going. Not that he'd ever really believed it possible for them to ever be in the same room together.

"Maybe dab it with some antibacterial stuff and then bandage it up."

She nodded. "Okay."

He would not act like a baby when she put the antiseptic on his head. He would not…

Samuel sucked in his breath when the first painful tingle of the cleaning solution met his open wound. He bit down on his tongue until he could taste blood and finally he had to make do with just shutting his eyes.

"I'm so sorry this is hurting." He could feel her gentle hands dabbing at the wound again. "I thought I'd been kidnapped. I didn't know it was
you
, obviously."

"I did kind of kidnap you, but I did it to help. I couldn't have been thinking too clearly or I would have considered the idea that you would awaken while I was out and be afraid."

"I thought about trying to leave but then I heard someone—I guess you—at the door and I panicked."

He pushed her hand away from where she dabbed on him. Taking her hand, he pulled the Band-Aid she held from her grip. He'd put it on himself; salvage his dignity. Somehow act like the man he liked to think himself to be.

His head was already clearing. The Outsider gift of healing was really incredible. If only it could have regrown his skin…

She smiled at him, her eyes looking beautiful with their green depths.

"You broke my chair."

He felt dumb right after he uttered the words. Truth was—he didn't give a flying fuck about the chair. She could break anything of his that she wanted just so long as she stayed safe. Being here with Eden, it did something to him. Ever since he'd become aware of her, when he was ten years old and the strange being had appeared to him in a dream and laid out the truth of his life to him, he'd wanted to take care of her.

At first, it had been entirely platonic. He had a person out there in the world who felt like his very best friend. When he tried, he could touch her mind and visit for small amounts of time. Later on, as he had changed, his feelings for her had altered. But by then he'd been too deformed for her to look at him.

Samuel had known from the moment he woke up in the hospital with his skin destroyed that nothing with Eden would ever be the way he'd dreamed it would be. There had been times that he'd changed his mind, times when he'd thought he could make the face switching work in a way so that a relationship between them would be possible.

As his mind regained its center of gravity, his skin started to itch again. The reprieve he'd temporarily had fled the room. This was exactly why he and Eden should never have seen each other in person.

"I'm sorry about that. I have three hundred dollars, well two hundred and fifty. Will that replace your chair?"

"It cost something like twenty dollars for that chair and I would never take your money. In a million years, I would never dream of it."

Samuel rolled over onto his knees. He grabbed the edge of the wall and used it to brace himself enough that he could stand up. The room spun again for a second but then righted itself. He took a deep breath. No way, no how was he going to pass out in front of Eden.