Tatiana finally spoke. "Where would we send them? To the humans? Who would teach them to be Outsiders?"
"Maybe they don't need to be taught." Larissa shrugged. "Do birds need to be taught to be birds? At some point wouldn't they just fly with or without the mother bird shoving them from the nest? These are not questions we can answer. It might be that they would just learn to do it on their own. Powers are funny like that. They come whether we want them or not."
Sitting down on the side of the bed, Tatiana stared at her infant son, her eyes threatening to spill over with tears. "I can see that you make a good point. Morgan will object, as I imagine you know, which is why you came to me before speaking to your husband. Troy will go nuts. There's only one flaw with your plan that I can see."
"What's that?"
"It can't just be us. What good does it do to hide our two if all eighteen don't follow suit?"
Larissa had thought of that. Opening her mouth, she was quickly interrupted by a telepathic link booming through her mind. It was an open channel, not a private one. All Outsiders would be able to hear it.
"Much as I have tried, I cannot stop what is coming for you." Abraxas's voice sounded tired. None of them had heard from him in months. Larissa wondered what lengths their leader had gone to in order to try to stop the destruction of their race. "I know you can feel them moving to where you have chosen to hide."
Ah… so their small group of Outsiders weren't the only ones. In a weird, twisted way, that was a relief. At least they weren't the only ones so easily found.
"You are right to suspect the howl of the wolves and buzzing of the crickets tonight. It is evil watching you."
Abraxas could be frighteningly accurate in what he just 'knew'. He wasn't a seer… and yet, he was. Looking over at Tatiana she saw that her friend was as engrossed in the message as she was.
"There are too many of them and you are spread out. We are too weak while they grow too strong. I cannot save you, but I can save your children."
Larissa's heart beat fast. That was wonderful news. Could it be true? She wanted to be with Morgan, holding his hand, feeling the same hope she did spread through his aura.
"I will hide and protect them. I ask that you give them to me now in the hope that all will not be forever lost."
Ah… so this was it.
Abraxas continued to say that they were coming for them and that he couldn't stop it. They couldn't lose Abraxas. His death would be the first signal of the end. It meant time was up. There would be no more discussions, no more options left. It was now or never.
"I will send our children where they cannot touch them and I will keep them safe, hidden until they are strong enough to fight Him and win. But I will not take them without your consent. They are your children to protect, yours to cherish, and if you wish them to die with you then it is not my place to prevent this."
Larissa could feel Abraxas opening up a psychic link. She understood immediately what he wanted. They needed to place the children on the wave he'd opened to transport them to where they would be safer. They needed to place the children on the wave he'd opened, and they would be transported to where they needed to go.
Hoisting up her skirt so she could run, she sprinted from Tatiana's room nearly slamming into Troy in the hall. She had one focus, getting Charma on the link, which meant Morgan had to agree and he had to agree fast.
She moved through the cave, finally running into their room. Morgan held Charma close; Larissa noticed her daughter was dressed in her travelling clothes.
Larissa raised an eyebrow and Morgan smiled sadly. "I know you want her to go. I've been feeling you think about it for weeks. This just confirms that you are once again, always right."
She smiled. This had been the joke between them for more years than she could remember. He claimed she was always right and she said the same about him.
"Give her to me."
Morgan handed his sleeping daughter over to her. For the briefest of seconds, Larissa tried to memorize Charma's features. The vision of her sleeping infant would have to sustain her for eternity, as she knew in her heart of hearts that she would not see her again in this lifetime.
Charma had the blondest hair she'd ever seen. Blue eyes that were completely her father's, she had Larissa's small, pert nose.
"Listen to me, daughter, as I have much to tell you." Did babies remember? Probably not. Still, she had moments left to speak to her of this. Tatiana's worry loomed heavily on Larissa. "You are an Outsider. You are a creature unlike any other. Although you look like a human, you are not. For eternity, we have worked to keep balance in the universe. Where we felt things go askew, we fixed them. That usually meant fighting evil but sometimes it meant the zealots who push their agenda of 'good' had to be stopped as well. There must always be order. There must always be both."
She took a deep breath and hoped she had time to continue. "You are a Healer, although we didn't know it at the time. When you were conceived, we made the greatest emotional healer this world or any other has ever seen. You are strong, although others will not know it. Go forth and win. Find your soul mate. Be happy. Be true." Her voice shook as she spoke her last words to Charma. "We love you more than you will ever know." She bit her lip. "Well, until you have children of your own. And we are sorry we leave the burden that should have been our own in your small hands. May you be more worthy to be an Outsider than we were."
"Larissa…"
"I know, time's up." Moving forward, deliberately, and not giving in to her need to back out of this, to search for another option when she knew there was none left, she opened herself up to Abraxas' magic. Placing Charma on the link she watched her daughter float for a second in the air before she disappeared.
Larissa gasped, her legs buckled beneath her. Morgan's strong arms caught her before she hit the ground. "You were right, don't doubt it now. She will be safe. They will all succeed. They're all together."
Seconds passed, and a voice she'd not expected to hear again filled the room. It was Veli Destrand, Abraxas's right hand man. Evidently Abraxas had tried to send him the children. Larissa clasped her hands together and shifted on her feet. That made sense. He was so disconnected from the group, he'd be harder to find. Only there was a huge problem. Only three had made it through.
The magnitude of this nearly overwhelmed Larissa. All she could focus on was Charma. Was she one of the three?
Veli requested a description of each of their children.
Speaking aloud, although she could have done it telepathically, she described her baby to Veli giving herself one more chance to remember her daughter's features.
When she finished she added one more request. "I am Larissa Monroe and her father is Morgan. You know us quite well, Veli. Please be kind to her."
From the other room, Larissa heard Tatiana shriek. Her son was not amongst the children who had made it. He had just disappeared. Gods, was he dead?
"Morgan?"
"She made it." Her husband stood straight and tall, where Larissa felt herself shaking like a leaf on water. "Fate will do the rest."
Over their shared link, they felt Abraxas fall to darkness. Closing her eyes, she hardly heard the men who stormed the cave with torches and guns meant to kill them.
She'd succeeded. Morgan was right.
Her life was over. Charma's was just beginning.
The war had begun.
* * * *
Another Dimension
She stared at her father, a hand on her hip. "Dad, I really think you should reconsider. You can't send him to do this. He'll screw the whole thing up."
She could always tell when her father wasn't listening. What good was it being supremely evil if she couldn't make a dent with her own family?
"Your brother is more than capable of handling this dimension. He's done it before. He'll do it again. Besides, it was prophesized he would do this. You just go find some other people to torment.
Ooh, it made her so angry. Thi
s should have been her job. It was her turn. Screw him. She'd go do something else for a little while but when she got back if he wasn't done, she'd take over.
Who cared about some stupid Outsider prophecy? She was a God. No one was going to tell her what she could and could not do.
Chapter One
Charma stood, her back stiff, and tried to control her breathing and slow her heartbeat. She would not have a panic attack tonight. If she could choose, she would find a way to float out into the night, become part of the darkness that hid and protected them from their enemies. She raised her hand and touched the windowpane in front of her. The glass felt cool and moist on her fingers.
Outside, the island was quiet, as it always was. That was the thing about living on a private island off the coast of Maine. With the exception of a few random kayakers that either went the wrong way or couldn't resist the temptation to see the strange folk that lived there, no one ever came to visit. Well, occasionally people came but they were not welcome and their reasons for visiting were usually nefarious.
During the spring, the island bloomed with trees, flowers, bushes, and grass. But during the winter, as with all things in Maine, it was cold—deathly cold—with the threat of snow, and lots of it, on the horizon at all times. The Atlantic Ocean, which surrounded their small haven, was not a pleasant neighbor and you had to be very careful about when you chose to go somewhere.
Fall and summer were the best times of year, despite the bugs and the humidity, at least as far as she was concerned. They compensated for the winds of springtime and the frigid air of winter.
But not on a night like tonight. It was so dark. If she'd not been in the house, she'd be lucky if she could see her hand in front of her face tonight.
There was too much work to be done to spend this time thinking of nothing but nighttime and shadows. She needed to make this place a home, and she considered it a personal challenge, even a necessity to get the job done before newly married Kal and Isabelle returned from Europe.
They'd found each other. Two Outsiders reunited despite the odds against them.
She blew her hot breath onto the windowpane. In the back of her mind, she could feel the presence growing again. It was like an infection. If she couldn't get it under control, it would spread to everyone and everything she touched even the window that she stroked now. If she weren't careful, within moments she would break the glass into a million pieces that would never come back together—not even with magic.
She walked two steps to the left and opened the drawer in the center of the cedar desk. Meticulously, she removed the items she needed to call up her power. Some things came naturally to her, but in most circumstances, she needed help from either the sunlight or the moon. Tonight the night was begging her to remove the unnatural Dark presence from it. She would do it.
No matter the personal cost.
The incantation would call for two lit white candles and a lot of delicate power released slowly from her. If she could, she'd seek out a mentor to make these things easier. But that would require telling her family she was capable of doing this, and she wasn't ready to do that just yet. She was a healer but they wouldn't approve of her skill used like this. They'd tell her she would destroy herself.
They'd probably be right. What they didn't understand was that it was her choice if she wanted to do that or not. She wasn't a child. If her destiny was to die going up in flames while she saved everyone else—something the rest of them would do in a heartbeat—then that was what she would do. The only problem would be convincing the rest of the group to leave her alone so she could figure out exactly what it was that she was supposed to do.
Somehow, she doubted sitting at home while the rest of the family roamed the world, fighting evil was going to allow her to find her role in the strange battle they all fought.
Marina, who was for all intents and purposes, her sister, could have made the candle light simply by thinking about it, but Charma didn't have that ability. She struck the match and watched for a second as fire burned on the end of the stick. It shone in the darkness, illuminating her room to anyone who happened to be looking at her from a distance. The trouble was Charma knew better than most what went bump in the night. She knew just what could be watching. No human inventions would keep what was out there away if it wanted to come in, not a lock on the window or heavy drapes to hide her figure from view. If it decided to come in, there was nothing anyone would be able to do to stop it.
She'd seen it all from inside the minds and hearts of the people she encountered. Most recently, she'd made contact with the very worst evil she'd ever imagined in the basement of a house only one hour away from where she lived. They had rescued Kal from a makeshift prison where he'd dangled from the ceiling nearly dead from his encounter with the Beast.
Now the same evil that had attacked Kal hunted her.
The thought made her shiver but she had no time for fear. Her family would survive this onslaught. Even if she didn't.
She touched the match to the two white candles' wicks and waited a moment to make sure the flame caught. The last thing she needed was for them to blow out in the middle of her makeshift ceremony.
She closed her eyes to center herself and block out the darkness. The door slammed open at the other side of the room. She jumped as the two candles snuffed out. Frowning, she turned around quickly, knowing exactly who it was: Marina.
Marina stomped forward, her eyes blazing, her hands on her hips. "I felt a power surge but I couldn't believe it was coming from you. What the hell do you think you're doing?" Marina's eyes were huge. "You're a Healer. You remember what Veli said; 'Healers have no business trifling with such strong energy'."
Ah yes, Charma could remember lots of things that Veli had said over the years. And probably much more acutely than Marina could. But she wouldn't correct the other woman. Not at the moment anyway.
Charma swallowed. "The night is sick. It's infected. I need to heal it." How did you explain to someone that you had no choice?
Asking her not to perform the ceremony was like asking her not to breathe, not to eat—it was akin to asking her to simply stop existing.
Marina sighed. "You're incorrigible. Here." Marina grabbed Charma's arm and even the small contact made Charma want to cringe. Any physical contact when she felt like this was agony. "I'll distract you." Marina looked at Charma so expectantly Charma almost wanted to cry. She didn't have it in her tonight to do anything except take care of whatever was going wrong with the night. She wanted no human contact, no one needing anything from her.
Charma pushed away Marina's arm and covered her chest with her own, trying to protect herself. To place a barrier between the rest of the world and her physical body. But the reality was—she knew better. There really was no choice except to let Marina say whatever it was that Marina had come up here to tell her. There would be no getting rid of her otherwise. "Tell me." She loved her like a sister even if sometimes Marina could make Charma crazy.
"I've got one. A real live one. Maybe two even, but one of their energies keeps vanishing on me. It's very odd. I think there are two in the same place." Marina grinned.
"You've got what?" Charma hoped this wasn't some kind of animal. A rat or a skunk or some other disgusting creature that Marina was using to improve her power base. She just couldn't deal with watching some small rodent floating around the room.
"The locator spell worked. I found a missing member of our family. Maybe two. Another Outsider. One, at least, I'm sure about. There might be a second one there too but I'm not sure." The way Marina said the word Outsider was practically a screech. Charma placed a hand on her ear to stop the ringing.
"That's great. How did you find her? The one you're sure about."
"Him. It's a him and he's in New Jersey. I'm not even sure the other one is real. But the one that's solidly there is a him."
"Not too far then. We'll send Leonardo to go make contact when he gets back from Europe." Leonardo had
been gone for weeks searching a graveyard for Abraxas's lost journals. Three months ago, Isabelle had finally located them by travelling back in time to see Abraxas and to save Kal's life. At the time, their one-time leader, had been nearly dead and yet he'd told Isabelle where he'd hidden the journals they needed. Now, Leonardo looked for them.
Things had become even more complicated when Leonardo had gone to retrieve the books and had gotten caught in the graveyard by local authorities. They thought he'd defaced a grave in the middle of the night. They hadn't appreciated his explanation that he was merely researching old folklore from the area. Kal had to fly to France to retrieve him and Isabelle had gone with him because, frankly, they just couldn't seem to bear being apart from each other.
"An Outsider. I found someone else." Marina was practically glowing as she rubbed her hands together in thought. "We don't have time to wait. Isabelle is helping Kal deal with this mess but none of them actually speak French. The local police force alerted some news media who are now questioning if Leonardo knows something about the strange graveyard that they all swear just appeared out of nowhere almost thirty years ago." Marina started to talk really quickly, usually an indication she was getting impatient with the conversation.
"Why didn't you tell me? Maybe I could have flown over and helped."
"Were you going to erase the minds of an entire camera crew, police force, and magistrate?" Marina answered simply. "I don't think so."
"I might have been able to do it."
The look that Marina gave Charma was so incredulous that Charma didn't need to ask what her friend thought of that idea. Obviously it wasn't just her own internal dialogue that doubted her abilities to handle things, but the entire Outsider clan was now unsure that she could be relied on. Great.
"Charma." The night called to her. "Come to me. I believe in you. Together we'll be whole."
The voice in her head spoke so low sometimes she could barely make out its words. But it was always there, especially on pitch-black nights like tonight. And now Marina wasn't letting her vanquish it or even push it back down where it couldn't bother her for a few days.