He shook his head. "Why don't you explain to me what I am then?"
She leaned her head to the left as if she considered what he said to her. "I could do that, I suppose. It might actually amuse me for a while." Her eyes glowed red. "I have a little time before I'm due to visit Sebastian in New Orleans. I could instruct you in your heritage."
Why hadn't he thought of this before? It would be a lot more pleasant to let this thing, this horrid hallucination, explain his delusions to him than to let her continue to cause him seizures, headaches, and vomiting as she shot electrical currents through his body. Electric Shock Therapy was easy compared to her abilities.
"You are one of the chosen children. Eighteen children born to undo the mistakes your parents made in releasing Sebastian. Oh, he's my brother living here disguised as a human, but he's really a demon unto humanity. Stupid idiots thought they could eliminate us all together. Boy did we show them who was in charge." She seemed to wander off into her own thoughts.
If she were real, he'd say she was a person who was not accustomed to talking or spending a lot of time around others. Certainly, she wasn't a conversationalist. Chosen children and special destiny. He'd always had a complex about needing to be the best, to be on top of his game.
"Where was I chosen?"
"What?" She didn't seem to follow his line of thought.
He shrugged; he was used to it. "Where was I when I was chosen? Who chose me and why?" He could talk himself out of this nonsense. He would simply force his brain to a new reality, to see the illogical nature of this whole experience.
"Oh, Dr. Randall, you are so limited. The Fates, Destiny, the Gods chose you, however it is that you are comfortable describing it. Veli Destrand, before he died, used to call it 'the good side'. He was pretty accurate in that." She laughed. "Such a shame he's dead and you won't get to meet him until I send you to death. But in the mean time you're so exciting to play with."
He didn't see it coming. The electrical current struck his body with what he could only imagine was the force of an eighteen-wheeler. His entire being shook from the experience. His insides burned as if he were a mere piece of toast. Without surprise, he fell to the hard ground.
Breathe. It was nearly impossible to perform that basic function. Eventually, it would pass. He knew this because he'd been going through this experience at least once a day since he'd been stuck in his own mind's creation, but each time she electrocuted him, it seemed to get worse.
When he could move, he pounded his fists on the ground in front of him. If this was punishment for killing the would-be kidnapper, he'd take it. He had stopped the man's beating heart and he knew he'd been responsible when it had happened. Even if nothing medical could ever prove it, he had felt his mind reach inside the other man's chest and command his heart to stop beating.
He was a monster and no matter how much he could explain this away, he couldn't rationalize that away. So he would suffer this way. Forever. In a jail of his own creation.
Jason tried to smile through the ebbing pain. He raised his head to look at the Self-loathing. She sat on the rock he'd recently occupied, unconcernedly filing her nails. The nail file bothered him. He could only imagine what she would be capable of doing to him with that since it only seemed to be just a point of her finger was needed to destroy his body with jolts of electricity.
"I take it you don't want me to ask questions."
"It's not questions I mind, darling." She huffed. "It's the obstinacy used to disguise disbelief."
Jason pulled himself into a sitting position and wiped the sweat off his face. He hated this feeling of helplessness. When he had a patient on the table, held their life in his hands, he felt flawless and powerful, as if the world turned because he commanded it. Control. In here, he'd been stripped of that very concept.
"So, I'll just cut to the point. You are fated to either destroy my brother, me, and anyone else who might show up from my dimension and send us permanently back to the pits from where we came. Or you can perish, leaving humanity to us. You can only do that if you find your other half and, as I've brilliantly trapped you, that will never happen."
"Why not just kill me? Why go to all this trouble?" At this moment, he might prefer to just be gone.
"I still might, but what fun would that be? I want to torment Sebastian with you. He feels so proud because he's raised two of your kind as his own. I need my own Outsiders if I want to take over. And the way you fried that man's heart. Oh yes, you will be most useful to me."
Like hell. Somehow he'd figure out how to choke to death on his own tongue. What was he doing or worrying about? She was a manifestation, nothing more.
Something she said stuck in his gut. His perfect other half. If he closed his eyes, he could still see her as he'd imagined her. Tall and skinny, they'd both been twelve. She had the longest blonde hair he'd ever seen. It passed her waist and shone like rays of the sun had come down to personally grace her with their presence.
He'd looked for her everywhere in real life. No one came close and finally he'd had to give in and admit she wasn't real. Women didn't smile at him like that—unless they wanted his money or to be associated with his career. It wasn't that he wasn't good looking. He knew he was. But all anyone could see when he or she looked at him were dollar signs. He was too odd, too intellectual, too cerebral to garner normal attention. As his mother would have put it, he lived too much in his own head.
Ironic now.
She didn't seem to mind. As young children, before the other feelings for her had started, they'd been playmates. She'd simply sit with him in silence, happy if he was content with whatever he thought about. He didn't hurt her head. That's what she'd said.
It had been like removing one of his limbs to eliminate her from his mind. Like purposefully causing himself to go through death. But he'd had no choice.
You couldn't live in the real world if you were forever obsessing with what wasn't possible.
He'd never known her name. Hadn't needed to know it. It was like he'd always known her. They were beyond names from the moment they'd connected in this place. A smile crossed his face. Maybe he could conjure her again if he tried hard enough.
His whole body wrenched from the ground. Self-loathing held him up with one arm. Her eyes glowed red. Hell, somehow he'd pissed her off, and he hadn't uttered a word.
"Your whole demeanor has changed, Outsider. What could you possibly be thinking about that is making you the least bit happy? I don't want you happy."
He wouldn't tell her. She could shock him until he died. That girl, that little girl, who he had invented, who never aged past twelve in his mind or heart, was his to protect. He wouldn't let this hallucination use her to harm him. Or, God forbid, if she were real, he would fight to the death to keep her from this creature.
"I'm not going to tell you. I've already figured out that although you are part of my mind, you can't read my thoughts. So you'll have to satisfy yourself with giving me physical pain because I'm never giving you my mind. That will always belong to me."
Self-loathing dropped him hard on his back. It hurt but he wouldn't dare complain.
Her smile held malice in it, and if it was possible, her eyes glowed an even deeper red. "You can keep your thoughts. They will be your company after I take your powers, Jason. Then I'll let you die because I will have what I need from you. It'll be in the bed you lay in now. You'll whither in it. A young man of nearly thirty. Bed sores will cover your body, which will look less and less like the male perfection you've worked hard to create and more and more like a man three times your age." She laughed and loomed over him. He wanted to reach out and squeeze her neck but knew it wouldn't matter. You couldn't kill what wasn't real. "Eventually you'll catch pneumonia and choke to death on your bodily fluids."
She'd just described his biggest fear. That he would never wake up; never cease to be the unresponsive vegetable he knew he was on the other side. His parents would eventually stop visiting. He'd be
something whispered about if someone saw them on the street. 'What a shame their son had had that strange breakdown and died in the mental hospital.'
What an utter shame he'd never become the man he was supposed to be.
"I'm off to New Orleans now, Outsider. Don't worry. Our time together is almost over. I'm almost strong enough to take your powers. Then we'll be done."
She shot him with electricity again and he rolled over with a groan. He closed his eyes; glad she'd vanished, preferring only his own thoughts for company. Remotely, he wondered what that little girl would have grown up to look like. Stunning, he was sure.
Chapter Three
Sebastian stared at Alexa's ass from across the living room.
The red and brown shaded walls gave the room a romantic feel. That's what the painter had said when he'd done the work. Two minutes later Sebastian had eaten his soul. Truth be told, it wasn't much of a soul but it had satisfied his afternoon craving and given him a few more hours of relief from wanting to eat Alexa and Gabriel.
If it got any harder to resist, he would go ahead and kill Gabriel. Alexa was all he really needed now. Her powers were immense and her ass was perky and firm. He'd fuck her ass and then eat her soul as he took her power. At the thought, a little drool formed in his mouth and he swallowed it away.
Not too far off. Not too much longer.
Alexa was bent over, searching inside a large black bag. She removed items, mostly clothes, and placed them in a pile to the left of the bag. Quietly, she muttered inarticulate remarks that he gathered expressed her distress.
He sauntered forward, his hands in his pockets, trying to look loyal and unassuming. He'd had his brown hair cut short earlier in the day but left his whiskers dark and growing on his face because he heard she liked that look. When he stood behind her and she still hadn't looked up, he decided she must be really involved in whatever she searched for.
"What are you doing, Alexa, darling?" It still irritated him, even after thirty years, how southern he sounded. He liked the accent on Alexa, just not on himself. Somehow genteel didn't seem to gel with the image he was about to present when he took over the world.
She shrieked and turned to the right to look at him. "Oh gosh, Sebastian, you terrified me." Her laughter sounded like bells ringing. He supposed it was charming. He didn't give a shit. "What are you doing home? I thought you were going to speak to the mayor today about garbage pick-up or something."
He shrugged. "Done." She still hadn't answered his damn question. "What are you looking for in that bag?" He leaned down to get a better look. At closer inspection, it seemed like an overnight bag. Where was she going?
"I can't find my hairbrush. It has literally vanished." She rubbed her right pointer finger with her thumb. "Poof."
Her hairbrush. Where could that have gone? He couldn't care less. "Going somewhere?" He pointed at the bag like he'd just noticed.
"Gabriel invited me up to North Shore for the night. Wants to show me the boat and what he's done with the place." She paused as if she considered her next words. "He said he didn't think you would want to come."
Gabriel was right and Sebastian nodded with a lazy manner he didn't feel. There was no way he was going up to that shack Gabriel called a house. Why the man had given up on the splendor of uptown New Orleans for the nothingness of the St. Tammany Parish was beyond him.
None of that mattered now. The truth was it had been extremely convenient for Sebastian when Gabriel had stopped hanging around, filling Alexa's mind with doubt about him. No, he couldn't have the key to the whole plan disappearing into the bayou tonight.
He crossed the room as if he contemplated his words. Alexa's eyes followed him as he moved. "Has he told you what has gone wrong between us? We are, after all, brothers, and you know how important family is to me."
Or rather she knew how much he pretended family meant to him. A former foster care child, Alexa craved family above all things. So that's what he'd given her. But Gabriel hadn't believed it, or at least he didn't anymore.
"No, Gabe has been rather tight lipped about the whole thing." Alexa shook her head. "It's like he goes out of his way not to mention it."
No one would ever accuse Gabriel of being stupid. The only reason Sebastian had left him alive was for Alexa. If she were no longer on his side he'd end both of them and it wouldn't be pleasant. He watched as she tucked her brown hair behind her ears, observing him with serious, sable eyes.
Sebastian sat down on the couch's arm. He drummed his fingers on the couch side. "Maybe I should tell you, Lex. But I don't like to talk about others, especially people who I care about, who I still hope can change their way."
"What did Gabriel do?" Alexa stood up, her hands on her hips. "What did Gabriel do?" she repeated.
He needed to go carefully into these stormy waters. Gabriel and Alexa had come up through the foster system together. They'd clung to each other, knowing only the other one could understand their oddities, the things that made them different from regular people. Sebastian had used all of that when he'd made his parents adopt them. He considered himself lucky they weren't soul mates or he'd never have gotten this far. They would have been too solid.
"Do you remember a few months ago how we went to Maine to find those people that are using their energy to destroy other people's lives and how they strangely got away?"
It still vexed him that Kal and that woman, Isabelle, had bested him, but he knew now how powerful they'd grown. That was why things couldn't be allowed to continue as they were. He was going to take action, and Alexa was not going to St. Tammany parish.
Alexa nodded. "Of course I remember. That terrible cult in Maine." It helped that Alexa didn't think very highly of 'Yankees'. Human distinctions puzzled him sometimes.
"Yep, that's the one. You remember Kal? Their leader who I tried to reason with? The one who shot me with electricity? Well, he somehow recruited Gabriel, convinced him of terrible things, and has gotten Gabriel to spy for him. He's been looking for a way to recruit you ever since. He knows that I know. That's why he stays away from me and why he wants you to go with him to the North Shore. So he can try to convince you he's right. He's been brainwashed."
Alexa's mouth hung open as her eyes darted back and forth. He rose and took two steps towards her. "If he's brainwashed—if they've infected him with their awfulness—then we need to help him, Bastian, not abandon him."
She said abandon like she said the word toxic or terrorist. He would use this to his advantage. She was so easily manipulated.
"I wouldn't dream of harming Gabriel. Why do you think I've left him alone? I haven't brought him here for a detoxification. You know the risk of that. I would never put Gabriel in any situation where there could be any risk at all. Night after night, day after day, I've racked my brain, desperate to figure something out. I want to help Gabe and I thought perhaps I could spare you the pain of having to know about any of this." He looked down as if he felt forlorn.
"Sebastian." Alexa sounded horrified. "You can't be expected to handle these things by yourself. That's what family is for. I'm going to help you. We won't lose Gabriel to them. Even if I have to go up there to that god-forsaken place and drag them down here to release him."
This next part was pivotal. Sebastian looked at her hard. The battle for Alexa's soul was coming fast. "And if it takes more than that, Alexa? What if we have to do something that on a normal basis we would both never consider? I don't want misconstrued ideas here. I'm talking about killing them. What if that is what it takes?"
Alexa stood still, as far as he could tell she barely breathed. "I would do whatever I needed to do to save you and Gabriel. But I would want, of course, to see if there was another way first."
"I just need to know that we're on the same page, darling."
"Let me think on this for a while. I'll come up with a solution, and in the meantime I'll put off going to Gabriel's for a little while so I can figure out the best way to handle this."
r /> Her desire for space was one of the things he knew well, and so, like the dutiful brother he was, he nodded and walked into the kitchen. He wanted a drink and it wasn't of the liquid offering. Problem was they couldn't keep losing household staff. Someone was bound to notice that the people who worked for them all ended up dead.
This particular body would have to be dumped creatively. She smelled so good and he wasn't even sure of her name. The upstairs maid. Her skin was the color of lightly mixed milk chocolate. He wanted to lick it. But there was no time for that. If he didn't get a soul soon he would start to lose his façade. Not yet.
He took the wooden staircase two steps at a time but stayed light on his feet. There would be no use giving himself away before he was ready. Sniffing the air, he caught her scent. It was the pine needles and jasmine. There was nowhere in the New Orleans area where she would have come into contact with pine needles so it must have been some sort of bath soap. No worries. He had taken the souls of foul smelling men. A beautiful, pine-scented woman would be a nice change.
She was in Gabriel's old bedroom; he turned left and walked down the long hallway. Quietly he opened the door. She stood with a feather duster individually dusting each and every book on Gabriel's shelf. He suppressed a shudder. There was nothing more interesting on that shelf than science fiction. Blah.
"Hello, my dear." She spun around and gasped as she started to smile. He never let her finish her thought. Within seconds, she was in his arms, secured in his strong embrace as he stripped her of her will to fight. Humans were so easy. They never fought him. Never even understood they were doomed.
Her body quivered under his embrace as he sucked in deep breaths through his nose. Her soul came to him without hesitation and the empty shell that was her body went limp in his arms. His prey could not live without their souls. It was humorous that a lot of them questioned whether the soul was real or a thing of myth. All the better for him or he might have a harder time getting them.