"I can feel someone in here."
Sebastian shook his head. "I can't and I promise you if they were here in the room with us, I could feel them too."
Leonardo raised an eyebrow. Now that was interesting. Sebastian couldn't feel him and he thought he would be able to.
"Alexa, you're so tired." Sebastian laid a hand on her shoulder and Leonardo watched as dark energy entered into her body. He gasped. The demon transferred his energy right into Leonardo's soul mate and she seemed to have no idea. Leonardo wanted to beat the creature to death. His hands fisted at his side. Violence had always been more Kal and Gabriel's style but for today he'd be happy to pick up their way of handling things.
"You think I'm not feeling what I know I am?"
Leonardo liked seeing the spark in her eyes. She wasn't defeated yet. He could still reach her, still make her his.
"Yes." The demon leaned over and kissed Alexa on the mouth. "I think you're confused."
Leonardo yelled at the top of his voice and leaped onto Sebastian. Nothing. He landed with a thump on the floor as if he didn't exist at all. He didn't have any pain either from his fall but even that drove him crazy.
That demon was going to fuck his soul mate and there wasn't a damn thing he could do about it.
Chapter Ten
Eden stared down at Leonardo and Marina. They both lay motionless, eyes closed. To someone else, they might look like they slept but she could feel that they weren't there. Not their souls anyway. Oh sure, their lungs breathed, their hearts beat, but no one was home in those shells. She wasn't exactly certain why she knew it as strongly as she did but as certainly as she knew anything, she was sure about this.
"They've left their bodies."
Isabelle took her hand and squeezed. "I know. I can feel it, too. I think it must be an energy thing."
"We can get them back if we do what I saw. It'll work."
Isabelle sighed. "I'm still not one hundred percent sure I know what you saw. It was vague. You had to be here. A room where they met. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me."
She knew they couldn't understand but she had seen the scene clearly in her mind. "Get everyone together."
Looking over her shoulder, she saw Samuel standing outside in the courtyard. He hadn't wanted to come in because his face hurt. When she came back out, he was going to bring her with him to go find a new one. Something she liked the look of. Sighing, she wished she had time for a nap. There would never be a look Samuel could produce that she was going to want unless he let her see him as he really was.
At the moment, that seemed highly unlikely.
"If you don't mind, I'll ask Jason to stay in here with them. Just in case. He hasn't been able to do anything healer-wise yet, but you never know."
Eden nodded. She wasn't used to being asked to call the shots. She really didn't want to screw this up. Too much depended on her. For once, she wanted to get things exactly right.
"Leave Jason here. Where is he, by the way?" She hadn't seen Jason or Charma since she'd arrived. Usually, that meant they were hauled off in a room losing track of time together by getting naked but Eden couldn't believe they were doing that under the circumstances. Charma had grown up with Marina and Leonardo. No way would she be anywhere but here with them.
"I sent them to take nap." Isabelle sighed. "I thought maybe if they were rested then they might be able to help Leonardo and Marina more."
It was a good thought but it just went to show how desperate they truly were if all Isabelle could come up with was 'take a nap' to fix things. They'd gone weeks with hardly any sleep when they'd first attempted to translate Abraxas's journals. Part of their Outsider abilities allowed them to go long periods with little rest. Still, at least Isabelle had tried something.
"I need to speak to Samuel." She squeezed Isabelle's hand before she let go. "Please ask everyone besides Jason and Charma to meet us outside in a few minutes. This is likely to take a little persuasion."
"What are you going to ask him to do?"
Eden shook her head. "You don't want to know."
And she really, really didn't want to ask him.
Stepping outside from the motel room into the hot New Orleans air was a boon to her skin after the cold of Maine. Had it been only the day before that she'd traipsed, by herself, down the cold road looking for shelter? It felt like longer.
"Hi." She stood next to Samuel and placed her head against his shoulder. He leaned over to kiss her on the hair and she grinned. It was nice to be close. Even if this was the closest they'd ever get. "How are you?"
He raised his head. "Itchy. Ready to go?"
"No. I need you to change faces but not to one you'll like."
Samuel narrowed his eyes as he swung her around to face him head on. "What did you see me doing in that vision of yours that you haven't told me about?"
Eden looked down at the ground. She wished she was one of those women who could stare him straight in the eyes while she held her ground. Maybe one day she would be. Right now? She felt lucky she was going to get the words out at all. Above all else, she had to save Leonardo and Marina.
"Tell me. Whatever it is, I'm not going to leave you. I might argue or even yell but I'm not going to leave."
His words helped and she glanced up. His gaze was hard. Although she felt certain he meant what he said, he looked prepared to battle her. That was fine. She'd expected as much. It helped to know that, in her prophetic dream, she had actually seen him do what she needed him to do.
"I need you to pretend to be the demon."
Samuel's silence stretched out before them. Even as they stood so close she could feel his breath on her face, her words had made him travel, emotionally, miles away.
"Pretend? Like I should dress up in my best demon outfit and parade around like I did when I was a kid?"
She knew his words were meant to be harsh but she couldn't help the grin that crossed her face. "You had a nice childhood, didn't you?"
"I did. Until the demon burned my face away and my parents couldn't stand looking at me anymore."
"Right." She nodded. What would Samuel have been like if he'd never been through that? Would he be less rigid than he was now?
I still wouldn't want to play with the demon.
And she needed to remember he could read her mind. "So unfair that you can do that and I can't."
"I bet if you worked at it, you could."
Eden sighed. "I'm so sick of having to work at my powers. Everyone else comes by theirs naturally. Why does mine have to be such an effort?"
"Stop whining and tell me why I'm pretending to be a demon?"
"Not pretending really…"
He turned away before walking to a bench that leaned up against the side of the red brick building. They were in what Gabe had called a 'bad neighborhood' but, according to him, that was okay because it was daytime. In her life, Eden had never been in a dangerous location before. Unless she counted the mental health institution that had all but crumbled around her. But that had been dangerous for very different reasons.
"I know what you mean, Eden." Samuel put his head in his hands. "I wish I could help you, I really do. But I have to touch the person whose face I take. Otherwise I can't assume their features."
"Haven't you touched him, Samuel?"
"No." His head darted up. "Why would you think that?"
Now he lied to her. She took a few steps in his direction, not wanting to send him into a fury based on nothing more than his anxiety.
"How did you end up in that closet?"
He shot to his feet. "Don't presume to know what happened."
She shook her head as a chorus of singing began in her brain. Very rarely did she hear the chanters. They visited other Outsiders more often but Eden's powers were so untrustworthy that the other beings who sang to them to let them know they were on the right track hardly ever stopped by to say hello to her.
Now, however, they sang out nice and strong. She had no idea w
hat they said. If she'd ever known their language, it had been in another lifetime long forgotten. But she understood their meaning perfectly. Samuel needed to be pushed on this issue.
"How did you end up in that closet?"
"Drop this, Eden. I don't discuss this and I really don't want to think about it right now while I have to face this crap you want me to do."
"Crap?"
He threw his hands in the air. "I didn't mean it like that."
His words burned a bit. She rubbed at her chest where it felt like he had shoved a hot poker at her heart. This wasn't about her. Samuel needed this.
"Answer the question, Samuel. I'm going to be really annoying about this until you do."
"Why? What could you possibly hope to accomplish with this?" He rose and strode toward her. "How is this going to help?"
"Stop avoiding and answer the question or we'll spend the whole day out here arguing like this."
"I was in the closet because I was hiding."
He looked down at the floor. Was that it? Realization dawned on her like a gong going off in her head. Samuel felt guilty because he'd hidden in the closet?
"What were you hiding from?" She stroked the side of his fake face. "Do you remember?"
In her life, she'd never wanted to be a psychiatrist. Eden had no idea if she did this correctly or if she somehow made things worse but the chanters were still charged up and blasting their brand of music in her mind so she couldn't be too far off base. She hoped.
"The demon. I'd seen him and I knew he'd seen me. I was a coward, okay? I knew I was an Outsider and I still acted chicken-shit." He rubbed his nose. "But for the record, I didn't lock the closet door. He did. To trap me inside."
"And how old were you? Twelve?"
He nodded, his now dark-eyed gaze tearing into her soul, begging her to let him be, to let him stay safely behind the walls he'd built. She couldn't. It was time for both of them to push forward into this life she couldn't imagine they would have chosen but that they had to handle just the same.
"Old enough to have stood my ground."
"And fought him with what?" Now it was her turn to raise her voice. "Your ability to shift bodies? Did you even know you could do that at the time? Could you have beaten him down with the way you anchor me to you during my visions? How would you have killed a demon when you were twelve years old?"
"I could have ended this for all of us and then you wouldn't suffer with visions of him. We could all live a normal life. I'd have my face." He touched his nose like he wanted to rip it off his face. "You'd think I was cute and we could be together."
His words panged her heart but she couldn't respond to him about that topic at the moment. There was literally nothing she could do to change the past. Even if Isabelle moved backward in time it was likely she wouldn't be able to communicate with him to change anything and even if she did, it wouldn't solve their immediate problem with Leonardo. Besides, there was the possibility it could make the whole thing worse.
"You touched the demon that day." It wasn't a question. She knew it had to be true. Otherwise, Samuel couldn't have taken the demon's appearance and she had seen him do that in her vision.
"We bumped shoulders in the hallway of my building. I was coming in from baseball practice." Samuel grabbed the sides of her face with his hands hauling her up against him. "But he was also twelve. Whatever you need me to do, I can't look like a twelve year old. They won't let me in to whatever club we have to gain entrance to, which I'm still not sure why we have to do."
"Samuel." His voice made her shiver. She wished she could go through life with him with her eyes closed. "I've seen you do it. If you try to take on that look, it will be the demon now not then. I need you to trust me. You either think that I am capable of doing this, of giving a true prophecy that can become real, or you don't. Which is it, hmm?"
His gaze sought hers. "I believe in you."
"Will you at least try then?" She held her breath waiting for his answer. So much of what would happen next depended on what he said.
"For you, Eden. To show that you can do a real prophecy, yes, I would do it."
She threw her arms around his neck. "Thank you, Samuel, thank you."
"You're welcome." His soft voice was like a caress on her soul. He kissed her head. "I think I would do anything for you that you asked even if I put up a bit of a fuss for a while."
"You shouldn't tell me that. I might take advantage."
He shook his head. "No. You never would."
"Don't give me too much credit."
A clearing of a throat had her jumping backward. Behind her, each with amused grins on their faces, were the rest of the Outsiders minus Jason and Charma who had, she assumed, been told to stay behind.
"Nice to see you hooked up, Eden." Gabriel spoke first, as he almost always did.
She smiled but didn't answer. Instead, she took Samuel's hand and practically pulled him toward the group. "You've all met Samuel, yes?"
"I think I've met everyone but the healers who aren't here now." Samuel smiled and Eden could tell from the way his eyes didn't light up when he spoke that so far he didn't seem to be particularly keen on joining up with the group like they were one big happy family.
"So," Kal stepped forward. With Leonardo out of the picture, he always stepped into the leadership role. "I hear you had a successful vision."
"Yes." She nodded. "I didn't fall apart or lose consciousness. Thanks to Samuel here."
He grinned, turning his head to glance at Isabelle. "Amazing how that soul mate thing works."
Eden looked at the group formed before her. Loraine and Gabriel. It had been less than a few months since they'd found each other and formed their Unit. She couldn't imagine either one of them without the other. Isabelle and Kal had been together almost a year. They made such a perfect union. Inside the room, Jason and Charma were the same way.
Yet there she stood with Samuel and she knew that because of their physical problem they would never be able to have that kind of connection. No matter how much she wished for it.
She imagined there would be lots of time to obsess about this later and the soft brush in her mind told her Samuel was probably visiting her thoughts anyway. He didn't need to exist in her insecurities. Eden was perfectly happy to wallow in there all by herself.
"I saw the place where mister-demon has been supplying himself with the nasties to fight us. See the truth is that while he's still in his human form, he's bound here. His magic is limited. Right, Gabriel?"
She looked for his agreement because she was so uncomfortable with everyone's eyes on her.
You're doing fine.
Samuel spoke telepathically to her, confirming what she suspected—that he was in her mind.
"That's right. He needed Alexa to find the Outsiders. He can't do it unless he's very close to us, within a certain distance. I'm not even sure how far that is. But if we're here and he's in another city, he can't spot us without her. Then, as Kal experienced, I moved whoever he found to wherever he wanted them."
"There's so much we don't know about him." Loraine took Gabriel's hand. "I wish Alexa would talk to us. Gabriel told me he never saw Sebastian eat so what is he subsisting on?"
"I have no idea but one thing I do know now is where he is getting all of the equipment he keeps using against us." Eden was so glad she could finally contribute something. "There's a club. Here in this city. The electrical device he used to zap the hell out of Leonardo and Marina, it was made there. To fix what he did we have to go there."
Isabelle clapped her hands together. "That must be where he got all of the dungeon equipment he used to keep us locked up the last time we were here."
"Right. So, Samuel is going to take on Sebastian's form…"
Samuel interrupted her. "Samuel is going to try."
"And he's going to go in there and get us what we need to bring back Leonardo and Marina."
Kal nodded. "How is he going to do that?"
&
nbsp; Samuel snickered, walking closer to the others. "Good question."
"He's going to bring them a distraction, something for them to focus on other than the fact that Kal and Gabriel are stealing from them."
"What's the distraction?" Eden stared at Samuel. Leave it to him to cut straight to the heart of the matter. She'd known she wouldn't be able to keep it from him for very long.
"Me."
Samuel roared. "What?"
"You're going to bring me in like I'm a captive. They'll be very interested in me. It'll work."
"No, it won't."
She put her hands on her hips. "Yes, Samuel, it will."
Her soul mate shook his head. "It won't because I'm not doing it."
"Samuel." Eden wasn't used to shouting and doing it made her heart pound hard against her ribs. "I've already seen it happen."
"Eden," Isabelle interrupted the argument she was having with Samuel. "Your visions have been wrong before. Remember you saw Loraine and Gabriel in mortal danger in Sebastian's home? That never happened. It was from a future that didn't happen."
"I know but this one is real. This one I had with Samuel. I can't describe it to you except to say that with him anchoring me, it feels completely different. It's real."
"I do believe you, Eden." Isabelle took her hands. "But maybe it should be me or Loraine brought with Samuel. Taking you seems so risky."
"It can't be. Gabriel or Kal may need the two of you if, and I didn't see this happen, anything went awry. And furthermore, why is it more risky to bring me than to bring any of you?"
"You might have a vision in the middle of it. You'd be totally at risk."
Eden shook her head. That was a legitimate concern. Or at least it had been before. But now that she had Samuel, she felt stronger. "I haven't had one since I got here. I think Samuel is keeping me from having that happen."
"Wow, I'm getting a lot of credit for doing things I have no idea that I'm doing."
Eden rolled her eyes. "Stop being petulant, Samuel. This is happening. I've seen it. This is how we do it, it's how we save them."