Love Beyond Flames Read online

  Zane scooted closer to her on the couch. "You must be perpetually exhausted. That's not enough sleep."

  What? "That's not exactly how I expected you to react. I told you I start fires in my sleep. Why aren't you running away in fear?"

  He shook his head, some of the dark, streaked with blond hair falling in his eyes. "I've never run away from anything in my life. Well, that's not true. Occasionally the cops. But, not because I was afraid. I didn't feel like going back to jail." He stopped talking, holding her gaze as though he expected a response. With his free hand, he reached out to trail his fingers down her arm. "Why aren't you running away in fear? I told you I've been to jail."

  The echo of what she said to him repeated from his lips made her smile. "Even though I run away from things all the time, and I'm perfectly comfortable doing so, you don't frighten me. I don't want you hurt. I should have gone to jail. A couple of times."

  He leaned forward. "I got it. When I learned I had a soul mate that I was destined to meet, I understood I would feel intensely, but I'm being drawn to you like a magnet. I can feel the pull and I don't want to resist it."

  A small sound of chanting started in her ears. The ancestors liked the idea of them kissing. She wanted to, as well. "Kiss me."

  "Yes, ma'am." Zane closed his eyes.

  She could smell his sweet breath and her fingers tingled with excitement. He was so close. They were actually going to do this, start the bond she'd always dreamed of yet never thought she'd actually have. Her body buzzed but didn't burn. It was a good sign.

  The room shook violently, throwing them both from the couch. Zane slammed his hand on the ground, darting to his knees and crawling until he covered her with his body.

  "This is the demon. He likes to play games," he shouted over the noise. "We'll be fine. We're warded. I hope."

  She didn't know what warding was and right then didn't particularly care. All she knew was she wanted the shaking to stop.

  Relax, little sister, the voices said to her, you don't want to call the ghosts with your anxiety.

  Raquel hated when they said things like that; she never knew what they meant and it was never good news.

  The room stopped shaking and she tried to breathe. "Is it over?"

  Zane sighed and didn't move. "Maybe. Let's give it a second."

  Flat on her stomach with his body covering hers

  wasn't exactly how she'd wanted to get close to him. He'd been so close to kissing her. "What did you think to do by throwing yourself on top of me? If the bookshelf or the ceiling came down, it would simply fall on you instead of me."

  "And you get the idea exactly."

  Zane pulled himself off her and reached down to help her stand. He wanted to shield her with his body? Her heart raced and for a second she couldn't breathe. In her whole life, there had never been anyone willing to risk anything for her. And he wanted to take on physical injury? He'd only really just met her.

  "Hey." The strength of his gaze forced her to look at him. "You okay?"

  "Zane…I'm very big trouble."

  "I'm good with trouble."

  The door busted open and a dark haired man stood in the frame. "Zane? All okay?"

  "Think so." Zane extended his hand toward her and she tried to make herself calm enough to pay attention to what was happening. So far, she'd met Gabriel, who had brought her before he'd just about fallen over. Loraine, Gabe's soul mate who had grabbed him; Drew who rushed after Zane and retrieved him; and Marina, Drew's other half.

  All of them had been names, stories told to her like a bed fable, and yet here they were. Intellectually, she'd understood they were real people. Zane had always felt so close she wished she could reach out and simply move through space to get to him. The others? Farther away, like distant memories of folks she had once known.

  "This is Leonardo," Zane said. "Leonardo, Raquel."

  Yes, she knew his stories, too. The leader…

  "Hi. Welcome." He nodded. "Seems like the demon wanted to greet you. Lots of shake, rattle, and roll. Not, a lot of real energy behind it. You guys coming to train with us?"

  "Ah…not yet." Zane shook his head.

  He was so adorable and clearly uncomfortable. She hadn't thought he'd be either. The stories about him had made him seem really tough and unapproachable, not at all the guy who couldn't seem to come up with the right thing to say.

  "We're still getting to know one another."

  "Right." Leonardo nodded. "Well, if you feel up to it, join us outside. We've got a war to fight. Time to learn offense instead of defense."

  "I'm not sure she and I are up for a big giant war rehearsal right now. And Gabe is out cold somewhere."

  Leonardo swore. "Everyone is too busy until we get attacked. Then it's why haven't we worked at this? Why does he keep beating us?"

  Raquel had met Leonardo's soul mate a few days earlier. They'd been separated rather abruptly when Raquel was suddenly whooshed through the air and set down back in Austin. "Um. Is there a girl here? Named Alexa?"

  The poor thing had really been through hell. Raquel wanted to help her get her act together; they'd been bonding, sort of, before she got sent away. She'd love to know what happened to her.

  Leonardo jolted. "She is. Unfortunately. She won't be attending the training. She's basically bed-ridden trying to come down from something."

  Raquel nodded. "Can I see her?"

  "You'll have to check with the healers. I stay out of there as much as possible."

  She didn't know Leonardo and maybe it wasn't her place to say, but if the voices were correct he was supposed to be the leader. Not to mention, since he was Alexa's soul mate, he needed to be there for his woman.

  "You know she's been abused. Terribly. A lot of it she brought on herself. But, she's a victim."

  Leonardo cocked his head to the side. "I guess I'll see you two later."

  When he was gone, Zane looked at her with his eyebrows raised. "Most people are intimidated by him. Or at least it seems that way. I'm not. I can take or leave the guy. I don't want his job."

  "I…I saw that girl. Alone. Cold. In the rain. She looked like death. I've been alone but I've never been that alone." Or least Raquel had been comfortable in her own company.

  "I don't know what to make of Alexa. She generates a lot of feelings." Zane looked around suddenly. "Do you hear something?"

  She paused to listen but nothing caught her attention. "No. So how does this work? I'm with you…

  What do I do?"

  "I…" Zane's eyes got huge. "Get down."

  The room spun wildly and once again Zane's body covered hers. This time she felt like she'd been caught in the center of a tornado. She and Zane seemed to be staying still while everything spun around her.

  "The demon?" She shouted over the wind, the racket, the sheer magnitude of force pushing at her.

  "No," Zane yelled to her. "It's the fucking ghosts."

  The ancestors' warning from earlier suddenly made sense…well, a small amount. Had he said ghosts?

  "The what?"

  "Ghosts." He raised his head. "Stop spinning. I

  order you to stop."

  When the room finally stopped they were both panting like they'd run a race. Everything sounded eerily quiet.

  Zane got to his feet. "Don't move, okay? I need to make sure we still are where we were."

  "Where would we be instead?" Her voice shook and she had to admit she was pretty damned nervous. Up until then, she would have said her fire starting was the biggest problem she could imagine her having in the world. She'd been attacked by a demon and spun by ghosts reminding her things could really, seriously, always get worse.

  Zane crept toward the entrance of the doorway. "We could be anywhere. Ghosts like to show me things. Terrible occurrences, eventualities. Mostly I can keep them away. Only they came in full force this time. I never had a chance. I can also rob things. Safes kind of speak to me. I saw you attempt that, badly, once."

 
; Yes, she remembered that, too. It wasn't her finest moment. Raquel pushed to her knees. "And? Are we somewhere else?"

  He nodded once. "Yep. But I haven't a clue where."

  Her relationship with her soul mate had not started off easily. But then what did in her life?

  Chapter Two

  Zane extended his hand to Raquel, relieved when she took it. He'd gotten them into a huge shit storm. This had happened to him only once before, at least to this extent. Usually, he could get the ghosts to knock off what they were doing and leave him alone. He'd always been able to see and feel the damned things. Cracking safes and hearing ghosts, those were his two contributions to the Outsider cause. Totally useless.

  And now he'd gone and gotten Raquel sucked into the mess with him.

  Super soul mate he turned out to be.

  She squared her shoulders. "So we're somewhere…else?"

  "Yes." That was for sure and as soon as he got his bearings on where that exactly was, he'd know better how to protect her. Nothing else mattered but securing her back to where they'd come from. "And the last time, it's hard to explain it, I kind of ordered the ghosts to take me back. It took a little while but that's what happened. I'm going to presume the same thing will happen again."

  She squeezed his hand. "Then let's go see where they took us. This day is really weird. I started out trying to figure out how not to kill anyone and I've ended up officially meeting you and, well, here."

  "Most of my days are weird. Always were."

  He walked through the door and out into the nighttime around them. When they'd left it had been the middle of the day but where they'd been brought? He looked up at the full moon shining down at them, pure night.

  "I know a lot about you. Maybe that's not fair since you don't know me yet. But our ancestors are chatty with me. And they liked to tell me about you."

  He stopped to look at her, the words she'd spoken forcing themselves into his brain which had officially gone into survival mode. "What?"

  "Our ancestors talk to me. They tell me stories. Sometimes. Other times they're not there at all, which is frustrating."

  He held up a finger. "We're going to get into exactly what that means another time. I think we'd better stick with where are we are and how we're getting back."

  "Good call." She nodded and he tried to calm his racing heart.

  Zane wasn't so much afraid of the situation they'd found themselves in. He could deal with most eventualities, even if it meant he killed a bunch of people who threatened them and asked questions later, but her knowing his story meant something else entirely.

  Which occurrences had she been privy to? There were some portions of his life he'd rather never think about or have her know. One time on top of a building in Manhattan came to mind. His life versus the other guy's. The sound of the body hitting the pavement…

  He shook his head. Focus only came easy to him in life and death situations or if he was breaking into a safe. Otherwise, his head scattered all over the place. It was why learning to read had been such a damned hassle. It wasn't that he couldn't do it; more like his brain hadn't wanted to take the time to learn.

  Or maybe he'd been born knowing he had to fight and that was all he wanted to do.

  He was a warrior. Everything else, until Raquel, was boring as hell.

  They stepped outside into the night. He looked upwards toward the sky. Did the moon seem somehow closer? "Is something off?"

  Raquel shivered next to him. "A lot."

  He looked down and followed her gaze. In the distance was a scene he'd hoped to never see again or in such a large manner. "Zombies."

  A large group of them were ahead in the distance. Two dozen at least. He'd seen them in a club in New York City once. Three of them had done tremendous damage before he'd managed to pull out their hearts. Those were the days before he knew he was an Outsider. He'd been clueless as to how he'd known how to fight the bastards.

  Now he understood some things were instinctual.

  Zombies didn't walk correctly. They leaned to the side, throwing their arms one way or another as they moved. If they were closer, he'd be able to see that they had a blank, unseeing look in their eyes. He'd watched them eat the brains of unsuspecting twenty-somethings in a dance club. Sometimes when he closed his eyes he could still hear their screams.

  "Those creatures…we don't want to be near them."

  "Zane." Raquel let out a loud sigh. "I don't think we're going to have a choice. Look."

  He followed where she indicated. There were more zombies than just the ones ahead in the clearing. With some coming out of the nearby woods and some to their left by the stream, they were pretty well flanked.

  He'd taken out a few at a time but never encountered anything close to as many as they faced in wherever the fuck they were. Zane needed to get his bearings. Everything looked familiar, except the night sky, which was so disturbingly different. The moon was practically on top of them.

  "I don't know where we are. Do you?" She shivered and pressed closer against him. "I'm not usually a coward by the way. I'm sorry. I feel like I should be charging at those guys and yet I'm frozen here barely making any sense."

  "Raquel." He pulled her tighter against him. "You barely know me yet. We should have had more time for that. I don't know if any other Outsiders have had to rush into battle together so early in their hi-we're-destined-foreach-other phase but if you did you would know that the very idea of you charging at those creatures makes me want to throw you over my knee and spank you for even thinking of it."

  She raised her head to look at him, her eyes huge in the moonlight. "You really don't remember. I suspected you didn't since the few times we've encountered each other you never seemed to, but now I know for sure."

  "Don't recall what?" She was so lovely. Why did the ghosts have to do this? He should be figuring out how to make her happy and how they could be together not standing in a field talking about zombies.

  "That we've spent a lot of time together. In our dreams. We're different there. Not like we are in the real world. Like whatever happened to us here hasn't weighed us down there."

  A loud shout behind him caught his attention away from what she'd said and he whirled around to see what happened. Three people rushed down the hillside, large swords in hand. It took him a second to recognize who they were because they looked so haggard and torn up. Isabelle, Samuel, and Christophe rushed toward the approaching zombies.

  "Shit." That wouldn't be good. "Stay here. And if those guys get any closer, the zombies I mean, rush back through the door we came out of and barricade yourself in." "Zane…"

  "Please." He hoped she understood.

  His first priority was her safety yet he couldn't let the French college professor, Christophe, or Samuel, the guy who could change his shape, or former social worker Isabelle go running at the zombies without at least lending his assistance. How they had ended up wherever he was he'd have to find out but they were Outsiders and somehow they were always in their messes together.

  Their swords weren't going to be particularly helpful. They needed to grab the hearts. He made it to the fight just in time. Bellowing like an idiot things like stop, and stand back, he grabbed at the first zombie puncturing its heart with his fist and pulling it out. How he had the strength to do so had to be an Outsider thing. For the moment, he'd be grateful.

  "Zane?" Isabelle shouted his name but he didn't turn to her.

  "Grab the hearts. It's the hearts," he responded, hoping they'd understand what he said and demonstrated by pulling out one as he shouted his instructions. The zombies roared in their strange breathless, low guttural way that he'd only heard from the deadly creatures. His skin crawled but he didn't have time to indulge his disgust. These fuckers needed to die.

  Soon they were surrounded and, back-to-back with Samuel, he fought hard.

  "Zane." Raquel shouted out to him and he turned to look at her, which gave a zombie a chance to swipe at him.

&n
bsp; He darted backwards. "Raquel, I said stay back."

  "Zane, tell the others to hit the ground."

  What? He never got the chance to ask her what she meant as Samuel took her instructions immediately and fell downwards. Zane followed suit and soon a gust of heat, the likes of which he had never felt, swarmed over him. He raised his head just enough to look. Raquel had set the zombies ablaze.

  They melted, gasping and groaning while they turned into ash in front of him. Well, he supposed that was also a way to get the job done as well. Rip out the hearts…set them on fire—both seemed to work.

  The flames soon extinguished and gusts of black smoke wafted upwards toward the too close moon. And, hell, the stink…

  He needed to find out what that was about. But first…he jumped up and rushed to Raquel. She gripped his arm, her body vibrating. "It always hurts. Killing anything in the flames causes me pain. And I…"

  Her knees buckled and he caught her in his arms. Using her powers hurt her. That was an important piece of information he needed to know. She cried out before her eyes closed and she slumped in his arms. Her pulse was steady and she breathed fine or he'd freak out.

  Isabelle walked toward him flanked on both sides by Samuel and Christophe. They silently stared at him.

  "Um…I guess it was too much on her?" He didn't know Raquel well enough yet to state for certain.

  "Couple of things." Isabelle's voice hitched when she spoke. "Three, actually. Number one, taking off their heads makes it easier to take the heart. That's why we had the swords. Someone taught us the technique a while ago." She looked down and then up again at him. "Two, she always passes out after battles. It's common. She never loses it until after and she'll be fine. And finally, what the hell are you doing here? You and Raquel? You've both been dead for a decade."

  Her words pounded into him. "What?"

  "I'm afraid what she says is true," Christophe responded. "My friend, I thought never to see you again in this lifetime. The next battle, yes. Not till I was in the ground and with our ancestors. They'd send us to the next fight. You'd be there. That's when I was to see you again."