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Veli could hear her mother's despair even over the

  shared mental link.

  "Oh no." Momentarily, he closed his eyes. Healers.

  This child with him was Charma and she was from

  a family of healers. How did you raise a healer? They were

  fragile and easily overwhelmed by life's atrocities.

  You have my son Leonardo.

  It was the voice of Nathaniel Gregan. They were

  powerful and mysterious. His father's power was defensive,

  that much they knew, and his mother was a spell caster.

  That meant it was possible that the boy had both offensive

  and defensive powers. Looking down, Veli saw that

  Leonardo was the lighter of the two babies. He looked like

  his father. Veli's own powers were purely offensive. How

  did you teach defensive powers?

  Where were the third child's parents? Had they been

  killed already?

  Veli.

  His name was stated simply, but he would know

  that voice anywhere. Holis Oberan. A sense of dread filled

  him up. He had the Oberan heir. There was no love lost

  between Veli and Holis. It might be fair to say they hated

  one another. If this boy had one ounce of his father's

  arrogance and pride, then Veli was in deep trouble. It was

  also fair to say that, other than himself, Holis was probably

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  the most talented warrior ever born to the Outsiders. His

  mother had unusual powers as well. Some claimed she

  could take and send powers at will. Their families had been

  huge competitors, and eventually enemies.

  Veli, I trust that you are not going to let our

  personal problems affect how you are going to treat my

  son. Obviously, if I had known what Abraxas planned we

  would have found another way to keep Kalmari safe.

  Kalmari. That's his name? Veli answered quietly,

  trying to keep all emotion from his thoughts.

  It is. His mother calls him Kal. Veli, I will have your

  word as a warrior that you will not hold our

  past…difficulties, against my son, or so help me, Veli, I will

  pull every ounce of power that I can through this link and I

  will take him back.

  Go ahead and take him back. It was a stupid

  challenge and he knew it but he could never let anything

  Holis said go without remark. He shook his head. His wife

  had once informed him he needed to outgrow their rivalry.

  Veli could feel power surging through their minds

  and was somewhat surprised that Holis was actually

  making good on his threat. He opened his mouth to tell

  Holis to conserve his energy, he wouldn't mistreat Kal,

  when a spark in front of his eyes cut off his link. Just as

  quickly as it started, it stopped and all of the power that had

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  been used was thrust back into the atmosphere around

  them. Sparks flew through the air.

  Holis?

  Veli didn't need to be a mind reader or possess the

  power of sight to know that the Oberans were no more.

  They had been caught by the Darkness. Veli felt sick

  inside. What had he been thinking letting Holis use so

  much power out in the open? Had he led the Darkness to

  them?

  A shot of electricity, the early warning signal Veli

  had used countless times to save his own life, moved

  through his spine.

  There was no time. Abraxas would have lent them

  some shielding when he sent them through the link but that

  would be gone now that Holis' link had exposed them to the

  outside world. He picked each of the children off of the

  floor knowing he would have to acquire supplies on the

  road and improvise as he went along. He paused finally

  before lifting up Kal to place him on his arm next to

  Charma.

  Was he going to hold Kal's father's sins against this

  small, fragile, albeit fierce-eyed baby? He was enough

  aware of his own character flaws to resign himself to the

  fact that the answer was most likely a resounding yes.

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  * * * *

  New Orleans, Louisiana. Uptown.

  Lying quietly in his nursery, Sebastian, as they

  called him in this lifetime and in this current body, thought

  again that he had chosen the right parents to give him life.

  He was unquestionably rich. The sheer number of toys and

  designer clothes that he had watched being purchased over

  the course of the last few months had been astounding but

  he had known it would be this way when he had chosen

  these particular mortals.

  His mother, quite beautiful with green eyes that

  already knew too much pain for someone so early in her

  twenties, had left him in the care of the hired help as she

  had gone running off to attend whatever party was the most

  pressing to her at that moment. He hardly saw the father

  and when he had, the man had stunk like booze and

  cigarettes. The nanny they hired was efficient if a little

  lacking in hygiene herself.

  This might have been a problem for some children,

  the feeling of abandonment and alienation, but not for

  Sebastian. It was exactly the kind of family he needed to

  complete his real goals. It was time to eliminate the

  Outsiders.

  Psychically, even he had been surprised by how

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  remarkably strong he was. He had guessed that it was going

  to take him years to be able to command minions and take

  possessions of souls, but it had taken just weeks really. He

  was going to get stronger as time went on, but he had

  already managed to command humans who had lived

  across an ocean to accomplish his will. The parents were all

  dead now.

  He hadn't counted on Abraxas Moore being so swift

  in his skills, sending the children away. This was a true

  problem. They were, after all, much more talented than

  their parents had been. They were his true enemies and now

  they were loose somewhere on the planet. He had managed

  through sheer force of will, and it had cost him a lot of

  power that might take years to get back, to stop the flow

  from letting all the children through. They had scattered

  and were as good as lost now. He'd find them all eventually

  with little effort, he was sure.

  The mentally weak Veli Destrand was not going to

  be able to locate them, not with three babies to take care of.

  But that was of no concern to Sebastian in his current form.

  Eating and sleeping were enough for a while and time

  would help him take care of the rest. He would find them

  and he would kill them all. He was nothing if not relentless.

  There would never be any more joining of souls by the

  Outsiders; the soul mate legacy spoken of in the prophecy

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  would not come to be. The eighteen might have been born

 
but they would not live long enough to unite and destroy

  his plans.

  There would be only one power on earth and it

  would belong all to him.

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  Chapter One

  Present Day

  Kal stood silently on the side of the creek listening

  to the fish swim below the water. His companions, friends

  of his from college, thought he had amazingly good luck

  catching their dinner. He dared not tell them otherwise.

  Even thousands of miles away, he knew Veli would hear

  him, and box his ears for potentially exposing them. Too

  much to risk, he would shout and then the last ten years

  would be for naught as Kal would be forced back under his

  protection.

  The water and the landscape called to Kal. He often

  felt more a part of the earth than the people who lived on it.

  If he thought about it, and he very rarely thought about it,

  he would have to admit his had been mostly a lonely

  existence. Even surrounded by people, he was always on

  the outside. Not that any of his friends or colleagues would

  guess that he felt that way.

  He was well liked and well thought of amongst the

  groups of his acquaintance. He had traveled the world and

  seen the worst the human race had to offer. His job as a

  foreign correspondent had given him the opportunity to

  really see humanity at its worst and yet he still found

  himself compelled to protect it. He had told Leonardo once

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  that it must be in their genetic makeup, this complete

  inability to tell the human race to go screw itself.

  If he could, he would gladly turn himself into an

  animal, a wolf most likely, and let himself live on his

  nature alone. His intuition didn't seem to particularly fit

  into the world that he was currently living in. It would, for

  example, be illegal to knock the guy sitting next to you on

  an airplane over the head with a baseball bat just because

  your intuition told you he was going home to beat his wife

  and child. It would also be illegal to seek him out later

  while he slept and murder him in his sleep.

  Kal kicked at a stone near his feet, growing

  impatient with how long this was taking considering how

  fast he could do it if he just took care of it himself. He

  sighed, hoping no one heard.

  The subject of his life problems was not something

  he would solve this afternoon and yet he couldn't clear his

  thoughts. He could, perhaps, devote himself entirely to the

  protection of his makeshift family. Shrugging, he almost

  laughed at the idea. There would be very little point to that.

  Veli was all the protection any of them ever needed. It had

  been Kal's lousy attempts to prove his own usefulness that

  had frequently landed them in serious trouble. There was

  very little in the way of an outlet for Kal's pent-up

  aggression. His skills seemed to be more appropriate for

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  another time and place where he could have protected a

  castle for a king or defended some worthwhile cause.

  Maybe he could have rescued a damsel in distress. He

  could ride in on his horse and rescue his princess who

  would then spend the rest of her life devoting herself to

  him.

  This wasn't likely to happen. Although assured in

  his own taste for women, Kal found most of the potential

  dates he came into contact with tolerable for short periods

  of time but nothing to write novels about or attempt heroics

  for.

  Again, he wondered if something had been

  imprinted into his genetic code. People who were

  "Outsiders," and that was how his family thought of

  themselves, had, Veli told them, another person who could

  complete them. They would know that they had found this

  person because when they kissed them they would hear the

  chanting words from the Spirits above. So far none of the

  women he had kissed had inspired even an inkling of song.

  Kal could remember the first time he had heard the

  strange music of the chanters. He had been twelve years old

  and they had been living, very briefly, in Santa Barbara.

  The day was beautiful, if not a little bit hot, and he and

  Charma had ventured down to the pier to buy an ice cream

  and watch the sailboats.

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  Marina, the only other of their kind that they had

  ever located and it had been more from her own abilities

  than anything they had done, had insisted on taking out one

  of the boats earlier that morning and Leonardo had

  accompanied her on her venture.

  These kinds of childhood activities were of no

  interest to Veli, who had found one of Abraxas' books on

  his recent jaunt back to his homeland. He had been

  wrapped up in studying it for days and hadn't noticed, or

  particularly cared if he had noticed, that none of his four

  charges had attended school since they had moved. This

  was standard for Veli who thought it was more important to

  see to their safety and outer-worldly educations then

  whether or not any of them could divide fractions.

  The other teenagers, boys who were probably four

  or five years older than he was, had immediately noticed

  Charma. Most people did. It was hard for them not to. Her

  very soul, and at twelve years old she had not yet learned to

  shield herself, drew the attention of every person she came

  into contact with, begging to help heal their emotional

  wounds, both small and of the much larger variety.

  Coupled with the fact that she was considered

  absolutely gorgeous made it a sure thing that going out into

  public was always a bit of a risk for her. Veli had ordered

  Kal to be responsible for her wellbeing until he could figure

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  out how to teach her to block her empathic tendencies and

  not stand out in a crowd. There had been many nights Kal

  had lain awake in his bed and heard Charma weep for the

  constant emotional bombardment that was her life.

  This had been the situation that had led to Kal

  standing face-to-face with three much larger, much older

  teenage boys who, given any other stimulus, might not

  normally behave as badly as they were behaving at that

  moment. For reasons they themselves probably didn't

  understand, they were insisting that they were going to take

  Charma with them. Charma had immediately indicated that

  she didn't want to go with them and this had left Kal with

  no choice but to keep her safe.

  The first of the three would-be kidnappers reached

  out to grab her. Without thought Kal had swung his hand in

  front of the other guy's face and simply pushed all of the

  energy that was stored inside of him outwards towards the

  boys. They
had, all three of them, fallen backwards against

  the wooden fence that kept anyone from jumping in the

  water. Stunned looks on their faces, they had run quickly

  away to lick their wounds and wonder what had just

  happened to them.

  Kal had been left shocked, panting on the dock,

  listening to the strangest sound he had ever heard. The

  voices were ethereal and they spoke in a language that he

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  couldn't understand but still filled up his soul nonetheless.

  It was encouraging and loving and he knew he had behaved

  just the way he needed to, but more so had acted in a

  responsible fashion, and fulfilled some kind of predestined

  role.

  He had loved it.

  Intuition had been Kal's gift since he was a child.

  He instantly knew when something good or evil was about

  to approach him. More than once, he had saved his small

  family from destruction by simply knowing that something

  was coming. Like his relatives, he could manipulate his

  surroundings and hear more keenly than most humans but it

  was more than that for Kal. He simply knew when

  something was about to happen.

  All day he had been filled with that feeling. It

  started at the top of his head, usually making him sweat and

  he would be filled with the inability to relax, which would

  inevitably make him angry. And in general it was not a

  good idea to make him angry.

  He turned around to watch his friend Doug attempt,

  for the third time, to reel in the fish that he had been trying

  to catch. He laughed silently. Doug had been the president

  of their fraternity in college and now he was making his

  way up the ladder in one of Chicago's top law firms. But a

  fisherman he was not. His other companions, James and

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