He kissed the tip of her nose. "You're impossibly practical."
Her cheeks got hot. "Go on."
"One day they went for a walk together when some Native Americans suddenly attacked."
"This is one of the stories where the indigenous people are blamed for not liking the fact that their land was taken away?"
"Quiet. We can discuss the unfairness of all this later."
"You're right, I'm sorry. You're telling me a story. I'll be quiet and listen."
He shook his head. "You're so adorable. I want to kiss you again."
She smirked. "I thought you wanted to tell me a story."
"I do." He ran a hand through his hair. "The native people cut off her hair and threw it onto the Live Oak tree that they were near. Over time, the hair shriveled up and jumped from tree to tree all over the south eastern half of the United States prepared to defend itself from attack."
"That's a very nice story Gabriel, sort of, in a disturbing kind of a way. Why are you telling me now?"
"Here's the deal, Loraine." He stepped back, leaning against the tree again. She felt bereft of his warmth. "I'm never ever going to tell you that story again. The next time you hear it will be when you travel back in time to tell me to get to New Jersey. I'm going to look at you and be inspired to tell you this story. I won't know that what you are actually remembering when I tell my tale was the first time we make love."
She gulped, her mouth suddenly dry. "Why will I be remembering that?"
"Because I'm going to make love to you now."
He moved forward while pulling her by the back of the neck until she was flat against him, her breasts touching his chest. His grin startled her. Gabriel seemed to find strange things very amusing. "Unless you don't want to, in which case what you'll be remembering is the time I made an ass of myself."
Oh, she wanted to. Reaching up, she kissed him square on the lips. "I think it sounds like a great idea." A thought struck her. "Are we going to do 'it' right here on the ground?"
"On the ground or up against the tree. It's entirely your call."
She raised an eyebrow. "On the ground or up against the tree? Those are my choices?"
"Not really big on making love on the ground, huh?"
"I don't know. I've never done it. Period."
She watched as he digested that piece of information. "Really? Are all the men you know gay?"
"No." She burst out laughing. Gabriel had a way of saying things that took her completely off guard. "Have you been having lots of sex? Isn't that part of the soul mate thing? Only being with the other person?"
He tapped his foot. "To my defense, no there haven't been that many people. I didn't know about the soul mate thing, and I'm male. I had to see what all the fuss was about."
She knew she was giving him a hard time. It was just delightfully fun to tease Gabriel because he got so flustered. She figured he'd eventually get used to it, and then he'd tease her back.
For now, she liked the way his eyes danced in their sockets with merriment as he looked at her as if he wondered if she were going to try to escape.
"I didn't know about the soul mate thing, and I didn't do it with anyone else. Before you, I was just plain uninterested sexually."
He exhaled a long breath. "Before you, I didn't really understand what all the fuss was about. Now, I'm permanently hard. It fucking hurts."
She felt bold. His eyes bore into hers and the look he gave her couldn't be called anything but hot. Biting down on her lower lip, she reached out and touched his cock. If he was in pain then she needed to do something about it.
He sucked in his breath with a hiss. "Shit, Loraine."
Closing his eyes, he pulled her with him as he leaned up against the Live Oak that had been the source of his story earlier.
"Like that, do you?"
He nodded as she stroked him through his pants. "So damn much."
She liked it too, and he hadn't even touched her. Never had she felt so desired just by using her hands.
He opened his eyes, his lids hooded. "Fuck, Loraine, I'm not taking you on the ground."
Holding her tight, he went airborne as she shrieked in delight. In truth, she was a very boring, simple person. The universe had certainly picked out somebody exciting for her.
Chapter Twelve
They were like sitting ducks. Three little Outsiders holed up in a hotel room in the French Quarter, thinking they were safe. When had they gotten so stupid? Did they think their brief battle near the airport had in some way defeated him? Or maybe it had, in fact, weakened them. Sebastian smiled. It was so rare these days for him to feel any real pleasure. But having Kal, Isabelle, and Leonardo available for his taking was something to feel truly jovial over.
He couldn't smell Kal and Isabelle. They had both completed their power range when they'd become soul mates. That was the problem. Every time one of those pesky creatures met their other half and came into their full abilities, he lost the ability to scent them. Leonardo, by contrast, he could still smell a mile away. The poor sod probably thought he was in full control of his powers.
Oh, well, it wasn't going to be his job to tell him otherwise.
Using only a modicum of his energy, he pushed forward until the door to the hotel room blew open. He heard a gasp, but didn't wait to see who had made it. Storming forward, Sebastian grabbed Isabelle by the back of the hair and dragged her up against his chest.
Before she could attempt a time jump, which might have allowed her to escape him, he bound her abilities to his.
"Anything happens to me and Isabelle's powers go right out the window with my own." He looked straight at Leonardo. "You know what happens when Outsiders lose their powers, right, Leo? Didn't you kill poor Veli Destrand by taking his?"
Leonardo didn't answer, and Kal raised his hands in a conciliatory gesture.
"Let her go and take me." Kal's voice held a note of desperation that Sebastian loved. He wished he could feed on it. Right now, he would do anything to roll around for a few hours in the sweet taste of Outsider desperation. But, unfortunately, that would have to wait until later.
"I'm a demon, Kalmari. Do you actually think your pathetic sniveling for your way too human-esque soul mate is going to move me in some way?"
Finally, Leonardo spoke. "What is it you want, demon?"
"On this plane of existence that term is what I am, not my name."
"You don't have a name. All you have is the stolen identity of the baby you killed when you took that body."
He laughed. Ah… the good times. "Yes, my very first kill in this lifetime, and I did it in utero. Something I wouldn't have been able to do if your parents hadn't screwed up so royally." He liked the stricken look that passed over Leonardo's eyes for a second before the dark haired man pushed it away. "Now you're wondering how much of your parents' sins have been passed down to you. You're standing in front of me while I hold Isabelle's life in my hands." And just to make his point, he tugged hard on her hair to hear her scream. "I'll let you in on a little secret. All of them. Every last little thing that your parents did, you will have to pay for, painfully. It's sad and pathetic that you even think you can win."
Pulling hard on Isabelle, he moved into the hall. "Now come with me. Even one out of line gesture from either of you and she's dead. Oh, and Kal… just in case you had any thoughts of pushing some of your world famous electricity down on me… I've tied her to me. I go up in flames, she goes up in flames."
Sounding pathetically emotional, Isabelle screamed. "Kill him, Kal."
He had to give Isabelle credit. She was brave. Stupid, but brave.
Kal spoke through what sounded like gritted teeth. "Quiet, Isabelle, no one is dying here."
Isabelle struggled for a second in Sebastian's arms, and to punish her, he clawed at her neck with his fingernails. He was rewarded when she screamed, and Kal surged forward, restrained only by Leonardo grabbing him from behind.
She bled. He inhaled the smell
to give himself a little pleasure.
"I mean it, Kal. Kill him. Forget about me. We can end it right here."
"No."
"Aw, listen to his heart felt answer, Isabelle. Kal really would let the world end before he'd let anything happen to you." Sebastian smiled at Kal. "Idiot."
* * * *
"Is she calm?"
Leonardo had never been so grateful for telepathy in his life. He directed his question to Kal because he couldn't talk directly to Isabelle. When he got back to Maine, they were going to figure out a way that everyone could speak to everyone else. If Jason could do it, surely he could.
When Kal answered, Leonardo could feel the tension in his lifelong friend even over their link. "Would you be?"
Deciding it was best not to point out to Kal that they had been trained for this very situation and Isabelle was not, he didn't rise to the bait of Kal's sarcasm. It came from a place of fear, and having never faced his own soul mate's demise as a possibility, he couldn't relate. Even from his own perspective, he'd come to care for Isabelle as a sisterly figure, and he'd fight to the death to keep her from being hurt.
"I want you to tell her that this isn't a no-win situation. He clearly doesn't want to kill us at the moment or we'd already be dead."
He heard Kal sigh. "I told her that. She's still insisting we sacrifice her to the demon."
"Yeah, that's not going to happen."
* * * *
There was something so surreal about this. Isabelle just couldn't believe she was trapped in the demon's arms being dragged onto Canal Street. Somehow, she'd thought once she and Kal had come together that most of the danger to her in particular had passed. It was the others, she'd stupidly assumed, the Outsiders who were still unfound or the ones still adjusting who would be in more danger.
Now she might prove to be the biggest liability of all. Why hadn't she reacted faster?
The demon stopped moving abruptly, and she nearly tripped over his designer leather boots.
"It's okay, Isabelle, we're here with you. He's not going to harm you."
For the first time ever, Isabelle wished she could turn off her telepathic ability to Kal. She could actually hear the panic in his voice, and it wasn't making her feel better. On his own, nothing rattled her beloved. When it came to her, he was apt to lose his mind.
She knew where it came from. Kal equated every ounce of happiness in his life to her existence. If he was to be believed, every second of his life up until the day he met her was basically dark and terrible.
If anything were to happen to her, he might go crazy and be more of a threat to the world than Sebastian. Inwardly, she shook her head. She couldn't let her thoughts travel that road at the moment.
"I know, Kal. If you and Leonardo are working out a plan, I might like to be included on it."
She suspected there was no such plan even as she hoped she was wrong to think that way. If she was right, it meant they were treading water and hoping to make their great escape as they went along.
"Here's what's going to happen." Sebastian finally spoke to the two men. "You're going to come to my home. I'm going to bring Isabelle with me through means by which you cannot follow."
He raised his free hand to silence any debate, and Isabelle rolled her eyes. This demon was nothing if not dramatic.
"If you don't show up, I kill her." He shrugged and told the men an address. "That's my home. See how confident I am in my own success? I've just told you where I reside. Now, maybe you don't want to show up because once I have you three there, I will kill all of you."
She gasped as he kissed her on the cheek. He smelled like cinnamon and sulfur and she wanted to gag. "Somehow, I think, dear Isabelle, they're still going to show up."
Heat blasted her body. She screamed out in pain as a red haze descended on her.
* * * *
Christophe had the job. Now all he needed to do was meet the girl. Sitting in his sublet New York City apartment, he took a sip of some French red wine and closed his eyes.
How on earth had he gotten himself into this situation? He was supposed to be looking for Leonardo, not chasing after a woman he'd seen once in an office for a mere two minutes at best.
Merde.
Maybe he'd lost his mind. Perhaps it was time to actually talk to a professional about what happened to him. He was a scientist; he should be able to accept the fact that people didn't just appear somewhere out of the blue. He should be able to say with certainty that graveyards didn't just randomly show up one day and that the two circumstances, his appearances and the graveyards popping up, had nothing to do with one another.
Nothing.
That was when it happened. He let his guard down and—boom—like so many instances before he was suddenly not where he'd been moments earlier.
Scratching his head, he looked around. He was in a house. The questions, which were always numerous, swept through his mind. Where was the house located? Was there anyone in the house he needed to be careful to not be discovered by? Why had he come?
The last question was always the most difficult. Most of the time, he never knew the answer.
And finally… how long would he have to stay here until whatever made him travel here let him travel back to his newly rented apartment in New York City?
He heard a ringtone go off not too far from where he stood in the hallway. The instincts honed after fifteen-years of handling just this kind of thing kicked in, and Christophe moved silently away from the sound of the voice that answered the phone.
Ducking into what he thought was a supply closet, he left the door open a bit so he could hear the voice, which he could now tell beyond a shadow of a doubt was female and most likely an American southern accent. Okay, that was at least two pieces of information he hadn't had earlier.
"Yes, Sebastian, I'm here. Can you hear me better? I get terrible cell service in the house."
The woman walked into the hall. She was tall, dark haired, and long limbed. That was the best description he could get from his position without risking movement, which might, he feared, bring the broom jammed into his back down in a loud crash.
"Okay."
He couldn't hear the other half of the conversation, but it seemed like his unknown female companion had just agreed to something.
"You need me to go down there right now? Seriously, they need the papers today?"
She paused as she listened to the other person speaking, and he watched her bite her nail.
"No, no, it's no problem, Sebastian. I just came from the Central Business District. I had kind of hoped not to have to go back to the CBD today, but it's really fine. You can make it up to me by buying dinner."
Christophe heard her laugh about something Sebastian said. Then she disconnected and walked down the hall. He waited a few minutes, and then came out of the closet.
He'd not moved two steps, when he heard a door open and close. A woman shrieked and cursed, and a man screamed at the top of his lungs at her.
Damn.
Quickly, Christophe re-entered his hiding spot. Was the woman who had just been in the hall now having a fight with someone?
Luckily, it didn't take long for him to find out. It was not, in fact, the same woman. Christophe watched in horror as a tall, brown-haired man dragged a petite, brown-haired woman down the hall by pulling on her hair. She struggled against him.
The man snarled when he spoke. "Quit fighting, Isabelle, or when Kal and Leonardo get here they will find there is nothing left of you to attempt to save."
Leonardo… Could it be just a coincidence?
Christophe couldn't focus on that. He was too infuriated by what was happening to the poor woman being manhandled. He'd never been able to tolerate violence against women. Now, if a man deserved a good punch in the face, that was one thing, but there was never an excuse—any excuse—for putting your hands on a woman in anything but a gentle manner.
He geared up to go after the unknown man and demand he releas
e the woman.
"How can you hurt me, Sebastian? I thought you said we were now linked? Hurt me, hurt you. Wouldn't causing my death cause your own?"
Christophe stopped moving. Perhaps this was going to turn out to be slightly more complicated than just dishing out a beating.
Rather than giving in to his need to pummel the man, he tried to listen to what was being said. It was fortunate he was all but totally fluent in English because they spoke very fast, and he might have missed things given that his hearing was partially obstructed from his hiding place.
"I'm not a fool, Isabelle. I have existed for millions of years. Before I killed you, I would separate myself from you magically. For me, it's a simple, easy spell that takes no concentration at all now that I have reached my full powers."
"That's nonsense. If you reached your full powers, you would have already enslaved the earth. The fact that you haven't tells me that it's not time yet. That the Outsiders still have the opportunity to defeat you."
Christophe heard the man—if that is what he could be called considering his self-description made him sound like something else entirely—slap the woman. It was loud, and he knew it must hurt like hell.
From the distance, a pounding sounded on a door.
"Ah… your lover arrives with his friend in tow. Much faster than I would have thought. They must be motivated." The man dragged the screaming woman down the hall in the opposite direction from the pounding and passed Christophe's hiding place. From his position, Christophe could make out a door opening and closing. Less than a minute later, the man returned alone and passed by the door again going in the other direction.
This time he stopped as he reached the hallway. It looked to Christophe, and he could be wrong but he couldn't think what else it could be, like the man sniffed the air.
"This place is going to stink of Outsiders. Leonardo's not in the vicinity two-minutes and I feel like I'm surrounded by Outsider stink in the hallway with me." The man stomped his feet as he walked away. "I suppose if I can handle Alexa's scent I'll learn to deal with this too."