Love Beyond Sanity

  The man stepped forward, raising his hand and pointed it in Jason's direction. Feeling frozen to the desk, as if he couldn't move his legs even if he tried, there was no time to react. One second he was about to be killed, the next he was thrown to the floor. A screech filled the room as a bright white light illuminated their surroundings. It was ten seconds before Jason could see. When he could, he wished he couldn't.

  The demon—and he had to assume it was the demon—was gone and Drew lay on top of him, not breathing.

  "Oh shit." Jason could barely utter the profanity before he threw Drew onto the ground next to him and listened for a heartbeat. Nothing. Damn it. Ripping open the other man's shirt, he didn't have time to wonder what happened to the demon as he silently wished he were in an operating room with all of his tools available. But lately Jason had found wishes to be as useful as whistling for solving his problems. So, instead, he began to perform CPR.

  He'd always had a sense for these things. Instinctively he had known if CPR was going to work, if he could bring a patient back, or if it was a lost cause. Sometimes, when he had one of his moments the nurses called his 'holier than thou' attitude, he'd swear he could personally bring someone who should be dead back from imminent death if only he was left alone to do it. The problem with surgery was that you were never left alone.

  There were lawsuits to consider and hospital liability. No one was with him now. Closing his eyes, he pushed his energy into Drew.

  "Wake up." Even to his own ears, his voice sounded low and scratchy. His hands tingled and sweat broke out on his back. He could do this. Drew was savable, and he was the only person on earth capable of bringing him to consciousness.

  Like a gong going off in his head, certain truths opened themselves up to Jason. It was all about energy. Energy had been what he'd used to kill the assailant in the parking lot and energy was at his fingertips now. He was an energy manipulator. He commanded life and death with his hands.

  He always had, just not this clearly.

  "I said wake up." Using a slight push command, his fingers felt like pins and needles as massive amounts of energy left his body and entered Drew's. Focusing on the other man's anatomy, he concentrated on the heart. As if he had x-ray vision, he could see the internal organs laid out before him more clearly than if he'd had the other Outsider on his operating table. It needed to beat and the lungs needed to breathe.

  First, the heart.

  It only took a second before he heard it pump. Blood flowed and Drew took a deep breath. Forcing his hands, which now felt like lead, from the other man's body, he fell backwards onto his rear end and concentrated on his own respirations. His compatriot's eyes flew open, and he sat up before Jason could advise him not to.

  Grabbing his head, Drew smiled. "Good work, Doc."

  "I guess we found my latent power."

  Shrugging, Drew pulled himself to his feet. "It could be argued which one of those talents is latent but, yes, we found your other power. One is to take life, the other to bring it back. I wish the second one were universal. It won't work every time. There are certain people or creatures that Fate just won't let you bring back once they've taken them."

  Nodding, Jason decided not to give that statement too much thought. There was too much going on to examine the spiritual implications of what Drew had just said. Not now, maybe not ever.

  "So, you did that on purpose? You let yourself get zapped by that thing so I could bring you back? Why not just tell me I could do it?"

  Drew shrugged. "Never occurred to me it could be that simple."

  "Where did the demon go?"

  "I teleported him somewhere very uncomfortable with my last conscious thought. He'll return and be more pissed than we can imagine."

  Nodding, Jason stood and offered his hand to Drew. The other man rose unaided, he seemed remarkably steady considering he had been dead moments earlier. As if by mutual consent, the two men turned to walk into the hall.

  "Thanks for bringing me back. The demon didn't want us dead. At least, I don't think it did. It would have brought me back itself, and that would have been awful."

  "I'm not going to thank you for placing us both in that situation even if you could 'see' the outcome with your plethora of powers."

  Drew laughed aloud. "I've got news for you. Most of the time I have no idea what's going to happen."

  "So you just did that—to both of us—spur of the moment?"

  "Never said I was sane."

  That, Jason decided then and there, would be an important thing to remember about Drew.

  Walking further into the hall filled with offices, he collided with a soft, warm body that he swore he would know anywhere. Without even needing to turn around, he grabbed Charma's arm and pulled her forward leaving Drew to deal with Marina as he saw fit. More than just relief filled his core as he looked down at the blonde hair and worn-out but still gorgeous blue eyes peering up at him.

  "You're okay." He took a deep breath. It had occurred to him that with Charma and Marina returning to the fray, they would be in as much trouble as he was. Jason preferred the thought of him getting his head blown up any day of the week to anything happening to Charma. He supposed it was one of those soul mate things.

  She nodded and after a moment's hesitation she stroked the side of his face. "You're okay too. When I first got here and saw the storm outside, I have to admit that I feared the worst. We shouldn't have left you. How did you manage to survive?"

  "Dipshit back there is somewhat useful when he's not acting like a total jackass." He motioned his head and watched her eyes get wide.

  "Drew. What is he doing here?"

  "He came to quote-unquote rescue me from the demon. His brand of rescue is a bit warped, but I supposed he got the job done."

  Nodding, even as her eyebrows puckered, she moved forward. "Let's all get out of here while we still can."

  With a click, the hall was immersed in total darkness. Jason pulled Charma into his arms and held her tight.

  "Too late." The voice that filled the hallway was clearly Self-loathing's. Jason cursed vehemently.

  He felt, rather than saw, Drew and Marina move next to him. "Any chance you've seen the outcome of this?"

  Drew cleared his throat. "Not at all. In my future vision, we fought back the other one. This is a total surprise to me."

  "Shit."

  "Such language and from an esteemed cardiologist too. What is the world coming to?"

  Surrounded by a red light, Self-loathing appeared in front of them. The light followed her as she moved forward. Jason had to control himself to keep from pointing out her flair for the dramatic. All she needed was her own orchestra, a show tunes' number and she could sell her act to some producers.

  If only she weren't so dangerous, she would be amusing.

  Her smile spoke of evil. "I've decided if I can't keep you locked up in your own minds, then I'm going to keep you shackled here, chained to that which you fear the most. Before we are finished, you are going to beg me to kill you."

  Charma, move. He pulled on her arm and was glad when he didn't get any resistance. If Drew's plan had gone awry, then they had to get the hell out of Dodge before this thing trapped them once and for all.

  His soul mate whirled around, staring for a second at Marina and Drew, and then moved again. With no time to ask her what was going on, he pushed them all forward. Hell, if they had to, they'd all jump down the elevator shaft. It was a preferable death to the one the demon had in mind.

  We can't just leave.

  Why not? This thing doesn't want any of these people here. She'll leave them all alone when we're no longer in the building.

  You're wrong. She'll torture them, but that's not even what I'm talking about.

  Rounding the corner, he heard a crash as the ceiling they'd been standing under came down. They needed to keep moving and fast. Then what are you talking about?

  Eden.

  As in the Garden of? Why was Charma bringing
that up at a time like this?

  As in the Outsider we discovered and need to get out too. We can't just leave her.

  That changed everything. He turned as Drew collided into his back. The four of them tumbled several feet before slamming into the wall. Jason took the brunt of the collision, holding Charma tightly in his arms. Drew groaned and jumped to his feet pulling Marina with him.

  "Are you okay?"

  She raised an eyebrow as she rubbed her neck. "You're actually addressing me directly?"

  Drew looked as if he might say something, but the dark, male laughter that filled the room had them all turning to look around.

  Jason exhaled his breath. "They're both here."

  Nodding, Drew exhaled a loud curse.

  "What does that mean?" Charma looked back and forth between them. "What happened while we were gone?"

  "Let's just say it's been an illuminating day all around." He pulled his soul mate to her feet and began moving towards the door. "Drew, they can't scent me now?"

  "You should be golden."

  "So we'll split up." Charma and I will go get Eden. He broadcast the last thought to all four of them. Drew, Marina, and his soul mate nodded.

  Charma gasped. "You just sent that out to everyone. How did you do that? We can't even do it amongst the group of us that have always been together, not to the whole group. One of us has to say something to another one who transmits it to another one and so on…"

  Shrugging, Jason pulled her forward. "I'm sure there will be time later to discuss all of these questions, but for now we need to not be imprisoned or die."

  Drew grabbed Marina's arm and moved her to the door. "Wait a minute. I didn't say I would go with you."

  Don't get killed, Doc.

  Marina's protest disappeared down the long, dark hallway. Jason whirled around and took hold of Charma's arm. "Where did you leave Eden?"

  She cleared her throat but didn't protest his touch or staying with him. "Um, in the lobby waiting area in front of the television seated in a wheelchair."

  Nodding, he tried to incorporate the information she'd just given him. Wheelchair. So she wouldn't be walking out of her own volition. Check. Lobby. Great, they could get her on their way out. Check that one too.

  "So we get down to the lobby, avoid the demon, grab the girl, and go wherever it was that you were trying to go when you ran out of here earlier."

  "Maine. I was trying to go home to Maine."

  He grinned. "Seems as good a place as anywhere to hide a bunch of mystical people. Unless you want to go running off to some abandoned mountain range in Europe or build a hidden house on Everest."

  "Don't joke. We're originally from a mountain range in Europe. Three of our kinsmen are there right now."

  Moving quickly, they ran down the hallway to the left, and he was relieved to see that Drew and Marina were not there. That meant they'd at least made it past here without getting killed. Captured was another story, but there was nothing about that he could focus on right now.

  Charma was his top priority.

  The thought nearly sidelined him. When had that happened? When had it just become normal that he would need to put Charma's welfare above of his own? Blinking, he realized it had always been that way. It was also a part of why it had scared him to death as a child. Then he hadn't understood it for what it was.

  In the world he'd been raised in, you loved your family but everyone took care of their own interests first. That had never been the case with Charma. When she would talk to him about her life, how hard it was to be constantly inundated with other people's problems just walking down the street, he'd wanted to fix it for her. But he'd been a kid and hadn't believed she was real.

  Reaching out he stroked his hand through her silky short hair. "When did you cut it?"

  Her eyes were huge. "What?"

  "Your hair. It was long when we were kids."

  "I cut it about three weeks ago." She nodded as if she was confirming the time frame in her own mind, and it made him smile. Narrowing her eyes, she squeezed his hand. "How are we going to get out of here?"

  "We're going to climb." It seemed perfectly obvious to him.

  "Where?" She looked back and forth.

  "Down the elevator shaft."

  Charma swallowed and regarded the place he'd indicated. A thought filled his mind. "Charma, baby, are you afraid of heights?"

  Pointing a finger in his face, she huffed. "Don't you patronize me, Jason. I came back here to rescue you. I was not the one trapped. I don't recall giving you permission to address me as 'baby' or any other derogatory term."

  He hadn't intended to make her mad but now that he had maybe he'd actually get her down the elevator shaft. Jason also made note that while she pointed one finger at him, she hadn't let go of his other hand. Charma confused him to no end. Would he ever understand her?

  "I didn't think of 'baby' as offensive. It just seemed to fit how I'm feeling about you."

  A million emotions seemed to dance across Charma's face. Each one was too fast to capture in his memory but he wished he had time to study each one individually. "How are you feeling about me?"

  "Don't you know? Shouldn't you just know these things given who we are to each other?"

  "So then you now acknowledge that I'm real?"

  He nodded. "I do."

  She let go of his hand as she walked towards the shaft and looked down it. "Then let me be clear about something. However it is that we should be feeling about each other went out the window when you made the choice to abandon me while we were children."

  Grabbing her waist, he hauled her up, and she screamed, obviously taken by surprise. Face-to-face, he could see how dilated her pupils were and feel how quickly her heart beat. "Let me be honest now. Whatever mistakes I made as a child are going to stay in the past where they belong. Right now we're going to deal with each other as a man and a woman." His mouth hovered over hers and he was desperate to kiss her. Behind him, something dinged. "After we run away from the demon. Move, Charma."

  Chapter Twelve

  Charma tried not to gasp as Jason gently shoved her into the elevator shaft. She grabbed onto the cable that kept the elevator from crashing to the ground or doing whatever out of control elevators did. The friction burned her hands and she did the best she could to not let go as her body literally froze with fear. There was no way she was moving. Let the demon come and get her.

  One strong arm gripped her waist and the other one grasped the cable above her as Jason jumped around her body. "Look at your surroundings, Charma." She heard him but couldn't respond. If she even breathed, she might plummet to the ground floor. "Put your arms so they meet at the back of my neck."

  "I can't move, Jason." She closed her eyes and hoped this would all be over soon.

  "Yes, you can. You faced down the demon like a warrior woman when we were in my head. You're brave beyond anything I've ever known. I realize this whole thing is crazy, but you were the one who made me see the impossible is possible. So trust me. I won't let you fall. Come on, I can't have you frozen up here where anything can happen when we need to get down to the lobby."

  She breathed hard. If she was honest, then she would admit there was nothing she wouldn't do for Jason. If he asked her to stand on her head, she would try, especially after the little bravery speech he had just given.

  Letting go of her death hold on the cable, she threw all of her weight onto Jason who wrapped one arm around her like she weighed nothing.

  "How are you going to maneuver both of us down this thing?"

  His eyes lit up which made her heart flutter. "It's just like gym class."

  "I hated that. It was like hell for me. All the jocks running about. Any chance I got, I faked an illness to get out of gym."

  Using his legs to support them, they moved slowly down the spun steel line. "Admit it; you're just scared of heights."

  Nodding, she closed her eyes and burrowed against his chest. She breathed in his masculi
ne scent. How could he smell so clean after spending so much time in this place? There was no doubt that Jason belonged to her. She just wasn't sure she could claim him. Not when so much time had passed between them and not when she wasn't sure she could ever forgive him for deciding to rid himself of her so many years earlier.

  However, for right now she would let him carry her down the elevator shaft. After all, the two demons might have temporarily chased Marina and Drew wherever they went, but it wasn't likely they would forget about Jason and Charma for very long.

  A sudden thought rocked her brain. "Jason, I don't know if the demon can actually hurt me."

  "I'm sure it can."

  Shaking her head, she tried not to notice the way her insides heated at the sight of him so powerful. She wondered if he knew how much he changed in the hours since she'd left. Embracing the truth of his life had brought out a side of him she hadn't seen earlier. If she didn't know better, she'd think he'd been raised with Kal and Leonardo under the Alpha-male influence of their former leader, Veli. Biting her lip, she dismissed the thought. Since it wasn't how he'd been raised, it had to be a genetic thing.

  Something encoded inside of them that made them think they were capable of handling all things and that everyone should listen to them.

  "Didn't you see what happened when Self-loathing tried to attack me in the garden earlier?"

  A thin sheen of sweat had formed on his brow, but other than that, he seemed unaffected by the physical strain he was under. Charma had seen this before. She'd grown up an Outsider. Their physical prowess was amazing, and most of the time they had to hide how strong they were. "You blocked her somehow." His voice held the same scientific, questioning edge she'd heard in the garden, and she knew he was thinking about what had happened. "Why do you think that happened?"

  "I imagine it has something to do with what I did yesterday."

  The cable jiggled and Jason's head flew up as he looked at what happened. "Shit."

  "That word does not inspire confidence."

  "Something pretty damn powerful must be shaking the line for that to be happening. My guess is that it's not an elevator repairman."