Love Beyond Expectations

  She reached forward like she could touch his presence in the now empty space. Her fingers felt only cool air, and she sat back down, her rear end hitting the seat cushion with a thud. Her heart sunk. Christophe vanished.

  Drew whistled through his teeth. "Now that is cool. I can't do that."

  He drummed his fingers on the table, and the noise felt like nails on a chalkboard. Ruby wanted to reach across the table and claw out his eyes. Cool? There was nothing remotely cool about his sudden disappearance.

  Apparently not done talking, Drew continued, "I wonder what else he can do. I don't have that power so he must be able to do something else too."

  Marina looked down at the menu. "Maybe you're simply Christophe deficient. Maybe it'll turn out that you can't do any of his fun stuff."

  "No. My power is that I have one of all of the other Outsider powers."

  She looked up. "Yes, so you keep telling us."

  "Hell, Marina…."

  "Enough." Ruby slammed her hands down on the table. "Do neither of you care one little bit that Christophe simply vanished?"

  Why weren't they paying attention? One second he'd been here, the next…not.

  Marina's dark eyes fumed. "Sheesh. Maybe we're taking our cue from your behavior. You were downright rude to him the whole time he was with us. Perhaps he left because he couldn't take your attitude anymore."

  Ruby rubbed her face, feeling all of a sudden more exhausted than she had in years. "Not everything is your business, Marina. You do know that, right?" Ruby had really had enough. "I need five minutes to collect myself, and then we're going after the preacher."

  Drew's hostile gaze shot bullets at her head. "Whatever you want."

  Apparently, she'd crossed a line. Drew and Marina made everyone around them miserable all the time with their constant insults and bickering. As far as she could tell, soul mates weren't supposed to live with each other and not be together. It seemed to make them crazy.

  They could hurl epithets all they wanted, but no one else was allowed to criticize one without punishment from the other one. She'd have to apologize to Marina if she wanted Drew's cooperation.

  The cold weather slammed into her again. What had happened to Christophe? Was he okay? Had the demon gotten him? What if the fact that Drew didn't have Christophe's power meant that Christophe hadn't simply left because of his power but because he'd been kidnapped?

  Marina stood behind her, placing her arms around Ruby's shoulders. Ruby sighed, glad for the contact. Finally, Marina spoke. "You're right. I can be a real stupid girl. I get caught up in the amount of angst I have all the time."

  "I know you do." Marina had always been kind to her.

  Marina shrugged. "And if it makes you feel any better, I know this has happened to him before. I know it for a fact so you can stop worrying about it harming him or something."

  She blinked rapidly. "Can you somehow read my mind? A new power I don't know about?"

  "We're all so preoccupied all the time with what other people can do. Like it's some kind of big, giant competition. To answer your question, no I can't read your mind, but your feelings are all over your face right now." She sighed. "As opposed to before, when I thought you hated him."

  "Why would you think that?"

  "Because you acted like a total bitch the whole time he was here."

  Had she? Ruby closed her eyes. Why did she do that? Anytime anything felt important to her, she found a way to act like whatever she wanted was, instead, meaningless. What normal adult woman behaved so stupidly?

  The first time she'd seen Christophe Roux he'd nearly stopped her heart. She barged into her boss's office, intending to holler at him. For months, she'd been given the academic equivalent of a hazing at staff meetings. She'd grown more than tired of it. Deciding it had come to a point where it had to be addressed, she'd been in a fury.

  She winced at the memory. Not only had she acted like a shrew, her haircut had been atrocious. Somehow she'd thought if she chopped off all her blonde locks, she would seem more serious and be taken that way by her male colleagues. Ha! Ruby had ended up seeming more like a pixie than a grown woman.

  And Christophe had seemed so sophisticated, so foreign. His accent had made her knees weak. She'd muttered something to her boss about the meetings and run from the room like a fool.

  She'd managed to basically avoid him at work after that. If he ever found out about the lengths she had gone to in order to stay hidden from his view, he'd think her pathetic. What adult woman deliberately took the stairs and got off two levels below her floor in order to cross the building on the opposite side of where she was supposed to be in order to avoid a man?

  All this time, he'd been her soul mate, and she'd had no idea…

  "I have a bad habit of pushing people away. I guess it comes from all the times I've had to leave, had to run from wherever I lived. I don't know. I saw him, and I freaked out. All I could think about was that he was going to see me doing something weird. And then you started spouting off about soul mates, and it turns out he's actually an Outsider and…"

  Marina interrupted. "Take a deep breath."

  Good advice. Deciding to listen to Marina, she took a moment and calmed down. When she could get her pulse steadied, she spoke again. "So you think he's fine?"

  "Yes. He saved Leonardo, Izzy, and Kal when they went down to New Orleans last year. If he hadn't popped in to them and then phoned me about it, they'd have died. I'm sure he knows just how to manage his comings and goings."

  "Then he has more control over his power than I do."

  "Maybe we should go get this business done with the preacher's cane so when Christophe comes back you can speak to him."

  She wanted to do more than talk to him. She wanted to wrap her legs around him and…

  Forcing that thought from her mind before it brought her to her knees, she focused on the here and now. Drew sauntered out of the coffee house, tugging his coat closer around himself. It took him a moment to notice them, and then he picked up his pace in their direction.

  "Speaking of problems…"

  Marina laughed. "To say the least. Let's get out of here."

  A loud boom sounded before a gush of heat knocked Ruby onto her back. Air left her lungs, and her vision swam red. She gasped for air, desperate to simply breathe. Her ears rang, and her skin burned like she'd been assaulted with tiny needles.

  Rocking left and right, she tried to make her body function. Marina. Drew. Were they okay? Adrenaline surged through her veins, giving her strength where she'd, seconds earlier, not had any.

  She bolted upward, her muscles aching but at least moving. Marina lay to her left about five feet away. Ruby limped over to her, assessing the scene as she maneuvered.

  The coffee shop, where they'd just eaten, burned, large flames, spreading, dancing through the broken glass. As she stared at it, the fire seemed to turn in her direction, to reach out to her with transparent hands that only she could see.

  "Come to me."

  The voice beckoned her forward. She didn't move even though she wanted to. There was a reason she stood where she did. What was it? She shook her head to try to clear it of the haze threatening to consume her.

  For a second, her world went white in front of her eyes before finally righting itself. The scene rushed back to her, and she almost stumbled forward. What the hell?

  She shook her head. When she'd fallen backward, she must have been concussed. It was the only explanation for what had happened.

  Marina and Drew. How could she have allowed herself to be sidetracked for even one second?

  She couldn't see Drew anywhere but Marina still lay unmoving on the concrete. Sirens sounded in the distance, telling her help would be arriving soon. Unfortunately, they wouldn't be able to help an Outsider.

  Ruby bent over Marina. Relief flooded her insides when she felt a pulse. But the woman remained unconscious.

  "Marina, can you hear me?" No response, she didn't even budge.


  "Excuse me, miss." Yanked backward by paramedics trying to get to Marina, she stumbled out of the way.

  Help, she had to find some. Her mind didn't want to work and, for some reason, the wind had picked up, blowing rain directly into her face. A howling covered up the sirens of the ambulances and the fire trucks.

  She grabbed the phone in her pocket and pulled it out. With shaking hands, she dialed Leonardo's number. It took her longer than it should have, she couldn't seem to stop hitting the five when she wanted to hit the two.

  "Come on," she called aloud to any being in the universe that might be listening to her, "I need a break here."

  Finally, she managed to get the number entered. It rang twice before Leonardo picked up.

  "Ruby?" He said her name as opposed to hello. She'd never been so relieved to hear his commanding voice in her life.

  "Something horrible has happened."

  She walked quickly, the phone pressed tightly against her ear, her head down to avoid the onslaught of the wind.

  "What?"

  "There was an explosion and Christophe vanished and…"

  He interrupted her. "I don't understand what you're saying. Where is Marina?"

  How could he? She wasn't making any sense. Taking a deep breath, she tried again. "Marina is hurt. Drew is missing…or at least I can't find him. The coffee shop we were in exploded when we were leaving. They're putting Marina into an ambulance. I'm not sure what to do."

  "Listen to me very carefully. You need to get yourself some place safe. Do you understand? I don't know about Drew. He's like a cat; he'll land on his feet, whatever has happened to him. I'm sending Jason to Marina now. He'll catch them at the hospital. You need to get out of there. If Sebastian blew up that coffee shop and killed innocent humans, he's upped his body count drastically. I need to know you're safe. Do you understand?"

  She nodded and after a moment realized he couldn't see it. "Yes. I'll get somewhere safe and call you when I know where I am."

  Ruby stared in front of her. Two men stood in the distance observing the scene behind a barricade. One of them she didn't know but the other one, an older man leaning on a cane, she recognized him immediately. Jacob Talbot.

  Her heart raced. Jacob Talbot, the preacher she'd set out to find, watched the scene in front of him without a single expression on his face. She'd witnessed his sermons for years on television. He had more of a reaction to being told that someone hadn't been to church in years than he did to seeing a building burn and people suffering.

  She stormed forward, Leonardo's words fleeing her mind. Safety couldn't be paramount, not when Jacob Talbot was so close. They'd traveled out to get his cane. She intended to get it.

  "We need to rush this one. I'm losing her pulse."

  Ruby whirled around. Shoot. She couldn't leave Marina by herself, despite what Leonardo said or her desire to get the stick from the old man. In two strides, she reached the ambulance and grabbed the arm of one of the paramedics.

  "She's my friend. I'm going with her."

  The man opened his mouth, and she suspected he wanted to argue with her about going in the ambulance, but he didn't. Instead, his eyes scanned behind her for a moment before he nodded.

  "Whatever you'd like. We're getting ready to leave."

  Ruby turned around to see what had made the paramedic so nervous. Christophe stood behind her, looking fierce with his eyes narrowed and his hands on his hips. Her shoulders sagged. They didn't know each other, not really, but she'd never been so glad to see another person in her entire life.

  "You're okay." He didn't ask it but spoke the words as if he felt certain she hadn't been harmed.

  She swallowed. "I hit my head and had the wind knocked out of me during the explosion."

  Christophe pointed to the ambulance. "Then you should get in there."

  "No." She swallowed through the lump in her throat. When was the last time anyone had cared about whether or not she'd been hurt?

  Ruby grabbed his arm and pulled him a distance from the paramedics. "These people can't help us. They can't help Marina. Only Jason can do that. Leonardo's going to send him to her to fix her. I can't leave her alone. Drew is missing. And you're okay," she said fast, all in one breath.

  The whole day had been so off. Ruby dealt in order, in facts, in things going a certain way. She didn't know how to handle demons, fire, and explosions. Her breath came in and out rapidly. She also didn't hyperventilate, and yet she couldn't seem to stop the progression of panic forming inside her body.

  "Listen to me." Christophe took her cheeks in his hands. "All will be well. You'll see. Whatever is going on here, it is destiny, yes?"

  She loved the way his warm hands felt on her cooled skin. "Yes. I guess so. It's all part of a destiny. Not one where we necessarily win but a fate, of some kind, I guess."

  "Right." He smoothed her bangs off her forehead. "So we go to the hospital with Marina, and then you will come with me to rescue my brother from the demon."

  What? "Your brother is with the demon?"

  "He's been captured…it's where I went when I went."

  "I have to go find this preacher who has this cane that we need."

  "We'll sort this out later. Get in the ambulance before they leave. I'll meet you there."

  That seemed like a good idea. Christophe made sense. In the midst of the confusion and chaos, he could walk a straight path. She nodded and climbed into the vehicle to go with Marina.

  Everything would be fine. It had to be. Still, a niggling thought threatened the calm she wanted to embrace. Who had that man standing next to Jacob Talbot been, and what had happened to her after the explosion?

  Had she really heard a voice in the flames?

  Because if she had, she needed to admit two things. First, it hadn't been Sebastian's voice beckoning her, and second, she had wanted to obey the words in her head. She'd almost run right into the flames.

  Grabbing Marina's hand, she squeezed. "Don't worry, hon. Jason is coming." Where the hell was Drew?

  * * * *

  Ruby took a sip of her coffee and waited outside of Marina's room. Jason had told her to guard the door. Of course, what she was supposed to do if someone came and tried to get into the area while he worked on Marina had been left out of her instructions. She barely stood over five feet tall. Did he want her to throw herself onto someone?

  "Is she okay?" She jumped at Christophe's voice.

  How had he managed to sneak up on her?

  "Sorry, I didn't mean to frighten you."

  "No." She waved her hand in the air, trying to seem more nonchalant than she felt. "I'm not usually this jumpy."

  "I bet you don't usually have reason to be."

  She nodded. "Fair enough."

  "Marina okay?"

  "Jason managed to get himself in there. Talked his way into her room and got the other doctors out of there. I have no idea how. They all kind of just left."

  Christophe leaned against the wall. She wanted to smooth away the small dark circles under his eyes, to offer him comfort. It pained her to keep her hand at her side, but she couldn't reach out and touch a man she'd only spoken to a few times. Even if he, technically, happened to be her soul mate.

  "Is that one of his powers?"

  She had to get her head back into their conversation. "I don't think so. Maybe Charma helped him from afar or something."

  "When he takes Marina home, we need to talk." His dark eyes bored into hers.

  "Sure." God, she needed to stop sounding so ditzy when she spoke to him.

  "You know I study gemstones."

  The loud noises of the hospital faded away. Jason might get caught doing whatever he did to fix Marina. She really didn't care. Not when Christophe looked at her so intently, not when her body filled up with heat, making her feel like she wanted to melt into a puddle on the floor in front of him.

  "I know. You're teaching science to freshmen, but you're really some kind of big deal in Europe, aren
't you? You study big, high-tech uses for gems. That's what the other professors said, anyway."

  He grinned, a crooked smile. "I teach science to eighteen-year-old English majors because I saw you."

  "What?" Her heart fluttered.

  "Ruby." He stroked a finger down her nose. Why had she thought she couldn't touch him? "I had to be wherever you were."

  On a sigh, she said his name, "Christophe."

  What was happening? Nothing so intense should come on so fast. She preferred to ease into things, to take her time with them. This felt foolish. And wonderful. And perfect.

  "Rubies have always been thought to have mystical qualities."

  She smiled. "Is that so?"

  Christophe could tell her anything he wanted. All she wanted to do was listen to his voice. Forever. Even if somewhere in the back of her mind, she knew this obsession she'd lost control over would prove to be a very large problem.

  Chapter Six

  Jacob opened his wallet, disgusted at having to pay the man who stood in front of him. Usually, his office held the devout, his parishioners seeking guidance from him because of his close, personal relationship with God.

  As the sun set outside, however, a very different kind of person sat with him. Tall, dark-haired, with a smug expression on his face, the man currently lounging in the chair across the desk from Jacob called himself a "dealer". His name, Mr Grey—which Jacob suspected had been made up—had been referred to him by a parishioner who had recently repented and given up his life of crime.

  Jacob hired him to deal with Ruby Brannon. And the middleman wanted to be paid for shoddy work, because Ruby still walked amongst the living. So, Grey was going to be very, very disappointed.

  Jacob gripped the top of his cane, holding it always gave him a great deal of strength. "Your person failed."

  "No." Grey shook his head holding his eye contact steely. "You told us to watch for her arrival. We did that. She got off the boat and we tracked her to the coffee shop. The fact that she didn't happen to be in the coffee shop at the moment of the explosion was not our fault."

  "I hired you to kill her."