Love Beyond Expectations (6 page)

"Blow me," Marina muttered under her breath.

"Marina." Ruby sat down next to Drew. "Language please. I might remind you that we have a lot going on here besides the two of you and your…issues."

"Right." Marina nodded. "Although some of that might have changed now that your soul mate has shown up."

Ruby raised her hand. "Even if that is true, I think that's a conversation that should happen another time."

Her eyes briefly met his, and his heart stuttered. How could someone have such blue depths? What should he even call that color?

"Dr Roux. Are you okay?"

He blinked rapidly, realizing he'd completely zoned out. Ruby stared at him outright now with a questioning expression on her face. Yeah, he probably looked insane.

"I think it's probably time that you call me Christophe, and I'll call you Ruby. Yes?"

"Whatever you'd like."

Somehow he doubted that very much.

"Okay." Drew took a sip of his coffee. "We came all this way in this horrific weather to get to your preacher. I'd say that's the thing to do next."

"I can't go anywhere until I find my brother." Christophe looked over his shoulder to get the attention of the waiter. American coffee didn't go down as smoothly as the stuff he got at home but for, the moment, any hot beverage would do.

"Your brother?" Drew sat forward. "Look, this might be rude but what can you do? I need to know which of your powers I have."

"Which of my…"

Christophe never got to finish his thought. His powers came alive with a vengeful push that made bile rise in his throat. Without the usual few seconds he got to control his shift, he was thrown into space traveling to some unknown destination.

Damn it
.

He could have used a few more minutes. A little time to be more impressive to Ruby. To find his bearings. To figure out if he could make sense of the words
soul mate
.

Instead, he plopped down on the ground of a cellar floor. In the distance, he heard dripping water, and the smell of mold filled his nose. He coughed once while he tried to figure out where he landed.

Dim lighting made it hard to see, as it appeared the only illumination in the room came from a small fluorescent light swinging from a metal chain on the ceiling. He swallowed hard. None of this could be very good. Without even knowing any more of where he found himself, he knew this situation had demon written all over it.

The creature loved basements.

"Christophe."

His head darted up, and he lunged up from the floor when he heard the croak of his name spoken from behind him. For a second, he couldn't believe what he saw. His brother, Colin, hung from his arms, held up by a device attached to the ceiling.

A large, thick metal chain came out of what looked like some kind of horrendous device created for torture. The chain was held together by a bolt in the ceiling, which is where Colin was currently attached.

"Are you okay?"

Colin snickered, which made Christophe take a deep breath. If his brother could manage to laugh, he must not be near death, even if his face appeared swollen and bloody.

"No. If I move too much, that machine over there tightens the chains. Eventually, I imagine it'll break my bones."

Christophe stepped closer to the machine. He'd never been what some might call exactly "handy". The likelihood that he could figure out how to detach his brother from it fell somewhere between slim and none.

"Who did this to you? The demon?"

"Yes. This is only temporary. He's weakening me. Later on, he'll start to bleed me. Apparently, it'll taste better to him if I've been constantly abused for a period of time."

"Did you see it?"

"It doesn't have a form any more than it did when we were in the apartment with it."

Anger surged through his veins.
Screw this
. One way or another, he'd get Colin down. "Is it here now?"

"No idea, but I doubt it. If it were here, you'd be strung up too."

"Hold on, brother. We'll get you out of here."

Colin groaned. "You finally call me brother. That must mean I'm going to die. How did you get here anyway?"

"I traveled to you."

Colin closed his eyes speaking slowly. "Really? Fate sent you to me? I'm honored."

"So then you know that at any time I could vanish again. I'll come back. I found the others…the Outsiders. They're not very impressive. Whatever they can do, I'll make them do it to get you out of here." He stared at the horrific thing again. "Let's see if I can make the machine loosen you up."

Christophe stared down at the device wondering how the hell it even worked. Several buttons decorated the outside. But which one to push? If he hit the wrong one, would it make it worse for him?
Shit. Shit. Shit
.

"Did you find her?"

Looking up, he saw that Colin had his eyes wide open again. "What?"

"Your soul mate? Ruby. Did you find her? Was she with them?"

"How did you know that?"

"Our ancestors who sent me to you told me that yours would be waiting for you. Mine is a whole different situation."

"You knew." He didn't phrase it as a question since clearly Colin had known about Ruby throughout their entire acquaintance.

"I did. Sorry I didn't tell you. Somehow, it didn't seem prudent."

"You're such a pain in the ass." How could he feel such affection for such a person?

"Hurry back."

What
? Just like that he got shoved back into space again.
Damn it
.

Chapter Five

Ruby darted to her feet. One second Christophe had been sitting across from her, looking dreamy and sophisticated, making her feel like some kind of country bumpkin who didn't deserve to share air with him. Then,
boom
, he'd vanished.

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.