Love Beyond Loyalty (2 page)

He gasped as he realized the wave was going to destroy his house. His, and everyone else's who lived on the block by the river. No one would be prepared.

"Hey," he started screaming. People needed to get out of their homes. "Hey!" He tried to move toward his neighbor's dock but his feet wouldn't work. He pulled again. His feet seemed glued to the wooden planks of the dock.

"Oh, damn it." This wasn't natural. It was magic, and the dang wave that was going to destroy his neighborhood also wasn't of the normal variety.

Fuck
. He should have known this was going to happen. He tried to pull his leg up again, shouting for someone to hear him. Hell and damnation, if he was to die he, didn't want to take any innocents with him. Anyone who was home was going to be killed.

Why was he surprised? Sebastian didn't value human life. He thought of them as no better than insects.

"Ah!" he screamed, as he tried desperately to move. It was no use. He was stuck.

The noise the wave made was deafening. It was like a jet engine coming straight at him. His ears rang from the intensity. Lifting his hand, he rubbed his ear and felt the trickle of hot blood on his hand. Great, that couldn't be good in terms of permanent hearing loss. Not that it mattered since he'd be dead soon.

In the distance, the barking of a dog cut through the ringing in his ears. Oh, hell, some neighbor had gone out and their animal was home with no way of avoiding the onslaught. Now he could go on to the great unknown with the deaths of both people and animals on his conscience.

The wave hit him. He closed his eyes as the water hit him with the force of a crashing airplane. Even the magic that had been holding him in place couldn't withstand wave. One second he was frozen, the next his body was engulfed in such physical pain he couldn't make one sensation out from the next.

And then, finally, there was just water.

After the pain of the wave slamming into him, the water felt almost blissful even as he realized it would kill him. Still unable to move very much from the combination of the magical assault and the destruction of the wave, Gabriel had no choice but to float. Pushed and pulled inside the body of the wave, he knew it would be over soon.

He'd never have to decide if he wanted to join the Outsiders. No one would know they needed to save Alexa from the demon. All of the choices he'd thought he needed to make were about to end in the green water that bordered his house.

The water hoisted him upwards and then suddenly stopped. Something was yanking his collar upwards toward the surface. Still not able to move, he had no idea what was dragging him through the water, but seconds later, his head passed over the surface. Dragging in a breath, he sputtered.

"Good boy, Futon." He heard a woman's voice behind him and was surprised to see the owner of that voice standing on his dock. How had he not travelled farther away with the wave? He shook his head. He'd never be able to explain it since it was, no doubt, going to turn out to be one of those magical things that defied basic human logic.

The dog pulled him along the top of the water as Gabriel gasped for air. "Don't worry, Sir, we've got you. Futon is a strong dog. He's never dropped anyone yet. Well, anyone he didn't want to drop."

"My body," Gabriel's voice felt scratchy when he spoke. "It's not working so well. I'm not going to be able to get myself out of the canal."

"That's no problem, I'll pull you."

"No." He shook his head. "No way will you be able to lift me."

"You're right. I can't. But between me and Futon, we'll get you up."

The dog let go of him and he started to sink but hands grabbed him. Futon jumped on the dock and leaned over with his mistress. Together, much to the dismay of Gabriel's ego, which didn't like being rescued by a woman and her dog, they hoisted him onto the dock. He shook his head as he coughed and tried to regain his equilibrium.

Still unable to move his legs, he groaned. "This isn't happening."

"Mind telling me what's going on? Did you see the size of that wave?" the woman inquired.

The dog barked as if he answered the woman. Gabriel strained to turn his head to look at her.

Although she was disheveled, squatting next to him was the most beautiful woman he'd ever beheld. With red curly hair flying every which way, she had a long face with high cheekbones and pointy little chin. Skin the color of white soap, her angular nose was speckled with freckles giving her face true character beyond her obvious beauty. As did her arms, bared in a tank top. Clearly an athlete, her toned body showed off a figure most women would kill for.

Breasts, shapely and round, poked out the top of tank top exposing the top of a white bra that had lacy, frilly looking decorations on it.

But it was her eyes not her breasts that held his attention. They were violet. He blinked just to be sure he wasn't hallucinating about the color and was pleased to see they didn't change shades. He'd never seen anyone who had eyes like that before. Swallowing, he tried to think of something to say. Hadn't she asked him a question?

"Are you going to tell me what happened to you? You just stood there and let that wave slam into you. I thought you were dead but Futon knew you were alive."

Futon? He regarded the dog. A medium sized border collie with black spots stared back at him. His heart sped up. He'd heard that name for a dog before. In fact,
it was the same damn dog
.

"I know you." He pointed at the creature. "But the last time I saw you was with an old woman on Magazine Street in New Orleans."

Gabriel had been working for a shady lingerie storeowner on the bad side of Magazine Street at the time. Trying to find out what Sebastian wanted with the man. It was there he uncovered that the demon had employed Trent, the owner, to kill virgins by bleeding them to death. Gabriel still didn't fully understand how the virgin blood benefited Sebastian and he wasn't sure he ever would. On his second day, he'd been hassled by an old woman on the street who'd told him Sebastian was in New Jersey and that he needed to hurry up and get there.

She'd spoken of fate and a lot of mumbo-jumbo he hadn't understood. It had turned out that she was right and he'd high-tailed it off to New Jersey to help stop Sebastian's assault on the Outsiders. The woman had been with Futon.

The woman shook her head. "There are lots of border collies around this area. You must have seen a different one because Futon never leaves me."

That was possible. And, it was also possible that crawfish were going to fly out of his ass. How many dogs named after bedroom furniture that happened to be black and white border collies did she think were running around the great state of Louisiana?

Soaking wet, he had started to shiver even though the air was hot and moist. "Look, miss," and he knew she was a 'miss' because she didn't wear a wedding ring, "I can't tell you how grateful I am to you and Futon, but I think you'd better go. It's not safe here."

"My name is Loraine Peacock."

He raised an eyebrow. "Like the bird?"

"Exactly, like the bird, and if you could refrain from making sexual innuendoes that star my last name, my estimation of you will be much higher."

He laughed. "I'm way too cold right now to think that hard. You're safe from sex jokes."

Futon barked, and Loraine glanced at the animal. "You're right, we need to get him inside. But where?"

He hated to ask them for any more help.
Wait a minute
. Had she spoken to the dog? "Did you just answer that thing like you understood it?"

Her violet eyes flared with temper. "
He
is not a thing. He is a male border collie, and it is likely that he is smarter than you are."

"Look, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to offend Futon." He looked at the dog that glared at him through small eyes. "I'm not much of an animal person. My only experience with animals is the time one tried to maul me to death in a back alley when I was eight years old."

Loraine gasped. "What were you doing in a back alley at eight years old?"

"That's not important right now. If you could just bring me inside and then run away, forgetting you ever met me, that might be best."

Shaking her head, Loraine stepped forward and stroked his hair. "I'm afraid there are two reasons we can't do that."

Startled by the feel of her small hand on his head, he couldn't speak for a moment. Could she keep doing that? If he asked nicely, would she? It was such a simple gesture, just comforting, and yet despite the fact that his legs were still not working his cock got hard as a rock. He swallowed.

Holy hell. That had never happened to him like that. Not even when he was a teenager. He'd always been able to control it. Looking down at his shorts, he was sure she would notice. Fortunately, she seemed to be staring at his face. Good.

Concentrate
. "Um, what were the two reasons?"

"We can't bring you into your house because it is destroyed."

Turning his head as far as he could manage, he stared at the structure and wished he hadn't. She was right. While the other houses on the canal had been all but untouched, Sebastian's devil-made wave had destroyed his house completely.

Only the foundation, which was torn in pieces, remained. He could see part of the concrete slab where he'd stored his lawn equipment still rested where it had been, although his lawnmower was gone. It was a nightmare.

He nodded. "Okay." There really wasn't anything else to say.

Even as a small child he'd learned not to cry. Nothing was different now. Who had he been kidding thinking he'd found a home? He'd never had a home as a child and it had been un-fucking-believable that he'd allowed himself to pretend that he could have one now. Pathetic, really. He bit down on his lower lip, wishing he could stand so he could break something with his fists.

Loraine continued to stroke his head and he swatted her hand away, not caring if she thought him rude.
Fuck this whole thing
. He closed his eyes and recalled her prior comment.

"You said there were two reasons."

What else had Sebastian destroyed? He'd taken his house and he'd taken, hopefully only temporarily, his ability to walk. His balls still ached so he knew he hadn't taken his penis. Maybe he'd just taken his ability to control himself. That would be a great maneuver. Sebastian took away Gabriel's control, thus making him a horny dog worse than any fourteen-year-old boy.
Shit
.

Futon barked and Gabriel opened his eyes to regard the animal again. Gone was the mean gaze of earlier. Now, if he didn't know it was crazy, he would swear the dog looked at him with pity. Maybe that was worse.

"Futon said we had to come and get you. That's what we're doing here."

Gabriel turned his attention to Loraine. He spoke through gritted teeth. "Futon
told
you to come and get me, which is what you're doing here?"

He watched her clench her fists at her side. "That's right." Her pinched expression dared him to contradict her.

Even though he was totally dependant on her to get off the dock, he just couldn't
not
say what was on his mind. Maybe he was just dumb like that.

"Lady, are you nuts?"

She made a sound that was something between a squeak and a groan. "Why is it nuts that I can talk to him? Explain it to me. Is it any more crazy than the fact that Futon got you out of the water? Could a typical border collie have done that? Dragged a grown man out of rushing water?"

"I have no idea what a typical border can or can not do. I told you, I don't fucking like animals."

She raised an eyebrow as the dog barked. "Futon says I need to give you a break because you are going through a trauma, but I don't like your language. It's coarse. I'm not used to that kind of talk."

"Are you by any chance from the 1950s or just Uptown New Orleans?"

She shook her head for a second, clearly confused. "I moved around a lot as a child, but I lived the longest in Tucson, Arizona."

"Shit."

She started to complain and he interrupted her. "Okay, I'm sorry. I curse all the time. I'm a total pig. Mostly, I'm a street rat with little education and no drive. Consider this a universal apology for what is bound to be a lot of cursing, and before you insist otherwise, I have to tell you that I have no ability to control it. Think of it as my nervous tick."

She shook her head. "No."

"What?"

He really started to shake. God, it was really fucking cold on his usually hot deck.

Her face fell as she moved forward to touch his cheeks. "You're burning up."

"No, I'm cold as ice." In front of him, his hands started to shake. Dammit, in his whole life he'd never been so completely out of control.

"I think you're in really bad shape. We need to get out of here."

"Where will we go?"

"I don't know but we need to get you into my car."

He used one of his shaking hands to grab her arm. "Loraine, I'm such an ass. I'm sorry."

"No apologies right now." He could see her thin neck move as she swallowed. "I don't even know your name."

"I'm Gabriel Ward."

"Pleased to meet you, Gabriel."

Grinning even though it hurt him to do so, he laughed. "Everyone calls me Gabe."

"I'm going to call you Gabriel. It suits you better."

She could call him anything she wanted if she kept looking at him with her violet eyes that made him want to run through fields of flowers. He shook his head. Wow, he was really losing it if he was thinking fucking stupid thoughts like that.

"Where should I take you, Gabriel?"

"To New Orleans." He rattled out Alexa's work address. She didn't answer his phone calls anymore since Sebastian had convinced her he'd gone 'bad', but maybe she'd see him if he showed up in need. She was supposed to be his very best friend.