Meeting the actual woman had been even worse.
Futon spoke as she approached the car and got into her seat.
"Where is Gabriel?"
"Inside with his Alexa."
With tears in her eyes, she put the car in drive not caring one bit where she went. God, what a screwed up life she had.
"We should
not
leave him."
"Trust me; he doesn't want to come with us."
Even if they were all part of this Outsider group, which made more and more sense to her because normal people just couldn't do what she did, that didn't mean she had to sit around and feel pain because she couldn't be with Gabriel.
She sniffed as she willed away the tears that still threatened to spill. Alexa hadn't been that bad. Other than the weird remark about Loraine's name, and Lord knew she gotten that enough to be used to it, she hadn't done anything wrong except not immediately believe Gabriel that the wave had come from Sebastian.
No, the woman's real fault had been that she just looked so—to steal a choice word from Gabriel—
fucking
perfect. Thin and statuesque, with perfectly coifed, straight black hair, and thin pixie brown eyes, she looked more like a model on a runway than a woman working in a homeless shelter.
And God, all those people who needed help. Loraine shook her head at the lingering memory. They had real troubles and clearly Loraine was a spoiled, selfish brat if all she could think about after coming out of a place like that was how much she wanted Alexa's boyfriend.
No, she reminded herself, she had too much to do to obsess over this. She had to go to Maine.
Caught up in her thoughts, Loraine didn't see the man standing in the street until it was almost too late. Slamming on her breaks, she screamed at the top of her lungs as her car screeched to a stop.
Heart pounding so hard she could feel her pulse in her teeth, she opened the door and jumped out.
"No, don't…"
Futon's words went unheeded. She needed to make sure the poor soul who she almost decimated was okay.
She rushed forward. The man standing in front of her was tall with brown hair that was trimmed short. He had an aristocratic face, with a long nose and dark brown eyes. His gaze caught hers, and she staggered backwards.
Evil, whoever this person was, he was clearly filled with badness. She gasped and placed her hand over her mouth to stop from screaming. He put his hand out and grabbed her arm.
"Hello, Loraine, I've been looking for you for some time now."
"Demon
."
Futon jumped out of the car window that she had left open after storming out of the shelter in such a hurry.
"Run, Loraine
."
She could hear Futon's voice but she couldn't move. His eyes, she realized, they pulsed with fire and, oh, God, they burned her. She could feel the heat from his gaze on her skin.
"I can't run, Futon. I can't move." Her voice sounded far away.
The man holding her arm looked down at her beloved dog. "You aren't supposed to be interfering. That's against the rules."
"You didn't make up the rules, and you don't get to dictate what they are."
The evil eyed man shook his head and it took Loraine a moment to realize that Futon and the man were communicating directly. Whoever this man, this demon, was, he could hear Futon as well as she could.
"You can't stop me, not while you are living in that puny, fur covered body."
"I don't have to stop you. She'll stop you once she knows she can
."
The demon raised a brown eyebrow. "Then I guess I'll just have to kill her before she realizes what she can do. How convenient that you brought her straight into my clutches so completely unprotected."
Loraine screamed as the man squeezed her arm tighter. Heat, that felt like it had come from the sun itself, travelled up her arm from where he grasped her. Tears fell from her eyes as she shrieked. Much as she tried she was unable to pull herself away from him.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Futon leap in the air. Growling, he bit down on the demon's arm, tearing into the creature's human skin. Loraine felt herself released from its grip, and she fell backwards onto the pavement. Opening her eyes, she saw Futon flung from the demon.
"The rules say that you're not to interfere." The demon advanced on her dog. Loraine, still not able to move her arm, leaped to her feet. "Now, I'm going to have to send you back with your mission not completed. I wonder how the guys upstairs are going to like that?"
Loraine rushed forward only to be thrown backwards as a red light filled the air around them. As if she'd rushed into an invisible bubble, she was pushed onto her back and hit the concrete. Her eyes swam and a loud ringing resounded in her ears. She turned her head, the movement enough to make her cry out in pain.
The truth was she'd never really considered
death
. She was thirty years old. Up until a few minutes ago when she'd found out her life was a lie, she'd thought her Grandmother who had been ninety when she died had been actually related to her. She'd thought her parents perished in a flood, which was the story she'd been told when she was growing up. So, she'd basically felt that if she could avoid natural disasters, hence living in the desert, then she'd be fine.
Oh, God—I'm going to die right now
.
She closed her eyes and didn't care if that made her a coward. Everything inside of her told her she wasn't supposed to be facing the demon. It wasn't
her
job. Yes, they were at war but not everyone was supposed to fight. At the very least, she was ill prepared for this.
Not that it mattered because I'm dead
.
"Sebastian."
Her eyes flew open when Gabriel shouted. Sebastian's head whirled around to face him as he stood in the street. She blinked twice as Sebastian moved toward the man she'd been fantasizing about. How had he found her? She tried to sit up but dizziness overwhelmed her, and she had no choice but to stay flat on her back.
Where were all the cars? Why was no one coming down the street?
Gabriel stuck his arms out in front of him and using his hands to imitate the motions of a wave, he swung them out in front of the demon he'd called Sebastian. Sebastian disappeared in a blur of color. Loraine blinked, not sure she could believe her eyes.
What just happened?
"Where?"
Gabriel knelt down beside her placing his hand gently under her neck. "Can you sit up?"
"I'm dizzy." And, God, was she. The world just kept spinning…
He hissed in his breath. "You're probably concussed."
"Can we get concussed?"
He paused for a second, and she wondered if she wasn't making any sense. "
We
meaning the Outsiders?" he asked.
That's what she meant. Just her luck to meet a guy who understood her when she wasn't making sense but was deeply in love with someone else.
His voice brought her back from her thoughts. "Still with me, Loraine?"
"Yes, sorry, I zoned out there for a second."
"To answer your question, yes, the Outsiders can get concussed, I think. I've never had so much as a cold but we can get hurt."
She cleared her throat. "Come to think of it, I've never had a cold either."
As a child, she'd been absolutely convinced that her Grandmother's chicken soup kept her well. Little had she known…
Sucking in a breath, she realized just how out of it she really must be if she didn't ask this first. "Futon? Where is he?"
"I don't see him, sweetheart." Gabriel looked around. "There was a bright red light. Sebastian must have done something to him. Maybe sent him somewhere."
"Oh, God." She closed her eyes and not from the dizziness or the pain. Futon was her dog, an odd creature—yes, but hers. The only one who had cared about her when her Grandmother had died and now he was dead or missing. A sob clouded her voice as she fought through the dizziness to find control. "I was responsible for him. He's my dog."
He rubbed her hair that had fallen on her forehead. "I'm sorry, Loraine. I truly am." His eyes glowed with an emotion she couldn't decipher. She saw sadness in there but also something else and she wasn't sure what that was.
"Here," he continued. "Let's sit you up. We need to get you some help."
She closed her eyes as he lifted her neck gently until she was half sitting, half leaning against him. Finally, when she thought she might not vomit, she opened her eyes. "I really don't want to go to the hospital."
He seemed to be considering this as he rubbed his head like it pained him. Truthfully, all she wanted to do was go home to the dry heat of Tucson and away from all this talk of demons and soul mates. She wanted her dog back. For once in her life, she wished she'd not listened to Futon when he told her to do something.
"We're not going to the hospital."
She placed her hand on his arm. "Where are we going?"
"To the Outsiders."
All right, maybe she'd shattered all her brain cells but that didn't seem like a logical response. "Didn't you tell me they were in Maine?"
"Yes, I did." He stroked her hair. She wished she could press against him and just go to sleep right there in his arms. Shaking her head, she reminded herself about her potentially dead dog, and the fact that Gabriel had Alexa.
"I'm sorry but I don't have time to explain all of this now. The point is that I'm going to send you to them."
"Like in a package?"
He shook his head. "I'm hoping you don't have permanent brain damage. Now, I'm going to move you through space. It's one of the things I can do."
He patted her on her cheek. Had she fallen asleep? Why was he touching her so much? Alexa couldn't possibly like it.
He continued speaking. "I wish I could come with you. I can move other people, other things, just not myself."
"Wait… what?"
He patted her on her knee.
Damn it, he was touching her again
. "I'll get there as fast as I can."
Her head spun. "Gabriel, what?"
"We don't have time. Sebastian is going to be back any second."
With a wave of his hands, like he had done in front of the demon earlier, Loraine shot upwards. Things looked blurry right before she lost consciousness.
What the hell had Gabriel done?
* * * *
Loraine could hear voices floating above her. That was, she realized sort of distantly, kind of a funny thing to think. Voices didn't float. Only these seemed to be doing just that.
"Her concussion is already healing. The Outsider physiology is an amazing thing."
She didn't recognize the man who spoke, but he had a gentle tone. And he certainly sounded like he knew what he talked about.
"Then why the fuck isn't she awake?"
Now that voice she knew, it was Gabriel.
Ah… Gabriel
. Even quasi-unconscious she was so pathetic when it came to him.
"Because I'm keeping her asleep. It helped to speed up the healing process."
She heard footsteps and wondered if Gabriel paced. "Wake her up, dammit."
"All right, calm down before you give yourself an aneurysm. You look like hell."
"Jason, when I want your opinion…"
Loraine opened her eyes and stared at the scene laid out in front of her. Gabriel, with his arms crossed over his chest, tapped his foot and stared down at her. Next to her, a tall man with long blond hair tied back in a ponytail holder regarded her with one eyebrow raised.
Gabriel exhaled and she watched his shoulders sag. "You're awake."
The blond man looked at Gabriel. "I told you I kept her asleep. You doubt my word?"
"No." Gabriel shook his head. "I was worried." He looked back at her. "Loraine, this is Dr. Jason Randall. He's a cardiologist as well as an Outsider."
Jason grinned. "Just an
Outsider
now. The kind of medicine I'm performing, you know actually looking inside of a body with my own eyes as opposed to using machines, it would probably be frowned upon in most medical institutions." Jason put a cool hand on her forehead. "Would you like to sit up?"
She must have nodded. Although she still felt pretty woozy, she wasn't sure she actually had or if she'd just done it in her own mind. Still, the two men bent over and helped her get into an upright position.
She looked at Gabriel. "How did we get here?"
"You, I moved through space. Me, I took an airplane."
Jason narrowed his eyes and she felt a strange fluttering sensation in her head. What was he doing to her?
"Are you in my brain?"
Jason adjusted his gaze from her head to her eyes. "Just using some of my energy to repair the damage in your head. Your body would eventually heal itself, faster than a regular human's would, but still I can help to make the whole thing go away at an even quicker rate."
Loraine turned to regard the man who'd sent her here. Gabriel looked worn out. His eyes were bloodshot, his hair disheveled and his clothes wrinkled. All in all, his appearance screamed 'I haven't slept in a while'.
"How long have I been here?"
"Almost twenty-four hours." Jason stood. "Gabriel dropped you down in the middle of the living room without phoning first. We weren't even sure who you were until the phone started ringing. Then we all got really worried. Our concern, however, was nothing compared to the frantic mess he has been since he arrived three hours ago."
She didn't know why Gabriel would be so worked up. Clearly, he had saved her life. She needed to thank him for that. Tears pooled in her eyes as she remembered the scene and how she had been helpless, how she had been unable to move to defend herself or even to run. If Futon hadn't…
Gasping, she reached out and grabbed Gabriel's arm. "Did you figure out what happened to my dog?"