And it would give Sebastian more of a link to Marina. He would never, ever give her to the demon. He would die first.
Drew had no sooner made it to the second set of doors when the ceiling came down on him. Blackness overtook everything.
Marina…
Chapter Two
Marina gripped the floor of the cave like she might will it to stop moving, as if she had the power to do so. The crazy Outsiders were getting to her. People didn't control natural disasters. A large jolt made her cry out and she realized how vulnerable she was standing in a cave during an earthquake. She closed her eyes while she tried to breathe through her terror. Nothing about this was okay. How long did earthquakes go on before they ended?
The one rattling her seemed to last forever. Were the old cave walls going to survive the shaking?
She lifted her lids and cried out again, jumping backwards. Standing in front of her where he had not been a second earlier was a man she'd never seen before. Tall, blond-haired, blue-eyed and dressed in a seersucker suit, the new individual didn't seem to mind the rattling floor beneath his feet.
"Who are you?"
Blond guy cocked his head to the side. "Can you see me?"
"Of course I can. I'm not blind. You're two feet away from me."
The cave stopped shaking. "Interesting. I was under the impression you wouldn't be able to see me anymore." He squatted down. "Here. Let me help you up." The stranger extended his hand.
A cold wind shot through the cave and Marina's skin crawled. Yeah, she needed to get out of the cave and away from the dude right away. Reaching out she tried to take the stranger's offering of help, but her hand slipped right through his fingers like she touched nothing but air.
The blond guy laughed, throwing his head back as if her not being about to touch him was the funniest thing ever. Marina gritted her teeth. She had to be hallucinating. Otherwise, what had just happened made no sense.
Reasonable individuals did not see people who were not solid. She didn't know much anymore but that truth she would hold onto. She did not believe in ghosts.
Marina pulled herself to her feet. "Go away, delusion."
The ghost stopped laughing. He put his hands on hips before saying, "For generation after generation I have dealt with you: the Outsiders and their eternal soul mates. None as connected as the eighteen of you. You're always sent after us when we're getting the most powerful. You're the mythical keepers of balance. In this world, humans don't even know who you are. Ask the average Joe and they don't know you exist."
"Stop talking about me like I'm one of them."
She rushed past the phantom into the hallway. Somehow, she had to find her way out via the path Drew brought her. He'd popped away. She had a hard time rationalizing exactly how he'd done such a thing. As she ran, she refused to dwell on the odd. There would be time for it later, while she listened to the water drip.
The image appeared back in front of her. This time he didn't look jovial. His face scrunched in anger, he pointed his incorporeal hand at her.
"You're always the worst. You and your stupid soul mate. The two of you are even worse than the rest. So damn powerful. And full of yourselves. But not in this world, Marina. You and Drew are pathetic. Lost. This time around I'll win and, unlike the last time I won, you won't be poking back to destroy me in another fight. When you die as a human, you don't come back as an Outsider."
She covered her ears. His words made her head pound; his every verbalization rang like a firework exploding inside her brain. "Stop it."
"You want out of here. I heard you talking. You think of them as your kidnappers. I love your description. I can make all of your dreams come true, Marina Moore. You'll never have to face them ever again."
"Move," she said, before she rushed forward. Truth was, she didn't need him to move. He wasn't really there. She'd run straight through him like he didn't exist because, technically, he didn't.
She ran down another corridor. At this rate, she'd make it back to the living quarters in no time. She'd never run so hard in her life. Or maybe she had. How would she know? Her fingers buzzed and she really didn't know why.
Was it normal for her to vibrate when she experienced terror?
The not there man popped before her again. "I'm going to hide you from them where they'll never find you. There is no prophecy if you don't exist. You don't think I'd like to simply kill you? For years now, if I had possessed the ability, I'd have shot you in the head. Every last one of you. Walked up to you on the street and let human means end your pathetic existences. I didn't. I can't. There are rules. And until I win I have to follow them."
She rounded the corner at full speed, her breath slamming in and out of her lungs. The next room was worse. The image of the guy was everywhere, all over the walls, at every exit and entrance. Marina made herself stop. If the thing chased her, running felt pointless.
"Who are you?"
Her delusions should at least have a name. There had to be a logical explanation. Drew filled her head with nonsense, she'd been kidnapped for months, the earthquake rattled her brains, and now she had officially cracked.
"I've had so many of you with me over the years. In no existence have I ever spent so much time surrounded by the infestation of Outsiders as I have this time. Frankly, when the deadline comes, it's going to be a relief. You'll all get your memories back and I can at least speak to you on the level you should be on instead of these pointless, stupid creatures who are less interesting than the humans all around you."
Marina barely understood half of what the guy said. "Apparently you don't want to answer questions. I asked you one."
She didn't know where her backbone came from, only she was glad it decided to show up. Suddenly, and without a reason, her fear was erased. This guy was barely here—if he existed at all—and he couldn't hurt her. Why flee something as annoying as the buzzing of a fly?
"Look. Whoever, whatever you are. You're messing with the wrong person. I don't want what you're selling. So go haunt someone else. Leave me alone. I have enough problems to deal with."
The man grinned. "You all call me Sebastian. I suppose it'll do."
"I don't call you anything. Because you're not real and…"
"Marina!" The vibration of his shout boomed in the corridor. For a hallucination, he certainly had some strength. "I'm going to make all your fondest wishes come true."
"What?"
The room went black.
* * * *
Marina came to all at once. The first thing she became aware of was the sound of the ocean. She hadn't heard it in a while. Her eyes fluttered open. When was the last time she'd heard the sea? She really had no idea. Grabbing her pounding head, she sat up,
Darkness seemed…everywhere.
She blinked and tried to orient herself. Where the hell was she? Sand beneath her fingers and the sound of the ocean meant, unless something weird was going on, she was at the beach. But where? How? And why?
The last thing she remembered was…the hallucination calling himself Sebastian. She rose unsteadily to her feet. Every part of her body ached.
Well.
She stretched her arms over her head.
I'm out of the caves, which is a good thing, right?
So why did her heart race like she still ran from the earthquake?
Or like I've done something terribly wrong…
"Marina."
She whirled around at the sound of a woman's voice to see a dark figure rush in her direction.
"Are you Marina?" the lady said again.
"Um." She didn't know the woman approaching her. Or at least she didn't think she did. "That's me."
"Hi. I'm Alexa. I'm here to save you."
The darkness made it hard to completely see the woman in front of Marina even though Alexa carried a small flash light with her. From what Marina could make out, Alexa stood at about the same height as Marina and also shared her dark hair and dark eyes. The resemblance didn't stop there. They had similar framed faces, high cheekbones, and a similar body shape.
Marina shook her head. Who cared? They weren't twins by any means. Alexa's pixie-like nose didn't have the same slope as her own and Marina's face was slightly rounder. She wouldn't remark on their similarities. Why had she even noted them?
"Uh, save me? From what?" She didn't see anything remotely dangerous around her.
"From the Outsiders," Alexa said, whispering the name. "Sebastian sent me to help you." The other woman wrapped her arm around Marina's and tugged her along. "Let's get out of here. It took everything I had to get here in time and set up in the time parameters Sebastian gave me. I'm so happy to have help in fighting the cult."
"The cult?" Her voice cracked. Had she somehow gotten out of the fire and into the flames? How and why did Alexa know so much about Marina's kidnappers? They'd made her seem like they were unknown to the rest of the world.
Alexa nodded. "They're terrible people. They use their magical abilities to destroy people. They killed Sebastian. He has managed to hang around to help for a while but he's not corporeal anymore."
Marina stared at the woman. While Marina knew she should be agreeing with Alexa about the Outsiders—they'd held her prisoner for six months—something about the way Alexa spoke made her seem…off.
She couldn't exactly put her finger on why. Maybe it was how she went on without really stopping to breathe or the way her pupils didn't seem to dilate when the stream of light from the flashlight hit her.
With her arm entwined in Alexa's, Marina didn't see an easy way to extract herself, especially because, other than a generic patch of beach, Marina had no earthly idea where she had landed. So where she would go if she did run away?
Better to stay with Alexa until Marina figured things out. Running away would have to happen at another time.
"Tell me more. About yourself," Marina said. "And while we're at it, I'd love to know where we are."
"Oh." Alexa laughed, sounding somewhat hysterical. "I'm sorry. Of course you don't know. They've held you prisoner. Did you see Gabriel when you were there? Did you know we grew up together and he left us? Sebastian and me? To go join the cult? We're in St. Croix. In the American Virgin Islands. It's beautiful isn't it? Have you been here before?"
Marina digested the information as it came to her. She was in St. Croix. The American Virgin Islands. Okay. She'd work with her location.
"Why are we here?" Anywhere in the world she might have woken up, why where she did? Her hands buzzed again and she ignored the feeling. Why did it keep happening?
"Sebastian thought we would be safe here. For whatever reason, the Outsiders seem to like colder climates."
Marina didn't know if was true. But she'd heard them bitching about how cold the caves were for six long months.
"He said we'd be safe here from them to plan our attack."
"Attack?" Marina couldn't stay quiet any longer "What are you talking about?"
"You're going to help me destroy them. You and me, Marina, with Sebastian's help. We're going to destroy them."
Marina gulped. She had not signed on for this. No way, no how was she attacking the Outsiders. They popped in and out of rooms. Who knew what else they were capable of?
The second she found the chance, she was running the hell away from the crazy Alexa.
"I'm not sure I can do what you want."
"Oh, you will." Alexa laughed again. "Because if you don't, I'll kill you. I might even drink your blood."
Marina tripped, barely catching herself from face planting in the sand. "What?"
A figure appeared in front of her, and Marina gaped. Like Sebastian had been, the woman who stared down at her was translucent and clearly not real. Was she having another hallucination? Would this one deposit her somewhere else? It took Marina a minute to realize the figure was her—an identical image of herself stared back at her.
"You've really fucked up this time," the woman said. Alexa continued walking, not giving any indication she saw or heard what Marina did. "You're going to have to get off this island. And save Alexa. She's an Outsider. You need her. We don't win unless we're all together. Never have, never will. Get your powers back, Marina. Remember."
"I…"
"What?" Alexa asked, looking right at her.
"Nothing." At least not anything she wanted to discuss.
Ever. She didn't have powers and if she did she wasn't going to be saving the odd, blood-drinking woman with her. Let someone else deal with the crazy
* * * *
Drew had been hit on the head many times in his life. The ceiling falling on him didn't hurt nearly as badly as the time his father had taken a bat to his skull the first time Drew had made the mistake of showing him he could fly. The humans he'd been given to by the universe didn't much care for what they called the devil inside of him.
Lying on his back while Jason fussed over him and Charma calmed his mind, Drew drifted. The other Outsiders were having heated conversations but he wasn't awake enough to know what they were going on about. Or to particularly care.
* * * *
Marina…
He'd first seen her when they were babies. His first clear memory occurred when they were four years old. All of the Outsiders shared the same birthday—the same birth moment when it came down to it—and he'd had an awful fourth birthday. Drew had always known there was something different about him. How could he not? He learned later some of his fellow Outsiders did a better job of faking their humanness than he.
It would be years before he figured it all out. And well before then he would destroy his life and fail Marina over and over again.
"Boy?" She had cried out to him and he'd turned to look at her. They always met in the same spot—a green space with two suns in the sky, flowers everywhere. She always picked a purple one. Four-year-old Drew went and sat next to her. "I've been waiting for you, boy."