Whoever lived in apartment 32B had ordered a very expensive safe. The kind of security device available to the very wealthy to protect their stuff. Zane used to install them. Now, he used his powerful hearing and his ability to make things and people do what he wanted to open up the safes and see what was inside of them. Then if anything called out as useful, he took what he wanted. Easy as pie…
Three months ago, 32B had one installed. Now, Zane would see if there was anything on the inside worth taking or using for blackmail. He wasn't proud of his jobs, but, given his background, his life of crime surprised no one, not even himself.
Since moving to Maine, thanks to the interference of an angel and an old woman who had insisted he was an Outsider and outright ordered him to make an appearance or be turned over to the police, he had fewer and fewer marks to hit. His roommate, and fellow Outsider who was also not participating in any battles that didn't affect her directly, Gia wanted him to pay his portion of the bills and he intended to oblige. They were weird creatures from another dimension but they still had to eat in this one.
By now he figured they'd have had no choice except to have joined up with the others like them. Shouldn't his so-called destiny have found him already? Only those folks had gone and disappeared from their island before he'd ever had a chance to even check them out. So back to the good life; he took the stairs of the beaten-down, converted former warehouse two at a time. There were five apartments in the place and Zane didn't hear life in any of them. Not even a sneeze or a snore. It was past midnight. Surely, someone would be home in bed. But, no, the place sounded empty, which made the job easier on him.
He reached 32B and tried the handle. It turned easily and he stopped moving. Nothing about this job made any sense. Why would someone purchase an expensive safe only to leave their door unlocked?
Zane survived in his chosen profession because he was smart, skilled, and his extrasensory abilities went a long way to make things easier. He'd never been caught in a trap and this certainly seemed like someone was setting him up. The remote, poor location he could deal with as camouflage. The empty he could handle. The open door? Not so much.
Still, his hand itched to turn the handle more and see what was inside. He stood silently and considered his options when the chanting in his ears started again. Zane gritted his teeth. It wasn't that he disliked or even cared about the singsong nonsense he periodically heard. No one else could ever hear the music and he chalked it up in a long line of weird things about himself. At least with Gia around, he didn't have to be totally alone in his oddities anymore. But as far as he knew, Gia never heard singers. Chanters, really.
Whenever they showed up it only made him want to do the things he was doing even more, as though their singing was actually approval of his actions.
Zane, you are so fucked in the head.
Even his own internal voice couldn't stand him. He turned the handle and walked in. In for a penny, in for a pound. The door swung open with a creak and there standing in the center of the room was one of the most expensive safes ever made, with the door half open and nothing inside.
"Shit."
So much for figuring any of this out.
He heard the noise then. From the back of the apartment. A slight cough and then nothing more. No one else would have tuned in but he couldn't help himself. Zane pressed his senses further, willing himself to hear more, to know what was back there before he saw it. Or it saw him.
Human. The noise didn't sound animal and the steady, if a little faint, heartbeat he heard beat at a human level.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
Zane crept forward. Someone was back there and, like a man compelled, he had to see who.
Chapter Four
Marina sat in her bed, leaning against the wall behind her. Alexa had decorated the room nicely. Nothing about it screamed crazy lunatic, and despite all evidence to the contrary, Marina couldn't get over the feeling that maybe her new captor wasn't as nuts as she initially seemed. Alexa looked like she needed a hug.
Marina closed her eyes. What the hell did she know about solving people's mental issues? She had no idea if she had a single qualification to do so or not. Except the hallucination who looked just like her told her she needed to help Alexa.
Whatever.
Marina needed to sleep, only the dream world wouldn't come. Instead, all she could see when she closed her eyes was Drew's face. The way he looked at her in the cave when he told her she felt the evil beneath her feet, when he explained he experienced the sensation, too.
His face looked hard, it always did, but his dark eyes…they were something else entirely. Heated, wanting…longing. The man had secrets.
Not her problem.
No, she had to focus on the cuckoo bird in the other room who needed to be held. What the hell was her deal? One second she spouted off about blood drinking, the next she acted like she wanted to be best friends. Marina opened her eyelids and stared at the dark room. Had Alexa put a dolphin sticker on the wall?
Why wasn't Marina running for her life?
"Because we've never been a coward." Her identical hallucination popped back into the room. "We don't avoid problems. We fix them. And Alexa is an issue we have to handle."
Marina scooted to the end of the bed. "Let's assume for a second I believe you are real and not a figment of my imagination I'm inventing to survive trauma after trauma after trauma."
Her floating self snorted. "Now you sound like Jason. He thought Charma and the demons were all pretend and only in his head for years." The not real version of herself shook her head, letting her longer than Marina's dark hair fall over her shoulders. "Go on. I'm real. Keep going."
"What are you and how are you here?"
She leaned forward. "I'm you, stupid, and I'm here because you are doing this to yourself. When Sebastian took your powers, he separated part of you from the whole. I am what happened. And whenever you're ready, I'd love to come back."
Marina called bullshit. "Where have you been for six months?"
"Trying to get your attention. When Drew took you to the part of the caves where you felt the true nature of evil, you let me back in a little. Now, you can see me. But I'm not just you now, Marina. I'm you from all the times you have been. Many lifetimes. We are from a strong family. And our soul mate would—and has—destroyed worlds for us. You need to get back to him before he gives in to desperation." Her other self leaned forward. "Listen to me, because this is important and you, when we rejoin, will forget part of what I tell you. Hold on to this. The others hesitate but Drew never does." She held out her hand. "Are you ready?"
Marina stared at the other's outstretched offering. "No fucking way."
A loud sigh preceded her reply. "Why are we always so frustrating?"
Her other self, if Marina wanted to believe it, popped out of the room as quickly as she'd appeared. Marina rubbed her eyes. She really should try to get some sleep.
A noise caught her attention. It sounded like a scratching at her door. Almost afraid to see what exactly what was going to happen next, she didn't move for a moment. Curiosity warred in her gut with sheer terror at finding anything else that evening. She must not have a very strong survival instinct because she stood up and made her way to the door. Maybe Alexa had a dog who wanted in. All of Marina's anxiety would prove to be nothing at all.
When she opened the door, she half expected to be pounced on by some horrifying monster waiting for her in the hallway. Instead, she saw nothing at all. Marina waited a beat, letting her heart calm a bit. Was she now hearing things?
The scratching continued and she stepped forward, following the sound. From down the hall in what she could only presume was Alexa's room, the scratching sounded louder. She walked toward it and as quietly as she could manage, pressed her ear to the door. Sure enough, whatever made the noise that brought her out to the hallway came from the other side of the door.
Marina raised her hand to knock and stopped herself. All curiosity aside, she didn't know Alexa or what the woman really wanted from her. If she believed the Outsider nonsense then she had an obligation to help her but not before she discerned she wasn't going to become stew for the petite brunette to chow down on.
A longing she didn't see coming washed over. Marina stepped back from the door. She didn't know what or who she needed, but not having it made her feel like she might fall to her knees. Marina backed up quickly and headed to her room. Hoping she could keep silent, with shaking hands, she shut the door behind her before she shoved herself on the bed.
Tears flooded her eyes and she didn't stop them. She missed…Drew. The longing seemed strange considering hours earlier she'd have done anything to be away from him yet there it was. She wanted Drew with her right away.
She hardly knew the man. And she missed him like she had lost her very best friend in the universe.
How much more fucked up could she be?
* * * *
The dreams pushed into her consciousness and she didn't try to stop them. At first she knew what happened, had full awareness she wasn't awake. What was the term for it? Ah, yes, the term came to her.
Lucid dreaming.
But the feeling passed and then she played as little a role in her dream as a bystander who really didn't have any control over what happened around her. The deeper she slept, the more she left her body, her present, the Earth.
For once, Marina remembered.
She stood looking at the three moons above her head, the green one was fuller than she expected for so early in the planting season. Maybe they were going to have a wet winter. She'd have to ask Leonardo the next time she and Drew travelled into town. She blinked at the thought. His name wasn't Leonardo any more than Drew was Drew. But that was how she knew them and so she'd think of them. Trying to understand multiple lives was confusing without making it worse.
"Hey, beautiful." She turned at the sound of her beloved. Whatever she named him, he remained always the same, always hers.
"Hey." She extended her hand and he pressed his palm to hers before linking their fingers. "All well?"
Drew sucked in his breath before he pulled her close. "It's time."
"No." She buried her head in his chest. "We haven't had enough time yet."
"More time this round than ever before. I didn't even have to find you; we were always together as we were meant to be." He tipped her chin up to look at him. By the moons, Drew was beautiful. And deadly. She loved him so hard.
He smelled of the salt mines where he spent his days crafting. The others, even warriors as they were, didn't go down there. Too close to where the demons lived. Drew was fearless. He went where the others wouldn't, which made her in equal parts, hotter than hell for him and scared to death.
"I won't lose you again."
"Marina." His lips met hers, so soft to go with the hardness of the man. "We always lose each other. That's part of the deal. Eternally together. Even death doesn't separate us for long. If I die, you know you'll find me again."
She pinched him and the small assault only made him grin. "Eventually. It's the in between that throws me off. The not knowing what happens between lives. And don't act like you'd shrug off my death either. It might be me who leaves first this time. If we beat him or if we win, one of us might not come out the other end. So many lives, so few times dying in our sleep of old age."
"Marina, if he kills you first, I'll scorch the ground. He'll never be back to harm anyone again."
Marina jolted up in bed. Her heart raced and for a second she had no idea where she was. Sun beat through the windows and as she finally remembered—crazy Alexa's apartment in St. Croix—she realized she'd slept a long time. The brightness in the room indicated late morning at least, maybe later.
Alexa hadn't given her a wake-up time. Still, Marina didn't like being caught unawares. The dream, or was it memory, of the night stayed with her. Doubting everything the Outsiders said had practically become a job for her. But now her mind opened to the possibility. She hadn't invented the strange location and Drew—she knew him like she did herself.
Or at least she had then—in that life. In their current version she wasn't sure how well they understood one another's mind. Everything seemed different, harder, less certain than it had ever been. Although she couldn't have explained to anyone why she knew that.
"Hello." She called out to the room. "Other me. Hallucination. Powers. Whatever you want to be called, I'm ready. Give me back my powers."
Marina waited and nothing happened. She stood up and tried again. "Hello."
When again, no magical poof of powers took place, she could have kicked something if she wasn't worried it would set blood-drinking Alexa off if Marina did.
She didn't have anything to wear except the clothes on her back and she'd been in them a long time without a change. Gross didn't begin to describe how her skin crawled. There might be sweat caked into her hair.
Walking out of her room, she saw Alexa standing in the kitchen. She shifted from one foot to the other several times when Marina entered.
"Good morning," Alexa said, her expression bright and cheery.
Marina stopped moving. "Hi."
Alexa pointed at the coffee. "I made some and there are eggs. And pancakes. And lots of good things. I don't eat anymore. I mean, sort of. So I wasn't sure what you'd like."
"I don't suppose you have some clothes I can borrow and a shower I can use until I get my own stuff."
"Oh." Alexa rushed forward. "Of course. The bathroom is between our rooms and you can take whatever you need from my room. I think we're the same size. Clean off and then go into my room and help yourself. It'll be like we're sisters. I'm an orphan, you know. Never had any real family."
"Me, too." The words came out of her mouth before she knew what she said but as soon as she did she knew them true. Yes, she'd been a baby in an orphanage in Russia. Alone. Hungry. Knowing she belonged somewhere else, with someone else.