Love Beyond Flames by Rebecca Royce
Raquel shook her head. "That wasn't told to me."
"Of course not, that would be so simple." Leonardo looked at Kal. "Do you have something to add or do you just want to make fun of me?"
"I want you to calm down, brother. Little humor goes a long way. "
Leo stormed forward and Zane readied himself. This was the Leonardo he knew from before. The man was always up for a fight. Did he want one now?
Leonardo stretched his arms over his head. "Let's not make jokes. Let's go kill the zombies and figure out the rest of the shit after."
Samuel joined Leonardo where he stood. "That's an idea I can get behind."
These were plans Zane could get behind. He sent a thought to Raquel. "I don't suppose you'd stay back and be safe?"
"With my flames all ready to go?" She sipped her water. "No way."
That was what he'd thought.
"Can I suggest something before you all go macho on me?" Ruby called out a question and then kept talking, indicating she hadn't really wanted to wait for an answer. "Didn't you always think the final battle would be against the Father? I mean, Sebastian, the son, is kind of a joke, right? For that matter, in this life, so are we. But, come on. He's going to let his son take the final battle?"
Leonardo called over his shoulder as he left the room. "Take it up with Raquel. It's her power. The ancestors talk to her. They never say a damned thing to me."
Zombies sounded better and better.
*****
"Listen up." Leonardo addressed the group. They were paired up two by two, soul mate to soul mate with Colin standing with Leonardo. "Eden has seen nothing of this."
Eden groaned. "Thanks for pointing that out. Again."
Zane looked away, examining what would be the battlefield. The green areas surrounding the caves were crawling with the undead. Sebastian had sent at least one hundred of them and considering what he'd pulled with the rats, they had to assume there would be more of the rats to come. Drew and Gabe had transported them all to the hill on top of the cave entrance or what would be the way in if Marina hadn't warded it so the only way to get in was to get popped by one of them.
Daytime had the sun hanging high in the sky. This fight didn't have to be in the dark, which would be an advantage. Leonardo walked between Drew and Gabriel giving them energy while he did. If Alexa had been with them they'd be even more powerful, she made them all better, more precise.
Leonardo continued speaking. "I don't want to use Raquel until we absolutely have to." Zane could get behind that idea. "But when it comes time for us to use her, and have no doubt when it comes to the zombies I have to believe we will, then we're going to have to shout out duck. I'm not going to be more sophisticated than that. I'm actually going to say duck. Hit the ground or Jason is going to have to put your burned skin back on your body."
Their healer looked away from Leonardo. "I hate battles. I've told you that, right? We can't find a more sophisticated way to manage this and save the fighting for Sebastian?"
"Make no mistake." Zane didn't know why he felt compelled to speak but he did and that was that. "This is Sebastian. The zombies haven't come from nowhere. The demon is making them. Fighting them is battling Sebastian, end of story."
"Yes." Leonardo stood by Zane's shoulder. "And its good practice so get over it, Jase. You'll have to put us back together again."
"Reminds me of a nursery rhyme I knew once about an egg." Jason moved to the back of the group.
Zane turned to Leonardo. "Always blows my mind that any of us grew up in a situation where someone told them nursery rhymes."
Instead of answering, Leonardo threw his head back and laughed, a long, hard sound. "And on that note, Zane is in charge. Follow him. We've all done this before, right? Not this lifetime but in others. I know we can do this."
With a nod, Leonardo stepped back and all eyes fell to Zane. "Would have been nice if he'd given me some warning."
Raquel's voice rubbed against his shocked mind like a soothing balm. "Sure. But it wouldn't have been as dramatic and that was the point, right?"
"All right," Zane called out. "Do the best you can. We kill them by ripping out their hearts. If you have an offensive power, use it. If you don't, stay back and don't let them get you. It'll eat your brains. I'm fairly certain Jason can't put back your brains. Assuming any of us ever had any to begin with. Leonardo will stay up here and if it looks like we're being overwhelmed, he'll call duck, as he said, and we'll all go from there."
Samuel asked a question Zane should have thought to answer in the first place. He was really not used to having to explain himself, period. "What's the best way to take out the heart?"
"I can stick my hand right through their chests. I think the transformation softens the skin. I push my hand forward like a punch and then I pull it out. I've seen people do it—well you guys in the future we're trying to avoid— with knives and swords."
Sam nodded. "I'm taking a really long shower later. Let's get this done. Eden, you're up here. I know it'll make you blind and I'm sorry, babe, but I'm not taking you down there to the zombies."
Eden nodded and looked away. One of Sebastian's cruelest taunts had been when he took Eden's eyesight. The good news was Samuel's powers let him join with her in such a way that she could see through his eyes when they were together. Apart, the world was black for her, except in her visions of the future.
"Be careful." Eden looked at her feet and Isabelle crossed to her, taking her arm. With the exception of Raquel, all the women would likely stay behind. They didn't have offensive powers. Why the powers that be had thought that was a smart way to set them all up, Zane would never know. The Outsider women were loaded with guts; it would have been nice for them to have the power to defend themselves at the very least.
Not that he didn't appreciate getting to be all alpha male all the time. It was good for his ego…
"More focus on the battle might be helpful, love."
He groaned. Of all times for Raquel to be visiting his thoughts. "I'm sure you're right. Thanks for the reminder, babe."
He walked forward, propelling himself off the top of the cave onto the ground below. It was a dramatic move and one he might regret if he wasn't so certain of his ability to manage the zombies. A roar sounded behind him and he supposed the others were following suit. Drew landed next to him.
"You just shove your hand through its chest?" Drew shouted over the moaning rumble of the zombies. "These were once people."
"That's dawned on me a few times. They were. Now they're dead and Sebastian has fucked with their corpses. Think of the heart grabbing as doing them a favor. That's how I deal with it."
Drew hissed in his breath while Samuel jumped down on his other side. "Eden's really hurt I don't want her down here. But I won't risk her. Not for anything."
Colin joined them, cracking his neck to stretch it. "If I get killed before I find Gia, I'm coming back to haunt you asshats."
"If any of us die doing this, we have more problems than you being a pain in the ass ghost." Kal took his place next to Samuel. "Besides, Zane here is good at dealing with ghosts. He sends them away and tells them to go screw themselves."
"Guys if you wouldn't mind." Gabriel stood next to Drew. "No ghost talk right before battling the undead. It's bad fucking taste."
"Because you're the epitome of fine breeding, my friend?" Christophe joined them.
Zane nodded to him. Christophe's powers weren't
exactly offense based. He was tough as nails and could pop and go as he saw fit from one location to another. Yet, Zane hadn't been sure if Christophe would choose to engage in battle. Although, if he let himself really think about it, he'd never known Christophe to be a coward. He always held his own. They were just missing…
Leonardo joined them with a thud. "I thought Marina was going to throw me off the ledge. She's pissed to not be down here. I've asked Raquel to hang back a bit. I don't want her involved until we use her flames. Everyone set?"
"We'd better be." Samuel nodded toward the crowd of zombies. "Because they're moving."
"Plan of attack?" Leonardo called out to Zane.
He shook his head, his blood already heating to take out the monsters who wanted to eat his brain. "No plan needed. Attack and move. Don't let them catch you. If you need help, call out for it. I'm sure Jason is watching us from above with his hawk eyes ready to heal if we need it."
Christophe laughed, as a sword appeared in his hand. It took Zane a second to realize, Ruby must have sent it there. That was her power. She moved objects.
"Maybe next time your girl would like to share with the whole group, brother." Colin rushed forward and stuck his hand into the chest of the first zombie he encountered.
Drew followed him into the crowd. "If she doesn't have enough for the whole class she shouldn't have brought any at all."
Zane grinned at Leonardo who matched his smile.
They were sick in the head. But, damn, he'd missed this.
*****
Raquel paced back and forth, again and again. The men were down below fighting zombies and she was up top doing nothing. She bit her fingernail down to the nailbed. This wasn't what she'd been made to do. She didn't wait around while Zane battled.
Marina took her arm. "You're making me dizzy."
"I'm so mad not to be down there."
"They seem to be doing okay. Its slow moving but they're taking them out one by one. At least you have something you can do to help. I can't strengthen the wards when there are none. Or spell-cast the whole thing away. Just call me useless Marina."
Isabelle stomped over. "This is so unfair. Why did we agree to this when we were taking our powers? Why did we sign up to wait to the side?"
"Make no mistake, ladies." Eden called out to them and they all spun around.
When Eden had a vision, the whole timbre of her tone changed. It got lower, more severe than the generally upbeat resonance of Eden's spoken word. Raquel had a love hate relationship with visions. She loved to communicate with the ancestors; well, she liked how they talked to her. It wasn't like they let her speak back to them. But, to be entirely taken over the way Eden was? To see death and destruction and know only she had the ability to tell anyone about it? Raquel wouldn't trade with Eden for anything.
"Make no mistake, ladies." Eden repeated herself, this time louder. "They have not your magic. You understood that once. So much has been forgotten that, even with the restoration of your memory, you do not know."
Goosebumps broke out on Raquel's skin. Eden wasn't prophesizing, she channeled the ancestors. The others must have realized at the same time as she did what happened and they rushed to Eden, forming a circle around her. All of the female Outsiders present—Raquel, Isabelle, Charma, Loraine, Marina, and Ruby—crowded around to hear what she said.
"The time will come, children, when you will have to make a choice. All of you and one more to see if you will help her set things right. You don't have to and we will not judge you because it is not our way and never has been.
You will say yes or you will say no. This will be our last prophecy, our last communication until it is over. This is the only way." Eden gasped suddenly and, her head rolling backwards, she collapsed into Marina's arms.
Jason rushed over. "What happened?"
Charma touched his arm. "Did you miss the whole thing?"
"Sorry, been a little busy watching the guys kick zombie ass. I had no idea she was about to be overcome. What did she see?"
"It wasn't who she saw or what." Charma rubbed at her eyes. "It was who she spoke for?"
"What?" Jason shook his head but his eyes were glassy. He was already checking Eden out physically to make sure she was okay. The healers were perpetually underestimated. The Outsiders would never win, ever, without them.
Isabelle met Raquel's gaze before she also glanced at Loraine and Ruby. "What do you think she meant? We'd have to agree?"
"I have no idea. But I didn't like it any more than you did."
Raquel walked back over to watch Zane. He threw his head back and laughed at something Gabriel said before he tossed a zombie over his shoulder and off to the side.
The creature hit the ground with a thunk. Already heartless, the now completely dead former human stared at the sky with sightless eyes. Raquel shuddered. Someday all of their group would be gone too, sent from their corpses to wherever they would go next. If that was anywhere. What happened after the last battle?
Loraine approached slowly. "Do they seem slightly deranged to you? Our men, not the zombies."
"They were born to do this." If Raquel said it enough, she might believe her own line of bullshit. Truth was, she couldn't argue with Loraine's assessment. They did seem deranged. "There wasn't much room for them in this world, in this time period, to be the warriors they hold inside. Right now they get to be as tough as they want to be."
Loraine snorted. "You don't even sound like you believe that."
"I'm trying to find a reason to not be freaked out that Zane is having so much fun killing those things."
"Hey, Isabelle." Kal called in their direction. "Look what I can do."
Lightning came down from the sky and eviscerated a zombie. Isabelle groaned. "You know that's for all of you ladies, not for me. If he really wanted me to see him do it, he'd have spoken to me telepathically." She waved in his general direction before calling out. "Good job, dear."
"They get so few chances to use these powers…" Raquel didn't finish her statement.
It was ridiculous. There really was no reason for why the men were all so happy about fighting. She couldn't come up an answer that didn't sound wrong coming out of her mouth.
"Ooh. Look." Ruby pointed in the distance. "There's a hundred more coming."
The other Outsider woman was correct. A second surge had started and as much as the guys were doing fine with the first round, the second would overwhelm them.
Raquel glanced at Marina. "What do I do? Leonardo is supposed to call for them to stop if it's too much and I kind of think he's too giddy to notice."
"You're right. Hold on. I'm getting Drew's attention." A second later she looked back at Raquel and rolled her eyes. "He thinks they've got it under control."
"No way."
"Hey, Zane. You guys can duck. Or you can burn. Your choice, love."
She gave him a few seconds to digest her statement before she raised her arms. Zane called out something to the others and she had the pleasure of watching them hit the ground before she let loose the fire inside of her. The world spun but Zane was okay. He lifted his gaze to meet hers, shaking his head like he had to clear it before her world went black.
*****
"She's okay." Zane brushed Raquel's hair off her forehead before he turned to Leonardo. They were back in the caves and everyone was fine, somehow.
His friend nodded once. "Good. Considering we lost our minds. What was that? I have no memory of ever feeling so happy to be fighting before…"
Zane didn't have answers for him. "It didn't happen to the women. I'm enormously grateful they kept their heads. I saw something, right before she sent the flames. Someone in the distance watching. Did you?"
"I didn't but I trust you. If you saw someone, then someone was there. Human? Demon? What?"
Zane rose. "Human. He was watching the zombies but it was more than that." Zane had caught one glimpse at the man's face and it wasn't one he would quickly forget. How could he when it was the face of the man who had tormented Raquel for years? The son of a bitch who had used her fire and made her kill until it made her sick. "I know him. Or I know of him. He's responsible for a lot of Raquel's pain."
"Oh, yes?" Leonardo adjusted his glasses. "Then let's go get him. We can figure out the fighting high later. I bet he has some answers for us. No way is he not involved with the demon."
"Who do you want with us? Or are we hunting alone?" This part Zane could understand. He'd always acted second in command to Leonard
"Anyone who wants to come. Someone stays with Raquel…ideally Charma. She'll keep Raquel safe while she's out. Don't force anyone but if the whole lot of them want to go find him? Let them come."
"I got you." Zane waited for Leonardo to leave the room. If Zane wanted to, he could reach Raquel in her unconscious state but that was not what he wanted. She'd saved their collective asses and deserved her rest. Zane laid a small kiss on her head. "Baby, I'm going to get the son of a bitch so when you wake up he's no longer a factor in your life. The world will be better for you when you open your eyes."
He walked from the room, his hands starting to tingle again. On the battlefield he'd been so giddy killing the zombies. This was a different feeling altogether. Cold fury propelled him forward as he joined the others. Charma passed him in the hall, grabbing his arm to stop him when he passed him.
"What's up?" He didn't have that many interactions with her, not in any life. She healed them all emotionally and, generally speaking, it was best if people stayed out of his head. It wasn't a pretty place in there.
"You were all out of your minds earlier. I can't explain it and I didn't interfere at the time because I don't want to insert myself into what you have to do when you fight. I'll just say this. We're spoiled here because Marina has become so proficient at spell-casting. We get so little demonic influences in this cave. Don't count on it out there. One dose of a direct hit and any one of us could become Alexa. Take care of business but don't lose yourself. Understand me?"
Charma had a spine of steel. Sometimes people misread her as gentle.
Zane would never make that mistake. "Completely."
She smiled and let go of his arm. "You're not as tough as you like everyone to think you are."