Love Beyond Sanity (3 page)

From the other room, Larissa heard Tatiana shriek. Her son was not amongst the children who had made it. He had just disappeared. Gods, was he dead?

"Morgan?"

"She made it." Her husband stood straight and tall, where Larissa felt herself shaking like a leaf on water. "Fate will do the rest."

Over their shared link, they felt Abraxas fall to darkness. Closing her eyes, she hardly heard the men who stormed the cave with torches and guns meant to kill them.

She'd succeeded. Morgan was right.

Her life was over. Charma's was just beginning.

The war had begun.

* * * *

Another Dimension

She stared at her father, a hand on her hip. "Dad, I really think you should reconsider. You can't send him to do this. He'll screw the whole thing up."

She could always tell when her father wasn't listening. What good was it being supremely evil if she couldn't make a dent with her own family?

"Your brother is more than capable of handling this dimension. He's done it before. He'll do it again. Besides, it was prophesized he would do this. You just go find some other people to torment.

Ooh, it made her so angry. This should have been her job. It was her turn. Screw him. She'd go do something else for a little while but when she got back if he wasn't done, she'd take over.

Who cared about some stupid Outsider prophecy? She was a God. No one was going to tell her what she could and could not do.

Chapter One

Charma stood, her back stiff, and tried to control her breathing and slow her heartbeat. She would not have a panic attack tonight. If she could choose, she would find a way to float out into the night, become part of the darkness that hid and protected them from their enemies. She raised her hand and touched the windowpane in front of her. The glass felt cool and moist on her fingers.

Outside, the island was quiet, as it always was. That was the thing about living on a private island off the coast of Maine. With the exception of a few random kayakers that either went the wrong way or couldn't resist the temptation to see the strange folk that lived there, no one ever came to visit. Well, occasionally people came but they were not welcome and their reasons for visiting were usually nefarious.

During the spring, the island bloomed with trees, flowers, bushes, and grass. But during the winter, as with all things in Maine, it was cold—deathly cold—with the threat of snow, and lots of it, on the horizon at all times. The Atlantic Ocean, which surrounded their small haven, was not a pleasant neighbor and you had to be very careful about when you chose to go somewhere.

Fall and summer were the best times of year, despite the bugs and the humidity, at least as far as she was concerned. They compensated for the winds of springtime and the frigid air of winter.

But not on a night like tonight. It was so dark. If she'd not been in the house, she'd be lucky if she could see her hand in front of her face tonight.

There was too much work to be done to spend this time thinking of nothing but nighttime and shadows. She needed to make this place a home, and she considered it a personal challenge, even a necessity to get the job done before newly married Kal and Isabelle returned from Europe.

They'd found each other. Two Outsiders reunited despite the odds against them.

She blew her hot breath onto the windowpane. In the back of her mind, she could feel the presence growing again. It was like an infection. If she couldn't get it under control, it would spread to everyone and everything she touched even the window that she stroked now. If she weren't careful, within moments she would break the glass into a million pieces that would never come back together—not even with magic.

She walked two steps to the left and opened the drawer in the center of the cedar desk. Meticulously, she removed the items she needed to call up her power. Some things came naturally to her, but in most circumstances, she needed help from either the sunlight or the moon. Tonight the night was begging her to remove the unnatural Dark presence from it. She would do it.

No matter the personal cost.

The incantation would call for two lit white candles and a lot of delicate power released slowly from her. If she could, she'd seek out a mentor to make these things easier. But that would require telling her family she was capable of doing this, and she wasn't ready to do that just yet. She was a healer but they wouldn't approve of her skill used like this. They'd tell her she would destroy herself.

They'd probably be right. What they didn't understand was that it was her choice if she wanted to do that or not. She wasn't a child. If her destiny was to die going up in flames while she saved everyone else—something the rest of them would do in a heartbeat—then that was what she would do. The only problem would be convincing the rest of the group to leave her alone so she could figure out exactly what it was that she was supposed to do.

Somehow, she doubted sitting at home while the rest of the family roamed the world, fighting evil was going to allow her to find her role in the strange battle they all fought.

Marina, who was for all intents and purposes, her sister, could have made the candle light simply by thinking about it, but Charma didn't have that ability. She struck the match and watched for a second as fire burned on the end of the stick. It shone in the darkness, illuminating her room to anyone who happened to be looking at her from a distance. The trouble was Charma knew better than most what went bump in the night. She knew just what could be watching. No human inventions would keep what was out there away if it wanted to come in, not a lock on the window or heavy drapes to hide her figure from view. If it decided to come in, there was nothing anyone would be able to do to stop it.

She'd seen it all from inside the minds and hearts of the people she encountered. Most recently, she'd made contact with the very worst evil she'd ever imagined in the basement of a house only one hour away from where she lived. They had rescued Kal from a makeshift prison where he'd dangled from the ceiling nearly dead from his encounter with the Beast.

Now the same evil that had attacked Kal hunted her.

The thought made her shiver but she had no time for fear. Her family would survive this onslaught. Even if she didn't.

She touched the match to the two white candles' wicks and waited a moment to make sure the flame caught. The last thing she needed was for them to blow out in the middle of her makeshift ceremony.

She closed her eyes to center herself and block out the darkness. The door slammed open at the other side of the room. She jumped as the two candles snuffed out. Frowning, she turned around quickly, knowing exactly who it was: Marina.

Marina stomped forward, her eyes blazing, her hands on her hips. "I felt a power surge but I couldn't believe it was coming from you. What the hell do you think you're doing?" Marina's eyes were huge. "You're a Healer. You remember what Veli said; 'Healers have no business trifling with such strong energy'."

Ah yes, Charma could remember lots of things that Veli had said over the years. And probably much more acutely than Marina could. But she wouldn't correct the other woman. Not at the moment anyway.

Charma swallowed. "The night is sick. It's infected. I need to heal it." How did you explain to someone that you had no choice?

Asking her not to perform the ceremony was like asking her not to breathe, not to eat—it was akin to asking her to simply stop existing.

Marina sighed. "You're incorrigible. Here." Marina grabbed Charma's arm and even the small contact made Charma want to cringe. Any physical contact when she felt like this was agony. "I'll distract you." Marina looked at Charma so expectantly Charma almost wanted to cry. She didn't have it in her tonight to do anything except take care of whatever was going wrong with the night. She wanted no human contact, no one needing anything from her.

Charma pushed away Marina's arm and covered her chest with her own, trying to protect herself. To place a barrier between the rest of the world and her physical body. But the reality was—she knew better. There really was no choice except to let Marina say whatever it was that Marina had come up here to tell her. There would be no getting rid of her otherwise. "Tell me." She loved her like a sister even if sometimes Marina could make Charma crazy.

"I've got one. A real live one. Maybe two even, but one of their energies keeps vanishing on me. It's very odd. I think there are two in the same place." Marina grinned.

"You've got what?" Charma hoped this wasn't some kind of animal. A rat or a skunk or some other disgusting creature that Marina was using to improve her power base. She just couldn't deal with watching some small rodent floating around the room.

"The locator spell worked. I found a missing member of our family. Maybe two. Another Outsider. One, at least, I'm sure about. There might be a second one there too but I'm not sure." The way Marina said the word Outsider was practically a screech. Charma placed a hand on her ear to stop the ringing.

"That's great. How did you find her? The one you're sure about."

"Him. It's a
him
and he's in New Jersey. I'm not even sure the other one is real. But the one that's solidly there is a him."

"Not too far then. We'll send Leonardo to go make contact when he gets back from Europe." Leonardo had been gone for weeks searching a graveyard for Abraxas's lost journals. Three months ago, Isabelle had finally located them by travelling back in time to see Abraxas and to save Kal's life. At the time, their one-time leader, had been nearly dead and yet he'd told Isabelle where he'd hidden the journals they needed. Now, Leonardo looked for them.

Things had become even more complicated when Leonardo had gone to retrieve the books and had gotten caught in the graveyard by local authorities. They thought he'd defaced a grave in the middle of the night. They hadn't appreciated his explanation that he was merely researching old folklore from the area. Kal had to fly to France to retrieve him and Isabelle had gone with him because, frankly, they just couldn't seem to bear being apart from each other.

"An Outsider. I found someone else." Marina was practically glowing as she rubbed her hands together in thought. "We don't have time to wait. Isabelle is helping Kal deal with this mess but none of them actually speak French. The local police force alerted some news media who are now questioning if Leonardo knows something about the strange graveyard that they all swear just appeared out of nowhere almost thirty years ago." Marina started to talk really quickly, usually an indication she was getting impatient with the conversation.

"Why didn't you tell me? Maybe I could have flown over and helped."

"Were you going to erase the minds of an entire camera crew, police force, and magistrate?" Marina answered simply. "I don't think so."

"I might have been able to do it."

The look that Marina gave Charma was so incredulous that Charma didn't need to ask what her friend thought of that idea. Obviously it wasn't just her own internal dialogue that doubted her abilities to handle things, but the entire Outsider clan was now unsure that she could be relied on. Great.

"
Charma
.
"
The night called to her. "
Come to me. I believe in you. Together we'll be whole."

The voice in her head spoke so low sometimes she could barely make out its words. But it was always there, especially on pitch-black nights like tonight. And now Marina wasn't letting her vanquish it or even push it back down where it couldn't bother her for a few days.

She reached up to pull her hands through her hair and found practically nothing when she went to touch. If laughing aloud wouldn't have made Marina suspicious of her mental state, she might have done it. She'd cut her long blonde hair the day before. Now it was short, like a pixie, on top of her head. Truth was she hated it. It had been a huge mistake and she was going to have to wait now until it grew back. However long that took.

What should she do now as a nervous habit? Bite her nails? Smoke?

"Are you even listening to me? I said we need you to go and get him."

Oh hell
. "Me?"

"You're perfect for the job."

No she wasn't. "Why me?"

"Because he's locked away in an insane asylum and quasi-catatonic."

Charma suddenly needed to move. She strode to the other side of the room, and tensed on the balls of her feet. "Come on now. Really insane people give me a headache." She'd been in their heads too many times. She might as well wear a sign that said 'Got a troubling issue? Don't worry. I'll find you, and I'll bear the burden of your problems. After, you'll feel great'. The truly mentally ill were dangerous to her. She couldn't take on their issues and still function in her own skin.

Marina nodded and crossed the room pulling her into another hug. Charma stopped breathing for a second. Dear Gods, would she never stop touching her? She dug deep, looking for her calm interior. It was wrong to get angry with someone who was trying to be helpful, she knew that.

"I know it's hard." Pity flooded Marina's voice, which made Charma want to gag. "You'll take some ibuprofen before we go in and you'll be fine."

"It's not that simple and besides maybe it's Drew in there."

Charma hoped the mention of Drew, who was Marina's soul mate although he refused to acknowledge it, would distract Marina sufficiently to get her off her back. Marina could easily become obsessed when thinking or talking about him.

"I somehow doubt Drew, having hidden himself so perfectly all of these years, has gotten dragged into a mental institution in New Jersey." Marina paused. "Maybe it's
your
soul mate."

Suddenly Charma felt like a teenager discussing the cute boys on the football team. She rolled her eyes. This was getting out of hand. "It would be fitting somehow wouldn't it? Charma, how did you guys find each other? Well, I busted him out of a loony bin.'"