Love Beyond Loyalty Read Online Free PDF Page A

to end up being the reason the prophecy came to pass. He'd always hated that stupid thing, but rules were rules and even evil rulers of the universe had to follow some of them.
    It had seemed simple enough thirty years earlier. The prophecy stated that eighteen children would be born to the Outsiders on the same day; each with a soul mate, and together those eighteen would come together to destroy a child, who was really a demon, also born on the same day. The Outsiders had been born and, boom, so had Sebastian.
    The hows and whys that had taken place to actually let it happen were a bit more complicated and even he couldn't have predicted them. He'd been biding his time in the hell dimension, knowing that he'd been prophesied to come to Earth. He hadn't known this would exactly be when the stupid Outsiders, the ones who would turn out to be the parents of this current batch of prophesied children, had tried to usurp the prophecy by calling him to earth and binding him using Earth magic.
    The imbeciles had screwed up the spell.
    In fact, if he wasn't mistaken, it was Gabriel's mother who had uttered the words that had ultimately let Sebastian escape his bonds and take the body of a human baby waiting to be born. Nine months later, there he was squealing and eating in New Orleans, Louisiana while thousands of miles away the very thing the Outsiders had tried to stop took place with eighteen babies coming all at once.
    It was the ultimate irony. By trying to stop the inevitable, they had made it come to pass ahead of its intended schedule.
    Gone were the days when he tried to capture the Outsiders. From this day on, he was strong enough to kill them. Any Outsider he found, died. He'd lock them in his basement and bleed them. That way he could drink their blood. Starting with Gabriel and eventually ending with Alexa. That was, of course, after he fucked her. Yes, he looked forward to that day as well.
     
    * * * *
     
    Leonardo looked down at his phone display and debated not answering the ringing. He didn't recognize the number. Drumming his fingers on the kitchen counter, he finally picked up, hoping he didn't regret it. In no way did he want to have to deal with a telemarketer or someone trying to gauge his political views.
    "This is Leonardo." He found an abrupt greeting like that tended to put off people who didn't really want to speak to him.
    "It's Gabe."
    "Gabe?" Leonardo looked at the caller ID again and it wasn't Gabriel's usual number, not even his area code. "What number are you calling me from?"
    "Loraine's." Gabriel paused.
    Who the hell was Loraine?
    "Listen, I need to ask you something."
    "Shoot."
    Leonardo had one goal when it came to Gabriel, and it was to get him up to their island base in Maine. It was pivotal that they find their missing kin and bring them home. The prophecy, which Leonardo really needed to study more and couldn't until he located their deceased leader, Abraxas's journals, seemed to be very clear: all the Outsiders needed to be joined as a unit and with their soul mates. Otherwise, the whole thing was going to go to hell.
    Well , he amended silently, maybe they were already in hell . Maybe hell had started the day they were born. Gabriel was making him crazy because they'd found him, they knew who he was, and he still resisted coming home.
    Gabriel's voice sounded tight. "What is the rule about telling other people about, you know ."
    "In general, it's a bad idea." He paused as he reconsidered the question. "Who do you want to tell?"
    "Loraine."
    The conversation was getting way too cryptic for Leonardo's taste. "Is she sitting there with you? Is that why you're speaking in code?"
    "Exactly."
    "Who is Loraine?"
    There was a long pause on the other side of the line, and Leonardo wondered if Gabe had hung up. "She saved me from a giant tidal wave that nearly killed me after my legs stopped working."
    "What?" Leonardo shouted into the phone.
    "Fuck man, that's my ear here. I don't need you