by Rylee Swann
Nearer to the South Street Seaport Museum, foot traffic still bustled as people took advantage of the unseasonably warm night to enjoy the local bars and restaurants. The clop clop of footsteps on the cobblestone paths barely reached Rayna’s ears from where she and Kyle sat hidden from view at the edge of the dock but served as a pleasant backdrop.
To their left, a couple of tall ships were docked. She found them impressive even though their masts were not flying. They reminded her of the vast history of the Seaport District and shipping in general.
She almost laughed out loud at her foolishness. Sitting beside her was living history. Kyle came from the future and lived in the past. What boat could compare with that?
“This isn’t exactly what I thought you meant when you said we were going out for dinner,” she said.
Kyle stuffed a huge chunk of pizza into his mouth and chewed. “I haven’t had good pizza in a long time.”
She laughed and dug into the box for a slice of her own. “No, I guess you haven’t.”
He turned toward her sharply, wiping pizza grease from his chin. “It’s because I haven’t been in New York for a while. The best pizza in the world is here.”
“Sure, right.” She blew on the slice before taking a small bite. She wanted to ask him about Shawn but, still leery of him, didn’t want to pester or nag. He said he’d tell her so she had to bide her time.
He nodded, and they settled into silence for a few minutes, gazing out at the water and the impressive New York City skyline beyond. The occasional honk of a car horn reminded her where they were but the gentle lapping of the water against the wooden dock took precedence and lulled her into a state of relaxation.
“Hey, about earlier. I frightened you, but didn’t mean to, and I’m sorry.” Kyle crammed more pizza into his mouth, idly swinging a leg over the water.
She glanced at him in surprise. This was one of those rare sightings of a man apologizing.
“Thank you.” She picked a piece of burnt cheese off the crust as she searched for her next words. “What changed your mind about me? I mean, we kinda got off to a rocky start.”
“The way you answered the door when you thought it was Shawn. It was honest.” He waved his slice of pizza for emphasis. “Your happiness. I lost sight of that when I found out Connor was there, but I took the time to think it out.”
A speedboat roared past, bouncing on the water and leaving behind a wake of rolling white waves. Kyle tracked it with his eyes and Rayna took the opportunity to observe him, and, hopefully, guide him into telling her about Shawn.
“You’re very different from your brother, you know.”
“Yeah.” He chuckled and picked up another slice. “He’s the darkness and I’m the light. Like, literally. He does a lot more brooding than I do.”
She stopped eating, still not having an appetite. “How is he?”
“He’s fine. You have nothing to worry about.”
“But you said he was in danger. I can’t help worrying.”
“My brother can take care of himself. Despite the danger, he’ll come out on top.” He offered a kind smile. “Like I said before, he does miss you. He wants to get back to you, and what my brother wants he gets.”
“It’s hard, though. The waiting, you know?” She sighed, returning her gaze to the bay. She pictured Shawn swimming up to the dock like a god from the sea, water running down his perfectly etched face and chest. How his muscles would bunch and coil as he drew himself up. How he’d tease her, pulling her down into the depths with him before sitting beside her on some rocky outcropping and bringing her into his warm, wet embrace.
“I guess I’m poor company when you’d rather have Shawn here, huh?”
Kyle’s words brought Rayna out of her reverie.
“What? No, of course not. I just got lost in thought. I’m enjoying getting to know you. In fact, I’ve been wondering how you’re staying so calm being so close to the water.”
He turned to her so fast she had to grab the box of pizza before it slid into the bay. His amber eyes flashed and hardened, screaming caution much like a yellow traffic light. “What does that mean?”
She blinked. She found it easier to fear Kyle than Shawn. Kyle was so much more of an unknown to her.
“Nothing, really. I just kind of figured...well, you know…about swimming...” Then it dawned on her. The reason he’d chosen his words so carefully. “Shawn didn’t tell you that I know everything, did he?”
Kyle raised a brow, his features set in a grim line. “Everything?”
“Umm...yes. Where you and Shawn were born.” She flung her hand up toward the sky. “The traveling. Everything.”
Kyle’s eyes widened. His hand fisted around the crust of the slice he’d been eating before he set it on top of the box. “That damned son of a bitch. I could skin him alive!”
Rayna gasped and rocked backwards. “Oh, no, please don’t be angry that he told me. You don’t understand—”
“I’m not angry that he told you. I’m angry that he kept this important little detail from me.” He picked the crust back up and flung it into the bay. It bounced a couple of times before disappearing beneath the surface. “Sometimes I don’t know what gets in his head.”
“Maybe he thought you’d react just the way you are now,” she said barely above a whisper.
Kyle surprised her by chuckling. “You’re probably right. He should go back to school. He has a distinct problem with understanding people. Even me.”
“I don’t think that’s taught in school.”
“It is.” He turned to her with amusement in his eyes. “In time traveler school. They taught us every little thing they could about dealing with you humans. Shawn should have been left back a grade.”
He laughed, his muscles relaxing so that he no longer looked like he’d lash out at any second.
Rayna caught on as Kyle explained, but her understanding soon turned to confusion. “Why aren’t you more alarmed that I know all these secrets?”
“Because, darlin’, you’ve given me the best news I’ve had in a long time. To tell you these things, Shawn had to trust you completely. That means he finally made a strong connection with someone. It’s not for me to say whether or not he loves you, but damned if he doesn’t care for you a whole hell of a lot. You must know his trust is awfully hard to come by.”
A smile spread across Rayna’s face and her heart filled with happiness. Shawn Paros loved her. Kyle had as much as said it. Her appetite returned, and she picked up her slice and took a large bite. It had grown cold, but she didn’t mind.
“Will you tell me now where he is?”
“Sure, but you have to promise me first that you will not tell Connor or any of his secret agent buddies.”
Rayna started to nod but Kyle put up a hand.
“No, I think I’d rather have a pinkie swear.”
His eyes gleamed with mischief and he grinned as he lifted the pinkie of his left hand.
She gaped at him, unable to keep from laughing. “You’re an odd man, Kyle Paros.”
“Maybe. But what you’re seeing is the face of the man you love with a much different personality. Shawn could be more like this. Bring it out in him.” He leaned in until his face was inches from hers. “I dare you.”
She raised her hand and wrapped her pinkie around his.
Chuckling, he moved back and lifted a brow. “Go on now, say the words. The pinkie swear won’t work unless you do.”
Shaking her head in amusement, she met his gaze and tightened her pinkie around his. “I swear not to tell Alec or his friends anything of what you’re about to tell me. There, is that good enough?”
Kyle half shrugged, appraising her.
“But seriously, do not tell them. Hear me?” He narrowed his eyes.
Rayna nodded quickly.
Kyle pulled his hand away and lifted the lid of the pizza box, sighing upon finding it empty. “Ah, I could have eaten another slice, or five. Anyway, back to
Shawn. Don’t interrupt. I’m sure you’ll have questions, so let me tell you as much as I can first. He’s living at an Indian reenactment village in the Yukon Territories. It’s part of a tourist destination about the 1896 Klondike gold rush. Ramón is rich and secretly funds the settlement. Gives the Indians jobs, scholarships, and most importantly, pride and self-worth. I guess no bad guy is ever one-hundred-percent bad. Shawn told me that he’s made some friends there and, to be honest, I didn’t believe him. But, darlin’, you might have convinced me to change my mind. If he’s able to trust you with our deepest, darkest secrets, then maybe he’s finally learning how to fit in. I hope so. I want him to be happy more than anything.”
Rayna nodded and forced a smile onto her face. Renewed fear gripped her soul, but she didn’t want Kyle to know. He felt good about Shawn, and she decided to let that be. She, however, worried more than ever that Shawn wouldn’t come back. He had friends now, and maybe he wouldn’t be able to give that up. And, if he contacted her and asked her to join him, what would she do? She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, letting her gaze drift back to the sea. She couldn’t be with one killer, much less an army of them.
Kyle tapped her shoulder and she let out a little yelp of surprise. “Are you alright?”
“Oh, yes, yes. Just thinking. It’s a lot to take in.” Giving herself a mental shake, she forced herself into a better mood. “Thank you for telling me all this. So, now maybe you’ll tell me something else?”
He raised a brow, urging her to continue.
“How does it work?”
“How does what work?”
She laughed a little self-consciously. “Time travel.”
“Ah, I see. So, he laid this bombshell on you but didn’t explain.” He guffawed, and Rayna could hear his love for Shawn in the sound. “Yeah, that sounds like my brother. Alright, it’s like this. You know how dolphins use echolocation to determine where objects are in the ocean? Well…”
He stopped talking, staring at Rayna until she grew uncomfortable.
“Kyle?”
He took a moment to rouse himself, focusing his eyes back on her. “Sorry, but this is the weirdest feeling. I’ve never spoken to anyone, not a single soul, about this. It goes against all my training, and it’s just...weird. That’s the word for it—weird.”
“Hey, if you’d rather not…”
“Nah, it’s alright. Threw me for a minute, that’s all.” He chuckled and ran a hand through his fine blond hair. “Alright, echolocation. We, and by we, I mean Parosians, use it the same way as dolphins when we’re in the ocean or in most any water. Scientists working with others from Earth discovered that we can use our echolocation through time. They created a serum and injected it into Shawn and me as their guinea pigs, to intensify this ability, and it worked. With this heightened echolocation we can sense when there’s been a disturbance in time and...ah, hell. I don’t know how to explain this. I guess when we sense this broken time stream, we can reach out to it and travel there. Same way we know there’s a rock formation in the ocean when it’s too dark to see. Are you grasping any of this?”
“I think so. If you’d used any technical jargon I’d probably have gotten lost. So, it sounds like you can only travel when the timeline gets messed up, but I know that’s not true. You traveled forward in time to visit Shawn, didn’t you?”
“Yeah, Shawn and I are attuned to each other because we’re brothers. We can always travel to each other. We also discovered that if we concentrate, like really focus and reach out to a particular time, we can travel there too. It’s simple echolocation to us. I don’t think the scientists expected this part though.”
“Wow, that’s crazy. I mean, like...you were born with the ability to time travel. It’s in your blood.”
“I guess, but without the serum it doesn’t work.”
“Can anyone use the serum?” Despite herself, Rayna bounced in her seat. The possibility of becoming a time traveler with Shawn flooded her senses. “Could I?”
“Settle down, darlin’. I’m afraid only those born with echolocation can use the serum. It won’t work on humans.”
“Oh, I see.” Hopes dashed, she frowned down into her lap.
Kyle chuckled, leaning sideways to bump her shoulder with his. “Don’t be so glum. I could tell you a secret about all this that would brighten you right back up.”
She turned to him, her eyes wide. “What more could there possibly be that I don’t already know?”
He grinned, his eyes twinkling with mischief. “How about you can travel through time with Shawn if you want to?”
Rayna gaped at him, and Kyle laughed.
“The clothes we wear, whatever we’re holding. It all comes with us when we travel. If Shawn is holding tight to you, then you can ride the wave with him when he goes.”
“Oh...oh, wow. That’s amazing. Does Shawn know this?”
“Of course he does. But there’s a catch. He shouldn’t do this. You should not travel with him,” he said in a firm voice. “Since Shawn and I weren’t born on Earth, anything we do in any time is what is meant to happen. For you, darlin’, it’s much different. A tiny flap of your butterfly wings and you could change the world in countless unknown ways. Usually bad. You’ve seen time travel movies, haven’t you?”
“I saw Somewhere in Time,” she said, dejection in her voice.
Kyle raised his head, gazing at the stars. Only a few faint twinkles could be seen, the many New York City lights obscuring the rest. After a time, he nodded.
“You would pick a movie that didn’t have any real negative effects. I like time travel movies. They’re endlessly entertaining and often immensely ridiculous. But all the ones I want to point out to you haven’t been released yet, so you’ll have to take my word for it. You should not time travel with Shawn.” He spoke the last sentence slowly, emphasizing each word to drill home his point.
Recognizing that she was doing her best not to pout, and only being half successful, she sighed and went on the attack. “Then why the heck did you even tell me? What good is this information to me when I can’t use it?”
“Whoa, down girl.” He raised his hands, pretending to ward her off. “If and when the time comes, you and Shawn will decide what you want to do. I’m not telling you what to do. I’m only giving you all the facts.”
Rayna heaved another sigh, her brain spinning, sorrow building. She wished Shawn was here so she could talk to him. All this was becoming too much, and so much bigger than she’d ever imagined. Yet, newfound respect for Kyle settled upon her like a comfortable robe. He might seem irreverent and acted the clown, but there were many layers to this man. He tended to keep his intelligence hidden, but he had it in bucketfuls.
“Okay, I see your point. I just…” Tears welled in her eyes and she willed them not to fall. “I need Shawn to come home.”
Kyle moved the empty pizza box out of the way and threw an arm around Rayna’s shoulders. “He will, darlin’, I promise. I wouldn’t have left him on his own if I thought he couldn’t handle things.”
“Alec told me his orders are to find Shawn and um, well, you know, kill him if he doesn’t come back.”
Kyle threw his head back and laughed.
Rayna turned to stare at him, her mouth hanging open. “You find that funny?”
“Yeah, best joke I’ve heard in a while,” he said. She huffed, and he stole a glance her way. “Oh, you weren’t joking? That makes it even funnier.”
He picked up one of Rayna’s discarded pizza crusts and tossed it into the bay. Lots of splashing ensued and she wondered what sea creatures had come to the surface to fight over the scraps.
“Look, Rayna, you gotta know that’ll never happen. No matter how well trained this Connor guy is, Shawn is better. If he wants to stay hidden, Connor’ll never find him. If he wants to stay alive, Connor will never get the drop on him.” He shrugged and settled back with his arm around her. “But it won’t come to that. Shawn will be back as soon a
s he takes care of business.”
Rayna nodded, taking comfort from his warmth, but she wasn’t so sure about the coming home part. What Kyle had said earlier kept spinning around in the back of her mind.
Shawn told me that he’s made some friends there...
She couldn’t help but worry that she’d never see Shawn again.
24
Snowflakes danced in the air and his breath came out in vaporous puffs as Shawn hurried through the settlement to the largest of the longhouses. The pleasant tinkle of the bells sewn onto a length of leather and wrapped around his ankles announced his presence and gave a musical beat to his footsteps.
But there weren’t many to hear. Almost all of the villagers were in the longhouse waiting for the festivities to begin.
This was a big day. Bigger than he could have imagined when Alec had given him the mission to eliminate Ramón five months ago. Not giving a thought to how long he’d been gone, a thrill rushed through him and he quickened his pace, snow crunching under his moccasins adding to the musical beat. He arrived at the longhouse, and the two partners he’d chosen for the performance met him at the door. With their costumes hiding their identities just as he’d wanted, he couldn’t tell one from the other, and nodded his approval.
All three of them wore big eagle masks with beaks that covered their entire heads. Normally, the faces of the dancers would be visible, but there was the Allie aspect to consider—she wasn’t supposed to participate in this dance—as well as tourists taking pictures. As a wanted criminal, Shawn refused to have his picture taken, so he wore a small mask under the bigger one for the reveal at the end. Eagle feathers covered their arms and legs as decoration over their clothing. Allie’s clothing had a looser fit to hide her curves. Moccasins on their feet made no noise, but the bells were a perfect accompaniment to the dance.
“Sam, I can’t do this,” Allie said in an urgent whisper. Shawn had grown used to being called Sam by now and bent his head closer to her. “There’s too many people in there. They’ll kill me when they find out. I’m female. I’m not supposed to dance.”