Kieren snorted. “Won’t happen.”
The man smiled gently. “We will leave you now. You will know how to reach us when the time comes.”
The three of them stepped over the still bodies of Wardens, heading for the door, which was only just hanging from its mounts – it had been warped and ripped nearly completely from the frame. None of them looked back at Kieren and neither did they look down at the Wardens they had bested. It was as if the Wardens weren’t there.
Kieren let out his breath as they progressed down the long barracks room to the door at the other end. His exhalation was gusty. He realized that he was trembling with adrenal overload, something that hadn’t happened to him since he had finished his training.
Behind him, one of the Wardens groaned in pain and shifted on the floor.
They were waking up to a new world, Kieren realized. A world where they could be beaten as easily as a two year old child.
He considered Douglas’ emphatic demand that he speak to no one about what had happened in Sweden. That cat was out of the bag now.
Kieren turned and helped the struggling Warden, Michael, into a sitting position.
“What the fuck happened?” Michael demanded as others began to stir around them. He looked around the room, his gaze touching on the wrenched door, the downed Wardens that could be seen through the doorway and the weapons locker that stood open, with a compact laser rifle on the floor in front of it.
“They’ve left now,” Kieren told him. “The threat has been lifted.”
“What threat?” Michael replied.
“The people that just ripped their way in here,” Kieren told him. “You need to pull your thoughts together faster than this.”
Michael looked up at him with a scowl. “I’m oriented,” he snapped. “And I do not remember any people. I remember you just standing there, flat on your feet doing nothing while we were attacked…” He looked around, the frown deepening. “But I don’t remember what attacked us.”
He got to his feet and backed away from Kieren. “How come you’re the only one standing? Why didn’t you get dropped like everyone else?”
I can explain. The words were on the very cusp of tumbling from his mouth, but Kieren gritted his jaw. He couldn’t explain. They wouldn’t believe him and Douglas had said to stay silent.
“It’s classified,” Kieren said instead.
“Classified?” Michael repeated in disbelief. “Something infiltrates right into the heart of the base, you’re the only one left standing and it’s classified?”
Others were on their feet now and by coincidence or intent, they ranged raggedly behind Michael, looking at Kieren with stony expressions.
No, they didn’t like the taste of defeat at all.
Kieren heard the sound of the laser rifle being cocked, which tightened his gut and made him reach for his missing firearm.
“Who the fuck are you?” Michael demanded.
* * * * *
The Agency Home Base – 2264 A.D.: “Jesus Christ and Mother Mary,” Justin intoned as he scrolled back to the top of the chapter.
“What’s bothering you now?” Brenden asked sharply, from right behind Justin’s shoulder. He had sneaked up on him while he was concentrating on reading. Justin had been too immersed in the story to notice.
Justin pointed to the title and sub-title of the entry.
Terrorism in Yunnan Province, China, Twenty-first Century – The Liping Incident
“That’s where she is, isn’t it?” Justin demanded. “Liping village, in East Yunnan.”
“Your girlfriend talks too much,” Brenden growled.
“It says the village was hit by a hot blanket bomb. It was razed in twenty seconds.”
“Shut up, I’m reading,” Brenden replied.
“It has profiles of everyone that lived at the village, but it doesn’t give a list of victim names. She was there, Brenden. This article was cross-referenced with Adán Santiago, which means he was involved.”
Brenden placed a heavy hand on Justin’s shoulder and squeezed and Justin knew it wasn’t meant for sympathy. Brenden was gazing at the screen, absorbing it. The hand on his shoulder was Brenden’s way of insisting he stay silent.
Justin moved off the chair and out from under Brenden’s grip. He couldn’t just sit there. He stepped away from the table and waited for Brenden to finish.
“You going to stop pacing any time soon?” Brenden asked.
Justin turned to face him, and realized that he hadn’t stopped walking since he’d moved away from the screen. He couldn’t keep still. “Deonne was there,” he said, hoping Brenden would refute him.
“Looks that way,” Brenden said mildly.
Something hot and hard tore through his chest. Justin made fists of his hands, fighting the reaction. “How can you be so calm about it?” he asked. “She died!”
“Until I look into this further, I’m not going to agree about anything,” Brenden shot back. “Time is a funny bastard. You know how fluid it is. Just because you found a single report doesn’t mean a damned thing.”
“It was cross-referenced!”
“So are fiction books,” Brenden replied stoically. He lifted a hand, his finger raised like an admonishing parent. “Don’t even think about doing something stupid like jumping back there.”
“I can’t just sit here!”
“Yeah, you can. You will not go back there. You’re not a traveler. You will screw with timelines just by being there.”
Justin shifted on his feet. “I gotta get out of here,” he muttered, looking around.
Brenden took a step toward him. “I don’t have to put you under house arrest, do I? Because I can get Pritti to clamp you in one spot until Sparta reigns supreme once more.”
Fear touched him. Justin forced himself to look Brenden in the eye and keep his gaze steady. “You don’t have to do that,” he said quietly.
Brenden considered him for a good long moment. Then he waved him away. “Go and play with your humans. I’ll get my researchers on this, see what we can figure out.”
Justin nodded. “Thanks.” He moved through the cavern to the big adjoining cave – the default common room where everyone gathered to both socialize and work. There were dozens of picnic tables. A dozen of them at the narrow end of the cave held up computers, screens, and other work equipment, but all the tables in the middle of the room were empty of tools.
Eight of the tables were being used, with two or three vampires at each table. At the far side of the cavern, well separated from the other occupied tables, Demyan sat with Pritti. They were reading a board, their heads close together. Pritti was the single exception to the vampires-only rule; she could shield herself, her mind and hundreds of other people all at once. Gabriel would have more trouble reading her mind than a vampire’s.
Justin moved through the maze of tables and sat on the bench opposite the pair. Pritti looked at him, startled. Then her eyes widened. “You’re afraid,” she said softly. “Very afraid.”
“I thought you couldn’t read vampire minds when they weren’t in the past?” Justin returned.
“Thoughts can’t be read,” Demyan told him. “But Pritti is empathic as well as telepathic. Your emotions, if you have them, are as readable as print. Besides, she doesn’t need to read your emotions to see that something has you in its grip. What is it?”
“Her,” Pritti whispered.
“Deonne,” Justin said at the same time. He looked for the words that would explain it all as simply as possible but it was a jumbled, incoherent mess in his mind. He didn’t know where to start.
Demyan reached out and gripped Justin’s hand where it lay on the table. “Let me in,” he said very softly.
Justin met his gaze. “What?”
“Relax. Let down your guard. Let me get at your thoughts.”
“You can do that?”
“Vampire to vampire, yes. If one of them is a telepath. Silence.” His gaze was holding Justin’s attenti
on, keeping him focused.
Justin put aside all his questions and tried to relax as Demyan had instructed, but it was impossible. He let out a shuddering breath.
Demyan sat back, letting Justin’s hand loose. He glanced at Pritti. “I have to go.”
She smiled softly at him. “Of course you must.” She looked at Justin and her warm smile remained in place. “She needs you.”
Pritti’s words shoved a hot poker into the middle of the chaotic knot in his chest. “Does that mean…?”
Demyan’s smile was smaller than Pritti’s, but there was light in Demyan’s eyes that seemed to glow fiercely. “I’ll take you there.”
“Brenden will kill you,” Justin pointed out.
“He’ll ground me and I’ll get an official reprimand. But staying close to home suits me right now.” He glanced at Pritti, who stared steadily back at him, her face calm. “I won’t be long.”
She nodded.
Demyan stood up. “Let’s find somewhere a bit more private to jump,” he suggested, his voice low.
Dazed at Demyan’s abrupt cooperation, Justin climbed from the bench and looked around. “Where?”
“Any dim corridor will do. Let’s get you in the same room as Deonne. Come.” Demyan strode ahead.
Chapter Fifteen
Liping Village, East Yunnan Province, China, 2054 A.D.: Deonne shook her head. “I am not running this place! I can’t!”
Mariana dropped the ring of keys on her desk. They were actual, old-fashioned mechanical keys. Mariana had just finished explaining that they gave access to the common buildings in the compound. “If you don’t do it, there is no one else here who can,” Mariana said gently.
“There are dozens of people and vampires here. Pritti lives here...well, sometimes. They are all part of the Agency or work for the Agency. That means none of them is stupid. Give one of them the keys.”
Mariana shook her head. “It has to be you. Once I’m gone, you will be the most senior agency member here.”
“I’m not a member. I just work for them. And what do you mean by ‘senior’? Are you checking up on everyone’s birthday?”
Mariana smiled. “I have no wish to find out when people were really born. You have cured me of that curiosity. I meant senior, as in you work directly with the heads of the Agency and their most senior personnel. You understand the concerns of the leaders. No one else here has that sort of access.”
“Even I don’t have that sort of access,” Deonne shot back, her temper stirring. “They’ve got me stranded back here and useless.”
Mariana tilted her head. “It’s better than being smeared into jelly by a g-train, isn’t it?”
Deonne shuddered.
“That’s the reason we’re all back here. To save our lives.” Mariana got to her feet. “And it’s working.”
Deonne glared at the bunch of keys. “I don’t have to do a lot of admin crap, do I?”
“I’ve left full instructions on the server. The file has your name on it.” Mariana moved toward the door, then turned to face Deonne once more. “You know, you should really try to see your time here in China as a respite.”
“What good is a vacation if the people you want to spend it with aren’t there?” Deonne groused.
“They’re working to bring us home as fast as possible.”
“They’re fighting a war, Mariana. Wars don’t end quickly.” Deonne pushed at the keys. “How well do you know the senior people at the agency?”
“I don’t know Justin very much at all. He was always at the Sydney branch when I was on the station.”
Deonne pinned Mariana with a glare. “How long have you known about Justin and me?”
Mariana shrugged. “Since before we were shipped here.”
“You didn’t mention it on your nets, did you?”
Mariana raised a brow. “We were under the secrecy injunction Ryan put on everyone in that meeting. I don’t talk about the Agency to anyone who wasn’t in that room. It’s another reason you must take charge of matters here.”
“I’ll be the only one here that was in that meeting.” Deonne sighed. “Why are matters so complicated when vampires get mixed up in them?”
“It’s because they live so long, I imagine,” Mariana replied unexpectedly. “Their relationships grow complicated and intricate because they have such a long time to develop.”
“You watch them a lot, don’t you?”
“I like them.” Mariana shrugged again. “They’re different.”
“They are that,” Deonne agreed. “You said that Stelios was Ryan’s and Nayara’s lover. You didn’t mean he was running concurrent affairs, did you?”
Mariana looked down at her hands. “They’re all together,” she said.
“A ménage,” Deonne concluded. “Just like Ryan, Nayara and Salathiel.”
Mariana’s head jerked up and surprise flittered across her features.
“I read the book,” Deonne told her. “I wanted to know what was being published before it was released. You did a good job.”
“Oh, I just did the first draft. There were a dozen editors who came along behind me and cleaned it all up.” Mariana gave a self-conscious laugh.
“Don’t denigrate yourself like that. People believe you when you do.”
Mariana’s smile faded.
“There’s Rob, Christian and Tally, too,” Deonne remarked. “That’s three ménages that I know about. Is it a vampire thing?”
The other woman frowned. “I think so. I’ve never heard of long term ménages among humans. Humans have group casual sex, but not permanent bonds like the vampires seem to form.”
“That’s not the only way they form relationships, though,” Deonne murmured, thinking of her relationship with Justin.
“I think Justin is too in love with you to look at someone else, too,” Mariana replied.
Deonne felt her cheeks heat and hated it, but even as she blushed, her heart lurched as she thought of Justin. “You do watch closely, don’t you?”
Mariana gave the same small shrug. “Vampires aren’t into sharing. Watching them is the only way to learn about them.”
“You learn by listening, too. They talk occasionally, but it’s hints. Allusions.” Deonne sighed. “References to people and events from long ago. You can build a detailed picture if you listen long enough.”
Mariana pursed her lips.
“What?” Deonne demanded. “Something you heard? What?”
She shook her head. “Maybe you should ask Justin.”
“How can I ask if I don’t know what I’m asking?”
Mariana glanced around the room, like she was looking for the exit.
“You’ve said too much now,” Deonne told her. “You need to tell me the rest. It’s something about Justin’s past that you’ve heard, isn’t it?”
The woman shifted on her feet, discomfort radiating from every stiff angle. “Before Ryan and Nayara reunited, before Assemblyman Stelios joined them, their relationship was…strained.”
“I read the book,” Deonne reminded her impatiently. “Nayara buried herself in work, and while Ryan worked, he also fucked everything in sight—” She caught her breath as it fell together. “Justin and Ryan?” she asked Mariana.
Mariana nodded slowly. “When the agency was first formed. Justin is one of the original members.”
Deonne sank down onto the end of her bed, which was the seating closest to her. “I really don’t know him at all,” she murmured. “Every time I think I have him figured out, the pattern shifts and I have to start all over again.”
“I’m told that’s common with vampires,” Mariana said softly. “They compartmentalize their lives. They’re really only immersed in the last twenty years or so. The rest of it they pack away tight. I think that’s why personal questions are considered so rude.”
Deonne picked up the keys. “I guess I have work to do.”
“The server and terminal are keyed to your voice print,” Mariana t
old her. She opened the apartment door to step out and gave a little gasp and fell back.
Justin stood in the doorway, his hand raised as if he had been just about to knock.
Justin. Here in China. Deonne found herself on her feet without consciously being aware of standing.
“Where is he?” Justin demanded, his voice low and tight with anger. His eyes blazed with fury. “Where is the fucker? I’ll kill him.”
* * * * *
The Agency Home Base – 2264 A.D.: Nayara lifted her head, alerted, as Brenden stormed over to her table. Other heads were lifting, too.
Demyan trailed after Brenden, his demeanor calm and contained.
Brenden reached her table and flung his arm out toward Demyan, pointing at him. “This…this imbecile took him back to China!”
“Took who?” Nayara asked curiously.
“Justin!”
“Justin? What on earth moved Justin to jump back in time…?” She frowned. “Has something happened to Deonne?”
“No!” Brenden cried, then he frowned. “Maybe,” he qualified. “We’re still figuring that out.”
Nayara stood up. “You’d better give me the whole story,” she suggested.
Brenden opened up his mouth to speak, but she lifted her finger, halting him before he could utter a single furious word.
“Demyan first,” she said.
Brenden scowled while Demyan, standing behind him, grinned.
* * * * *
Liping Village, East Yunnan Province, China, 2054 A.D.: Mariana slid around Justin with a muttered apology. He heard the door shut behind him, but didn’t care. The world could hear this, as far as he was concerned.
Deonne came toward him. “You’re here. You’re actually here.” She was smiling, with happiness radiating her features. “You’re wearing all the wrong clothes for here, but we can fix that.”
She reached for him but Justin stepped back, out of her arms. “You’re going to play the ignorance card?” he asked.
“Excuse me?”
“Where is Santiago?”
“Who?” Her face registered puzzlement. There was no furtiveness there at all.
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