Kieran encompassed his thoughts, his mind. He began to sooth it, smothering Rhydder with calm and a blanketing peace, as cool and as light as winter’s first snow.
The frantic firing slowed, but it was a powerful lust and wouldn’t let go easily.
Kieran spoke directly to him. What gives you hope?
The activity slowed even more as Rhydder worked to respond. It would take thought. Logic. Processes that would pull his attention away from the gnawing hunger.
Kieran didn’t expect an answer. Rhydder was too full of pain. Instead, he concentrated on calming the electrical storm of his mind.
He had no idea how long he worked at it. Time lost meaning. They were in a perpetual dark where even the coming day would not interrupt them. It took relentless effort to stay on top of the firing sparks of Rhydder’s mind, to keep them contained and to minimize them. Kieran won the fight by increments.
After what might have been hours, or bare minutes, Kieran held the last of the wild synapses with his mind and brought them to a halt.
Peace, broken only by the normal processes of a very human mind. He could feel Rhydder’s relief.
Then the mental shield went up.
Kieran was surprised by the sophisticated barrier. He examined it, his curiosity roused.
Stay out of my mind!
The mental push was powerful enough to shove Kieran off his feet and through several meters of air, to land sprawling on the cold floor.
He picked himself up. Rhydder hadn’t moved. But he wasn’t trembling anymore and the gleam of sweat had gone. None of his features were visible in the heavy shadows, so Kieran couldn’t see if Rhydder was watching him or not. Except that he knew he was.
Kieran brushed off his hands and got to his feet. His legs were cramped from having been hunkered down for so long. “Pellegrino has it wrong,” he said. “You’re Malsinne and you really can’t learn psi talents. But you didn’t need to, did you? You already had them, even when you were human.”
Rhydder sighed and let his head roll back again. “Thank you for what you did. I appreciate that. But if you learned anything at all while you were digging through my mind, then you know it’s not wise to piss off a Malsinne when they need to feed.”
“You would still feed from a human, after all that?”
Rhydder laughed. It was a hoarse sound. “I execute anyone in my team that feeds from a human.”
And Rhydder lived by the same standards he held his men to.
“I know where they keep the synthetic supplies. Do you want me to bring you some?”
Rhydder pushed heavily against the floor, lifting himself to his feet. He moved slowly and each movement looked like it was painful. But he finally straightened up and held onto the rock wall next to him for balance. “By the time I get upstairs, I’ll be fine.” He spoke with the certainty of someone who had been through this many times.
Kieran knew there was nothing else Rhydder would let him do to help. So he nodded and headed for the door.
“How did you know?” Rhydder asked, just as he got his hand on the door handle.
Kieran turned. He couldn’t see Rhydder’s face in the dark but Rhydder would be able to see his just fine. “You were projecting. Mentally. It was overwhelming. I had to come. That’s what made me realize that you’re a natural psi.”
Silence. Then, “No one has ever said I do that, before. Project out like that.”
“No one like me was around to feel it,” Kieran replied. “Until now.” He hesitated. “Next time….”
“I’ll be fine,” Rhydder snapped.
But he was still clinging to the wall like he was afraid he’d fall if he let go.
Kieran didn’t push it. He had known more than his fair share of people with an abundance of pride, who cringed at the idea of another person helping them with anything. Rhydder would resent any more active assistance.
Kieran climbed up the winding staircase to the main villa. He didn’t wait for Rhydder because he knew Rhydder wouldn’t want him to. Besides, he needed to move, to work out the kinks and stretch his body. It had been a long night.
How did Llewellyn fit into Rhydder’s life? Rhydder’s affection for the old man with the wandering mind had been clear. Kieran recalled the far distant glimpse he had caught before Rhydder had slammed up the impenetrable wall in his mind—a wall that no simple psi talent could build.
So, Pellegrino’s nose for secrets had been right. There was far more to Rhydder than the addict personality his Malsinne heritage had bestowed.
Chapter Twenty
Chronometric Conservation Agency Headquarters, Villa Fontani, Rome, 2265 A.D.
Mariana had enormous trouble falling asleep and wasn’t aware that sleep had taken her until her personal code alert woke her and she found that morning had arrived, along with it a baking heat that promised the day was going to be a record scorcher. She could feel the ache in her face, behind her eyes and in her bones, that said she hadn’t slept enough. She fumbled for the reading board on her nightstand and answered the call.
Brenden gazed back and she instinctively pulled the sheet up higher, even though he could only see from her chin up.
“Laszlo presented himself at the gates ten minutes ago. He’s asking to speak to Nayara, Ryan and Cáel.”
“All three?” Mariana bit her lip. Nayara had briefed her, very privately, on the silent exchange of leadership—that Cáel would be doing Ryan’s job while Ryan recuperated. But it hadn’t been announced publically. That Laszlo knew was more proof that he had come back here from a future where that might be common knowledge.
“He also wants to speak to you. And me.”
“Oh.” Her heart leapt.
“And Billy,” Brenden added.
“He asked for him by that name? By ‘Billy’?”
Brenden nodded. “Throw some clothes on. We’ll be in the big consultation room.”
Mariana clutched the sheet around her more tightly. She could feel that she was blushing, but Brenden had already disconnected. It wasn’t possible that he had been able to see that she was naked. Was it?
She scrambled to dress—to ‘throw some clothes on’—and the spurt of activity dispersed the most obvious symptoms of tiredness, but she could still feel the deep weariness in her bones. Later today it would catch up with her and she would have to really sleep, then.
But for now, she had no choice.
When she arrived at the consultation room a few minutes later, the door was shut. She tapped and pushed it open.
Everyone was already inside, waiting. Nayara sat in one of the chairs a few along from the end. Ryan was next to her. Cáel was standing away from the table, as if he was trying to disassociate himself from the agency business at hand, but he was in a perfect position to take in the whole room at a glance.
Brendan was sitting at the corner of the table, opposite Ryan, but he got to his feet as she entered and came over to her. “This may feel a little disorienting,” he murmured.
“It already does.”
There were two Laszlos sitting at the table. One sat at the head of the table and was clearly the focus of the discussion. That would be the Laszlo she knew the best. The one from the future.
Billy was sitting just to the left of where Brenden had been sitting. Brenden pulled out his chair for Mariana to use. She thanked him and sank into the chair.
Laszlo reached for her hand and picked it up. “It’s good to see you.” But he didn’t try to kiss her and she was glad he didn’t. She could almost feel Billy to her left, watching everything the other Laszlo did.
She withdrew her hand and put it in her lap. She tried to control the leaping of her heart and waited.
“We’re all here,” Nayara said to Laszlo. “You requested this meeting. We’re listening.”
He inclined his head. It was a formalized bow, Mariana realized. “I do thank you for agreeing to speak with me. I have all Billy’s memories, of course, so I knew that Brenden would figure out
that I was from your future once he met Billy. I knew you would agree to meet me when I requested it. I even know why you agreed. I knew to the minute when I should arrive at the villa and announce myself, this morning. I knew, because in my memory, I have already done it.” He looked at Billy. “I am creating those memories in Billy right now.”
Nayara nodded. “We’re all familiar with time loops here.”
“Not one of this kind,” Laszlo said, his tone almost gentle. “In part, that is why I needed to speak to you. For the last twelve hours you have been worrying about the consequences of my jump back here. What history have I changed? What future have I jeopardized by pretending to be Billy?”
“I don’t think that is something you can tell us,” Ryan said grimly. “None of us can afford to know too much about our own futures.”
“Correct,” Laszlo said. “But this is a time loop that remained open until I closed it by coming back here and putting certain events into play.”
“Wait.” Brenden was now sitting on Billy’s left, He leaned across the table so he could see Laszlo clearly. “You’re saying you were supposed to come back here and screw with the past?”
“Yes.”
The silence that greeted Laszlo’s affirmation was a pensive one.
Laszlo spread his hands on the table. “Much of what I have done since I arrived here I remember a future Laszlo doing. I have been fulfilling that memory. It was imperative I return back here to this moment in the past and close the loop. It was the only way that certain events would be put into place.”
He looked at Nayara and Ryan. “I wanted to reassure you that nothing I have done impinges upon the agency, or any politics of the future. This was a personal mission.”
“Personal?” Brenden said sharply.
Laszlo looked at him. His expression was warm, even tender. “You don’t know how hard I’ve found it to be in the same room as you and pretend that I didn’t know you. That I didn’t like the little I knew. It has been a hard week, in that respect.”
Brenden just stared. He seemed to be dazed.
Laszlo smiled. “Yes, I love you, you great big bear. I said this was personal. I had to come back here and make Mariana fall in love with me, or our future together would cease to exist.”
Mariana let out a breath that shook. “Then the date, all of it…you already knew….” He had been in love with her all along and had hidden it.
“Our future?” Billy repeated. He sounded just as dazed.
“The three of us,” Laszlo said flatly. He picked up Mariana’s hand again and this time she didn’t have the strength to withdraw it. He kissed the back of it and his green eyes met hers. “I’m sorry for the deception, my sweetest love. I know how much you hated that I was lying to you. It has not been easy for me, either.”
“How did you know…?”
He smiled. “You told me. You will tell me. In detail and with blows to match and I deserve all of it.” He kept hold of her hand and looked at Nayara. “Now that the loop has been closed, events can proceed as they will. I must return to my own time.”
“You’re a traveler, aren’t you?” Brenden said.
“Trained by you,” Laszlo replied. He got to his feet and everyone else stood, too. Everyone, except Ryan.
Laszlo looked around the room and his gaze settled on Billy. “I’ve paved the way. You must walk the rest of it. Don’t let either of them go. They’re going to give your life the meaning you’ve been looking for.”
Billy blew out his breath. He sounded as unsettled as Brenden.
“How did you know to come back?” Ryan asked, raising his voice to get Laszlo’s attention. “I don’t know how far in the future you’ve come from, but Billy could decide tomorrow to jump back to a week ago to pretend to be himself. What if that is the wrong time? How are they going to know when it’s time to close the loop?”
Laszlo nodded. “The perfect question, at last. Thank you.” He dug inside his coat and walked over to where Ryan was sitting. He put a photoprint in front of him and tapped it. “That told me it was time to come back. I remember that photo—Billy will remember the photo, because it is something we’ve kept for years, since the future Laszlo I remember gave it to us.” He tapped the photo. “That was taken two days before I jumped here. I know that, because I took it. When I saw it, I knew it was time.”
Ryan looked at the photo, then at Mariana. His gaze was sharp and filled with surprise and a growing…something.
“What is it?” she asked.
Ryan glanced at Nayara, who leaned over to look at the photo.
“Show her,” Nayara said quietly. “The loop says she must know.”
Ryan slid the photo across the tabletop and it spun as it slid, to land almost perfectly aligned for her to look at it. Billy leaned over with her to study it.
It was a picture of her, standing behind a podium. She looked exactly as she did now. There were no visible signs of aging, so it was impossible to tell how far into the future it had been taken. But there were lights reflecting off the polished wood behind her in the photo. It was the intense sort of light that Mariana had already experienced, from dozens of media cameras. Flags hung to either side of her and there was a seal on the front of the podium.
Mariana began to shake. “What is that seal?” she whispered.
Billy looked at her. “You don’t recognize it?”
She did, but she didn’t want to be right. She didn’t believe it.
Brenden picked up the photo and looked at it, then at her. “That’s the President’s seal.”
“President,” she repeated, her lips working stiffly.
“The President of the Worlds Assembly,” Ryan added.
Chapter Twenty-One
Chronometric Conservation Agency Headquarters, Villa Fontani, Rome, 2265 A.D.
Mariana knew she was still in shock, because she couldn’t get her mind to function properly. Even something as simple as deciding if she should sit down again, or go back to her room was too difficult to process.
So she sat, because that required no thought at all.
Laszlo—the future Laszlo—had already left.
Brenden was in the corner with Cáel Stelios, talking fast and softly.
Nayara and Ryan were speaking with Billy. The real Billy, she reminded herself. Laszlo William Wolffe. One of the men she was supposed to love.
But right now that seemed like a far off impossibility. Anything more complicated than just sitting here was impossible.
Brenden turned her chair so that she was facing him and she jerked in shock. She hadn’t noticed him finish his conversation with Cáel. She had been…drifting.
He shoved the chair next to her around and sat on the edge of it, so he was closer to her level. “Cáel has agreed to let us use his house on Spetsopoula. No one in Greece cares much for vampires, or for famous people like Billy and it’s a private island. We can be completely undisturbed there.”
Mariana swallowed. Her sluggish mind tried to encompass why he would want to go to a private island.
“To talk, Mariana,” Brenden said gently. “Just to talk. Or not even to talk, if you’re not ready to do that.”
“If I can get my brain unstuck, I think talking might be good,” she whispered.
Brenden’s gaze flickered over her face. “You’re very white. I’m sure Cáel has food there. Good Greek food.” He stood up and held out his hand.
Mariana looked at it blankly.
“You think you can get to your own feet without help?”
She reached out and took his hand. It was big and it was… “Warm,” she said, surprise trickling through the miasma that was stifling thought.
“You’re not the only one dealing with shock,” Brenden said softly. He touched his chest with his other hand. “I haven’t been able to stop my heart since Laszlo arrived.” He tugged her to her feet.
The insight into Brenden’s state of mind and knowing that she wasn’t the only one that was mentally sta
ggering while trying to deal with everything Laszlo had revealed, did much to help her pull herself together.
By the time Billy moved around the table to where Brenden and she stood waiting, Mariana was starting to think clearly again.
Brenden held out his arm toward her.
“We’re jumping?”
“I’ve been there dozens of times,” Brenden told her. “That’s why I asked Cáel if we could camp there for a while. It’s a no-brainer jump for me.”
“That’s probably just as well,” Billy said. His expression was strained. “I couldn’t steer a stray thought right now.”
That was reassuring enough that Mariana was able to step into Brenden’s arm. Brenden hooked Billy’s elbow and dragged him close enough to do the same with his other arm. “Let’s fix that,” he said and bent his knees. He didn’t have to coordinate the jump with them. He was strong enough to lift them both off their feet.
* * * * *
Spetsopoula. Private island in the Aegean, 70km from Athens, Greece, 2265 A.D.
They ended up staying on Spetsopoula for four days. It wasn’t planned. It seemed that all of them needed that time.
When they first arrived, Brenden was the most coherent of all of them and he knew his way around Cáel’s simple but well-functioning house, so it was he who put together a meal of cold sliced lamb, cheese and olives for Mariana, along with a crusty bread loaf and oil to dip it in.
They sat at the rustic table in the kitchen while she ate. Outside, seagulls were squawking. Farther away, the sea rolled in constant, reassuring waves. The sounds came through the windows and the big doors that were propped open, giving access to the shady patio outside. The sounds were so clear because none of them spoke.
Mariana ate only because she knew it was one of the best ways to recover. But she had no appetite, even though the food was delicious.
Billy cleared his throat. “Do either of you feel…well, angry?”
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