Laughing breathlessly, Elizabeth dashed to the end of the sunflower field and sat on the velvety green grass, waiting for him.
“I won!” she called out excitedly as he emerged from behind the wall of flowers. Her cheeks were flushed from the run that she had teasingly challenged him to. Not to be outdone by her excitement, he immediately tackled her and threw her down on her back.
“Maybe not, my lady. It seems now I have the advantage.” Without giving her any warning, he bent his head and captured her lips with a gentle kiss. Still giggling, Elizabeth lifted her face to the sun and closed her eyes. “Such a beautiful day, Rei. I wish we could come here every day.”
He had never known pure joy and contentment in his life until he had met her. She was his other half. They shared the same strength and honor, yet her warmth and love drew him out of the cold, calculating life he was born to.
Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a wooden box and handed it to her. “Open it.”
Still smiling, Elizabeth opened the box, and her big brown eyes got bigger and rounder. “Rei?”
Inside the box, a large oval ruby was set regally on a delicate filigree gold band. The ruby seemed to be glowing brilliantly, as if it were competing with the sun for Elizabeth’s affection.
“Marry me, Elizabeth.” Rei dropped tender kisses on her forehead and nose. “Be my wife.”
He knew Elizabeth would say yes to being his wife. Nevertheless, he was nervous to hear the answer from her. He held his breath, waiting for her answer. Her momentary silence made him think the worst—Elizabeth didn’t reciprocate his affection. She looked between the ring and him a couple of times as if she was at a loss for words. He squeezed her hand tighter. “Elizabeth?”
Then she broke into a huge smile. “This is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. Oh Rei, are you certain? I’m just a scientist’s daughter. Papa has no dowry to offer.”
Letting out the breath he had been holding for too long, he quickly took the ruby ring out of the box and held up her delicate hand. He kissed the tip of each of her soft fingers before lifting her ring finger up to slide the ruby on it. The sparkles from the ruby and diamonds danced across Elizabeth’s still-surprised face. Placing another gentle kiss on her finger and the ring, he smiled contently at her. “No, my love. You are the most beautiful thing in this world to me. And yes, of course I am certain. I’ve been certain since the moment I saw you.” He bent down and kissed her again. This time it was hotter and heavier. He had to lift the lower part of his body slightly off her so that his rigid erection would not offend her maiden sensibility. “I love you, Elizabeth Magini. I love you so much that I would give all my worldly possessions just to spend the rest of my days with you. Please say yes.”
And she kissed him back with so much warmth and love that he knew he was finally home. No more blood. No more scheming. No more loss…
A series of loud stomps brought Rei back to the present. “Master Rei!” His butler practically ran into his bedroom.
Rei stood up. He sensed what he should have sensed earlier had he not been so engrossed in his memories of Elizabeth. Intruders. Skyla’s teammates had come, sooner than he had expected. Dammit, he had not even spent five minutes with her yet. There were still questions that he must have answered. He had searched far too long and hard for Elizabeth. He knew deep in his soul that his five centuries of searching were coming to an end. It was about bloody time. The gods had been having a good laugh at his expense. Those bastards knew Elizabeth lived, but they refused to tell him where she had gone.
Calmly he waived his butler off. “It’s all right, Herbert. They’re gone now. Call Sloan and tell him to proceed as I instructed.” Herbert followed his order and left the bedroom. Rei put the wooden box back into the safe and got ready for his next move—to claim what was his.
•●•
“Skyla, Skyla?” She felt someone shaking her and vaguely heard a raspy male voice. Her sight slowly focused on the face in front of her. “Gus?” She felt dazed and confused. She placed her hand on her forehead, applying pressure to a dull ache. “What happened?”
Without answering her, Augustus Velakios, the former Spanish terrorist who was betrayed by his cell and now worked for TSCCA, unbound her wrists and ankles quickly and efficiently. “No time to explain. We’ve got to move before the portal is closed.”
“No…Mom, Dad…” Yes, she had to get back to Mom and Dad, make sure they were okay. Yet part of her consciousness was fighting to stay. It was telling her that she had to stay, she would find answers for those unexplainable nightmares and the out-of-time-and-space feelings she had had since she’d woken up from the coma.
“Mr. and Mrs. Gray are fine. Your mom came by your room by chance and discovered you missing. She contacted the director immediately.” He quickly pulled her still-groggy body up from the chair. “Hurry. We have to leave now. The director will have my hide if there’s another incident. Let’s go.” Without waiting for her to respond, Gus lifted her into his arms and pressed the radio communicator to his throat, “Secured and ready.”
“Copy that.” Both a male and a female voice answered at the same time. She knew the voices. They were Vivi’s and Butch’s. From the rapid movements outside the study, they were moving away from their stations to make sure the path between the study and the portal was secured.
The rather loud stomping noises finally broke through her hazy consciousness. Her head was more focused now, and she pushed against Gus’s impressively muscular chest. “Put me down. I can walk.”
Arching a thick, dark eyebrow, he asked, “Are you sure, chica? You did not look like you knew where you were just a second ago.”
“Yes, I’m sure. Now let me down.” With another push against Gus’s solid chest, Skyla freed herself from his hold and took the spare Glock from the side of his waistband.
On autopilot, she pulled the magazines out of the Glock, making sure it was locked and loaded. Satisfied, she nodded at Gus. “Let’s go.”
“Downstairs, to your left, and keep going toward the back. Two minutes.”
Leveling the gun, she took the lead toward the portal location while Gus covered her back, making sure no one was following them.
Chapter Eight
“Two teams are now shadowing Senator Glass and Representative Steagalls. Standing by for further instructions.” Sloan rattled off his report as he was pushing open the study door, thinking that was why Rei had summoned him. Instead of finding Rei behind his massive mahogany desk as usual, his brother was standing in front of the life-sized portrait of Elizabeth. Not again. He stifled his groans. When Rei turned to look at him, his brother’s eyes were shrouded by the past. The past that had been steadily eating away at his brother since the day they, along with their other brothers, had been called back to their homeland to defend their country once again from invaders. It was 1587. Just like all of his brothers, he had been sent to live in a foreign country to be the eyes and ears for the Empire; in his case it was Scotland. When he arrived back home after being summoned by their father, he found Rei, his fearless eldest brother, the heir to their father’s kingdom, sitting alone at the dock looking lost and haunted.
“You’ve found Elizabeth.” He spoke quietly, more of a statement than a question.
A determined expression replaced his brother’s haunted look from a moment ago. “Take Bo and Tory with you. I want all there is to know about Agent Skyla Gray and the TSCCA in the twenty-first century.”
Sloan paused a few moments, weighing this new complication, and then spoke carefully, “Is this wise? Time’s fast approaching. We can’t afford any distraction now. They won’t allow it.”
His brother’s jaw tightened. “I know what’s at stake.”
Knowing there would be no arguing with his brother’s—his commander’s—order, Sloan walked out of the study, holding back the rising bitterness. It was the same bitter taste he felt when his brother defied their father’s order not to leave the country a
nd went back to Florence looking for Elizabeth. The memory of their father and brothers and countless countrymen falling at the Last Battle rushed through his mind. Sloan had to slow his pace and force himself to breathe slowly so he wouldn’t charge back up to Rei’s study and shake some senses into his brother for risking his men again for that mere girl.
When he was sure he had regained his composure, he went to look for Bo and Tory. They were in the weapons room cleaning their gear. “Let’s go hunting.” He nodded at two of his best soldiers and charged out of the townhouse front door. The brilliant sun and a gust of rigid, cold wind blasted him unexpectedly and ruthlessly. It tempered his still-boiling anger and gave him a clearer mind. After all these centuries, he knew what he must do.
•●•
Skyla drove back to her parents’ house as soon as she finished debriefing the director on what happened at Rei’s townhouse back in 1933. She had questions for Mom and Dad, on top of the questions she had wanted to ask them last night before her abduction.
Passing the security gate at her parents’ house, she immediately noticed the increased security details—one full team was patrolling the premises, instead of half of the team patrolling the grounds while the other half manned the communication control room inside the security gate. If one full team was on the ground, there must be a second team shadowing and taking up strategic sniper positions. Well, at least that’s how she would’ve configured her team when she was the lead Secret Service agent for some of the presidential events.
“Skyla!” Her mom rushed up to her, half-dragged her out of the car, and hugged her tightly. “Are you all right? We were so worried when we realized you were not in the house or within the compound.” It felt so good in Mom’s fierce embrace, so she held on just a moment longer before speaking.
“I’m okay.” Skyla hugged back. “I’m sorry I’ve made you and Daddy worry.” She saw her dad standing on top of the front steps, and her arm automatically reached out. “Daddy.”
Her dad came down and wrapped his arms tightly around both of them. A long moment passed before he loosened his hold. Relief mixed with deep sadness in his hazel eyes. Thin white stress lines bracketed his lips. “You have questions for us, don’t you?” There was hint of foreboding in his normally strong, soothing voice.
She nodded.
“Come in.” He gestured to the house. They walked inside and to the family den. “Laura called us after your debriefing. She told us what happened yesterday during your mission inside the bank vault and where they found you last night.”
Now that was a surprise. The Agency forbade its personnel from discussing the Agency’s business with anyone, including family members, without prior clearance from the director or Curtis.
“Daddy? Why would—”
Her father held up his hand so he could continue. Her father, a brilliant litigator, seemed to be at a loss for words.
She waited for a long moment. “Daddy?”
Her dad kissed her mom on the cheek affectionately, as if giving her mom and himself courage before continuing. “Laura said you told her about seeing a painting of someone who looked like you in the study where the man held you captive.”
Another surprise. Skyla had never heard the director discussing any of the Agency business, let alone in this level of detail, to anyone outside of the Agency or her chain of command.
“Laura also said that you thought you knew the man who disarmed you inside the bank vault. He was the same man who kidnapped you last night. And you’ve never seen that man until yesterday?”
She nodded reluctantly, not sure where this line of questioning was leading to. Cold sweat started trickling down her spine underneath her white and navy blue pinstripe shirt.
“And when Agent Velakios found you, you were unconscious. You thought your brain had an overload of images of people whom you don’t know but you feel an extreme familiarity with?”
That’s when her mom started sobbing quietly. Skyla went to her mom immediately. Embracing her, she looked at her dad, her heart racing. “What’s going on, Daddy?”
Her father got up from the sofa and went to the mantelpiece where they kept the family photos. He reached for the photo frame on the far left, the one that had been taken when Skyla had come home from the hospital. Her hair was very long, all the way down to her lower back, and her skin was much paler. In that photo, she looked exactly like the girl in the painting at Rei’s townhouse. Oh my God, it couldn’t be. Could it?
Her father turned around to face her. The distraught look on his normally warm face said it all before he went on. “Skyla, there’s something you need to know.”
“No…” One of her hands covered her mouth as if she could prevent the truth from coming out while her other hand clutched her mother’s like it was her only lifeline.
Not giving her a chance to say any more, her father sat down next to her mother and then looked directly into her eyes, “Skyla, we’re not your biological parents.”
She was too stunned to react in any way. Her dad held her sobbing mom and gently murmured, “Dear, we’ve no choice. She needs to know.” His voice cracked.
“Mom, Daddy, it’s not true.” Skyla looked at her parents holding each other like a couple grieving the loss of their child.
“I’m afraid it is. And we’re sorry that we’ve kept this from you for so long.” Her father’s steely courtroom voice was back. “Laura prepared us for this day.”
“Why—why didn’t you or Mom tell me this before? And what does Aunt Laura have to do with this?”
She had never seen such sorrow in her dad’s eyes. He had always been the rock of their family. She remembered the countless times he had been by her side during her recovery in the hospital and the physical and speech therapies that came afterward. She remembered the comfort and support he had given Aunt Laura in the months after Uncle Johan was declared MIA. But now, her dad’s normally calm and confident façade was breaking down. He looked at her with regret and deep sorrow.
“Because you’re our government secret.”
If she had been shocked by the fact she was adopted, she was even less prepared to hear what her father had just said. She had known there was more to her past than her parents had let on, but not in a million years would she have thought she was some kind of government secret.
Chapter Nine
“Director Jensen.” Rei spoke from the shadows in the dimly lit room, catching his prey by surprise. The slight form of the woman ducked behind her desk in a quick, fluid motion and surfaced just as quickly with a handgun, now pointing it in the general direction of his voice.
She spoke in a stern, authoritative tone, befitting her station. “Show yourself.”
Not wishing to waste more time, he stepped out from the shadows in the opposite corner from her and held up his arms casually, showing her that he was not armed—at least not visibly. His saber was hidden underneath his black leather trench coat.
“Who are you? And how did you get in here?” Now the gun was aiming directly at his head. Her posture was tense, ready to shoot.
“Ah, your so-called time distortion—a.k.a, wormhole detection technology.” He smiled and dropped his hands to his sides, disregarding the little lady’s deadly aim. “I am Rei Dusan.”
Her stand remained firm and ready. “Should I know you?”
“You should if my intel is correct. You were part of the team who recovered the time machine in which Elizabeth Magini traveled to your century. Or, I should say, Skyla Gray.”
Her eyes widened in surprised for a split second. “What do you want?”
Good, he finally had the director’s attention.
•●•
Laura was surprised, yet not shocked, to be facing the stranger in front of her. She had been preparing for this moment since the day her government had intercepted the time machine and decided to integrate Skyla, the name they had given the girl inside the machine, into their society. She remembered what happened twelve
years ago as clearly as if it was yesterday…
“Sir, with all due respect, we must send the girl back, to wherever and whichever time period she came from. She’d be a danger to herself and to us in our time.” She walked briskly alongside General McCarthy, who was heading to the Oval Office for his final recommendation on the situation to the president.
He stopped and turned abruptly to face her. Irritation was stamped all over his face. If she knew what was good for her career in the Secret Service, she would not challenge the highest-ranking official on the joint task force. But she knew it could be disastrous to let her government make this mistake, so she held the general’s eyes steadily, not backing down.
“Agent Jensen, to which time period do you suggest we send the girl? Not to mention our research team still hasn’t unlocked the secrets of that machine. Even if we wanted to send her back in time, we cannot.” Picking up his pace again, he continued. “Short of confining her to a cell, we have no other choice but integrate her into our world.”
More than three months had passed since the U.S. Navy, the closest military unit stationed near North Kingstown, Rhode Island, had retrieved the machine and the girl. A week ago, the girl had finally awakened from her coma, but she had no idea who she was, what had happened to her, or how she had gotten here. The doctors had found no sign of concussion; therefore, it was highly likely that either something traumatic had happened to the girl before she left her time or that time travel itself had been too taxing on her consciousness—hence, voluntary amnesia to protect her mind from what it could not handle.
She had visited the girl daily, hoping to find out more about her and the machine. The only thing she could say for certain was that the girl was from a distant past. She spoke fluent Italian and English, but both in the old linguistic forms. The forensic team took a close look at the girl’s clothing and her body composition, and then cross-referenced their findings with different relevant historical periods in southern Europe that had proliferated scientific invention. The team was 99 percent confident the girl came from the Renaissance period. Based on the nutrients found in her body, the team also concluded that she was from the middle region of Italy, possibly Tuscany, as it was known in the present time…
Time Eternal Page 5