She closed her eyes for a brief moment. When she opened them, the sadness was still there, but it was overshadowed by her resolve. “I cannot go with you, Rei. I cannot, and I will not, leave Papa. I’m all he has left since Mama died.”
“Then we’ll take your father with us.”
A sad smile touched her lips, the soft, shy lips that he had kissed so many times. “No, Papa will never agree to leave Florence, not when he and Uncle Giovanni are so close to finishing their planetary theory and the machine, and not when the Medici have invested so much money in their work. Fernando Medici will never let my family go. He would find us and make us pay for such treachery, no matter where we are.”
Panic was setting in fast. Like begging, panic was a new emotion to him. So Rei spoke before he could think it through. “Then we will take Uncle Giovanni with us too.” Even he could hear the sheer desperation in his voice. He already knew how hopeless the situation was.
“Rei, you know that is impossible. Uncle Giovanni has his family to think about too. You cannot expect everyone to leave their homes behind just for us.”
As always, his Elizabeth’s logic was flawless. That was one of the many things he loved about her. She was no ninny like other young society ladies. She took after her father and uncle. She had a brilliant mind, logical and scientific.
He knew how stubborn she was. She would stay because of her father and uncle. He knew there was nothing he could do to persuade her short of taking her by force. He was about to do just that when the door of the sitting room was thrown open. Elizabeth’s cousin, Antonio, who was also the captain of the guard for the Medici family, came in with two soldiers. His eyes fixed on Rei. “Elizabeth, your father needs you in his study right away.”
Elizabeth looked at her beloved cousin with puzzlement. “What’s going on, Antonio?”
Antonio repeated his request, which sounded more like an order, but Elizabeth did not move away from him; instead she did the opposite. She stepped closer to him as if she already knew the evil about to happen. “No, Antonio, something is wrong. Why did Papa not come himself and ask for me?”
Rei knew why. His identity was blown. If he were captured, there was no doubt the Ottoman sultan would use him as leverage against his father and the empire. He needed an escape plan, fast, but he could not leave Elizabeth behind. Not when there was still so much to explain to her. Not when his heart and soul were irrevocably tied to hers. He could not imagine his life without her. His fight for his home would be meaningless without Elizabeth by his side.
Stepping forward, Rei raised his arms in a gesture of surrender. “I am the one you want. I will come with you. Leave Elizabeth out of this.”
“No!” Elizabeth rushed forward. “Antonio, I demand to know what’s going on. Why are you taking Rei away?”
Antonio’s soldiers seized Rei’s arms immediately, while Antonio turned to Elizabeth. With a surprising gentleness, he told his cousin, “Rei has lied to you. He’s lied to us. He is not who he said he was. He is—” Before he could go on, Elizabeth stubbornly stuck out her chin and cut him short, “I know who Rei is, cousin. But why are your men arresting him?”
Rei was awed by Elizabeth’s fierce protectiveness of him. A similar surprise showed on her cousin’s face before the cold bastard answered in a detached, authoritative tone, “Rei has been charged with spying for the enemy. I am ordered to take him to the tower for execution.”
“No!” Antonio caught her before she fell. He sat her on the chaise. “Elizabeth, you must listen to me. Fernando needs the support of the Ottoman sultan to preserve his power in Florence. Rei must be executed in order to send a stern message to the Serbian Emperor that resistance will result in annihilation—starting with his eldest son.”
Now or never. Rei used Elizabeth’s distress as a distraction and jabbed his elbows at the two soldiers standing next to him, aiming at their windpipes, hoping to at least immobilize them, if not kill them on the spot, given the sheer force he had used. Having no remorse over his likely kills, he picked up a fallen saber with his tied hands and was ready to fight his way out and take Elizabeth with him.
Antonio let out a loud curse before charging toward Rei with his saber. In the meantime, more soldiers rushed into the sitting room at the same time.
“No, Antonio!” Elizabeth screamed and reached him before Antonio did. Putting herself between him and her cousin, she said, “No, Antonio. I beg of you, please let Rei go.” Swallowing tightly, she continued, “And in exchange, I will agree to the proposal you made to Papa. I will marry Fernando.”
Her plea and declaration stunned both him and her treacherous cousin. There was a deafening silence in the sitting room. It took Rei a moment to understand what she was saying. He could not believe it. He refused to believe it. Her power-hungry cousin had lost his mind to dare make such a proposal to her father. Pulling Elizabeth back, he glared down at her. “The devil you will make such a deal.” Then he turned squarely in front of Antonio. “I will go with you willingly. But Elizabeth will not marry Fernando.”
Too focused on keeping Elizabeth safe and too furious that she had just traded her life for his, Rei didn’t realize until too late that a soldier had crept up beside him. A searing pain burned into his side. He looked down and saw a saber piercing through his ribs from behind. The rapidly gushing blood from the wound brought him to his knees. His vision was rapidly blurring and so was his hearing. Elizabeth’s scream was fading like the morning star. He tried to get up and go to her, but his body was like stone, sinking onto the carpet. The next thing he felt was a blunt object crashing into the back of his head. “Rei!” The terrified scream was the last thing he heard before he lost consciousness...
As always, Rei’s nightmare took him forward to the battleground where he and his brothers stood shoulder to shoulder, awaiting the onslaught from the Ottoman Turks—the battleground where his countrymen were slaughtered along with his father and his younger brothers. He had dreamed of this battle time and time again throughout the centuries. Every time, he was just about to push his father away from the spears of two Ottoman soldiers, but he was too late to save his father, his king. And every time, he bolted straight up, awake, his body coiled and ready to fight. But this time, instead of finding himself alone in the dark, he heard something, or rather someone, crashing down on the floor. He reflectively reached for the dagger underneath the pillows and rolled off the bed, and with deadly aim, he pushed the dagger against the intruder’s throat. “Don’t move.”
•●•
Skyla was still in shock from what she had just seen. A dream—it must have been a dream she had just seen. The girl in the dream looked so much like herself. It was her. She just knew it. But how did she see into Rei’s dream? Questions. No answers. She hated questions with no answers. But Rei’s deadly voice and the sharp blade of his dagger pressing against her throat kicked her body into automatic defensive maneuvers, ready to fight him off. Just when she was about to apply counter moves, Rei blinked and the cold, dead stare was gone. He pulled the dagger back, but his other arm still held her throat tightly. “What are you doing here?”
She could hear his heavy breathing in the dark. It was as if he’d just finished rushing against some unseen enemy in the dark. “Let go of me.” She pushed at his chest and found a solid wall of muscle.
“Why are you here?” he asked again, this time with more menace in his voice. He used the momentum from her push to pull her to him, her body flush against his very naked body. Her body began humming again. Damn her traitorous body! Before she could buck him off, his mouth was on hers without any ceremony. He kissed her as if he was drowning and needed air, he kissed her with the ferocity of a starving man, and he kissed her as if she had always belonged to him.
It was the most intense kiss she had ever had. His demanding kiss burned not only her lips but something much deeper inside of her, somewhere she didn’t even know existed. And then fragments of images flooded her mind again. Papa, U
ncle Giovanni, Antonio…too many images at once. Images she did not recognize, but her soul knew without any doubt. They were her memories from a long forgotten past. It was as if she were Sleeping Beauty, awakened for the first time in a century.
No…she didn’t want this. She didn’t want any other life than the one she had built with her mom and dad, with her team. Skyla struggled to take control of herself. She pulled her leg back and raised it, aiming where it would hurt the most. And just like that, his solid weight rolled off her. He let out a harsh groan. Quickly she pushed herself off the floor and ran for the door.
“Dammit. Elizabeth, wait!” he called after her.
No. Skyla kicked up her legs and leaped past the suite door. She was not Elizabeth, at least not anymore.
Chapter Twelve
Skyla did not know why she was running like hell hounds were on her heels. She knew she was absolutely safe within the Agency. Well, on second thought, maybe not so safe if Rei could penetrate these walls so easily, passing the tempo detectors as if they were mere children’s toys. As soon as the elevator doors were open, she jumped right in and almost ran into two solid walls.
“Whoa, Skyla, easy.” Butch was holding his arms out on her shoulders so that she wouldn’t literally smack right into them.
She stood still for a second, trying to catch her breath, trying to make sense of what she’d just seen and what her body had just felt. She didn’t want to alarm them, especially not Knox. She knew he would kill Rei if he heard about what had just happened inside the guest suite. Despite Knox’s normally reserved demeanor, he was cold and merciless when he chose to be. She had seen him kill when necessary, when he had to protect his team during missions. And she was always thankful that he was on their side instead of the bad guys’. So she infused as much calm in her voice as she could, “Yeah. I’m okay.”
Now that she had caught her breath fully, she realized something was out of the ordinary. Both of them were in full mission gear. Strange, she was not aware of any active mission her team was on the last couple of days. And it was Agency protocol to keep the same team abreast of any ongoing missions carried out by their teammates in the event backup was needed.
She did a slow double take from Butch to Knox and then to Butch again. “And where’ve you two been?”
Silence. She was so tired of questions not being answered. Rei, her parents, the director. And now these two big apes! She could feel the gasket on her already tightly lidded temper was about to blow. She took a deep breath before turning to Knox, hoping he would take pity on her. “Well?”
Silence again. Goddammit! “Fine. I’ll ask the director myself.” She turned her back on them and faced the elevator door.
Within thirty seconds, the elevator reached Level 5. As she quickly stepped out, so did Knox and Butch. She turned around and scowled at them. “Where’re the two of you going?” She didn’t even bother to hide her black mood.
“The director’s office.” Butch’s curt reply pissed her off just as much as their refusal to answer her question barely thirty seconds ago.
She stepped in front of them, blocking their forward movement. “Why?”
Knox finally spoke. “You, Skyla. You.” He sounded as agitated as she was, but there was also a hint of concern in his voice.
She took a step back. “What do you mean me?”
“We can’t talk about our mission without prior authorization. You know that.” Knox paused as if to think better of it. “Come with us and let the director decide.” Both of them got around her and proceeded toward the director’s office. Skyla quickly followed behind them.
When they reached the director’s office, Curtis was not there. Wherever the director was, Curtis always was too. He didn’t just turn away people who did not make appointments; he was the director’s tactical officer, her quasi second-in-command. It was very strange, but it was all the better for Skyla. She did not have the time to maim anyone at the moment, and if Curtis was his usual charming self, that would definitively push her over the edge. She wanted answers. Now.
Before Knox and Butch could knock on the office door, a faint female voice came through the heavy steel. “Come in.”
After they stepped inside, the director looked up from her computer. “I thought I’d given you two orders not to speak with anyone else before or after the assignment.” Her voice was stern but not surprised, as if she had expected Skyla would show up with Knox and Butch.
Knox took a step forward. “Ma’am, we ran into Skyla inside the elevator on the way up to debrief you. And since the assignment concerns her, I thought she had the right to be here for the debriefing.”
The director’s back stiffened slightly, and her eyes turned furiously cold. “Well, Agent Sittler. I’m afraid I didn’t get the memo from Homeland Security that you’d been promoted as the head of TSCCA. So the next time you think of not following my direct order, you’d better be ready to face the consequences.” Her severe tone made Skyla and Butch flinch, but Knox held his own. He remained expressionless.
“Director,” Skyla stepped in front of Knox as if she could protect him from her aunt’s wrath. “I made them bring me along.” Then with measured steps, she walked up to her aunt and took her hands into hers. “Please, Aunt Laura, tell me what’s going on? Who’s Rei? He’s here because of me, isn’t he?”
Her aunt held her gaze for a long moment, and she saw the answer to her last question in her aunt’s eyes. She was going to be sick. Her head started spinning again until Knox put his hands on her shoulders from behind, silently supporting her, soothing her nerves. His hands were like Rei’s, big and strong, but there was no sizzling electricity coming off him as she had felt from Rei, not five minutes ago. “Aunt Laura, please tell me.”
“Agent Sittler, Agent Stone. Did you get a positive ID from your mission?”
“Yes, ma’am.” Knox and Butch answered in unison.
Their reply didn’t seem to surprise the director. She nodded at them. “That’s all for now. Please wait outside.” Once the door was closed, the director turned to her. “Are you ready to know the truth?”
For a tenth of a second Skyla wanted to shake her head, but the part of her that was beginning to wake wanted to know, needed to know. Her mouth suddenly felt like it was stuffed with cotton balls. She swallowed hard and then nodded.
•●•
Rei was lying on the floor, still panting from the kiss and body-to-body contact with Skyla Gray. The last thread of doubt about her being Elizabeth had evaporated as soon as his lips touched hers. She still tasted like warmth and sunshine, even though she had become someone else, someone as cold and ruthless as he was, a lethal warrior of her time. It had been almost half a millennium since he had felt Elizabeth. Skyla was his Elizabeth. The curve of her body, the breathless yielding of her mouth to his ferocious demand, and the bone-deep recognition of each other were all the signs he needed to shatter any doubts. Even now, his heart was pumping rapidly from the taste of her, the feel of her, the certainty that he had finally found her. As each decade had passed, he started to fear the worst, that Elizabeth was truly lost in time as her uncle had told him. The time machine she had escaped in was only a prototype. It had never been tested on another human being. Even her uncle could not deduce which time period she might have gone to or whether she had survived the journey.
He got up from the floor and hastily put on his clothes. He wanted Elizabeth back now, and he needed to make sure Director Jensen and her government knew how serious he was. Once he reached Level 5, he passed by the hand and retinal scanners just as he had before. He was about to step into Direct Jensen’s office when he saw two familiar hulking figures inside the seating area, half-guarding the area, half-speaking quietly and intensely to each other. Muttering an old Serbian curse about a goat and its private parts, he readied his body for battle.
“Gentlemen.”
Both Knox and Butch immediately drew their guns and pointed them in his direction. “Son of
a bitch. How did you get past the security protocol?” Butch snarled at him.
Still preferring not to shed blood unnecessarily, he spread his arms out to show he was unarmed. “Same way I did the first time I got inside Director Jensen’s office.” He answered the question in a bored tone as he walked up to them face-to-face, warrior-to-warrior. A risky move, but time was up. He needed this to end right here, right now. “I need to speak with your director and Skyla.”
Without taking his aim off Rei, Knox said quietly, stoically, “She does not know you anymore.”
Rei knew that much already, but it did not lessen the pain of hearing it said aloud. He schooled his expression to hide any hint of pain or doubt. He could not afford to show any weakness in front of these men. Men who fought alongside his Elizabeth, men who would give their lives for her if they thought for even a moment that she was in danger. “She’ll know me again.”
“Bastard, where’ve you been these past twelve years?” Butch’s voice dripped with venom. “We saw what happened to her at the end. What Fernando Medici tried to do to her. Where the fuck were you?” He shoved Rei back, testing his resolve. With another hard shove, Butch snarled at him again. “She came alone, she woke up alone from a three-month coma, and now you think you can just waltz back in and claim her?”
A red haze was slowly clouding Rei’s vision. He knew the only reason Elizabeth would’ve risked using the untested time machine was if something horrific was about to happen to her—something that would cause her to flee and leave her family behind, the family she loved so much that she had chosen to give away their love in the face of Medici wrath. The gods he bargained with and served had saved his life and given him immortality along with the ability to travel through time. Only after he had struck the bargain with the deceptive gods did he find out it was forbidden go back in time to save her, to save them. So he had never had confirmation of what he had suspected. Now Butch’s words were like a hot iron poker piercing through his heart. He wanted to howl, to lash out at anyone for his failure to protect Elizabeth. He clenched his teeth and challenged them. “What I can or cannot do with Elizabeth is none of yours or anyone’s business. Are you two letting me pass, or shall we get on with it?”
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