Touching Silver

by Jamie Craig

  The distant sound of knocking crawled through the miasma drawing her down. “Olivia?” Isaac called out. Her door. He was rapping at her closed door. “Ready whenever you are.”

  Olivia struggled to answer him. She wanted to answer him, but her mouth wouldn’t open. Her brain wasn’t attached to her body. Her mind still hovered in the jungle with the temple, still watched Remy. Since she couldn’t speak, she tried to sit up, forcing her heavy limbs to cooperate.

  She began to come back to herself when she hit the floor.

  “Olivia?” This time, fear tinged his voice. Even if she could speak, Isaac didn’t give her a chance before he opened the door. She heard the rush of his heels on her hardwood floors as he hurried toward her.

  Strong arms scooped her up, dizzying her with warmth and movement as he lifted her into the air. Then she was turning, falling again, lower and lower but instead of the darkness that had consumed her in the jungle, the soft down of her comforter cushioned against her cheek. She wasn’t there. She was here. In her bedroom. Isaac was here. Isaac was talking to her. Touching her, his fingers sure and gentle along her brow and cheek, feeling along her hairline.

  “I knew I should’ve taken you to the hospital. Come on, sweetheart. Wake up for me. Don’t scare me like this.”

  The mention of the hospital brought her to attention. “No.” Her tongue was thick, refusing to work easily. “No hospital.” The weight holding her eyes shut began to lift now, and she opened them to meet Isaac’s worried face. “I’m awake.”

  “You passed out again.” His fingers settled at her throat, and it took a moment for her to realize he was taking her pulse. “And your heart is racing.”

  “I know.” She still felt too hot. She rested her arm on her forehead, shielding her eyes from the light. “But I don’t think…” Maybe if she had seen somebody else in her dream, she wouldn’t have mentioned it to Isaac. But she hadn’t seen somebody else. She’d seen Remy.

  What if he thinks I’m crazy?

  Well, she wasn’t crazy. She’d experienced something crazy, but she was perfectly healthy.

  “I think it has something to do with this.” She opened her hand to reveal the coin pressed against her palm.

  Isaac didn’t move his head, only his lashes flickering as he glanced down at her upturned hand. Then those, too, stopped moving as he stared at what she held.

  “Where did you get that?”

  Olivia swallowed, trying to wet her dry mouth. “The arson. I was holding it the first time I passed out.”

  He exhaled in a soft hiss. Without looking away, he plucked the coin up before she had the chance to curl her hand into a fist. He rose from the bed and carried it over to her vanity, flipping on the bright lights of her make-up mirror to peer at the coin more closely.

  “Well, at least I know what the hell the arsons were about now.”

  Olivia propped herself up on her pillows. “What? And don’t try to give me one of your non-answers. I think I have the right to know what the hell is going on.”

  His broad thumb brushed over the smooth side of the coin before he closed his fingers around it for a few seconds, as if testing its weight. With a frown, he opened his hand again and turned the coin over, this time touching the raised symbols on its opposite side.

  “I’ll tell you what’s going on.” He glanced back at her. “If you tell me why you passed out.”

  As if it was that easy. “I don’t know why I passed out. I was looking at the coin, and then I saw…I saw Remy. Down in Argentina. And a temple. The dreams or visions or whatever they are, are short, but…intense. I mean, I didn’t just see her. I could hear her, and smell the air, and touch her. Like I was there.”

  She didn’t see Isaac get rattled very often, but mentioning Remy did the trick. He marched back to the bed and sat down on the edge, the mattress bowing beneath his weight as he leaned closer. “You’re sure it was Remy?” he pressed. “Was something happening to her? Where was Nathan?”

  Olivia frowned. She was just barely coming back to the land of the living and he asked about Nathan? She hadn’t even mentioned Nathan.

  “I’m sure it was Remy. Nothing happened to her. She was just going into some sort of temple. I didn’t see Nathan, though I think he was there. I think I heard him.”

  “Son of a bitch.” He dropped the coin onto the blanket between them to run his hand over his hair. He ended with his head bowed, his fingers at the back of his neck as he visibly put his brain to work. “I hate these fucking coins. First Remy, then Nathan, and now you.”

  “I’m getting tired of the riddles, Isaac. What are these damned coins? Is this the Silver Maiden? What did it do to Remy and Nathan?”

  When he lifted his head, his eyes were bleak, dark with worry. “I’d say you’d never believe me, but considering the damn thing’s giving you visions I think my odds just got a little better.”

  She sat up and swung her legs over the edge, sliding closer to him, until they were sitting shoulder to shoulder.

  “Tell me. I trust you. I know you aren’t a liar.”

  “No, but I’ll bet you thought I was at least sane.” He leaned forward, resting his forearms on his knees. “I already told you the history I know about it. How it’s part of the set, and how the Silver Maiden got a pretty crap ending. Well, somehow, and I don’t know how, there’s more to it than that. A lot more. Gabriel has one half and now I’m pretty sure he’s been burning down the storage facilities trying to find that one.”

  “That seems counterproductive to me. Does it react to fire or something?”

  “That’s the thing. We’re not sure. Maybe he was torching the places to cover up his tracks that he’d been there. I just don’t know.”

  “So Remy gave part of it to him last summer to save Nathan.”

  Isaac nodded. “But you’re not asking the important question.”

  “Which is?”

  “What was Remy doing with it in the first place?”

  If Isaac thought it was important…“What was Remy doing with the Silver Maiden?”

  “Hold onto your hat.” His gaze flickered over her, as if aware for the first time that she was sitting there only in her underwear. “How do you feel about time travel?”

  “I thought Terminator was a good movie, though Back to the Future will make you go cross-eyed if you think about it too much. Why?”

  “Make it Remy instead of Michael J. Fox and that coin instead of a DeLorean. Oh, and instead of Biff going back in time to change things, it’s a psycho bitch of a cop from D.C.”

  Any new relationship would have its share of challenges and difficulties. She just hadn’t anticipated hers would include time travel, visions and magic coins. A week ago she would have automatically laughed in his face and kicked him to the curb. A lot could change in just a few days.

  “Why do you believe Remy used the Silver Maiden to travel back in time?”

  “I didn’t at first. I thought she was pulling a con and Nathan was too much in lust to see it. I mean, you’ve seen how he is with her.” Rising from the bed, he began to pace the length of the room, his heels a hard tattoo on the floor to match his agitation. “But so much didn’t add up. No prints anywhere on file. Antibodies in her blood for vaccinations that don’t even exist yet. A microchip in her neck. Oh, and this ID card with technology on it that gave my best tech guy at the station wet dreams for two months.”

  “Did it send Nathan through time too?”

  Isaac snorted. “No, he was here when she landed in his lap. Nathan got something a bit more up close and personal.” He gestured toward the coin in frustration. “Damn thing gets hot as hell whenever he picks it up. He’s got a nasty scar on the palm of his hand where it burned him once.”

  “But this isn’t the coin that burned Nathan, right? Gabriel has that coin?” Isaac nodded. “I…Is that why Nathan and Remy went to Argentina? To figure out what Gabriel wants with the coins?”

  “Nathan thinks he’s using the coin he
has to move the girls in time somehow. And the coins are originally from Argentina. If there are answers to be had about how they work, they’re going to be down there.”

  She rested her forehead in her palm and closed her eyes. Time travel? Of all the crazy shit she heard in her life—and Cold Cases was a bastion of insanity—she had never heard anything like this. But that wasn’t the worst part. She stopped going to church with her mother at the age of eleven because the so-called miracles were too much for her to stomach. She demonstrated to a pack of her twelve-year-old friends that Bloody Mary did not live in the mirror. She stayed in a supposedly haunted house on a dare in college and got the best sleep in her life.

  She wasn’t a credulous person, waiting for the right salesman.

  “I can’t believe I’m going to say this, Isaac. And maybe I’ll regret it later. But I believe you.”

  He stopped on the far edge of the room and stared at her. “Are you saying that because you mean it? Or to placate the crazy man long enough to get to a phone and call the whitecoats?”

  “I know something is going on with that coin. I know Gabriel is willing to commit arson and murder to get his hands on it, so it’s clearly valuable. I know there is physical evidence. I haven’t seen any of it yet, but I’m sure you would be happy to show me the chip and her blood results. Not to mention Nathan’s scar. I know you have an impeccable record and reputation. I know you wouldn’t have advanced so far or have so many arrests if you weren’t competent and clear-thinking.” Olivia stood and approached him. “I don’t ignore evidence, Isaac, even if it doesn’t fit with my expectations.”

  His hand lifted as if to touch her, but only made it halfway before it dropped back down to his side. “But you didn’t expect any of this when you agreed to go out with me tonight. And I’ll understand if all this is too much for you. Hell, sometimes it’s too much for me, but I can’t just walk away from Nathan because his girlfriend hasn’t technically been born yet. We’ve been through too much together. But there’s still time for you to back off. If that’s what you want.”

  This would be the best time to walk away. They weren’t entangled with each other. What had they shared besides a few kisses and a bed in the most innocent sense? She could get dressed—and thank goodness she had at least pulled on her panties before fucking around with the coin—and take Tiberius for a walk. When she returned, Isaac would be gone. She knew he would leave quietly, without kicking up a fuss. No harm, no foul. So long and thanks for all the fish.

  “Isaac, when I woke up this morning with you I realized I was really happy to be waking up with you. I don’t want to throw that away before we even have a chance to see what this is between us.”

  An amused light appeared in his eyes, but his mouth remained solemn. “You do understand that this is your one and only chance to tell me to shove off, right? Because otherwise, I’m going to take this as encouragement. And when I get encouraged, I have a tendency to get very encouraged.” He reached out and grazed his fingertips along the waistband of her panties, never looking away, keeping the touch so light that it almost tickled. “I don’t do things by halves, you know.”

  She lifted her chin, meeting his eyes. “I wouldn’t like you nearly as much if you did.”

  He gave her hip a light slap. “Then finish getting dressed. We still have a date. I promised you a few hours without interference from this shit, and that’s what you’re going to get.”

  Olivia smiled. “Yes, sir.” She turned to her closet, but paused and looked over her shoulder. “Do you want to take Tiberius out for a quick walk before we go? He’ll appreciate it.”

  “Not a problem.” He headed for the door. “I’ll make sure to get him good and tired so that you and I can have the night uninterrupted when we get back.”

  “Thanks.” She watched the space he had occupied for a long moment, a little perplexed. The revelation of time travel and magic coins was not nearly as surprising as the fact that she was falling in love with Isaac McGuire.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Isaac hadn’t planned a real date in years. Picking a girl up in the produce section and having a single night of sex amidst the rubble of dinner didn’t count, especially when she dressed and left before midnight and he couldn’t remember anything about her the next day except she hadn’t known the difference between a mango and a persimmon. Bumping into an old college friend and having a friendly fuck before she left town to go back to her Florida lifestyle didn’t count either. It definitely didn’t count when the girl he invited to a barbecue at his captain’s home ended up leaving with the captain’s son because he had a better car.

  So he wanted to impress Olivia tonight. He wanted her to walk away from their date eager to agree to another, in spite of the fact his best friend was in love with a woman from the future and they were trying to arrest a gang lord who happened to be obsessed with magic coins. He only needed a six-foot imaginary rabbit and a tiny cricket sitting on his shoulder to round out his world of crazy. This date was important. Olivia was important.

  He insisted on driving, keeping the conversation light as he took them out to Long Beach. She looked beautiful, her hair like a coppery cloud where it fell over her shoulders, the navy turtleneck sweater making her skin glow. Every time they passed beneath a streetlamp, the light caught her eyes, and his chest tightened a little bit more.

  This date was important. He wasn’t going to fuck this up.

  He pulled into the lot at the marine launch, grateful it wasn’t completely full. The streets blazed with Christmas decorations and “Deck the Halls” filtered through the speakers mounted along the sidewalk. Visitors crowded the neighborhood, walking along the Naples Island canals to enjoy the displays, so many that Isaac was relieved he’d called ahead for other arrangements. He didn’t want a date with several hundred other people. He wanted the chance to be able to touch Olivia, to talk to her without reserve.

  He was out of the car fast enough to get around to her side and open her door for her. “Have I mentioned how gorgeous you look tonight?” he commented when she stood in front of him. The breeze caught a strand of her hair and brushed it across her cheek, prompting Isaac to reach up and caress the smooth skin. His fingertips tingled. “You’re making me want to forget about the date portion of the night and go back home.”

  “You promised me a proper night out.” Olivia touched his chest lightly. “I plan to hold you to it. Especially since you’re such a handsome date.”

  He caught her hand and went around to the rear of the car, popping the trunk and taking out the wine carrier. At her curious glance, Isaac smiled and shook his head. “You’ll see.”

  They walked hand in hand down to the pier. Isaac joked about hoping she didn’t get seasick and then flashed to oh fuck I forgot to ask if she got seasick. But the excitement in Olivia’s eyes when he explained about the gondola ride through the canals dispelled the first of his fears, the rest vanishing when she snuggled into his side as they began the tour.

  He didn’t see the Christmas lights. Afterward, he couldn’t remember what they talked about, or when they had drunk the wine he’d brought, what the food had tasted like, or even if there had been any music playing like the tour promised. He was too busy watching her. He easily recalled the moment her hair got caught on her lip gloss for a fraction of a second before she reached up and brushed it free, and the different shades of blue her eyes turned as they passed by different colored light displays, and he even remembered noticing the tiny freckle at the corner of her mouth for the very first time.

  But the rest of it was a blur. Too soon, or not soon enough, they were on their way back to her place.

  She happily talked about her favorite light displays, her face and voice animated. She wasn’t the least self-conscious about discussing the things she liked and the things she found tacky. Apparently at the top of her list of Too Tacky to Tolerate were plastic Santas and those giant, electric snow globes. Isaac was just happy to listen to her.
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br />   When they reached her house, she paused outside the door, key in hand. “This is the part where you give me a respectful kiss goodnight, right?”

  Lightly, Isaac caught her wrist and tugged her closer. “Well, there’s respectful…” Bowing his head, he grazed a kiss across the corner of her mouth, pulling back when she attempted to turn into the caress. “And then there’s this.”

  He pressed her against the door, capturing the lips that had been teasing him all night in a hungry kiss. Her warmth seeped through his clothes, and though his fingers itched to slide beneath her sweater, Isaac settled for curling them into her waist, holding her still as he ground their hips together. The wine had warmed her tongue, and he sucked at the sweetness, her taste more than the alcohol making his head spin.

  Olivia wrapped her arms around his shoulders, holding him tightly against her body. He could have stayed just like that all night, kissing her until his head swam and his heart beat right out of his chest. But her porch light was on a timer, and when it clicked off, it pulled them both away.

  Her breath came in tiny pants. “We’re going to do more than just sleep tonight, right?”

  His throat tightened, and he thought speech was impossible, but he managed to nod toward the house. “Are you inviting me in?”

  She curled her fingers in his waistband and unlocked the door with her other hand. “Inviting. Dragging. Luring you with dark promises. Take your pick.”

  All three, please. As he followed her into the darkened house, his gaze fixed on her ass, watching the outline of her hips against the shadows inside. But Tiberius interrupted his view far too soon when he came bounding up, knocking against Olivia’s legs and pushing her back against Isaac’s chest.

  She dropped her head to his shoulder and brushed her lips against his ear. He shivered at the brief contact, the shiver morphing into a moan when she pushed her ass against his throbbing cock. “Go wait for me in the bedroom.” Her tongue darted out to tease his earlobe. “I’m going to feed him and put him in his room.”