The baby was completely vulnerable. Which meant Sarah had to stay, and defeat the Triscani here. Nothing had changed.
Sarah didn’t know the girl’s identity, didn’t want to. The more conscious minds focused on the child, the harder it would be for her to hide her presence from the eyes of the Archivers, the Triscani, and time itself.
The child trusted no one but her mother, and Sarah couldn’t fault her for that.
But it meant no one could know. And that included the well-intentioned man holding her so tenderly in the water.
Today, in that storm, she’d met the future in the crystal-clear twinkling of a child’s mind, and no one could know who the girl was. She needed to protect the girl, give her a few years to grow up and harness the power and innate knowledge within her. Sarah had to have faith that once that was done, the Triscani would run scared.
Sarah closed her eyes and enjoyed the precious warmth of Tim at her back and the still warm water surrounding her. She reached down the long tendril of power that burned like a Roman candle, shooting random bursts of power across the energy plane to keep the Triscani Hunters occupied, and pulled energy from the wind and electrical grid of the house, pushing it toward the bright flame in a swirl of chaotic design, added more energy to it and watched a ball of light shoot through the dark places. She added enough juice to make sure it burned so brightly the girl couldn’t be found. Judging by the way her previous work had begun to weaken and stutter, she figured she could buy the girl a few months, a year at most, before burning herself out completely.
Sarah wanted to scream in frustration, but she didn’t have the luxury. So, she sucked at this game she was playing. She’d better learn fast. The girl needed a more experienced guardian, someone much more skilled. Someone who could make their power an impenetrable wall, not a barely held together patchwork of power that was already falling apart.
She sucked as a protector, but as far as Sarah could see, she was the only chance the girl had. She was it. She’d have to freaking figure it out.
The girl would need years to grow into some semblance of a woman, to be big enough to fight these bastards on her own. Years.
She reached for more power and Tim growled in her ear. “Stop it.” He gently shook her shoulders and broke her concentration. Sarah allowed the energy to dissipate with a tired sigh. She’d tackle that problem again later, when she didn’t feel like she was about to collapse.
“Sarah, stop messing around. Your temperature just dropped again and I felt you pulling energy. What are you doing? Trying to kill yourself?”
Sarah clenched her jaw to prevent it from chattering. She was cold again. Hell. It was going to be a long ten years. “Sorry.”
“Tell me what’s going on. Talk to me. What happened out there on that rooftop?”
Sarah shook her head and let the tears pool behind burning eyelids, then slide silently down her cheeks and into the water. She couldn’t tell him. His conscious knowledge that the child existed might increase the drain on her energy, make it more difficult for the child to hide from the world.
A man like Tim didn’t deal in half-truths and lies. He wouldn’t be able to accept it. She wished she had some way to tell him that wouldn’t endanger him, the child, or herself. However, she seriously doubted he’d be willing to globe-trot with her, always on the run from the aliens hunting her, and never know why.
The knowledge twisted in her gut like a dull serrated knife.
Sarah pulled out of Tim’s grasp and tried to stand. The now tepid bath water glued her cami and underwear to her flesh and she shivered as goose bumps rose to cover her from head to toe. She’d swear even the fine hair in her eyebrows rose in protest of the chill.
“Stop.” Tim grabbed her wrist and held her in place. Her flesh pulsed beneath his touch on her arm and through her foot as it bumped his bare leg beneath the water. He had boxers on, by the looks of them, and every square inch of exposed chest and strong legs made her want to weep in regret. He was magnificent, and now he could never be hers.
“I’m sorry, Tim. I can’t answer any questions. As soon as this is over, I’ll need to leave Chicago as soon as possible.” He frowned, but didn’t release her.
“Where are we going?”
“We? Tim, assuming we survive, I still can’t tell you why I need to run and I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to.” Sarah watched the pain and denial flicker across his gaze, followed by steely determination. Oh, he’d agree now. But she could tell by the grim lines around his eyes and mouth that he would demand answers eventually, answers she could never give him. “I think it’s better if I go alone.”
She pulled her arm from his grasp and stepped out of the tub. She lifted her second foot out of the bath and broke the last physical contact she’d had with him.
A staggering weight hit her and forced her to the floor. God, did she suddenly weigh five hundred pounds? Her diaphragm worked valiantly to pull air into her lungs and she struggled to her hands and knees.
So, this was the weight of her burden. It settled in and she forced her mind to calm. She could do this. She’d just have to pull a bit more power and use some of it to push the energy around her into a sort of cocoon, a shield of sorts, instead of a lead weight that crushed her like five G’s of gravity pulling on every cell of her exhausted body.
“This is bullshit, Sarah.” Tim crouched beside her but didn’t touch her. “You need me. You can’t even stand up right now. And I bet your temp is dropping, too.”
Sarah looked into his calculating gaze and didn’t bother to deny it. The uncontrollable shivering had already begun twitching its way across her shoulders and back.
Tim gave her mercy and placed his hand on her shoulder. Immediately she could breathe again, and the shivering slowed to random quivers between her shoulder blades.
“You can’t do this without me, Sarah. And I won’t let you try.” He pulled her to stand facing him, both of them dripping onto the plush pink rug beneath their feet. “Let me help you. Tell me what you need. I’ve never let anyone down, Sarah. Never left a man behind if there was any possibility of saving him.”
“I’m not in the Army. I’m not trained to fight.” She shivered. “I’m just an average woman with no clue what to do here. I’m not a soldier, Tim. If things go wrong, no one will ever even know I was here.”
“I’ll know.” He massaged her shoulder and she swayed under his touch. “I went to West Point to make my father proud, studied mathematics instead of history so my mother could brag to her friends at the club, became a pilot not because I wanted to fly, but because my grandfather flew in the war. After I got out, my father made a few calls. He was on the Senate Armed Services Committee. He pulled some strings, pushed me into the civilian sector working in physics and energy development. They all used me, Sarah. They all wanted something from me, and I gave them everything I had, body and soul. I honored my father and served my country. I very nearly gave in and gave them what they wanted.
“In the end, I had to walk away. I lost my parents, my job, and nearly my life. And none of it mattered to me half as much as you do.” Tim’s free hand came up to rest against her cheek, and she nuzzled into the gentle touch, unable to deny herself the comfort he offered as he continued.
“All my life I’ve chased everyone else’s dreams, tried to live up to everyone’s expectations of me. Now I’ve finally got a dream of my own. And she’s standing in front of me, keeping secrets and shutting me out. Please, Sarah. Just tell me where we need to go. What we need to do. Let me help you.”
Sarah bit back sobs of relief. She’d tried to keep him safe. Was it her fault the stubborn man wouldn’t leave her to it? “They’ll hunt you, too, if you’re with me, if you’re protecting me.”
Tim’s entire body tensed at the threat. “Who, Sarah? What’s going on?”
“I don’t think the Triscani will stop with just Chicago any longer. They’ll hunt me down and kill me as quickly as possible.”
�
��Why?”
“I can’t tell you that without jeopardizing everything.”
Tim studied her face for long moments. His gaze penetrated to her very soul, but she refused to look away. “Coming with me is as good as signing your own death certificate, Tim.”
Understanding dawned and a pain-filled grin flitted across his features, then was gone. “You trying to protect me, sunshine?”
She felt the telltale blush creeping up her neck and knew her face would be bright pink in seconds. “They will hunt me. They won’t stop until I’m dead.”
Tim pulled her against his chest in a tight embrace and she went willingly, starving for the heat of his body and the false sense of security he wrapped around her like a baby blanket. “We’ll see about that. We’ll just see about that.”
They stood like that for several tense seconds before Tim pulled back and lifted his hands to each side of her face. “I’m hard to find and even harder to kill.” His thumb skimmed her lower lip in a featherweight caress and she stopped breathing, caught in the fire of desire in his eyes, paralyzed by the want bubbling through her veins. “I’m a predator, Sarah, not prey.”
“They’ll kill you to get to me.” Sarah whispered the fact and rubbed her cheek into his warm palm like a cat craving his touch. “I don’t want them to kill you.”
The admission cost her what little pride she had left. She was pathetic. Too weak to walk away and protect him, and too needy to deny his touch. Tim ignored the threat to his life as if it were of no consequence and continued to tease her lower lip with his thumb. Anger flared to life up and down her spine. “Are you even listening to me?”
“Yes.” Tim’s lips dropped to hover so close she felt him breathe the word against her lips. “Every word. They want to kill you and destroy Chicago.”
Sarah shook her head and closed her eyes, waiting for the kiss she so desperately wanted. “It’s not just Chicago.” Her shoulders slumped. This wasn’t right. She’d ask for nothing else from him, she’d done enough damage to his life already. As much as she wanted to rely on his strength, this was her job, her mission. She was the one who had been Taken, chosen…sacrificed for the cause.
She refused to beg him to die with her.
“Then what do they want from you, Sarah? Why do you believe they will hunt you?” Tim kissed her cheek and she swayed in his arms, unable to stop the instinctive reaction to his nearness, his touch.
“Because I didn’t leave them with any other choice. They have to kill me, or they’ll never find her.” The man had seduced the truth from her with a soft kiss at the corner of her mouth.
“Find who?”
Sarah opened her eyes. The sudden influx of light threatened to send her to her knees with pain. “I don’t know who she is.”
“Sarah.” His firm grip stabilized her as he spoke against her ear, his lips skimming the sensitive flesh with every word. “We go together. I will help you. And, I will kill anything that comes after you.”
She wanted to believe him, wanted to believe that he could…
“But you’re going to have to trust me. You have to tell me everything.”
“You don’t know what you’re up against. They’re not human.” Sarah pulled back and looked into his eyes, studied the strong, lean lines of his face.
Yes, he was undoubtedly one of the toughest men she’d ever met, but tough didn’t beat supernatural. The nasties hunting her wouldn’t play fair, and they wouldn’t play by human rules.
Chapter Eight
“I figured that one out for myself.” Tim’s fingers slid from her shoulder to her hand and entwined with hers, gently tugging her toward the towels. “Let’s get dried off, then you can start talking.”
Sarah nodded, rethinking her strategy. So she’d tell him what she knew. The burden she carried would buckle her without his help. She hated herself for being weak, for wanting to believe he could keep her safe, for putting his life in danger. But she couldn’t refuse. Saving Chicago was one thing. She could throw lightning bolts and blast a ship out of the sky. Even dying in the process scared her, just a little bit, but she’d do it if that was what it took.
But it wasn’t about Chicago anymore. It was so much more. For some reason, the Triscani wanted this girl so badly they’d traveled through time to kill her. That alone was enough reason to make sure the child lived. Sarah was deathly afraid that she wouldn’t be strong enough to protect the girl alone. Not enough. It seemed to be a lifelong theme. “Okay.”
Tim pressed one foot over the top of hers before letting go of her hand to reach for a towel. He spread his arms wide, holding the giant white towel like a blanket and closed his eyes. “Wet clothes off.”
Sarah didn’t say anything, just stripped out of her wet cami and let it hit the tile floor with a sloppy thunk. The undies stuck to her legs and she had to peel them down her body to pool at her feet. One foot she lifted free with no problem. The other was trapped under the firm press of Tim’s where his arch crossed her toes. Her wet underwear lay over his foot like a cold, limp fish.
Sexy. Oh, yes. She was sexy. Who wouldn’t want her and all of the save-the-world responsibilities that she brought to the table? As if the normal amount of emotional baggage weren’t enough. She couldn’t even stand up without him there to help ground her power, and her head still felt like an entire jackhammer crew was hard at work. God, she was a mess.
Eyes still closed, Tim stepped forward and wrapped the towel around her, making her feel like a giant burrito. She warmed the moment the soft cotton wrapped her up. Warmed because she was out of the wet clothes, or because he stood close enough to burn?
Tim turned as far as he could without losing contact and disposed of the rest of his clothes before she could gasp a protest. She should close her eyes, she really should, but the tight stretch of muscle across his shoulders and buttocks held her transfixed. She should look away, turn…something.
Blocked. White cotton fuzz interrupted her perusal and broke her lust-induced trance before he wrapped it around his waist, blocking her view of his perfect, perfect backside.
“Shall we?” Tim held out his hand, and she tugged her own towel until it held tight across her chest before placing her hand in his. Once his fingers were twined with hers he lifted his foot and kicked away both of their underwear. The wet fabric hit the side of the bathtub and slid down to a combined puddle on the floor. Sarah stared at it, transfixed by the sight of something so intimate. She wasn’t a virgin, but she’d never shared personal space like this and she didn’t trust it, didn’t quite believe he wouldn’t run when things got bad. Scratch that. They were bad now, but they were going to get worse. Much, much worse.
She glanced up from their clothing to find him studying her intently. Waiting. Shall we? “Yes.”
Ten minutes later she sat next to him, perfectly content in another of his oversized T-shirts and a pair of sweatpants. Her new clothes were still in the back of Tim’s truck, but she didn’t mind. These were dry, they were warm, and they smelled like him.
Pretty sure her cheeks were still flushed from watching him get dressed, she curled up on the couch in front of the dormant fireplace. She had hot cocoa in one hand and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in the other. No gourmet meal in any hotel in the world had ever tasted better. Her bare feet were tucked securely beneath his denim-clad thigh and she obsessed over the press of hard muscle she wiggled her toes against. Licking her lips, she couldn’t tear her gaze from the tight stretch of white cotton over his chest and shoulders. The naked heat of his neck and head mesmerized her and she clenched the cocoa mug to curtail any unscripted movement.
Look with your eyes, not with your hands. Granny T’s stern reprimand filled her head but didn’t calm her libido.
She shoved her feet farther beneath his thigh and wiggled her toes again. She knew she baited a tiger, but she just couldn’t resist.
Headache now a dull roar, thanks to some ibuprofen, the pain killer allowed her to think. Think
ing sucked. The enormity of her situation forced her to hold back the occasional attack of hysterical laughter. He already thought she was crazy. Why not confirm his suspicions by completely losing it?
Now there was a perfect plan.
“Stop that.” Tim shifted and lightly swatted her calf. “You’re getting a bit close to the boys.”
That froze her wiggling feet in place but didn’t bottle the grin she felt spread across her cheeks.
“How are you feeling? Any better?” Tim studied her like a doctor would a patient. Assessing. Critical.
“Yes. My head still aches a bit, but other than that, I’m fine.” Liar, liar, pants on fire…
“Okay. I need to ask you some questions and I need you to tell me the truth. If I don’t know everything, I can’t make intelligent decisions about what to do.”
Spoken like a true soldier. But then, what else did she expect? “All right.”
“So, these aliens will try to track you down? How? How do they find you?”
A bitter laugh burst from her. “They found my energy. I don’t know how, exactly. They will try to drain me first. When they give up on that, they’ll try to find me in the physical plane.”
“Drain you? Like what? A vampire? Explain.” His intense frown left no doubt in her mind that he didn’t appreciate her choice of words.
“They found me in the energy fields, and their minds touched mine. It’s hard to explain. But their touch is cold, and hungry. It’s like they were literally feeding off my energy. I tried to weave a shield, a web of energy to protect me from direct assault in the energy field. I made sure it was big enough that it would be nearly impossible to find me in the tangle, but it won’t last long. And I’m not even sure it will work.”
“And if they do find you?”
“They want me dead.” She took a sip of her hot cocoa and leaned back against the armrest of the plush suede coach she’d occupied just over twenty-four hours ago. A lot could change in a day…
Silver Storm: Timewalker Chronicles, Book 2 Page 11