Sarah shook her head but didn’t respond.
“God, I hate it when she does that,” Tim grumbled, resigned, focused on steering. The speedboat raced over the waves, bouncing Raiden several inches off the bottom of the boat with each cresting wave. He pulled Mari completely onto his lap and wrapped his arms around her, shielding her cold, frail weight. He absorbed each jolt into his own body as much as he could.
The helicopter moved closer, close enough to see the faces of the men on board, and Tim cursed under his breath. Worried now, Raiden glanced at Sarah. The halo of energy surrounded her entire body and she floated effortlessly an inch or two above boat’s floor. She looked young and innocent, a beautiful, freckle-faced goddess. “Exactly what is she doing?”
“Playing with fire.”
Raiden growled in frustration. That was not an acceptable answer. He didn’t like anything about the situation but he wouldn’t tolerate them risking Mari’s life with unnecessary delays. “Sarah, fry the bastards and let’s go. Mari’s in trouble here!”
“Watch it, alien boy. She’s pulling about as much juice as she can handle alone. Don’t push her unless you want to dump your precious cargo on the floor and drive.” Tim warned him off as lightning sizzled overhead and struck the helicopter’s windshield. The explosion of shattering glass was loud enough to be heard over the churning rotors. The helicopter pulled back and lost pursuit behind them as it made an emergency landing on the water. Raiden watched several humans leap into the water, the specks growing smaller and smaller as their boat sped away.
Sarah floated down to stand on her own two feet and lowered her arms but did not open her eyes. Lightning continued to crackle above them, but the flashes were no longer continuous or as strong.
“Sarah?” Tim studied his wife, his shoulders at ease, but concern in his voice.
“It’s okay. Katie-bug was on the first chopper. She’ll take care of it from here.”
Tim cursed a mean streak but Sarah seemed unfazed. “What the hell is she doing out here?”
Sarah finally opened her eyes, but it wasn’t to look at her husband. Her face remained turned toward the horizon, back the way they’d come. “They’re looking for something in the caves.”
Tim nodded. “Probably searching for the Triscani cave that Mari destroyed.”
“They won’t find it.” Sarah’s eyes twinkled with a background of tiny sparks when she lifted her gaze to Raiden’s. She abandoned her storm and knelt beside Mari. “What happened to her down there? Oh my God. Why is she gray?” She checked Mari’s pulse. Frowned. Sarah looked up over her shoulder into her husband’s emotionless face. “Maybe it was too soon for her to go into the water again after what happened last time?”
“Maybe.” Tim scowled. “But that wouldn’t explain the blood.”
Sarah sighed. “Maybe the salt imbalance is making her cells explode or something.”
Raiden shook his head. “No. I should have died down there. I was practically dead…and Mari brought me back.”
<><><>
The chopper pilot yelled to the team that they had to go back. The storm was too fierce and their other helicopter had already gone down. There were good men in the water and they needed to get them out.
Katherine didn’t smile or frown, she showed no reaction at all. She’d wanted to sigh with relief when she felt her cousin, Sarah, take over the storm again. The winds blew madly and the pilot fought to keep them in the air. The once calm sea now churned beneath them and lightning crackled around their chopper like they were at the center of one of those static electricity balls at a children’s museum. It was all she could do to keep the bolts of lightning off their helicopter. The strain on her power was immense and she was close to her limits.
The rest of the team knew it, too. None of them were as gifted as she, but a couple, the Rear Admiral included, could sense her physical and psychic state. She was hanging on to consciousness by a thread. But Sarah, Tim and the mystery Timewalker that their grandmother Tilly had sent them to find were, at this very moment, slipping beyond the grasp of the Casper Project.
Thank God. She was exhausted. “I can’t hold on to it, Sir.”
“Dammit, I know.” The Rear Admiral punched his fist into the seat next to him. “Get us out of here, Frank.”
“Yes, Sir.” The pilot’s voice crackled in her ear and the helicopter banked away from the storm back to base with the Rear Admiral yelling orders. “Red team, find them. Yellow team, get our boys out of the water and get back to base. Blue team, determine the perimeter and strength of this occurrence. I want to know who this is. Find them, explain their options and let’s get back to work.”
The teams dispersed and Katherine held on as long she could, steering Sarah’s violent energy away from the teams. Most of them were good guys. Some of them were hers, her team, her boys, and she’d protect them to the death.
To be fair, Sarah was a master, throwing just enough at them to scare them off, but not put Katherine or her men in real danger. It should’ve been easy for her to divert what little came through to them.
It wasn’t.
Something was wrong and it terrified her. Ever since that night in Chicago, the night Sarah had pulled her into that dark place with them, every day since, she’d lost a little more control. If the Rear Admiral knew that Sarah still lived, there would be a worldwide manhunt the likes of which had never been seen.
Fortunately, the bodies she and her mother had managed to plant on that rooftop had fooled him. If the Rear Admiral found Sarah or Tim, their options would be limited to one of two choices, join the Casper Project or die.
Katherine and the rest of the Timewalker descendants saved as many as they could, formed a network led by her mother, Sarah’s Aunt Maggie. But it wasn’t enough. The Rear Admiral was getting closer to the truth, and the thought of him wielding that much power scared the living hell out of her.
It didn’t help that the energy she once controlled so easily seem to fight her now. A few months ago? She could have thrown lightning without breaking a sweat. Now it took nearly everything she had just to redirect it…and it hurt like hell.
The Rear Admiral knew something was wrong. Hell, the whole team knew. But they needed her too much to stop or to let her rest. The Rear Admiral feared he was losing control of the Casper Project, and he was.
Katherine worked very hard to make certain of it. But at what cost?
Running into Sarah and Tim again had been an accident. The Rear Admiral was here hunting for something else, something she felt calling to her. He must feel it, too. It was down there, in one of those caves, and it felt like it wanted to swallow her whole.
Each day they got closer to the truth, the dive teams mapping more and more caves. Whatever was out there was pulling her in, and she felt helpless to resist. It wasn’t here. It was West. Colorado maybe. Not that she’d share that information. She just had to survive a few more days with the Rear Admiral. Then she had some time off. Then she could hunt in earnest.
Finding it would probably kill her. And still she couldn’t stop searching.
Obsession was too tame a word.
<><><>
“Sir, the Archiver Council has called an emergency meeting. Ten minutes.”
Droghan leaned back in his chair and smiled at the polite young man on the vid screen. So respectful. So weak. “Thank you, son. I’ll be right there.”
The young man’s preening face disappeared and the screen went blank. He rose and slipped his feet into the soft silk slippers commonly worn on the ship. The little Timewalker had escaped. Three of his soldiers were dead and the Remnant’s soul was beyond his reach.
Droghan’s blood boiled, but he’d wait. He’d waited for nearly eight hundred years, patient as a snake and right under all their self-righteous noses. He could wait a few more days. Once the Remnant led Marina to his prize, he would kill that bastard Guardian of the Gate and seize the healer for himself.
He left his apartments
and strolled to the meeting room, shoulders hunched, an old man’s frail body the image he presented to the council. He shuffled to his seat at the Archiver’s table and nodded his head as the meeting began in earnest. He would have laughed, but redirected his humor into a concerned scowl. The fools seated here were too arrogant to see the enemy right under their collective noses.
All but one. And she wasn’t here. Again. Hiding in her rooms, protected by Bran and her damn sight. He would have killed the Seer, Celestina, centuries ago, but she’d see him coming. That little bitch always saw him coming.
No matter. That little water-breathing human would lead him to his prey, whether she wanted to or not. Either that, or she’d be dead, and so would the soul she carried with her. Either way, he won. The Gate would be open, and there would be no one left to stop him.
No one.
Chapter Twelve
“I don’t understand. I should be feeling the pull of the Mark, but she’s not using it.” Frustration ate away at Raiden as he held Mari in his arms. Helpless. Impotent. Useless. He was all these things and more and it made his head ache.
Raiden sat back where they’d started, in Tim and Sarah’s guest bedroom, with an unconscious woman cradled in his arms. Dying.
The sense of déjà vu was staggering.
Why wasn’t she healing? Why couldn’t he feel her reaching for him, using their link to heal? Why was she still unconscious?
“She believes that you don’t want her. That’s why she’s not healing faster, not coming back.” Tim tossed an apple in the air where he leaned against the door frame, caught it and took a bite.
Raiden raised his gaze from the woman he held in his arms. She hadn’t moved, hadn’t spoken, hadn’t even twitched since he’d sat down with her nearly an hour earlier. “All I wanted was for her to be safe. I killed those things so she could live. She should’ve let me die.” He looked away from the pity he saw in Tim’s gaze. “She should’ve just let me die.”
Tim shrugged. “I don’t know how the women operate where you come from, but Earth girls are stubborn as hell and make up their own minds. You better come to terms with that and adapt before you lose her forever.” Tim walked over to the bed where Raiden sat with Mari wrapped up in a blanket and cradled in his lap. Tim reached out and tucked a stray strand of black silk behind her ear.
“Don’t touch her.” The sight of Tim’s large hand near her helpless form made him edgy.
Tim raised his hands in surrender and took a step back. “Look, Raiden. I can’t believe I’m doing this, but I had the same problem with Sarah when we first met. Luke set me straight, so I’m going to pay it forward.”
“Get to the point and get out.”
“She’s yours. You were Marked for her. You are the only man in existence who can keep her alive. How or why, I have no idea. But so far, that’s how it works. It was the same for me, and the same for Luke. You die, she’s as good as dead. Got it?”
“I don’t believe that. She’s in more danger around me than she ever would be on her own.”
Tim snorted. “You believe that bullshit and you’re not as smart as I thought. She’d already faced off with the Triscani, killed two of them, I might add, while you were still sleeping like a baby. You think that ends just because you’re dead? You think she’ll stop hunting now that she knows they’re here? Now that she can not only find them, but kill them? You saw the locations mapped in that cave. She’s going after every single one of them, with or without you. If you’re too fucking stupid to realize that, you don’t deserve her. Make a decision, Raiden. You’re out of time.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You fucked her, but you didn’t let her in.”
“Careful…”
“She needs you, but she doesn’t trust you. Got it? Sarah almost died because she didn’t trust me, because I made the same mistake you’re making. I almost lost her.” Tim shook his head and walked to the doorway but stopped, hand braced on the frame. “Pull your head out of your ass, Raiden. Don’t give her a reason to leave you behind, because I promise you, she will. And it will get her killed.”
“No.” Raiden shook his head. Not only was she battling the dark energies that he’d absorbed from the Triscani, but the Queen’s Remnant, and the soul she’d taken from the stone would drain her essence as well. He had no idea how she was still breathing at all. “She’s too weak to go anywhere.”
“Dream on.” Tim shook his head. “Never underestimate a Timewalker. You’ll wake up and she’ll be gone. You won’t get a warning, especially if she thinks she’s doing it to save you.”
“She wouldn’t leave me behind. She needs my help.”
“You’re in her world. I guarantee you, she’s got that Triscani cave map memorized down to the last detail. She knows what your mission was. She’s got the Remnant’s soul inside her now, leading her straight to the bastard. She’s got that deadly alien laser grafted to her palm. And you? You’ve got nothing, no I.D., no ship, no money and no idea where you’re going. Take stock here. You have two knives and some borrowed clothes. You’re the one who needs us. And she will leave you in the dust if she doesn’t know you love her and want to be with her.”
“I can’t…”
“You sure about that?” Tim’s gaze zeroed in on the gentle hold he had on Mari, on the soft glide of his fingertips up and down the delicate skin of her cheek. Raiden was petting her, and Tim’s alert gaze missed nothing.
Tim left, closing the door behind him with a final click.
Raiden looked down at the woman in his arms. So beautiful. So perfect. So fucking dangerous.
Curled in his lap, she looked serene, peaceful, like she was exactly where she belonged. Except for the gray tone of her skin and the fact that she was unconscious and it was his fault. He’d done this to her.
He rocked her like a babe and ran the pad of his thumb over her cheek. A streak of pink followed his touch, then faded, like a comet streaking across her face. It was the only place their skin touched.
Damn the woman. She was going to let him help her whether she wanted to or not. She wasn’t dead. And she was the strongest healer he’d ever heard of, worthy of legend. She’d heal on her own eventually. Tim was right about that. And perhaps she intended to leave him behind. But he’d be damned if he’d sit here for another moment staring at that terrible gray flesh because she was too stubborn to draw the power from him that she needed to heal.
She needed his energy. He’d shove it down her throat if he had to. End of discussion.
He unwrapped the blanket from her and stood, lifting her slightly away from his body so it could fall to the floor. The soft quilt landed in a heap, already forgotten as he stepped over it and settled Mari on the bed. He laid her down on it and quickly stripped her down to nothing but the scrap of black lace that covered her sex. The strange hue of her skin made her look like a marble statue, elegantly drawn and seductive, but untouchable.
He was going to touch, all right. He was going to wrap her up until she had no choice but to draw energy from him, to heal herself. If he had to lie naked beside her while he transfused his blood directly into her veins, he would.
He refused to let her suffer another moment for his mistakes. Gods truth, he hadn’t known exactly what would happen when he pulled the life force from his brother, but he should have guessed. His gift hadn’t simply turned him into an evil mess, his gift had changed into something stronger and much more dangerous. Something so twisted and starved he could never hope to control the urge to feed it.
Raiden stripped bare and lifted her into his arms. Instantly heat flared between them and she sighed, the first active response he’d seen in hours.
He pulled the covers back, sat down and then rolled over into the bed with her still cradled tightly to his chest. When he had her head settled on his shoulder, their bodies in contact from head to toe, he pulled the blanket over them both and closed his eyes. It was going to get hotter than hell in this bed
, but it didn’t matter, nothing mattered anymore but healing the woman in his arms and making sure she found the Dark One. The bastard would get the darkness out of her, and Raiden would warn him about the Crux, the Queen, and tell the Guardian of the Gate exactly what a shit job of protecting Earth he was about to do.
Once the threat to her was eliminated, once he knew she would live longer than a few weeks, then he’d worry about love, trust, and all that other fairy-tale bullshit Tim had lectured him about. In Raiden’s hundred and seventy-four years of life, most of it war, he’d yet to see a real life fairy tale come true.
Tim’s heart was in the right place, but the man didn’t have a clue what he was talking about. Tim was wrong. Mari didn’t love him, she couldn’t. He’d known her less than a day. She knew nothing about him, about his life, his people, or his sins. How could she love him? She didn’t know him.
Regret threatened to spill from his eyes in scalding tears so he closed them, buried his nose in her hair, and willed his body to warm hers, to feed hers, to give her the small shred of tenderness he miraculously summoned for her.
So, she didn’t know him yet. Perhaps he could change that, stay by her side until she learned him. The gods knew, she needed protection. She needed him, whether she wanted to admit it or not.
Perhaps she’d give him a chance to make love to her again, and he would. He’d worship her with his hands and mouth, say with his touch what his battered heart was too bloody to say with words. Perhaps there was a chance. He had nothing left to lose, except her.
She was cool lying on top of him, like she’d just come in from hours playing in the snow. He’d tried to use his gift on her, to absorb the dark energies back into himself, and, for the first time, found someone his dark power could not touch. Pulling on her power was like trying to overpower all of Earth’s energy at once. Her life force was encased in a giant shield of power, nearly infinite in scope and strength. No Triscani would ever be able to ash his woman. She was more powerful than he’d dared imagine, and he couldn’t reach her, couldn’t break through to her unless she chose to let him in. All he could do was wait and pray that whatever god she served would answer his pathetic plea. She would heal, lead him to Teagh, and then he’d convince her to trust him with herself, to love him. He’d prove he could be strong enough to protect her.
Blue Abyss: Timewalker Chronicles, Book 3 (The Timewalker Chronicles) Page 22