Approaching Storm (Alternate Worlds Book 2)

by Taylor Leigh

  She opened her eyes and he was so close. His eyes were captivating at this proximity. Almost like a fire flickering behind the dark blue irises. Sam could sense him pulling closer, like she was some greater object in his universe he automatically gravitated towards.

  It was too much to focus on right now. Too much to work out. His intentions weren’t hidden in those odd eyes and she didn’t want to consider it. She sighed and turned her face from him. She didn’t need to tell him no. He got the message. A guilty wave for even thinking such a thing at the moment crashed through her. She couldn’t let herself fall into anything with Marus now. She didn’t even want that. No matter how confused she was feeling. She had to stay focused. Sam squared her jaw, irritated with herself.

  ‘You know,’ Marus said quietly, ‘You handled yourself pretty well back there.’ He huffed his breath. ‘I don’t think we would have gotten out of there if it wasn’t for you.’

  Sam smiled flatly. ‘Thanks,’ she muttered. ‘For all the good it did.’

  Marus breathed deeply. He wrapped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her to him. Since nothing about it felt duplicitous she allowed it and rested her head on his shoulder.

  ‘Do you really think he’ll be there when we get back?’ she asked numbly. Resting here, against Marus, with the waves rocking her, she at last was surrendering to her exhaustion. Her limbs were a dead weight to her. The task of removing her head from his shoulder seemed an insurmountable feat. He was so warm.

  Marus nodded his head. ‘Yeah, I do.’

  Sam sighed sleepily. ‘Then we need to go back.’

  Marus rubbed her arm slowly, chasing away the cold. ‘We will, I promise. I just need to rest first. You do, too.’

  His words were already becoming a low murmur. Sam didn’t fight her eyes closing. She gratefully accepted it.

  Sam was surprised to have the barge jar her awake as it crashed through a massive wave. She didn’t realise she had fallen asleep. It was not yet dawn. Sam was damp from the constant spray of water and the ever-present drizzle of rain. Her eyes did not want to open and she rubbed at them with a miserable groan. Her face felt stiff, frozen into salty lines. She wondered if she’d cried herself to sleep.

  She cast about but Marus was nowhere to be seen, lost in the maze. Sam did her best to make herself presentable without any mirror and then went in search of him. The ocean had grown rough and Sam struggled to find her footing as she jumped from crate to crate.

  ‘Marus?’

  His head popped up and he easily picked a path to her, jumping gaps and keeping his balance with absolute ease. Even from this distance he was at she could see an unhappy crease across his features.

  She wrapped her arms around herself, not sure if the action was to protect herself from the cold breeze, or from the uncomfortable clutching in her chest upon seeing him.

  Marus made one more impressive leap and landed beside her.

  ‘Hey,’ Sam said, tucking her hair behind her ear. She couldn’t help but notice how perfect he still looked; even after all they’d been through. His dark hair was tousled by the ocean air and the rising sun, shrouded by clouds behind him, cast him in a blurry halo. His shirt was torn from where a cables had struck. It took Sam a little more effort than she would have liked to tear her attention away from his appearance and back to his face.

  Marus must have caught her hesitation. ‘You all right?’

  Sam bit her lip and nodded her head. ‘Yeah, fine. What time is it?’

  Marus sighed. ‘A little before six.’

  Sam turned away from him to look back at the ocean. She needed something more calming, something that didn’t set her emotions into a tumult of confusion. ‘Are you well enough? We should be getting back.’

  Perhaps being alone with Marus wasn’t all that unpleasant, but when one added in the rain, the nauseating motion of the ship and her cramped muscles, she just wanted to be home. More than anything she wanted to see for herself that Tollin was safe and sound.

  If he made it back and didn’t find them there, who knew what he’d think. Perhaps that they were captured and return to save them. No. She needed to get back to him. Being away from him was physically uncomfortable thanks to their connection. It was like she’d forgotten part of herself and left it at home. She needed him.

  Marus strode up to stand next to her, rolling his broad shoulders out. ‘It’s going to be a long flight. You up for it?’

  Sam nodded. ‘If you are.’

  Her anxiety was increasing by the second. She wasn’t sure how much longer she’d be able to wait before she dove into the ocean and started swimming back.

  Marus’s hot gaze seared over her for a moment. Sam clenched her jaw in determination to not look at him. She didn’t have time for this. After a long moment, much too long for Sam’s liking, Marus finally sighed. ‘Right. Let me just change into something more appropriate.’

  An hour later, they had finally reached land. Marus kept well away from any major cities as he flew, sticking high to the clouds. It was freezing but Sam didn’t care. Whatever it took. She needed to get back.

  At last, after what felt an agonising long time, the familiar keep loomed into sight. Marus landed softly in the backyard and changed back to human the moment he was free from Sam.

  She wanted to go dashing into the building, shouting Tollin’s name at the top of her lungs, but something held her back. The place felt too empty, too…void. Without quite having a reason to know for sure, Sam knew Tollin wasn’t there. He was gone.

  She stared without seeing, feeling as if everything around her had collapsed. Going on without Tollin with this problem, with her ring still to deal with, seemed impossible.

  Suddenly, Marus beside her stiffened. A growl issued from his throat. Sam slowly pulled herself out of her miserable daze. ‘What is it?’ she asked in a quiet voice. ‘What’s wrong?’

  Marus narrowed his eyes. ‘We’re not alone. Someone’s here.’

  Sam no longer felt any of her numbness of moments ago. It wasn’t Tollin; of that she was certain. This was unknown . ‘H—how do you know?’

  Marus made a face. ‘I can smell her.’

  Sam blinked in surprise. ‘Her?’

  Marus pressed a finger to his lips. He pulled his firearm out of his holster and motioned for her to stand behind him. Sam followed, trying to move as stealthily as Marus as he slipped across the courtyard and stopped in the archway of the door. She was lost with all the military hand symbols Marus used, but she caught the basic gist: follow him, keep quiet, be ready for a fight. She bit her bottom lip and nodded curtly.

  Marus eased the door open and crept inside. Sam’s insides wound tight as she trailed after him. If someone was here it only made sense for them to be with the Myrmidons. Being unarmed and rather useless in a fight, she ran through her options of what was best to do in a confrontation. Fleeing seemed to be the most logical choice, if humiliating.

  They moved down towards the kitchen at a quick, quiet pace, to just stop in the doorway. There was a light lit in the room and the clatter of dishes. Marus looked down at her in the darkness. Sam could just make out his stern features. He gave her a slow nod, eyes steady. Sam nodded back, feeling the knot in her stomach tighten. She was ready—as she’d ever be.

  Marus threw himself into the room, weapon raised. ‘Stay right where you are!’ he roared, terrifyingly.

  There was only one in the room, and like Marus had said, it was a woman. She froze, cup of tea in one hand and mid-bite into a biscuit. Sam recognised her immediately as the woman she and Tollin had met in the Myrmidon headquarters: Arkron.

  Marus was taken aback by her. He dropped his firearm, slightly disappointed.

  ‘What the hell are you doing here?’ Marus cried accusingly.

  Arkron straightened. ‘Oi! Watch where you point that thing! Your little brother isn’t the only one who frequents this place. Now where is that little swot anyway, I need to talk to him.’ She took another bite out of
her biscuit. ‘He won’t be happy with you swinging around that weapon, by the way.’

  Marus immediately relaxed. He strode around the table and swiped the biscuit out of her hand. He took a bite. ‘Haven’t you heard? I thought you were one of their darling researchers. Tried to break into the Myrmidon headquarters and destroy that chair. Didn’t realise we were walking into a trap, thanks for enlightening us on that, by the way. Well, as it happened, we got into a bad mess. Tollin was captured. My guess is they thought he had the ring, not to mention he’s probably one of the most famous troublemakers in the history of this Realm. The Myrmidons are probably dissecting him by now.’

  Arkron glowered. ‘You did what?’

  Marus held up his hands. ‘It wasn’t my idea! It’s your fault for building the bloody thing!’

  ‘I wasn’t helping them build the chair! Andrew invented it, not me! He was attempting to modify the Time Device he found of Scrabia all those years ago. He wanted a way to jump Realms without having to calculate time. The Myrmidons stole the plans from him about ten years ago. As soon as I found out I signed on. I was put on the chair project because they thought I was a good fit.’

  ‘Well, you certainly were, a bunch of treacherous, murdering maniacs, I’m sure you fit right in! And it doesn’t surprise me that psychic maniac thought it up. No doubt he’s far away from here. How typical of him to cause trouble and then jump off to some much safer time and space when he feels the whim.’

  Sam stopped listening as Arkron snapped a reply. She could feel the ground spinning beneath her. What were they doing? Tollin wasn’t here. That meant something had gone wrong, that meant he hadn’t been able to Realm jump. He’d have come back to them, surely. He was still with the Myrmidons. And it wasn’t going to take long for them to discover he wasn’t human. When that happened…her stomach writhed in revulsion. They’d want to know more.

  She thought she was going to be sick.

  She couldn’t take the noise anymore. ‘Stop it!’ she snapped, slamming her hand down on the table. Marus and Arkron froze, staring at her in surprise.

  ‘Tollin’s trapped there, strapped to that chair and we have to do something or they’ll kill him!’ She was hardly aware of the waver in her voice.

  ‘Look,’ Marus said. ‘Your devotion to Tollin is…’ he paused, picking through his vocabulary for the best word. ‘Commendable. But there’s no way we’re going back there.’

  ‘But he’ll die!’ Sam shouted.

  Arkron gave Sam a compassionate look. ‘Don’t worry about him, sweetheart. I know this is hard but it’s nothing he can’t handle.’ She glanced over at Marus. ‘He survived Juc-Taska, after all!’

  Marus looked at Sam sternly. ‘I get it. You’re close. He has that effect on people and you’ve got it bad thanks to that wireless connection you two have, but that’s final. It was beyond stupid the first time and going again is just suicidal.’

  Sam glowered at him. Marus’s eyes were hard to hold, but she didn’t look away. ‘I am not abandoning him!’ she breathed. And with that she turned on her heel and marched from the room, followed by a barrage of helplessness and whispers that she’d already failed.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Tollin awoke, blinded.

  Cold, clinical white lights glared down from above; so intense, Tollin thought they might be able to market it as a good shadow repellent on the Realm Sinesta. The burning smell of chemicals filled his nostrils.

  He tried to sit up, but was immediately stopped by a biting strap cinched across his chest. He grunted and craned his neck. He was naked from the waist up, strapped to a cold, steel table. Around him monitors were blinking with readings, and above him, hiding in the glare of the light, was a large, ominous looking scanner.

  He did not like the arrangement of things. Being on a medical table, strapped down, in a hostile environment was usually never good.

  Again he attempted to jump. Since he was no longer attached to the electric cable, he should have no more trouble. The Realm he had in mind blurred into focus, and he struggled to make it a reality.

  Nothing happened. Blast! What was wrong with him? This was a bit of a first. He didn’t much care for it.

  The door swung open and Tollin turned his head to watch as Erikson walked into the room, looking—Tollin decided—a little nervous. Outside in a glass observation room was Roth, silently watching.

  An unfamiliar, icy chill crawled through him. Tollin struggled to keep his expression neutral and his heart-rate under control. He didn’t want these people knowing they were getting to him. But, truth be told, they were. Losing his ability to jump had severely hurt his confidence. It was always nice having an escape plan, and being robbed of it was a bit like being dunked in cold water. How did normal people survive without it?

  Roth leaned forward, and the intercom crackled to life. ‘How do you like your new surroundings, Traveller?’

  Tollin pulled a thoughtful face and glanced around the room lazily. He kept his eyes peeled for anything that could help him. Escape routes, control boxes, a scalpel. Not much was looking too promising.

  ‘Oh, bit bare for my likings, could use with a nice splash of paint; bed’s a little hard for my tastes. What it really needs is some tapestries! You know, not enough people use those any more, tapestries. Add a nice touch to a room, in my opinion. You could put up a big one that says—’

  ‘Stalling won’t help you, Traveller,’ Roth said, cutting Tollin off before he could get in his last swipe. ‘You’re not going anywhere. Don’t bother trying. We’re well aware of that…flaw now.’ He said the word “flaw” like it was some disgusting disappointment.

  ‘Yes,’ Tollin frowned. ‘That’s got me awfully curious. How did you manage?’

  Roth didn’t reply, much to Tollin’s aggravation. Instead, he turned to his associate. ‘Erikson, is the machine warmed up?’

  Erikson nodded distractedly. ‘I don’t see why this is necessary, Roth. We know what we’ll see.’

  Roth chuckled. ‘Do we now? Well, I’m impressed that you’re such an expert with such things. Thank you for your opinion. Scan him. NOW.’

  Erikson blinked. ‘But I have to put him under; he shouldn’t be awake during the body scans—’

  ‘Keep him awake! I need to talk to him!’

  Erikson seemed about to argue but his shoulders finally slumped. He glanced over at Tollin guiltily before his fingers flipped one of the levers on the panel. Tollin watched resignedly as the scanner above him started to lower. Erikson began to count down. Tollin’s muscles wrapped tighter under his skin.

  Above him a machine blinked to life with a low whir. There was a burning, bright sensation as a red ray shot from the machine above in a flat, wide line, and swept its way through his body, from his feet through his head. The pain was close to having liquid fire pumped under his skin. He shouted in pain and threw his head back against the hard table, snarling till the scan finished, agonisingly slow.

  By the time it had stopped he was sweating. His chest rose and fell with the effort to keep from hurling quite a few unsavoury words at Roth. Blimey, that hurt!

  ‘Muscle scan complete,’ Erikson read, voice trembling slightly. ‘Oh…my gods.’

  Tollin peeked over at the screen. He knew what had Erikson so flummoxed.

  ‘But…that’s impossible!’ Erikson gasped.

  ‘Next scan, organ layout.’ Roth ordered.

  Erikson cast Tollin a sorry glance. Tollin nodded his head once. He didn’t blame him. He was just taking orders. He braced himself for the next scan. It was worse than the first.

  ‘How often has this been done to you, Traveller?’ Roth purred. ‘How many men have had the opportunity to see what lies beneath the surface? You truly are an incredible species. I do admire you. It’s almost tempting to swap bodies.’

  Tollin clenched his teeth. ‘I’d love to see you try.’

  The third scan—Tollin assumed the bone scan—wracked his body.

  ‘Care to
read out the results of our scans?’

  Erikson cleared his throat. ‘Lungs appear…twice as large as that of a normal human. Same with the heart. Muscles are much stronger, though they appear about the same size as a human’s. Bones much denser, it would take something strong to break them. Hearing, eyesight, both exceptional, I would assume the same for the other senses…Brain…about the size of a human’s, but much more activity, a staggering amount!’

  ‘Anything we’ve missed, Traveller, anything you care to add?’

  ‘Well, you left out that I’m much more handsome than you lot, but I’d say your scan was rather thorough. A little too thorough,’ he growled the last bit.

  ‘There’s no…unusual organs?’ Roth directed to Erikson.

  Erikson studied the scans. ‘Well, no…not other than what I’ve mentioned. He doesn’t have a second brain or anything…his organs just seem a bit…bigger and better than ours.’

  Tollin grinned smugly. ‘Oh, so that’s what all this is about! Trying to find some magical organ that helps me jump?’ He laughed. Roth didn’t know everything. So…how had he been able to stop Tollin from jumping? Tollin realised then: Roth hadn’t. Something else was off. Bad, but something he should be able to figure out, once he was alone—assuming they actually left him alone long enough to sort it.

  ‘Well, I am so sorry to disappoint you, Roth, but I’m afraid you’ll find nothing like that! It’s not something you can just steal. It’s written into me. You can’t make yourself a jumper. You’re trapped in that useless human body; stuck here in this one Realm. Your loss’

  Roth’s expression was frozen into a sour twist. ‘Erikson, a blood sample, if you please.’

  Tollin settled back, unable to wipe the smug grin from his face, and not really wanting to. Erikson approached cautiously with a syringe. ‘S’alright,’ Tollin said, flashing a grin. ‘Come on, I don’t bite!’