“I’m all that,” Veris agreed. He turned on his side so he could see them. “And I shouldn’t be.”
Brody looked at Taylor. “Was that an apology?”
Taylor smiled. “Can’t be. Veris never apologizes.”
Veris gave a heavy sigh. He threw his arm over Brody, his fingers tucking under Taylor, and hauled them both against him. They settled over his body, one on each side.
Veris kissed them, taking his time with each of them. “I’m saying you’re here. Both of you. I sometimes don’t deserve it.”
Brody settled his chin on his hand, which rested on Veris’ chest. “You might just say you love us, and save a lot of time.”
Veris sucked in a deep breath. He found it difficult to say “I love you,” directly. He would come at it from a dozen different directions and show it by the things he did. He couldn’t make himself say it, though, for it made him feel too vulnerable.
Taylor shoved Brody with her shoulder. “Stop interpreting. Let him grovel for himself.”
Veris laughed and she felt his chest rumbling beneath her. “I’m sorry I was a bear.”
Brody lifted his chin, then his hand, and kissed Veris’ chest. “Thank you.”
“I still don’t like the guy, though,” Veris added.
Taylor groaned. “You can’t apologize without qualifying it!”
Brody sat up, his expression startled. “Veris are you…jealous?”
“I have nothing to be jealous about,” Veris said, only his gaze shifted away from Brody.
Brody gripped his head. “Oh my god, you are!”
An expression, an emotion, crossed Veris’ face, too quickly for Taylor to properly analyze.
“Don’t push him, Brody,” Taylor said, sitting up too.
Brody pushed his hand through his hair. It was shorter than when she first met him and still lustrously dark. “Nine centuries, through thick and thin, Veris,” he murmured. “Now you worry about my devotion?”
“Not just you,” Veris said. He turned his head away. “I know. I’m a fool.”
Taylor stroked his cheek. “You’re a long way from a fool.”
Brody kissed him. “You’re just human,” he finished.
Veris sighed and pulled them back to him. “Stay there,” he said. “Please.”
They did.
Nial, Sebastian and Winter became frequent visitors to the house on Martha’s Vineyard. With some caution, Brody and Taylor and the other jumpers took them to other locations around their world.
Veris did not seem to feel threatened after the first occasion. He could sit and talk with Nial without stirring to anger and their chess matches became legendary.
Nial, Sebastian and Winter had friends just as interesting, only Taylor and Brody did not offer to bring them over to their world as they had with Nial and his spouses. There was time for that. Once Veris truly relaxed around the original three visitors would be soon enough to spring more upon him.
They met Nial’s friends in his world, in return for giving Nial, Sebastian and Winter the luxury of instant travel across the country and around the world, where those friends lived. Los Angeles was little different from theirs while London was busier. The differences in the two worlds added up, each time they visited.
In between, Taylor continued the work of cataloging other worlds for Sydney’s records. She would jump to Spain after each exploration and discuss her findings with Sydney, Rafe and Alex, while Rafe took notes.
Often, Liberty sat with them, for she liked her Aunt Taylor. Only she was still only five years old and her attention was easily drained.
Brody often accompanied Taylor on the exploration jumps, but not always. Sometimes Alex or Rafe would go with her. Sometimes, Remi or Neven. Taylor enjoyed everyone’s company, so it didn’t matter to her. The only rule was that she had to take someone with her, preferably a capable fighter. All the non-jumpers in the family were good at defending themselves.
None of the jumpers went with her. They had their own assignments, including Sydney. London, who had delivered a son in early September, had her hands full with motherhood.
The days flipped by, one pleasant week after another. Exploring alternative worlds was absorbing work—so absorbing it took several weeks for Taylor to notice that the number of times Brody traveled with her tapered off. Even when she consciously took note, it merely puzzled her.
Perhaps she should have been more alarmed. Only hindsight gave her that awareness. Hindsight—and nearly losing Alannah.
Chapter Four
There were pumpkins on every doorstep. Halloween was a great time of year on Martha’s Vineyard, because the leaves had turned, while not all of them had fallen. The island was picture-postcard perfect, and the locals liked to play up the traditions.
Taylor didn’t think of herself as a local, although she talked Aran into helping her make candy apples to give to the kids who called. Even Marit included herself in the sticky project. Alannah excused herself, for she had an exploration jump to make and had to jump to Brittany to collect Remi, first.
The work of making toffee took longer and was more fuss than Taylor had expected. When Sydney arrived with Nial and Winter, Taylor was still in the kitchen, making a fresh batch of toffee.
Winter came into the room, sniffing. “Lord, what a disaster!” she said, laughing. She twisted her red locks up onto the top of her head. “Have you ever made toffee before?”
“Does it look as though I have?” Taylor asked, as Aran prodded the soft lump of caramel she had been testing in cold water.
“Mom isn’t a cook,” Marit said, with an air of confession. “Less so since she was turned.”
“I’m not a cook either, although I do know how to make toffee,” Winter said. “Let me see what you’re doing there.” She came around the island to peer in the saucepan. “I don’t think it’s nearly hot enough,” she said.
Taylor handed her the wooden spoon. “Knock yourself out,” she said with honest relief. She dropped into the chair at the end of the table to watch. “You have Halloween in your world, Winter?”
“Oh, yes,” Winter said. “Although in New York, it’s a hazardous affair. They have to x-ray the candy the kids collect for blades and other nasties.”
“Then both our worlds are just as bad,” Marit said. “So much for modern times.”
“I don’t know,” Aran said, pulling apart a piece of caramel, stretching it into a long string. “Alannah and I don’t dare go back to some times and places. As soon as an adult saw us walking around alone, we’d be thrown in a cage and sold.”
Winter looked up, startled.
Aran shrugged. “‘Modern’ doesn’t mean anything. There’s whack jobs in any era with a hate-on for kids and the will to do harm.”
Winter considered him. “And I thought my nightmare childhood was a rare exception.”
Taylor!
Taylor frowned. “Did you hear that?” she asked them.
Winter, Marit and Aran all looked at her blankly.
Taylor. Hurry!
Taylor pressed her fingers to her temples. “I’m hearing things,” she said and laughed.
Winter frowned. She handed the wooden spoon to Marit and came back around the island. “Hearing things how?” she asked. “Like whispers on a breeze?”
“Yes, exactly like that,” Taylor said, startled. “Leaves whispering and maybe there’re words in it, if you listen hard enough. I heard my name.”
Winter gripped the back of the chair beside Taylor’s. “You’re not imagining it. It’s vampire hearing extended to the utmost—”
Taylor. Hear me!
Taylor gasped.
So did Winter. “I heard that,” she said, her voice strained.
“You?” Taylor asked, startled all over again.
Winter pushed away from the table, her head turning. She pointed toward the windows behind the long table. “Out there, I think.”
Taylor moved into the mudroom beyond the kitchen. The out
er door let onto the side yard, and they could move to the front of the house from there. She hurried, the stress in the whispered words driving her.
Winter followed her out.
They both stood on the flagstone path, listening. Winter shivered and pulled her cardigan in around her.
“Taylor!” It was the softest of cries.
“Over there,” Taylor said, pointing toward the main road where the drive up to the house started.
Winter nodded. “Yes.”
Taylor hurried. She didn’t realize she was moving faster than human until Winter fell behind. She didn’t care. Her heart slipped loose and thudded.
Red maple leaves and big yellow elephant oak leaves were scattered across the drive, lifting and floating with each push of the breeze coming in off the Atlantic. They rattled and rustled in a way which sent a shiver up her back.
The two of them were lying in the middle of the drive between the knee-high brick walls which marked the entrance. They huddled together.
Taylor ran, her heart almost exploding against her chest, and fell on her knees beside them.
Remi had tucked Alannah beneath him and one arm shielded the flank he couldn’t cover. His head was resting against hers. They were both still.
“Remi!”
He lifted his head. His sea-green eyes met hers. “You heard me. I wasn’t sure.” His voice was weak.
Taylor couldn’t swallow. “What happened?”
“Surprised us. When we arrived. Waiting, I think. I don’t know.” He loosened his arm. “She needs….” He rolled back out of the way so Taylor could see.
Alannah’s eyes were closed. A bloody patch of skin over her temple.
Taylor reached a hand out to her yet was afraid to touch her in case she added to the damage.
“Baseball bat,” Remi whispered. He held up his hand, the one he had been holding to his own stomach. “Switchblade,” he finished.
Through the rent in his cotton shirt, Taylor could see two deep slashes, lots of blood and the gray matter of organs.
“I’m healing,” Remi said. “I just can’t stand yet.”
Winter dropped to her knees on the other side of them. She was breathless. Her hair had unraveled and was floating loose in the breeze. “Don’t move, then,” she told him. “I can help you with that.” She put her hand on Alannah’s neck and held still, then looked up at Taylor. Her expression was grave. “Take her back to the house. Put her on the table, so I can treat her. Go on. Quickly now.”
Fright tore through her. “What’s wrong with her?” Taylor asked, not even questioning why she thought Winter would have the answers.
Winter grabbed Taylor’s wrist. “There’s bleeding in the brain, and severe bruising. It’s the very worst sort of concussion, Taylor.”
They were terrible words, yet Taylor felt calm spread through her. She nodded and bent to scoop Alannah up in her arms. As she turned to head for the house, Winter put her hand on Remi’s chest.
“Hold still a moment,” Winter murmured to him.
Taylor shoved aside all the questions which were only now sluggishly rising to the forefront of her thoughts, and almost ran along the drive. She fought to keep to human speed, for there were neighbors nearby who might happen to see Taylor sprinting down the drive carrying a burden which would tax the average woman.
She shoved the side door open with her elbow, for it was not on the latch. Through the mudroom, into the kitchen. “Aran! Clear the table!”
Aran’s eyes widened. He leapt and swept the fruit bowl and placemats out of the way. The bowl clattered and bonged with a ringing sound, for it was silver.
Marit ran for the sunroom.
“What was that?” Veris said, from the sunroom.
“It’s Alannah, Far,” Marit told him.
Taylor put Alannah on the table. Alannah’s limbs hung lifelessly and Taylor straightened them. Her daughter’s face was paper white. Her skin looked fragile.
Veris appeared, moving silently and fast. He gripped the back of the wooden chairs, his knuckles turning white. “What happened?” he ground out, turning Alannah’s chin, his eyes narrowed as he tried to diagnose without tools.
“I don’t know yet,” Taylor whispered. “Winter says she can help.”
“She can,” Nial said from behind Veris. He and Sebastian both stood there with Marit.
Brody sank into the chair Taylor had been sitting in at the head of the table, his eyes on Alannah. He looked stricken.
Nial moved around the table to stand between it and the windows. “This is Winter’s specialty. This is what she is. Let her do her work.”
“Where is she?” Veris said, looking around.
“She’s helping Remi, I think. He’s cut up. Badly.” Taylor began to shake. “By the mailbox,” she added.
Veris whirled. He jerked his head at Aran, who nodded and hurried into the mudroom with him.
Nial followed. Sebastian went with him.
Brody gripped the table. “Winter really can help?”
Taylor chewed at her lip. “I have to trust she can. She…she calmed me down. Just by holding my wrist.” Her wrist tingled at the memory.
Winter burst into the kitchen, her cheeks red from the cold outside. She came right over to the table and pulled out a chair and sat in it. “You can stay and watch,” she said, picking up Alannah’s limp hand, “only there will be nothing to see. Go and help Veris and Nial, instead.”
Brody smoothed the hair away from Alannah’s temple, avoiding the mash of bloody skin over her temple. His throat worked. He spoke hoarsely. “I’m not going anywhere.”
Taylor didn’t think she could bear to stand here and wonder and worry. She realized she trusted Winter absolutely. She believed her when she said she could help.
Taylor whirled and strode into the sunroom. Through the south doors, she saw Sebastian helping Remi walk down the drive. Remi moved slowly, although he was no longer holding his innards in with his hand. The shirt he wore was bloody and scored.
Taylor pushed open the doors. “This way,” she told Sebastian. “I’ll get him a clean shirt.”
As she spoke, Brody’s Maserati roared out of the coach house and down the drive, spitting stones and sending leaves swirling. Veris was at the wheel, Nial beside him.
“Where are they going?”
“To quarter the island and find the bastard,” Sebastian said. “Remi gave them a description.” He eased Remi through the door.
Taylor fisted her hands. “Why would anyone do that? Here? It doesn’t make any sense!” Her breath hitched, then hitched again. It was becoming hard to breathe and the shaking in her belly increased, spreading out to her limbs.
Sebastian lowered Remi to the sofa and turned to study her. “You’re stressing your symbiot,” he told her.
“She’s what?” Remi said.
“You don’t know about the symbiot, here?” Sebastian asked. “I suppose not, you don’t have Winter or the Curandero, do you?”
Taylor could barely hear him. Her heart wasn’t just beating, now. It was hurting. She felt sick. Actually sick, as if she might throw up. Copper-tasting spit flooded her mouth.
Sebastian stopped in front of her. “The symbiot is what makes you vampire. The stress which would give a human an embolism or a heart attack, the over-the-top stress, if you don’t rein it in, will put the symbiot under pressure. Then it can’t control your biology anymore. The human side of you the symbiot suppresses so it can live breaks through.” His eyes were kind. “You have to relax and breathe. I know it seems impossible right now and I’m not Winter, so you have to do it yourself. It’s willpower, Taylor. The will to live, to regain control, which you get by letting go.”
His voice was soft. Coaxing.
Taylor didn’t know if she had the strength to let go.
She thought of Alannah lying on the table in the kitchen. How still and small she had seemed.
Then she knew she did have the strength. She flexed her fingers. She stopp
ed straining to breath. She didn’t need to breath, not to live, not the way humans did. Breathing was a habit left over from when she was human. It was reassuring to draw in air, yet she didn’t have to. She focused on the iron-hard tension in her chest and…let it go.
The tension eased and she could sip air.
Then more.
She drew in a longer breath and the band in her chest let go. She sucked in another breath, then another. Her throat relaxed.
“There you go,” Sebastian told her, approvingly.
“Damn…” Remi breathed, his tone one of wonder. He pulled up his shirt and inspected his washboard abs. They were perfectly healed and still gory and bloody.
“I’ll get that shirt,” Taylor said. She hurried up the stairs, rifled through Brody’s closet and took one of his older button-throughs back down to Remi. “You’ll scare the neighbors if you leave it on,” she told him.
“Could I take a shower, first?” Remi asked.
“You know where the bathroom is,” Taylor said.
He nodded and hauled himself to his feet and picked up the shirt. He shuffled over to the door to the guest bathroom as if everything ached.
When the bathroom door closed and locked, Sebastian sat on the sofa and patted the cushion beside him. “Come and rest a moment. It’ll take a bit for your symbiot to get back up to speed.”
Taylor shook her head. “I want to see my daughter.”
“You’ll just distract Winter,” Sebastian told her. “Then it’ll take longer.”
“How long does it take, then?” She moved over to the sofa and sat at the opposite end from Sebastian. Her legs were shaky, she realized. After years of feeling no pain, no weakness or illness, of being full of energy and drive, all the time, to experience weakness and sickness was disconcerting.
“For something serious, it can take hours. Alannah won’t feel anything, though.” Sebastian grimaced. “I speak from experience.”
Taylor curled her knees to her chest and hugged them. The chill she felt must also be a reaction. “You’re not human, are you?”
Sebastian didn’t appear to be upset by the question. “I was, once. I was also a vampire, once.”
Kiss Across Tomorrow (Kiss Across Time Book 8) Page 4