Blue Abyss: Timewalker Chronicles, Book 3 (The Timewalker Chronicles) (32 page)

Closing the gap, she pressed her lips to his, a soft protest. “After. Okay? Just kiss me. Touch me. Make me forget the cold.”

Raiden didn’t answer her in words, he buried one hand in her hair, slid the other over her ass and kissed her, over and over, like she was his air. His blood. His heartbeat. His life.

He’d made her feel like this before, and it was a lie, but she was too tired to fight her body or her emotions. She needed this. So, she told the annoying little voice in the back of her head to shut up and she kissed him back like he was her air, her heartbeat, and her life. Because he was.

There was no slow build up this time. Both of them impatient and crazed, both needing to feel the fire burning them from the inside out. He flipped her onto her back, his mouth tasting and nipping at her neck, her collar bone, her breasts until she squirmed and begged. Then he suckled at one nipple and spread her open with two fingers. He teased her with his tongue on her breasts, one then the other while he slid two fingers inside her and pressed his palm against her most sensitive spot. Fast. Slow. Until she yanked on his hair and begged him to take her.

With one smooth thrust he did. She met him, gave him everything as he pushed her to the edge.

The Shen on her shoulder burned but she ignored the pain, it was part of the package now. A slow trickle of warmth that should have been a flood of heat, but they’d both made their choices now, and she was done serving her heart up to this man on a silver platter. He owned it already. There was no sense beating a mortally wounded organ with a stick. Nothing would change.

So, she cut off all thoughts of the Mark, until the trickle of warmth no longer drew her attention and she could focus on the pleasure of his weight pressing her into the mattress, his body filling hers, heating hers. Pushing her over the edge.

She tilted her hips to meet him, thrust for thrust, and dragged his lips to hers for a kiss. She claimed her last moment of perfect bliss and exploded into a million little pieces of pleasure.

Raiden followed her over the edge, kissed her again, then rolled onto his side and tucked her neatly into the crook of his arm. “Mari…”

“Hush.” She rose up on her elbow and kissed him, so softly, so sweetly, so reverently. “I love you, Raiden.”

He didn’t hear the words. He didn’t see her tears. He didn’t know that she climbed from the bed, showered and dressed. He slept the deep, healer’s sleep she’d forced on him with her final kiss.

She walked out and closed the door, determined to save herself this time. Determined to find Teagh and learn how to harness the full extent of her power. Determined to leave behind lost dreams and broken hearts. She’d healed Raiden, taken the darkness from him. He’d survive for centuries now, with his Immortal bloodline and cleansed soul. He’d fight his war and she’d fight hers. She’d track down every one of those damn caves and fry the alien bastards. And neither one of them would stand in the other’s way.

As the bedroom door closed behind her with a sad and grief-filled click, she finally understood the torturous choices made by Spiderman when he had to leave Gwen. He walked alone, not because he didn’t love, but because he loved too much to risk the lives of others.

“With great power comes great responsibility.”

Time to go save the world. Alone.

Again.

Right.

Chapter Thirteen

“Thanks, Sarah.” Mari double-checked the contents of her backpack one more time. Passport, wallet, and a change of clothes Tim had retrieved from her hotel room, and a very generously pre-loaded credit card that Tim had pressed into her hand before she walked out the door. Couple hours and she’d be on the ground in Miami. The tug inside her pulled her toward the Keys, or maybe Cuba. She wouldn’t know until she got closer. Then she would hunt for Teagh, this Darkwalker Lord, in earnest.

“You’re sure about this? About leaving him behind? You may not get along right now, but you need him. He helps heal you.” Sarah frowned, her freckles bunching across her forehead with worry. “What if you get hurt?”

“I’ll be fine. I can’t take the chance that he won’t listen to me again, not after what the star girl told me. I have to find Teagh and tell him about Katherine. I need his help. And Raiden is the reason I’ve nearly died, both times.” She felt bad stating the obvious, but seriously, the guy had caused her some major pain from the moment he woke up in that underwater tomb.

The woman’s presence in the cold stars had not surprised Sarah or Tim. Sarah said she’d been there, on the other side, and seen the web of stars made of Timewalker souls. She didn’t know who any of them were, and didn’t want to. She figured it would put them all in too much danger. Sarah was probably right about that. Just like Mari was right about this.

Mari wrapped Sarah in a hug. “Thank you for everything. I have the new cell. If I need you, I’ll call. You and Tim need to stay here and be ready to help Kate. I don’t know what’s going to happen, I just know it’s soon. I’ve got to find this guy and send him to help Kate as quickly as possible. I don’t have time to argue with Raiden about that, or to worry about what other secrets he has that are going to bite me in the ass and or get me killed.”

Sarah wiped away a tear. “True. God, men can be so stupid sometimes. Okay. Be safe. And call me, every day, or I’ll go totally insane worrying about you.”

Mari promised she would call. It would be nice to have someone to call, someone that she could talk to who didn’t think she was crazy. Someone who actually cared.

Having a hot hunk of man at her side who loved and adored her like Tim loved Sarah would’ve been even better, but beggars couldn’t be choosers. She was up two real friends over last week. Nothing to shake a stick at.

She couldn’t deal with a secret-keeping, anti-hero with soul-sucking superpowers that turn him into one of the things she was trying to kill. She hadn’t told Sarah or Tim about Raiden’s close call. It had felt like too profound of a betrayal. It wasn’t her secret to tell, so she said nothing. The knowledge explained her dreams, and her nightmares…both of which featured Raiden as the star performer. So, now she knew, and nothing could convince her that he hadn’t known the risks all along. He’d known, and lied to her. He’d kept her in the dark, again, and nearly gotten them both killed.

No sense feeling sorry for herself when there was nothing she could do to change things. She’d offered him everything and he’d turned her down flat. More than once.

She was a romantic fool, but she was not a masochist. End of story.

In no time she was on the airplane, window seat, fourth row, pretending to read a book she’d picked up at the airport shop while the flight crew went through the standard checks and safety spiels. She fastened her lap belt and leaned her head against the hard plastic airplane wall. An elderly man sat on her left, but he wasn’t friendly, and that suited her mood just fine. She wasn’t feeling friendly, either. Alone? Wretched? Resigned? Yes.

Friendly was sooo four days ago…

<><><>

“Gone? What do you mean she’s gone?” Raiden paced, his blood pumping with none of the ice-cold efficiency of the killing machine he’d been before he woke up in that cave, before he’d lost his twin brother to the darkness, before her…

“I tried to tell you.” Tim ran his hand over his bald head, shrugged and sipped on a mug of coffee, a smug, self-satisfied look on his face. Raiden clenched his fists to keep them from spontaneously rearranging Tim’s features. If he killed the man, he wouldn’t find out where Mari went. And Sarah. Sarah would be upset, which would make Mari angry with him, again. Which was how he got in this mess in the first place. Gods be damned.

“Where is she? And why the hell have you been lying to me for the past half hour?” He’d woken to find Tim alone in the house with the explanation that the women had gone out to purchase some supplies. He’d showered, shaved, brushed his teeth, and generally felt self-satisfied with how things had gone with Mari last night while simultaneously trying to figure out what he was going to say to her today, how he was going to explain himself and convince her to give him another chance, try to explain that he wanted to accept her Mark, but couldn’t, not yet…

And she was fucking
gone?

Tim leaned back in his chair, rotated the blue mug in circles a couple times, then tilted his head to the side and raised one eyebrow. “I figure, if she wanted you to know, she would have let you tag along.”

“Tell me now.” Raiden crossed the room to lean over the seat opposite Tim’s. “Tell me, or I’ll drain you dry and throw your ashes into the water as fish food.”

Tim came to his feet and the air crackled with electricity as they faced off. Sparks flickered in his eyes, just like his wife’s. What in hellsfire? “Try me, brother. Your brain will be liquefied before you can touch me with one little girly finger. Or maybe I’ll just juice you enough to watch you twitch on the floor and piss yourself.”

Raiden studied his face for a three count, then relaxed his stance, waiting. “Manipulating energy is Sarah’s power, Tim. Not yours.”

“True. But I’m her Marked mate, and a Descendant. So, I’ve taken on some of her powers. I can’t do what she can, but I’ve got enough juice to fry your stubborn ass.”

“I had no idea that was even possible.” Raiden gave in, and resigned himself to waiting Tim out. He sat at the kitchen table and threw up his hands. “Well? Now what?”

Tim shrugged, then sat down with a grin on his face. “You’re full of shit, you know that, alien boy?” He took another sip of coffee. “Here we thought you knew more about what’s going on with this war than we did. Guess we were wrong. You don’t know a damn thing.”

“Then enlighten me.”

“I tried. You’re too pig-headed to listen to reason.” Tim finished the beverage and tipped his chair back on two legs to reach over and place the mug in the stainless steel sink. “You didn’t know.”

“Know what?”

“That Sarah and I share power. That I help ground her power. Without me, she’d lose herself in the storm. They’re powerful, freakishly powerful, and they need us to anchor them, to help them think when they’re lost to their power, to protect them from themselves, and to give them a reason to come back.”

“Come back from where?”

“From the dark? From madness? From doing to much or sacrificing too big a piece of themselves? I don’t know exactly. But Sarah has told me several times that she’s nearly lost herself riding the skies, but I always bring her home.”

Raiden hated to admit it, but he had figured the big brute was around as a bodyguard and not much else. He hadn’t seen anything else until a moment ago. “What does that have to do where Mari is?”

“Everything, dumb-ass.” Tim got up and made Raiden stew as he thoroughly washed the coffee mug and placed it in the plastic drying rack. He leaned one hip against the counter, arms crossed. He was a huge warrior, fast and intelligent. Add lightning bolts to the package, and Raiden wasn’t entirely sure he could take him, even with his new, stronger powers. But if Tim called him dumb-ass again, or kept him in the dark about where Mari was now, he was going to have a go at the man anyway.

Unfortunately, the human was right. He was an idiot when it came to both Mari, and his pathetic attempts at understanding what she was thinking. But was that just her, or all women in general? “You couldn’t do all that before Sarah?”

Tim snorted. “Hell, no. I was a soldier and a lab rat. Nothing more. Now I have Sarah. She’s mine, Raiden, I’ll kill anyone or anything that threatens her. She’s mine, but she
owns
me. You get that, yet? Without her, I’m nothing, a dead man walking.”

“I had power before. Enemies. I was only trying to protect her.”

“Sure you were.” Tim rubbed his head again and grabbed a large brown envelope off the counter. He sat down in his chair and tossed the package onto the table top where it landed with a loud smack. “Tell me something, before you met Mari, you ever fry not one, but two Triscani, and live to tell the tale? You survive that green poison that was oozing from Mari’s wound when she found you? Did you have a clue where your brother was or how to find your ship?” When Raiden didn’t answer, Tim grunted. “Didn’t think so.”

Raiden waited in silence. At this point, he’d endure whatever verbal bashing Tim felt like giving, because the man was going to tell him where Mari was. He was even going to help Raiden get there. It was in his eyes.

“Before we go any further, I need to know the answer to one question, no bullshit.”

“Ask.”

“What are you willing to do to make sure Mari is safe?” Tim cracked his knuckles and sighed with obvious frustration.

“Anything.”

“Really? You sure?”

“Yes.”

“Die?”

“Yes. I already proved as much.”

“Kill?”

“Easily.”

“Trust her?”

That one stopped Raiden cold, and Tim knew it, leaned back in his seat and shook his head. “That’s the whole problem in one little word, trust. You lied to her and kept secrets that nearly got you both killed.”

Raiden opened his mouth to protest, but Tim raised his hands into the air to stop him. “I know, I know. You had your reasons. You thought you were doing the right thing, protecting her, yada, yada, yada.”