Temporal Shift (Entangled Select Otherworld) (9 page)

…

The bastard had wanted them to torture her?

Saffira scowled as she watched Devlin disappear back on board the ship with Thorne and his men.

Of all the crew on the
Blood Hunter
, he seemed the most skeptical. The most likely to resist their pleas for help. Maybe because he truly believed he needed to get back to his own world, to his own people. He wanted revenge, and she couldn’t blame him. But she too had a cause. And her need was greater.

The vision tugged at her consciousness. “Come,” she said. “The Sisterhood has been called. They are waiting for us.”

She led the way into one of the tunnels, hewn out of the hollow mountain. She’d walked this way so many times. Tannis fell into step beside her, her hand resting casually on the pistol at her thigh.

“So who are we here to see?” she asked.

“My sisters,” Saffira replied.

“Literally—real sisters?”

“No. It’s an honorary title. They are time-mancers, like me. Although I’m the strongest.”

“So they can see the future?”

“Sometimes.”

“And they live here?”

“The twenty-first protocol states that all time-mancers must be registered with the Wardens. And once they are registered, they spend their whole lives imprisoned.”

“Well, obviously that didn’t happen to you and your…sisters.”

“We are known by the color of our eyes. If we’re found before registration, then we’re brought here to safety. And there are also those who are born here.”

“Is that what happened to you?”

“No. I was born on the outside, taken from my parents, and brought to the Sisterhood. But when it became clear how strong I was, Thorne took me away from here.”

“Why? I thought it was safe.”

“It is. But the air here is saturated with the drug we use to strengthen the visions. And I would get no rest, living in a constant other time and place. So Thorne made me a home in the mountains, looked after me.”

They emerged from the tunnel into a circular chamber. A dim blue light glowed from the flames burning in the sconces around the walls. Twenty-four women sat in a circle on the sandy floor, surrounding a raised dais in the center. They wore jumpsuits like hers, but a pale violet in color. The one closest rose to her feet and came toward them. Her belly was swollen; her baby would be born soon.

“Medina,” she said.

“Chosen One,” the woman replied.

“Chosen One?” Tannis muttered from beside her. “Is that you? A little pretentious, isn’t it? And what exactly have you been chosen for?”

“I told you. My people have a prophecy that
the one
will save the future of mankind and lead them to the Promised Land.”

“Something to live up to, I suppose. And have you any idea just how you’re going to do this?”

“Some. I’m hoping to discover the rest today.”

Medina glanced from her to Tannis, then past her to where Rico and Skylar stood behind. Her eyes widened as she took in the glowing violet eyes of the two women.

“And the abominations shall walk among us,” she murmured.

“Is she referring to us?” Tannis asked but didn’t sound too concerned about being called an abomination.

“It’s part of the Prophecy,” Saffira said. “When the abominations walk among us, the time to act is at hand.”

“Cool. As long as that acting doesn’t involve us. We said we’d listen. No one agreed to any acting.”

Saffira opened her mouth to argue but clamped it closed as the vision snatched at her mind.

“Come,” Medina said. “It’s time.”

Saffira nodded and turned to Tannis. “You may stay and sit over there.” She waved toward a bench seat built into the wall on the far side of the chamber.

“Is this some weird religious shit?” Tannis asked.

“Not religion, no. We are not believers in the one god. More of a…science. We use the drug to enhance the visions, but if we do this alone, we’ve been known to become adrift in the past or the future and unable to return. In the beginning, we lost people whose minds never came back to the present. Now, we only use the drug in the presence of the rest of the Sisterhood. They ground us and bring us home.”

Well, that was mostly true. Except for her. She sometimes took the drug at home. Only Thorne knew that, but she was strong enough. And just sometimes…sometimes she’d wanted to dream of her lover. Of Devlin. Away from her sisters.

She winced as a sharp pain hit her in the temple. Medina reached for her as she swayed. “Come, Sister.”

She was vaguely aware of the three crew members heading to their seats, but the vision was taking over. She allowed Medina to lead her to the dais and, with a sigh of relief, she lay down on her back and stared at the arched ceiling, seeing the intricate patterns carved into the rock. Medina raised her head and held the cup to her mouth and she swallowed convulsively, the taste both bitter and sweet, flooding her mind as it trickled down her throat.

Medina’s soothing hands stroked her hair. For a few seconds longer, she fought it, then the tension trickled out of her and she allowed the vision to take control.

She was in a room surrounded by space. She’d been here before, but now she knew she was standing on the bridge of the
Blood Hunter,
and the space surrounding her was the huge circular screen that wrapped around the walls. Somewhere far behind them lay the planet, the only home she had ever known, but her eyes were glued straight ahead. The whole screen was dominated by a huge writhing wormhole. Like a shadow in space, the tail led back from the opening, black on black. Inside the opening whirled a vortex of iridescent gases.

Forcing her gaze away, she searched the space surrounding the hole, fixing its position in her mind.

“You want me to fly into that thing,”
a voice said from behind her. “Are you fucking out of your mind?”

She opened her mouth to answer, as the vision faded to darkness, and another took its place, rolling over her mind like the dawn of a new day…

…She felt different, but she couldn’t analyze how and it was important to remember every aspect of the vision, if they were going to make sense of it afterward. Then she was speaking and she listed to her own voice, again somehow changed…

“You are our only hope, Mr. President. God has spoken through me. The Earth will be destroyed and if mankind is to survive, you must lead your people to the stars. You must select the…Chosen Ones. They will be the future of humanity.”

The man’s face was ashen. “I don’t know how.”

“God will show us the way.”

Even in the vision, she caught an echo of her own amusement. Obviously, she was lying, but why?

The man in front of her faded and…

…The vision she always waited for was upon her. And she was in Devlin’s arms. Though something was different. Always before, she had felt his love, felt totally at one with him, now her body clamored for his touch, but her mind was closed. He stared down at her, his eyes dark with passion and something else.

Almost as though he hated her.

She was sprawled on top of him and his hard hands gripped her hips and rolled her beneath him, thrusting into her with one fluid lunge of his hips. Pain shot through her, her whole body stiffened, and he went still.

“More than you bargained for, honey?”
His tone held a hint of sarcasm. And she knew she’d hurt him.

She reached up and framed his face with her hands, forced him to stare into her eyes. “I love you,”
she whispered.

Hate and grief and pain and fear all warred on his beautiful face. “I don’t want your love.”

“It’s yours anyway. It’s always been yours. And I’ll be yours until the end of time.”

And at her words, the darkness seeped from his face, and his eyes filled with hope.

He opened his mouth and she tried to hold on to the vision, but another was drawing her away. And she wanted to stay with Devlin. And then…

…She was standing alone on a planet’s surface, surrounded by the shadowy forms of trees. The night was dark and, far behind her, the crackle of flames and the mutter of voices filled her with terror. She should run, but something held her firmly in place. She stared up into the vastness of space and watched as the
Blood Hunter
flew away leaving her alone in a strange land.

“Come back,”
she whispered. “Don’t leave me.”

Chapter Eight

“Did you believe one word of that bollocks?” Devlin asked in a low voice as they followed Thorne down a corridor cut out of the mountain.

Callum strode beside him and didn’t falter. “I take it you didn’t?”

The ship was once again theirs. Thorne had explained the link would have been broken when the ship entered the hollow mountain. In the end, all they’d had to do was disconnect the mind control centers, so when they took off again, these Old Ones wouldn’t be able to take control. That was done, and now Devlin was eager to go. He had a bad feeling about this place, and if there was one thing he’d learned over the years, it was to take notice of his bad feelings.

Something was going down, and he suspected it wasn’t going to involve them flying away all nice and peaceably.

“Don’t you think it’s all a little convenient? They wanted us here and—lo and behold—here we are.”

“You thinking they had something to do with the ship going AWOL?”

“I honestly don’t know. All this mind stuff does my head in. But you’re one of them—could they do it?”

He’d been hoping Callum would say “no way” and when he didn’t answer immediately he cast him a sideways glance. The Leader of the Universe was deep in thought and a small smile curved his lips.

“Sorry,” he murmured a few seconds later. “I was just checking in with Tannis. Could they do it? I don’t know. I’ve grown in strength over the past five hundred years. Who knows what I’ll be like in ten thousand? But right now, I don’t think we have a choice, and I don’t think they mean us harm.”

“No. I think they want something from us. And I’m guessing it’s not going to be something we want to give. We need to get back. Hatcher’s forces were devastated, but the longer we leave it, the more time he has to regroup.”

“Let’s go find out what it is they want, then.”

Thorne stopped at the entrance to a chamber. Inside, the light was dim, glowing with a faint violet hue. The room was quite large, maybe fifty feet in diameter. A group of women knelt in a circle around a central dais. His eyes fixed on the stone platform. Saffira lay on her back, her long red hair trailing over the edge to reach the sandy floor of the cave. Her eyes were closed, and it was clear she was unconscious, though beneath the closed lids, her eyes flickered.

He suspected she was deep in one of her visions. Was she making love to him?

“Over there,” Callum said, nudging him in the side.

He dragged his gaze away from Saffira to the other side of the room where Tannis, Rico, and Skylar sat together on a bench. Tannis looked bored and was chewing on her nails, Rico and Skylar sat with their heads close together, no doubt whispering sweet nothings.

He walked around the edge of the room and sat on the other side of Skylar, leaving the seat next to Tannis for Callum, in case they wanted to hold hands or some soppy shit. Thorne sat on his other side.

“So what’s happening?” he asked Skylar in a low voice.

“Not a lot,” Skylar answered. He always got the impression that Skylar didn’t like him, maybe because she was ex-Corps, and she could never forget that he’d been right at the top of the Corps’ “Most Wanted Dead” list for a long time.

“Your girlfriend is having a vision,” Rico added. “Probably dreaming of you.”

He glanced back at Saffira right as her eyes blinked open. Her head rolled to the side and she looked straight at him. “Don’t leave me,” she whispered.

He knew she spoke to him, but whether now or in some dream, he had no clue.

Don’t leave me.

But he had no choice. Even if he didn’t have things he needed to do, what could he offer any woman? His body, that was all. He suspected that Saffira would want way more and there was nothing left worth having.

“Sweet,” Skylar murmured from beside him, and he realized everyone had heard the words. He ignored the comment.

One of the other women rose to her feet and went to Saffira, putting an arm around her shoulder and helping her to sit up. Saffira slumped on the dais for a moment, her long hair falling over her face, then her shoulders stiffened. With a trembling hand, she hooked her hair behind her ear revealing her face. Her eyes glowed brighter than before, and a faint violet hue tinged her skin.

From the drugs?

Pushing herself to her feet, she swayed and rested a hand on the dais to steady herself. She looked around the room. “I have seen.”

“We have witnessed,” the roomful of women replied in chorus.

Devlin realized it was some sort of ritual. A shiver ran through him. Not only the place, but the people gave him the creeps. All this mumbo jumbo about time travel. Did they really believe it?

“I have journeyed the path,” Saffira said in the same monotone voice.

“And can the Chosen One guide the way?”

A smile spread across her face. “I can.”

Beside him, Thorne made a small sound. Devlin turned to look and caught the shock on the man’s face before he hid the expression.

“I take it that was not expected?” he said.

Thorne glanced at him. “Hoped for, maybe even expected. But never before heard.”

“So what does it mean?”

“It means she has seen the way to the Promised Land. We can go home.”

“Great. Well, as long as it doesn’t delay us. I have things to do.”

Thorne gave him an almost pitying glance. “You need to put aside your hatred.”

“Never going to happen.”

Thorne took a deep breath. “You promised to listen.”

“Well, let’s get on with whatever we have to listen to, and we can get the fuck out of here.”

“I second that,” Tannis said, coming to stand beside them. “Have I mentioned this place gives me the creeps?”

Thorne sighed and rose to his feet. “Follow me.”

They did that a lot and Devlin was getting a little fed up with it—he wasn’t a natural-born follower. This time Thorne led them into a smaller room, leading directly off the chamber. Saffira was already there along with the second woman who had helped her, who Devlin now realized was heavily pregnant.

Saffira paced the room. Blinking rapidly, she appeared animated, excited, probably still hyped up on whatever drug they had given her. She turned as they entered, and her gaze locked on him.

“Right,” Tannis said. “You wanted us to listen. Now here we are and we’re listening.”

Saffira plonked herself on the couch and sat on her hands as though to keep them still. She took a deep breath, then another, and he could see the calmness smoothing out the agitation.

“We have a prophecy, that one would come who—”

“Yeah, yeah, we already got that bit,” Tannis said. “Who’ll take you to the Promised Land…”

“That was only part of the prophecy,” Saffira replied, her voice unruffled at the interruption. “They would take our people to the Promised Land, but first they would ensure the survival of the whole human race.”

“Talk about delusions of grandeur,” Tannis muttered. “So you’re going to save the whole human race? And I suppose you’re going to tell us how?”

Saffira nodded. This was going to be interesting. “I’m going to travel back in time, to before the Earth was destroyed, and tell the people they have to leave.”

Devlin had been leaning against the wall, now he straightened. This was way beyond what he’d expected.

“Right, of course you are,” Tannis said, disbelief clear in her voice.

“I have seen,” Saffira said.

“And if you don’t travel back…”

“When the Earth is destroyed, mankind will also be destroyed and humanity will be no more. And you, me, the whole Trakis system, the present as we know it, will cease to exist.”

“We all just vanish in a puff of smoke. Well, excuse me if I find that a little hard to believe. So we’ve listened to what you have to say—as we promised—and now we really have to be on our way.”

“Wait a second,” Rico said.

Tannis sighed, but a look of resignation settled on her face. “Go on then, indulge your curiosity or we’ll never hear the end of it.”

Rico grinned. “What did you see?”

“I saw the wormhole. And I saw me talking to a man—the president—”

“What did he look like?” Rico interrupted.

Devlin watched her closely. This would no doubt catch her out. Was she aware that both Callum and Rico had known the last president of the Federation of Nations?

She closed her eyes as if reliving a memory. “Tall, with almost white blond hair and pale blue eyes. And he was thin—very thin.”

“That’s him.”

“You don’t actually believe this crap, do you?” Tannis asked. She turned to Callum. “What about you? You believe it?”

“I’m not sure. Before the whole Meridian thing, I wouldn’t have believed in telepathy or immortality. And I never believed in vampires or werewolves. Who knows what else is out there. Time travel? Let’s just say I’m not as skeptical as I used to be.”

“Devlin?”

Devlin glanced at Saffira before he answered and caught an almost hopeful look on her face. For a second he had the urge to say “I believe you” just to see the hope turn to something better. And the truth was, Callum was right. There were things in the universe they could never understand. But so what?

“I don’t think it matters,” he said. “It’s nothing to do with us. Our business is back in the Trakis system with the people who killed Tris.” He looked from Tannis to Callum. “And Janey. You swore on Trakis Four, when we had Hatcher in our sights, that we would be back to get him. I stopped because Tannis’s life was at risk. But these people”—He waved a hand around the room avoiding looking directly at Saffira—“aren’t our responsibility. I say good luck to them, but we need to be on our way.”

Saffira marched toward him, halted only inches away, and rested her hands on her hips. For the first time she looked pissed.

“You could still come with us,” he said before she could speak. “There’s probably enough room for your…sisters as well. And your protector”—he nodded toward Thorne, who lounged against the back wall, arms folded across his chest, but still giving the impression he was ready to jump in and protect his charge—“and his friends. The
Blood Hunter
is a big ship. We can drop you off somewhere on the other side. You can still find your planet.”

“Haven’t you listened to a word I’ve said?” Saffira asked, her tone reasonable but with an undercurrent of frustration.

“I heard the bit about us being lovers and, believe me, darling, I’ll fuck you, I’ll even help you get away from here, but stand in my way and I’ll walk right over you.”

“Don’t you get it?” she snapped. “If I don’t do this, there won’t be a ‘me’ to walk over and there won’t be a ‘you’ to do the walking.”

“And you’re 100 percent sure of that?”

Doubt flickered across her face. “Of course I’m not. But I know what I’ve seen is truth.”

“Great. Then good luck. I hope you have a successful visit back to the old home planet. And thanks for saving us all.”

She gritted her teeth, took a big gulp of breath, and seemed to get herself under control. Reaching out, she rested a hand on his arm, and his muscles tensed. “Please, Devlin. We need your help.
I
need your help.”

“And it’s all yours, sweetheart, as long as it doesn’t take more than the next five minutes. Because after that, we’re off.”

“Hey,” Tannis said. “Who made you captain?”

Devlin looked at her and raised an eyebrow.

“Okay. I agree. Five minutes and we’re off.” She turned to Rico. “Sorry. But I don’t like this place and I don’t trust these people. And while I’m open-minded about the whole time travel thing, I really don’t believe that we’ll disappear in a puff of smoke if she doesn’t go back to Earth.”

“You don’t understand. I have gone back. I’ve been. It has been seen and not just by me.”

“Then what’s the problem? You’ll get back and save the world. It’s got bugger all to do with us.”

Saffira released her grip on his arm and turned away. She paced the room a couple of times and cast a glance at Thorne. Devlin saw a brief nod of agreement pass between the two of them. But agreement about what? Before he had the chance to mull the thought over, she turned back to face them.

“I need the
Blood Hunter
.”

Everyone remained silent.

“In my vision, I’m on the bridge of the
Blood Hunter
when we enter the wormhole.”

Devlin had been waiting for something of the sort. “Well, I guess you’re going to have to find yourself another ride, sweetheart.”

“Stop calling me sweetheart.”

He grinned. “I thought you liked it…sweetheart.”

She threw him a dirty glance and turned to Tannis. “Please, Captain. You’re our only hope.”

“Sorry, but as Devlin said—we have our own agenda.” She thought for a moment. “I suppose we could leave you one of the long-range shuttles. That might get you where you need to go. After all—you have saved our lives and our ship and we’re grateful. Just not
that
grateful.”

“It’s not enough.”

“Now don’t be greedy.”

“You don’t understand. It’s not just the ship I need.”

“It’s not?” Tannis asked. “You need Devlin to keep you company? I’ve got to warn you, he can be a miserable bastard.”

“Thanks,” he muttered. Did everyone think he was miserable? It must be true.

“No.” She glanced at Thorne again as if trying to decide something and shrugged. “I need either Rico or Callum.”

Somehow, he didn’t like the sound of that. What did they have that he didn’t?

“And what do you need me for?” Rico asked. “Devlin not putting out? Well I’m sorry, darling, but I’m already taken.” He pulled Skylar to his side with a lazy smile.

Saffira pursed her lips. “Can’t you take this seriously? This could mean the end of humanity, and you treat it as a joke.”

Rico shuddered. “Well, if we’re going to get serious, it’s definitely time to go.”

“I still have two more minutes.”

“Go ahead then, why do you need me? And it better be good.”

She spoke fast. “We’ve spent years studying the whole theory of time travel, using what we see in the visions and what Thorne has been able to pull from the minds of the Old Ones. And we believe the wormholes can be controlled in part. They can take you to a specific time and place, but only if you have something from that time and place.”