Time Masters Book One; The Call (An Urban Fantasy, Time Travel Romance) (39 page)

The question did more than just throw her.  Shona braced herself
as her face paled. For a fracti
on of a second, her features fl
uxed.

John froze.

“Mr. Eaton, if… if you
will excuse me, I… I need to …to..
.” Shona’s eyes grew wide with panic. She sprang off the love seat and headed straight for the stereo system behind the sofa.

John sat nervously as
he waited for the Maiden to fi
nish playing with an assortment of buttons, knobs and dials on the wall of audio equipment behind
him.
He knew
then
her heart was hungry.

She inserted a fl
at silvery disc into a slot, pushed a b
utton and music fi
lled the room. Her entire body shuddered in response as her heart began to feed. She took a deep breath and turned to look at him, her eyes slightly glazed.

He smiled nervously at her. “Ready?”

She took another deep breath, leaned back against the sofa and stared blankly at him for a moment before nodding.

"Let's move on, shall we?"
John asked, wondering if it was a good idea to try to question her while she was feeding.
The fact that she
was
feeding
the more important matter.

He gasped as th
e Maiden’s features began to fl
ux to Muiraran and bac
k again, her emotions keying up, her camouflage instinct obviously skipping a beat or two.
Did she have any idea what was happening to her?  Had she ever seen her true features before?  He studied her more closely.  S
omething else seemed to be happening to her but he didn’t know what, except that he didn’t want to be alone with her should another emergency arise like the one at the library that morning. Wasn’t Julia
Dawson
in the house somewhere? Did she know what was going on? What about her mother? Did either Julia or the Whittards even know what—who—Shona really was?

The Maiden's
breathing slowed to normal, and John looked about apprehensively. Where was Lany? He should have left Kwaku and Zara by now. Thank th
e Creator, they’d returned on time
, but they would be of no help this afternoon. Zara was weak and Kwaku would have to…

“I'm terribly sorry Mr. Eaton.  I seem to be a bit out of sorts.
”

John jumped.

She had practica
lly panted the last sentence as
her body moved
seductively to the music.
She looked at him, eyes
bright
, and licked her lips before sw
allowing hard.

John began to fi
dget uncomfortably at his end of the sofa.
Where was Lany?

A sudden knock outside the music room made both John and Shona jump.

Lany poked his head inside.
“
S
orry to interrupt, but
Kwaku… found what, uh, what you were looking for.”

John sighed in relief
then realized what he’d just heard.
"Oh!  Yes, of course."  He turned to Shona.  "This is my associate Lany Mosgofian.
  In fact he'll be going
over a few things with you as well.  Would you mind if he and I stepped out?"

Shona stared at him blankly a moment before her gaze slowly travelled to Lany.  She stared at him with interest. 

Lany offered a weak smile.  "Nice to meet you.  I look forward to our time together."  He quickly turned to John, an anxious look governing his face.

"Excuse us, Shona." John got up from the sofa.
"
This won't take but a moment.
"

She merely nodded and continued to scrutinize Lany, who cringed uncontrollably.  He could actually feel her inner heart pushing
and pulling
at him.  He turned abruptly and fled the music room. 

John followed at a more normal pace, but
quickly
caught up to Lany halfway down the stairs.
“Julia Dawson?”

“Yes,” Lany quickly
glanced about the small hall-study they were in at the bottom of the stairs, looking for anything to distract him from the Maiden and her pull.

“Well? What about her?”

He jumped slightly but didn’t think John noticed. “Oh, uh, we were right. She’s trouble.”

“What did they fi
nd out?” John’s voice was low.

Lany looked around and lowered his own. “Well, let me put it this way. Either Dawson was moved through time and relocated, so to speak, or there really is such a thing as reincarnation.”

“Really?”

“A woman by the same name, with the same description and retina I.D. existed during the rebellion of oh, forty-nine.”

John’s eyes widened. “Three thousand forty nine?”

“That’s the one. She was a scientist with the Anontist Center when she was arrested.”

“Arrested!”

“Arr
ested.
For murder.
First degree.
E
ight counts.”

John blanched.

“Wait, there’s more.”
Lany added, still shaky but starting to recover.
“Just before she was to be executed,
hours
before, she disappeared without a trace, never to be seen or heard from again.”

“By the Creator.” John said to no one in particular as a cold chill belligerently forced its way up his spine.

“And,” continued Lany. “The people she murdered all reappeared ten days after the scheduled execution. From all outward appearances
they had
never been gone.”

At that, they both exchanged the same sage look.

“She was moved, moved to this time.” John whispered his face white.

Lany nodded.

Both men shivered simultaneously as the same conclusion gripped them. They looked at each other in horror.

“By a Time Master.” They said in unison, the realization pushing both onto the nearest pieces of furniture, their limbs too shaken to hold them.

* * *

Ten minutes later John was back
at the interview, praying he looked composed. The new information Lany brought was, to say the least, disturbing. Very disturbing. It was always thought a past Time Master was used to take the Maiden as an infant, the motive to stop a Muiraran prophecy from coming to pass, one never explained to John. But that would simply mean hiding the Maiden somewhere, and possibly easy to do if the Time Master used wasn’t the wiser as they were often sought out in major emergencies. And someone had b
een smart enough to pull it off
. Unfortunately the most likely Time Master to have been used was gone now, passed away shortly after the Maiden’s abduction.
Both he and his mate.
Without being able to question the primary suspec
t, there was no other way to find where she had been taken. Th
e Muirarans had to wait
until she was of age, when her inner heart would begin to grow and struggle o
ut of its dormant state.
Zara could
then
locate her with her own, having bonded with the infant shortly after birth. A precautionary measure and a wise one it turned out to be. But Julia Dawson was probably moved well after the Maiden was taken. Which meant there still had to be a Time Master involved.
But which one?
John knew of only Kwaku. He and his people knew nothing about any of the previous Time Masters. With Muirarans one was always on a need to know basis.

John took a deep breath to compose
himself
,
a nasty headache brewing
as the nausea in his
stomach
grew
. Wasn’t that Dawson woman in the house somewhere?
How were they going to deal with her now?
His headache suddenly exploded.
Time to bring in the reinforcements.  Namely Dallan.

John began to
absently rub his tired eyes.
“If you’ll excuse me for a moment again, Shona, I need to make a…
er
, communication.”

“Communication?”

“You kn
ow a contact?” John absently fl
ung his hand about in a circle as he tried to think of the correct term. “A message, a…”

“Phone call?” she off
ered.

John pointed to her in confi
rmation. “Yes, that’s it.”

She stared at him a m
oment, concern in her eyes. “Th
ere is a phone in my bedroom, or you can use the one in the family room down stairs. Just go right at the
bottom of the stairs and you will
be there.”

“Thank you, the family room will do.” Now a
ll he had to worry about was fi
nding the blasted thing. What
did
a phone look like anyway? By the Creator, he knew he should have paid cl
oser attention to Lany’s briefi
ng before coming today.

John got to his feet and excused him
self again before leaving to fi
nd the phone, which of course he had no intention of using. He needed to get Lany there to take over the rest of the questions and observations for a while, as the Maiden now posed no threat of falling apart. He hoped.

He proceeded down the stairs, his nausea now coming in waves. He knew it was from the recent news and the stress it caused. He prayed Lany still had his communicator on as he entered the family room and crossed to the other side, searching. From what he could remember, a phone was attached to the wall by a length of plastic covered wire or, in some cases, no wire at all. There would be buttons with numbers on it as well.

After a m
oment of looking about, John fi
nally found what he was looking for. He picked up the d
evice and studied it briefl
y. Hmm, it was obviously a wireless model. He peered down the hall cautiously before raising the communicator to his lips. If the Maiden walked in on him, he could simply wave it around or chew
on it
to keep her from knowing what it really was. To her it was simply a pen, and he would treat it as such.

“Lany?” John began the phone at his ear, communicator to his lips. “Are you there?”

“What is it? Everything okay?” his pen replied with a bit of static.

“Oh, thank
the Creator I got you on the fi
rst try. Can you cover for me? Just for a few minutes?
It's time to fetch Dallan.
”

Dead silence from the pen.

“Lany?” John pulled the communicator away from his lips and stared at it intently, the phone still held to his ear.

“Sure, no problem,” came the dazed reply.

John returned it to his lips. “As soon as possible, Lany. I’m in bad shape here.”

“On my way.” Lany sounded concerned.

“Thanks, Lany. I owe you one.”

“Mr. Eaton?”

John spun around to face the Maiden, as panic and relief battled for possession of his face. Panic because of the fear he might be found out, relief because he also knew he was cove
red, the phone still pressed fi
rmly to his ear.

That is, until he noticed the look on Shona’s face.

“Mr. Eaton, why are you talking into the television remote?”

Relief died as shock and embarrassment took over, leaving John to fend for
himself
until Lany could come to his rescue.

* * *

Back home at last, the errands all done, Maggie Whittard sipped her tea slowly. She wanted the relaxation and warmth it brought to last as long as possible. It had been a long day.

She took a deep breath and let it out slowly as she watched her tea swirl in its cup, her hand moving in slow circles. Maybe this time her daughter would get what she wanted and this new university and music school would accept her. Poor Shona had been through too many disappointments in the past and it wasn’t fa
ir that she should have to suff
er such humiliation. And it was all because of
him.

Maggie knew he had to be the one behind
it. Th
ere was no other explanation, no one else with anything to gain from Shona’s failure, no one else that would be so cruel. Maggie, for one, didn’t understand what his motive was. He’d wanted Shona to be highly educated; why keep her from what he wanted? Of course, some of the things he wanted her to excel in she and Evan h
ad thought rather strange at fi
rst.
Languages and fencing for instance, not to mention gymnastics and a healthy smattering of marital arts.
Why hold her back now? Good Lord, the
girl was nearly twenty
! She should be well into college a
nd close to graduating
by now.