“Look,” she said, scooting back to put some distance between them. “I just remembered I have an appointment so I really need to get going.”
To her relief, he didn’t push.
“Sure, I understand.” He rose easily and waited for her to stand as well.
Harper did, gathering her beach bag under her arm and shaking the sand off her towel which she folded hastily over her other arm.
“Well…goodbye. Nice meeting you and Happy New Year,” she said lamely.
“Nice to meet you too.” He scratched the back of his neck and turned away. When he did, Harper saw a raised red welt just under his hairline, like the one on her own arm.
She wondered uneasily if he’d been stung by a wasp like she had. The image of the bright, metallic green and gold insect flickered across her mind and then was gone in an instant.
“Oh wait,” lifeguard guy said, turning back. He held out the shiny purple stone, as if it was an afterthought. “Don’t forget this. It might bring you luck for the New Year.”
“Oh, I couldn’t,” Harper protested but he made as if to drop it into her hand and she was already reaching out reflexively to catch it when a hoarse voice shattered the peace of the quiet beach.
“Don’t touch it, Harper!”
Harper’s head jerked up and she saw a man running across the sand dunes toward her. He was big—bigger than big, huge—and he had the blackest hair she’d ever seen. It was made blacker by the paleness of his skin—he looked like he’d never been outside in the sunlight before that moment. There was something strange about his eyes too, but Harper couldn’t tell what it was—she was more distracted by the fact that the wild-looking stranger was not only some kind of giant but also completely naked.
“Don’t touch it!” he shouted again, his deep voice rising over the sound of the rushing surf. “It’s death to touch it. Fucking death!”
“Take it. You have to take it!”
Suddenly lifeguard guy had her by the wrist. There was an intensely focused look on his face, but his eyes were strangely blank. He had a frighteningly strong grip on her arm and he was trying to force her to take the shiny purple stone.
Harper drew back instinctively, attempting to get free. What the hell was going on here?
“Let me go!” she demanded, yanking at her trapped wrist. “Let me go, Goddamnit!”
“Touch it,” lifeguard guy insisted. “Just touch it!”
“No, I don’t want to!”
“You heard the lady.” Suddenly the huge naked stranger with black hair and blazing eyes was upon them. He seemed to have covered the last few feet of sand at an almost inhuman pace. Balling up a fist that looked to Harper to be as big as her head, he punched lifeguard guy hard in the face.
The grip on her wrist loosened abruptly as the formerly nice-looking lifeguard went down in a boneless heap, sprawling at their feet. His other hand loosened too and the shiny purple M&M stone skittered across the sand.
Without missing a beat, the naked stranger scooped up the stone along with a handful of sand and threw it as hard as he could. Harper saw it sparkle in the sunlight and then it plopped into the ocean, far enough out to make her gape. Wow, with a pitching arm like that he could be a major league player! Not that she followed sports much but they were pretty much all her younger brothers could talk about and she’d seen more than of her share of Rays games.
Then her eyes drifted lower. Wow, this guy was huge everywhere.
Looks like he’s packing a bat and balls to match that pitching arm, whispered the little voice in her head and a semi-hysterical giggle rose in her throat.
Harper swallowed it back down.
“Who—?” she began, backing away from the stranger.
“Give me your towel,” he demanded.
“What?” She clutched the blue and white striped beach towel to her chest protectively.
“Give me your towel,” he said impatiently. “It makes you nervous that I’m naked. Let me cover up while we talk.”
“Who said I want to talk to you?” Harper demanded but she was already handing over the towel. There was an air of authority about this huge man that was impossible to ignore.
He wrapped the towel around his waist, hiding his considerable endowments and looked at her intently. His eyes were white, Harper saw—not just plain chalk-white though—they were a shifting, opalescent hue that seemed to be every color and no color at once. A thin ring of black around the outer irises accounted for the strange piercing quality of his gaze. She’d never seen such eyes in her life—they made her uneasy, as though the stranger could see right through her.
“Listen to me—we don’t have much time,” he said in a low, clipped voice. “I’m Shadow, a warrior of the Kindred, but most who know me call me Shad.”
A Kindred—of course! Should have known. There was no way he could be human—he was at least seven feet tall, literally hung like a horse, and extremely muscular. Not to mention those eyes…It made sense that he was one of the alien warriors who guarded the Earth and occasionally called human brides to live in their huge Mother Ship orbiting the moon.
Harper had a sudden thought and her stomach dropped—she’d just gone down to the Tampa HKR office last week to register herself for the bride draft, as was required of all unmarried Earth females, according to the treaty the Kindred had with the leaders of Earth. She hadn’t thought anything of it at the time—statistically not that many women were called as brides. In fact, she’d made a little celebration of it. It was just another sign that she was no longer tied to the good-for-nothing Jareth—that she’d broken her last tie with her former fiancé and had no intention of going back.
“Did…did you come to call me as your bride?” she asked anxiously. “Because I’m not…I never…”
“No,” he said harshly and barked a laugh. “Gods, you always ask me that. No, I’m here to save your life—and with it, the life of everyone on the Mother Ship and many on Earth. But in order to do that, you have to listen to me.”
“No, I don’t think so. This all sounds too crazy for me.” Harper took a wary step back from him. She’d never heard of the Kindred having any kind of psychosis or doing mind altering drugs but this guy was definitely high on something. Saying he was here to save her life? Save it from what? The still unconscious lifeguard guy and his threatening purple M&M?
Nope, whispered the skeptical little voice in her head. I don’t think so.
But the huge Kindred wasn’t taking no for an answer.
“Listen to me,” he repeated in that low, intense voice of his. “Your name is Harper Lee Wilde. You were named so because To Kill a Mockingbird is your mother’s favorite book. You like to joke it’s lucky she didn’t name you ‘Scout’ or ‘Boo Radley.’”
Harper stopped in her tracks. That was something she sometimes said when people remarked on her name. But he might have overheard it somewhere—maybe at a party she’d attended when she was meeting new people. Her mother had dragged her to a fair number of Christmas parties that year and she was certain she’d made plenty of introductions.
But don’t you think you would have noticed a seven-foot-tall white guy with blazing white eyes staring at you if he was anywhere in the room? whispered the little voice in her head.
Still, though—it was too weird. She took another step, putting distance between them. But Shadow—Shad—wasn’t done yet.
“You had a stuffed rabbit when you were younger—given to you by your father. You named him Mr. Bun. He was lost when you took him to the amusement park—the Gardens of Busch, I think. You believed in the tooth fairy until you were ten and you woke up and saw your mother putting a dollar under your pillow one night.”
“Hey…” Harper felt all the blood drain from her face. “How…how can you possibly know all that about me?”
He looked at her intently.
“Because you told me, Harper. You told me all of it before.”
“But I’ve never met you before in
my life!” Harper protested.
“Not in this life,” he said obliquely. “But you have and you probably will again—it depends on which path the loop takes—if there are any paths left.” His voice was grim.
“The loop?” She shook her head. “What are you talking about?”
“There isn’t time to say more. The Hive aren’t able to get large agents through the security net the Kindred have around the Earth during this time period, but they can send out smaller scouts and mind-poisoners like the one that stung your friend there.” He scuffed at the fallen lifeguard with one foot.
“The Hive?” Harper had heard rumors of them—an insectile race which abducted human women—or tried to anyway—for nefarious purposes. But she’d assumed it was just an urban legend. Or in this case, a Kindred legend.
“They’re after you, Harper,” Shad said patiently. “Because you’re a ten’sora—the only one on Earth they’ve been able to locate. I won’t tell you what that means now, but it’s not to your benefit.”
“But…but I…”
“Will you come with me or will I carry you? I have done both but I prefer it when you come willingly.” He waited, frowning intently and Harper had the feeling he would absolutely swing her over one broad, bare shoulder and carry her off, kicking and screaming, without a second thought.
Think, Harper!
Despite his strange knowledge of her—or maybe because of it—she didn’t want to go with him. This was all too weird to wrap her head around. Plus, he kept talking like he’d known her in some past life or something. Harper enjoyed Yoga and meditation but she didn’t go in for that reincarnation crap.
She wanted in the worst way to get away. But if she ran he would surely catch her. She’d seen how fast he could move—for such a huge male he was incredibly quick…and frighteningly strong. Maybe she could just pretend to come willingly and then make a break for it once they reached the parking lot? That seemed like her best bet.
“Okay,” she said at last. “I’ll come with you. You don’t…don’t have to carry me.”
“Good.” He made a strangely courtly gesture with one large hand—after you—and nodded across the sandy expanse towards the parking area, as Harper had hoped he would.
She started walking with the huge Kindred on her right, glad that her beach bag was on her left arm. As unobtrusively as she could, she reached into it with her left hand and began to feel around for her keys. The small pocket knife she carried on her key ring wasn’t much of a weapon but it was the best thing she had and she needed to make a break for it the minute she got in reach of her car.
Her heart was pounding as she found the small knife and flipped it open, clutching the handle in her sweaty palm. Too bad she was right handed and she’d be fighting with her left but maybe all she’d have to do was slash him once to startle him. Then she could bolt for the car and—
“Give me the knife.”
“What?” She looked up at him, shocked. How could he have possibly known?
“The small knife you have in your hand. Give it to me—I need it.”
Fear gripped her and Harper held the knife tighter in response.
“I’ll give you the knife all right!” she hissed. Letting the straps of her beach bag slide down her arm, she withdrew her hand and pointed the three inch blade at Shad. It was a laughably small weapon to use on such a huge male but she wasn’t going down without a fight!
She feigned one way and jabbed the other, just as she’d been taught in the one self-defense course she’d taken way back in college. But Shad wasn’t just quick—he also seemed to know exactly which way she was going to move before she knew herself. He simply caught her wrist and plucked the knife, still attached to her jangling mass of keys, from her hand.
“Hey!” Harper couldn’t believe it. “How did you—?”
“How did I disarm you so easily? Because this isn’t the first time you’ve attacked me with this pathetic little weapon,” Shad growled. “However, it does come in handy.”
He grabbed her by the elbow and before Harper could even start to scream, he’d used the small knife to slice right down the center of the itchy, red welt on her upper arm, which had been left by the strange green wasp the week before.
Terror and the sharp pain of the blade knifed through her.
Oh my God, he’s some kind of serial killer and I’m his next target! He didn’t even wait to get me in his car before he started cutting me!
“Stop! Help! Somebody help me!” she screamed—or tried to but Shad had dropped the knife and clamped his hand over her mouth.
“I’m not a serial killer, as you are thinking. Nor am I a rapist, which is what you’re going to think next,” he growled in her ear. “I had to get the Hive’s tracker out of your arm. Look.”
He took his hand from her mouth and pinched the bump on her upper arm, which was now bleeding freely. Something green and metallic came out. It wasn’t much bigger than a speck and it was coated in her blood but when Shad rubbed it between thumb and finger to clean it, it winked at her in the January sunlight.
“See? The tracker.”
Shad gave her a moment to study it before flicking it away. Then he leaned over and did something even more shocking than cutting her—he licked the wound he’d made, his hot tongue swiping across her cut flesh in a way that made Harper gasp and cry out.
“You…I…” She could barely get the words out, her thoughts in a chaotic jumble.
“Now you’ll heal clean and they can’t track you,” the big Kindred rumbled. “But we can’t stay here—they know this location. It’s the start of the loop. We have to go. But first you have to get undressed. Come on—now. Strip down to your skin.”
“What?” Harper wanted to get away from him but he still had her by the arm—the one he’d cut and then licked. She clutched at the sundress and short-sleeved cardigan she was wearing, her eyes wide. There was no way she was taking off her clothes for this big Kindred asshole! No way in hell. She looked around wildly for some help but there was no one in the parking area of the secluded little beach. Except for herself and Shad, it was completely deserted.
“What are you?” she demanded. “Some kind of a—”
“Rapist?” He cocked one coal-black eyebrow at her. “Didn’t I tell you you’d think that? No, Harper, I have no interest in defiling you in any way. I just want to get you out of here before the Hive come.” He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “Please just take off your clothes willingly this time? I hate having to strip you—makes me feel like a fucking brute.”
“Strip me?” Harper looked at him, disbelieving. Then, suddenly, she had a flash. It was not unlike the strange moment she’d had the first time she’d touched the lifeguard guy. But this time, instead of seeing a giant bug’s face, she saw Shad.
Not wild and grim and determined as he was now, though. She saw the big Kindred with a warm, open look on his face. It almost made his grim, chiseled features look kind.
“Come on, Harper sweetheart,” he was murmuring. “Don’t cry—everything is going to work out this time. I’m sure it is.”
Then the flash was gone and Harper was left contemplating the harsh, tense face of a man who had just threatened to strip her naked in public.
She blinked. Had she imagined what she’d just seen…what she’d heard? His voice had been so soft, so gentle…different from the world-weary growl she’d heard when he told her to get undressed.
I don’t know what’s happening but maybe he’s telling the truth somehow. Maybe the Hive is after me for some reason and he’s trying to get me to safety.
It would have seemed preposterous but for the fact that she’d seen him get the tracker speck out of her arm…and the previous flash she’d had with lifeguard guy when she’d seen the giant insect as she touched him.
“All right,” she said warily, taking a deep breath to try and calm her nerves. “Tell me why I have to get undressed.”
Shad sighed and ran a hand th
rough his hair again.
“Because,” he said roughly. “You can’t time-loop wearing clothes. Not unless you want them permanently and painfully grafted onto your skin. The loop fuses flesh and non-flesh if given the chance.”
“Time-loop?” Harper shook her head. “What—are you going to take me back in time to save me from the Hive or something?”
“I only wish I could go back in time to stop them from finding you.” He sounded sincerely regretful about that. “But I can’t. You can’t go back past the beginning of the loop. No Harper—I’m going to take you to my time.”
“Your time?” She frowned at him, still half-disbelieving. “And where—or I guess I should say when is that?”
“The future.” Shad pinned her with those strange, opalescent eyes of his, the colors of a thousand rainbows shifting in their depths as he stared intently into her face. “Harper, I’ve come to you from the future and I have to take you back with me or you’re going to die.”
* * * * *
Shad watched her closely. This was the part where she either screamed and tried to get away from him, or fought him again. Once or twice she had fainted but that particular path was a rare one. Harper was an extremely strong and courageous female, as he had found out from his many, many previous experiences with her. Though she was halfway to believing him, she would do whatever she thought was necessary to get away from him.
And then I’ll have to catch her and strip her naked so we can loop, Shad thought unhappily. Which makes me feel like the fucking rapist she thinks I am every time I do it.
He hated that she thought that of him, even for a minute. He would never hurt a female—no true Kindred would. He’d been raised to revere the gentler sex and he’d spent most of his life knowing his mission was to rescue this particular female. The Goddess had revealed it to him at a very young age.
Shad glanced briefly at the sky. The Mother Ship was still up there in this time frame—still orbiting the Earth’s moon, its inhabitants blissfully unaware of how limited their time was.
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