I’m up there, he thought. The younger me—the boy Shad who had visions of the “pretty lady with green eyes.”
Back then he’d had white-blond hair and black eyes—the opposite of his present coloring. It was a peculiar trait of Shadow Twins that their eye and hair coloring reversed when they hit puberty. But now, in this time frame, he was still a little boy. So young…so innocent…
He wondered what his younger self would think if he could see him now and was glad that he couldn’t. Not that he could risk going near his younger self—the Time Warden had warned specifically against it, just as he had told Shad he needed to stay away from any timeline where he existed at more than one time, which was one reason he was in such a hurry to get Harper to the future.
But it was just as well. The younger Shad would be traumatized if he saw the way present-day Shad manhandled the “pretty lady.” The way he stripped Harper bare while she cried and pleaded with him not to.
Shad took a breath and hardened his resolve. It twisted his heart every time, but he couldn’t let Harper be permanently marked during the loop. Stripping her was for her own good. She…
His thought trailed off and his eyes widened.
For the first time ever, in the hundreds of loops and dozens on dozens of twisting paths those time-loops had taken, Harper was taking off her own clothes.
“Harper?” He could scarcely believe it. He’d been certain that he’d seen every possible path play out and in every single one of them he was forced to subdue and strip her before they could loop. How could it be she was voluntarily undressing herself?
“What?” She looked up at him, half-fearful, half-defiant. “You said take off my clothes, so I’m taking them off. Did you change your mind?”
“No.” Shad shook his head wonderingly. “No please—continue.”
“I’d ask you not to look but I guess that wouldn’t do any good,” she snapped.
“I can’t risk you running,” Shad said, frowning. “But I will look only at your face.”
He kept his eyes trained on her lovely features as she fumbled with her clothing, though it was difficult to do. He had so many memories of her lush curves… her creamy brown skin so much darker than his own pale tan…the way she offered herself to him and her salty-sweet taste as he knelt between her thighs to worship her with his tongue…
No, he told himself fiercely. No more of that! It hurts too fucking much. Every time you lose her it’s like ripping out your heart. Stay distant this time, Shad. Maybe that way you won't lose perspective and you can fucking keep her alive.
At last, Harper stood naked and shivering before him, one arm wrapped protectively around her full breasts while the other hand shielded the tender V of her sex.
“What now?” she asked, her teeth chattering. It was a perfectly comfortable 65 degrees Fahrenheit or 18 degrees Celsius, but Shad reminded himself that she was used to Florida temperatures and it rarely got chilly here.
He braced himself for the next part.
“Now, we loop,” he said evenly. “Which means you have to be in contact with me since I have the looper embedded under my skin.”
He turned his hand over and showed her the underside of his left wrist. The small, flat device had been implanted under the blue bracelet of veins by the Time Warden himself and didn’t Shad wish he could get his hands on that bastard. But it was too late for that—too late to go back and tell the Warden he’d set the beginning of the loop at the wrong place. Shad couldn’t do a damn thing while he was stuck in this loop except keep going, praying that the next time he lived it he would get it right.
I’d better get it right this time, he thought, looking at the dull red glow under the skin of his arm. The glow had been bright green when the Warden had first implanted it. Over hundreds of attempts the light had gradually faded to blue, then yellow, then orange, and now red…the most ominous of colors.
Because the looper was running out of power.
This could be the last loop—the last chance, Shad thought to himself and felt his stomach clench unhappily. If he didn’t manage to save Harper this time, he might not get to try again. And that meant she would die…and everyone else he loved would die with her.
No, I can’t think like that! If this is my last chance, I have to fucking make it count.
“Come here,” he told Harper, who edged towards him warily, as though he were a wild beast which might decide to gobble her up. “Come on, I promise it will only take a moment.”
“What will only take a moment?” she asked in a small voice. “I don’t think we should—”
“Looping will only take a moment. And it’s too late to change your mind.”
Before she could protest, he grabbed her and pulled her to him, wrapping his arms around her shoulders and back and pressing her tight against him.
He heard her muffled squeak of protest at the abrupt intimacy as he tapped at the glowing spot on his arm. At first he thought nothing was going to happen—thought that this last reset had finally drained the looper forever and they were going to be stuck here in this time where there was nothing he could do for her.
Then the air around them began to shimmer and the past, which was Harper’s present, faded away as they time-looped into the future.
Chapter Two
“Where are we? What is this place?” Harper stared around herself in disbelief and dismay. They appeared to still be on Earth but a changed Earth. The beach was still there but the clear green waves she remembered had been replaced by greasy black, as though the entire ocean was one vast oil slick. The air was heavy with gray smog and the only vegetation she could see was a few withered stalks of black grass along the side of the road.
“This is the Earth under Hive dominion,” Shad said grimly. “Come on—we have to move fast before a Seeker senses you.”
“A what?”
But he was already pulling her through the rutted parking lot with its broken and crumbling asphalt, though where he was taking her, Harper had no idea. She just stumbled along behind him, staring at this strange new world in horror and trying to keep herself covered.
He came to an abrupt halt in the back corner of the parking area and Harper almost ran into his broad back.
“Hey, what—?”
“Watch.”
Shad put out a hand and pressed against thin air—or it looked like air. But when he withdrew his palm there was a faint shimmer and a door swung open. Not a house door, though—it was more like the door to a car.
“What is this?” Harper stared wide-eyed. She wasn’t used to seeing doors appear out of thin air.
“My ship. Get in—we have to get out of here fast.”
“But…it’s invisible,” she exclaimed. “What are you, Wonder Woman? You have an invisible jet?”
“It’s just stealth tech but it won’t keep them off our scent forever,” Shad growled. “Especially if they sense a fertile female in the vicinity. We have to get out of range. Come on!”
He pushed Harper into the strange doorway and she looked around, bewildered as her eyes got used to the dim lighting. Then she registered what she was seeing. She’d seen pictures on the news of the Kindred’s vehicles—this was clearly one of them.
There were two seats up front with a complicated-looking array of instruments. There was a living area in the middle of the ship, which was where they were standing, with a comfortable if battered looking couch opposite a narrow counter which apparently doubled as a galley kitchen. Near the back was a closed door which led to the very end of the ship—maybe some kind of a bedroom?
This ship was different from the one she’d seen in the news-vid, though. That Kindred vehicle had been shiny and new with silver chrome sparkling everywhere. Though it was spotlessly clean, everything in this ship looked dull and worn and ragged—as though it was years old.
“Not much to look at,” Shad rumbled behind her, making her jump. “But at least the stealth tech works. The Kindred haven’t made a new sh
ip in over twenty cycles but this old girl keeps humming along.”
Harper turned and saw that he’d closed the door after him and was pulling on a pair of tight black leather trousers and matching black leather boots. He tossed her a pile of red fabric which she caught reflexively.
“Here, put this on and come up front to buckle up. We have to go.”
He was already striding up to sit in what was clearly the Captain’s chair, behind the rows of instruments as he spoke. His broad, bare chest was lit by many colors as he began flipping switches and the control panel lit up.
The ship hummed to life and Harper realized she needed to hurry. She didn’t want to be standing here naked, staring like an idiot if they were about to blast into space.
Hurriedly, she examined the red, slippery fabric and found it was a simple sleeveless dress. Rolled inside it was a pair of black ballet flats. She pulled the dress over her head and slipped on the shoes, surprised all of it fit her perfectly, the red gown clinging to her curves and accenting her warm brown skin tones.
Red always was my color, she thought. But how had Shad known? The same way he knew everything else about her? Because he was from the future?
Harper frowned—it was time to get some answers.
Going up to the front of the ship, she slid into the battered passenger’s chair which was obviously built for someone much larger than her. She sat back and started working on the complicated array of buckles and straps.
“Don’t bother with all of those,” Shad told her. “You only have to be fully harnessed when we break through the atmosphere and go into space.”
“But…aren’t we?” Harper couldn’t imagine why else they would be in a space ship.
“Not yet,” he said grimly. “First we have to go by the base of the Resistance. If we don’t have someone running interference for us, we’ll never get out of Earth’s atmosphere.”
“The Resistance?” Harper shook her head, feeling dazed.
The big Kindred shot her a glance. “Not very original is it? But it’s what we do—we resist the Hive’s rule. Their systematic decimation of our world and people.”
“But…I always thought they were just an urban legend,” Harper protested as the small ship lifted and began skimming through the air. They didn’t seem to be going very high—she could still plainly see the rutted remains of a road beneath them. The same road she’d driven on to get to the beach what seemed like a hundred years ago.
Maybe it was a hundred years ago. If we really are in the future.
“They’re all too real, unfortunately,” Shad growled. “As you would have found out if you’d touched that E’lo stone the mind-slave was trying to give you.”
“Mind-slave? You mean the lifeguard guy you punched out?” Harper asked.
He nodded shortly. “He’d been stung by a mind-poisoner—a Hive scout that carries a special mind-control venom in the tip of its barb. It compels the one it stings to fulfill a specific directive. In this case, that poor fool was supposed to give you the E’lo stone.”
“But…why?” Harper remembered the desperation in the nice-looking lifeguard guy’s face as he demanded that she take the small purple M&M shaped stone, or at least just touch it.
“Because holding or even touching the stone would have transported you instantly to the Hive’s home base on Mars. That’s where they holed up when they came to our solar system,” Shad said. “Then they laid low and waited for us to let our guard down. The Kindred had a protective energy net around the Earth—the Hive couldn’t get anything larger than a small insect though it. But that was enough.”
“If they couldn’t get anything but an insect through, how was I going to be sent all the way to Mars?” It sounded far-fetched to Harper.
“Because Druvian E’lo stones cause instant transportation to anywhere in the universe. They were actually first formed to cause two compatible individuals to switch places and trade locations but they can be calibrated to transport only one specific person. In this case—you.” He gave her a direct look with those strange, white eyes of his.
“But…why me? What would they want with me?” Harper demanded. “I’m just a regular person. There’s nothing special about me.”
“Not special? Gods…” He shook his head. “Listen, Harper—you’re a ten’sora. The only one on Earth during your time. Or at least, the only one the Hive could locate.”
“A what? What does that even mean?” she demanded.
“Look…” He ran a hand through his wild black hair. “The Hive wants human females for one reason and one reason only—incubation of their grubs.”
“Incubation of grubs?” Harper felt sick. “You mean—”
The Sovereign—the ruler of the Hive—has a breeding barb he uses to inject his spawn.” Shad stared straight ahead as he spoke, his voice flat, his eyes hard. “Most females only survive one breeding. That’s because when the grubs grow large enough, they eat their way out.”
“Ugh!” Harper exclaimed. “That’s nasty!”
“It’s a death sentence,” Shad said shortly. “For any female but a ten’sora.”
“Which is what I’m supposed to be, right? Why? How am I different?” she demanded.
“You’re different because your body produces a special chemical—an enzyme which keeps the grubs dormant so that you can birth them naturally.”
“That’s disgusting,” Harper whispered. “There’s nothing natural about, uh, birthing grubs.”
“Of course not,” he said harshly. “The point is, they don’t kill you coming out. Which means you can be bred over and over and over…”
“Stop!” Harper wanted to clap her hands over her ears. “How can you say such awful things with a straight face? It’s not right!”
“Of course it’s not right,” he growled. “It’s fucking horrible and wrong on every level. But it’s what happens to you if I can’t save you.”
“What do you mean?” she asked. “You already did. You kept me from touching the purple M&M, er, the E’lo stone, and took me away to the future. I should be fine, right?”
He shook his head. “It’s not enough. It’s never enough. They find you—the Hive finds you every time and takes you back. Because what I’m trying to do is almost impossible.”
“You mean trying to save me?”
“Yes.” He sighed. “But it’s more than that—I’m trying to change the past.” He turned his head to look at her. “And Harper, the past doesn’t want to be changed. It resists at every opportunity.”
“And what…what happened in the past?” she asked numbly. “The Hive got me?”
“In the past—your present—you touched the E’lo stone and were transported directly to the Hive’s lair,” he said blandly. “There you were bred over and over, producing a veritable army for the Hive.”
Harper felt sick. This had to be a nightmare, right? He couldn’t be telling the truth, could he?
“You mean I…I…” But she couldn’t finish.
“Yes,” Shad said, staring straight ahead again. His voice was flat but there was a muscle jumping in the side of his strong jaw and his knuckles where he gripped the steering yoke were white. “Yes, that’s exactly what I mean. Sovereign X'izith kidnapped you using the E’lo stones and forced you to incubate brood after brood of his fucking grubs.”
His eyes were shiny and dry but he swallowed hard before continuing. “They built their army silently, in secret. It took years but by the time they were ready to leave Mars and attack, they outnumbered us twenty to one.”
“And what…what happened then?” Harper whispered.
“They blew the Mother Ship out of the sky. Took over the world. The Earth had no weapons that could defeat them although the humans made a valiant attempt.”
“But if they blew up the Mother Ship how did you survive?” she asked.
“I and a group of my friends—classmates—were here on a field trip at the time of the attack. We formed the core of the Resistanc
e and we’ve been hiding and fighting the Hive ever since.” He looked at Harper again. “But I always knew that someday I would go looking for you—to save you. And in saving you, I will be saving our entire race, Harper. Do you understand?”
“I…I think I’m beginning to,” she whispered, although her head was still spinning with the wild tale he was telling her. Captured by the Hive? Impregnated with an army of grubs? The Kindred Mother Ship destroyed and the world overrun with the horrible huge insects? It was almost too awful to contemplate. Yet all she had to do was look out the viewscreen around them to see evidence that Shad was telling the truth.
They were in the city now—a huge, gray city Harper didn’t remember. It appeared as though Downtown Tampa had somehow grown all the way out past the boundaries of Saint Pete. The buildings were strange and silent—lumpy towers of crooked gray and black stone that looked like they’d been extruded rather than built. They reminded her more of the huge termite mounds she’d seen in a nature documentary once than actual buildings. There were no windows and the entrances were rounded and uneven.
The streets they were skimming over were deserted except for a few long, thin, insectile creatures who reminded Harper of eight-foot-tall humanoid grasshoppers walking on their hind legs. They stalked around the blackened streets, their long antennae twitching as though they were looking for something.
“Seekers,” Shad said, seeing her staring at them. “They’re on the lookout for fertile females. They can smell one from a hundred yards away—like fucking sharks smell blood in the water.”
“Can…can they smell me?” Harper heard the quaver in her own voice and didn’t like it. But the idea of being grabbed by a giant insect was repellant to her. She hated bugs and always had, probably because she’d grown up in Florida where there were so many different kinds of creepy-crawlies.
“They could if the ship wasn’t air tight,” Shad said. “Don’t worry though—they won’t get us here. I’ve never seen a path where that happens.”
Harper wanted to ask him what he meant when he kept talking about different “paths” but before she could, they pulled up in front of a vaguely familiar building. It was made of brick and looked like something built by humans rather than extruded by termites. There was an old movie marquee out front with a few random letters still in place on darkened board. A tall, vertical sign above the marquee proclaimed TAM…but the P and the A had been broken off and lay on the cratered sidewalk below.
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