by Jena Leigh
“Baby steps, Alex. Baby steps. It’s been less than two hours since I stopped looking at you like that.” His joking demeanor fell away as he added, “Nate likes you. Really, I can tell. He’s just been a bit off lately with everything that’s happened. But maybe you showing up here in Seattle will be the push he needs to get his head out of the past and put him back in the game.”
The subject of their musings had already climbed into the Charger and was now hanging his head out the open driver’s side window, glowering at them. “Come on, guys,” he called out. “Get it in gear or hoof it back to the apartment. Taxi’s leaving.”
Aiden crossed his arms over his chest and tilted his head to one side. This time he spoke loud enough for Nate to hear. “Is your version of Nate this surly in the future?”
“Oh, he has his grouchy moments, for sure.” Alex grinned, playing along. “But he’ll always be a big teddy bear, that one—he’s all bark and no bite.”
Annoyed, Nate drowned out the sound of Aiden’s laughter by revving the engine, putting the car in drive and lurching forward another thirty feet before slamming on the brakes.
“Yeah, yeah,” called Aiden. “We’re coming, jackass. Keep your pants on.”
They’d just reached the Charger and Aiden was struggling with the front seat again when the cell phone in his front pocket chimed.
Giving up on the malfunctioning seat control, Aiden fished out his cell and checked the screen—and then he looked straight at Alex, his eyebrows raised.
“What is it?” she asked, taking the phone he offered her.
The message on the screen was from “BG150801” and consisted of only three words.
Just three short words, but they were enough to bring Alex to her knees in the alleyway as she struggled to steady her breathing and stop the world from tilting so violently on its axis.
Declan’s in Seattle.
Alex brought up the messenger info and pressed the call button on the number listed there.
The voice that answered her call a moment later caused Alex’s heart to skip its next few beats.
“Grayson resi—Stop, Bri.”
Declan.
The other Declan. The one that belonged in this time.
That number she dialed must have connected her to the Grayson’s cabin in New York.
It made sense. Even in her own time, Brian had yet to receive his own cell phone. The cabin would have been the only number where he could be reached.
Past Declan’s voice switched from bored to annoyed in roughly half a second flat. “I told you, I’ve got the ph—ow! What the hell, kid? If you want the phone that badly, then take the damn thing.”
Declan’s voice was immediately replaced with Brian’s. “Sorry about that. I’m here. Did you get my message?”
“We did,” she said, breathlessly. “You’re certain?”
“I’m positive,” said Brian. “The, uh… the person you’re looking for. He’s in Seattle. Should have arrived a few minutes ago.”
“Oh, thank God,” she said. “Where, Bri? Where can I find him?”
Though she couldn’t see it, Brian’s thousand-watt smile was evident in his voice and rang out clearly across the miles. “No worries,” he said. “He is about to find you.”
Eighteen
“I don’t know about you, man, but I’m about to crash.” Trent leaned back, resting his weight against the metal railing behind him.
From beneath them came the sound of water lapping gently against the pylons of the pier. Further out across the Sound the scattered lights of a container ship, weighted down with hundreds of containers, gradually drifted closer to shore.
With a sigh, Declan turned away from the water and scanned what little of the city’s coastal properties he could make out from where they now stood.
Despite Trent’s grousing, Declan wasn’t ready to call it quits just yet.
Trouble was, they needed an address and Aiden’s wasn’t likely to be listed in a phone book.
Declan had never actually seen his cousin’s Seattle apartment. Aiden had moved to Newport shortly after Nate returned to the cabin, and prior to that Declan never had a reason to visit the Emerald City.
So how the hell was he supposed to locate his cousin and his brother in a metropolis of more than half a million people?
They could be anywhere and at this point, he and Trent were both suffering from a serious lack of sleep.
But they were so damn close! Alex was in Seattle. Declan was certain of it.
She had to be somewhere nearby.
Frowning, Declan stared up at the towering rows of condominiums and commercial buildings that sat on the other side of Alaskan Way, the main road running along the waterfront, and puzzled over what their next move should be.
Knowing his cousin, Aiden would have found a home as close to the water as he could afford. And knowing the sort of pay his cousin earned during his days in Seattle, Declan was willing to bet that his apartment was pretty damn close to where he and Trent were currently standing.
Pier 62 was empty this time of night, bathed in the warm orange glow of nearby streetlights.
Declan tugged at the collar of his jacket.
The light may have been a warm hue, but it was cold in Seattle tonight, and a marked change from the humid ocean breezes of the town they’d left behind.
“Isn’t there someone you could, you know, call or something? Someone who can tell you where his apartment is?” asked Trent.
“Like who? Besides. I don’t remember Aiden’s cell number from this time,” he said. “Or Nate’s for that matter.”
“You don’t remember your own brother’s phone number?”
Declan gave him a look. “Do you memorize all the numbers you program into your cell?”
“Fair point,” Trent said, shrugging.
The throaty rumble of a powerful engine filled the air and Declan looked back toward the road.
No, he thought to himself as the color and outline of a car slid into view. No, I can’t possibly be that lucky.
A 1970 Dodge Charger was now racing up Alaskan Way, its speed suggesting that all of Hell might just be following after.
Lucky or not, there couldn’t be too many of those cars driving the streets of Seattle tonight.
Declan didn’t think. He simply jumped.
As he dropped those last few inches to the blacktop below, Declan found himself staring down the front end of a jet black muscle car. One whose driver had immediately slammed on the brakes at his sudden appearance, throwing the Charger into an arcing skid.
Declan waited, unmoving, for the vehicle to drift to a tire-smoking stop less than three feet away.
A version of his brother that Declan hadn’t seen in nearly two years sat gaping at him through the open driver’s-side window. His hair was long, his jaw lined in a patchy beard that hadn’t been seen by anyone in the Grayson clan since the day his brother left for Seattle.
It was like staring at a ghost.
“Nathaniel,” he said in greeting.
Nate arched an eyebrow. “Declan.”
Strangely, his brother didn’t seem all that surprised to see him. Bemused that his sudden appearance had taken place in the middle of a city street, perhaps, but definitely not surprised.
Trent was jogging toward them from the direction of the Pier, swearing repeatedly and shouting something about Declan having a death wish.
And then he heard it—from inside the darkened car, a familiar voice crying, “Decks!” and followed shortly thereafter by, “Dammit, Aiden, move already!”
Declan was around the car and opening the passenger-side door before Aiden could react. It took everything he had not to reach inside, grab his cousin by the collar of his leather jacket, and haul him right out of his seat.
“Declan… Jesus,” Aiden was mumbling to himself as he climbed out and began wrestling with the seatback release knob. “So she was telling the truth. I mean, I know I said I believed her and all,
but…”
Still inside the car, Alex sighed in frustration. “Aiden, do me a favor, yeah? Stop talking and let me out of this car.”
Declan could hear her kicking at the stubborn bucket seat from somewhere in the back.
“Easy, Alex,” his brother growled, although there wasn’t much menace behind it. Nate seemed too thrown by Declan’s arrival to be much concerned with his car’s upholstery.
An SUV laid on the horn a few times before giving up and driving around them to continue down the road. The rest of the sparse traffic followed suit.
A few seconds later, Trent reached them and came to an awkward, panting stop beside the car, clearly confused. “Hey, jackass,” he called toward Declan. “Next time, a heads up would be nice.”
And then, finally, there she was.
Future Alex—his Alex—was standing right there in front of him, alive, intact, and even more beautiful than he remembered.
She took a hesitant step closer. “Declan?”
He closed the distance between them, pulling her tightly against him. Alex inhaled sharply and tensed for a moment before relaxing into his arms. Resting his cheek against the top of her head, he breathed her in and reassured himself that she was, in fact, real.
“You scared the hell out of me,” he whispered into her hair.
Alex’s arms briefly tightened around him, before she extricated herself from the embrace and tilted her head back to get a better look at his face. “I thought I’d lost you, Decks. I was so scared that I might have… that you might be…”
Declan shook his head. “I’d never let it happen,” he said. “I’ll always come for you, Lex. Haven’t you realized that yet? You couldn’t get rid of me if you tried, princess.”
The expression his words elicited robbed Declan of his breath and stole away whatever else he’d planned on saying.
Alex was smiling up at him.
Her real smile. The one he’d seen that afternoon for the first—and, he’d assumed, the very last—time.
And as much as he hated to put an end to that smile, absolutely nothing could have stopped Declan from doing what he did next.
Leaning down, he pulled her closer and pressed his mouth to hers, feeling a familiar shiver of electricity pass between them as Alex’s ability was reawakened. The kiss only ended when someone behind them cleared their throat, loudly, and Alex’s lips curved into an embarrassed smile beneath his.
He was pretty sure the throat-clearing had come from Aiden. Declan made a mental note to kill his cousin, their timeline be damned.
In the meantime he settled for cutting his eyes at him in an annoyed glare.
As they broke apart, Alex searched for his hand and threaded their fingers together. He could sense the currents rising within her as she reclaimed her jumping ability and replenished her strength, drawing in power from the city surrounding them.
An invisible ribbon of electrical current danced between them and Declan smiled as he began sensing Alex’s emotions with more clarity. She was something close to ecstatic at the moment—and the feeling was definitely mutual.
Nate had climbed halfway out of the driver’s seat and now stood with the door open, one foot resting on the bottom frame of the car and his arms folded over its roof.
They locked eyes and Declan was surprised to find more anger there than he’d expected.
What was his problem?
“Well, this is nice.” Trent smirked, shoving his hands into his pockets. “Good to see you again, Nate, Aiden. And Alex! Name’s Trent, by the way. Figured I’d go ahead and tell you myself, since you seem to have knocked lover boy over there for a loop, and, well, let’s face it. His manners kinda sucked to begin with.”
As Declan fought back an eye roll, Alex let out a quiet laugh.
“Nice to meet you, Trent.” Her gaze traveled from Trent up to Declan and then back again. “How do you two know each other?”
Trent’s reply was preempted by the blare of a car horn as it drove past the parked Charger and the group of people that now stood blocking the roadway.
“Let’s take this back to the apartment before someone assumes there’s been an accident and calls the cops,” said Aiden. “Besides, it’s cold out here.”
“Now that sounds like a fantastic idea,” said Trent. “Mind if I catch a ride with you, Nate? I’ve suffered through enough teleports for one day, thank you very freaking much.”
“Yeah,” said Nate, his voice oddly stripped of its inflection. “Hop in.”
“We’ll meet you there,” said Alex.
Declan noted a shift in the currents as her joy faded and was replaced with a far less pleasant pulse of anxious tension.
She gave him a worried glance. He gave her hand a reassuring squeeze.
Aiden shrugged. “Suit yourselves.”
Crossing the street to the sidewalk that traveled parallel to the water, Alex and Declan came to a stop beneath a streetlamp. Behind them, the Charger’s engine roared to life and sped off, heading in what Declan assumed was the general direction of Aiden’s apartment complex.
The sound of Nate’s car was a distant echo before Alex finally gave voice to the thoughts that had so swiftly soured her rush of elation moments before.
Unable to meet his eye, she mumbled the words, “I’m sorry, Declan, but we can’t go home yet.”
He shrugged. “I know. I figured your ability would have faded out by now,” he said. “It’s alright. We’ll just find Aaron wherever he exists in this time and then we can—”
“No, Decks,” she said. “I mean we can’t go home yet because I’m not ready to.”
He dropped her hand in surprise. “Wait, what?”
“There’s something I still need to do here.”
He shook his head. “Lex, from what I’ve experienced so far, there’s nothing you can do in this time. Nothing that will make any kind of positive difference in out future, anyhow.”
She winced and opened her mouth to reply, but he interrupted her.
“The longer I’m here,” said Declan, “the more I see, the more I recognize, I’m almost convinced that our timeline is completely fixed. It can’t be altered. Our presence here doesn’t appear to have changed anything about our future at all. If anything, the actions we’re taking here in the past will just ensure that it all plays out according to plan.”
She nodded sadly. “Yeah. I’ve noticed that, too.”
“Then what could possibly be keeping you here?” Declan asked. “Why bother with any of it, when changing the past to fix our future is clearly a lost cause?”
Alex crossed her arms over her chest, defensive. “I realize the timeline’s probably fixed, Declan, and I’ve accepted that. I know that I can’t fix our future by rewriting our history. The thing is, I don’t want to stay here in the past because I hope to change something.” Her brow furrowed. “At least, not in the way you’re thinking.”
“Then what, Lex? What could possibly be so important that it would keep you from coming home with me the second we find a way to refresh your time travel ability?”
A shrug. “I need to stay, because I offered my help to someone. I can’t go home without following through on that offer first.”
He stared at her blankly. “You’ve been here what? A few days? And you’ve already made a commitment so important that you’re willing to remain stuck in the past in order to keep it?”
A cringe, then a nod.
“What is it, Lex?” he asked. “What was the offer?”
She bit her lip.
A sense of dread rose within him and Declan swallowed a groan of frustration. That lip-biting thing was rarely a good sign.
“What did you offer to do, Alex?”
“I, um, well I sort of told someone that I’d help her track down the serial killer that murdered her best friend.”
His mouth fell open. “You did what?”
Her expression turned pleading. “The cops and the Agency both have nothing on the guy, Decks
. He’s terrorizing this city and he’s killing a new Variant practically every night. I want to help her. I want to help everyone who’s unlucky enough to be a Variant in Seattle right now. I can’t leave until I know our kind will be safe.”
Our kind.
The words connected like a punch, robbing him of an argument. That was the first time Declan had ever heard Alex refer to Variants as her own kind. She’d been resisting that affiliation since the day he’d pulled her from that burning bookstore.
He stared back at her, musing over just how much she’d changed. Alex wasn’t going to leave Seattle right now just to save herself. At least, not until she’d saved everyone else first.
And damned if he didn’t love her all the more for it.
“Alright.” He reached out, taking her hand. Her fingers were cold against his. “We won’t leave yet. We’ll solve this case, do our best to take care of the threat, and then we’ll leave.”
Smiling wide, Alex stepped up onto her tiptoes, grabbed his jacket for balance and kissed him sweetly.
“Thanks, Decks.”
He attempted a scowl. Unfortunately, her relieved expression had spirited away the bulk of his annoyance.
“Don’t thank me yet,” he said. “Seeing as how this is Seattle, a year and a half in the past. I happen to know exactly which murderer you just committed us to tracking down. And I hate to be the one to tell you this, Lex, but the Scientist murders don’t have the happy ending you’re probably hoping for.”
Her expression was a silent entreaty for more details, but those would have to wait. Declan shook his head. It was late, it was cold, and right now all he wanted to do was get some sleep.
Preferably someplace warm, with Alex wrapped tightly in his arms so he could be certain not to lose her again while he slept.
Declan held out a hand. “The others are waiting,” he said. “And I don’t know where we’re headed, so you’re driving this time.”
She passed up the hand he offered and folded her arms around his waist instead, laying her cheek against his shoulder. He couldn’t see the expression she wore, but the currents dancing between them told him all he needed to know.
