Her answer was to tighten her arms around him.
* * * * *
The Agency, unlike human-occupied offices, was continuously in operation. Staff took time for rest or to feed, as they needed, before returning to their work. For almost everyone in the Agency, their work defined their life.
A small kitchen did exist on the station, located close to the end where the positioning engines were mounted. It serviced the handful of humans that were sometimes aboard and the equally small number of psi working for the Agency.
Justin and Christos picked a table and invited Charbonneau to sit. “It’s usually deserted in here,” Justin explained.
The door to the room opened and let in another tall man—not nearly as large as Christos, but as tall as Charbonneau. He had glossy black hair shorn short, pale skin and dark eyes. The high cheek bones and defined, square chin were distinct. Celtic, Charbonneau catalogued. “You must be Ryan Deashumhain,” Charbonneau said, staying on his feet, as the man walked up to their table. He moved with the easy, panther-stride of one well used to his body.
“And you must be Constant Charbonneau Villeneuve. Please, sit.”
“Just Charbonneau will do.” He studied Ryan carefully. “You look as though grief has touched you lately.”
Ryan’s eyes widened just a little. Then the politically neutral expression fell back into place. “I suppose it was foolish to think we could keep it from you on such a small station. We lost one of our travellers yesterday.”
“By ‘lost’, you mean…?”
“He died,” Ryan said flatly. “Of stasis poisoning. One of the drawbacks of travelling that Brenden and Justin will teach you.”
Charbonneau considered the three vampires sitting around the table. “Then you’re not speaking of the woman who is stranded in ancient Scotland, but a second traveller.”
“Yes, a second traveller,” Ryan agreed. “You arrived here in the midst of a small crisis, Charbonneau. The last time we lost a traveller was well over twenty years ago and now we have one lost and one stranded. I hope this doesn’t repel you?”
Charbonneau gave a tiny shrug. “It seems you are in need of new travellers. One might say my timing is excellent, no?”
Ryan gave a small smile. “One might,” he agreed. “Justin tells me I may not have to relate too much of my story to you, after all. How much do you know of the founding of the Agency?”
“I know the public version very well,” Charbonneau said. “That the first vampire to feed from a psi-filer inherited the psi’s talents. He found he could not only teleport from place to place, but back through time to places he remembered, as well. Vampires had a hard life back then. It was just after the Revelation and the Censure was in full swing. So he jumped back to his past and destroyed the vampire who had made him, at a time before he had been made, when he was still human.”
Ryan smiled. “It’s very dry, recited that way.”
“Killing off his maker,” Brenden said, “started a time wave. A very large one, a tsunami—like we were speaking of, earlier. This one was nasty…do you remember it?”
“Doesn’t everyone who was alive then?” Charbonneau said. “For an hour I thought I was ill to the point of death. From Pritti’s demonstration, I now know that it was the effects of the size of the time-wave that went through. And after, I found the world had changed. The plague of the twenty-second century was wiping out all life as we knew it. It attacked any living creature, decomposing the DNA from within and it did not spare man, psi or vampire. Then, two days later, another wave came through and the world was back to what I remembered it should be. No plague, just a living hell for vampires who had been revealed.”
Ryan nodded. “They were strange days indeed. Do you know what happened in those two days, that caused the second wave to come through and change everything back?”
“Only what I have read about,” Charbonneau replied. “The vampire who had changed history had a friend, a lover, who shared his blood and learned what he had done. So she also jumped back to the time when he destroyed his maker. She killed her lover before he could do it.”
There was a small silence. Ryan pushed a hand through his hair. “I suppose, for those that are not part of the history, it would be that cut and dried.”
“You were there?” Charbonneau asked, shock touching him.
“I am a friend of Nayara’s and have been for centuries.” He smiled, but it did not reach his eyes. “We phrase the public history as dryly as you recited it, without the names, because humans still have trouble dealing with the fact of our long lives. They would be uneasy if we blandly announced that the current president and the CEO of the Agency are the same two people who established it, two hundred years ago.”
“Nayara Ybarra…killed her lover?”
“Yes. His name, by the way, was Salathiel.” Ryan pronounced the name the biblical way, with the emphasis on the second syllable, making it sound like sal-lay-thee-el. “Salathiel was also my friend.”
Charbonneau held out his hand. “You must forgive my ignorance and bad manners. I meant no disrespect or offence.”
“None taken.” Ryan leaned forward. “Pritti and Tinker tell me you know next to nothing about vampires, that you have trouble thinking outside human terms and limitations. You have not mixed with vampires throughout your life?”
“I have passed as human and acted as human, as stringently as I could manage, always.”
“And now, suddenly, you have come to us.”
“And you wonder why,” Charbonneau finished.
“It is a natural question. Normally, we have to carefully track and recruit our travellers. They have never come to us, even though everyone knows where to find us.”
“Why can I not simply be the first one to do so?”
“Oh, you are the first,” Ryan shot back. “And you’re avoiding my question.”
“Yes.”
“You will not share your reason?”
“Not yet.”
Ryan considered this for a long moment. “All right,” he said at last, sitting back. “I will wait. For a while,” he added. “This is all new to you, I know. We will allow you some time to adjust, to get to know and trust us.”
“Thank you.”
“For now, we continue your lesson. Do you know how the Agency was established?”
“Only from the history books and your own company’s sales literature. You will forgive me if I’m wary of quoting from those sources again.”
Ryan grinned and this time the expression was full of warmth. “Touché.”
Christos chuckled, deep in his belly.
Justin spoke clearly. “Ryan was the first to figure out that it is possible to take someone back with you when you jump through time.”
“How did you figure that out?” Charbonneau asked. “That first time you tried it…the risk involved. How could you even be sure it would work?”
“I had to try,” Ryan said flatly. “After Nayara killed Salathiel, she was unable to get herself home. So I brought her back through time.”
Charbonneau actually felt himself jump a little in reaction. The unspoken drama and emotions pulsed behind Ryan’s words. “You were there…” he began and stopped.
“Yes,” Ryan said softly. “Nayara jumped ahead of me. I followed, because I feared for…what might happen. Nayara had to be brought home.” He took a breath. “So I did.”
“And the whole world got down on its knees and thanked vampires for saving its ass,” Christos finished.
Charbonneau blinked, for that was not what he recalled from two hundred years ago.
“Well, they damn well should have,” Christos added, when Ryan and Justin simply looked at him. “Instead, the world slaps statutes and codes and acts together, and invented the Historical Defence Bureau to watch us, instead. We’re the ones that straightened things out.”
“We’re also the ones who screwed history up in the first place,” Ryan said mildly. “Have you heard of Godfre
y Reynard?” he asked Charbonneau.
“No.”
“We don’t spread his name around too far. He wanted it that way. He was a businessman. Human. He saw the commercial potential of being able to take people back into history. He worked with me and Nayara to set up the Agency, acting as a mediator with human governments. Between us, we structured the Chronometric Conservation Agency to monitor and regulate time, history, time errors, waves and tsunamis. The Historical Defence Bureau is the Worlds Assembly’s oversight organization that controls the functions of the Agency.”
“Watch dogs,” Christos growled.
“The Bureau allows humans to sleep at night. We are forced to get along with them in order to survive.”
“And Chronologic Touring Incorporated?” Charbonneau prompted.
“Chronologic was Godfrey’s idea,” Ryan said. “He was the entrepreneur. Chronologic is where the Agency makes the money it needs to keep operating.”
“If he was the entrepreneur, what does that make you?” Charbonneau asked.
“I just put his plan into motion,” Ryan returned. “I supposed that makes me an administrator.”
“More like visionary,” Christos added. “He gave vampires a life, respect and a place in society. He dragged us out of the Censure years.”
Ryan waved a hand at Christos, silencing him. “That’s not relevant to this discussion.”
Charbonneau realized Ryan was embarrassed.
Ryan stood up. “Welcome to the Agency, Charbonneau. Brenden and Justin will see to your training, with Pritti’s help. Brenden, we should accelerate the training where we can. Charbonneau is right. We are in need of travellers now and he knows French markers.” Ryan nodded to Charbonneau. “You’ll soon be earning your keep, monsieur.”
Chapter Eleven
The cot was tucked into a glen, with a stream running past it. Wildflowers growing amongst the reeds on the roof shone in the sun. It was quite a large building, considering the tiny one-room shacks that entire families lived in, elsewhere in the valleys. There were at least four windows, with actual glass in all of them, which was virtually unheard of here and now. Smoke curled up from the stone-built chimney. A large lean-to for farm animals hugged the northern wall, which would help insulate the building.
Despite the fear sitting deep at the back of her mind, Tally loved the place instantly. It looked cozy, homely and safe. The silence in the glen was broken only by the lowing of cows somewhere nearby and the quiet tread of the horses.
Rob halted his horse and caught at her reins to bring her alongside. “What do you think?” he asked.
“It looks wonderful,” she said truthfully. “And very quiet.”
He grinned and tugged both horses into motion again. “That was the idea.”
His abduction had been planned carefully and included a horse for Tally waiting in the next valley, with food in the saddlebag to keep her nausea at bay. A few hours of easy riding down into the lower valleys brought them to this glen.
“It even seems warmer here.”
“You’re a lot lower down here than that eagle’s perch you were in.” Rob slid from his horse, threw both reins over a rail and carefully helped Tally down to the ground. He kissed her before taking her hand and leading her inside.
The cot had five rooms that Natália could see, with the main room running the length of the front of it and four rooms leading off from it. The floor was solid wood. She had been expecting dirt. There was a good table and benches and a big stove glowing with embers.
A woman of mid-years was rising from the table where she had been peeling vegetables.
“This be Morag,” Rob told Tally. “She can neither read nor write and when she was a slip of a girl, the bloody English raped her and cut off her tongue so she could not accuse them of their crimes. Most in these parts think she’s a witch, but Morag has helped birth over one hundred babies and you’re more witch than she is. Morag is willing to help us, ‘til the babe is born…if you’ll be having her, that is.”
Morag was looking at Tally with wide, brown eyes. There was a calmness and confidence in them that helped still the last of Tally’s fear. “Yes, I would like that,” she told the woman. She looked at Rob. “Does this cottage belong to Morag, then?”
“It’s mine,” Rob said shortly, as Morag turned back to her vegetables. Then he grinned. “I told you I was kin to Robert the Bruce. These are my lands, given to me by the King. You have to start listening to me, woman. Especially if you are to obey my every word.”
“That’ll be the day,” she scoffed lightly.
He picked up her hand, his expression sobering. “I know you can speak to your friends, even from here. I know you could call for them if you wanted to and they could appear here instantly. I’m asking you not to, Tally. Leave them be. Let us be together for as long as we can. Then, when the babe is born…” He took a breath. “Then I’ll let you go.”
Tears pricked her eyes, for she could see the effort it took for him to make that promise. “I’ll stay as long as I can.”
He nodded. “If something does go wrong, something that even Morag cannot fix, then your army of experts can come. They can do that, can’t they? Jump here?”
“It would be no matter for them to jump here from the monastery,” she assured him. “They can be on standby if I tell them to be.”
“Good.” He slid an arm around her waist. “Then I have one last condition.” He glanced at Morag.
Morag moved with silent dignity to the last door along the wall and disappeared behind it. She shut the door softly.
Tally wound her arms around Rob’s neck, already responding to the pressure of his big warm body against hers. “Name your condition,” she coaxed, her mind more than half occupied with wondering what Rob had planned for the next hour or so.
“You must reach out to Lee and bring him here,” Rob told her. “And only Lee.”
Tally’s arms loosened. She stepped back, forcing Rob to let go of her. “You called him Lee.”
“He told me to.” Rob stood with his arms hanging loosely at his sides, quite calm. His blue eyes were watching her, but they held no strong emotion.
Tally cleared her throat. “Lee told me you kissed him.”
“Ah…” Rob smiled. “Now I understand your worry.” He stroked her cheek with his thumb. “Overwhelming gratitude tends to make a man emotional. Lee showed me the way to solve this dilemma we’re all in, Tally. He gave me the clue.”
“He did?”
“That is why he must be here until the baby is born. That and he has enough medical knowledge to watch over you. There should be at least one expert on hand.” He grinned. “And only one.” Again, he stroked her cheek, but made no move to draw her close to him again. “Besides, he is your friend, too, Tally. Would you really deny him this time with you, back in the past, as humans?”
She bit her lip. “He told you about…that?”
Rob nodded.
“But…” She took a breath. “Do you understand how that might tempt us, Rob? Feelings and emotions are so much stronger back here in the past that we might find it overwhelming.”
“Is that why you have refused to travel back with him before now?” Rob asked.
Tally nodded. “It would confuse things between us if we were to give into temptation in the past. With Lee, I knew I would find him too difficult to resist.”
Rob picked up her hand. “Let’s just take it a day at a time, Tally. Trust me. This will all work out.”
He spoke so firmly, so convincingly, that Tally was inclined to believe him purely by his words alone. But she could see no clear path ahead and it scared her.
“Call for Lee,” Rob told her softly. “He’ll be worried by now that you haven’t returned from your walk.”
Tally hesitated. “Rob, are you sure?” she whispered.
He kissed her and Tally’s eyes closed and her mind shut down as her body melted against him. She clung to him, more than ready for Rob to do any w
icked thing he wanted to. “More,” she begged as he lifted his lips away.
“Call for Lee first,” he told her. “You need a doctor nearby. I won’t risk you or the babe.”
She sighed and cleared her mind, then reached for Lee, thinking of his face and eyes and body, and the particular mental signature that was his.
She felt his shock and delight at her touch and his underlying concern for her.
For Rob’s benefit, she articulated her side of the conversation.
“I’m safe, Lee. Rob has a new home for us to live in until the baby is born. One that is just for us. No one from our time is allowed.”
She felt Lee’s outrage and fear bloom.
“No one but you, Lee,” she added. “Rob wants you to join us here. To watch out for me and the baby.”
Silence. There were traces of puzzlement. Concern. A ripple of pleasure. But Lee was shielding his primary reaction from her. It was the first time Tally had ever felt anyone do that. She hadn’t known it was even possible to shield feelings from someone in your mind.
Show me where I am to come to, Lee said, articulating his thought.
Tally looked around the room. “There is not enough open space here. Is one of the other rooms empty? He needs room in case he lands wide.”
Rob pointed to the door at the opposite end of the cottage to the one Morag had slipped behind. Tally opened the door. The room beyond was small, but it was empty, which would give Lee the space he needed.
Tally touched Lee’s mind again as she studied the room. She thought of the outside of the cottage, the valley it was in and the way they had come to get here from the monastery. Then she focused on the room again, on little details, building up the complete picture.
I have it. Stand back.
Tally stepped out of the room, but left the door open. Rob came up behind her.
A few seconds later, Lee appeared, standing almost on the same spot as Tally had been standing. He looked around, then turned to face the door. “You draw good images,” he told Tally. His gaze lifted and focused on Rob. “Well, I am here.” He lifted the pack he was carrying. “I brought some medical supplies just in case, but I can always go back for more. I warned everyone else to stay away. Do you have any further orders?”
Bannockburn Binding (Beloved Bloody Time) Page 11
