by Claire Davon
#
Once they had jumped, out of the future and to a time frame more her own, Fiona relaxed as much as she could. The future was amazing but she didn’t live there. She had always thought she’d want to go and see the future, see what wonders it had to provide. Sometimes she had been impatient to get there, thinking that as the world progressed it would improve. But now all she saw was the looming future of the Event, closer in Sonder’s time than it was to hers.
She looked at the safe house. It was a modest home, on an otherwise deserted tropical island. Another island. She sighed and Sonder looked at her. He hadn’t said many words to her since they had dropped the revelation on her that, all along, it had been expected he would run with Fiona. Of course it was, she thought. With all her powers she didn’t seem to have a lot of free will.
Whose house was it, she wondered. Was it a time group safe house? Was it Rogald’s? Hers? Some family “heirloom” that had been passed down from person to person, purchased back when land was cheap and held in trust for weary travelers? Looking around at the three who seemed content to stake their claims to the pieces of the sofa in the house, she spoke.
“Is there something special about an island?” It wasn’t the question she wanted to ask, but it was safer.
“Wait,” she said, shaking her head when Rogald and Illiria shared what looked like a worried glance. “I know the answer to that. There is less danger not only of someone stumbling on you in transfer, but also that on wide open spaces, with little around us, we run a smaller amount of risk of shifting into something solid.”
Sonder let out a breath and Fiona relaxed. There was a lot that was necessary to say, but now was not the time. Not with company.
“I’m glad Sonder’s training stuck,” Illiria said. Fiona flushed deeper, wanting to lash out at the woman whose dislike cut across time zones, but kept her tongue. They needed Rogald and Illiria’s help. Her hands tingled with the after effect of moving the wrong into the black, making the disaster another natural earthquake. Now she was learning the power she had wanted in ancient Santorini. If she’d had this back then she could have altered the course of history. Fiona shook her head, the impact of what she just thought racing through her veins. What if she did the wrong thing? What if she took this power and misused it? What if she stopped a disaster, only to find that it had been necessary down the road, something that seemed bad but that had had a positive outcome on mankind? What would she do? How would she know?
What if she wasn’t supposed to stop the Event? What if the Commander was right? What if the Event was something that had to happen, even if it meant the destruction of the Earth? It seemed ludicrous, but she was filled with doubt.
“Sonder, why did you follow the Commander?”
“Information,” he said, and his unexpected brusque tone sent dread curling through her. “And to try and see if I could find out why. The Commander was never our friend, but he had our respect, until he tried to kill you. We wanted to know why.”
Fiona glanced at Illiria, who looked back at her, unblinking.
“Were you able to discover anything?” Fiona’s curiosity burned in her, overwhelming her pique.
He shook his head and Fiona saw Illiria’s shoulders slump a little. Maybe the Guardian had been counting on Sonder’s intel more than she realized.
“No.” His voice was terse. She saw a line of fatigue under his eyes and wondered how long he’d followed the Commander. Time flowed differently on the other side of a jump and just because he had appeared in Chile a few hours after he left didn’t mean that it had only been that long for him. It could have been weeks, months, more.
He seemed angry, testy, out of sorts. She wished they were alone so she could find out what was wrong, if he would tell her. He clammed up sometimes and wouldn’t tell her until he was ready. She was itching for a fight, somewhere to discharge the turbulent feelings dancing inside her. She tried to will Illiria and Rogald away, but they were clearly going to stick with her and Sonder for the interim.
“What now?” she asked. “Are we safe here? Can he track us? Do your groups know where we are?”
There were two bedrooms in this modest home. Fiona had flicked on the lights when they first arrived, but a smug look from Illiria told her that had been foolish. She heard a generator in the distance and decided that Rogald had started it. Off the grid, then, and in her time that meant a little more safety and security. They could still be tracked by someone determined, but that was always true.
The appliances surged on and the overhead lamp suddenly burst into light. She pulled her SmartPhone out of her waist pack. Still dead.
“Now we rest,” Sonder said and she realized he was swaying. “Then practice. Illiria and Rogald have a training plan. It’s untried, but it’s more than you and I had.” He yawned.
Fiona flushed and glanced at the pair. Her pique faded against his obvious fatigue. They were safe, at least for the time being. They needed to seize this respite to rest and figure out how to get her trained so that she could face their common enemy. Then her real work could begin.
#
She woke to the smell of something delicious. Bacon, Fiona’s nose told her, At that moment her stomach rumbled.
Looking over the covers still crumpled around her, she realized Sonder was still sleeping. She smoothed his dark brown hair back over his forehead and looked at him. In sleep he looked boyish, vulnerable. Fiona wished she’d had the opportunity to explore his home more, and see what personal effects she could find. What had that man been like, the one who existed prior to becoming a Guardian? Ever since she had seen the teenage version of Rogald, she had wondered the same about Sonder. Now that she’d seen his house she had a location point that she could go to if she wanted to see that man. She could jump at any time and spy on him, check out the younger variety of her lover.
Rude, she told herself. Still, curiosity burned within her. Maybe a small peek wouldn’t hurt.
Sonder woke, his eyes opening, and her hand stilled.
“Come here,” Sonder said. He took her into his arms and held her against his body. She could feel his breathing and his morning erection. Nuzzling her ear with his tongue, he nibbled on her earlobe, blowing hot air into the canal. Fiona shivered, the hairs on her arms lifting at the sensation. Desire erupted on her nerve endings all the way to between her legs, slicking her skin with moisture. She flushed as her nipples hardened at his touch, creating visible nubs under the sleep shirt.
“Good morning,” he said, his eyes flicking to her body. He dragged the top up, sliding his hands underneath it and then hauled it off. His chest was bare and she ran her hands over it, feeling the crisp hair. Bending his head, he put his mouth over her nipple and suckled. She gasped and swayed towards him, her short nails digging into the top of his shoulders. Sensation shot through her, concentrating at her core. He switched sides, laving her other aching breast with attention.
With trembling hands she pulled at his shorts until the cloth separated, and then slid them off his body. Without breaking his suckling, Sonder reached with his toes and tugged the cloth off.
Light dappled through the thick blinds of the window, streaking him with color. She half grinned at the thought about what the Illiria and Rogald would think if they heard them. Then again, they likely had engaged in similar activity, judging from the looks they gave each other. Straddling him, the comforter was slippery against her knees and she leaned forward for balance. His hands spanned her waist and she leaned forward to kiss him. He opened his mouth under hers and thrust his tongue inside, tasting her.
“I can’t wait to be inside you.” As if to emphasize his words his cock, full and hard, pressed against her inner thigh. She felt boneless, a fine trembling setting in her body as the feeling of him sending sensation spiraling through her.
Taking his cock in her hand, she first played it around her lower lips, letting him feel the wet need that had engulfed her. Then she lowered onto him, pushing down o
ne inch at a time until he was fully inside her. His face reddened, his lips curling. She moved against him, raising and lowering her hips, feeling the delicious friction of their bodies coming together. His hips jerked and he groaned, meeting her thrusts. His hand moved to her clit and he pressed on it, still looking at her.
“Oh god,” she cried, arching back, her hands braced on his strong thighs.
“That’s it, Fiona, oh yes,” he said. “Take all of me.”
Tension was coiling in her belly as she obeyed him. His hand moving over hers was sending shockwaves through her and she began thrusting on him. He twitched, his eyes closing as he thrust up hard in return.
Shuddering, she climaxed, her hips wild as the orgasm took her, the powerful sensations rocketing her body. He took her as she was still quivering and thrust her down over him. Crying out, he surged up and she felt him throb inside her. His hands clenched on her waist and he went rigid except for his pulsing body inside hers. It went on for long moment until Sonder sighed and relaxed back against the pillows.
“Good morning,” he said for the third time, this one with a grin. “I think someone is making breakfast.”
#
She looked at Rogald with admiration.
“You know how to cook,” Fiona said, pushing the remnants of her toast around the plate to mop up any remaining bacon and yolk particles. “Where did you learn? Especially using a generator?”
The house, set in the Outer Banks of South Carolina, had its amenities for being off the grid, but wasn’t a full service house. The water had to be brought in, and stored in a tank for household use. The generator hummed when it was used, a reminder that it was there and wouldn’t last forever. It wasn’t the same as pushing a button and having water and electricity delivered to your door. Even when she and Sonder traveled, they always had a place to land with the basic amenities. Except in ancient Thera, of course, but she hadn’t been there long enough to notice.
Looking around, she realized that all three of these people knew how to rough it. You could see it in their efficiency, the way each one knew how to use the outhouse, and didn’t try to turn on the taps in the kitchen for longer than necessary. The bucket underneath the sink filled up too fast when you left the water running.
Rogald shrugged. “I grew up in a Greek household. You saw some of my relatives. Cooking is a way of life for us.”
Illiria looked mussed, a far cry from her usual composed self, and Fiona decided she had been right about what the pair had gotten up to last night. Rogald and Illiria. It was still unlikely to her, and she was burning with curiosity about how two such different people could have come together.
“Plus,” he continued, “I spent several years not too far from here as a young man, living off the land. I learned how to fend for myself.”
Right. She had stranded him in 1950s America, and trusted the elder version of the boy that things would turn out okay. It was necessary, it had happened and therefore had to happen again, but her cheeks crawled with red anyway.
Rogald smiled wolfishly, apparently enjoying the guilt he saw.
Sonder tapped the table and Fiona turned to him. He had an odd look, as if he had smelled something rotten.
“I want to report in,” he said, his words formal. Illiria nodded. Fiona decided that was a phrase that the Guardians used when time patrols came back to base.
“Go ahead, soldier. You mentioned the Commander and said something about his descendant?” Illiria let the words trail off, her cocked head and spread hands inviting Sonder to step into the breach.
He stood, filling the small cabin with his large presence. It had been a while since Fiona had noticed how big he was, how broad of shoulder and imposing. Had she started to take him for granted?
“I did say that,” Sonder said. “I was following the Commander for two days, and we jumped every half hour for most of that. I don’t doubt he would have killed me if he’d found me.” Sonder looked stoic, but she knew it had taken its toll.
She paused, and looked at the three of them. Each of them, everyone in the two time travelling groups, was someone who no longer existed. They would have died, or were near death, no options in front of them, when they were plucked out of their time and added to the corps of travelers, whether Guardian or Liberator. Fiona had never paused to consider all that that meant.
“We ran the same scenarios, and came up with the same conclusions.” Illiria nodded to Fiona. “The Commander thought he had destroyed all evidence of what he had run but we found them all in a trash folder – some people never remember to empty their trash – and ran all of them. For what it’s worth, Major, none of the scenarios involving your death change the outcome. The problem is that we can’t get them to go all the way to the Event. No matter what we tried, there is a point where they stop, just like the time travel stops. Your passing would not have gotten the Commander any closer to his goal.”
Sonder nodded, his eyes dark. He lowered his gaze. Rogald began clearing the table, making a sound that may have been a cough, or could have been indignation. Fiona knew that those same scenarios had to have been run about Rogald, with a different conclusion reached, since the Commander had tried to alter his past…his future…his present. Argh.
Until they figured out their next step, the belts stayed off. She could shift four people easily without any help from the devices. She thought again about the direction her mind had taken the night before. Maybe they weren’t meant to stop the Event. Maybe it had to happen. Maybe it was as inevitable as the sun coming up in the morning. Maybe all this was wasted.
“What did the Commander say to lead you to the conclusion that his descendant had a hand in the Event?”
Sonder began pacing. “He wasn’t making a lot of sense. He kept saying ‘her’ and I know he was talking about you, Fiona, and that ‘she’ can’t be allowed to interfere. He thinks that Fiona’s powers do something to the machine his descendant creates to trigger the Event.”
“That’s nonsense,” Illiria said and for once Fiona was glad of her briskness. “What about his descendant?”
Sonder nodded. “Just as we get occasional information from beyond our time, despite our rules against it, so did the Commander. He couldn’t have gotten information back from the man but somehow he got something. He found or discovered something that leads him to the conclusion that you are responsible, kale mou. I don’t know much more than that.”
Illiria swore, and Rogald joined her. “It’s not a scenario we can run,” she said, and her voice was curt.
“Damn it,” Rogald said, slamming one fist into another. “The one thing we need to know and we’re helpless.”
“I know,” Sonder agreed. “I wish I had discovered more.” He pulled out what looked like a flash drive from her era out of his pocket. She hadn’t seen him stash it there, but he must have taken it from his belt. Secrets. There was a lot he wasn’t telling her. It set Fiona’s teeth on edge and made her want to scream. She lifted her hand to discover it was shaking.
“I managed to record some of our jumps,” Sonder said. “He kept them random, he thought, but nothing is ever random. Rogald, does that generator give us enough power to run the tablet over there?” He nodded to the corner where Fiona saw for the first time a tablet sitting on the kitchen counter, plugged into an outlet. She frowned. Had it been there before? Fiona went through her memories of the room from the night before but she couldn’t recall. She was beginning to feel like she had right before she had developed her powers – like everything was déjà vu and nothing seemed real.
“Yes, but sparingly. The gennie will keep us going for a while, as long as we should need here, but we should be careful.”
Sonder turned on the tablet and powered up the flash drive. Images jumped at them. They flickered fast, through place to place, and time to time. Some Fiona recognized, but not many. She frowned. How had the Commander had enough power to jump so many times without recharging? She knew from experience that after a f
ew jumps their belts needed to cycle and recharge.
“How is that possible?” she asked. Illiria and Rogald barely spared her a glance, looking at the pictures.
Sonder shrugged. “New tech. We’ve all got it now.” He pointed to Rogald. “We’ve never been able to open or alter the tech that came with the bases. If we try to tamper with them, they just stop working. But the Commander had a way to charge within a minute, which seems remarkable, but I think is just more sophisticated batteries than we had. Something else he must have gotten from the time beyond where we can get to.”
Illiria looked at him. “What did you want to show us?”
Sonder smiled, as if the idea that his former boss had to ask him for something was funny. “Look at the images. What do you see?”
They cycled through again, and then a third time. Fiona frowned.
“There,” she said at the same time that Rogald made an exclamation. “There. That one. You were there before.”
Sonder grinned, and the admiration in his eyes made her feel squishy inside.
“Yes. Three times.”
Illiria stood. “Where is that?”
“We didn’t stay for long, but I know the area. It’s got to be tied in somehow.” He glanced at the laptop. “I want to show you something.”
Sonder did a few searches before he seemed to find what he was looking for.
“Here. This.”
He turned the tablet toward them and Fiona frowned. “What’s this?”
Rogald let out a breath. “Where are these?” He moved closer. “Golden Gate Park? San Francisco?”
Sonder nodded. “I think so. I haven’t had much time to look into this, but we kept going back to these tunnels. They were used in the Second World War as military bunkers. They need to be checked out.”
Illiria’s slow whistle made all three of the others turn and look at her.
Fiona started. “Golden Gate Park. The image of the Event. It’s of the Golden Gate Bridge. Could those tunnels be something that survived the Event?”
Sonder’s look was absent-minded, as if his thoughts were far away. “This wasn’t a random series of jumps. It meant something to the Commander.”
