She kissed his jaw and his hands tightened where they gripped her around the waist. “Did you really threaten to melt their brains, or was that my imagination?”
“If they hurt you, I’ll fry them.” She whispered the vow against his lips then kissed him again, full on the mouth, and put every ounce of her devotion into the contact. She couldn’t say the words, but she could feel her love for him growing with every touch, every word…every kiss.
His arms wrapped around her, pulled her flush against the length of his body chest to chest, hip to hip, thigh to thigh, squeezing until she could barely breathe as he took control of the kiss and invaded her mouth, challenging her tongue to an erotic duel she had no interest in winning.
He broke the kiss and she resisted the urge to force his lips back to hers. He was right. This was not the time or place to do everything she wanted to his hard male body.
“Christ, woman. You’re going to kill me.”
A grin escaped, and she knew she must look like the Cheshire cat. She felt beautiful, sexy, and truly wanted for the first time in her life. The feeling was going to her head…and other parts of her anatomy. “No, I’m going to get us out of here.”
“We need to tell the Rear Admiral something he’ll believe, or they won’t stop looking for us until we do.”
Sarah frowned and relaxed in Tim’s arms. “I don’t care about your Admiral. I want to talk to Katherine, the brunette with the mile-long legs who kept annoying my by talking to you. The stupid Commander. She was riding the storm with me. That’s how they found us. It was her.”
Tim’s eyes widened in surprise. “Do you think the Archiver sent her here to help you?”
“No.” Sarah thought about the small touch of power Katherine used to track her. “I don’t think she’s a Timewalker. I don’t know if she’d be strong enough to help me during the attack. But I need to know where she came from and why she has any power at all. Maybe she’s a genetic descendant of someone who came before, someone like Alexa. The Archiver will want to know if there are others like her.”
Tim nodded. “Okay. So, we find Katherine and talk to her, then get the hell out of here. We’ll worry about the rest later.”
Sarah ran a hand up and down his arm, gentling the tiger she felt lurking below the surface. Tim didn’t like to be caged. “I can open the door anytime we’re ready. Your stuff is on a table in the room next door.”
“Let’s go.” Tim stepped away and entwined the fingers of their hands, tugging her toward the door.
“Not yet. Katherine’s coming and I want to talk to her.”
Tim froze. “How do you know she’s coming?”
“I summoned her right after I locked the Admiral and his men in their computer room. They’ve been watching you nonstop since they dropped us in here.”
The door buzzed and Katherine stepped into the room with a smug grin and Tim’s bag over her shoulder. Sarah smiled at him and whispered, “I told you so. She’s like me.”
“You didn’t unlock the door?” He looked worried, but Sarah was borderline giddy. Another lightning girl. How freaking cool was that?
Katherine watched them both, studied Sarah’s face with a grim expression on her face.
“Sarah. I can’t believe you’re actually here. She said you’d show up eventually.” Katherine stepped forward, her hands out, a look of fascinated disbelief on her face.
Tim stepped between them, but Sarah moved to his side and placed her free hand on his shoulder to assure him they were safe. Katherine looked familiar, memories tugged at the edge of her consciousness and she studied the lines of the woman's face closely. “Katie-bug?”
Katherine nodded. “Mom is going to freak.”
“Last time I saw you, you were four years old. Molly is still alive?”
“Yeah. She’s a big-time lawyer.”
“Really?”
Tim looked between the two of them and relaxed his stance a fraction. “You two know each other?”
“She’s my cousin’s daughter.” Sarah took a step forward. “How did you end up working with these people, Katie? That Admiral is bad news.”
Katherine tossed Tim’s bag at his feet and he knelt to check it. He leaned his shoulder against Sarah’s thigh as he checked the clip and loaded his pistol.
“You won’t need that.” Katherine sighed. “I’m going to have to lie through my teeth to cover up this one.”
“How did you end up working with these guys?” Sarah’s curiosity wouldn’t allow her to leave. Here was a member of her family, a piece of her past come back to life, and she was shocked at the importance this woman suddenly had in her heart. Little Katie…
“There are a handful of us in the C.P. We have certain gifts…”
Tim snorted and stood, swinging his bag over his shoulder. “C.P.?”
“Casper Project. I don’t have time to explain. It’s a private research arm utilized by the military.”
“Gifts, huh? I’m sure the Rear Admiral uses these ‘gifts’ to his advantage.” Tim sounded bitter.
“Of course. Just as you used your gift to help save the men in your unit.”
Tim said nothing, but Sarah felt the truth of the statement.
Katie continued. “I’ve listened to the mission records, Tim. Your foresight saved your men more than once.”
“You’re the reason the Rear Admiral started poking his nose around my team.”
She shrugged. “Sorry, I didn’t know you were with Sarah.” She stepped forward and wiggled a set of car keys. “Let’s go see what Grandmother Tilly left you.”
Sarah’s hands started to shake. “Granny T?”
Katie nodded just as a loud bang reverberated through the floor. “They’ve got the sledgehammer out. They’ll be through the doors soon. Let’s get the hell out of here.” She gave Sarah a quick hug then rushed into the hallway. “The car’s parked on level three, section B. No one will stop us. I’ve disabled the alarms and communications you missed.”
Tim studied Katie’s face but didn’t move. “You sure you want to come with us? The Rear Admiral won’t forgive or forget.”
She smiled. “Yes, I’m sure. I officially left the premises over an hour ago. He’ll blame it all on the mysterious woman you have with you. They don’t have a clue who she is, and Sarah’s prints didn’t have any matches in the database. I modified one of my prints, told them it was yours. They’ve already run it, twice.”
Sarah studied the woman she remembered as a little girl with pigtails and skinned knees riding her tricycle with total abandon. “Thank you, Katie-bug.”
“You’re welcome.” Katie led the way down the long, sterile hallway and they followed. “How many days have you been here?”
Sarah checked her new orange watch. God, shopping with Alexa at the mall felt like a lifetime ago. Four in the morning. Sunrise was in a little over an hour. It was Thursday. Already. “Two.”
“Tomorrow then?” Katherine's question caught her off guard.
“Yes. Tomorrow morning.”
“Something in Chicago?”
“All of Chicago.”
Katie nodded and picked up the pace. “I’ll give you my cell, for after. We have a lot of catching up to do and I have questions.”
Katie broke away and tilted her head at an odd angle until they all heard the pop of a blown camera around the corner. “We’ll head left until the hallway dead ends. Then take a right, past two doors then take the stairs down to parking level 3.”
“Let’s go.” Tim grabbed her hand and tugged her along a barren hallway. It looked like an abandoned building, all white walls and stark lighting. No nameplates or numbers on any of the doors.
“The Admiral won’t stop looking for you, Sarah. Especially after this spectacular disappearing act. You’ll have to talk to him eventually.”
Sarah shrugged. “Not until it’s done.” She jogged next to Tim as they raced down the hallway. She couldn’t help the glance over her shoulder at her cousin, her
family.
Katie kept pace behind them as if she hadn’t a care in the world. Sarah let it go for now. There would be time to figure out what Katie was really doing with these men, or rather, what these men were doing with her. She obviously shared some small piece of Sarah’s gift with energy, but nothing that could compare to the abilities Sarah possessed.
Was it genetic, then? Had the Archiver Taken her because she already had the gift and his meddling enhanced it somehow? But she had to assume he could do the same to Katherine. Had he taken her because she’d been the stubborn idiot that refused to come off the water during the storm, because she’d been the one struck and killed by lightning? And why had her grandmother refused to believe she was dead?
Did Katie carry the Mark of a Timewalker? Sarah hadn’t been Marked until the Archiver got a hold of her. But if Katie didn’t know about the Archiver, how did she know about the Timewalkers and their usual three-day event window? “Are you Marked, Katie? Are you a Timewalker, too?”
“No. I’m not.”
Sarah’s steps slowed as she tried to wrap her head around her cousin’s sudden appearance and this Casper Project full of military hard-asses that wanted to recruit Tim and use him. And it was Katie’s fault they’d found him out in the first place. Katie’s fault that Tim had his scars…
“Focus, Sarah. We’ve got to get the hell out of here. If they catch us, we won’t get out without killing some of these guys. They’re my family now. I can’t do that.”
“Right.” Sarah squeezed Tim’s hand and pulled more energy into their bodies so they could run faster than they should’ve been able to. She imagined that she heard the strange chiming rhythm of the Bionic Woman’s superpowers kicking in as they moved through the building with super-human speed.
When she wasn’t worried about getting millions of people killed or melting bad guy brains, this super-hero thing she had going might actually be kind of fun.
So, she’d be the Bionic Woman. Next, the theme song from the Wonder Woman television show started playing in her head next to a picture of mild-mannered and disguised Katherine Green stepping into a phone booth and magically morphing into the large-busted television star, golden lasso and all.
Wait. Superman used the telephone booth.
Whatever. It was her fantasy, she could play it any way she wanted to.
Chapter Eleven
Katie led them to a secure parking area and motioned them into a dusky-gray sedan with windows so darkly tinted they were nearly black. Katie power-zapped the parking attendant’s station so the bar would lift and they cruised through onto the highway in a matter of minutes. Instead of heading out of town as Tim had expected, they headed back toward the city.
“Where are we going?” He held Sarah tightly against him.
Katie hit ninety and kept her tense hands on the steering wheel.
“You’ll attract attention going that fast.”
Katie shrugged, “They won’t touch us. One glance at the license plate and they’ll pretend they can’t even see us.”
“That must come in handy.”
“Sometimes.” She glanced over at her cousin with a crease in her brow.
“I can feel you buzzing around in my head. Sarah, that’s very rude.”
Sarah grinned up at him like a guilty three-year-old before answering. “Sorry, Katie-bug. I just needed to know more about what’s going on. How do you know so much about the Timewalkers? And why are you helping us? You know you won’t be able to go back now.”
“Yes, I will. I’m covered. Don’t worry about me. Besides, it doesn’t matter. We’ve been waiting for you to show up for years now.”
Tim wanted to break something but focused on keeping his heartbeat steady and his hand wrapped around Sarah’s. Being with her was like being on a high-speed roller coaster with nowhere to get off and no emergency stop button.
She must have felt him tense beneath her because her gaze left her cousin’s profile and sought his with a silent apology. She reached up and wrapped her hand around his Mark, sending a warm hum of energy through him. Just like that she was forgiven for scaring the shit out of him yet again.
Her fingers caressed his head and neck. If he were a cat, he was pretty damn sure he would’ve started purring. God, this woman drove him crazy.
Katie grinned. “Both of you can just stay out of my head.”
“What do you mean, both of you?” These women were all crazy. Why did that thought make him want to smile?
Katie looked at him like he had noodles for brains. “Some of the men begin to take on the skills of their women, especially if they’re descendants, too, which you must be to have that Mark on your neck.”
Sarah sat up straight and nearly bumped her head against his chin. “How do you know this?”
“The book, Sarah. Grandmother Tilly’s book.” For the first time since they’d met her, Katie looked truly nervous. “Grandmother left you the book, and a bunch of other stuff. Didn’t she ever show it to you?”
“No.” Tears gathered in Sarah’s eyes, threatening to rip Tim’s heart into pieces. Anything but tears.
“Well, we’re going to Grandmother Tilly’s house. My mother still lives there, guarding it. We’ve been waiting for the Walker of our time to come. She told us you would.”
“How did she know?” Sarah looked out the window and wiped the tears from her eyes as Katie continued.
“Foresight runs in our line, Sarah. Foresight is one of our gifts.”
“Then why the hell don’t I have it?”
“I don’t know. Why can’t I build a storm like I felt you pull into town last night? I assume that was you?” When Sarah nodded, Katie continued. “I can do what you do on a much smaller scale, but I’ve got maybe a tenth of your power. You had me rounded up and trapped like a bug under a glass with no way out. Why is that?”
Sarah didn’t answer and Katie drove in silence for close to an hour before they pulled into the driveway of a quaint cottage-style home obviously built at least one hundred years ago.
Katie shut off the car engine and turned to look Sarah straight in the eye. “Why do you think you were always so good at wind-surfing? You were pushing the wind where you wanted it to go, even then. Then the Archiver got a hold of you and did something to enhance your D.N.A. Now you’re a superhero here to save the world.”
Sarah sat in stunned silence and the wind howled outside the vehicle in response to her tentative touch. “Oh, my God. It’s true. I never realized.”
“Mother and I have been waiting for you for years. Everything is ready. Come on.” Katie exited the vehicle, slamming the door closed behind her. She gave them no choice but to follow her to the front door. She didn’t knock, just let herself in and left the door open for them to follow her.
Tim held Sarah’s hand and entered first, scouting the area and the fiftyish woman waiting for them with her hands in a nervous twist.
Sarah gasped and pulled free of his grasp. “Molly? Is that really you?”
“Yes.” The women hugged and smiled, despite the fact that the smiles were filled with pain.
“How much time do you have?”
Tim studied the flickering light that laced the wispy curtains with slices of dawn’s first rays. “A little less than twenty-four hours.”
Molly nodded and tugged her toward a back room. Sarah gasped and stopped when the energy snapped between them and the pain hit her. Foolish woman. Their connection was stronger now, but she still couldn’t go more than a couple feet without repercussions.
“We’ll have to work fast.” Molly motioned for them to follow. Tim took Sarah’s hand and tugged her up against him so he could kiss her. A quick kiss, just to remind her that he was there.
Her smile lit up her eyes and he nearly stumbled when he saw the love shining there. She wasn’t trying to hide it, didn’t even blink, just stared up at him like he was a god.
Oh, hell yeah. She loved him. Something broken clicked into place inside h
im. Sure, he’d kill for her, protect her, make love to her every chance he got, but this was more. This was sell-your-eternal-soul-to-the-devil-to-save-her kind of love, something so beyond his scope of experience he couldn’t speak. So he kissed her again, longer, deeper, and tried to let her know he’d fight hell itself if he had to. There were no rules he wouldn’t break when it came to her. Not anymore.
Molly cleared her throat where she stood in the doorway of what appeared to be a very small bedroom. “Come on, kids, we don’t have much time left. We’ve got to get your flights booked and your IDs finished.”
Tim let Sarah pull away from the kiss, but a strange lethargy filled his limbs when she leaned into him and wrapped her arms around his waist. An hour ago he’d been worried the bastard Rear Admiral would kill her. Having her here, in his arms, staring up at him like a love-struck teenager was going to his head…and other places.
He had to work to keep his head in the game. Who the hell was Molly, exactly? Why did she have a British accent? And book flights? IDs? “What are you talking about? We aren’t going anywhere.”
“Oh, yes, you are. Grandmother Tilly left explicit instructions.”
Sarah pulled away and led him down the hallway with a gentle tug of her hand at his elbow. “Let me see the book.”
“Oh, it’s all here for you, Sarah.” Molly led Sarah to sit in front of a camera and took her photo, then tugged him into position for his turn.
“What are you doing?” Sarah’s puzzled expression spoke for both of them.
“Taking your passport photo, of course.” Molly placed an old shoebox on the quilt covering the small twin bed in the room and headed for the door where Katie waited with a set of car keys. “We’ve got errands to run, now that you’re here. The box contains Grandmother’s book, instructions for your travel after the attack on Chicago, and everything she knew or learned about the Timewalkers. Read the book. Get some sleep. We’ll be back in a few hours. We’ll talk then, okay, dear?”
Silver Storm: Timewalker Chronicles, Book 2 Page 15
