She picked up Ruh’s hand. “All these years, I thought I had learned so much about the Eriumans. The Karassians, too. It ends up I know very little about them after all.”
Ruh’s eyes filled with tears. “What does it matter, what you learned?” he asked harshly.
“It matters in this moment more than any other moment of my life,” Tatiana told him. “You watched Max and Bellona as I did, Ruh. I saw your face. You wanted to dismiss their display as rude and emotional. Yet they understood and now I do, too.”
He wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. “Understood what?” he whispered.
“It’s about family. They’re the same everywhere. They’re the glue that holds everything together.”
Ruh choked and closed his eyes. “You were right,” he said brokenly. “To get the family off the ship. Now they’re safe—from this that I have brought upon us.”
“You were trying to be me,” she said gently. “You were trying to do what you thought was right. I didn’t see that and I’m sorry, Ruh.”
As the seconds ticked away in her mind, she reached out and hugged him. Tall as he was, he still clung to her, taking comfort from her touch, as he never had before.
For the last few moments left, Tatiana was content.
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Sneak Peak:
Kiss Across Seas
Turn the page to read the first chapter of the upcoming Kiss Across Seas, book 6 of the Kiss Across Time series, which will be released at the end of April, 2017
Chapter One
Granada, Andalusia, Spain. Present Day.
Sydney had never known such deep, contented peace before, although the last thing she could say about the room she was in was that it inspired peace.
There were six people in the big, green pool, thrashing and yelling at each other. An impromptu fight over a bright, inflatable ball had begun. The humans in the pool were not completely out-classed by the vampires, either. Sydney found it interesting that the vampires—Brody, Veris and Rafe—were using pure power to try to dominate the others. Marit, Alannah and Aran, though, had grown up beside a swimming pool. They out-maneuvered the three men with quick dives and rapid strokes through the water.
Well-padded sun lounges lined up beside the pool, taking advantage of the view through the slim Moroccan-style arches on the other side. The bright blue and cloudless sky looked warm but beyond the insulated windows sealing the arches the temperature hovered around only five degrees Celsius. On the horizon, the Sierra Nevada mountains were covered in snow, for it was December.
“Climb up on his back, Alan!” Taylor yelled, next to Sydney. Taylor wore a swimsuit and a thick terry robe. She was still damp from her swim.
Alannah grinned and pushed on Aran’s shoulder, surging up out of the water. Aran boosted his twin, so she could get high enough to latch onto Veris’ broad back, her lithe legs clamped around him and her arm about his neck.
“Cheat!” Veris cried and tried to throw the ball to Rafe. Alannah knocked it out of his hand and it veered off. Marit pushed off from the side of the pool, a slim figure in a bright red suit, her fiery, wet hair plastered to her back in a thick rope, and reached for the ball.
Rafe threw himself forward and whipped the ball out from Marit’s grasp with a gleeful sound. Marit grabbed him and tried for the ball once more, so Rafe curled himself over and around it. The ball sank under him.
“Stand on him!” Aran cried. His voice was still high, although Sydney judged from the width of his shoulders and the height of him that it wouldn’t be too long before his voice broke. He was going to be tall, once he had finished growing.
Marit grinned and pushed on Rafe’s back, sinking him. He refused to let go of the ball to save himself and disappeared beneath the surface. Marit lifted up a few inches as she stood on his back. “Help me!”
Aran and Alan splashed their way over and joined her.
“That really is unfair,” Brody said, wading through the waist high water to where the three of them were clinging to each other and holding Rafe down in the water.
“It’s not like he has to breathe,” Alannah pointed out.
“Three against one…that’s what isn’t fair,” Veris said. He picked Aran up around the waist and tossed him over his shoulder. Aran landed with a splash and a yell. Brody laughed and scooped up Marit and threw her. She landed in the middle of the pool with an ungainly plop.
Brody and Veris between them hoisted Alannah high in the air. She was smiling as they did it. When she was at the highest point, she calmly curled herself into a ball, rolled in the air and landed back in the pool, sending up an impact crater of water around her.
Most of the water splashed onto the cream-colored textured concrete next to the pool and a good deal of it soaked Alex as he walked from the house toward the lounges. He laughed and shook the worst of it off his trouser leg, then came over to the lounge next to Sydney. He was wearing trousers and a buttondown shirt with the sleeves rolled up. It was the most casual he allowed himself to get.
“How on earth did you fail to learn how to swim anywhere during your thousand years, Alex?” Taylor asked, sounding as amazed as she had the first time Alex had declined to join everyone in the pool.
Alex smiled and spread out on the lounger. “There was always something better to do.”
“Like another book to read,” Sydney added darkly.
“Or translate,” Alex said, picking up her hand and kissing it. They had moved to Granada to take up new lives and Alex had returned to translation work at the university. He found it amusing that the “ancient” scripts he now examined with gloves were the same books he had once read for the King of Cordoba, centuries ago. Now he was considered a professor of dead languages.
Rafe was in his element here, too, for this was the land of his birth. It was just Sydney who’d had to adjust and learn Spanish the long way. Considering how happy Rafe and Alex were, she wouldn’t trade the last three years for anything.
Marit, Alan and Aran climbed out of the pool, using the steps at the shallow end, and walked back around the edge to where the three of them sat on the lounges. The swimmers were streaming water as they walked.
Sydney tossed the nearest towel to Marit, who caught it with a murmured thanks, while Alan and Aran deliberately dripped water on Alex’s pants legs and shoes. Aran was already taller than Alan, although they were twins and undeniably Brody’s off-spring. Their hair and brows were the same thick black, although Alannah’s were an elegant, sharp arch. Both of them had Taylor’s smoky gray eyes and Brody’s pure white Celtic skin.
Alex stared impassively at them as they grinned, wriggling their fingers to loosen water droplets. At twelve, they were still kids and most often behaved as kids, yet in the three weeks they had been here, Sydney had seen flashes of discomforting adultness about them.
Marit was pure adult already. At sixteen, she had Taylor’s willo
w-wand figure, her father’s astonishing blue eyes, and her own determined chin. She rolled her eyes at the twins, tucked the towel around her and picked up her hair and twisted it to squeeze out the water.
Sydney glanced past them. The shallow end of the pool looked empty, yet she could see three shapes beneath the water. They looked as though they were pushing at each other.
“What now?” she murmured. Sometimes, those three were more juvenile than the real children.
Marit rolled her eyes again. “It’s a competition to see who can hold their breath the longest.”
“Theoretically, they could do that forever,” Alex pointed out.
“That’s why they’re shoving and nudging each other,” Aran said. “If they push hard enough, they’ll force the other one into taking a breath. Besides, Uncle Rafe still has the ball.” He hung the towel over the back of his neck and gripped both ends. “I’m starving,” he announced.
“You’re always starving,” Sydney pointed out.
“Who’s at the deep end, then?” Alex asked.
Sydney looked at the other end of the pool, startled. She couldn’t see anything.
“There, right on the bottom. Wow!” Aran said, peering over the edge.
Sydney got off the lounge to see properly. So did Alex and Taylor.
The water had grown still enough that it was possible to see through the lapping surface.
There was a man on the bottom of the pool.
She glanced at the other end. Three distinct shapes. It wasn’t Brody, Veris or Rafe.
“Oh lord, he’ll drown,” Taylor whispered and yanked at the belt of her robe.
“No time,” Alex said urgently. He pushed between Marit and the twins, moving fast.
“Where did he come from?” Marit breathed, looking down at the still form on the bottom of the pool.
Sydney ignored her. Fear gripped her as she watched Alex. He was running by the time he hit the edge of the pool. He pushed off with his foot and her heart leapt as he threw himself into the water in an ungainly dive.
“He can’t swim!” Taylor cried, yanking off the robe.
“Marit, get the other three to help,” Sydney said urgently, pulling off her own robe.
Marit tore off the towel and dived into the pool in a flat, low arc, heading directly for the three men still sitting on the bottom of the pool.
Taylor dropped her robe and dived into the deep end, arrowing straight down to where Alex was struggling twelve feet below the surface.
Sydney considered diving in with them. She could swim, although she didn’t consider herself a strong swimmer. Only, all the adults were in the pool, now. Alannah stood on the edge with Aran, biting her lip, as the two of them watched Taylor and Alex.
All four of the swimmers at the shallow end emerged.
“Deep end!” Marit cried. “Help Alex!”
Veris immediately pushed through the water in a choppy but effective overarm. Brody and Rafe climbed the steps and ran around the edge. Normally, that might have been the faster way to get to the other end of the pool, except that Veris was quick, too.
“What the fuck?” Brody said when he saw the three shapes rising up to the surface. He paused on the brink, showering Sydney’s bare feet with water. “Alex can’t swim,” he said quietly.
“I know,” Sydney replied.
Taylor’s and Alex’s heads emerged and the back of the man they had hauled up from the bottom broke the surface. It looked he was wearing a black suit jacket.
Veris reached them. “I’ve got him. Taylor, help Alex to the side. I’ll take this one.” He flipped the body over.
The man was clearly unconscious, perhaps dead. He looked as if he was in his forties, with black hair and strong features. That was all Sydney could see. Veris hooked his hand around the man’s chin and towed him to the edge.
Sydney and Brody bent to haul the man up onto the concrete. Rafe lifted his head.
“Turn him on his side, let his lungs drain!” Alex called, from the end of the pool, where Taylor was hauling him out by the hands. He didn’t seem to resent the assistance. His focus was on the man who had just become his patient.
Veris surged out of the pool, to splash onto the concrete next to them. “Better to turn him upside-down,” he said. “Brody, Rafe, a leg each. Quickly.”
As Veris got to his feet and Taylor and Alex came around the pool to where everyone was now standing around the mystery man, Rafe and Brody hung him by the ankles. Water ran from his mouth and nose like a faucet.
Alannah skipped backward, away from the expanding puddle, wrinkling her nose. “Ugh! That’s gross!”
Sydney agreed. The water was brown and flecked with sand.
“That’s not pool water,” Rafe observed.
“No,” Veris said quietly.
“On his back. Let me at him,” Alex said.
They laid the man on his back and moved out of the way, as Alex dropped to his knees next to him and began breathing into his mouth.
“I’ll do the compressions,” Veris said, and settled on the other side of the body. He leaned over, measured off the breast-bone, moved the man’s tie out of the way and pressed down on the chest with short, sharp pumps.
Sydney caught Aran’s shoulder. “We’ll need a blanket or two.”
Aran nodded and ran to the big arch that gave access to the rest of the house.
Alannah raised her brow at Sydney, waiting.
“Alex’s surgery will need to be prepped,” Sydney said. “The table cleared off. What else, Veris?”
“Adrenaline,” Veris said shortly, between compressions. “Two syringes, eight hundred micrograms each, just in case.”
Marit tugged on Alannah’s arm. “Come on. I’ll help.”
Sydney bent and removed the man’s shoes. They were standard dress shoes, size twelve.
“Toes look normal?” Taylor asked softly, for she had absorbed as much medical knowledge as Sydney over the years.
Sydney nodded. “No discoloration.” She pushed up the hem of his trousers as something caught her eye, and yanked down the wool sock. There were red marks around the ankle, that looked as though they would become bruises soon.
Quickly, she checked the other ankle. The same red horizontal scoring was on that ankle, too.
The man coughed, his breath rattling wetly in his throat.
“On his side!” Alex called, shuffling back and yanking on the man’s shoulder to turn him.
They lifted the man up and over. His whole body seemed to convulse as the dirty water spewed from him in three big heaves. The smell reminded Sydney of where she had grown up. Wisconsin, where the lake water was brackish and still, muddy and unappealing. That same smell came from the lakes in late summer, when the water receded and the mud and vegetation dried off.
The man rolled onto his back again and laid still.
Alex pressed his fingers against the man’s neck. “Heartbeat and breathing,” he said, sounding pleased.
The man’s eyes were still closed.
“Diagnostics, doc?” Veris asked, for this was clearly Alex’s patient, not his.
Alex nodded.
The four men picked the stranger up and carried him past Aran, who had returned with blankets. Aran shrugged and followed them. So did everyone else.
Sydney paused to look at the muddy water pooling on the concrete, then trailed after them, troubled.
About the Author
Tracy Cooper-Posey is an Amazon #1 Best Selling Author. She writes science fiction and romance. She has published over 85 books since 1999, been nominated for five CAPAs including Favorite Author, and won the Emma Darcy Award.
She turned to indie publishing in 2011. Her indie titles have been nominated four times for Book Of The Year and Byzantine Heartbreak was a 2012 winner. Faring Soul won a SFR Galaxy Award in 2016 for “Most Intriguing Philosophical/Social Science Questions in Galaxybuilding” She has been a national magazine editor and for a decade she taught writing at MacEwan Univ
ersity.
She is addicted to Irish Breakfast tea and chocolate, sometimes taken together. In her spare time she enjoys history, Sherlock Holmes, reading science fiction and ignoring her treadmill. An Australian Canadian, she lives in Edmonton, Canada with her husband, a former professional wrestler, where she moved in 1996 after meeting him on-line.
Other books by Tracy Cooper-Posey
For reviews, excerpts, and more about each title, visit Tracy’s site and click on the cover you are interested in: http://tracycooperposey.com/books-by-thumbnail/
* = Free!
Blood Knot Series
(Urban Fantasy Paranormal Series)
Blood Knot*
Southampton Swindle
Broken Promise
Vale
Amor Meus
Blood Stone
Blood Unleashed
Blood Drive
Blood Revealed
Blood Ascendant
Beloved Bloody Time Series
(Paranormal Futuristic Time Travel)
Bannockburn Binding*
Wait
Byzantine Heartbreak
Viennese Agreement
Romani Armada
Spartan Resistance
Celtic Crossing
Kiss Across Time Series
(Paranormal Time Travel)
Kiss Across Time*
Kiss Across Swords
Time Kissed Moments I
Kiss Across Chains
Kiss Across Deserts
Kiss Across Kingdoms
Time and Tyra Again
Kiss Across Seas
Kiss Across Worlds
The Kine Prophecies
(Epic Norse Fantasy Romance)
The Branded Rose Prophecy
But Now I See Page 4
