by Nia Arthurs
At least not the old me.
I can go back to Miles as the new woman that I am with different expectations. I can settle into this life using the new skills I learned from my old one.
But I don’t want to.
My heart aches so hard I feel like it’ll split in two.
I want to go back to Morgan.
Tears burst to my eyes.
Shanel scoots closer to me and rubs my back, “Kaz?”
There’s no way out.
“Kaz?”
I weep into my hands. “What have I done?”
33
Morgan
I promised myself, after Grace, that I would never put myself in a position to get hurt. Bitterness and regret built a wall around my heart and I camped out behind it, pretending that nothing would ever touch me in my isolation.
But I was wrong.
I kept pushing for Grace to fight but, when it counted, when it really meant something, I wasn’t there to fight for what she wanted. I only saw myself—my hurt, my pain and my suffering. Hers meant nothing to me.
Looking back, I wish I’d learned that lesson sooner. For my sake. And for Grace’s. I could have given her my apology in person instead of laying flowers at her grave and talking to a tombstone.
Now, I see things clearly.
I’m about to put my life on the line.
Pain slices through me as I move toward the portal. The pangs in my stomach have been getting progressively worse since the movers found me crumpled on the floor twelve hours ago.
Instead of heeding the warning my body is shooting at me, I grab a towel from the desk, pat my forehead dry and shuffle over to the doorway.
The metal is cold against my fingertips and the wires bend beneath my hand.
I’m coming, Kaz.
Another shot of pain slices through me and I have no choice but to stop what I’m doing and fold over, trying to offset the agony as much as I can. Gritting my teeth, I crawl to the desk where the painkillers are and take another batch.
The relief works its way slowly down my stomach and I try to push past the fog of pain to focus.
I can’t make any mistakes. This isn't the time for it.
Just then, there’s a knock on the door. To my surprise, Pavel storms through. He’s wearing the same T-shirt and jeans he had this morning, but the panic in his eyes is one I’ve never seen before.
He strides over to me. “Morgan, I just found something.”
“What?” I croak.
He stops mid-stride and stares at me, concern overtaking his expression. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” I say breathlessly. Shuffling back to the computer, I try to sit but my head gets woozy and I end up almost crashing to the ground as the chair goes flying across the room.
Pavel grabs my arm and keeps me upright. “Morgan, you’re burning up.” He presses a hand to my forehead. “You need to lie down.”
“No.” I shove him off. “I’m working.”
“Working? In this state? Morgan, you need to see a doctor.”
“No.”
“Morgan—”
“I said no, alright?” I glare at him. “What did you run all the way here for?”
He slaps a file of documents down on the table. “I think I know why the numbers have been fluctuating.” His eyes burn with determination. “I’ve been studying the multiverse theory for over twenty years. The boy first appeared to me when I had a very raw version of the doorway in my lab.”
“Okay…”
“When I met him, I thought there was only Earth 2.” He slaps the document in front of me. “Kaz’s earth. The earth Shanel got sucked into when she was watching the movie.”
“It’s the earth with the weakest gravitational time flux,” I mumble. “I’m aware.”
Pavel almost vibrates as he hisses, “Exactly. It is borderless. It…” His fingers flex in the air. “It has the equivalent of a gate with a hole in it. Anyone can sneak in or out.”
“What’s your point, Pavel?” I press a hand to the dull ache in my side. “I’m busy.”
He grabs my shoulders. “Have you noticed any more fluctuations since Kaz left?”
Anxiety washes over me and I growl out, “No.”
“It’s strange. The moment she stepped through the doorway, all attempts at invasion just… stopped.”
Unease snakes through my chest. I clench my jaw, rejecting the words I know he’s about to say.
Pavel lowers his voice. “Whoever was trying to get in turned their attention to this earth.” She slaps the paper. “Kaz’s earth.”
Kaz. I whirl around and dash to the computers. My fingers fly over the keyboards as I urge the portal to work with me.
“Morgan, what are you doing?”
“There’s no time!” I yell. “I need to open this thing now.”
Pavel storms over to my side and hauls me back. “Even if you get it to work by some miracle, you’re in no state to go anywhere or rescue anybody.”
“I have to, Pavel.” I wrench my shoulder free and launch back at the computer.
“Why?”
“Because I love her, dammit!” Pooling my fingers into fists, I bash them against the table. “I love her and I let her go and I need to get her back.” With a whip of my head, I eye him. “So are you in or not?”
He sucks in a deep breath. “Alright.” Pavel grabs his cell phone. “Let me call McCarthy.”
34
Conroy
The portal spits me out into a tiny shack. It’s dark in the room and I cannot see much. My hands lift in front of me and find the moonlight. Following the dim rays, I make my way to what feels like a door.
Push.
Out.
I’m free.
I inhale a deep breath of the salty air. We’re by the ocean. Brighton Academy. It smells like freedom here. Little do they know, their master just arrived and everything is about to change.
I step out into the clearing, glancing left and right. My mind is already a million miles away from Roderick, Yvette and everything in that big, white lab.
My body buzzes with a new thrill, the kind I got when I first fell in love with hunting. But this is ten times better than the excitement of a kill.
Because this love is ten times stronger than anything I’ve ever felt before.
My sweet Kaz is here.
I can feel it in my veins.
As I march across the clearing, I hear guards approaching. Stopping, I listen carefully to the sounds and close my eyes to take account of everything my senses are recording.
Five men.
Armed.
Moving in formation exactly in my direction.
That means they have eyes somewhere. I look up at the trees and see a bright red dot. Security cameras. Damn.
The guards break through the line of trees and surround me.
“Who are you?” the leader growls.
I smile calmly. “You are about to find out.”
He jerks his chin at two of the guards. They cautiously walk over to me. I wait until they are near before bursting into action and stealing their guns. Bang. Bang. Bang. They drop to the ground like toy soldiers abandoned by their owner.
I step over their crumpled bodies and drop the gun.
How disgusting. I usually prefer to kill with my bare hands. Now, the sounds of gunshots have awakened the house.
Stealth is no longer on my side.
Oh well.
I move briskly around the pool and enter the house through the front door. People are running to and fro, their steps pounding against the tiled floors. I duck behind a wall, out of sight.
I’m not here to kill.
I’m here to love.
My eyes dart to the upper floor. There must be a way to get there without detection. I don’t want to be so busy dropping bodies that Kaz gets away.
A man stalks into my line of sight. He’s tall and broad-shouldered with dark hair and a sharp chin. Eyes as cold as steel take i
n a security guard who’s walking alongside him.
I recognize him from the movie. Hawk.
“Who was it?” Hawk growls. “Who the hell came through that portal?”
I grin. I would love to make your acquaintance, but I have better things to do, son.
Just then, two ladies stomp down the stairs. The one on the left is from the new version of the movie. She’s tall and slim. Dark brown skin. Slender nose. Her curly hair is pulled back into a bun and she’s wearing an expensive silk robe.
The woman on her right is the one that I’m here for.
Kaz.
Just seeing her in the flesh makes my knees weak and steals my breath. She’s clinging to Shanel, a look of fright and confusion on her face. Much smaller in stature than the other girl, Kaz has to quicken her pace just to take the stairs in tandem.
She’s wearing a light pink blouse and short pajama pants that show off her slim brown legs. Her hair puffs out voluminously around her head. Though it shadows her brown eyes, it draws me to gaze at her plump, maroon-colored lips.
Desire sparks to life within me. My hands long to feel her, hold her, touch her. My body vibrates just from the thought of it and it takes everything in me not to reveal myself now.
But I hang back, watching as Hawk kisses Shanel passionately and then directs her and Kaz to leave to a safe place.
They are escorted by the head of his security team who carries a gun that is far too big for his clumsy hands.
The patter of my heart matches the pace of my steps as I follow them outside.
They move stealthily to what appears to be a bunker.
Kaz glances back just as the security guard presses his palm against a panel on the bunker’s door.
Yes, my darling. I’m here.
Kaz’s eyes widen and she points at me, her mouth dropping open to call her friend’s name.
The snarl of an alarm shrieks through the compound.
A spotlight falls on me.
I whirl around and spot an army of guards approaching me, guns at the ready.
My adrenaline spikes and I focus on getting to Kaz. Pushing forward, I run at a full-sprint.
The security sees me coming and charges for his gun, but he’s too late. I snap his neck with a twist of my fingers and grab Kaz and the other girl.
They scream and fight, but I have a firm grip. All the guns pointing at me do not fire. Instead, Hawk walks to the front and tells his men to stand down.
I grin, glad that I have both my woman and his in my grasp. With Shanel here as leverage, Hawk won’t do anything stupid.
Thrusting the ladies back, I step inside the bunker and let the doors close in front of me.
My heart pumps wildly in my ears.
Kaz is so near, I can smell her perfume. It’s something light and citrusy. Oh Lord. It smells like heaven. Like my entire world. I want to wrap her in my arms so badly, but first, this Shanel-girl needs to be taken care of.
Should I snap her neck? Or just bang her head against a table?
No, Kaz is staring at me. I don’t want her first impression of me to be one with my hands stained in blood. It’s annoying enough that I have an army outside, breathing down my neck and ruining the moment when I should be focusing all of my energy on enjoying her.
Kaz screams at me. “What the hell are you doing, Miles?”
“I… don’t think that’s Miles,” Shanel says.
“What?” Kaz glances up.
I smile slightly. “You’re right.” My boots thump the cement floor as I approach Shanel. “I’m not Miles.”
“Then who are you?” Kaz inches back.
Her eyes are filled with fright. Those big beautiful brown eyes. They should never look at me with such alarm. I will kiss that worry away in a second.
Reaching out, I grab Shanel by the neck and squeeze.
She chokes, her lips opening and closing in search of air. In search of life. Turning to Kaz, I smile. “What say you, my love? Should I kill her?”
“What? Put her down at once!”
I dip my head. “My instinct is to kill, but I want to show you that you are more important than anything to me.” I drop Shanel and drag her by her hair to another room with a large door that can be locked from the outside.
This one is a fighter. She resists me the entire way, trying to bite my arm or kick my groin. I resist the urge to kill her just for her tenacity and throw her in to the cage.
She bangs against the door with her fist. “Let me out of here! Let me out!”
“Shut up,” I snap. “Or I will kill you.”
Her voice goes mute.
I turn and face Kaz who is shivering like a lamb, her gaze darting from her friend to me. As I walk toward her, I feel like I’m floating. Like I’m dreaming.
But this is no dream.
My love is finally in front of me.
Kaz is finally here.
35
Kaz
As the maniac walks toward me, my mind goes blank and my body completely freezes. He looks exactly like Miles and it’s messing with my head.
My entire life, my instinct was to trust Miles, to follow him to the ends of the earth. Then I met Morgan and that instinct fled. Got transformed. Renewed. Now, when I look at the man who shares Miles's face, all I taste is fear and panic.
I’m going to die.
My eyes slide over to Shanel who’s locked inside another room. I see her hands curling around the bars in the small window and I can imagine that, at this very moment, she’s thinking of a way to stop this. Thinking of a way out.
But I’m not her.
I don’t rescue people.
Instead of resistance, all I can feel is fear.
“My name is Conroy.” The maniac taps his chest twice. “We’ve met before. Do you remember?”
I try to swallow but there's a lump in my throat. “Y-yes.”
His smile is wide and bright. There’s almost a twinkle in his eyes. When he grins like that, he looks exactly like Miles.
My eyes trace his black shirt, leather jacket and motorcycle gloves. Now that I think about it, he seems a lot more intense than Miles. More… dangerous.
“I have waited so long for this day.” He steps toward me again. “So long.”
My heart pounds a rhythm in my chest. “W-why?”
“Why?” He stops. Tilts his head. The expression on his face tells me the question is a stupid one. “Because I love you.”
"You love me?” I inch around the table to put more space between us. “You don’t even know me.”
“I do know you,” he insists.
Okay, Kaz. Keep him talking. Keep him distracted. Figure a way out of this.
“I saw you when no one else did, Kaz.”
“What do you mean?”
“The world that you lived in was closed off and cold. You were chasing something that always slipped out of your fingers and you could never find happiness in the love that you sought.” He shakes his head, his square jaw flexing. “I saw you in that state and knew I had to rescue you. I knew here.” He taps his hands over his chest. “In my heart.”
“So you crossed the worlds to find me?”
“Of course.” He spreads his hands, a lopsided smirk on his lips. “On my earth, I’m a very powerful man. You will see when we return.” He pauses. “If we return.”
My eyes catch on a red button beneath the table. I don’t know what it does or why it’s there, but it’s better than doing nothing.
Reaching around the table, I place my hands on the surface. “I’ve never really been loved like that.”
“I know.”
“But,” I inch my fingers beneath the table, “I learned what love felt like recently.”
“When you met me?”
“When I met Morgan.” I slap my hand against the button. The lights in the bunker shut off completely and alarm bells wail from inside, flashing red lights in the once bright room.
Kaz’s expression slips into an evil snar
l. “Oh, Kaz. What have you done?”
My heart thunders in fear.
Conroy stomps around the table. I back away from him, my life flashing before my eyes. He grabs my hand and pain charges up my arm.
“I wanted this to be romantic,” he sighs. “But I guess we’ll have to do things the hard way.”
“Let me go!” I shove at him. “Let me—”
“Silence!” He raises his arm as if he’ll slap me.
I toss my head aside, waiting for the sting of his heavy palm against my cheek.
It never comes.
I glance up slowly and see Miles lowering his arm.
“Don’t push me to the edge, love.” He pulls me up so his breath feathers my curls. The red lights fall against his dark skin, making him look like the devil. “Or I really don’t know what will happen.”
“Someone will come for us,” I stammer. “Someone will come.”
“No, love.” He points to the button. “Do you know what you just did?” His eyes soften with amusement. “You just unleashed total lockdown protocol.”
“What?”
“No one’s getting in.” His finger brushes down my cheek and makes my body shudder. “And no one’s getting out.”
36
Morgan
McCarthy releases a crazed laugh when the vortex pulses inside the portal. His dreads swing over his head as he glances back to give me a look of victory.
Pavel’s smile is pleased as well. We worked through the night, not stopping to eat or sleep or use the bathroom. It was a fight that we won, but it came with consequences.
My stomach is in knots now and not even the pills are counteracting the agony. I feel like I’m on the edge of passing out every second that ticks by.
As the mini earthquake shakes everything in the garage, I pull on my jacket and stride toward the doorway.
Pavel stomps into my path. “Whoa, where are you going?”
