Veris’ grip on her shoulders tightened. “It’s Brody’s blood.”
Her heart gave a hard knock, then grew still. “His blood…”
“I’m not sure yet what this means,” Veris said.
“Winter and Sebastian,” Taylor breathed. She moaned. “They were so positive Nial would not leave them without a word.”
Veris’ chest rose and fell. “There wasn’t enough ash, Taylor. Not nearly enough. I got…” He grimaced. “I threw my weight around. Insisted on seeing the evidence, everything they had taken from the car. All the photos they took before collecting it. There was blood, Taylor, only there wasn’t enough ash on the seats, not for two grown vampires. Not even for one.”
“You think they’re still alive?” Taylor breathed. “They really are hiding from us, then?”
“Are they hiding? The blood…that changes everything. I can’t figure it out yet—there’s still more questions than answers, but…” He gave her a little shake. His eyes blazed. “Maybe Brody didn’t leave us at all. Maybe he was made to leave us.”
Chapter Fifteen
Marit made Winter a cup of tea and Taylor brought her a box of tissues, for Winter was still recovering from the double shocks Taylor had handed out.
Sebastian sat on the loveseat with her, only his attention was on the rest of the room, for everyone had come rushing to Martha’s Vineyard at Marit’s call.
Sydney had faced Marit with a frown. “Calling through the timeline? We need to sit down and talk, young lady.”
“Later, Aunt Sydney. I have a huge headache,” Marit said.
“I have no doubt,” Sydney replied. She let Marit return to her corner chair, out of the way of the people moving about the room. Instead, she hugged Taylor. “This is…it’s bad and good,” she murmured. “We’ll figure it out.”
Taylor nodded.
Veris stood at the fireplace, his favorite lecture position. “Let’s get going,” he said loudly.
Everyone found a seat. Alex took the upright chair by the front windows. Rafe settled in an armchair with Liberty on his lap. London was in the other chair, Jason in her arms, for she was feeding him. Alannah and Aran were scrunched up on either side of Taylor, at one end of the long sofa. Remi and Neven had the other end. Sydney sat on the arm of the sofa closest to Taylor and the twins.
“You all know Winter and Sebastian,” Veris said.
Everyone nodded.
“Did everyone check the photos and the documents on the windows?” Veris asked.
As they had done in the past, they had turned the windows and doors on the back side of the house into a display board. They had taped all the records of evidence the police had collected from the scene where they had found Brody’s car to the panes.
“How on earth did you get these documents, anyway?” Rafe asked.
“Ask Sebastian,” Veris said.
Sebastian shrugged. “Winter and I were professional burglars in another life.”
“You fit right in with this room full of reprobates,” Sydney said.
Sebastian’s smile was ghostly, but it was there.
“What do we know?” Veris said. “Thoughts, everyone.”
“It’s clear something other than running away was on Brody’s agenda,” Sydney said.
“Either he burned the car or someone else did. Either way, it was to cover tracks, and that Brody bled all over it,” Alex said. “Sorry, Taylor,” he added.
“Maybe he and Nial did leave together, just the way we thought,” Veris said, with the tone which said he was playing devil’s advocate. “Maybe something caught up with them after they left.”
“That doesn’t fit the facts,” Sydney, the former detective, said. “Brody can’t be found. If something or someone caught up with them later, he and Nial would have escaped the problem by now. Both are smart, strong and capable. Once they got away, we should have found them on the timescape. We can’t. Ergo, they’re trying to hide.”
“Or someone is still hiding them,” Remi said.
“For four months?” Taylor breathed, horrified.
“Kristijan had people hidden for nearly a year and no one raised so much as an eyebrow,” Remi replied. “Not until Aran got nosy.”
“I was looking for a date, not slaves,” Aran said.
“It can’t be something catching up with them after they left,” Taylor said. “Winter and Sebastian are adamant Nial would have cut ties with them properly, not just left without a word. I believe them. I knew Nial a little. It’s not like him.”
Winter’s expression as she looked at Taylor was warm.
Veris nodded. “I have to agree,” he said. “Whatever Nial’s drawbacks, he was not inconsiderate.”
Alex shook his head. “I can’t fit Nial into this. Someone from an alternative timeline, whom we only met a few weeks before…what has he to do with any of this? If one of Brody’s demons from his past caught up with him, how does it involve Nial?”
Veris crossed his arms and leaned his shoulder against the mantle. His gaze turned inward. “Maybe Brody needed him to make it look good,” he said slowly.
“Make what look good?” Neven asked.
“Make the cover story seem right,” Sydney said. She was staring at Veris, concentrating just as hard. “For whatever reason, Brody had to convince the two of you he was serious about leaving. He needed Nial to do it.”
Veris grimaced. “It worked,” he said grimly. “Nial is probably the one man in the universe Taylor and I could believe Brody would fall for.” He glanced at Sebastian and Winter.
Sebastian gave a tiny smile. “You’ll get no argument from us on that.”
“There’s another factor we should consider, too,” Sydney said.
“The Council?” Rafe said.
“Are they behind this?” Veris asked. “Good question. It has their ruthless quality.”
London lifted the baby to her shoulder and patted his back. “There’s another factor you’ve missed, too.”
Everyone looked at her.
“Alannah and Remi were assaulted, then immediately afterwards, Brody declares he is leaving. It can’t be a coincidence.”
Remi shook his head. “I can’t see how it’s related. The glimpse I got of the attacker’s face…he was a stranger and he was human. Strong and fast, but just human. I’ve never seen him before. It was a random act.”
“Brody said it wasn’t related,” Taylor told her. “He said it merely pushed him into doing it now, rather than waiting.” She swallowed. “He said people around Veris always get hurt.”
Veris blew out his breath. “It was the perfect thing to tell me. It stopped me in my tracks. I didn’t question anything after that.”
The silence stretched for a little, before Neven let out a deep breath. “Man, Brody knew exactly what to say, didn’t he? If this is a cover up, if he had to…to anchor you, then he hit every single button which would do it.”
Veris crossed his arms. “Brody knows me. He knows Taylor. There are a thousand ways he could have severed himself from us, but only one way to guarantee we wouldn’t come looking for him later. He used it.”
Remi rested his hand on Neven’s shoulder. “In fifteen hundred years time, you’ll know that much about me and London, too. It’s a scary thought.”
Neven’s smile was warm.
“Yes, but why?” Sydney pressed. “What on earth would force him to do such a thing? Motive, Veris. It will unravel the whole mess if we can figure it out.”
“Maybe he really did just want to be rid of us,” Taylor said.
“Car. Blood. No ashes,” Rafe said, and pointed at the photos on the doors behind him.
“We keep trying to figure out if Alannah and Remi were part of this,” Alex said. “What if Remi was a bystander? Pulled into it by proximity, as we think Nial may have been?”
Alannah pressed against Taylor. Taylor picked up her hand and held it.
Sydney nodded. “It makes the cause-and-effect far clearer, if you
take Remi and Nial off the board.”
“In English, Detective, if you please,” Sebastian said.
Sydney nodded. “Take away Nial and Remi and you’re left with the fact that Brody’s daughter was assaulted, then Brody immediately left, making sure no one would follow him.”
“And we’re back to why,” Veris said.
“The problem is, we don’t have enough hard information,” Sydney said. “Whoever did this, they’re good. Hell, they know how to hide on the timescape. That makes them a fellow traveler, which isn’t making me very happy at all.”
“And now we’re back to the Council,” Rafe said.
The knock on the front door of the sunroom made everyone jump.
Taylor twisted to glance at the doors. Normally, visitors went to the front door and rang the bell. The front door had a path leading to it, planters and lights. People rarely stepped off the path to move past the front portico and around to the sunroom.
Parked on the driveway was a white Jeep Cherokee with black tinted windows. Two people stood at the sunroom doors. Taylor thought it was the first time she had seen a man who might just be taller than Veris.
Then she glanced at the woman and gasped, struggling to shift Alannah and Aran so she could get up. “Naomi!” she called and hurried over to the door the pair of them were standing in front of, as Veris got his hand on the handle.
“Naomi?” Veris repeated, giving Taylor a startled look. He opened the door.
Naomi took off her sunglasses and smiled brightly at Veris. “You must be Veris.” She tucked the sunglasses in her shoulder bag. “May we come in? It’s important.”
Veris kept his grip on the door handle. “This isn’t a good time,” he said flatly.
“I can call you later, Naomi,” Taylor added.
“I’m not here about a coffee date,” Naomi said. “Have you figured out what happened to Brody yet? Have you concluded it’s the Council behind it?”
Veris’ jaw sagged.
Taylor gasped.
She heard everyone behind her give little sounds of shock, too.
“It’s not the Council, Veris,” Naomi added. “I know more about this than you. So…” She gripped Veris’ wrist and lifted his hand off the door handle and pushed it open.
“Who the fuck are you?” Remi said, standing up. He was braced, ready to respond. Alex rose to his feet, too.
Naomi and the giant stepped inside. The giant glanced around the room with clear, very pale gray eyes and nodded at everyone.
“Who are you, Naomi?” Taylor demanded.
Naomi smiled at her. “You had better call me Nayara.” She reached up and plucked away her black hair. It was a wig. Beneath was coiled a thick knot of red locks. “We’re from your future,” she added.
Chapter Sixteen
Everyone just shut up for a moment!” Veris bellowed.
The only people not trying to be heard were Naomi—Nayara, Taylor corrected herself—and the man she had brought with her. Everyone else shouted over the top of each other. Even Alannah and Aran were tugging on Taylor’s arms, demanding she explain what was going on.
Nayara glanced at the giant and tilted her head.
“Mom!” Alannah hissed.
Taylor shook her head. “I don’t know, Alan—” Her throat closed down and locked like iron. Nothing would move, not even her jaw.
The whole room fell silent at the same time.
Veris scowled at Naomi. Nayara.
She gave him a small smile. “This is Kieran,” she said, waving toward the other man. He wasn’t taller than Veris, Taylor saw. He was the same height. The same shoulder width.
“Kieran has certain mental talents,” Nayara added. “Added to his physical abilities, they make him a formidable adversary. Luckily, he is on our side. Please release them, Kieran. They will all listen now, I’m sure.”
Kieran nodded. The pressure on Taylor’s throat slackened. She rubbed it, swallowing.
“Jesus!” Rafe breathed, sounding awed.
Veris crossed his arms. “You’re from the future. How far into the future? And why are you here?”
“You wrote the original manual on time travel, Veris Gerhardsson. You know my answer to your first question,” Nayara replied.
“You won’t reveal the future to us,” Veris said.
“Exactly. As to the second, well…” She nodded to the photographs and documents taped to the doors. “Brody immobilized you. All of you. He did it with the precision and effectiveness of a surgeon. He knew exactly where to cut. I have watched Taylor and you, Veris, flounder in your mire of pain and doubt. Even nudging you into searching for him has not worked against Brody’s flawless strategies.”
“We are searching for him,” Taylor said.
Nayara shook her head. “You’re about to launch yourselves at the Council, which is a suicide mission from which none of you will return. The Council are not behind this. In fact—”
“Get down!” Kieran shouted, and shoved Nayara to the ground.
There was a flutter of cloth, the flicker of darkness—it happened too fast for even Taylor’s enhanced vampiric vision to process. A man stood over Nayara. Kieran protected her. Taylor could see nothing of the newcomer but his broad back and short black hair. His thickly muscled arms were up, a sword in his hands. The sword hung over Nayara, then plunged down…
…and came to a quivering halt, two inches from her shoulder.
Kieran held the man’s wrists. Both men struggled as they fought to contain the other.
Taylor pushed Alannah and Aran behind her.
Veris stepped out of the way, his eyes narrowed as he watched the tableau with fierce attention. Taylor could tell by the way his muscles shifted beneath his flesh that Veris was poised on the very brink of intense action.
No one else in the room moved. Neven and Remi had pulled London out of the way.
Nayara threw up her hand protectively. “We are not the enemy, David! We are correcting history!”
The stranger looked down at her. “You know me?” His tone was stunned. His voice was rich.
“Of course I do,” Nayara said. “Everyone knows you in my time.”
The man she had called David shook his head. “That isn’t possible.”
“It is and I can explain why, if you will let me up,” Nayara said.
Still, he didn’t move.
Nayara said patiently, “We know each other well, in my time. You sent me here to fix this.” She paused, then said something in a language which Taylor thought was Greek, only it was a variant she wasn’t familiar with. The words were almost clear, yet not enough for her to understand.
The man called David understood, though. Something rippled through him, making his shoulders shift. “Only I could have told you that,” he said, his tone one of agreement. He looked at Kieran. “You can let go.”
Kieran relaxed his grip and stepped away from Nayara.
David lowered the sword. It was a short sword, of the type the Romans had used, which Taylor recognized from various jumps back to more interesting times.
Kieran held out a hand and helped Nayara back onto her feet. “Sorry—I didn’t get enough warning to be nice,” he told her.
Nayara nodded. “I don’t mind at all, except…” She frowned down at the palms of her hands, which were bleeding. “I just don’t heal swiftly, here.” She dropped her hands and glanced around at the room of stunned people, then at the newcomer.
“Everyone,” she said. “You wondered who the shadowy figure was, guiding the Council. Now you have met him. This is Cassander David Solon Pallis, son of Alexander, and one of only two polytemporals ever born.”
David’s eyes narrowed. He had dark eyes and a trimmed beard which outlined the clear lines of his face. He looked to be barely into his thirties, although Taylor had learned to look past superficial age markers. The sword was a hint of more ancient times, while his elegant trousers and black shirt said he was just as comfortable in contemporary times. �
�This is not appropriate,” he muttered.
“This is the time you have waited for,” Nayara said. “This is the time it happens.”
His eyes narrowed.
“Wait,” Alex said, his tone urgent. “Son of Alexander?” he repeated.
“Not you, Alex,” Veris said. “I think…I suspect…”
“Alexander the Great?” Rafe breathed.
Nayara rolled her eyes. “You who have lived for centuries question how someone could live for a few centuries more than that?”
“I think it’s the lineage which is stealing everyone’s breath,” Veris said, his tone dry.
David shifted, as if he was uneasy. He used the sword to point, sweeping it around the room. “All of you are treading on territory which should not be tampered with. That is what brought me here.”
“They are no threat to the Council, David,” Nayara said.
He turned on her. “You were about to reveal the future to them.”
“At your direction,” Nayara assured him. She held up a hand. “There is someone you should meet. All of you,” she added, glancing around the room. She stepped around David and beckoned through the glass door, toward the Cherokee.
The back door opened and a man stepped out.
“Veris!” Taylor breathed. For it was Veris.
She spun to look at the Veris standing in the room with them. He watched his other self approach with narrowed eyes. His arms were still crossed, which put his hand a two-inch drop away from his knife hilt…if he had been wearing one.
The future version of Veris wore a closely trimmed beard and mustache, both as blond as his hair. His hair was trimmed better than Taylor’s Veris, with the thick locks contained. He wore black from head to foot, all of it elegant.
He stepped into the room and looked first at her Veris. He nodded.
“Holy shit!” Aran breathed. “Why isn’t the universe imploding or something?”
“Because I’m here through a different sort of time travel,” the future Veris told him.
London sighed. “I think my brain just fried. I can’t keep up.”
The future Veris picked seven people to sit at the dining table for a strategy session. Taylor’s Veris argued. “I know their strengths. You just remember them.”
Kiss Across Tomorrow (Kiss Across Time Book 8) Page 15
