Temporal Shift (Entangled Select Otherworld) (14 page)

As she came, he released his control and pumped into her, his back arching as he found his own release within seconds.

…

Christ, it had felt good. She’d been like a vise gripping his cock, milking him of pleasure. He twitched at the thought, swelling inside her, and her eyes shot open as a wave of violet washed over her skin.

She lay still beneath him, and he eased out and threw himself onto his back beside her. He wanted a minute to savor the relief, the pleasure. Then he’d decide what to do next.

Glancing down, he saw her virgin’s blood staining his shaft. He examined her. Her thighs were daubed crimson. Was that normal? He’d never had a virgin.

He rolled onto his feet, stalked to the bathroom, and cleaned himself up. Grabbing a small towel, he soaked it in warm water and went back to her. She lay on her back, and she followed his every movement with her huge purple eyes. What was she thinking? Did she regret it? He knew she’d come, he’d made certain of it, but had that been enough to offset the pain?

He sank down beside her and stroked the towel over her thighs.

“What are you doing?”

“Cleaning you up.”

She tried to take the towel from him. “I can do that.”

“Just lie still.” Parting her thighs, he stroked the towel over her sex, between the folds, wiping her clean, removing the evidence of his invasion. As he swiped over her clit, her hips lifted up from the bed. His cock was already hard again, and the sight of her open to him forced the blood pumping into it until he thought he might explode.

How sore was she?

He tossed the towel away and ran his fingers over her open sex, teasing her and watching her reaction.

Lowering his head, he kissed the soft skin of her belly and blew on the damp curls. The scent of her arousal, sweet and musky, filled his nostrils. He parted the folds of her sex and dropped a light kiss on the swollen little nub, felt her jerk beneath him.

He shifted and settled himself between her thighs, held her open with one hand as he licked from her opening to her clit.

She tasted sweet, tinged with the metallic aftertaste of blood. He found the combination amazingly erotic, and he ground his hard cock against the mattress as he licked her over and over until she was squirming beneath him. He settled in to suckle her clit, sucking it into his mouth while he pushed a finger inside her. When she pushed back against him, he added another, loving the way her inner muscles rippled against him.

Small mewling sounds trickled from her throat and he knew she was close. He held her in his mouth and stroked over her with the tip of his tongue. Her back arched and she came apart beneath him.

He needed her again and the thought brought him up short. He didn’t want to need anyone, but the thought wasn’t enough to stop him, just wake the bitterness in his soul.

He slid up her body and pushed his cock inside while the ripples of her orgasm still shuddered through her. Her eyes widened.

“Am I more than you bargained for, honey?” He knew it was the bitterness speaking and hated himself for hurting her more than he already had.

She reached up and framed his face with her hands, forced him to stare into her eyes. “I love you,” she whispered.

Hate and grief and pain and fear all warred in his mind. “I don’t want your love.”

“It’s yours anyway. It’s always been yours. I’ll be yours until the end of time.”

At her words, some of the darkness seeped from him. He started moving. This time he kept the rhythm slow, each long stroke almost pulling out of her completely, then sliding back in. Her legs came around his waist to hold him close. He cupped her face in his hands as his hips slowly pumped.

“Is this what you dreamed about?” he asked, grinding his hips against her so she gasped.

She raised a hand and stroked down the length of his scar. “In my dreams you told me you loved me.”

Shock flared through him and he went still. She wanted too much, too soon. “I don’t do love, sweetheart. Only sex. You’re new to this, but you’ll soon learn not to confuse the two.”

She smiled. “One day you’ll tell me.”

He shook his head. But for the first time, he seriously considered her words. What if there was something in the time travel? After all, they were right now deep inside a wormhole.

What if she had seen them in her future?

But he didn’t want that. He wanted his revenge, nothing else.

“I don’t want to love anyone,” he said. “Everyone I’ve ever loved has died.”

Her expression softened and she stroked a finger over his lips. “I won’t die.” She pushed her hips against him, urging him to move, and he forced the thoughts aside. This was just sex. But fucking great sex.

Closing his eyes, he let the pleasure build inside him, tugging at his balls. When he was close, he rotated little circles on each inward stroke, grinding against her clit until she came again, crying out as he pulsed inside her.

Afterward, he rolled onto his side and pulled her against him.

“I love you,” she murmured again, almost too quiet to hear.

The words hit him deep inside. She didn’t love him. She didn’t even know him. She’d fallen in love with some man in her dreams. Not him at all. If she really knew him, she wouldn’t love him; she wouldn’t even like him. If she knew the things he’d done, she would run in the opposite direction as fast as she could.

He opened his mouth to say something, he wasn’t sure what, certainly not
I love you
back. But he felt too good to argue, so he closed his mouth and pulled her closer.

She was quiet for a while, then shifted so her head rested on one hand and she could look into his face. “How did you end up on the
Blood Hunter
?” she asked.

“My brother called me in to help with a job.”

Her brows drew together. “I remember you said he was the engineer on the old
Blood Hunter
. But why? Why wasn’t he with you and the rebels?”

Devlin pulled himself up so he sat back against the wall. This wasn’t a part of history he was happy recalling. He’d hated it when Tris left, when he could no longer safeguard his brother. But Tris had had to go. “He was until ten years ago. There was an accident, some children were killed, and Tris blamed himself.”

“Was it his fault?”

Devlin shrugged. “He made the bomb. He didn’t set it off. But he couldn’t stay after that.”

“And you could?”

“I was sorry children had died. I don’t go after innocents, but it was an accident. It didn’t change what I knew needed to be done. What I have to do.”

“And afterward? After you get your revenge, what then?”

“I don’t know.” He turned his head slightly so he could see into her face. “Do you think of afterward? If this whole thing works and you save mankind and you get home, what then? What comes next?”

“I’ve never thought about it. But I’d like to help my people leave, and then I’d like to roam the stars, visit different places…”

“You could sign on with the
Blood Hunter
.”

“They hate me. They all hate me. They’ll never accept me now, not after what I did to them.”

No, he was guessing forgiveness wasn’t one of Rico’s strong points. Or Tannis’s for that matter. “Maybe you could join the rebels.”

“With you? But I don’t want to kill. I can’t imagine hating anyone that much.”

He couldn’t remember a time when he hadn’t wanted to kill. A vision of Temperance Hatcher, current leader of the Church of Everlasting Life and the man directly responsible for Tris’s murder, rose up in his mind. But after he killed Hatcher, what then? Would the rebels continue, or would they break up?

Maybe he could take Tris’s old job on the
Blood Hunter
on a permanent basis. Tannis would take him on—she owed him big time and he could imagine being content looking after the
Blood Hunter
. Maybe he could persuade Tannis to take on Saffira as well. Though as what he wasn’t sure. The
Blood Hunter’s
engines by day and Saffira in his bed at night. He could be content with that.

And he couldn’t believe how far his thoughts had gone.

He didn’t do love, but he liked her. In many ways, she was similar to him—dedicated to her cause. Maybe they could find an afterward together.

Her soft hands stroked the skin of his shoulders, grazing lightly down over his nipples. He settled himself on his back, arms clasped behind his head, and let her explore him with her fingertips. She tickled down his sides and threaded her fingers in the hair on his belly.

“So soft,” she murmured. “Like fur.”

Then she reached the interesting bits. At her first touch, heat pooled in his groin and his dick twitched. She scooted down the bed and every muscle locked tight as he realized what she meant to do. She stared up the line of his body, licked her lips, and lowered her head toward him. His cock strained upward, once again ready for action.

So close.

Then the ship lurched sideways. He only had time to think—not a-fucking-gain—before they were both tossed from the bed. He landed on top of her in a tangle of limbs. The ship righted herself, but they were spinning.

Faster and faster.

Out of control.

Chapter Thirteen

Devlin wrapped his arms around her, wedging himself between the bed and the wall, and held on tight. The ship crashed into something and screamed with the grate of metal on metal.

Finally, they slowed and came to a halt.

“What the fuck was that?” Devlin asked.

Saffira struggled free and got up on shaky legs. But she didn’t look seriously hurt. “Maybe we’ve reached the other side of the wormhole.”

She headed across the room to where her jumpsuit lay crumpled on the floor. After tugging it on, she searched for her boots, just as Devlin’s comm unit lit up.

“Devlin?” It was Daisy, and she sounded panicked.

“Yeah.” He pulled his pants on as he talked.

“Something happened.”

“No kidding. Where’s Rico?”

“He’s out cold.”

“Knocked out?”

“No. Yes. I’m not sure. Just get up here.”

He sat on the bed to put on his boots, then dragged his T-shirt over his head. Saffira was already standing by the door, foot tapping on the floor.

This time they took the closest transporter bubble. As the doors slid open to the bridge, his gaze went to the screen in front of them.

Yup, the end of the tunnel was in sight. A dark featureless hole looking less than inviting.

He hurried across to where Daisy crouched over Rico. The vampire was unconscious. “What happened?”

“We were talking. I asked him about Earth—I thought it might take his mind off the hunger thing. Anyway—he was telling me about where he came from and how he became a vampire and…” She tugged at her long green ponytail. “And the tunnel seemed to shift, and it was too fast, and the ship hit the wall, and we lost control. Then we were spinning.”

Thorne appeared in the open doorway. “What’s going on?”

His gaze sharpened on Saffira before turning to Devlin, his violet eyes narrowing. Devlin was guessing he looked like he’d just been laid. And Saffira was no better with her long hair loose around her shoulders, her mouth swollen from his kisses, and moving like walking hurt.

“I think we’re there,” Saffira said. She turned to him. “Can you get her working again?”

“Let me look.” He flicked through a 3-D image of the engine. “There’s damage. We’re going to have to fix it, but I might be able to get her going.” He remembered the shriek of grating metal he’d heard and knew she must have sustained an external hit. “We really need to land her so I can check her over.”

“Well, if we’ve reached Earth you can do that.”

“If…”

A groan sounded from behind him. Looked like Rico was waking up.

“What the fuck just happened?” he asked, dragging himself into a sitting position and running a hand through his hair.

“You fainted,” Devlin replied.

“The hell I did. Vampires do not faint. And what the hell happened to my ship?”

“You lost control…when you fainted—”

“Fuck off.”

Devlin ignored the interruption. “…and she hit the walls. A massive attack of negative energy on the outer shields.” He turned back to the images. “Shouldn’t stop us moving, but I wouldn’t want to meet anything unfriendly in this state.”

“So fix it.” Rico’s eyes narrowed on him before shifting to Saffira. “You just make some girl’s dreams come true, lover boy?”

“Piss off.”

Rico stumbled to his feet and swayed. “Shit, I feel like I’ve been headbutting a blaster shield. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a silver flask, took a deep swallow, and handed it to Daisy. “You worried about me, sweetheart?”

She took a sip, coughed, and took a larger gulp. “Yes.”

Sitting down at the console, Devlin started pressing some buttons. Saffira came to stand behind him, filling his nostrils with the sweet scent of her skin, the musky aroma of sex, and his cock twitched.

How long would this thing on Earth take? Saffira had said the wormhole would not stay in place long, so they would have to be fast. Then they could be on their way.

She rested a hand on his shoulder and leaned across him so her breasts pressed against his back. “What’s that?” she asked, pointing at a red flashing light in the middle of the diagram.

“Aw, isn’t that sweet,” Rico muttered.

Devlin ignored the comment. He couldn’t blame Rico for being pissed. Hell, he’d be pissed if someone took his woman and threatened her. He’d never had a woman before. Not really. He’d never wanted one.

But hopefully, there was an end in sight. The Church was in disarray, their headquarters all but destroyed, their fleet decimated. A few well-aimed attacks and they could be finished off, their power base destroyed. And maybe there could be life afterward.

“That’s the problem,” he said to Saffira. Suddenly he didn’t care what the others thought—if he’d ever. He swiveled his seat, wrapped an arm around her waist, dragged her close, and held her at his side. The weight of Thorne’s stare could have hammered him into the deck, but he ignored it and used his free hand to shift through the systems.

He didn’t think the lack of control had anything to do with the crash. This was like when they had first entered the wormhole and the ship lost power. He reckoned it was something to do with the buildup of negative energy around the entrances to the hole. The ship closed down as a defense mechanism. But hopefully he could bypass the system and get them enough power to get out of here.

Saffira felt good at his side. She stood with her breasts level with his face; if he turned slightly, he could bury his mouth between them.

“Could you get your mind off your dick and onto the job at hand,” Rico drawled. “Because I have places I’d rather be and people I’d rather be with. So can we move along?”

Devlin shook himself as he realized he’d stopped working. He gave her breasts one last look—the nipples were stiff little peaks pointing straight at him—and went back to isolating the power supply.

“There.” He pressed one last key and the red flashing light went out. Unfortunately, nothing else happened. “Shit.”

Rico gave an exaggerated sigh from behind him. “I think you must have melted lover boy’s brain,” he said, presumably to Saffira. “He’s not normally this slow.”

He pressed a few more keys, slammed his fist down on the console, and the faint hum of the engines came through his feet.

“At last.” Rico returned to the pilot’s seat and sat down. “Strap yourself in and get ready to go.”

Saffira tugged free and took the seat next to him. He waited until she was safely strapped in before fastening his own harness.

They moved slowly at first, then the speed picked up until the walls of the tunnel were flashing by.

“You’ve already crashed once,” Devlin said. “Don’t you think you might consider slowing down a little?”

Rico glanced around and grinned. “Nothing to do with me. We’re taking this ride whether we like it or not.”

The gaping black hole at the entrance to the wormhole was growing bigger now, surrounded by flashes of white light. Through it he caught sight of something, a planet, a blue-green planet.

“Earth,” Saffira whispered from beside him. “We did it. We really did it.”

He opened his mouth to answer, but the words were pushed down his throat as another surge of power took over and hurtled them toward the center of the hole.

For a brief moment, it felt as though he was being crushed, the air sucked out of the room, and an intolerable pressure pressed down on him. Then they popped as the pressure released, and they were spat out of the wormhole and into space, still hurtling toward the planet below.

“Slow the fuck down,” he yelled at Rico. “We’re going to crash. Again.”

Rico raised his hands. “No can do. We’re going where it wants to go. So just settle back and enjoy the ride.”

The planet filled the screen now.

“It is Earth, isn’t it?” he asked.

“Oh yeah. But…” Rico shook his head. “We’ll find out soon enough.”

“Find out what?”

But Rico turned back and was trying to wrest control of the ship. They were through the planet’s atmosphere now, and he could make out the land below them. Mountains and a city off to the east. There was something not right. He couldn’t put his finger on what. Anyway, it wasn’t going to matter if Rico didn’t slow them down. If they hit land at this speed, they’d disintegrate.

Beside him, Saffira appeared serene. Maybe she didn’t realize how close they were to death. He didn’t want to die. He wanted to live and not just so he could get his revenge. He couldn’t remember ever thinking that, and he’d faced death many times.

As though she could sense his stare, she turned and smiled. “We’ll be fine,” she said. “I’ve seen it. I’ve stood on Earth. Rico will get us down.”

Rico glanced back and grinned. “Thanks for that vote of confidence, but we’re already slowing.”

Devlin could sense it now, the deceleration—the
Blood Hunter
no longer felt as though she were out of control. In the screens he could clearly see the land. And trees, lots of trees.

“Got her,” Rico said.

“Then get her away from those goddamn trees,” he snapped.

“I think lover boy is panicking,” Rico murmured. “Scared we’ll crash and you won’t get a chance for another shag?”

“Piss off.”

It looked like twilight on the planet’s surface, but in the dim light, he could make out a clearing in the trees up ahead. “There,” he said.

“I’ve got it.”

And they were gently lowering to Earth.

“Jesus.”

…

For a full minute she didn’t move. She could hardly believe it; she was here. On Earth, the home planet where mankind had evolved. And where they would all die without her intervention.

Beside her, Devlin unstrapped himself and got to his feet. He looked a little pale and maybe even a little green.

He’d never really believed in her. Now he’d have to. Perhaps he’d even come to see the inevitability of their love.

She’d never felt as though her life was her own; always she’d had this task looming over her. Now, for the first time, it was as though there was an end in sight. There were still her people to help find their Promised Land, but at least now there was hope, and they knew the way home. Maybe Devlin would help.

And afterward she was free to do whatever she wanted, with whomever she wanted. She’d seen a softening in him today, though he would probably deny it.

She glanced away and at the screens, which were showing the view all around the
Blood Hunter
. It wasn’t particularly impressive; they were in a large grassy clearing, surrounded on all sides by shadowy forms of trees. There were no lights anywhere, and nighttime was almost upon them. Surely, there should be lights. Some sign of civilization.

She was eager to get on with this. Besides, she knew time was limited. While they were within the wormhole, they’d been outside time, and it would remain in place. Now they were out, it would try to move. The entrance was held open by negative energy, but that would eventually close in on itself, and the hole would no longer connect the same space and time. She reckoned she had a few hours at the most. And she had no clue where she had landed. She’d told Rico to head for somewhere in the States close to where the presidential palace was situated, but from the looks outside, they’d deviated off course, and first she needed to pinpoint their exact location.

“How long will it take to do the repairs?” she asked Devlin.

“A couple of hours should be enough to patch her up well enough to get home. Once there, I can do a better job.”

“Good.” She unfastened her harness and got to her feet, crossed the bridge to stand beside Rico. “You know where we are?”

“I can guess. But I’ll do better than that. He pressed a couple of keys and a globe popped up in the air between them. Earth. A black dot appeared on the surface. “That’s us,” Rico said.

“Where are we?”

“Well, not where we wanted to be.”

She gritted her teeth. “Has anyone ever told you, you can be really irritating?”

Behind her, Devlin snorted. She presumed it was a sound of agreement.

“Yeah, and none of them ever survived.” But he didn’t sound put out. “Okay, I’ll tell you where we are. We’re in the south of Spain.”

“Spain? Why would we be in Spain? I don’t want to be in Spain.”

“I come from Spain.”

“You do?”

“Uh huh.”

“So?”

“I was talking to Daisy about Spain when we did our little detour back in the hole.”

Shock jabbed her in the gut. “You think you twisted the wormhole?”

“Maybe. Let’s go look outside and see.”

She studied the globe. Spain was a long way from where she needed to be. “Maybe we can wait until Devlin has fixed the ship and take her. I don’t think the shuttles will make it in time.”

“Let’s find out a bit more first, shall we? And I think we may have another…little problem.”

“What?”

“Wait and see. Come on, let’s go for a visit—I’m feeling quite nostalgic.”

They took the transporter bubble to the docking bay. She edged around Rico as he stood on the top of the ramp and breathed in deeply. Outside it was fully night now, the trees black shadows against the darkness. The air was warm and smelled of growing things and decaying things. She wrinkled her nose.

Wow.

Earth.

But not what she’d been expecting. She’d thought there would be big cities and bright lights. Airplanes in the sky and lots of people. She’d heard that the population of Earth had been huge in the last years before the exodus. Where were they all?

“It’s very quiet,” she murmured.

Had no one seen them arrive? Why wasn’t the place swarming with people come to investigate?

Rico switched on the ship’s external lights, turned back, and strolled across to where a number of vehicles stood parked in a row.

He climbed into one and gestured for the others to get in with him.

“Come on, we’ll take a speeder and do a quick tour of the old home planet. Or at least the part where I grew up.”

Daisy jumped in beside him and Saffira glanced at Thorne. He shrugged as if to say “why not.” She climbed in the back and Thorne got in beside her. She was getting a bad feeling about this. They were obviously not
where
they were supposed to be. How about
when
? Just how far out could they be? Hopefully, not too long.