Please wait outside.” Once the door was closed, the director turned to her. “Are you ready to know the truth?”
For a tenth of a second Skyla wanted to shake her head, but the part of her that was beginning to wake wanted to know, needed to know. Her mouth suddenly felt like it was stuffed with cotton balls. She swallowed hard and then nodded.
•●•
Rei was lying on the floor, still panting from the kiss and body-to-body contact with Skyla Gray. The last thread of doubt about her being Elizabeth had evaporated as soon as his lips touched hers. She still tasted like warmth and sunshine, even though she had become someone else, someone as cold and ruthless as he was, a lethal warrior of her time. It had been almost half a millennium since he had felt Elizabeth. Skyla was his Elizabeth. The curve of her body, the breathless yielding of her mouth to his ferocious demand, and the bone-deep recognition of each other were all the signs he needed to shatter any doubts. Even now, his heart was pumping rapidly from the taste of her, the feel of her, the certainty that he had finally found her. As each decade had passed, he started to fear the worst, that Elizabeth was truly lost in time as her uncle had told him. The time machine she had escaped in was only a prototype. It had never been tested on another human being. Even her uncle could not deduce which time period she might have gone to or whether she had survived the journey.
He got up from the floor and hastily put on his clothes. He wanted Elizabeth back now, and he needed to make sure Director Jensen and her government knew how serious he was. Once he reached Level 5, he passed by the hand and retinal scanners just as he had before. He was about to step into Direct Jensen’s office when he saw two familiar hulking figures inside the seating area, half-guarding the area, half-speaking quietly and intensely to each other. Muttering an old Serbian curse about a goat and its private parts, he readied his body for battle.
“Gentlemen.”
Both Knox and Butch immediately drew their guns and pointed them in his direction. “Son of a bitch. How did you get past the security protocol?” Butch snarled at him.
Still preferring not to shed blood unnecessarily, he spread his arms out to show he was unarmed. “Same way I did the first time I got inside Director Jensen’s office.” He answered the question in a bored tone as he walked up to them face-to-face, warrior-to-warrior. A risky move, but time was up. He needed this to end right here, right now. “I need to speak with your director and Skyla.”
Without taking his aim off Rei, Knox said quietly, stoically, “She does not know you anymore.”
Rei knew that much already, but it did not lessen the pain of hearing it said aloud. He schooled his expression to hide any hint of pain or doubt. He could not afford to show any weakness in front of these men. Men who fought alongside his Elizabeth, men who would give their lives for her if they thought for even a moment that she was in danger. “She’ll know me again.”
“Bastard, where’ve you been these past twelve years?” Butch’s voice dripped with venom. “We saw what happened to her at the end. What Fernando Medici tried to do to her. Where the fuck were you?” He shoved Rei back, testing his resolve. With another hard shove, Butch snarled at him again. “She came alone, she woke up alone from a three-month coma, and now you think you can just waltz back in and claim her?”
A red haze was slowly clouding Rei’s vision. He knew the only reason Elizabeth would’ve risked using the untested time machine was if something horrific was about to happen to her—something that would cause her to flee and leave her family behind, the family she loved so much that she had chosen to give away their love in the face of Medici wrath. The gods he bargained with and served had saved his life and given him immortality along with the ability to travel through time.
For a tenth of a second Skyla wanted to shake her head, but the part of her that was beginning to wake wanted to know, needed to know. Her mouth suddenly felt like it was stuffed with cotton balls. She swallowed hard and then nodded.
•●•
Rei was lying on the floor, still panting from the kiss and body-to-body contact with Skyla Gray. The last thread of doubt about her being Elizabeth had evaporated as soon as his lips touched hers. She still tasted like warmth and sunshine, even though she had become someone else, someone as cold and ruthless as he was, a lethal warrior of her time. It had been almost half a millennium since he had felt Elizabeth. Skyla was his Elizabeth. The curve of her body, the breathless yielding of her mouth to his ferocious demand, and the bone-deep recognition of each other were all the signs he needed to shatter any doubts. Even now, his heart was pumping rapidly from the taste of her, the feel of her, the certainty that he had finally found her. As each decade had passed, he started to fear the worst, that Elizabeth was truly lost in time as her uncle had told him. The time machine she had escaped in was only a prototype. It had never been tested on another human being. Even her uncle could not deduce which time period she might have gone to or whether she had survived the journey.
He got up from the floor and hastily put on his clothes. He wanted Elizabeth back now, and he needed to make sure Director Jensen and her government knew how serious he was. Once he reached Level 5, he passed by the hand and retinal scanners just as he had before. He was about to step into Direct Jensen’s office when he saw two familiar hulking figures inside the seating area, half-guarding the area, half-speaking quietly and intensely to each other. Muttering an old Serbian curse about a goat and its private parts, he readied his body for battle.
“Gentlemen.”
Both Knox and Butch immediately drew their guns and pointed them in his direction. “Son of a bitch. How did you get past the security protocol?” Butch snarled at him.
Still preferring not to shed blood unnecessarily, he spread his arms out to show he was unarmed. “Same way I did the first time I got inside Director Jensen’s office.” He answered the question in a bored tone as he walked up to them face-to-face, warrior-to-warrior. A risky move, but time was up. He needed this to end right here, right now. “I need to speak with your director and Skyla.”
Without taking his aim off Rei, Knox said quietly, stoically, “She does not know you anymore.”
Rei knew that much already, but it did not lessen the pain of hearing it said aloud. He schooled his expression to hide any hint of pain or doubt. He could not afford to show any weakness in front of these men. Men who fought alongside his Elizabeth, men who would give their lives for her if they thought for even a moment that she was in danger. “She’ll know me again.”
“Bastard, where’ve you been these past twelve years?” Butch’s voice dripped with venom. “We saw what happened to her at the end. What Fernando Medici tried to do to her. Where the fuck were you?” He shoved Rei back, testing his resolve. With another hard shove, Butch snarled at him again. “She came alone, she woke up alone from a three-month coma, and now you think you can just waltz back in and claim her?”
A red haze was slowly clouding Rei’s vision. He knew the only reason Elizabeth would’ve risked using the untested time machine was if something horrific was about to happen to her—something that would cause her to flee and leave her family behind, the family she loved so much that she had chosen to give away their love in the face of Medici wrath. The gods he bargained with and served had saved his life and given him immortality along with the ability to travel through time.
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