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by Lena Diaz
Chapter One
Kyleigh Mason had
lost her mind.
She wasn’t wearing
her underwear on the outside of her clothes or talking to Elvis in
the middle of the street. She hadn’t gone homicidal and chased her
co-workers around the office with a stapler, although the idea did
have appeal.
No, her symptoms
weren’t that benign.
Instead, she was
mind-numbingly cold all the time, with chattering teeth, blue lips
and goose bumps the size of ping-pong balls.
In July.
Which would have
been fine if she lived in Antarctica, but she didn’t. She lived in
Lexington, Kentucky, where the summers weren’t just warm, they were
fry-an-egg-on-the-street, hard-to-breathe, sticky hot.
Her chills started
two days ago when she passed through a wall into another world. Not
just any wall, a kick-ass, solid, concrete wall. Some kind of
invisible force yanked her across the hallway outside her apartment
and hurtled her toward the wall, but instead of smacking against it,
she harmlessly passed through as if it wasn’t there.
Gone were the
familiar miles of pristine white fences and grazing thoroughbreds
she was used to seeing in her hometown. In their place was a bleak
wasteland, a dead landscape with a howling, bone-chilling wind that
wreaked havoc with her internal thermostat.
She was only in that
other world for an instant and then she was standing in the hallway
as if it had never happened.
Half convinced she
dreamed the whole thing and that her constant chills meant she was
catching the flu, even though it wasn’t flu season, she shook it off
and didn’t think about it again.
Until this morning.
She was at work, sitting at her desk and happily typing notes for
her current project when someone or something yanked her into that
other world then spit her out a few seconds later.
She might have
screamed. She wasn’t sure, but judging by her boss’s shaken
expression and his insistence that she take the rest of the day off,
it was a safe bet.
Instead of going
home and passing through that dreaded hallway again, she went on a
long walk, hoping to soak up some heat from the blazing sun. Two
hours later she was still shivering, in spite of the bulky sweater
she wore, and no closer to understanding what was happening to her.
That’s when she saw
Heaven, otherwise known as Starbucks. The lure of something hot to
drink and the hope that it might make her chills go away, if only
for a few minutes, had her rushing toward the door.
She tugged it open,
stepped inside, then froze in disbelief.
This was no
Starbucks.
And it wasn’t the
barren, dead landscape she’d seen the two other times her mind had
gone on a holiday. This was something else entirely.
She stood in a
cavernous room with gleaming hard wood floors and heavy, ornate
drapes hanging from the long, narrow windows. One of the walls was
decorated with a bizarre mixture of medieval looking knives and
swords nestled in with an assortment of futuristic looking metallic
devices that could have come straight out of a Star Trek episode.
All of that
registered a split second before she realized she wasn’t alone.
There were seven men sitting around a
long rectangular table in the middle of the room and every one of
them was staring at her.
One of them was dressed in an ordinary
business suit. Two were wearing some kind of high-tech armor and
looked like they would feel at home using those Trekkie weapons
hanging on the wall. The other four were the scary ones.
They looked like she’d imagine a knight
in twelfth century England would look, or a laird in medieval
Scotland, minus the kilt. And every one of them was scowling at her
like he wanted to test the edge of one of those broadswords against
her tender flesh.
“They aren’t real.
They aren’t real.” She repeated the words over and over like a
prayer as she shuffled backwards then bumped into something solid, a
wall. Great. Why couldn’t she do that walk-through-a-wall trick
now?
Keeping an eye on
the men, she felt along the wall behind her and realized it wasn’t a
wall. It was a door.
She twisted the
doorknob but either her hands were shaking too hard to get a good
grip or the door was stuck.
The man sitting at
the head of the table leaned over and said something to the man on
his right. That man nodded, but the way he clenched his jaw told
her he wasn’t happy about whatever he’d been told.
He shoved his chair
back and stood. Even from across the room, the dark expression on
his face had her fumbling double-time with the doorknob, especially
when he rounded the table and strode toward her.
Lord he was tall.
He seemed to get even taller as he neared, his boots echoing against
the wooden floor and his shoulder length dark hair swaying with
every movement, including two intriguing, tiny braids that hung from
each temple.
He was ruggedly
handsome in a Braveheart, scary as death sort of way and he
was closing on her fast.
She whimpered and
spun around, twisting and tugging on the knob. Relief flooded her
when it finally turned. She yanked the door open then slammed it
behind her as she ran out of the room.
***
Braedon stepped back
to avoid the swinging door and when he moved forward to grab the
woman, she slammed the door in his face.
Shaking his head and
ignoring the laughter behind him, he jerked the door open and
stepped into the hallway, expecting to see his guard holding her.
Instead, the long
corridor was empty and Jacob looked at him questioningly.
“Why didn’t you stop
her?” Braedon demanded.
Jacob’s brow raised
and his eyes widened. “Stop who, milord?”
“She ran right by
you, a young woman, about thirty, with shoulder length brown hair
and the—“ he stopped himself before he said the prettiest blue
eyes he’d ever seen. He could well imagine the teasing he would
receive if the council heard him say that.
Jacob shook his
head. “No one has come out that door tonight except you, milord. I
swear it.”
No more than a few
seconds had passed since she ran out of the council chambers. In
the unlikely event that she’d somehow evaded his guard, Braedon
should still hear her footfalls pounding through the long halls,
echoing against the gray, stone walls.
All he heard was the
sound of the wind whistling past the windows as another storm blew
in.
Nodding his
acceptance of Jacob’s claim, he went back into the chamber.
Wulfric looked at
him expectantly from his position at the head of the table as
Braedon walked back to his chair and sat. “Jacob said no one came
out that door. She must have opened a portal.”
Wulfric raised a
questioning brow but it was Tiernan who spoke from where he sat next
to Braedon.
“That’s impossible.
She’s human, or didn’t you notice the white aura surrounding the
lass?”
He’d noticed damn
near everything about her, much to his chagrin. She was taller than
most female Veridians, with incredibly long legs, tantalizingly
displayed in a pair of those tight, blue pants human women were so
fond of. “I noticed.”
Wulfric leaned
forward. “Find her. Bring her back to the council.”
“No. Send someone
else. I’m not leaving Veridian in the middle of a crisis to chase
after —“
“That wasn’t a
request,” Wulfric replied, his voice as cold and humorless as his
eyes.
Braedon gritted his
teeth in frustration. Leave it to Wulfric to pull rank on him in
front of the others. If they were in private, he’d tell him what he
thought of his order, then break his jaw.
He looked around the
table at the other Time Lords, silently entreating their support.
Tiernan looked ready to volunteer for the duty but Braedon stayed
him with a hand on his forearm. The Amaranthine had his own
troubles right now. He could barely afford the time away from his
homeland for the council meeting, let alone the time it would take
to track down some female back on Earth.
The others seemed
mesmerized by the intricate wood grain patterns of the conference
table and refused to meet his gaze, everyone except Dominic, the
Lord of the ill-fated Amber dimension. He was the last person
Braedon expected to support him, but he gave Braedon a nod and
addressed the council leader.
“I’ll do it. The
Veridians need Braedon’s leadership until the dimension is
stabilized.”
Wulfric’s eyes
flashed with a blue fire as he shoved his chair back and stood with
his fists resting on the table. “This is not a frivolous request or
a whim.” His voice didn’t raise in volume but the thread of steel
running through it riveted their attention. Even Braedon turned to
look at his friend, intrigued at the reasoning behind his ridiculous
order.
“Humans cannot open
portals to our dimensions,” Wulfric continued, “and yet, tonight,
one did.” He turned his fierce gaze on Dominic. “Did you notice
the aura around the female when she entered the room?”
Dominic shrugged.
“Tiernan already told you it was white.”
“And when she left?
When Braedon was only a few feet away from her?”
“It was green,”
Tiernan interjected, his eyes opening wide in surprise. “Veridian
green.”
Every eye in the
room turned to look at Braedon. “Impossible,” Braedon replied. He
would have noticed, wouldn’t he? “Only Veridians have green auras.”
“Dimensions don’t
experience seismic activity either, and yet the Veridian dimension
has had three in the past month.” Wulfric circled the table,
addressing each member of the council. “We’ve been talking for
hours and we’re no closer to discovering the cause than when we
tried, and failed, to save the Amber dimension.”
Braedon glanced at
Dominic in time to see him wince but he quickly schooled his
features and showed no further reaction.
Wulfric stopped next
to Braedon. “We all know auras don’t change colors, but hers did.
She’s connected to Veridian somehow, and to you. Which is why
you’re the one who must go. You’re the one who must find her. She
could be the key to Veridian’s survival.”
Braedon clenched his
fists beneath the table. What his friend said made sense, but how
could he leave his homeland when the shock waves were getting
progressively worse? His special abilities could mean the
difference between life and death if any of his people were trapped
or if someone--.
“Braedon,” Wulfric
said, interrupting his thoughts. “There are six other Time Lords in
this room, more than enough to handle any disaster that might arise
in your absence. But that may not hold true for long. Veridian’s
best hope right now is for you to find that female and bring her
back to the council. The tracing pattern is already thinning. If
you don’t go after her soon—“
“I know, I know. I
won’t be able to locate her.” He gritted his teeth then blew out a
frustrated breath. “Damn it. I hate it when—“
“I know,” Wulfric
said, a rare grin tilting the corners of his mouth. “You hate it
when I’m right.”
top
Chapter Two
Half an hour ago,
Kyleigh’s biggest problem was that she was losing her mind.
Now her biggest
problem was that she wasn’t.
When she’d stepped
through the door at Starbucks and entered another world, or time, it
wasn’t a delusion.
It was real.
As real as the man
who’d followed her back to her world, the man with the odd little
braids at his temple who was, at this very minute, stalking her
through the outdoor mall a few miles from her apartment complex.
She’d noticed him a
few minutes ago. She didn’t know how she’d ended up at the mall but
she hadn’t questioned her good fortune, she’d just hurried toward
home.
As soon as she
noticed him she ducked inside a shoe store, then cautiously peeked
through the window and watched until he turned down a side street.
After waiting there
for several minutes to see if he reappeared, she was forced to leave
when the sales clerk kept asking her if he could help her and
hovered over her shoulder like he thought she was going to steal
something.
Right. Like she’d
wear shoes from a store called Nancy’s Fancies. Not in this
lifetime.
She slid out the
door and tried to blend in with the other shoppers, cursing her five
foot ten inch height and the fact that even though today was casual
Friday and she’d worn jeans to work, she’d strapped on a pair of
Jimmy Choos with three inch heels.
Maybe she should
have bought a cheap pair of loafers at Nancy’s Fancies after
all, something with no heel so she wouldn’t stand out in the crowd.
Ten minutes later
she was breathing easier. No more stalker sightings and her
apartment complex was only a few blocks away.
As she walked by a
jewelry store, she glanced across the street. Her stomach did a
little flip when she realized she hadn’t lost her stalker after
all. He was standing next to a young couple with a stroller,
feigning interest in a window display at the Baby Bizarre.
Even with her
Jimmies on, she could tell he was several inches taller than her.
Add to that his tight, black leather pants, which she had to admit
hugged a very nice ass, a biker jacket, shoulder length brown hair
and bulging muscles and he was hard to miss.
He turned her way
and she glanced down, pretending to study her nails. She counted to
three, then looked up.
He was gone.
She whirled around,
searching the crowd for a muscle bound giant in black leather. How
did he disappear so easily? And how could a man that size move that
quickly?
“Looking for me?”
The deep masculine
voice next to her ear made her shiver for all the wrong reasons at a
time like this. Once she fought through the sensual haze of
hormones he’d evoked it was too late. He’d wrapped an arm around
her shoulders and tucked her against his side as he propelled her
along with him down the sidewalk.
“Let me go,” she
hissed as her self-preservation instincts finally kicked in and she
struggled against his hold.
“I’m not going to
hurt you. I just want to talk.” When they reached the end of the
block, he pulled her into the alley between the stores then forced
her back into a service entrance and stood in front of her, blocking
her escape.
She looked into his
mesmerizing green eyes and had the insane urge to reach up and touch
one of those braids to see if it was as soft as it looked.
Shaking the thought
away, she said, “Get out of my way or I’ll scream.”
“You won’t scream.”
“I won’t?”
He shook his head.
“If you were afraid of me, you would have already screamed.” He
reached out a hand and ran the backs of his fingers across her
cheek. “Besides, you’re attracted to me. You don’t want to be, but
you can’t help it. I feel exactly the same way.” He slowly leaned
down, lowering his lips to hers.
The man was so
arrogant, so sure of himself. He was right that she was attracted
to him, alarmingly so, but she still had a brain even if she hadn’t
used it since she’d seen those broad shoulders and those sexy
braids. She had no reason to trust him.
Just before his lips
touched hers she turned her face away and pressed her lips next to
his ear.
Then she screamed.
***
“Ah, hell,” Braedon
swore, jerking back and wondering if his hearing would ever be the
same in that ear. He heard shouts and the sound of running feet and
knew her screams had alerted other humans.
He pulled her
against him, reveling in her intoxicating scent and the way her soft
curves molded to his hardness.
She struggled in his
arms, trying to pull away.
“I’m not going to
hurt you, damn it.”
Her screams
strangled in her throat and her struggles intensified. Sighing, he
held her back so he could look in her eyes. The flush of excitement
that pinkened her cheeks at the jewelry store was replaced with the
flush of anger. Her blue eyes practically flashed sparks and he was
almost surprised it didn’t burn him.
“Tell me your name,”
he said, then forced himself to soften his voice when she winced.
“Tell me your name. I’m called Braedon.”
She shook her head
and he decided not to press her. “I have to take you back to my
home, but I swear no harm will come to you. I will keep you safe.”
“I’m not going
anywhere with you,” she said, then renewed her struggles.
In spite of
Wulfric’s orders, he hadn’t intended to force her back to his
dimension. But with the sound of footsteps and shouts drawing
closer as the humans tried to find the source of the screams, he was
out of options.
“Hold on,” he said
as he tucked her close against him and opened a portal. When the
green light enveloped them, she gasped and wrapped her arms around
his waist. He ran his hand up and down her back to try to reassure
her and repeated his vow. “It’s okay. I won’t let any harm come to
you. I swear it.”
The familiar warmth
of the portal swept over him as they hurtled through time and space
to his Veridian homeland. He teleported them directly to his
bedchamber, determined to keep her presence a secret until he
questioned her. Once he had his answers, he would allow Wulfric to
speak with her, but that was all Wulfric would do.
Whether she was in
league with his enemies or an unwitting pawn, he had vowed to keep
her safe. No matter what Wulfric dictated, this human woman was
under his protection and if necessary, he would fight to the death
to protect her.
***
When the frightening
chaos of light and sound was over, Kyleigh clung to Braedon, her
arms wrapped around his waist and her face buried against the oddly
comforting warmth of his chest.
“It’s over. There’s
nothing to fear. You can open your eyes now,” he told her, his
voice a whisper of sound next to her ear as he hugged her against
him and stroked her back.
She shook her head,
unwilling to open her eyes to reality when the fantasy was so much
better. She couldn’t suppress a shiver at how good it felt to be
held by him, to inhale his warm, masculine scent, feel his fingers
gently kneading the muscles in her back.
Touch was such a
rare and precious gift to her. Having grown up without a family and
forced to fight for everything she had, she’d always been a loner
and never learned the skills to make a relationship work.
It had been so long
since a man had held her like this that she soaked up Braedon’s
touch like a sponge. Even knowing how starved she was for a man’s
attention, she knew she wouldn’t react like this to just any man.
There was something
about him that sent her hormones into overdrive in spite of the fact
that he’d turned her world upside down.
She didn’t know if
he was the one responsible for her being yanked into that other
world, or why he’d come after her, or even what was going to happen
to her.
All she knew was
that, in spite of everything, she felt warm again, deliciously warm
as she snuggled against him. And even though her mind told her she
should be afraid, her heart told her he would never harm her, that
she could trust him.
Something about him
called out to her in an elemental way, as if she’d been waiting for
him, as if everything she’d gone through in her life had led her to
this moment.
All that seemed to
matter right now was that she wanted to be with him, wanted to get
as close as possible to him. She wanted to feel his skin sliding
against hers, feel the delicious weight of his body as he covered
her body with his.
She opened her eyes
and pulled back just enough to look up into his eyes. The answering
heat she saw in those fiery green depths delighted her as she
realized he was just as affected by her nearness as she was by his.
Allowing herself to
do what she’d wanted to do since she’d first seen those sexy braids,
she reached up and ran the tips of her fingers from the top of his
braid to the end. Holding it up she saw it was tied off with a
green leather cord. She pulled the end of the braid to her nose and
breathed in the masculine, spicy scent of his hair, then feathered
the ends across her cheek.
Braedon groaned and
her gaze shot to his. He cursed beneath his breath then covered his
lips with hers, sliding them across hers with ravenous greed, urging
her to open for him. She did, then melted against him as his hot,
hungry tongue swept inside.
Caught up in a
maelstrom of pleasure, she answered his hungry strokes with her
own. His hand slid down her back to cup her bottom and he lifted
her so that she cradled his growing erection against her center.
He broke the kiss,
then pressed his lips against the sensitive skin of her neck, just
beneath her ear. “Tell me your name, love,” he whispered, as his
lips traveled further down her neck and her stomach muscles clenched
in response.
“Kyleigh,” she
breathed. “Kyleigh Mason.”
His arms tightened
almost painfully around her waist. He whirled her around and
pressed her against the wall in a blur of motion. Gone was the
gentle lover and in his place was the medieval warrior she’d likened
him to when she’d first seen him.
“Who sent you here?”
he demanded, giving her a small shake as he stared at her with
narrowed, suspicious eyes and captured her wrists in a vice-like
grip on the wall behind her.
“You did,”
she cried out. “Wherever, here is. I don’t understand any
of this. Let me go.”
Ignoring her
attempts to twist away, his hands tightened their grip on her
wrists. “Why did you come into the council meeting yesterday? Was
it me you were after? Or the entire council?”
“I don’t know what
you’re talking about,” she insisted, shrinking back from the anger
that mottled his face and darkened his eyes until they were almost
black. “Please,” she whimpered. “You’re hurting me.”
He immediately
released her and she rubbed her wrists in an effort to ease the ache
and get the blood circulating in them again.
His gaze followed
the motions of her hands and he winced. “I didn’t intend to hurt
you.”
As apologies went,
it pretty much sucked but she read the truth on his face, knew that
in spite of his anger, he hadn’t meant to hurt her and he regretted
it.
A knock sounded on
the door. Without looking away from her, he called out, “Go away.
I’m busy.”
“Lord Braedon, Molly
is waiting downstairs for you. Should I tell her to come back
later, milord?”
The anger faded from
his eyes. “Tell her I’ll be right down, Jacob.”
“Very well, milord.”
“Kyleigh, or
whatever your real name is, I have urgent business. When I return,
you will answer my questions to my satisfaction. You won’t leave
this chamber until you do.”
He pivoted on his
heel and strode across the room, apparently eager to see this Molly
who was waiting downstairs.
Kyleigh tried to
ignore the unreasonable flash of jealousy. Any woman would be
insulted if a man rammed his tongue down her throat one minute and
then ran off with another woman the next.
When the door
slammed shut behind him, she rushed across the expansive chamber and
tugged on the knob. It was locked as she expected.
She did a quick
circuit of the room, looking for another exit. The furnishings, the
bedding, even the rugs on the stone floor looked familiar, the types
of things she would expect to see on any given day back home.
But other objects in
the room confounded her. She couldn’t begin to fathom their
purpose. That, on top of everything else, had her feeling like
Dorothy dropped in the middle of Oz.
The sound of a child
laughing had her running to the picture window, an immense expanse
of glass on the back wall. When she got near it she realized there
was a glass door concealed in the bottom portion of the window that
led out to a balcony.
The handle was
almost hidden, a groove in one of the mullions, and she couldn’t
suppress a triumphant smile when it clicked open.
After she ran onto
the balcony, her smile faded. Braedon hadn’t bothered to lock the
door because the only way off the balcony was a fifteen-foot drop to
the ground. She’d probably survive a fall like that, but she might
twist an ankle or break a leg in the process.
She heard the
laughter again and leaned over the railing. Just below, Braedon was
smiling and holding a little girl’s hand. She looked to be no more
than five years old and had adorable blonde ringlets. Her pink
dress swept the ground.
The little girl
pointed at a pink rose at the top of a bush next to the house and
jumped excitedly, clapping her hands when Braedon reached up to get
it.
He carefully
stripped the thorns from the stem before handing it to her. “What a
splendid flower, Miss Molly. I believe it may be the prettiest in
the entire garden, but not nearly as pretty as you.”
Molly? Picking
flowers with the little girl was the urgent business he’d
mentioned? She shook her head at the paradox that Braedon appeared
to be, then froze when he looked up and his eyes met hers.
His smile faded as
he stared at her.
The little girl
tugged on his hand, recapturing his attention. “I have to go inside
now. The mean man is back.”
“Mean man?” He
looked toward the house and Kyleigh did as well. Her heart started
pounding when she saw who the little girl was talking about, the man
at the head of that long table yesterday, the one who’d whispered
something to Braedon just before Braedon came after her.
He stepped out the
back door of the house and stopped in front of Braedon.
Kyleigh started to
back away from the railing but the man’s gaze shot up at her. His
brows drew down in a ferocious scowl.
“Molly,” Braedon
said. “Go in the house. We’ll pick more flowers later.”
Molly gave the man a
wide berth then ran through the back door into the house.
“Wulfric,” Braedon
said in a tone that made it clear he wasn’t happy to see his
visitor. “Why are you here?”
Wulfric jerked his
gaze back to Braedon. “Why didn’t you bring her to the council as I
instructed?”
Braedon shoved the
other man toward the house. Wulfric shoved back and Kyleigh watched
as they faced off with each other. She let her breath out in relief
when Wulfric, who towered over Braedon, relented and walked back
inside.
Braedon glanced up
at her and gave her a dark look. Then he too went back in the
house.
top
Chapter Three
Kyleigh looked
through her lashes at the man walking beside her. He’d introduced
himself as Lord Dominic and told her he was there to escort her to
the council, whatever that was. She’d been reluctant to leave with
him, but after being assured by Braedon’s guard, Jacob, that it was
safe, she relented.
The council building
was just across the courtyard from Braedon’s house and it only took
a few short minutes to reach it. Once inside the building, her
steps slowed as they approached a familiar wooden door. It was the
same door she’d opened and run through when she’d first seen Braedon.
Dominic opened the
door and stared at her with those strange golden eyes that seemed to
glow with an amber light as he waited for her to enter.
Moving past him, she
stepped into the room and came to an abrupt halt. The same
intimidating group of men she saw earlier today in this same room
sat around the same table. Braedon was at the far end in deep
conversation with Wulfric.
A hand closed around
her upper arm and she looked up to see Dominic’s fiery eyes staring
down at her. He pulled her toward the table, apparently having lost
patience with her.
The sound of a chair
scraping across the floor had her looking up in time to see Braedon
descending upon them like an avenging warrior. He plucked Dominic’s
hand from her arm and stepped between them, forcing the other man to
move back.
“Touch her again and
you’ll be missing a hand,” Braedon promised. Tension seemed to
radiate across his shoulders. “Why the hell did you bring her
here?”
“He didn’t hurt me,”
she whispered, trying to defuse the situation. He ignored her.
“Braedon, Dominic,
enough,” Wulfric called out. “I told Dominic to bring her.”
Braedon turned back
to look incredulously at Wulfric, then glared as Dominic passed in
front of him and took a seat at the table.
Kyleigh wanted
nothing to do with the animosity thickening the air in the room.
With that much testosterone around, she was bound to get hurt. She
backed away toward the door but Braedon hauled her up against his
side.
She ignored his
glare and relaxed against him, relieved to have his protection.
Having seen how gentle he was with Molly, having felt the sweet
passion of his kiss, she was confident she could trust him to keep
her safe.
Braedon strode
toward his end of the table and was pulling out his chair for her
when the man next to him stood and gave her a welcoming smile. “Sit
here, bonny lass. And if you tire of this one’s poor manners,” he
said, jabbing his thumb over his shoulder at Braedon, “ask for
Tiernan.” He gave her a flirty wink then hurried toward the other
end of the table out of Braedon’s reach.
Braedon helped her
into her chair then sat next to her with his arms folded across his
chest. He favored both Tiernan and Dominic with a heated glare
before turning its full wattage on Wulfric.
“Braedon,” Wulfric
admonished, “calm yourself. We have much to discuss and it will go
faster with her here.”
“I haven’t
questioned her yet.”
“The council will
question her.”
Kyleigh looked from
Braedon to Wulfric, wondering again whether they were about to come
to blows. Then she blinked several times, convinced there was
something wrong with her vision. It seemed like Wulfric’s body was
outlined with a thin haze of blue light.
She looked around
the table. At first she couldn’t see it, but then, as she
concentrated, she picked out a hazy color surrounding each of the
other men. Tiernan’s was red. Dominic’s was yellowish-gold and
another man’s was a rich, deep amethyst.
She turned toward
Braedon and realized he too was surrounded by light, a rich green
that exactly matched the color of his eyes.
“Why do you people
glow?” she asked, then cringed when all conversation stopped and
everyone stared wide-eyed at her.
“You see light
around us?” Braedon asked. “What color do you see around me?”
Without hesitation,
she said, “Green, like your eyes.”
“Why did you enter
this chamber yesterday?” Wulfric demanded. She blinked at the
sudden change of subject.
“I…I don’t know.
One minute I was walking into Starbucks and the next minute I was
here.”
“Starbucks?”
“It’s like a pub,”
Tiernan offered from his seat at the other end of the table.
“They’re on nearly every street corner where she’s from.”
She nodded, grateful
that someone spoke the same language she did.
“Who was with you in
this pub?” Wulfric asked.
“No one. I was
alone. Just like the other times.”
“Other times?”
Braedon asked.
“A couple of days
ago, I fell through a wall into another world, cold, dark, like
nothing I’ve ever seen before. It happened again one other time.
Then, yesterday, it happened when I opened the door at Starbucks.”
Braedon and Wulfric
exchanged an uneasy glance.
“What?” she asked.
“Does that mean something to you? Because I’ve been convinced I was
going crazy. At least, I thought I was, until Braedon brought me
here. Now I’m thinking it’s something besides my imagination.”
“And what do you
think it is?” Wulfric asked.
She shrugged.
“Well, it seems like I’m in another world, like I’m a million miles
from home. But that’s crazy too, isn’t it?” She laughed, a hollow
humorless sound even to her own ears.
No one else
laughed. They weren’t even smiling.
“Kyleigh, you’re not
crazy,” Braedon said. “You are a million miles from Earth,
at least, in a manner of speaking. When I brought you here we
traveled through a portal, a door that opens between worlds. This
world is my Earth, my home. Veridian.”
“Veridian, like
veridian green? Is that why you glow?”
He smiled. “Yes,
in a manner of speaking. But so do you.”
“I do?” She looked
down at her hands, held them up to inspect them. “I don’t see
anything.”
“Humans have a white
aura. They can’t see it. No aura is visible to humans, at least,
until you. Which makes me wonder whether you’re really human.”
She felt her brows
climbing into her hairline and clenched her hands together beneath
the table. “What else would I be?”
“Veridian, a
powerful Veridian who may be the key to what is happening in this
world.”
“Slow down. I was
given up for adoption, yes, but that doesn’t mean I came from
another planet.”
“Dimension, really,”
Braedon corrected, but when she turned her glare on him he held up
his hands. “Okay. Planet it is.”
“What does adoption
mean?” Tiernan asked.
“It means my
biological parents gave me away to be raised by someone else. It
means they didn’t want me.”
Dominic spoke.
“Maybe your biological parents gave you away because they wanted a
better home for you.”
“If they had
actually found me a home, I might believe you. They left me to be
raised in an orphanage. I was never adopted, never had a family.”
Dominic’s eyes
widened as if in surprise, then he looked away.
“All of that is
useless speculation,” Wulfric said, waving his hand as if Dominic’s
question was a waste of time. Kyleigh noticed Dominic clench his
jaw but he said nothing. For the first time since meeting him, she
felt a pang of empathy for him.
Wulfric quizzed her
for the better part of an hour and she sensed Braedon growing more
and more tense beside her with each question.
From what her mind
could piece together from his terse questions, humans weren’t
supposed to be able to travel to Veridian without a Time Lord or
something called a Sentinel with them. She had. Humans also
couldn’t see auras and yet she did. Since Veridian was suffering
from a series of catastrophic earthquakes – Wulfric called them
seismic events – they’d decided she was either responsible for
Veridian’s instability or somehow linked to it.
Thankfully, by the
end of the interrogation, Wulfric pronounced her innocent of trying
to destroy Veridian, but he was convinced she could be the key to
saving it. He just didn’t know how yet.
When he finally
paused, Kyleigh turned to Braedon. “When do I get to go home?”
He shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
She drew in a deep
breath. “At least tell me this. Why did you get so upset when I
told you my name was Kyleigh?”
His gaze jerked to
hers, then he looked straight ahead, his eyes stony and cold, his
jaw clamped rigidly shut.
“Lass,” Tiernan said
and she turned to look at him. “Our world is verrah different from
yours. You marry for love, but here, we marry for power, for the
benefit of our clans, our people. Braedon was promised to another,
until she disappeared. Her name, lass, was Kyleigh.”
***
“It’s so strange
here, so different from Earth, and yet, it’s so beautiful,” Kyleigh
said as she gazed out through the window in Braedon’s bedroom.
He was rummaging
through a trunk at the foot of his bed and she wanted to ask more
about his fiancée. But every time she brought it up today he closed
down on her, treated her with cold indifference.
“I wonder what that
barren place was I kept going to when I fell through walls. It
doesn’t seem like it could be Veridian. It was so bleak, so…dead.
Nothing like this place.”
“Not all of Veridian
is as pleasant as this. My guess is you teleported to one of our
forbidden areas, where nothing grows but the black evil in some
men’s hearts.”
He looked up. “You
are very lucky you did not remain long in those places. Few visit
there and return alive.”
She shivered and
turned back toward the window, then pressed her fingers against the
glass when she saw a glowing haze sweeping across the fields in the
distance. “Braedon, what is that?” she asked, alarm making her
voice higher pitched than usual.
He was next to her
almost immediately, placing his arm around her shoulders and drawing
her against him in a protective gesture that was so much a part of
him he didn’t seem to realize he was doing it.
He peered out the
window and frowned. “What concerns you?”
“That green haze, or
fog. It seems like it’s creeping across the ground toward us.
Everything it covers sparkles in the light.”
“Ah, the mist.”
“The mist?”
“The Veridian mist.
I’ve only been to your homeland a few times but Tiernan practically
grew up there. He told me that instead of a mist each night, you
have infrequent storms and something called rain. Here, our storms
bring a powerful wind that cleans the air, pulls the dead leaves
from the trees, but no rain. Instead, we have the mist. It
blankets our world each evening, providing moisture to the plants
and replenishing our lakes and streams.”
“That sounds
wonderful. And it’s so beautiful. Look at the colors swirling
inside. Can we touch it?”
He turned his head
and stared down at her, a half-smile on his lips. “You wish to
touch it?”
“Yes, very much.”
“You’ll get wet.”
“I don’t care.
Please?”
“As the lady
wishes.” He opened the door to the balcony and pulled her to stand
beside him as they watched the iridescent green mist sweep across
the garden below, leaving sparkling drops of moisture on everything
it touched, like millions of brilliant diamonds winking in the
darkening sky.
She laughed with
delight when the mist swept over the balcony, drenching them until
water dripped from their hair. Then it was gone, traveling up over
the roof toward the front of the house.
Braedon reached out
and caught a drop of moisture from the tip of her nose, then raked
his wet hair back from his face. Kyleigh’s nose tingled where his
warm hand had touched her but he turned away, seemingly lost in
thought as he stared at the sparkling flowers and bushes beneath
them.
“The mist renews our
world,” he said. “It gives Veridian power, life. The seismic
activity – what did you call it earlier?”
“Earthquakes.”
“Yes. A good name
for them, quakes. The same time the quakes started, the mist began
to fade. What you saw tonight is nothing like the Veridian mist
from a few short months ago.”
He looked at her,
his eyes filled with sad regret. “If I can’t find out the cause of
the quakes and why the mist is fading, Veridian and everything on it
will be dead in another month.”
***
As Kyleigh lay on
the enormous, four-poster bed, a wave of home-sickness washed over
her, surprising her since there was no one waiting for her back on
Earth.
Her apartment wasn’t
much to look at either, but it was familiar. Here, she felt at odds
because she didn’t belong, although Braedon’s household staff had
welcomed her today after the council meeting as if she were his
long-lost fiancée.
It was awkward,
trying to explain to them that she wasn’t that Kyleigh. She
was Kyleigh Mason. Around here they didn’t seem to use last names
so the concept didn’t make a dent in their reasoning.
She finally gave up,
especially since Braedon stared stonily ahead whenever the subject
came up and didn’t even try to help her with the explanations. He
seemed content to let them think she was his fiancée.
He brought her some
fresh clothes to wear tomorrow morning, a dress similar to what
she’d seen Molly wearing earlier in the day. He apologized that he
didn’t have more of those blue pants she liked to wear, then seemed
scandalized when she asked if one of the men on staff had some old
pants she could use, perhaps with a belt.
She dropped that
subject and reminded herself that this world seemed backward in so
many ways. It was almost medieval how they treated women, but in
other ways, it was far advanced over anything she’d ever seen, or
imagined.
Braedon tried to
explain many of the objects in the house to her but laughed when she
finally crossed her eyes and covered her ears. He took her to the
kitchen and pressed some buttons on the wall, then presented her
with a delicious meal of meat and vegetables similar to a pot roast
back home.
But without all the
work.
She could definitely
get used to that.
When he started to
explain how it worked, she crossed her eyes again and he shook his
head at her antics but quit trying to explain everything.
She tentatively
asked him again when she could go home and his eyes lost their
amusement. He’d grown remote, as if she’d asked him something
terrible. She supposed he was worried about his homeland and felt
she should want to help him. She did, she would, if she only knew
how. But she didn’t have any special powers or knowledge.
There was nothing
she could do.
She was already
growing too attached to the people she’d met only today. Especially
Braedon. She’d caught him looking at her with that familiar hunger
in his eyes several times tonight and yet he’d done nothing about
it.
Aside from insisting
she stay in his bedchamber but without explaining why, he didn’t try
to kiss her again. She shouldn’t care, but she did. Something
inside her was drawn to him as if she’d known him all her life.
She lay there in his
bed while he slept in a chair a few feet away, and she wished she’d
met him under normal circumstances, that there could be a future
with him.
A light knock
sounded on the door and she saw Braedon jerk awake in the chair. He
crossed to the door and pulled it open to reveal little Molly
rubbing her eyes and dragging a blanket. He leaned down and kissed
the top of her head, then took her small hand in his and stepped
into the hallway, closing the door behind them.
Curious, Kyleigh
slid out of bed and opened the door. She peered into the hall and
saw them enter another room two doors down. She crept down the
hallway, holding up the ridiculously long nightgown Braedon had
given her to wear. If she stayed here much longer she would insist
he give her one of his shirts to wear, at least to bed.
She peeked around
the doorway and saw Braedon tucking Molly into bed. He knelt on the
floor beside her and read from a book, the rich, deep timbre of his
voice filling the room and lulling the little girl to sleep.
Tears filled
Kyleigh’s eyes at the sight of this strong warrior who was so
patient and loving with a small child and yet had the weight of an
entire world’s fate riding on his broad shoulders. Feeling like an
intruder, she hurried back to the bedroom.
Several minutes
later, he stepped into the room, softly closing the door then
padding quietly back to his chair.
“Is she your
daughter?” Kyleigh asked, ignoring the pain that shot through her as
she asked the question. Somehow, imagining Braedon having a child
with some other woman hurt almost more than she could bear.
His gaze shot to
hers and he hesitated. She scooted over, making room for him in the
bed, then patted the comforter and waited.
He lay down on top
of the covers, then bunched a pillow beneath his head and rolled to
his side facing her. “You should be asleep.”
She waited, hoping
he wouldn’t close her out like he’d done earlier when she mentioned
his fiancée.
He sighed. “Molly is
my daughter in every way that matters. Both her mother and her
father were children who survived the collapse of the Amber
Dimension. They grew up here, married, despaired of ever having a
child. Then Molly was born. But they were killed in an accident
when she was only an infant. Her parents were good friends of mine,
so I brought her here to foster until I could find her a home. That
was five years ago.”
He shrugged, as if
that explained everything. It did. He obviously loved the little
girl and wasn’t going to give her up.
“That world that was
destroyed, you called it a dimension. Isn’t that what you called
Veridian?”
“Yes. The Amber
dimension was destroyed many years ago. There were warnings, but
nothing like the quakes that have happened here. Something has
threatened the stability of all of our dimensions and we’ve yet to
discover the cause.”
“So there are only
six dimensions left?”
“Yes.”
“But there are seven
Lords on the council.”
He sighed. “Dominic
was the Amber Lord. He has no homeland now. He lives mostly on
Earth, but he regularly visits the Amber survivors living in the
other dimensions to ensure they’re taken care of.”
“No wonder he seems
so…sad, angry.”
“Don’t waste your
sympathies on him. He is filled with hate, mostly directed toward
me. We were friends once, practically grew up together, but when he
wanted to die with his homeland I couldn’t let him do it. I waited
until the last possible moment then teleported him here just as
Amber imploded. He’s never forgiven that grievous offense.”
Kyleigh could see
Dominic’s pain mirrored in Braedon’s eyes. He tried to hide it
beneath contempt and anger, but she knew the loss of Dominic’s
friendship hurt him deeply.
Something he’d said,
though, struck a powerful cord inside her. “Braedon, you said you
teleported Dominic here. You didn’t say you opened a portal and
brought him here. Is there a difference?”
“Yes. If I knew
your signature, your energy patterns, I could bring you to me from
wherever you are, as long as I know your location within a few
kilometers. I don’t have to be with you to do that. Why do you
ask?”
“It’s just that,
well, me coming here – through walls, doors, whatever – wasn’t that
teleporting? Do you think someone pulled me here on purpose,
instead of me having some kind of abilities like you seem to think I
may have?”
He looked like he
was considering it, then he shook his head. “No. The only people
who can do that are Time Lords. Even the sentinels don’t have that
kind of power. And all seven of us were in the council when you
came through the door.”
“You mentioned
sentinels earlier today. What is a sentinel?”
“You ask a lot of
questions. Aren’t you tired?” He reached out and ran his fingers
through her hair, gently pushing it out of her face and over her
shoulder.
When he started to
pull his hand back, she reached out and linked her fingers with his
to stop him. “Wait.” She felt her face grow warm as she struggled
to put into words what she wanted.
She’d never been the
kind of woman to turn a man’s head and yet today, when Braedon took
her on a tour of his home he made her feel beautiful, desirable, and
most importantly, like she mattered.
He patiently
answered her questions and tried to explain the technology of his
world, and all that time the deep timbre of his voice, the
accidental brush of his hand against hers, twisted her insides
tighter and tighter until she felt she might explode for wanting
him.
Then this powerful
warrior had knelt on the floor and read a precious little girl a
bedtime story.
“Kyleigh, what is
it?” he asked, as he wiped away the tears she didn’t even know she
was crying.
She drew a shaky
breath and looked into those amazing green eyes of his, eyes that
shined with a light all their own and seemed to delve deep into her
soul, the kind of eyes that looked at a woman and made her feel like
she was the only person in the world. “Stay here tonight, Braedon.”
“I’ll be right
here,” he said, nodding toward the chair.
“Not there, Braedon.
Here. With me.” If he rejected her, she didn’t know if she could
bear the humiliation, but if she didn’t at least try, she would
always wonder what might have been.
His intense gaze
studied her as if to assure himself that she really wanted this.
Then, before she could blink, he was under the covers, stripping off
her nightgown and blanketing her body with his.
He claimed her
mouth, thrusting his tongue inside to duel with hers. Kyleigh
shifted beneath him, reveling in the feel of his weight pressing her
down against the soft mattress, delighting in the contrast of the
hard planes of his chest against her softer curves and delighting in
how hungry for her he seemed, as if he’d been wanting her all day as
much as she’d wanted him.
. . . . . . .
(CENSORED BY THE
AUTHOR! HEY, MY MOM READS MY WEBSITE, WHAT CAN I SAY?)
. . . . . . .
When he collapsed
beside her, he wove his fingers through hers and held her hand
against his chest. She reveled at the way his heart pounded beneath
her fingertips. She’d done that to him. Somehow, plain, ordinary
Kyleigh had given this extraordinary man enormous pleasure and
received more than her share in the bargain.
He squeezed her
fingers. “My heart wouldn’t beat like this for a plain, ordinary
woman, love.”
She raised up on an
elbow, her mouth dropping open. “Did you just read my mind?”
He slowly opened his
eyes as if it took tremendous effort and looked at her, then closed
them again. “That’s an interesting way to put it. If you mean did
we join our minds as well as our bodies, the answer is yes.”
She bolted upright,
holding the bed sheet against her. “We had sex, plain and simple.
Nothing more.” She was lying. What they’d shared meant a great
deal to her and was far more than just sex, but the reality that he
could read her thoughts so easily now that the haze of passion had
faded had her panicking.
He moved so quickly
he was a blur, tumbling her over onto her back and covering her body
with his. An angry tic started at his temple near one of his braids
and his eyes looked ready to flash sparks at her. “That was not
just sex and you know it. We joined.”
“Joined? What does
that mean? Like a Vulcan mind-meld or something?”
His eyes went blank
and a look of confusion crossed his face. “A Vulcan what?”
She shook her head,
feeling confused by everything that had happened. Braedon pulled
her tightly against him, spooning his thighs beneath hers and
tucking her head in the crook of his arm. “You’re overwhelmed and
tired. I understand that, but don’t try to lessen what we just
shared. We made love. We joined. It wasn’t just sex.”
. . . . . .
(UM, OKAY . . .
SORRY, BUT I HAVE TO CENSOR AGAIN.)
. . . . . .
When the last
tremors faded and he curled his warm body around hers, she gave in
to the boneless exhaustion and let herself drift toward sleep. Her
last thought was that this time he hadn’t linked his mind with
hers.
She fell asleep with
a frown on her face.
top
Chapter Four
There was far more
to why Dominic hated Braedon than Braedon had admitted to Kyleigh.
And when she’d asked about teleporting, everything had clicked
together.
When she’d come into
the Council of Lords that first time, all of the Lords were there,
including Dominic, but that didn’t matter. Dominic was one of the
most powerful of the Time Lords, second only to Wulfric, because
their powers grew with age and he was already nearing four hundred
years.
No one knew
Wulfric’s true age, but the rest of the Lords, including Braedon,
were still in their first centennial. None of them could have
brought Kyleigh to the chamber and shielded their energies while
they did it. Only Wulfric or Dominic could have done it.
Only Dominic had a
motive.
This morning, when
Braedon woke up and stared in wonder at the beautiful creature lying
next to him, at the tantalizing curve of her waist, the fullness of
her hips, he’d seen the mark on the back of her neck, just below her
hairline.
A Veridian bridal
tattoo, the mark all promised brides wore from the day their parents
signed a contract with the groom’s family. Even Molly had a bridal
tattoo, put there when she was only two years old.
Kyleigh would have
never noticed the tattoo on Earth, but on Veridian, it glowed with a
life of its own. There, amongst the intricately woven patterns of
her family’s shield, her Veridian family, was the name of her
intended.
Braedon.
There could be no
doubt now. She was the same Kyleigh born on Veridian and stolen
from him all those years ago. His destiny, his chosen bride. The
woman fated for him who would walk beside him and, once mated with
him, would live the long life that Time Lords and their mates lived,
one of the benefits of being chosen to shoulder the burdens of an
entire world.
Fury emanated
through him as he strode the last few yards to the building that
housed the Council chambers when the other Time Lords visited
Veridian.
He was about to
pound on the door of Dominic’s quarters when it was yanked open.
Dominic gave him a cold glance. “So, you finally figured it out.
You might as well come in. If you’re going to try to kill me, I’d
rather you do it with some dignity in the privacy of my chambers
rather than outside like some common street urchin.”
Braedon slammed the
door behind him and stalked toward his former friend. “You took
Kyleigh from me, took her to Earth to be raised by strangers, people
who knew nothing of her heritage. Now, when Veridian is on the
verge of collapse, you inserted her back into my world. It doesn’t
take a genius to understand why. Tell me, do you plan to yank me
out of Veridian just as it implodes, leaving Kyleigh behind to die?
Is that the vengeance you seek? An eye for an eye?”
Dominic raked him
with a sneer. “Not vengeance. Justice. I hear Ashiera’s cries
every night in my dreams, see her reaching out to me as I’m pulled
back to this God forsaken place. You deserve the same, to see
Kyleigh’s face in your nightmares, hear her voice screaming through
your mind.”
Braedon shook his
head. “Ashiera was sent to Amaranthine. I saw Tiernan take her
through the portal. I thought she was safely out of the Amber
dimension when I pulled you here. My God, Dominic. We were like
brothers. Do you really believe I would leave your wife to die?”
Dominic’s face
reddened with fury and he shoved Braedon back against the wall.
“Ashiera made her choice, to die with me. She knew I couldn’t leave
my home to its destruction and live a coward’s life. She came back
to be with me. Because of you, she died alone, and now I live
without a homeland, without my mate, without my honor.”
Growling low in his
throat, Braedon broke Dominic’s hold and shoved him back, then
slammed a fist into his jaw, sending the warrior crashing down onto
a small table, pulverizing it into sawdust.
Dominic jumped up
and circled in front of Braedon, contempt in his eyes as he rubbed
his jaw. “You’ve grown soft, Veridian Lord,” he sneered. “You
punch like a toddler.”
Braedon lowered his
shoulders and rammed Dominic like a charging bull, carrying him
halfway across the room before they both crashed to the floor.
He pummeled his
former friend with all the rage he’d built inside, for all the years
he and Kyleigh had lost together, for putting her in danger.
As he raised his
fist to deliver a blast of energy that would render Dominic into
dust, Braedon saw the bleak despair in Dominic’s eyes, the
acceptance of impending death, and…relief.
The blood lust
cleared from Braedon’s mind as sanity returned. Dominic, nearly
three hundred years his senior, should have been much harder to
defeat. He slowly lowered his fist.
“Finish it,
Veridian,” Dominic commanded, the yellow lights leaping in his eyes.
Braedon shook his
head. “No. If you want to kill yourself, find some other way.” He
stood and reached down a hand to help Dominic to his feet.
Dominic stared at
Braedon’s hand, contempt curling his lips in a sneer. He knocked
the hand away and sprang to his feet, then dusted off his clothes.
When he looked back up at Braedon his cool mask of indifference was
firmly in place. “Get out of my quarters, Veridian. I can’t stand
your stench anymore.”
Braedon studied him,
wanting to somehow breach the gulf between them, but Dominic wasn’t
ready for that. Braedon turned and strode toward the door.
A tremor shook the
floor beneath him and he fell in the tangle of smashed lamps and
tables next to the door. Another tremor, far more powerful, cracked
the wall next to him and rained a shower of debris.
Despair and rage
warred within him. It had only been a few days since the last
quake. If they were coming this close together, what did that
mean? Was the end upon them?
Dominic pulled him
out of the rubble, blasting the ruined door with a powerful burst of
energy, then hauled them both outside.
Braedon looked back
at the enormous hole in the wall and realized Dominic could have
easily killed him at any time during their fight. Dominic returned
his stare, raising an arrogant brow as the shared knowledge flowed
between them.
A shout had Braedon
looking across the courtyard at the rubble that had once been his
home. The massive staircase rose toward the sky in a mocking
salute, the only part of the second floor that still remained.
“My God, Kyleigh and
Molly are in there.” He ran toward the destruction.
Jacob was tugging on
a heavy beam when Braedon reached him. Braedon put his shoulder
beneath the beam and helped Jacob flip it out of the way, then
together they dug into the debris. Braedon kept calling Kyleigh and
Molly’s names as he searched desperately for some sign of them.
Suddenly Dominic was
next to him, helping him lift away the heavy pieces of wall.
Braedon didn’t question his reasons. He was grateful for his help.
When the debris fell
aside, a small hole beneath a tower of rubble was clearly visible,
and what was inside it made Braedon catch his breath in fear. And
awe.
Kyleigh crouched in
a protective huddle on top of Molly. Only Molly’s hair and
nightgown were visible to prove she was even there. Over them both
was a green shield of energy, keeping them safe and holding a
mountain of rubble from crashing down on them.
“I can’t hold it
much longer,” Kyleigh whispered. “I don’t even know how I’m doing
it.” She looked at him from beneath her fall of hair, her face
drawn and pale with the effort to hold the shield, a shield she’d
instinctively placed around her and Molly.
Braedon had never
heard of someone doing that before, not without years of training,
and not without being born with incredible powers.
He studied the
debris above her. He could blast away part of it, but there was too
much to get in one shot, and the energy he put into a blast might
knock awa | 
