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“We don’t have to worry about keeping her alive though, you said yourself that the real

Charlotte is stuck in the Void, body and all, right?” Devlin asked.

“Yes.” She drew in a shattering breath. “If I don’t get her out in time—that Guardian

dude, why can’t he help?”

“I don’t know, Samantha.” Heaviness tinged Devlin’s voice. “I hate seeing you go

through this pain.”

“Do you know what’s funny? I have been blissfully unaware that an imposter had taken

over my twin’s life—it was bad enough that I didn’t realize I was fucking the wrong man but

come on, she’s my twin, Devlin!”

“I know,” he put his hand over her hand. “Please don’t keep playing that over and over in

your head, Samantha. We can’t go back, you can’t fix what is done. It can’t be undone so we

just have to deal with it.”

The communication channel beeped off.

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“Dad, I am going to need you up on the bridge. I have an issue you need to deal with.

Samantha, don’t worry, it doesn’t require your attention, it seems my dear brother has gotten

himself in a kettle of boiling water and he’s requesting we assist him as soon as we’re done

here.”

“He should be coming to assist us,” Devlin gritted out. “Jewel, I am on my way.”

He looked at Samantha. “Are you going to be okay?”

“You go, I’ll finish up here and get myself geared up for the incoming battle.”

Devlin had been gone for about five minutes when something intangible brushed against

the back of Samantha’s mind.

“Who is there?” she shouted, hurriedly buttoning her blouse and reaching for a leather

jacket. Odd, how Devlin and Jewel could know exactly what she wanted to wear.

Lethargy overwhelmed her. She dropped to her knees. Her eyelids shut. “Shake it off,

Samantha,” she muttered, trying to loosen her brain from the driving sense of disorientation. She

felt as if she was being split into several pieces…almost as if her soul was being ripped apart.

Visions splintered in front of her. Visions from the past, present and future assailed her.

Some unseen force propelled her into the future.

* * * *

They all stood battling the forces of the Triad.

“What the hell?” she asked. Danger pricked at the back of her mind. Turning, she saw

some form of energy arcing toward her. Devlin lunged toward her, at the exact moment that she

moved away from the line of attack.

Devlin flew backward under the force of impact. Samantha froze. The yawning hole of

the entrance to the void beckoned to her. Her heart tore in two.

Everyone else still fought the good fight. Triad soldiers fell around them, signaling the

tide in the battle had gone to their side.

“Devlin!” she screamed over the sound of laser fire and grunts and groans.

Veronica and Johanna stopped. Hearing her voice. They looked to where she ran.

She felt Johanna’s sympathy and Veronica’s rage.

She fought her way to Devlin’s side. The wind had been knocked out of him and his eyes

were wide in stunned disbelief.

Falling to her knees beside him, she reached to touch him. A jolt made her body shake.

She almost pulled away from him.

“What happened? I saw that super weapon hit you, why the hell did you put yourself in

the path? It would have hit me instead of you!” She leaned down toward his face touching it

gingerly.

“Do you feel anything?”

“I don’t feel anything at all.”

“My God, you’ve been paralyzed!”

“No,” he coughed. “I do feel as if I have had a few ribs broken, I think I’ll need

Johanna.” He smiled behind her.

Glancing back at Johanna, she reached for Devlin’s hand. “He can’t feel anything, do you

think he’s suffered a spinal injury?”

“He hasn’t suffered anything save for one broken rib according to my readings and that I

can fix soon enough.”

Veronica stood by Johanna keeping the Triad well away from them.

“I don’t understand.”

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“I think what you need to understand is that I wasn’t hurt, Samantha,” Devlin said

hoarsely. “You’re abilities shielded me.”

She nodded her head. “Thank God!” She kissed him quickly and then stood up. “You

mean I had a bloody coronary thinking you were dying!”

“It definitely got me the attention I needed!”

“You big baby!” She moved away from them, hearing Devlin, Johanna and Veronica

follow. Quinn and Ross were busy with other soldiers from the Triad. Dylan was hunkered

down in a corner the last time she’d seen him. He definitely needed his head examined. “I have

to go where no willing human has gone before.”

“I’m going in there with you,” Johanna said, moving with her toward the Void.

“No,” she put her hand out pushing Johanna gently back. “You stay here. We’ll need you

especially to fix up the walking wounded—”

“I can’t let you go in alone.”

“I’ll go with her,” Devlin said, standing on her left.

“No,” she said resolutely. “This is something I have to do alone.”

“Are you sure?” Johanna asked.

“You heard the lady,” Veronica piped in. “She’ll be just fine, she’s got Charlotte to

rescue and we have to watch her ass while she’s floating around in hell.”

The vacuum of the Void beckoned to her. She could hear Charlotte calling to her.

“I have to go now. Charlotte needs me.” She looked at Devlin. “Johanna when the

Matriarch reappears with Fake Tyler and Charlotte in tow take them out!”

“Will do,” Johanna said, her eyes misting. “You had just better come out of that thing. It

looks like you’re not going to like your trip, just make sure it’s a fast one with return fare.”

She smiled.

“Oh, damn,” Veronica muttered. “Looks like I have to go and save the guy that Ross just

fell on. I think he might have been on our side,” Veronica said widening her eyes and wincing.

“That’s going to leave a mark. I hope he doesn’t decide to sue the pants off Ross.” Veronica

reached and gave her a hard slap on the back. “Take care of yourself you crazy bitch.”

“You too, Veronica.”

Devlin drew her to him, and his eyes flared briefly with pain. “Come back to me,” he

whispered, giving her a hot kiss.

“If it means I’ll get more of those, you can bank on it,” she murmured, hugging him

tightly and hearing him groan.

“Here I go with a hope and a prayer.” Closing her eyes, she dove into the Void.

The vacuum force in the Void propelled her onward. She fought against the feelings of

despair and listlessness flooding her senses. She felt so sluggish.

“Samantha?” Charlotte’s anxious voice pulled her out of her sleepy stupor.

Activating her powers, she slowed her ascent before she hit the ground. Instead of being

in the hallway she’d seen before during her dream of the Void she was out in the middle of

nowhere. She stood in a geyser field. No wonder it was so fucking hot.

“Oh, shit.” One of the geysers exploded throwing her on her ass. “That hurt!”

“Samantha, work your way through the field or you’ll die there. It’s flooded with life

sucking vampire phantoms,” Charlotte mentally cried.

“Oh, man. Not what I need. What direction?”

“Go North!”

Forming a force field around her body, she took a deep breath and levitated herself

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through the geyser field. Ten explosions later, she was clear.

“I do not want to repeat that, there had better be another way out of this thing!” she

muttered.

“There are doorways all over this damned hellhole. If you brought the dagger we should

be able to open a rip in the fabric of the dimensional divide,” Charlotte said.

“The sooner the better.”

Ghostly grey forms surrounded her. She shot psychic arrows at all of them watching

them drop like flies. Rushing the rest of the way, she instinctively knew when she’d found

Charlotte. Several men and women converged on Charlotte and Charlotte looked green.

“Hey, yoyo brains! Over here, why don’t you try to give me your best shot? I am fresh

meat!”

They all turned as if in a zombie like trance. “Now that’s fucked up!” she muttered,

blasting them with a wave of telekinetic energy.

They fell to the ground gurgling.

She extended her hand to Charlotte. “Take my hand,” she said, offering it again when

Charlotte continued to hesitate. “Charlotte—now!!!”

“I don’t want to touch you. I might make you feel like I feel right now.”

“Oh for the love of God! Now, Charlotte! Just take my hand already! I want to blow this

party—the guests aren’t to my liking!”

Charlotte took her left hand, while she took the dagger from the sheath she’d attached to

her upper thigh with her right hand.

“Okay, now what do I do with this thing?”

“Who opened the Void to start with?”

“Johanna sort of accidentally did it.”

“Sort of accidentally?”

“She didn’t know it was going to do that. She pulled it out to use it and bang she’d

opened it!”

“She has a natural talent for it! That’s great to hear!”

Samantha took out the dagger, hearing the phantoms scream in agony when the flash of

the metal hit their eyes.

“Wow…that was some reaction,” Samantha exclaimed in awe.

Charlotte smiled at her weakly. “Now, slice it through the air and you should open a

portal back to our realm.”

“Our realm? You mean our dimension, oh, bugger, realm, dimension, whatever,”

Samantha muttered. “This is getting too damn confusing!”

“Yeah, well, it can do many things,” Charlotte muttered.

“If the dagger opens doorways between dimensions why does it always open one back to

our dimension and from our dimension it opens one to the Void?”

“It’s been charmed with an address. It is more or less programmed to only open up a

path between our realm and this one.”

Her stomach rumbled. “I think we need to get back to our dimension, the sooner the

better.” Slicing the dagger quickly through the air she pushed Charlotte through the Void. As the

Phantoms descended on her, she brandished the dagger to them hearing them scream out in

agony once more. While they were screaming, she pitched herself toward the Void and went

hurling through it. Quickly, she sheathed the dagger as her body tumbled around the gateway.

She didn’t need to accidentally impale herself when she had a rough landing back on the Triad

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ship.

“Holy crap!” she screamed falling out of the Void hitting the floor of the ship with a great

thud. Silence met her ears.

“That’s weird. I can’t hear Veronica letting out her battle screams,” she muttered,

pushing herself to her feet.

“Samantha, my dear, how nice of you to join our celebration. We were just about to get

the main event underway when your sister dropped in and momentarily set back our plans.”

Samantha looked to the throne dais where the Matriarch sat. On either side of her were

the imposters Charlotte and Tyler and in front of them kneeling were her family.

Her stomach soured.

“How the hell?”

“Now, my dear, did you honestly think that I wouldn’t have reinforcements waiting to

help us when the battle with Devlin’s fleet started to go in your favor? You underestimated the

Triad. Nothing comes that easily when the Art of War is concerned. I have more tricks up my

sleeve than a magician.”

At her words, Samantha looked at the glowing hourglass that sat next to the Matriarch.

“Do you like it?” The Matriarch asked. “One of my treasure hunters recently came back with it.

Apparently, The Red Falcon found it when he discovered the lost treasure of Empress Ileana of

Elendara. There was a reason that particular treasure had been hidden away from prying eyes.

Something with the power to twist time shouldn’t fall into the wrong hands. With this hourglass

I could take away all that you hold dear. You see, all I have to do is think of what I would like it

to do and touch it with my hands. I called you from the past to this present, I could easily send

you into the future while I kill your family. Would you like that?”

Cold dread slithered over her. She met Devlin’s gaze and then moved to Johanna. Rory

sat safely within Quinn’s arms.

Charlotte’s hand touched hers.

“Ah, my dutiful servant,” The Matriarch murmured. Butterflies swarmed in her stomach.

She looked to where a man was making his grand entrance.

“No,” she said heartbreak in her voice.

Charlotte pinned her with a penetrating gaze. Her mental voice entered her head. “That’s

one of the guardians. He didn’t kill our real father but he does feel responsible for one of the

creatures from the Void killing him. We have to hope he will help us.”

“If you make any move toward me, I will have my Tyler and Charlotte execute your

family—starting I think, with Devlin,” The Matriarch said.

A young man entered the room. “Grandmother, I won’t let you do this!”

“Go away Leon. You had your chance to claim Rory—you didn’t want her. Now that

my plans are going sour I must make another move before I lose everything.”