Time Eternal (18 page)

•●•

“Have a seat. It’ll take some time to tell you my story.” Rei waved them toward the sofa by the roaring fireplace; it was one of the rare indulgences he allowed himself. He had grown up in harsh Serbian weather, and after Elizabeth was lost, his heart had gone into a deep freeze, as if it were frozen in time awaiting her return. The only time he felt warm was when he stood next to a roaring fire.

To his relief, Skyla and Knox took separate seats after they came into his study. She sat at the end of the full-length leather sofa while Knox took the armchair. Good. He didn’t have to kill Knox yet.

•●•

Rei sat next to her. It was a three-person sofa. There was plenty of room for both of them, but he purposely sat close, his knees touching hers, invading her space. Ready or not, she had to get used to him, his presence, his claim, his heart.

“Ask me.” He faced her.

There was a brief hesitation. Her teeth bit down on her lower lip. The frown between her brows made her look serious yet adorable at the same time, just like Elizabeth used to whenever she was trying to solve a problem. What he wouldn’t give to lick that plump, full lower lip. His cock was hardening again. It must have been the tenth time in the last twenty-four hours; whenever he was so close to her, his mind and body went haywire. At this rate, he might as well have a permanent erection, period.

“How did you survive the Last Battle? Historical records show none of the royal family survived.” Her tone was almost detached, like a historian merely observing history. But to him, it was more than history; it was his past, his life, his being. The brutal memories of the Last Battle rushed back, and his body tensed up as if he was in a combat again.

“That’s correct. My family did not survive, except my brother and me.”

“How?”

“By the gods.” He could see the confusion on her face, and he could also feel the metallic taste rumbling off Knox again.

“The gods?” She sounded skeptical, which he actually found amusing. It seemed the more the human race advanced in their technologies, the less they remembered or believed in the creators of all lives.

“Yes,” he reaffirmed his answer.

She reflexively turned to Knox, consulting her partner just as she always had during their missions. The doctor’s face was perfectly still, although the taste of metal was stronger now.

He continued. “Since the dawn of time, there have been many gods. There’re always some truth in myths and legends. It’s the arrogance of mankind who chose to forget their makers, their legacy from divine creators.”

Knox spoke for the first time. “Which gods did you say spared your life and your brother’s?”

“I didn’t.” Pausing and looking straight at Knox, he was weighing whether he should force Knox’s hand now or later. After all, information was always the most valuable currency in his world. And he saw no gain from doing so at this moment. “It’s not your concern which gods I serve. Just know that before any of your powerful technological advancements, pure powers existed.”

“You expect us to believe you just like that?” Skyla snapped her fingers together, challenging his explanation. He respected her analytical mind, her skepticism of things she could not touch or see. Even after she had leaped through time, this was part of who she was, a scientist at heart.

“The woman Knox saw in my room was a maiden of one of the gods I serve. Throughout the centuries, she has served as the bridge between my men and the gods.”

“She was the one who healed your leg.” Knox spoke calmly, as if he was stating a fact that the sun rose from the east. Rei only nodded in agreement.

“And this is how the gods ensure your and your men’s immortality, a healing maiden.” Again Knox spoke like he was merely stating some well-known facts.

Skyla caught on to Rei’s suspicion too. “Knox, how do you know all this?”

“It’s not important.” He gave her a weak smile. “What’s important is that we know what we are dealing with now, and we need to make sure our mission won’t be compromised.” He started to get up, but Skyla stopped him.

“Wait, I want to know how exactly Rei and Sloan survived the Last Battle.”

“I see that you’ve already found out Sloan is my brother.” Smiling a little, Rei saw no need to pretty up what he did. “I traded my soul, and my brother’s, with the gods.” In reality, it was no better than trading his soul with the devil, if there were one. The gods were just as manipulative and cruel as any of the folklore devils whose stories had been passed down throughout the generations. Yes, the devil was a big fat lie to scare people into behaving. The truth was that the gods were both good and evil. It was humans who refused to believe that divine beings could be both. Over time, people had invented Lucifer, the devil, as the adversary of their divine gods so that they could blame the inherent evil within human nature on some unseen being. Blaming Satan for leading their men and women astray instead of taking responsibility for the fact that it was, had always been, and would forever be humanity’s choice to allow evil to exist among themselves.

“My countrymen and I held on behind our city walls for five days, but the sheer number of the Turks was just too overwhelming. At dawn on the sixth day, they breached our wall.” He paused a little. Once again, he was seeing the bloody battle in his mind’s eye. “I told Sloan to take our father, the last true king of the Serbian Empire, out of the city through the underground tunnel. But my father refused to leave his sons and royal guards behind. He fought on like the true warrior he was as the Turks poured into our city. My brothers and I dutifully surrounded our king and killed as many Turks as dared come our way.” The memory was bitter, but Rei smiled a little from remembering his brothers. “Did I tell you I had eight brothers? My parents’ marriage was a love match. My mother always wanted to give my father a girl, a princess, but only sons came out of her tiny body. She died from childbirth after my youngest brother was born.” Taking in a deep, painful breath, he recalled, “Cibor was only fourteen when a saber pierced his heart right in front of my father, right in front of me.”

His voice turned hard and angry. “Cibor was my father’s favorite. My mother gave up her life to give birth to my youngest brother. My father loved Cibor like he had loved my mother. Seeing his youngest son dying in his arms, my father’s grief clouded his survival instinct. He didn’t know a Turk was behind him until it was too late, until two spears went through his back. That was also when the sky was blanketed by darkness, thousands of arrows were shot at where we stood. I looked up and knew it was the end. I rushed to my father, but I was too late. I saw my brothers and the royal guards all go down at the same time. I too was pinned down by the shower of arrows.”

He turned to Skyla and spoke with such regret and intensity, “My last thought was of you. I told myself I would trade my soul to be with you again.” He raised his hand to touch her cheek, so soft and warm. He felt her tense up, but she did not refuse his touch.

“That’s when I thought I saw you kneeling next to me.” He smiled bitterly again. “I heard you say something to me, but I could not make out what it was. I could feel the poison on the arrows was already reaching my heart. I knew I would die soon. I remember I reached my hand up to you, wanting to feel you again just like in the past, like now. With my last breath, I cried out for vengeance. That’s when I felt the fire and ice surging through my body. The intensity of the freezing pain and the scorching heat repaired my body, and at the same time, blinded me for a few moments before it was over. I blinked my eyes and saw it was not you who kneeled next to me but someone else.” He turned to look at Knox, again wanting to see his reaction but found none.
Interesting. He is definitely hiding his secret.

He turned back to Skyla. “From her pale complexion and the dress she had on, my first guess was that she was from the north. I asked her why and how she saved me. She simply told me that her masters and mistresses had plans for me. And that now I would serve them just as she served them. I was about to tell her to go to the underworld, but she cut me off, waving her hand in a circle. Images of you and Fernando di Medici came alive.” He had to stop himself from being consumed by the familiar rage every time he remembered what the handmaiden had shown him. Rei breathed in deeply before continuing. “I saw what that monster did to Elizabeth, to you. His lust for you was so perverse that he threatened not just you but your father and uncle. I saw how afraid and helpless you were, huddling in your chair while enduring his disgusting touch.” He had to hold his fists tightly so that he wouldn’t lash out at something irrationally. He continued slowly, “When you refused his groping, he slapped you so hard on your face. That was when I knew I had to live, not only to avenge my father and my people, but I must find you and make Fernando pay.”

He spoke the last sentence through clenched teeth before he laughed softly, as if he was laughing at himself, or maybe at the irony of how events had been unfolding in the last few days. “I agreed to the bargain. Then I looked around and saw that everyone who mattered to me was dead, or so I thought until I heard a faint grunt not too far off my father’s left side. It was Sloan, and he was about to take his last breath. I turned to the maiden and demanded she save him too. Her eyes went opaque for a brief moment, and then she said the gods would only agree to save my brother if I’d agree, as the head of my house, to trade Sloan’s soul. And that I would raise an army for them to do their bidding, without question. And that was the end of the beginning.”

A long moment passed. His hands reached for hers. “Now you know my story. I’ve been searching for you for almost five centuries. And I’ve traded my soul with the gods to find you.” There was a flicker of pity and sorrow in her sable brown eyes. He wanted to hold her and tell her that he had no regrets for what he had given up for her, for them. Before he could say anything, Knox snorted rudely.

“Not the whole story, I’m afraid.”

He really wished he could send Knox back to wherever he came from. It took him great control to ignore the pointed comment. He simply stood up and reached his hand down to Skyla. “Let’s go. Sloan and his men should be back soon with more information on what happened at the dock earlier. And I have a strong feeling that Mr. X was not the ultimate buyer of the missing piece of the time machine. I know the gods. If they’ve finally let me find you, Fernando shouldn’t be far behind.”

Skyla had been lying in bed for the past hour, staring at the ceiling while her mind reeled with memories of her past and her present. When Rei mentioned Fernando di Medici, she knew the past he narrated. She was there. She remembered it as clear as day. And when he suspected Fernando was part of the game that the gods were playing with them, his normally sure, confident voice was almost undone by worry, almost fear—fear that the past would repeat itself. She smiled to herself. It was such a romantic sentiment, star-crossed lovers finding each other after long centuries, facing their enemy once again. She would have loved to see the happily-ever-after ending of this love story, but she knew first-hand how sick and cunning the bastard Fernando could be. After all these centuries, he was still after her. Actually it was Elizabeth he was after, but he had no idea who Elizabeth had become, what she had become. Skyla actually looked forward to coming face to face with him again. This time she was ready to fight for herself.

Blowing out a frustrated breath, she flipped back the quilt, put on her robe, a plain hip-length cotton terry robe in rosy purple, and went downstairs to the kitchen. She was going to make some of her mom’s warm milk with honey, hoping it would soothe her again just like it always did when she was younger, when her dreams were plagued by night terrors after her coma. The thought of her mom, her adoptive mom to be accurate, brought a wistful smile to her face. She now also remembered her life, Elizabeth’s idyllic life, with Papa in Florence centuries ago, until Rei showed up. Until they had fallen in love, until the life that she knew came crashing down on that fateful day. She considered herself very lucky, though. After her escape through time, she had found a new family who loved and protected her just as fiercely as her papa and uncle had back in Florence—albeit a new family that had been formed under a cloak of deception. She was, still, grateful for the second chance in life. The time machine could just as easily have brought her somewhere else, some other future time in which she might not have been given so much love and protection.