Time Eternal (26 page)

The man flipped through the menu and pulled out a folded piece of paper. He unfolded it into a much larger piece of paper. “Does your brother know you’re doing this?”

Sloan’s back stiffened, weighing how much to let on to the warlord. At the end, his anger won out. “My brother should’ve never given up so much for her. And now he is betraying the gods. I must do what must be done to protect our men. They traded their souls for vengeance. They don’t deserve to die without their souls just because of my misguided brother’s five centuries of obsession. He’s no better than Fernando himself.” He had never told a soul of his pain and feeling of betrayal by his brother.

The man’s slick smile deepened. “What you asked for in exchange for the girl will be ready for you once we have her in our custody.” Not waiting for Sloan’s acknowledgement, the man showed him out the door.

Before he left the room, he turned back. “Do not think of double crossing me, X. If you think my brother is lethal, I’m ten times worse. Unlike my brother, I don’t care whom I kill so long as I get what I want. You keep our bargain, or I’ll cut you down piece by piece.” He looked straight into the warlord’s non-descript brown eyes a long moment before pushing the cart out of the room.

Sloan had understood and accepted that his brother would never forgive him for what he just did. But it was better the girl’s life forfeited instead of their men’s, who had been loyal to Rei and him throughout the centuries. He never understood how a woman could change his loyal and fearless brother into a love-sick puppy, giving up his royal right by their father’s side, giving up his duties to his family and people, and so willingly giving up the lives of his brothers-in-arms for her yet again.

As he was taking the elevator down to the basement kitchen area, a vivid memory of the day Rei left the palace flooded his mind. It was a month before the Last Battle…

“Where are you going?” Sloan saw his brother walking out of his room carrying a small traveling bag.

Rei spared him a quick glance but continued walking quickly down the hall heading out of the palace. “To the dock.”

“Why?” He grabbed Rei’s arm, stopping him in his tracks.

“I am going to bring Elizabeth back.” His brother tried to shake him off, but he wouldn’t let go.

“Let go of me.” If he had any sense of self-preservation, he would have let go after Rei’s expression turned thunderous, and even deadly. He was prepared for a blow when his brother raised his other arm. But instead of the expected punch, Rei shoved him back hard. Yet he refused to let go.

Tightening his grip on his brother’s arm, he tried to reason with his eldest brother. “You cannot do this, Rei. Father needs all of us to defend our land.” He almost sounded as if he were begging—and he had never begged.

To his worst fear, his brother simply shook his head. “I cannot leave Elizabeth behind. She is my life.” It was a declaration, plain and simple.

He was too shocked to respond. It couldn’t be true. Rei must be jesting. His brother had always taken his responsibilities to the family and to their country so seriously, even when he was a child. Now he was taking off for some girl in a foreign country while their own country was on the brink of invasion by an army half of the known world feared. This was not real. He must be dreaming. He should be waking up from the nightmare any moment now.

Instead, he landed hard on his backside. Rei succeeded in shoving him off, and he was watching his brother head past the palace gate. He scrambled to his stunned feet and followed his brother through the general market outside of the palace that led to the dock. A merchant ship was already loaded up and pulling its anchor out of the water, ready to sail. He finally caught up with his brother, and this time he really begged. “No, Rei, you cannot go. We are your family. These are your people. You have a responsibility to protect them, to fight for them. You cannot simply take off now, on the eve of another invasion, for a mere girl.” His voice was shaking by then, from the anguish or from the fear, he didn’t know.

Out of the corner of his eye, the merchant ship was slowly leaving the dock. And so did Rei. His brother looked at him one last time, looking like a man lost to his inner struggles. Without another word, Rei leaped from the dock and caught the rope ladder at the side of the stern, easily making his way up to the ship deck. As the ship sailed away rapidly, his brother cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted back at him, “I will be back before the Turks arrive. I promise. Keep safe, my brother.”

He stared at the ship until it was lost in the fading sunset on the horizon and whispered, “Keep safe, my brother. May the gods help us all.”

The loud
ding
from the elevator brought Sloan back. When the elevator door opened, Erik and Constantin were standing by, ready for his next command. Unlike the rest of their men, Erik and Constantin were cousins and had been very young when they died in battle. They had barely passed their twentieth birthdays when Vikings pillaged their village. Sloan and Rei, who had already built a small army of men at that point, were sent to their village in the most western part of Russia on a scouting assignment in the tenth century. On their way back, they came upon a burning village in which every living thing had been slaughtered. Erik and Constantin were barely breathing when he found them lying in their own pool of crimson blood. They had reminded him so much of his younger brothers who were slain at the Last Battle. So he and Rei asked the gods to grant Erik and Constantin the same bargain. Ever since then, he had watched out for these two like his own brothers. And they looked up to him more than they did to Rei, their commander. He knew what he was about to ask them would destroy their trust in him, just as he was destroying his brother’s trust. But he would do what he had to do. He would not idly stand by again, watching his men, his brothers-in-arms, die senselessly.

“Let the others know we have a late night mission tonight and be ready to move out of the townhouse when I say so.”

•●•

A quiet knock on the door woke Rei. He was on his side holding Skyla’s soft, warm, and very naked body tightly against his equally naked one. She moved her bottom a little, settling deeper against his cock. No surprise—his cock sprang alive immediately. He pressed his mouth on her shoulder while his hands moved over her perfectly firm breasts and taut stomach and began reaching for the treasure down below. Then the knocks came louder. He knew Skyla was exhausted by their marathon of lovemaking throughout the afternoon and evening. When they were finally sated with each other, they had sneaked down to the kitchen for food, but before he knew it, he had her spread out on the kitchen table, tasting the cream pie on her body before bending her over the kitchen table and taking her fast and hard from behind, like a starving man again. When he carried her out of the kitchen, she was half asleep in his arms. What he would give to carry her like that for the rest of their lives together. He gave her a soft, gentle hug and quietly got out of their warm bed. He grabbed his robe from the chair next to the bed, shrugging it on while opening the door. He was about to ask what was so urgent when Sloan’s fully-armored appearance stopped him mid-sentence.

His brother took a quick look over his shoulder, obviously seeing Skyla’s slumbering form under the sheet. He spoke quietly. “Tory just reported in. He saw Antonio and Fernando leaving the hotel together, heading downtown. Our guess is they’re heading to the Federal Reserve building again. Tonight is the last night of the negotiations before the president’s announcement of the New Deal in D.C. tomorrow.”

He nodded at his brother. Now or never. “Gather all our men except those on guard duty for the house. And find Knox. We’ll move out in five minutes.”

His brother raised his chin toward the room. “What about her?”

“Skyla’s asleep, exhausted from these past few days. She’ll be safe here with the remaining men patrolling the grounds.” A touch of emotion passed through Sloan’s eyes, eyes much like his own, except they were blue-gray, and now there was a hint of sorrow in them. But it was gone too quickly for Rei to be certain of it. There was no time now to dissect what Sloan was thinking. He trusted his brother would let him know of any problem he needed to be aware of.

He turned back to the bedroom and closed the door quietly. The fire pit was dying down now, and the room had become chilly. He wished he could climb back in bed with Skyla, make love to her again and again, until they were both exhausted. But he needed to neutralize the assassination attempt and deal with Fernando once and for all so that Elizabeth—Skyla—would finally be safe from the sick son of a bitch.

Skyla looked so young and innocent in her sleep, just like the Elizabeth he remembered, and nothing like the woman she had become. Bending down, he pressed a soft kiss on her mouth. His let his lips linger on hers longer than he should have. His cock was firing up again, just from tasting her silky soft lips, inhaling her warm scent. With great effort, he finally pulled himself away and went to the dressing room to get ready for the hunt.

•●•

Skyla was dreaming, not the black nightmare she had so often had after the coma but a sweet dream in which she and Rei were back home in the twenty-first century, living a normal life together. She was slowly waking up from the dream and was smiling when a whisper of movement by the window on the far wall froze her smile. Her combative instincts kicked in. Her hand reached for the gun underneath the pillow but found nothing there. Dammit, she was not in her room! She could sense the movement coming through the window now. Quietly rolling off the bed, she broke into a run for the connecting door to her room. But before she could push her feet off the lush carpet, all hell broke loose outside of the townhouse. Gunfire erupted, and a heavy stomping of boots sounded outside of the room. Whoever was inside the room no longer bothered to stay quiet. The dim light from the dying amber fireplace showed several men inside the room, closing in on her. Skyla swiftly kicked up both of her legs, connecting ferociously with hard muscles and bone. An
oompf
sounded in front of her followed by the loud thud of a body hitting the floor. Not waiting to see if there were any other threats coming at her, she pumped her legs and rushed into her room where her weapons were.