Blue Abyss: Timewalker Chronicles, Book 3 (The Timewalker Chronicles) (21 page)

It took every ounce of honor he had, but he lifted his hands from her hips and ended the kiss. Mari leaned forward and traced the line of his jaw with her tongue. His gut clenched as she moved on to explore his neck.

“Mari, we have to stop.” Raiden placed his hands on her shoulders to push her away from him. Her Mark flared with heat beneath his palm and shot a bolt of fiery need straight to his groin. He was going to explode. Her name came out a moan. “Mari.”

“Don’t stop.” Mari’s hands tunneled beneath his shirt to explore his stomach. Each stoke of her fingers was like electrical current across his skin. “I want you.”

“Mari.”

She leaned to the side and pulled his sleeve up on top of his shoulder, out of her way, so she could see his Mark. “You are mine now, Raiden.” She bent slowly, her whisky-brown eyes locked to his as she traced the outline of the Mark with her tongue.

It was like a bomb went off in his head. He didn’t know where he was. If she’d asked, he wouldn’t have been able to remember his own name. All he knew was that he needed to be inside her.

Raiden rolled her to the bed beneath him and pressed her to the mattress. Her legs twined with his and her hips rose in invitation. He kissed her again, unable to resist the sweet lure of her mouth.

Neither one of them heard the door open. Raiden did hear Sarah’s gasp, but barely processed the sound. Nothing mattered but the woman in his arms. Nothing.

A sharp bolt of lightning jolted him in the ass.

Raiden startled out of his passion-induced haze and turned to face the woman standing near the door. She obviously had a death wish.

Sarah’s hands were on her hips, and she glared at him like he was the lowest of low. “Really, Ryan? You two just met, and she was almost dead an hour ago. You do this and I promise you she’ll want to kill you later, after she’s come to her senses.”

Raiden shook his head to clear it, but Mari was still writhing beneath him, unaware of Sarah’s presence in the room. Her skin glowed with power, power his Mark was feeding her system. Sarah was right. Mari was out of her mind and she’d taken him along for the ride.

“Damn.” He pulled back and Mari followed him. She whimpered like a lost kitten when he wouldn’t return to her embrace. Her eyes were glazed and her hands shook.

Why hadn’t he noticed?

He looked at his own shaking limbs. Maybe because he was nearly as bad.

Tim walked in behind his wife, a pained look of sympathy on his face. “Come on. Let’s get to work. Now that Mari’s awake, we need a plan.” Raiden cursed and rose from his place next to temptation incarnate. The woman was dangerous to his system. Tim raised an eyebrow and grinned at him.

“What’s so damn funny?”

“Resistance is futile.”

“What the hell does that mean?”

“It means you’re hers now.” And then the bald bastard tapped his left shoulder, pointed at Raiden and raised one eyebrow with a grin. “There’s no going back.”

Chapter Seven

Was he well and truly Marked? Mari had claimed him. Her Mark rode his flesh, but that proved compatibility, nothing more. Did she intend to assert that claim? To try to keep him? He’d thought Gerrick delirious when he said as much, but the possibility nearly brought him to his knees.

It could never be. And though she had Marked him, he’d have to find the will to free her before it was too late. Right now she was still pulling energy from him somehow, healing. He couldn’t deny her that small boon when she’d saved his life. Right now, she needed him. When she was strong, he’d do what needed to be done to save her. He’d let her go so the darkness he carried didn’t destroy her.

Still, he had to see the impossible for himself. He strode to the tall mirror sitting atop the wicker dresser and twisted around to get a clear view of the top of his left shoulder. He knew exactly where to look. The darn spot had tingled to life as if it had a life of its own and knew it was being placed on display. And there it was, the Shen, the mark of a Timewalker. He turned back around to Mari, shoved his still shaking hands into his pockets to caress the hilts of his blades. He needed to calm the fuck down. “Mari, what exactly did Celestina say when she sent you through time?”

Her gaze found his, locked on to him like a homing beacon. Mari’s eyes darkened with desire and he took an involuntary step toward her before his brain processed the movement. The Shen on his shoulder sent a bolt of lust into every cell in his body. By the gods, the woman had him bewitched. Mari licked her lips and Tim stepped between them, breaking the hypnotic allure in her gaze. “Time for that later, my friend. Let’s figure this out so we know what we’re dealing with.”

Focus. Yes. He was clearly lacking in that department at the moment. Every breath he took drew Mari’s scent into his lungs. He wanted to taste her kiss, cover her body, and bury himself so deeply inside her that she’d never think of another man again.

Focus.

He held out his hand and Mari tossed the stone to him. Sarah and Mari were frozen in place as he pressed his thumb against a sharp edge and cut himself. He smeared his blood around the centerpiece of the stone to unlock it. As expected, the blood disappeared into the stone, but only a faint light glowed from its depths. It recognized his Immortal blood, but that wasn’t enough. There should have been a clue, a message, a name, anything to tell them whose soul was anchored in the stone.

Frustrated, he made the cut deeper and rubbed even more blood onto its surface. This time nothing happened. The dark red liquid remained on the exterior, rejected.

His thumb tingled where he’d cut it and Mari held her breath on the bed. He watched as the flesh of his thumb knit back together perfectly until it looked untouched. Completely healed. Her freshly indrawn breath agitated him. There was pain there, in the soft sound that escaped her throat.

Unerringly, his gaze flew to Mari’s hand where a new flesh wound blossomed in the same location his had been. Fresh blood dripped onto her blanket. Damn it to hell. This was unacceptable. He could not have this woman absorbing his wounds. He had a dangerous mission still ahead and he wouldn’t be able to risk even the slightest injury if she were going to suffer in his stead.

What would happen to her if he couldn’t find the Guardian of the Gate? Would she die with him as the Queen’s Remnant ate him away from the inside out? As the souls of the fallen that he’d turned to ash devoured his own? By the gods, he had to get the hell away from her before their connection became any stronger. He must find the will to break the link between them before it was too late to save her. Way too late.

Mari closed her eyes and enclosed her thumb inside her fist. He watched intently and staggered as a sharp pulling sensation tugged from the Shen on his shoulder.

Mari opened her hand and held up her thumb. The wound was gone.

He’d have to refuse her Mark and break the link once he’d found his ship. He couldn’t risk her life. He wouldn’t be the cause of one more innocent’s death, of her death. There wasn’t much left of his soul, but enough to know he’d Turn into one of the bastard Triscani if he hurt her. He’d be totally and irrevocably lost the moment she died.

He had to break this bond and get far away from her. The other side of the galaxy far.

He turned his attention back to the soul stone and resisted the urge to throw it against the wall. His blood was both royal and an Immortal key. Unless his father had lied to him, his red blood cells should have activated the stone, revealed its creator at the very least. His blood had done nothing.

Tim’s keen eyes studied him. “Well?”

Raiden shook his head. “Nothing. I don’t understand it. I am of the royal bloodline. Our DNA is keyed to all of these devices when they are created. It’s the Queen’s most sacred command. It should have activated. It should have at least revealed a name.”

Tim grunted. “Unless someone didn’t want the royal family to know. Perhaps there is a traitor among you, or another reason a Timewalker would feel the need to hide from you…or from your family?”

That logic hit too close to home. Had a Timewalker learned of his brother’s betrayal? Could a Seer have known asked the Dark One to create a special stone? But who and why? And even more importantly, when?

“Well, it lit up on the inside.” Sarah tilted her head. “What was it supposed to do?”

He debated before reluctantly revealing the truth, or at least part of it. “It should have revealed the name of its creator, or activated a beacon, a tracking device, so the Remnant could be returned to the physical body where the rest of its pieces remain. But, any number of things could be locked in this stone, a piece of someone’s soul, a memory, maps, stored data, a personal communication…”

Sarah bit her lower lip and stared at him for a moment, looking at him, through him, as if she could see into his soul. Judging him. It was an unnerving experience. His entire life people respected his judgment in battle, followed his orders without question or hesitation. But these three treated him like an unknown rookie. He was out of his element here. Out of his time.

The truth was, they shouldn’t trust him. And now, thanks to the Mark, Mari’s life was in danger and he was the cause. He didn’t like it one bit, but held his tongue. Did Sarah see the truth in his eyes? Did she know? Did Mari?

Sarah came to some sort of decision. He saw it in the stiff set of her shoulders. Tim took a step closer to her.

“Sarah?”

Sarah held up her hand to stop both men from moving or speaking again. She looked over her shoulder at Mari and then back at Raiden. “Mari’s blood opened the cave doors. Not yours. Maybe you need Mari’s blood to activate the crystal.”

Raiden shook his head. “No. That would be impossible. She is not royal or Itaran. For her blood to activate the stone, she would have had to be there when the crystal was created.”

Sarah arched her eyebrow at him. “And how do you know that she wasn’t?”

Raiden’s head began to ache. How indeed? Timewalkers. Time…Walkers.

“Okay. Hand it to me, please.” Mari held out her hand and Raiden settled next to her knees on the bed. Her hand shook so much he wasn’t sure she could hold on to the stone without help. Her whispered question made his heart actually hurt. “What’s a Remnant?”

What indeed. Raiden didn’t want to distress her further. He didn’t dare tell her everything, but in this, he could speak the truth. “It’s a piece of someone’s soul, torn from the whole and trapped inside the stone. It must be returned to the body left behind. The Remnant might be half a soul, or less, depending on the stone and the purpose and the strength of the creator. The body left behind will function normally, for a time. The Immortals can last thousands of years split in this way. But eventually, even they becomes soulless. Insane. Once that happens, they are locked up in a place too terrible to name until their soul stone is found. Some half-bloods have been locked up for centuries, waiting.”

She shuddered. “That’s terrible.”

“I am sorry, Marina. I did not want to lie to you.”

Mari shook her head. “No. I’m glad I know.” She took a deep breath, “Whose soul do you think is in this stone?” She shoved her hand, palm up, close to his chest. “Please.”

He knew he should allow her to do this on her own, but he couldn’t seem to stop his hand from lifting to cup hers from below and still her shaking. With his other hand he placed the stone in her palm and held it there, trapped her hand between his until her shuddering stopped.

She smiled, eyes glassy with apprehension and her voice filled with a slow sigh of exhaustion. “Let’s see if this thing is going to help us…” She pulled her hand from his and sliced her thumb open along its edge as he’d done. “Let’s hope it’s not Timewalker kryptonite.”

“Kryptonite?” Mari ignored him, so Raiden looked to Tim and Sarah for an answer.

Sarah shook her head but didn’t take her eyes form the stone, which was absorbing Mari’s blood like a sponge. “It’s a Superman thing. Forget it.”

“Superman?” Raiden had no idea what they were talking about, but it didn’t matter. The crystal added a soft orange glow at its center. Now there were two small lights buried within the crystal. They did not flicker or blink, they simply were. Raiden cursed and checked Mari’s thumb even though the tug on his shoulder told him that the wound had already healed.

“Now what, Prince Charming?” Tim held out his hand and Mari placed the crystal in his large palm, her shaking fingers small and slight against the brute’s paws. That was what her hands looked like within his own grip. Too small. Too delicate. Easily injured. Perhaps if he put some distance between them, her link to him and her dangerous ability to absorb his wounds without even touching him would cease.

“Should we try our blood?” Sarah suggested it and Raiden waved them off. “Try it. It shouldn’t have accepted Mari’s blood either. But if it were Timewalker blood it needed, the quota has been met.”

“True.” Tim sliced his finger open and smeared blood on the stone. “But I think we need to eliminate the possibility.”

When nothing happened, Tim gave the stone to Sarah and she did the same. Raiden turned away in disappointment. All hope that some cosmic destiny had pulled him here, to this time and these people for a reason, fled. He had one purpose and it had not changed. His mission was what drove him to place himself in the pod, to battle the Triscani for a century, to suffer two years in dreamless sleep. He just hoped none of these people had to be hurt in the process. Especially Mari. Although, if he didn’t break their bond, he’d destroy her.