Chapter Three #2
his screen. Only Finn and Ramsay knew where Victor heralded from
aside from the laird.
Victor came from the same dying future he
desperately wanted to seize his sister from. But that wasn’t going
to happen if she didn’t open his damned laptop. “Veronica,” he
pleaded again, “open the fucking thing.”
*****
Sighing, Veronica quit rifling through her
brother’s desk. Picking up her cup of coffee, she sipped with one
hand while the fingers of her free hand drummed on the mahogany
wood. She was running out of ideas. Nothing she’d found was
bringing her any closer to discovering her brother’s whereabouts,
which wasn’t like him. At the very least he would have left a damn
clue. And if he’d been killed in his compound she would have found
his remains, reanimated or not. Think like Victor, think like
Victor…
An idea forming, she set down the cup of
coffee and looked under the pile of papers in front of her. Aha!
His laptop! He wouldn’t have left it behind unless he wanted her to
find it. Opening it up, she picked her cup of coffee back up and
waited for something to happen. When nothing did, she rolled her
eyes and clicked the power button. Damn it, but technology was not
her thing.
The screen zoomed to life. Jackpot! She
sipped her coffee and watched the virtual note her brother had left
behind.
“If you’re watching this then you’re
still alive, praise God. With most of the world’s electrical grids
down, I don’t know how you managed to get here from Los Angeles,
but I knew if anyone could do it, it would be you.”
“Where are you?” Veronica asked at the same
time the virtual note resumed speaking.
“You’re no doubt wondering where I am.
That’s a bit difficult to explain, and you probably won’t believe
me if I tried, so I need you to trust me and do as I say.”
She nodded almost imperceptibly.
“I can see you, but you can’t see me. I
can hear you, but you can’t hear me. That’s the first situation we
need to remedy.”
Veronica frowned. “That’s creepy,
Victor.”
“I’m sure you think that’s creepy and
maybe it is, but science works the way it works, sis. That issue
aside, I’m not going to bore you with concepts that will go over
your head anyway—”
She grunted at the screen. Not that he was
wrong, but still.
“—So as I said, I just need you to trust
me.”
“Just get to the point!”
“Now, getting to the point, I want you to
open the right drawer of my desk with the key I taped to the
laptop.”
Veronica hadn’t noticed a key, but then
she’d been in a rush. Folding the nearly weightless laptop
semi-shut, she espied the taped down key, retrieved it from the
laptop’s cover, and unlocked the drawer. It was filled with weird
little bottles, syringes, and little else. She opened the laptop
back up fully. “Now what?”
“One of the bottles is labeled STBT. Take
it out of the drawer, set it on the desk, and open a
syringe.”
She did as instructed. “STBT,” she muttered,
her gaze scanning the bottles. “Where are you? Aha!” She located
the proper bottle and removed it from the drawer. She set it on the
desk.
“STBT stands for ‘Space and Time Body
Tracker.’ Again, I’ll save you the explanation, but you need to
inject 15 cc’s of the serum into one of your veins. But be careful!
It’s powerful stuff and it’s going to immediately put you to sleep.
You’ll need to inject it while sitting on the lounger in my office
so you can immediately and safely lie down and go to
sleep.”
“I love you, but you’re weird.” She sighed
as she looked behind her, attempting to locate the lounger. She was
pretty sure it was the thing with papers and thick, hardback books
strewn all over it. Her brother should have been more careful with
the heavy tomes. Non-digital books were expensive as hell. Or at
least they had been. Now nothing but food, water, medicine, and
weapons held any value.
“You’re going to be asleep for
approximately three hours. It’ll take you another hour to get your
bearings and quit feeling dizzy. I want you to pause this virtual
note and hit the unpause button once you’re up and doing well. Now,
get the 15 cc’s of serum into the syringe, hit pause, go to the
lounger, and inject it into one of your veins. In roughly four
hours, we’ll almost be able to communicate. We’re getting closer.
Just get the show on the road.”
Veronica hit the pause button and followed
her brother’s instructions. He was a crazy scientist to be sure,
but he was her crazy scientist and she trusted him completely.
Moving the scattered books and papers off the lounger, she sat down
on it with a small groan. Sated and hydrated, her body now required
rest. She supposed it was fortunate she’d have to sleep for a few
hours. Picking up the syringe of serum, she found a good vein in
her right arm and injected it. Pulling the needle out, she barely
got the cap back on it before inescapable drowsiness stole over
her.
“Holy shit,” she sleepily slurred. “This is
some ssserious—”
She slumped over and fell onto the lounger.
Victor. Her brother was always true to his word.
*****
“You might as well get some sleep too,”
Victor informed the laird. “She’ll be down for four hours.”
Plus, it would give him some alone time to
think. Namely, how he would get his sister and himself out of this
inadvertent and unexpected mess. Victor had prepared for many
potential scenarios before traveling to the distant past, but
explaining that his sister was not his to give away to the
six-foot-five, muscle-roped giant had not been amongst said
scenarios. Being burned at the stake as a wizard, being killed
outright upon arrival—he’d thought of it all and decided to chance
it anyway. But this? If the giant didn’t murder him, Veronica
would.
“All right,” Lachlan muttered. “I give you
four hours. Finn! Ramsay!” he barked out. “Be certain someone wakes
me.”
Victor breathed a sigh of relief. At least
one of them would get some rest.
*****
Naked, Lachlan tossed and turned in his bed,
unable to think of anything save Veronica under the waterfall. He
realized he needed his sleep, but his body was too aroused to
accommodate him. He wanted the warrior woman for his wife. He
wanted his cock buried deep inside her at his everra whim. Now that
she was so close to being his, the desire that came o’er him was
unbearable.
Grasping his thick, hard cock, Lachlan
jerked his hand up and down the length of it as his teeth gritted
and his body corded and tensed. He envisioned her ample breasts and
erect nipples, her rounded arse and tight, wet pussy welcoming him.
In his mind’s eye he could see her writhing beneath him, moaning as
he filled her wee cunt with his seed.
He growled as he came, his breathing ragged
and his need still not satiated. He repeated the process twice more
until, at long last, he fell asleep in his bed, his final thoughts
those of the wench called Veronica. His dreams, usually dark and
filled with the screams of dying men, were pleasant that eve.
Because soon—verra, verra soon—she would belong to him.
*****
Victor had warned
her about the residual dizziness, but he’d said nothing of the
all-consuming nausea. Perhaps the serum hadn’t affected him that
way, but it was definitely taking its toll on her system. She
groaned as she glanced at her watch. Fifteen minutes until it was
time to unpause the digital note. Then hopefully she’d have some
answers.
Anxiety began seeping into her body. She had
thought Apple Creek would be the end point to Victor and not just a
pit stop. She had envisioned the two of them living out what was
left of life right here, safe and underground. Who knew what else
she would have to go through to be reunited with her brother
now?
She needed rest—lots and lots more of it.
Now it looked like more sleep wouldn’t be in the equation for a
while. She sighed.
Her throat still felt on the dry, scratchy
side. Water—she needed more water. Maybe drinking some would have
the added bonus of helping to settle her roiling stomach. Forcing
herself up to her feet, she padded back to the kitchen and put her
hypothesis to the test.