Time Trails #5
Shay raised her head. Her eyes held the moon in them.
She parted her lips to speak but before she could say anything he kissed her.
Rand moved his hand into her hair as his lips touched hers, and he was surprised, yet grateful, when her lips moved against his and her hands framed his face.
She gasped, enough so that her lips parted, and he took advantage of the opportunity to trace her bottom lip with his tongue.
She responded and it felt like a kick in the gut.
The feel of her body against his, her hips pressing against him stoked the fire.
He rolled her over quickly, and she moved against him.
His hand found her breast and she sighed as their tongues caressed.
“Five-one come in. Five-one are you there? Shay!”
Rand raised his head and looked at her in confusion. Her eyes glinted silver in the moonlight before she closed them, her face clenched in frustration, a mirror of his, he was certain.
“What is that?”
She pushed him aside and he rolled, painfully, away.
“It’s base,” she said. She touched her arm. “This is five-one. Check three.”
“Thank God,” the voice said. “We thought we’d lost you.”
“I hit a bump.” She stood up and ran her hand through her hair.
“Yeah. Any side-effects?”
Rand sat up and took a long drink from his canteen as Shay looked down at him. She handed him her flask. “Drink this.” She mouthed the words then continued with her conversation. “One. No make that two. One down. One with me.”
“You’ve got a local with you?”
“Affirmative. Status one-oh-one A. Rand Brock. Texas Ranger. Can you verify for me?”
“Affirmative. Rand Brock. Got a date of birth?”
“December 22, 1849.” Rand looked at her in confusion as she repeated his birth date back to whoever she was talking too. Why did she need his date of birth?
Instead of answering she held her hand up and walked away. Her voice dropped enough that Rand knew she did not want him to hear any more. Not that it mattered. It wasn’t as if anything that happened from here on out would change a thing.
“Topher,” Shay said after she stepped away from Rand. She shifted the communication to her headpiece. “I’ve got the machine in my sights. Can you run some parallels for me? How bad is the rift?”
“As of now there are three. I think we’re still safe as far as the time line. There’s no effects either way. Not even with your Texas Ranger. Did you get a name on the one who expired?”
“It was a horse.”
Topher laughed. Shay looked over her shoulder at Rand who still sat on the ground, sucking back the energy drink from her flask.
Hopefully it would keep him going for a while longer.
Being split was a bitch. She was surprised he’d been able to keep up.
She’d only been with him a few hours but she knew without a doubt that Rand Brock was one hell of a man.
“Hey, to him the horse was important.” She’d never forget the look on his face when they put Joe down. Nor would she forget how she felt when he kissed her. The man needed to live.
“Sorry.” Topher seemed contrite. “What is your plan?”
“Take this thing out, then come back and keep it from happening.”
“Roger to that. Still can’t pull you for another eighty-seven minutes.”
“That’s fine. Got anything on the name yet?”
“Yeah. Rand Brock. Texas Ranger. Went after missing prison transport June 23, 1886. Presumed dead. He was born 1849. Parents divorced 1873. No impact from the rift. I’m guessing that both of his lives expired shortly after the event. It says the body was never found.”
“Thanks, Topher.” Shay looked at Rand once more. He was staring at his broken rifle. He flung it away in disgust. “Five-one out.”
“What do we do now?” Lightning streaked from the building. Shay’s hair stood on end and the eerie light turned Rand’s dark hair to a strange shade of cobalt blue that matched his eyes.
Shay picked up her pack. “We take it out.”
It had been remarkably easy. Just circle the perimeter and place the charges.
The only hard part was ducking every time a trail of lightning lit the sky, especially since it seemed to be right over their heads.
If there were guards they never saw them and no one stopped them.
They were both out of breath when they returned to their overlook and Shay turned on the remote.
The explosion shook the canyon. Rand rolled on top of her to shelter her body as debris from the building rained down on top of them.
Flames lit the sky and the angles of his face as she turned beneath him.
There was another explosion – the airship, most likely – and then silence, except for the crackle of the fire.
His hand smoothed her hair back from her face. “What happens now?”
“I jump back to my time.”
“How long do we have until then?”
“About ten minutes, give or take.”
“That’s not enough.”
Shay looked into his eyes. There was pain there, reflected by the flames, but worse, there was loneliness.
Loneliness was something she knew. She touched his forehead and pushed back the dark hair that fell across it.
There was a streak of dirt on his cheek and she rubbed it off with her thumb.
He grinned at her, like they were sharing a private joke.
Except there was no joke. She was leaving in a few short moments. He would be alone, in the middle of nowhere, with no way to get back to civilization and a fat chance of living long enough to make it anywhere in his weakened condition. He would die here. Alone.
“Care to grant a dying man’s last wish?” His lips nibbled at hers and her heart swelled inside her chest.
“Oh, what the hell,” Shay said. She wrapped her arms around him and kissed him. “Whatever you do, don’t let go. I’m pretty sure ten minutes isn’t going to be enough.”
They were still kissing when they made the jump.