He ignored her, his gaze locking on Ava. Such pretty pink skin, such healthy blood flowing underneath. That wasn’t going to change. Not this time. “Stay here,” he said, willing to beg. “There’s an army of Schön warriors stationed around your apartment. If you go there, they’ll kill you. Do you understand? I’ve seen it. And for God’s sake, whatever happens, remember that I love you.”
Her jaw dropped. “You—what?”
In this new reality, he hadn’t yet told her that, had he? “I love you. I love you for who you are, what you are, though we’ll discuss turning you into a vampire at a later date. Perhaps after I allow someone to almost kill me. But until then, stay safe, damn it.”
“Almost kill you?” All the color abandoned her face. “Stay safe? McKell, what are you talking—”
He kissed her, hard, silencing her. He allowed himself to enjoy, because he couldn’t help himself. He’d come so close to losing her, was so relieved by this second chance. When he raised his head, her eyes were glazed, her lips red and swollen.
“I love you,” he repeated, then turned away. A bell chimed as he left the shop.
Part of him expected Ava to follow, but he didn’t pick up her scent as he headed toward her apartment. Last time, he’d tried to freeze the queen and had failed. He’d tried to choke her and had failed. There was only one other thing he could think to do. And it meant …
Shit! It most likely meant losing Ava, he realized, bile churning in his stomach. Even after reversing time, he still might not be able to keep her. He almost backtracked, almost returned to her, gathered her up, and ran away with her.
But he had to do this. He couldn’t allow that bitch of a queen to walk freely, so powerful, so assured, threatening his woman and those she loved. He would rather die keeping Ava safe than live while she remained in danger.
The bile mixed with another round of determination. His plan might still fail, but he would have tried. He would have done all that he could to protect his woman. That’s what mattered.
Enough pondering, worrying, obsessing, he thought. Wouldn’t do to warn the queen of the fate that now awaited her.
The moment he spied Ava’s building, he slowed his steps, waiting … waiting … A doorway opened, just as before, glittering so prettily in the moonlight. McKell gulped back the lump forming in his throat, stopped time before he could change his mind, and sprinted forward. The queen hadn’t been able to fight him right away last time, which meant she wouldn’t be able to do so this time either.
He only had a minute, maybe two, to do his damage.
She was there, he knew she was, for he could once again smell her rot. Rage overtook him as he remembered where she’d stood. You’re going to pay, female. He beelined for her, stretching out his arms.
Behind him, he heard Ava shout his name. “McKell! What are you doing? McKell!”
Damn her! Of course she hadn’t remained behind. He’d been a fool to think she would. That wasn’t in her nature, was one of the many reasons he loved her.
He couldn’t allow her near the queen or the queen’s men, so he increased his speed. Boom! He slammed into the bodies, four that he could tell, continuing to surge forward. He heard a feminine gasp, several male grunts, and drove them all straight into the waiting doorway.
Ava screamed, “Nooo! No! McKell! Where are you—”
As before, the suction began the moment he approached, pulling him faster and faster. Soon he lost the foundation under his feet. His world began to spin, the air darkening, thickening. The queen and her men shrieked, a horrified choir, and he lost his grip on them, too. Down, down he fell, still spinning, faster and faster.
Was this the eternity that awaited them all? To spin and spin and spin? Fine. He could accept that. For Ava, he’d suffer anything.
“McKell. Finally.” A man’s contented purr drifted into his ears.
McKell’s momentum slowed, the spinning ceased, and he was eased to his feet by gentle hands he couldn’t see. His surroundings blinked into focus. A black sky was dotted by the very flickers of light he’d seen on the threads of time, an endless maze of midnight, both perfect and horrific because there was no beginning or end.
“Welcome home, my son.”
Home? Son? He shook his head in denial, anger rising. “Who are you? Where are you?” Come out and fight me, you bastard. “Where are the ones I brought with me?”
“I’ll tell you about them. In time.” A second later, a man stepped from the darkness. He was tall, taller than McKell, with ankle-length black hair and eyes that glowed bright green. He looked human, for the most part, with a long forehead, a slashing nose, and a wide chin. His limbs stretched more than normal, and his body was a little thinner than average. He wore some kind of bodysuit that molded to his pale, pale skin.
McKell didn’t rush him. Not yet. Information first. Killing second. “Are you the one who’s been calling me?”
“Yes.” Like the purr, the deep voice whispered straight into his head—but the man’s lips never moved.
What kind of powers did this being wield? “Why?”
“I don’t think you’re ready to hear the answer.” Still no movement from those lips.
“Tell me!”
“Give me time, and I will—”
“Tell me, damn it!”
The pause that followed his second demand extended uncomfortably. He thought he would be thrown back into that endless spin. Instead, the man sighed. “You’re not ready for the truth, but I can see now that you will not calm down until you have answers. I wish I could fault you for your impatience, yet you are your father’s son. And I—I am that father. Your father.”
Even after the “my son” comment, the announcement still managed to shock him. “No,” he automatically insisted. “No. My father is dead.”
“I assure you. He is very much alive.”
“No.”
“Your mother once came to me as you have done. Did you know that? Did she tell you?”
“I heard rumors,” he gritted out, hating to admit even that. To do so lent credit to the man’s claim. “And sometimes I heard her crying at night when she thought no one listened.”
The man, being, whatever, seemed to wilt at that. “She missed me as much as I missed her. I didn’t want that for her.”
“No.” His hands fisted, the anger suddenly a living force inside him. He could handle anything but a false declaration of concern for his mother’s well-being. At last he attempted to close the distance between them, to lash out, but he found that his feet were somehow rooted in place. “What have you done to me?”
His denial and question were ignored. “I saw her, wanted her, and talked to her as I talked to you. She, too, eventually joined me and we spent many months together. She grew to love me as I loved her, but always the husband stood in our way. She needed his blood, and mine would not sustain her.”
As the man spoke—still straight into his mind—images colored the midnight canvas around them. Images of McKell’s mother, here, dancing, dark hair flying. He heard her, too; her laughter stroked his ears, flinging him back to his childhood, to days in the caves, his bruises tended by loving hands, violet eyes watching him with concern.
“I—I am not your son,” he croaked. “I can’t be.” He knew his father. Loved his father. Had mourned his father.
“Before you deny my claims, hear the rest. Please.”
A moment passed. He nodded stiffly. What else could he do? He was still rooted in place, helpless. Still needed to know what had happened to the queen and her men. Antagonizing wouldn’t help.
“She convinced me to let her go, to let the child I had given her go. She couldn’t survive with him, nor could she tolerate the thought of leaving you behind. She said she would have no life without you, only one of despair and loneliness. And so I finally agreed, even though I feared you would be different from your kind. Set apart, perhaps loathed. Still. I swore I would not return to the caves, and I never did. I thought you would be lost to me forever, but you came to the surface. And now you have come to me.”
Again, images formed around them. His mother tearfully clutching the man’s cheeks as she begged him to understand. The man crying, too, hugging her fiercely, his heart already breaking.
“I sensed your trepidation, each time I approached you, but I also promised your mother I would not force you to come here, that I would not tell you who I was unless you did, that I would not interfere. So thank you. Thank you for offering me this opportunity to at last meet my son.” He truly did sound grateful.
McKell fought for breath. He wanted to continue denying what the man was telling him, but tendrils of doubt were working through him. He could manipulate time, yet no other vampire could. Not even the nefreti. His mother had been barren with his father, yet months along in a pregnancy between one day and the next.
This was surreal, a total upheaval in everything he’d ever believed.
“How can you be my …” His jaw ached, he clenched the bones so tightly. He couldn’t yet say the word father. Not in conjunction with this stranger. “Vampires can’t procreate with anyone but their spouse.”
Those green eyes softened. “I am … different. As are all my people. We live in this plane, able to open doorways into any world, any time. And so, during our months together, I returned your mother to her unmated days, though still my blood was not what she needed. And when we parted, I returned her as close to the day I took her as possible, without affecting her memory.”
Unbelievable. Impossible. And yet … true. Suddenly he knew the truth deep in his soul. There was no reason to lie to him, nothing the man could gain. And he could actually scent the affection and joy wafting around him. Scents he’d learned because of Ava.
And really, everything made sense now. Who he was, what he was, what he could do, what he couldn’t. His mother’s sadness. She had loved this man, probably would have died here, unwilling to drink from anyone else, but had left him. Had lived. For McKell.
His anger drained, the fight leaving him. “What do you want with me?” he asked, realizing his feet had been freed. He could move unrestrained now. He did, approaching the man. He reached out, shaking, and touched that pale white skin. It was smooth, cool. “What’s your name?”
Lips nearly as pale as his skin quirked at the corners. “I am called Viktor.”
So they shared a name. That, more than anything, proved his mother’s love for this man. “What do you want with me?” he asked again, adding, “Viktor.”
The glow in those green eyes brightened. “Time. I want time, a chance to learn about each other. I can show you all the worlds in existence. I can show you people and riches you could not even imagine. I can take you to the sunless vampire world when it bloomed like a night flower, the petals rich and silky.”
Time, yes. A little, he could give. A chance to know each other, he suddenly wanted that, too. “I have a woman.” His eyes widened as he realized he might be able to return to her. That he might not be stuck here. His … father had returned his mother to her world. He could do the same for McKell.
Some of the glow dimmed. “I have seen her, this Ava Sans. She is very lovely, but she is not bonded to you as your mate.”
“I want her to be.” His arm fell to his side. “I want to be with her. Always. I have to be with her. Not only for blood, but for … life. I’m nothing without her.”
Viktor’s head tilted to the side, and sadness claimed his long features. “She followed you from the café. She saw you disappear and broke down. The warriors who remained on the street appeared and attacked, because they, too, saw you take their queen. Ava was infected. She will die, and you will no longer need her blood.”
No. No! His knees almost buckled as panic infused his every cell. He hadn’t risked everything, his life, his happiness, his future, for his woman to die out there, alone, afraid. “Take me back to her. Now. If you won’t, I’ll reverse time again and I won’t come here.” A threat he would see through.
When his father next replied, McKell understood exactly where he’d gotten his ruthless streak. “Give me what I ask for. Time, a chance, and I will return the Schön to their world before they have a chance to infect your Ava. That will not keep them away from Earth forever, but as barren as their planet is, they will be too weak to return quickly.”
Ava would be safe, then. Ava would be healthy. Would live. “Before I agree, tell me something. What did you do with the ones I brought with me?” He could still hear them screaming.
“They are between portals at the moment, but again, I can’t hold them like that forever. I need to send them somewhere. Agree, and I’ll send them to their home planet with the others.”
“Ava—”
“I won’t keep you from her forever, McKell. Just give me time. Please. Agree, and you will see her again.”
“When?”
“Soon.”
“Soon” wasn’t soon enough, he wanted her now. “I’ll give you a week.”
“And we’ll learn nothing about each other. A year.”
Everything inside him rebelled. “A month.”
“Six months, and that’s as little as I’ll accept.” That purring voice had firmed.
“She will be healthy? Remain healthy?”
“Yes.”
McKell knew Viktor wouldn’t budge on this. Their determination was obviously equaled. “I … agree.” Damn, damn, damn! Six months without Ava. He wasn’t sure he would survive. Physically, yes, he probably could. He could sip from others. Still. He’d be weak and emaciated when he finally reached her and he would have to be careful not to accidentally drain her at his first true feeding, but he wasn’t going to allow her to be purged from his system. Ever. “Go one day over the allotted six months, and I’ll tear this world apart—and you with it. I don’t care who you are.”
