Whiplash (Through Time 2)

Aaibhe knew, Trevor thought at once. She knew the Dark Ones would break through. Even she could not stop a force of nature, and though it had been harnessed for an evil purpose by Pestale, the portal was still itself a force of nature.

The Milesian Army arrived and lined up with the Seelie Warriors. Forgotten were old wounds and differences as they united to defeat a common enemy—the Unseelie.

The Dark Royals were pounding at the entrance to the Human Realm.

Trevor could hear them—all his brethren could hear them.

Although his duty was to stay and fight with his queen’s forces, he would do so after he saved the life of his mate. He knew that without Jazmine Decker his life would be over. He could not live on without her. She came first, before all others. Before anything … she came first.

He would already have been searching for her, had the Orb of Time not brought him against his will to the queen.

This Orb had once been the possession of the Dark King, but now it had attached itself to the Seelie Queen Aaibhe. It would answer only to her.

“Danté,” Trevor shouted over the roaring portal. It was nearly deafening with the explosion of power beating at its mouth. He touched his brother’s shoulder and got right to the point. “I want to be here with you, fighting beside you, and so I shall be, but first I have to find and save my mate. You have enough help here, but she has only me.”

Danté raised a brow. “Your mate?” And then, in spite of the immediate problem before them, he grinned and slapped his younger brother on the back. “Well, well … our family is growing.”

“So you’ll explain? Jazmine Decker risked her life diving into the portal for us. You see, we thought it was the portal to the Human Realm, but Pestale tricked us, and now she is out there in another dimension.”

“Do you know which one?”

“I have an idea. Something about it looked familiar.”

“Use the Orb of Time—it is the most powerful one, and you should have it in your possession,” Danté said.

“The queen called it to herself. She needs it to help fight the Dark Ones.”

“Then I shall call the Lugh family Orb,” Danté said and put up his hand. As he was the eldest in the House of Lugh, it responded first to him. An Orb appeared, and he handed it to Trevor.

“There … tell it what you need,” Danté said and then shook his head. “And now, out of my way, brother!” He returned his attention to the portal, which had belched and spewed a blast of beastly, bat-sized insects as it tried to open wide.

Trevor shifted to a quieter spot and demanded, “Orb of Lugh, show me my mate, Jazmine Decker.”

He received a very good picture of her hanging from the clutches of a huge and prehistoric raptor bird.

He closed his eyes. Pestale would pay for this. He knew of only one dimension that housed this particular species, and he shifted there at once.

He arrived in the prehistoric dimension and hovered in the air, looking around for the dinosaur bird of prey. Though he saw many, something felt wrong. For one thing, he and Jazmine had bonded, yet he could not feel her when he reached out to her. He tried calling her with their mind link. Nothing.

He told the Orb again, “Show me my mate.”

Once again, it displayed a raptor bird much like the ones flying nearby, with Jazmine dangling from its claws. He watched as she vanished from the giant bird’s talons and saw that she had jump shifted into the air, hovering face to face with a giant anaconda.

He felt anxious for a moment but then saw her lift up higher, hovering well beyond the snake’s reach. However, a moment later, down swooped the pterodactyl. It caught her again and then climbed high and still higher in the air. Trevor watched, helpless, as the bird flew with her, knowing she was too high to jump shift to the ground. She needed more confidence, more training. She needed … damn, bloody damn … she needed him.

A moment later the bird was at its nest, where its young reached to eat what their parent had just dropped their way—his mate.

Trevor gasped with some relief as his Jazmine Decker jump shifted, but then the Orb clouded over again. “Show me!” he growled, but the Orb sighed and did not clear.

Right, then, she was whole and relatively safe, or at least using her wits and her new skills to stay as safe as she could be. “Somewhere in this dimension, but where?” he asked out loud and then looked around. “Where are you, sweet Fios—where?”

Something about the lay of the land was all wrong—it didn’t feel as though he was in the right dimension. Although the Lugh Orb was not as powerful as the Orb of Time, he asked, “Am I in the right place?”

The Orb took on an inner shade and then displayed the very spot he occupied. He was in the right place. He was, but where the hell was she then?

~ Two ~

A HUMAN SCREAM RESONATED out