[Through Time 02.0] Whiplash Page 20

  She took a series of ‘jump shifts’ in the air, careful not to touch ground, and after what she assumed was about fifteen or so minutes found herself at the edge of a cliff.

  At the bottom of the cliff was a narrow, bubbling foam of water, and it was moving with a great deal of speed. Were there rocks beneath the foam? Was it too far to jump shift? Was foaming water better than hot lava? Ah, yeah … at least, she hoped so.

  Across the divide was what looked like a forest that had seen better days. Could she jump shift the distance—would it be cooler there? The trees were black and dead and the earth charred, but at least the lava-spitting geysers would no longer be a threat.

  She came lightly down from her hovering position and found the earth beneath her boots very hot. She did an ‘ooh-ahh dance’ a few times before she remembered her internal temperature. Still, her shoes weren’t made for this heat. She was going to have to make it to the other side sooner than later.

  She heard Trevor’s voice as he’d whispered to her just this morning, Think about where you are going … think hard, and your mind, which has the science, will pull up the coordinates for you. Think, my sweet.

  “Okay, Trev … I’m thinking,” she said and set her goal to shift to the other side of the ravine.

  She didn’t quite make it!

  * * *

  Trevor realized too late what Pestale had done.

  The portal they could see was not the one Pestale meant to use. It was a diversion. The other portal was hidden down the long corridor.

  The iron had depleted his ability to sense the other opening, and no doubt Pestale had installed a magical wall around it earlier, bringing the attention to the portal his Jazmine Decker had just flung herself into.

  Where would it take her? He was damn sure it wasn’t to the Human Realm. It had been a trick.

  He had felt the real portal before he had seen it. The Gypsy spell had not fooled Pestale earlier. The Dark Prince had known all along that they were there watching, and he had put on quite a show.

  Trevor shifted and tried to spell the portal closed, but its mouth just continued to widen, like a dark funhouse grin.

  The numbers of Unseelie were too great for him to cut down. Pestale and his two brothers were surrounded by their grotesque brethren, and he would not be able to get to them.

  He had to hope that the queen would locate this opening and get to it in time on the other side, for already Pestale, his brothers, and Queen Morrigu were stepping inside its swirling chamber with a flood of Unseelie at their backs.

  And his sweet beloved—where was she? He called for the Orb, and as he stood in the now empty dungeon, for the portal had sucked in the last of the army that Pestale had called upon, he demanded, “Show me—where is my mate?”

  “In trouble, my Prince,” the Orb said as its gray cloud cleared and showed Trevor Jazmine Decker falling into a rushing, foaming river.

  He closed his eyes and whispered in his mind, Jazmine Decker … hear me, beloved, hear me … hover, before you hit the water, hover … you can do that.

  And then the gray cloud returned inside the Orb.

  “What are you doing? Show me,” the prince demanded.

  “Something interferes … and, my Prince, I must transport us to the queen,” the Orb cried frantically.

  Against his will, he found himself transported back to where it all had started—Killarney Lakes.

  ~ Epilogue ~

  TOO LATE, JAZZ realized she could have avoided the deep plunge into the frigid, swirling stream. She could have hovered before she broke water.

  However, suddenly she found herself caught up in a human moment.

  As the rushing stream pulled her along, she found herself tossed and flung about. She hit a few smooth, algae-covered rocks as the raging river took her downstream.

  The current was strong, and she was temporarily confused; however, as the water’s force began to ebb and she felt the current’s pull lighten up, she realized she could jump shift out of the river and find some dry land.

  She swam for a few moments as she tried to regain her senses and saw a grassy slope up ahead. With something of an effort, she jump shifted, landed on her butt, and stayed there as she recovered from the experience.

  She knew that she had, somewhere in her new mind, the skill to blink her clothes and shoes dry, but just as she tried concentrating on this, something else caught her attention.

  She cocked her head as she watched the water in the middle of the narrow river begin to part. “Huh,” she said out loud.

  She froze in place for a fraction of a minute as she watched a red, horny, glaring thing that looked much like a prehistoric creature rise partially out of the river. Then she saw the little arms and then the talons—it was an oversized prehistoric raptor!

  Its pin-like eyes took a sweeping gaze of the surroundings. Those eyes were cold, and suddenly its gaze was directly on her. It was as though it smelled her presence. It was as though she could hear its tiny brain say ‘food’, just as she watched it take a flying leap.

  It was no more than ten feet from her.

  She didn’t wait for more; she jump shifted.

  However, in her panic she did not calculate where she was jumping to, and she hit a tree with a force that left her on her butt.

  At her back, she could hear its thunderous clumping over brush and small trees, so she jump shifted again. It still came at her. She wasn’t getting far enough away!

  Okay, she told herself, Hover—hover high!

  She was pleased with herself when she accomplished this and found that she was well out of its reach. Then a swooshing sound through the tree tops caught her attention.

  The next thing she knew, she was dangling in the air, flying, held in the talons of what looked like a prehistoric and a hairless vulture the size of a Cessna plane!

  “So not good,” she told no one in particular.

  *** *** ***

  Jazmine’s story continues in Through Time—Slamming. Read on for a preview …

  Life for Jazmine Decker

  is like nothing she’d ever imagined,

  and the changes just keep coming in

  Through Time—Slamming

  ~ One ~

  AN ASSORTMENT OF things could bubble up in one’s mind as one dangled from the talons of a prehistoric and flesh-eating, pterodactyl-like creature.

  What bubbled up in Jazmine Decker’s mind and out of her mouth as she looked down at the lush green landscape below was an Eden Phillpotts quote her mother had been fond of: “The universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.” She then screamed, very loudly, and while this did not help her situation, it did relieve some of her stress.

  She might be in the talons of a giant flying beast, but her Trevor had taught her the skills she needed to escape her situation.

  The landscape was changing faster than she could take it all in. She would have to make a decision fast. Yup, time to leave.

  She shifted out of the sharp talons, and just before she landed in the mass of tall wheat grass below, she hovered with a smile on her face. She gave herself a mental pat on the back.

  The feeling of accomplishment, however, was short lived, as an anaconda lifted itself high and slithered through the air to come face to face with her.

  Screaming was her first reaction. The entire jungle vibrated with the scream that came out of her mouth.

  Her next and instinctive reaction was to lift off and hover higher—much higher off the ground. “Never going to touch that land down there again,” she told herself out loud. Then she once again attempted to mind link with Trevor.

  Nothing.

  Jazz remembered the pendant around her neck. It had to work. It had worked in the year 1816, so why wouldn’t it work now?

  Hovering well above the huge anaconda that had not given up on her and had curled into a coil ready to spring, she took the pendant in her hand and murmured the ancient spell that had been
handed down from mother to daughter.

  She waited, and then a swirl of black mist opened up onto a bright yellow aura, but, as suddenly as it had arrived, it was gone.

  She thought she heard the queen’s voice whisper just before the aura vanished, “Be patient.”

  Unsure it actually was the queen’s voice, Jazz frowned with frustration. “What is the good in having this charm if you can’t get through to help me?” she asked the queen, but she did not receive a reply. She shook her head and sighed heavily.

  She was going to have to shift again and again until she could find a place to set down and shield herself.

  However, suddenly a strong swish of wind blasted over her, and once again she found herself dangling from a determined pterodactyl’s talons.

  She swung in the wind for a moment while she tried to get herself together and decide where to jump shift to. Then she saw them.

  She was being carried toward three hungry-looking pterodactyl babies whose wide-open mouths were as large and toothy as that of a great white shark.

  Jazmine Decker screamed with total abandon.

  * * *

  In Killarney, the Arched Monoliths stood regally at the edge of the Middle Lake. A glow emanated from and surrounded the gigantic sarsen stones. The air vibrated and pulsated with magic, both light and dark magic, and the earth objected to the clashing forces.

  The Seelie Royals could feel the power of Unseelie magic as it instigated tremors through the ground and shook everything within its immediate circumference. The lake bubbled and foamed. Opposing powers were contesting and challenging each other’s might.

  The queen stood, both hands out, palms facing the dolmens, as she silently chanted. She had to trust Jazmine to take care of herself, for at the moment she had a larger problem.

  At her back were her finest and strongest: Princes Breslyn and Danté, Princesses Ete, Radzia, and Royce, and Milesians Chancemont and Morgan LeBlanc. Together they formed a pyramid of power and magic as they concentrated on keeping the portal from opening.

  * * *

  They looked grim, ready to kill or be killed.

  This was Trevor’s first thought as he stepped through with the Orb.

  He felt a sense of pride, but he saw it was going to be one hell of a battle. The Dark Royals were already inside the portal, and in that regard they had the advantage. However, the portal was locked and, thus far, would not allow them to emerge. The Seelie Royals had managed to trap them for the moment, though it was a challenge that none of the Seelie Royals had encountered before.

  The laws of nature could not be interfered with in this manner for long, and Trevor knew what they all knew. This was a losing battle. The best they could hope for as Aaibhe’s army increased at their backs was to contain the Unseelie, to keep them from storming Ireland and beyond.

  Nuad, with his white hair blowing in the breeze, arrived and took up a stance with all of his Trackers flanking the pyramid of Royals.

  The queen’s Royal warriors were gathering in numbers as the moments swiftly ticked by, but Trevor knew their numbers were not enough—they would have to rely on Seelie magic.

  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
of Jazmine Decker’s mouth. She couldn’t seem to stop screaming as she dropped towards the pterodactyls open beaks.

  She knew that she wasn’t quite human any longer, but her mind went human on her as she fell towards the large mouth of one of the babies.

  Her new Fae blood kicked in and took over instinctively, however, and when she shifted this time it wasn’t a jump shift but an honest-to-goodness Fae shift.

  This time, she had actually shifted quite a distance, and as she stepped out onto solid ground, Jazz knew her Fae blood had triggered a map in her mind and located a safe haven for her.

  Jazz stood there, caught her breath, and looked around in awe. She was at the edge of a cliff on a very high mountain. A slab of flat rock about five feet wide protruded out about twenty feet, and she stared down into the ravine below and murmured, “Whoa.” Okay, she thought and stepped back, took a look around, and headed for the safety of the grassy slope of earth at the side of the mountain. Rock walls met her as they reached toward the sky—straight up to another peak.

  Wild and tropical vegetation filled the gaps in the rock wall before her. Lush green bushes and palms were scattered along the earth where she stood. Steam and heat engulfed her surroundings, which were so completely at odds with the world she had just shifted away from.

  Further down the ravine she could see molten lava pits spurting out their insides, and with a heavy sigh she plopped onto the grass and put her head into her hands.

  “Trevor, find me, baby, find me,” she whispered to him as she surveyed her surroundings. She scrambled back to her feet when she realized what lay behind her. A cave!

  “Huh?” she murmured, brushing herself off as she went forward to inspect this new find.

  So it works, she thought, just like Trevor said. A Fae thought of where he needed to go … and, bam, he shifted there. Earlier, when she was plummeting from the flying dinosaur’s talons, she thought what she needed was a cave to hide out in, and wham, here was the cave.

  How could she know there was a cave in this God-forsaken realm?