Edge of Time (24 page)

A
lec gave a massive shudder as his present self slammed into his previous self, merged and became one. Awareness hit him broadside. He was out of the rip. Back in his old apartment. But when? The vertigo hit the same time as nausea drowned him, a hundred times worse than the transport to Halifax. He groaned.

He hardly noticed Darius and Riley winking into existence beside him; he was too busy retching and reeling. He barely had time to register the thought that he must have really done a number on the time travel thing to feel this incredibly awful when a sudden stunning blow across his chin momentarily focused his attention on something other than his churning stomach.

He spun around with the force of the strike, his shoulder slamming into the hallway wall an instant before his forehead made contact. Temporarily stunned, he began to slide to the carpet, all thought momentarily stalled. Someone grabbed his upper arm in a biting grip and halted his descent.
What the hell
?

A woman screamed.

A familiar male voice yelled, “Stop it,
now
.”

Alec was dimly aware of shouting, but the burst of pain in his chin drowned out any interest in what was going on around him. It took a moment before his brain began to function again. Who had hit him? Who was yelling? He blinked several times, trying to clear his fuzzy vision. The familiar tingle of Tyon
willingness
flitted across his skin.

“
Stand still
.”

The grip on Alec's arm lessened somewhat and Alec braced against the wall to hold himself up. Man, did that hurt. He squinted into the semi-gloom of early evening in the dimly lit hallway of his apartment.

Darius moved between Alec and his father, letting Alec's arm go completely. Alec had never seen him so angry. The air crackled with tension.

“There is
never
an excuse for a man to hit his child or his wife.” Darius took another step towards Alec's dad. Despite the fact that Darius was a couple of inches shorter and slimmer, the bigger man stepped backwards, both hands in the air in front of his chest in an acknowledgment of defeat. The stench of sweat and booze oozed from Alec's dad and tainted the hallway in a miasma of failure and misery. “You're a coward,” Darius spat. “Just a stinking coward.”

Alec shook his head to clear it. The sharp pain was already fading, although a steady throbbing was taking its place. The sickness persisted, but he pushed that forcibly out of his mind. He had to pay attention.

Alec was suddenly pushed farther down the hallway as his mother shoved in front of him, barging her way between Darius and Alec's father.

“Stay out of the way, Marina,” Darius said firmly. His eyes never left Alec's father. His muscles visibly tensed.

“I don't know who you are or how you got into my home,” Alec's mom gasped, reaching out to grab Darius by the arm. “But please leave.”

“Yeah,” Alec's father snarled. “Get out. Whoever you are.”

Alec took a shaky breath. There was no reasoning with his dad when he was like this. And besides, his dad had boxed in university and had a wicked left hook as well as at least twenty kilos on Darius. He had to stop this and fast.

“Dad,” he began, his voice far wobblier than he would have liked. “This is Darius Finn. He's a friend of mine and–” He didn't get any further.

“Wipe that grin off your face, you worthless little–” His father swung again, reaching for Alec with a closed fist that would have knocked him unconscious had it landed. Darius pivoted and twisted simultaneously with feline grace. He grabbed the moving arm and, using the momentum, flipped Alec's father around and down. He landed on the ground at Alec's feet. There was a distinctly horrible crack. His father gave a sharp cry. Darius let go.

Alec's mom gave a shriek and dropped to her knees beside him. She touched his shoulder tentatively. Alec's father muttered something foul under his breath as he shoved at her. His left arm was clearly bent the wrong way.

“How dare you?” Alec's mother flared. Tears streamed down her cheeks. Her eyes flashed with anger as her voice rose. “You come in my house uninvited. You assault my husband.”

“Your husband belted your son, you stupid cow.” Riley was almost hidden in the shadows. She was on her hands and knees on the floor farther down the hall, almost in the living room. Her eyes were huge in her unnaturally pale face. She stared at Alec's mom, a look of disgust momentarily flashing across her features.

“Don't talk to my mom like that,” Alec said automatically. He couldn't meet her eyes. His face burned with embarrassment and anger.

“Get them out of my house.” Alec's mom pointed an unsteady finger at him. “I don't care who they are. And get out with them.”

Alec swallowed bile. This was all wrong. He was supposed to come back and turn everything around. He was supposed to save them all. Now, Darius had broken his father's arm, his mother was screaming at him to leave and Riley was convinced his entire family was a bunch of losers. Why on earth had he picked
this
moment to return to? Any minute a neighbour was going to call the police. He had to stop this.

“Mom,” he yelled. “Listen to me for a minute.”

His father groaned as he pulled his useless arm closer to his body. He swore loudly and pointedly at Alec's mother.

“That's enough.” Alec's jaw clamped shut. White-hot anger surged through his blood at the profanity. This was the last time his father was going to bully his mother. The last time she cowered and took it to save their skins. “Leave. Her. Alone.” He pulled the orb out of his pocket. It pulsed with brilliance as Alec's power flowed through it. The entire hallway lit up. “Be
still
.”

Both his parents froze in position.

“Once you've used it you can never go back,” Darius said with a deep and shuddering sigh. He moved to Alec's side and leaned against the wall, closing his eyes with profound fatigue. His blistering fury was replaced by an expression of utmost sadness.

Alec looked away. He faced his parents. He had to think this through. He had the power literally in his hands to change everything. He could make his father behave. He could end the drinking, the rages, the pain. He could make his mother stronger and less dependent. He could wipe her memory of all the sadness. His father's, too. Darius could heal the broken arm. Neither parent would ever know.

Alec glanced at Riley. Did she understand what he could do?

“We can't use the orbs, Alec,” Riley said hesitantly, as if the words were forming in her mind at the same speed as her understanding. “There's no place for it now. In this time.”

Alec gave his head a brief shake. She was wrong. He could fix it.

“The orb gives you an edge, Alec, and not just in time,” Darius explained. “It's a power to rule the world if you want to. An uncontrollable, unpredictable power. Once you've chosen to use it, you've chosen a life with me. With the Tyon Collective. You cannot remain untrained.”

“No. I'm not. I'm just going to …” Alec trailed off. He was just going to what? Wipe the last few minutes or days or even months, from his parents' lives as if it had never happened?

“We're not meant to have this kind of power,” Riley whispered. “How will you give it up once you've used it here? Now? What'll happen when you get angry the next time? What if you do something in your sleep?”

Could he tap into the Tyon power when unconscious?

“The fact you've reached for your orb tells me just how much you've come to rely on it,” Darius said wearily. “It's become a part of you, just like it's a part of me. You may have changed time, Alec, brought us back to before the first rip, but you haven't changed yourself. The power is still inside you and you know how to use it. Going back won't undo what you know.”

“I'll give my orb back,” Alec said, cringing at the pleading tone in his own voice. But his hand didn't move and his grip didn't lessen even as the words left his mouth. He couldn't pull his eyes away from his parents.

“It doesn't matter,” Darius sighed. “Once it's awoken inside you, not having an orb won't make much difference. You'll still be able to do a fair bit of damage without one. You have done. Remember?”

Alec's heart was pounding. He didn't want to hear this. It wasn't fair. After all the sacrifice and hard work they were back to the same place again. A feeling of inevitability surged through him. He tried another desperate appeal. “You can stick around. Teach me to keep it under control.”

Darius shook his head. “And that's gonna work? You're going to stay beside me, day and night, week after week, pretending to the world you're just some ordinary kid while focusing every ounce of attention on keeping the tiger inside you asleep?”

“We've changed.” Riley took a deep shaky breath. “I can't go home, either.”

“There really isn't a choice, Alec. We have to wipe their memories and let them go,” Darius added.

Alec mutely shook his head. Darius didn't know what he was asking.

“There was never any real choice,” Darius continued, speaking to Riley now as much as Alec. “I didn't want you to shift us in time for lots of reasons, Alec, but mostly this one. Giving up this future is harder now that you've seen it. But you can't stay here. None of us can.”

“I can learn to control it.” Alec could barely get the words past his numb lips. He couldn't stay. He had to stay.

“We don't have time,” Darius said. “They'll be on to us any minute now. We might have the edge on them for a couple of days, max, but a shift this big won't go unnoticed. Even if I wanted to let you stay here and now, I couldn't. They won't let you, even if I would.”

“Who are they?” Riley climbed to her feet. She swayed for a moment until her hand braced against the wall. “Who's gonna notice?”

Darius moved to her side and put an arm around her waist to steady her. She leaned into him with obvious relief. Darius stared at Alec across the narrow expanse of hallway, Alec's immobile parents between them. “The Collective. There are monitors at Home Base that are blaring right now. Trust me: Logan's trying to pinpoint the source of this as we stand here.” Darius took a deep breath. “But the Council's the bigger problem. They're dead serious about controlling time. They'll be after you, Alec, the second they figure out who did it. And it's putting it mildly to say they hate a shifter.”

Alec stared at his father's face. The anger was dissipating from his blood, and fear was taking its place. He felt it in his bones. Darius was right. He'd urged him not to move them in time, warned him the consequences would be dire, but he hadn't listened. He'd been too desperate. Too willing to damn the consequences. Even when he hadn't known what they were.

“It was the only thing I could think of to save us.” Alec spoke almost to himself.

“They'll be after your family if you stay, Alec.” Darius reached out and touched his shoulder for a moment, but Alec flinched away. Kindness was worse. “You love them. I know you do. So protect them, keep them out of the way of the Collective and the Council. Leave now, with me.”

“I …” There was nothing to say. All the arguments died on the tip of his tongue. He was a danger to the people he loved. There was no way he could be sure he'd never use the power to hurt someone in a moment of anger. A huge knot formed in his throat.

“If Alec goes with us now, can't you, you know, fix this?” Riley pointed her finger at Alec's parents, both still frozen on their knees. “I mean,” she waggled her hand meaningfully, “put things right. Alec can't leave knowing his father might beat the living crap out of his mom and stuff. You could help them.”

“Changing people's personalities is seriously against the rules, Riley.” Darius' voice was gruff.

“Yeah, like we haven't broken any rules so far.” Riley rolled her eyes. “Get real, Dare. The guy's only gonna mope about his folks for the next twenty years unless you give their attitudes a major adjustment. Cut him some slack. He's had a rough day.”

Alec could barely meet their eyes. Deep inside he knew Darius was right. Tyon power surged through his blood with every beat of his heart. There was no way he could turn it off now, and controlling it was harder than he wanted to acknowledge. It was only childlike thinking to believe that he could return to the boy he'd been a few weeks ago.

Alec stared at the immobile faces of his parents. Sadness, regret, love and longing surged through his heart. He couldn't turn his back on them and never see them again, no matter what Darius said. He just couldn't.

“I can help them both.” Darius' orb pulsed and mixed with Alec's own. “Start the process of healing. I can't guarantee your dad will give up the booze, but I can work on the depression. If his mind is clearer, he can fight his own demons.”