Spartan Resistance (35 page)

“Do you know what is wrong with you?”

Rhydder’s breath heaved, as he fought for the air to speak. Kieran still couldn’t see much of him, even though his eyes were adjusting to the darkness, but he could see the gleam of his flesh. Rhydder’s face was covered in sweat.

“Go away.” Rhydder gasped it out, taking two breaths to do it. “Go far away.”

“Tell me what’s wrong,” Kieran insisted. “Or I’ll find out for myself.” He lifted his hand, as if he would lay it against him, the surest way of a direct and clear contact with someone’s mind.

Rhydder rolled his head back, until it rested against the wall behind him. It seemed to Kieran that he was exhausted. How long had he been suffering like this?

Anxiously, he waited for Rhydder to explain.

“I am Malsinne,” Rhydder said, as if that was an explanation and the revelation of a dire secret.

“So?” Kieran said.

Rhydder laughed. It was a short, harsh expression. “Everything they say about us is true. We’re addicts, at the mercy of blood lust.”

“So is every vampire I’ve ever met,” Kieran said.

“The synthetic blood satisfies all but the Malsinne.” Rhydder drew in a harsh breath and swallowed. “It feeds us but it doesn’t quiet our…hunger, not like it does for the others.”

“This is blood fever?” Kieran asked, appalled. He had heard of blood fever before, but it wasn’t something vampires liked to talk about. Not in blunt, direct terms, anyway.

“I can smell you,” Rhydder growled. “I can smell your blood.”

The alien sound in his voice made the back of Kieran’s neck prickle. “Is that what you need to fix this? My blood?”

Rhydder rammed his head back into the wall, like a man driven by dire frustration. He did it over and over. “Just
go
!” he ground out.

Kieran’s body tightened, the muscles braced for movement. His instincts were telling him to run, just like Rhydder was urging him, but cool reason and a growing sense of his new abilities kept him hunkered down in front of Rhydder.

He lifted his hand again and this time Rhydder just hissed. It was an animal sound and his gut tightened. “Shut up,” Kieran told him, his voice hoarse with barely disguised fear.

He gripped Rhydder’s neck, feeling the tight muscles, the trembling. He ran his hand up along his neck, to the corner of his jaw and curled his fingers around the back of his head. The long hair was wet with sweat and curled around his fingers like cold, damp tentacles. He ignored it. He ignored everything, including the weak effort Rhydder was making to dislodge his hand.

He dived into Rhydder’s mind.

Vampire minds were cold, still places. The first time Kieran had scanned one, he had thought the dark place he found himself in was dead, devoid of any sort of life he understood.

But there was life of a sort within vampires, controlled by their symbiot—another type of life. The symbiot held no intelligence, but instead had a ruthless drive for survival that was the source of a vampire’s metabolism. Kieran had learned quickly that to read a vampire he must first negotiate with the symbiot and establish a rapport, a détente that would give him access to the inner world the symbiot protected.

It took concentration, for the symbiot was a truly alien life form and Rhydder’s was stressed by the need for fresh blood. There were crude emotions radiating from it, the first Kieran had ever detected. Fear was the primary emotion. Fear of death, of being strangled by the lack of blood.

Kieran encompassed the alien mind and sent out soothing thoughts and felt the pulsing fear check…and then fade.

Then he was inside, beyond the protective shield the symbiot held up against the world. Rhydder’s mind was there for him to enter. A perfectly normal mind, but heated, the synapses rioting freely as the blood fever ran amok.

Rhydder was trying to control and quieten the urges. He was doing his best to stay on top of them. There was such strength there! This was an old beast he wrestled with, one that had been with him for as long as he could remember. He was tired and sometimes this battle seemed endless….

Kieran encompassed his thoughts, his mind. He began to sooth it, smothering Rhydder with calm and a blanketing peace, as cool and as light as winter’s first snow.

The frantic firing slowed, but it was a powerful lust and wouldn’t let go easily.

Kieran spoke directly to him.
What gives you hope?
 

The activity slowed even more as Rhydder worked to respond. It would take thought. Logic. Processes that would pull his attention away from the gnawing hunger.

Kieran didn’t expect an answer. Rhydder was too full of pain. Instead, he concentrated on calming the electrical storm of his mind.

He had no idea how long he worked at it. Time lost meaning. They were in a perpetual dark where even the coming day would not interrupt them. It took relentless effort to stay on top of the firing sparks of Rhydder’s mind, to keep them contained and to minimize them. Kieran won the fight by increments.

After what might have been hours, or bare minutes, Kieran held the last of the wild synapses with his mind and brought them to a halt.

Peace, broken only by the normal processes of a very human mind. He could feel Rhydder’s relief.

Then the mental shield went up.

Kieran was surprised by the sophisticated barrier. He examined it, his curiosity roused.

Stay out of my mind
!

The mental push was powerful enough to shove Kieran off his feet and through several meters of air, to land sprawling on the cold floor.

He picked himself up. Rhydder hadn’t moved. But he wasn’t trembling anymore and the gleam of sweat had gone. None of his features were visible in the heavy shadows, so Kieran couldn’t see if Rhydder was watching him or not. Except that he knew he was.

Kieran brushed off his hands and got to his feet. His legs were cramped from having been hunkered down for so long. “Pellegrino has it wrong,” he said. “You’re Malsinne and you really can’t learn psi talents. But you didn’t need to, did you? You already had them, even when you were human.”

Rhydder sighed and let his head roll back again. “Thank you for what you did. I appreciate that. But if you learned anything at all while you were digging through my mind, then you know it’s not wise to piss off a Malsinne when they need to feed.”

“You would still feed from a human, after all that?”

Rhydder laughed. It was a hoarse sound. “I execute anyone in my team that feeds from a human.”

And Rhydder lived by the same standards he held his men to.

“I know where they keep the synthetic supplies. Do you want me to bring you some?”

Rhydder pushed heavily against the floor, lifting himself to his feet. He moved slowly and each movement looked like it was painful. But he finally straightened up and held onto the rock wall next to him for balance. “By the time I get upstairs, I’ll be fine.” He spoke with the certainty of someone who had been through this many times.

Kieran knew there was nothing else Rhydder would let him do to help. So he nodded and headed for the door.

“How did you know?” Rhydder asked, just as he got his hand on the door handle.

Kieran turned. He couldn’t see Rhydder’s face in the dark but Rhydder would be able to see his just fine. “You were projecting. Mentally. It was overwhelming. I had to come. That’s what made me realize that you’re a natural psi.”

Silence. Then, “No one has ever said I do that, before. Project out like that.”

“No one like me was around to feel it,” Kieran replied. “Until now.” He hesitated. “Next time….”

“I’ll be fine,” Rhydder snapped.

But he was still clinging to the wall like he was afraid he’d fall if he let go.

Kieran didn’t push it. He had known more than his fair share of people with an abundance of pride, who cringed at the idea of another person helping them with anything. Rhydder would resent any more active assistance.

Kieran climbed up the winding staircase to the main villa. He didn’t wait for Rhydder because he knew Rhydder wouldn’t want him to. Besides, he needed to
move
, to work out the kinks and stretch his body. It had been a long night.

How did Llewellyn fit into Rhydder’s life? Rhydder’s affection for the old man with the wandering mind had been clear. Kieran recalled the far distant glimpse he had caught before Rhydder had slammed up the impenetrable wall in his mind—a wall that no simple psi talent could build.

So, Pellegrino’s nose for secrets had been right. There was far more to Rhydder than the addict personality his Malsinne heritage had bestowed.

Chronometric Conservation Agency Headquarters, Villa Fontani, Rome, 2265 A.D.

Mariana had enormous trouble falling asleep and wasn’t aware that sleep had taken her until her personal code alert woke her and she found that morning had arrived, along with it a baking heat that promised the day was going to be a record scorcher. She could feel the ache in her face, behind her eyes and in her bones, that said she hadn’t slept enough. She fumbled for the reading board on her nightstand and answered the call.

Brenden gazed back and she instinctively pulled the sheet up higher, even though he could only see from her chin up.

“Laszlo presented himself at the gates ten minutes ago. He’s asking to speak to Nayara, Ryan and Cáel.”

“All three?” Mariana bit her lip. Nayara had briefed her, very privately, on the silent exchange of leadership—that Cáel would be doing Ryan’s job while Ryan recuperated. But it hadn’t been announced publically. That Laszlo knew was more proof that he had come back here from a future where that might be common knowledge.

“He also wants to speak to you. And me.”

“Oh.” Her heart leapt.

“And Billy,” Brenden added.

“He asked for him by that name? By ‘Billy’?”

Brenden nodded. “Throw some clothes on. We’ll be in the big consultation room.”

Mariana clutched the sheet around her more tightly. She could feel that she was blushing, but Brenden had already disconnected. It wasn’t possible that he had been able to see that she was naked. Was it?

She scrambled to dress—to ‘throw some clothes on’—and the spurt of activity dispersed the most obvious symptoms of tiredness, but she could still feel the deep weariness in her bones. Later today it would catch up with her and she would have to
really
sleep, then.

But for now, she had no choice.

When she arrived at the consultation room a few minutes later, the door was shut. She tapped and pushed it open.

Everyone was already inside, waiting. Nayara sat in one of the chairs a few along from the end. Ryan was next to her. Cáel was standing away from the table, as if he was trying to disassociate himself from the agency business at hand, but he was in a perfect position to take in the whole room at a glance.

Brendan was sitting at the corner of the table, opposite Ryan, but he got to his feet as she entered and came over to her. “This may feel a little disorienting,” he murmured.

“It already does.”

There were two Laszlos sitting at the table. One sat at the head of the table and was clearly the focus of the discussion. That would be the Laszlo she knew the best. The one from the future.

Billy was sitting just to the left of where Brenden had been sitting. Brenden pulled out his chair for Mariana to use. She thanked him and sank into the chair.

Laszlo reached for her hand and picked it up. “It’s good to see you.” But he didn’t try to kiss her and she was glad he didn’t. She could almost
feel
Billy to her left, watching everything the other Laszlo did.

She withdrew her hand and put it in her lap. She tried to control the leaping of her heart and waited.

“We’re all here,” Nayara said to Laszlo. “You requested this meeting. We’re listening.”

He inclined his head. It was a formalized bow, Mariana realized. “I do thank you for agreeing to speak with me. I have all Billy’s memories, of course, so I knew that Brenden would figure out that I was from your future once he met Billy. I knew you would agree to meet me when I requested it. I even know why you agreed. I knew to the minute when I should arrive at the villa and announce myself, this morning. I knew, because in my memory, I have already done it.” He looked at Billy. “I am creating those memories in Billy right now.”

Nayara nodded. “We’re all familiar with time loops here.”

“Not one of this kind,” Laszlo said, his tone almost gentle. “In part, that is why I needed to speak to you. For the last twelve hours you have been worrying about the consequences of my jump back here. What history have I changed? What future have I jeopardized by pretending to be Billy?”

“I don’t think that is something you can tell us,” Ryan said grimly. “None of us can afford to know too much about our own futures.”

“Correct,” Laszlo said. “But this is a time loop that remained open until I closed it by coming back here and putting certain events into play.”

“Wait.” Brenden was now sitting on Billy’s left, He leaned across the table so he could see Laszlo clearly. “You’re saying you were
supposed
to come back here and screw with the past?”

“Yes.”

The silence that greeted Laszlo’s affirmation was a pensive one.

Laszlo spread his hands on the table. “Much of what I have done since I arrived here I
remember
a future Laszlo doing. I have been fulfilling that memory. It was imperative I return back here to this moment in the past and close the loop. It was the only way that certain events would be put into place.”

He looked at Nayara and Ryan. “I wanted to reassure you that nothing I have done impinges upon the agency, or any politics of the future. This was a personal mission.”

“Personal?” Brenden said sharply.

Laszlo looked at him. His expression was warm, even tender. “You don’t know how hard I’ve found it to be in the same room as you and pretend that I didn’t know you. That I didn’t like the little I knew. It has been a hard week, in that respect.”

Brenden just stared. He seemed to be dazed.

Laszlo smiled. “Yes, I love you, you great big bear. I
said
this was personal. I had to come back here and make Mariana fall in love with me, or our future together would cease to exist.”