Page 33 of Kiss Across the Universe
Alannah grew still and considered. He’d left her alone. Neven had “jumped” without jumping, the time he had been drowning in a lake. Marit sometimes barely flexed to jump. Even London, tied up in ropes and lying on a cold cavern floor in Revolutionary France, had merely flexed her hips to jump out of danger.
Could Alannah jump away, without jumping? Would the chair come with her? She was virtually holding it with her hands….
Smiling, Alannah relaxed and let herself slump in the chair. She could throw her chest and hips forward and initiate a jump that way. She could deal with the tape and the chair once she was home.
She threw herself forward as if she intended to sail across the carpet toward the door, and mentally jumped.
Only to fall onto the carpet on her knees, the chair attached to her like a turtle shell. Her knees throbbed, and her wrists protested, for the weight of the chair pressed her palms into the floor.
“What the freakinghell?” Alannah breathed staring at the micro-tufts of low pile grey carpet.
She gathered herself and jumped again.
Nothing. She remained on all fours on the carpet, which smelled of glue.
Laboriously, taking half a dozen tries, she figured out how to get to her feet, then crouch down so the chair settled on its four legs and she could sit in it once more.
Breathing hard, she glared at the tools and boxes scattered on the bed cover. Was it possible that the fleshy box stopped her from jumping?Farhad been trying to build a shield to hide people on the timescape, and he’d said he’d got the idea from the future, when he had experienced being beneath a shield that stopped time travelers from jumping.
The future…Alannah stared at the strange instruments and mysterious boxes on the bed. Recalled the odd way the suitcase had opened up.
The man’s exotic accent.
If he was from the future, it explained everything. Even how he was stopping her from jumping.
Her gaze landed on the black box on the bed. Was that the culprit? Could she reach it? Turn it off?
Alannah rose to her feet once more, the chair forcing her to a near crouch. She waddled a few steps forward, until she was beside the bed. The box was right there, but with her hands being tied at the wrists, she couldn’t pick it up.
Swearing, she shuffled backward a few steps and sat down carefully once more.
No other course of action suggested itself to her. Alannah went back to pulling at the duct tape, while she railed at herself to come up with a simple, elegant solution that would get her out of this.
That was when the man returned, the green bag slapping his leg.
Chapter Fifteen
Alannah fought to control thefear and panic building in her, as she stared at the green bag the man carried. He took it over to the bed, set it down and delved into it. He withdrew cellophane-sealed medical gauze and a plastic liter bottle with clear liquid in it. Alannah couldn’t see the label but she knew the shape of the bottle. Put together with the gauze, she guessed it was some sort of sterilizing solution.
Her gaze drew back to the flesh-colored box with the narrow black aperture from which the little blades had snapped out.
Her heart screamed at her. Her mind jabbered.
The man tore open the gauze, pulled up a thick wad of it, then liberally soaked it with the sterile solution.
Holding the soaked gauze in one hand, he picked up the box with the other and turned it in his hand so the aperture faced outward.
Do something! Alannah railed at herself. She flexed her limbs, straining the tape, but it gave no sign of giving way. As he approached her, she fought desperately against the bonds. Panic had her by the throat.
The knock on the door was loud and brought both of them to a soundless standstill.
“Who is it?” the man called out.
Alannah screamed. It came out muffled and wordless. She sucked in a breath through her nose and screamed again.
“Hotel reception!” a woman called through the door. “I have your bill, sir.”
The man swore in his native tongue. Then, “Slide it under the door.”
