Page 83 of Kiss Across the Universe
Kit pulled out his phone. “If I turn this on, someone could pin point where I am.”
“I need the time to match the clock in the basement,” Alannah told him. “Turn it off straight away. We’ll be gone from here right after that.”
He thumbed the phone on, and held out the screen as it booted up. As soon as she spotted the time—11:23 a.m.—she nodded and bent her knees.
“One…two…three.” She jumped.
The basement, with her parents’three work benches surrounding the “arrival chamber” formed around them. The atomic clock on the fourth bench, pushed up against the wall, showed the time in a red, squared-off digital read out, each digit four inches high.
“Huh…” Kit said, staring at it. “Smart idea,” he added.
How fast he had adapted to the idea of time travel!
Footsteps rattled on the wooden steps in the next room, then the swing door was thrust open. Aran strode into the room and came to a halt at the end ofFar’s workbench. He clutched the corner of it. “You’re alive!” he croaked.
More people came into the room behind him. Marit pushed past Aran and wrapped her arms around Alannah and squeezed. “You weren’t on the timescape!”
“I know,” Alannah said. “I found a way to shield myself.”
“Neither of you were on it,” Aran said. “Kit disappeared the day before yesterday and I thought…” He turned his head away and pushed a thumb into the corner of one eye.
He’d thought Kit, at least, was dead, which would lead him to believe that Alannah had to be, too.
Alannah pressed her hand to her belly, to control the swirling there. “We’re fine, though. Maybe I…extended the shield? Like an umbrella?” There was too much about this she didn’t understand, that she would have to explore later.
She looked past Aran. “Jesse. I’m glad you’re here.”
“Kids, too,” Jesse said. “All under one well-protected roof.”
“And Rafe and Remi.” She smiled at them. “Muscle?” she guessed.
“Aran insisted,” Rafe said. “We would have, if he hadn’t.” He crossed his arms. “This hiding on the timescape business…”
“Later, Rafe,” Jesse told him. “It’s nearly lunchtime. The kids will get cranky if I don’t feed them, and I don’t want to miss the conversation.”
“Iwill get cranky if I don’t eat,” Aran added.
“Lunch for all the babies, then,” Marit said, and dug her elbow into Aran’s ribs as she passed him.
“Come upstairs,” Aran told Kit. “You’ve not had therealgrand tour of the house before.”
Kit nodded, but his gaze was on Rafe and Remi, as they moved out of the room. Alannah could guess why. He was reassessing them, now he knew they were vampires.
“You can park the pack in the next room, if you like,” Aran told Kit. “It’s secure, down here.”
“Hidden entrance?” Kit guessed.
“You never spotted it all the times you were here.”
“Wasn’t looking for it,” Kit said.
Alannah followed the two of them out of the room. Kit put the pack on the end of one of the old sofas taking up the corners of the casual room, and they moved up the stairs and through the closet into the house proper.
Kit turned back to watch Aran swing the door shut at the back of the closet. He just raised his brow.
Alannah could hear everyone in the kitchen, talking softly, interspersed with laughter. She didn’t feel like laughing, herself. The sick feeling in her belly and the tightness in her chest was increasing. It felt like someone was squeezing her throat, slowly cutting off her air.
“Come and get something to eat,” Aran told Kit, his hand on Kit’s shoulder. “Most meals are forage-as-you-need-it, here.”
