Page 84 of Kiss Across the Universe
“When you aren’t all pretending to be human?” Kit asked. His tone was tight.
“Iamhuman. Alannah must have glossed over that point.”
Kit turned his head, questing. His gaze shifted to the doorway into the front sitting room. “She didn’t say much at all,” he said absently. “She knows how to keep a secret.”
“Glad to hear it,” Aran said. “I would still like to know why she spilled what she did, though.”
Alannah felt as though she should protest over Aran’s dictatorial attitude, but Kit’s alert posture and the way he was turning his head, trying to take in everything, made her put it aside. “What’s wrong?” she asked Kit, moving closer to him.
He shook his head. “I don’t know…” he muttered. “Something.” He moved toward the door to the front room, very slowly, as if he was being pulled there.
At the same time, the conversation in the kitchen halted, as if a switch had been thrown.
Aran glanced at Alannah. “What is it?” he said quietly.
“Can’t you feel it?” Alannah asked. She felt as jumpy as a hare, her nerves skittering. She followed Kit into the front room. Kit stood near the window, but not directly in front of it. He stared out at the open space between the trees and the edge of the verandah, his gaze moving restlessly over it.
Remi stepped passed Alannah, utterly silent. He stopped beside Kit and looked out the window, too. “Someone is out there,” he said softly.
“More than one,” Kit breathed. “Mixon has allies.”
“Mixon?” Remi repeated.
From upstairs, one of the children screamed. Two began to cry.
“The children!” Jesse shouted from the kitchen. Alannah heard her running steps as she sprinted for the stairs.
“They took one of the kids!” Remi cried and threw himself toward the front door.
Alannah clapped her hand over her mouth, to hold in any sound she made, as terror seemed to swamp her thoughts and turn them to mush.
Mixon hadn’t caught her. So he’d turned to even easier prey—the children of therealtraveler in the family.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Remi moved so fast thatthe air cracked, separated violently by his speed and slamming back together behind him.
Alannah dropped her hand. He wouldn’t be fast enough. She could see Iron Grey through the window as he stepped out from the trees around the chopping block. Another man stood beside him, holding one of the twins in his arms. The man’s face was absolutely passive, even though the baby was screaming and kicking.
Mixon was pulling the man to him, dropping his arm over the man’s shoulder.
They were going to jump.
Alannah didn’t think about it. She flexed her knees by the smallest amount necessary and jumped. She landed right in front of the two of them.
Her sudden appearance startled both of them enough that she could pluck the baby out of the traveler’s arms without resistance. She held Maggie tightly and jumped again.
The verandah formed around her. She had made sure that she landed well clear of the front door.
Remi bulleted past her, heading for Mixon.
Then Kit slammed through the door. He had his knife out, his gaze upon the traveler and Mixon, but he halted at the very top of the steps. “Back to Jesse,” he told Alannah. “Protect the children.”
Alannah opened her mouth to protest.
Six more people stepped out from among the trees. They were armed, and the weapons they carried looked like no weapons Alannah had ever seen before.
They were from the future, too.
