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Other words were exchanged. She couldn’t recall them all, but neither pulled any punches. She’d often thought her own words had been a thick smokescreen to disguise her sudden, intense craving for the man.
Fortunately, the shifters in the bar, who were some of his fellow-bikers, had grabbed him up to celebrate his return to life. Her gaze had followed him like a thirsty desert animal looking at a mirage.
She’d left soon after. Mastyr Rez was the one thing she could never forgive: He was a deserter.
With this last thought, she was brought back to the present within the continuum. Despite her disapproval of his choices, she had work to do on his behalf. Again.
As she made her plans, her nerves grew jumpy. She would have to travel the time-path until she found the exact moment the poison had been used on Rez. This meant she would see the perpetrator.
She focused on the past, on Rez and on the dead Invictus. The continuum obeyed her thoughts. Though she remained in one place, time moved in front of her. She was able, because of her training, to keep the pace slow.
She steeled herself as she approached the moment when Rez fought the last of the Invictus. She knew he’d been struck in his stomach with an axe, something she didn’t really want to see. But there was no other way to find out how he’d been poisoned.
When she reached the beginnings of the battle, for a moment, she got lost in watching him. A fury was on him, an unwillingness to let these Invictus take one more life.
The odd thought went through her mind that he looked like a god. His entire body was tense and alive.
When the axe appeared in the hand of the enemy, Rez released a killing wave of blue battle energy from his hands and arms.
She let the moment play out. She was sure this had to be it.
The swiftly thrown axe struck Rez at the same moment that his battle power hit the vampire. The latter flew backward and smashed into the street. Holly knew he’d died instantly.
Rez lowered his arms and grabbed the axe handle with both hands.
The time had come.
Holly felt a heavy ripple in time that knocked her sideways. She levitated to regain her balance. Though she’d never experienced this phenomenon while time-pathing, she knew what it was: Another time traveler had come for Rez.
Fear pierced her heart. She could feel darkness envelop her.
As Rez drew the axe from his body, in that precise split-second, a shadow figure, reeking of the dark fae, slid up behind him while in the time-path then breached time.
The fae stepped into the past so she was fully present with Rez and visible in time. She stuck a needle into Rez’s shoulder and delivered the poison. A split-second later, she slipped back inside the continuum to disappear.
The fae had long straight blond hair, braided down her back with peacock feathers. She wore an ankle-length tight navy dress, tall, dark blue and tan espadrilles, and a lot of bangles on her arms. Dark fae.
The attack had been so quick and from behind, it was no wonder Rez hadn’t been aware what had happened to him.
Holly only had a second to act or she’d lose the opportunity. She drew close to the puncture sight, entered the past, sniffed the injection site then returned behind the safety of the continuum.
She needed to remain within the continuum as long as possible. Once she returned to present time to prepare the antidote, the clock would start ticking.
She slowly opened the full length of her olfactory ability.
She had only a faint scent to go on, but she’d trained hard with Vojalie for this specific kind of situation. Over the past two years, she’d sniffed hundreds of dark fae poison concoctions. Vojalie had given her dozens of tests, pushed her hard. But she’d never had such a faint sample before.
Her heart hammered in her chest all over again as she struggled to separate the different scents. For a moment, she feared she wasn’t up to it and Rez would die because of her inexperience.
By training, she forced herself to focus. She began eliminating one ingredient after another, until the full recipe revealed itself. She caught the grassy scent Rez had mentioned.
At the core, however, was the most insidious poison of all: Realm Wolfsbane. It brought on paralysis of lung tissue unless treated quickly.
In real-time, Rez would begin to feel short of breath and his vision would go dark.
Now that she knew what needed to be done, she returned to her workroom while still in the continuum, then stepped into real time. The clock started up again.
She had less than two minutes to save Rez.
