Fast forward, p.16
Fast Forward, page 16
part #3 of Time Captive Series
These were all the gambles we’d taken, but the only way he would ever let us go was if we were beyond his reach. The man’s arrogance and pride were equal targets, and the minute he lost, we counted on him fleeing the scene.
Worst case scenario, Dirk’s team had been ready.
We were deeply fortunate that Smithson truly lacked imagination.
“Stop,” Dirk said quietly into the mic. Like the others onboard, we all had on headsets. Only Dirk’s and mine was tuned to our own channel. “Stop thinking about it. It’s done.”
I summoned a smile. Yes, it was done. More, we had found our sanctuary back in New Zealand. The Blossom Foundry, and five other corporations tied to it, had surrendered all their tech and plans to a multinational board of oversight. More than sixty countries had come to an accord on this idea of colonization. It wasn’t all of them.
It wasn’t near all of them, but it was enough to make an impact. The new accord also opened diplomatic channels, and while politics were never fun, the laws restricting scientists and gagging them in all sixty of those countries had been or were in the process of being repealed.
While it wasn’t perfect, it was so much better than I’d hoped. There would be a board of physicians and researchers to vet my work. I’d turned it all over, even though Dirk and Hatch had both been hesitant. There were a lot of what ifs to my work, but the antiviral I’d developed would help the shredded DNA in those affected and repair the damage. It essentially rebooted their systems, and it wasn’t a pleasant process, but every single person who’d undergone the treatment in the last few months had survived.
All save one, but Oz discovered he had an underlying condition that he’d failed to report to us. That was the next puzzle to solve. There would be one after that, I was sure. We couldn’t undo what the pandemic had done, it had changed the world indelibly and forever.
It had changed us.
But we could give others the same hope we had found for ourselves. The helicopter angled toward the coastline, and the structure of the compound was already taking shape. Hatch had redesigned pieces of it, incorporating my favorite parts, but first we’d had to clear the site. We’d also held a memorial for those of Dirk’s men who’d been lost and made arrangements to send word to their families.
All of the families we’d reached out to had accepted our offer, and the local government had approved their immigration. Campbell’s sister Judith had actually been one of the first to undergo the therapy. She had messaged me that morning after Oz did her pregnancy test.
It was positive.
Even as the helicopter angled to land, I could make out Oz and Andreas standing down by the water. Hatch was up by the house, but he was already heading down the steps to meet us. It would take time to finish building the house. Time to spread the anti-viral and to begin reversing at least one of the consequences of the pandemic.
It would take time to bring some scientists and doctors out of hiding. It would take time to train more.
Time we had.
Because I hadn’t been wrong when I told Smithson that colonizing a new world wouldn’t fix our problems. We were the source of so many problems. But we were also the source of the solutions. We just had to work together, and we had to never give up. Just like my guys had never given up on me.
Everything else?
Well, it was a work in progress and I had news of my own for them, news I wanted to tell them when they were all together.
As soon as the helicopter touched down, Hatch was at the door, pulling it open, and then he was hauling me out for a hug. With a laugh, he danced backward in the sand, carrying me. The world fell away when he kissed me. Sometimes, though rarely, I missed feeling what he felt. But I also loved the puzzle of solving him on my own, too.
The toxin we’d used had an interesting side effect. Though we weren’t dead for more than a few minutes, it shut down the nanites, and that connection between us had died with them. The wind from the blades ruffled his hair.
While his hair had grown back thick and lush, it had also returned with two streaks of pure silver. He referred to them as his wisdom stripes. I thought they gave him a distinguished edge to his rakish air. After another kiss, he passed me to Oz, who cradled my face in his skilled hands before he kissed me lightly. There was a gleam in his eyes as he smiled at me.
They all did that now. They smiled so much more. There were new lines to their faces, signs of what we’d all been through, but the light in their eyes told me they thought it was worth it. Andreas tugged me away and wrapped his arms around me as he cradled me to his chest. Our security detail left the helicopter, and with a wave, made their way up the beach. Then the helicopter took off and we stood in a loose circle, with only the waves and the distant hammering at the compound to fill the air.
As I looked from face to face, I had to laugh. This right here was worth fighting for. Worth dying for.
More than that…
They were worth living for.
“Gentlemen,” I began, “I have some news…”
From the Journals of Valda Bashan
What happens in life writes a story in the flesh. Those words, you could say, were the mantra of my childhood. My parents were a Romeo and Juliet love story in an age where science and religion were once again on the precipice of war. Does that sound a little melodramatic? Maybe. To me, they were always my parents. I didn’t understand the significant issues confronting not only their relationship, but also their alliance.
For years, I didn’t understand the choices they made, nor how those choices shaped not only the life I led, but my own choices. I couldn’t begin to understand until I found a love like they had shared. I did then.
Dirk Rossi, captain retired. He remains my steadfast protector, always at my side, always guarding my back. He shelters our whole family with his protection. Hatch Benedict, the rogue and scoundrel who will beg, borrow, or steal whatever we need. More, he’ll design it. He embraces his imagination every day to create new wonders or just to fix the old ones. Though I still have some reservations about the rather ancient prop plane he ‘acquired.’
Andreas has taken to managing the community that has grown up around us, much to my chagrin. He arranges everything from events to sports to an actual book club. The kids love him. Oz spends his time working with me. We have a global team these days sharing that burden, which allows me to set aside my work at an agreed upon time each day so we can go out and join the family. Sometimes it’s just for meals, other times for films or games. Sometimes, we just go for long walks.
Our world is so much different today from what it used to be. It has laughter, music, family days, and sunsets curled up together. The guys still argue occasionally. Hatch can still be ribald, Oz focused, Andreas distracted with distant thoughts, and Dirk will watch over all of them with the same stern eye he affixes to me if he thinks I’m getting lost in my work.
Ten years ago, we made a choice that allowed us to begin this life together. The world is far from perfect. Birth rates have been rising annually. Multiple births are also up. Fertility, it seems, likes what we’ve done with the treatments. Earth reclamation projects are in full swing. Urban and rural areas alike are going through something of a renaissance.
The world is healing, and we have hope. As Andreas is fond of reminding me, sometimes, hope is all we need. Still, as I glance out the windows of my office and see my family down on the beach, I can’t imagine a better world than this one. Dirk stands studiously over the girls that I had just seven months after we secured the accords, while they argue over the castle they are building. It’s a familiar argument. They’ve had it so many times, I could practically recite it.
Their younger brothers, another set of twins, came along just two years later, and Andreas and Hatch have them flying kites. It’s kind of perfect. Oz is sprawled in the sand, sunglasses on his face and a book in his lap, along with the little boy who came along all on his own, three years after the second set of twins. An unexpected surprise and joy, he and his siblings filled my soul in and offered me the last piece of the puzzle that was my mother.
There was nothing I will not do for my children. Our children. We’re rebuilding this world so it will be better for them. We will teach them to work together. To believe in each other. To have hope. To never give up.
Most of all, we’ll love them.
And today, I get to tell them they will have new siblings come winter. Three little heartbeats flickered on the monitor when I ran the ultrasound. Just a little more love for us to share and to protect.
What happens in life does write its story in the flesh. Our children are that tale. I was my mother’s and my father’s.
You are all my greatest hope. You and your fathers are the reasons for all my tomorrows.
I am free.
I am exactly where I want to be.
Author’s Note
Two years ago, I began this journey and then paused. The pause was never planned or deliberate, but a product of the depression that had washed away the joy I took in writing. After so long a sojourn away, I admit to being a little worried about reconnecting with these characters.
In some ways, the books I write are very much a product of who I am in that moment. I was not the person I was two years earlier. So how did I forge this connection anew? Gradually, as I dug in, I realized that they were not the people they’d been in the memoriam either. They never had been. Not really. From the constructs to the moment Hatch gave her access to all the previous frameworks, they were all a somewhat idealized version of themselves.
The moment that clicked, I fell back into their world. While the journey was not easy, I fell in love with them all over again. In many ways, this trilogy is radically different from anything I’ve ever written. It terrified me, charmed me, and ultimately, stole my heart.
I want to thank the readers who have waited so very long for the end of this journey. This book is very much for you. And if you just discovered Valda and her guys? Welcome, I’m so glad to have shared this with you.
About Heather Long
USA Today bestselling author, Heather Long, likes long walks in the park, science fiction, superheroes, Marines, and men who aren’t douche bags. Her books are filled with heroes and heroines tangled in romance as hot as Texas summertime. From paranormal historical westerns to contemporary military romance, Heather might switch genres, but one thing is true in all of her stories—her characters drive the books. When she’s not wrangling her menagerie of animals, she devotes her time to family and friends she considers family. She believes if you like your heroes so real you could lick the grit off their chest, and your heroines so likable, you’re sure you’ve been friends with women just like them, you’ll enjoy her worlds as much as she does.
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www.heatherlong.net
Also by Heather Long
Always a Marine Series
Once Her Man, Always Her Man
Retreat Hell! She Just Got Here
Tell It to the Marine
Proud to Serve Her
Her Marine
No Regrets, No Surrender
The Marine Cowboy
The Two and the Proud
A Marine and a Gentleman
Combat Barbie
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot
What Part of Marine Don’t You Understand?
A Marine Affair
Marine Ever After
Marine in the Wind
Marine with Benefits
A Marine of Plenty
A Candle for a Marine
Marine under the Mistletoe
Have Yourself a Marine Christmas
Lest Old Marines Be Forgot
Her Marine Bodyguard
Smoke & Marines
Bravo Team Wolf
When Danger Bites
Bitten Under Fire
Boomers
The Judas Contact
Deadly Genesis
Unstoppable
Chance Monroe
Earth Witches Aren’t Easy
Plan Witch from Out of Town
Bad Witch Rising
Her Elite Assets
Featuring:
Pure Copper
Target: Tungsten
Asset: Arsenic
Fevered Hearts
Marshal of Hel Dorado
Brave are the Lonely
Micah & Mrs. Miller
A Fistful of Dreams
Raising Kane
Wanted: Fevered or Alive
Wild and Fevered
The Quick & The Fevered
A Man Called Wyatt
Going Royal
Some Like It Royal
Some Like It Scandalous
Some Like It Deadly
Some Like it Secret
Some Like it Easy
Her Marine Prince
Blocked
Heart of the Nebula
Queenmaker
Deal Breaker
Throne Taker
Lone Star Leathernecks
Semper Fi Cowboy
As You Were, Cowboy
Madison, The Witch Hunter
Every Witch Way But Floosey’s
Magic & Mayhem
The Witch Singer
Bridget’s Witch’s Diary
The Witched Away Bride
Mongrels
Mongrels, Mischief & Mayhem
Shackled Souls
Succubus Chained
Succubus Unchained
Succubus Blessed
Sinner’s Keepers
Kiss of Fate
Taste of Karma
Space Cowboy
Space Cowboy Survival Guide
Untouchable
Rules and Roses
Changes and Chocolates
Keys and Kisses
Whispers and Wishes
Hangovers and Holidays
Wolves of Willow Bend
Wolf at Law
Wolf Bite
Caged Wolf
Wolf Claim
Wolf Next Door
Rogue Wolf
Bayou Wolf
Untamed Wolf
Wolf with Benefits
River Wolf
Single Wicked Wolf
Desert Wolf
Snow Wolf
Wolf on Board
Holly Jolly Wolf
Shadow Wolf
His Moonstruck Wolf
Thunder Wolf
Ghost Wolf
Outlaw Wolves
Wolf Unleashed
Warning, this book contains aggressively snarky characters, a bit of twisted humor and a lot of passion.
Heather Long
Succubus Chained Chapter One
“Of all the things you choose in life, you don’t get to choose what your nightmares are. You don’t pick them; they pick you” - John Irving
I didn’t want to be a damn vampire. The screams echoed off the stone. The sound distant, yet anguished. It must be that time. In the two weeks since I’d been dumped into this place, I’d tracked the routine by when those screams began.
It marked the death and birth of a new day. The chill in the room barely touched me. I wouldn’t have minded better accommodations. Despite my expensive tastes, the damp, stone cell with its single hard bed, a sink that allowed water for washing, and a toilet in the corner they’d actually let me clean before I touched it—look, a girl has to have some standards—was empty.
I was also the only one in this wing, so the wrought iron door, reinforced with its magical protections and salted to boot, didn’t even provide me a view of the emptiness beyond. It was all shadows. The sconces in the corners lit up in the “morning” and extinguished at “night.”
I’d destroyed them twice.
The little bastards always popped back up.
Still, it was something to do when the mental retail therapy grew stale. Currently, I debated between a pair of Louboutins that were last season and the Stuart Weitzman that were just perfectly classic and provocative. Both had stellar heels and would definitely work for my ass. The red-bottomed Louboutins had gotten a little too common. Everyone wanted to be seen in them.
The screams climbed in volume. It would be nice if he could arrive without the serenade. The noise was hardly conducive to mood.
Still, if I went for the Weitzman, what would I pair them with? I was still mentally scrolling through the dress racks when I considered ditching the heels for thigh high boots and a mini-skirt. I had fabulously long legs, and I knew how to work them. Thigh highs screamed ‘come and get me.’
Heat and hunger vied for my attention as I shifted on the bed. The problem was that my fabulously toned legs were looking a little too slender. The thigh highs would hide the loss of tone.
Thigh highs it was.
The door grated open, and I didn’t bother rising as he suddenly filled the space. The shadows deepened, darkening the already pitch space. Seeing in the dark had never been my talent, yet I could make him out as easily as if the sconces were lit. Tall, rangy, and gorgeous, despite the mean streak in him.
“Fiona,” he greeted me as he closed the door and made his way across the cell. Not like he had far to travel.
“Dorran,” I mocked his deep, husky tone as I crossed one leg over the other. I wore the equivalent of a polyester jump suit in the most horrid shade of gray. The color was so drab, it blended with the walls around me.
