Silver Storm: Timewalker Chronicles, Book 2 Read Online Free PDF Page A

water. It was freezing cold.”
    “You were unconscious.”
    “Not exactly.”
    What the hell was she talking about?
    “It’s okay about my hair. I appreciated the effort. And thank you for being such a gentleman.” She sat up, tucking the blanket beneath her arms, showing a generous expanse of soft white skin and a long, elegant neck. The view was somehow more seductive now that the rest of her played peek-a-boo with his hungry eyes. Bandit growled a protest, then resettled on the woman’s lap. She laughed. Which was a good thing, because her preoccupation with the dog prevented her from seeing the red streaks he suspected were running up his neck to his ears.
    She’d been watching him the whole time? Listening to him?
    “Do you have some clothes I can borrow? We should really get going as soon as possible. They gave me Alexa’s address. But it’s really her husband we need. He’s the scientist. And we only have three days.”
    “Three days for what? Who’s Alexa? And what kind of scientist?”
    She stared at him as if he had two heads. “To save Chicago. Alexa’s a Timewalker like me, and I’m not sure. I think he’s a biologist or something.” For the first time, he noticed her fingers shaking. Bandit whined and bumped her small head underneath the woman’s palm. Her voice, when she continued, wavered a bit. “But that doesn’t really make any sense unless they think it’s something alive…” Her voice trailed off for a minute, but then she was studying him with a confused look on her face. “Didn’t they tell you anything about the mission?”
    The word “mission” pounded through his skull like thunder and he jumped to his feet. “I’m out of that game, sweetheart. Whatever half-ass idea you’ve got brewing in your head, you better get rid of it now. I’m out and they damn well know it.”
    She bit her lip and stared, clearly at a loss, shaking and breathing more rapidly. Acting as if she were scared. He wasn’t falling for it.
    “Who are you? Who sent you? And how do you know my name?”
    “The Archiver sent me to save Chicago. He gave me your name. He said you’d help me.”
    “I’m done with that. I don’t save the world anymore.” Once was more than enough. He walked around the coffee table and sat down on the thick oak inches away from her. He’d never heard the term “Archiver” before, but it sounded just like something the Rear Admiral’s goons would come up with. And sending her to tempt him? Brilliant. But no matter how enticing the bait, he wasn’t biting. “Why don’t you call whoever sent you here and tell them to leave me out of it?”
    Slowly, as if she were afraid he was a snake that might bite, she lifted her hand and set her fingertips against the right side of his jaw. With a butterfly’s touch she turned his face away and pulled back the towel so she could see his neck, where his skin continued to burn.
    “But you have the Mark.” She placed cool fingers over the fiery area on his neck and held them there. Heat rolled through his neck and shoulder like he’d just sunk into a warm bath with a willing female on his lap. His whole body reacted to the unusual sensation and he scowled at her.
    “It’s a burn scar, sweetheart.”
    “I see the scar. But the Mark is there as well.” Her dark hazel eyes rounded in empathy and shared pain.
    Irritated at the pity in her eyes, the heat still flooding him, and the telltale bulge in his pants in reaction to it, he pulled from her grasp and marched to the beveled mirror hanging on the wall inside the elegantly tiled bathroom a few feet away. Turning his head to the side, he pulled on his neck, bringing his scar and the odd shape now imbedded within it into view in the mirror.
    What the fuck was that?

Chapter Two
    “Look. I have it, too.”
    He turned back at her softly spoken invitation, stunned to see a Mark on the side of her neck that looked like an old hieroglyph in the rough shape of a circle, slightly