Time Anomaly: A Time Travel Romance (Echo Trilogy, #2) Read online

  Time Anomaly

  ECHO TRILOGY, BOOK 2

  By LINDSEY FAIRLEIGH

  Copyright © 2014 by Lindsey Fairleigh

  All rights reserved.

  This book is a work of fiction. All characters, organizations, and events are products of the author’s imaginations or are used fictitiously. No reference to any real person, living or dead, is intended or should be inferred.

  Editing by Sarah Kolb-Williams

  www.kolbwilliams.com

  L2 Books

  101 W American Canyon Rd. Ste. 508 – 262

  American Canyon, CA 94503

  MORE BOOKS BY LINDSEY FAIRLEIGH

  ECHO TRILOGY

  1: Echo in Time

  1.5: Resonance

  2: Time Anomaly

  2.5: Dissonance (coming soon!)

  3: Ricochet Through Time (coming soon!)

  THE ENDING SERIES

  After The Ending

  Into The Fire

  Out Of The Ashes

  Before The Dawn

  THE ENDING BEGINNINGS

  Omnibus

  I: Carlos

  II: Mandy

  III: Vanessa

  IV: Jake

  V: Clara

  VI: Jake & Clara

  FOR MORE INFORMATION ON LINDSEY FAIRLEIGH & THE ECHO TRILOGY:

  www.lindseyfairleigh.com

  DEDICATION

  For my mom. Because.

  CONTENTS

  MORE BOKS BY LINDSEY FAIRLEIGH

  DEDICATION

  MAPS & CHARTS

  PROLOGUE

  PART ONE: Present Day

  Chapter 1: Sex & Death

  Chapter 2: Present & Past

  Chapter 3: Arrive & Depart

  PART TWO: Old Kingdom

  Chapter 4: Hello & Again

  Chapter 5: Farewell & Welcome

  Chapter 6: Give & Take

  Chapter 7: Enemies & Nemeses

  Chapter 8: Lemons & Lemonade

  Chapter 9: Hold & Withhold

  Chapter 10: Request & Deny

  Chapter 11: Reveal & Revile

  Chapter 12: Nothing & Something

  Chapter 13: Queen & Blade

  Chapter 14: Lovers & Wives

  Chapter 15: Supply & Demand

  Chapter 16: Grab & Smash

  Chapter 17: One & Only

  PART THREE: Present Day

  Chapter 18: Kat & Jenny

  Chapter 19: Friend & Foe

  Chapter 20: Death & Threat

  Chapter 21: Sand & Stone

  PART FOUR: Old Kingdom

  Chapter 22: Compare & Contrast

  Chapter 23: Pain & Gain

  Chapter 24: Oathbound & Awestruck

  Chapter 25: Revelations & Reservations

  Chapter 26: Will & Won’t

  Chapter 27: All & None

  PART FIVE: Present Day

  Chapter 28: Seek & Hide

  Chapter 29: Over & Under

  Chapter 30: Death & Decay

  Chapter 31: Warn & Worry

  PART SIX: Old Kingdom

  Chapter 32: Wives & Children

  Chapter 33: Over & Over

  Chapter 34: Can & Can’t

  Chapter 35: Will & Way

  Chapter 36: Give & Take

  Chapter 37: Practice & Perfect

  Chapter 38: Routine & Disturbance

  Chapter 39: Destruction & Sacrifice

  Chapter 40: Life & Death

  Chapter 41: Ashes & Dust

  Chapter 42: Destroy & Protect

  PART SEVEN: Present Day

  Chapter 43: Kat

  Chapter 44: Lex

  Chapter 45: Reunite & Unite

  Chapter 46: Want & Need

  Chapter 47: Beginning & End

  Chapter 48: Deception & Conception

  Chapter 49: Take & Give

  Chapter 50: Now & Always

  GLOSSARY

  CAN’T GET ENOUGH OF LEX & MARCUS?

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  MAPS & CHARTS

  PROLOGUE

  The Delta, Egypt

  c. 3500 BCE

  “Quiet, girl,” Apep said. Sick of the young Nejerette’s whimpers, he lashed out with his arm, backhanding her across the face. She fell on the cavern floor in a heap of shapely limbs and bruised flesh. He grinned.

  The young Nejerette was pretty enough now, in her pre-manifestation state, but he saw the potential for true beauty hidden beneath her thinning mask of humanity. There was just enough time left before she manifested completely . . . just enough time for her to conceive and bear his child and pass on her beauty to the first-ever offspring of a union between two Nejerets. Just enough time . . .

  Apep sneered. She would make a decent enough mother to his new host body, but he cared less about how attractive that body might be and more about the power it was certain to contain. Finally, he would take one giant step closer to defeating Re, to being in control . . . to unmaking everything.

  “Please,” the young Nejerette whispered. “No more.” She pulled her legs up in front of her, hugging them to her chest in a pathetic attempt to hide herself from him.

  It was useless; he’d already seen all of her. He’d already done what needed to be done. If she wasn’t with child by now, it would be too late. He would have to dispose of her, as he’d done with his other failed attempts, and start over.

  “Your depths of depravity never cease to amaze me,” a woman said from behind Apep, her voice oddly accented and laced with scorn.

  He spun around, pulling an obsidian dagger from his woven leather belt.

  The intruder, a striking Nejerette, stood in the mouth of the cavern. Behind her, the sky shone with silvery starlight, but not even the heavens could compete with her eyes. They were aglow with fire. With power. He could feel it writhing beneath her skin, seeking a way to expand out into the physical plane. He needed that power.

  Apep licked his lips, overtaken by an uncontrollable hunger, and took a step toward the stranger. “Who are you?” he hissed. He would rip her apart. He would consume her . . . possess her. He would have her power.

  The Nejerette sneered. “You are pathetic, Apep.”

  Apep stumbled. He wasn’t pathetic. He glanced at his pre-manifestation Nejerette, sniveling against the cavern wall. She was pathetic, not him. Who was this woman—this imposter—to call him, a Netjer, one of the original universal powers, pathetic? He would eviscerate her.

  With a bark of laughter, the Nejerette raised her hand, and a tangle of vines made of nothing of this world burst up from the cavern floor and snaked around Apep’s legs, restraining him. “You disgust me. If I could erase you from existence…”

  His lips retracted, and a vicious snarl clawed its way up his throat.

  “But you are needed in the future”—she crossed her arms over her chest—“so all I can do is take young Aset away from you and erase all of your memories of her and what you have done to her . . . and all memory of me, of course.” The Nejerette scanned him from head to toe. “And your host body’s memories as well, since he invited you to possess him in the first place.” She smiled, but there was only vengeance in her eyes. “And I think I shall leave you trapped in that body for a little while longer.”

  The otherworldly vines climbed higher, capturing Apep’s arms and trapping them against his body. He struggled against them, but they only constricted, securing their hold on him.

  The Nejerette took several steps, closing the distance between them. She raised her hand and touched her fingertips to Apep’s forehead. Her eyes narrowed. “It is a fitting punishment that your freedom will mean his death, but it is
not enough. I think I shall add some memories of intense pain as well.” She sighed. “Though I fear that, too, will not be enough. Nothing will change what must come.”

  Apep felt the barely contained power within the Nejerette swell, and a searing pain slithered into his head. For a while—minutes, hours, days, or possibly years—all he knew was pain.

  PART ONE

  Cairo, Egypt

  Present Day

  “. . . know this, Heru:

  however much time stands between us,

  however much distance separates us,

  I will find my way back to you.

  I will return to you . . .”

  —taken from the Hall of Lex, Nejeret Oasis, Old Kingdom, c. 2180 BCE

  1

  Sex & Death

  “I swear to some god who isn’t you, Marcus,” I said, closing my eyes and relaxing into our suite’s massive Jacuzzi tub. “If you don’t get that cute butt of yours in here right now . . .”

  “You’ll do what, Little Ivanov?” Marcus said from the doorway, his low, silken voice and enticing accent heightening my anticipation.

  Keeping my eyes closed, I let the corners of my lips curve upward. The things that man can do to me with only his voice . . .

  I shook my head ever so slowly and slouched a little lower in the oval tub, the almost-too-hot water scented with the tiniest drop of vanilla essential oil. Over the past week, this tub had become one of my favorite things about our rooms in the Council’s Cairo palace; the Florence Palazzo had been stunning, but its accommodations were definitely cramped by modern standards. Thankfully, the Cairo palace, though nearly as old as the Palazzo, didn’t suffer from the same historical handicap.

  I’d only just left Marcus’s side to sink into the water, but even a minute away from the man I was quite literally addicted to, whose bonding pheromones were as vital to my survival as oxygen, was a minute too long. Our bond was both emotional and physiological, and it was both the most wondrous and the most terrifying thing I’d ever experienced.

  Marcus’s shoes squeaked faintly on the polished marble floor as he entered the palatial bathroom, which meant he was still wearing shoes . . . which meant he was still fully dressed. Damn.

  I sighed and opened my eyes just as he stopped at the foot of the tub. He was staring down at me, his golden irises burning with desire. But he wasn’t showing any intention of shedding his gray slacks or pristine white, button-down shirt, of revealing the sculpted masculine body the clothing tried, and failed miserably, to conceal.

  “You’re not actually going to join me, are you?” I stuck out my lower lip, just a bit.

  One side of Marcus’s mouth quirked, and he narrowed his eyes. “That depends.”

  “On . . . ?”

  He inhaled deeply and glanced up at the ceiling. “On what you’ll do to me if I don’t join you.” His eyes settled on me.

  I shifted my legs, teasing him with a different view. “I honestly think you should be more concerned about what I won’t do to you . . .”

  Something dark glinted in Marcus’s eyes, far different from the playful, predatory intensity that had shone in them only a moment ago, and an unexpected burst of anxiety twisted in my gut. I shifted in the tub, closing my legs and sitting up a little higher.

  And again, Marcus’s eyes glinted with darkness. “You really are a little whore, aren’t you?”

  I stiffened, and my blood ran cold. Despite all the reserved, almost stony characteristics several millennia had chiseled into Marcus’s personality, he was never cruel to me—a little frightening, perhaps, and sometimes frustratingly tight-lipped and other times shockingly blunt, but never cruel. My anxiety expanded, snaking out to my limbs and electrifying my muscles.

  As Marcus stalked around the edge of the oversized tub, an inexplicable instinct screamed inside my head: DANGER! GET AWAY! FLEE!

  Marcus knelt beside the tub, a cool smile doing little to soften his hardened, achingly handsome features.

  I caught another glimpse of darkness in his eyes; it slid around, lurking just beneath the surface of his black-rimmed golden irises in a hauntingly familiar way, like a ghostly parasite. I’d seen something similar far too often during the months I’d spent trapped in the At, the otherworldly plane where time and space mingled fluidly, as Set’s—my father’s—prisoner. That same darkness had filled his eyes, too. At the time, I’d thought it was Set’s sanity, sliding in and out of place.

  My stomach twisted, making me instantly nauseated. Marcus and Set now shared half of Nuin’s power; was it possible that sharing that power had somehow allowed the darkness—Set’s madness—to infect Marcus? Because this was most certainly not normal Marcus behavior.

  The chill in my blood seeped into my bones despite the hot water lapping against my skin. “Marcus? Are you feeling o—okay? Wha—”

  Tutting me, Marcus reached out and caressed the side of my face with the backs of his curled fingers. There was no comfort in the touch, no sensuality, and there was none of the electric pleasure that resulted from our bonding. It was almost like the man kneeling beside the tub wasn’t Marcus, not really. It didn’t make any sense, and at the same time, it made me want to scream and cry and run away.

  Bile rising, I fought the urge to panic. Whatever warnings my subconscious was shrieking in the back of my mind, this was Marcus, after all. He wouldn’t hurt me. He loved me. It took a colossal effort not to flinch away from his touch, not to hide behind closed eyes, not to shiver, not to scream. I stared at him, my neck stiff and my eyes wide.

  “The power is beginning to show in your eyes,” he said, and I started to tremble. His accent had changed; he now sounded very aristocratic and very British. He didn’t sound like Marcus at all. “Poor Alexandra . . . you cannot hold it forever. In time, it will erode your body until your bones are little more than dust.”

  My breaths came faster, and I gripped my thighs so hard that my nails cut into my flesh. “How—what are you talking about? Marcus, are you—”

  “Oh . . .” Marcus pulled his hand back and raised his dark eyebrows. “The love of your puny little life is in here, of course, and he’s not too happy.” His lips spread into a razor-sharp grin. “But he’s not in control right now.”

  I shook my head. He sounded like Set . . . exactly like Set. It was impossible. Then again, a lot of impossible things had been happening lately.

  Clearing my throat, I whispered, “Who are you? Set?”

  The man who both was and wasn’t Marcus flashed me a brilliant smile. “Not quite, Alexandra, though as far as you’re concerned, yes.”

  My heart hammered against my breastbone. “What—how are you—”

  He waved his hand dismissively. “Insignificant.”

  I had to swallow several times before I could find my voice and ask the only thing that really mattered at this moment. “What do you want?”

  “Isn’t it obvious?” This time, only one eyebrow rose. “I’m here to reclaim the power you’ve stolen from me.”

  “I didn’t steal it—Nuin gave it to me,” I said, somehow managing to keep my voice even. I had absolutely no idea what was going on, but I really didn’t think antagonizing this “not quite Set” being who was somehow possessing Marcus would go over well.

  “It matters not.” One second, his hand was on the edge of the tub, the next it was encircling my neck. He moved faster than I’d ever seen Marcus move, and I’d seen him move inhumanly fast on multiple occasions. This was something else.

  My heart rate quadrupled, but shock held me frozen in place. I felt as fragile as a porcelain doll.

  His eyes scanned my body through the water. “Such a pretty, delicate little toy . . . I’d hate to break you before I’ve even had a chance to play.” He paused, letting his words sink in, and met my eyes. The tainted darkness had completely overtaken the gold in Marcus’s irises. “If the bond still functioned while I was present, there’d be a way . . . I could let you live, and the method of extracting the power
from you would be immensely pleasurable for us both.” He frowned, then raised one shoulder in a halfhearted shrug. “But it is clear to me now that such a thing is impossible. Pity . . .”

  I shook my head. “Please . . . don’t—”

  Clenching his jaw, he took a deep breath through his nose and tightened his grip on my throat. Before I could react, he shoved my head under the surface of the water.

  I fought his hold, kicking and scratching at anything I could reach. The top of my foot made contact with the faucet and I cried out underwater, inhaling sharply. As bathwater filled my lungs, I coughed and sputtered, but it did no good.

  Set-Marcus was drowning me.

  And because of our bond, if I drowned, whatever was possessing Marcus would effectively kill us both. I’d watched Marcus die in an alternate timeline nobody but me remembered. I refused to let him die again.

  Instinctively, I stilled, and Nuin’s power exploded from my every cell, surrounding me, transforming me.

  The world fell away, leaving only a sense of warmth and comfort and eternal well-being. Gone was my warm bathwater. Gone was Marcus’s death grip on my neck. Gone was the impending threat of death.

  2

  Present & Past

  With a flash of smoky colors, the world reappeared, dark and drafty. I fell to my hands and knees on a floor that was both cold and hard, coughing up water on polished black and white marble tiles. I hacked, gagged, and retched until my throat felt raw, inside and out, like I’d been drowning in flames rather than bathwater. Flames seemed appropriate; I’d been drowning in my own personal hell.

  Marcus . . . almost killed me . . .

  Closing my eyes, I rested my forehead on a dry patch of floor and worked on catching my breath, uncaring that I was naked and had no clue where I’d landed in my panicked flight. Wherever I was, it couldn’t be far from Marcus’s and my suite; in all of my accidental spatial shifts, I’d never moved more than several hundred feet from my starting point.