Kiss Across Chaos (Kiss Across Time #10) - Tracy Cooper-Posey Page 0,17
computer informed her the phone was not in service.
Jesse put the phone down, her heart thudding hard. If Taylor had tried to call, she would have got the same message and would have immediately jumped to D.C., but she was trying to respect Aran’s boundaries. At least she would be spared this additional worry.
Jesse picked up the phone again and texted Alannah.
Need to speak to you. *Might* be emergency with Aran.
Silence. No dancing three dots to tell her Alannah was swiping out a response. Nothing.
Then a rustle and soft exclamation behind her.
Jesse turned on the chair. Alannah stood between the two white sofas, wearing big sunglasses, a double-breasted jacket that crossed underneath her breasts, and it looked as though she was wearing nothing under the jacket. A very short skirt, over-the-knee suede boots that match the jacket in color, and sheer dark tights.
The jacket was pushed up close to her elbows.
“Damn, it’s cold here,” Alannah said in her rough voice. She tugged down her sleeves and lifted the sunglasses. “I can’t get him on the phone,” she told Jesse. “It just cuts out.”
“Me, neither,” Jesse said, getting up. “You jumped here blind?” The twins seemed fearless when it came to jumping around the timescape.
Alannah shook her head. “There was a bookmark. I hoped there would be, otherwise, I’d have to call in Marit and she just gets snotty about things like that.” Alannah rolled her eyes. “Big sisters,” she added disparagingly.
“I wouldn’t know. I don’t have one.”
“Sure you do,” Alannah said. “She’s called Marit.” She grinned.
“I’m older than her,” Jesse pointed out, trying to hide the ridiculously pleased grin that wanted to form.
“No one is older than Marit,” Alannah assured her. “Not even Far, and he’s fifteen centuries old.”
It was an oddly true statement. Jesse glanced at Alannah’s inadequate clothing. “Did I pull you out of something?”
“Party in Malibu.” Alannah shrugged. “Punch was sour, anyway. So, let’s do this.” She held out her arms.
“Oh, good, you know his apartment.” Jesse stepped up against her.
“Nope. Never been there. But I can see the map there. If we are going to do this, then we did do this, if you look back from the future, so there will be a bookmark. Ready?”
Jesse reflected that five years ago, that would have been a completely nonsensical statement. Today, she understood it perfectly.
Time swiped at them.
Chapter Five
Cold was the first thing that registered. They’d both left the house without coats, which was stupid. Jesse pulled her cardigan in around her, already shivering, and looked around the narrow tree-lined street. It was dark and threatening to snow—the smell was unmistakable. There was no one in the street. Still, Alannah had taken a big risk jumping straight here, onto the middle of the sidewalk.
There were few streetlights, strung far apart, which didn’t help spotting street numbers.
“There’s twenty-one,” Alannah said and strode over to the stoop stairs, climbed them with her very long legs and pressed the doorbell.
Jesse moved up onto the stoop behind her as Alannah rang the bell again. If she leaned over the railing she could peer in the front window. Under the circumstances, Aran’s privacy was the lesser priority. She leaned and rested her hand against the glass so she could peer in without the streetlights bouncing off the glass and dazzling her.
“It’s dark in there,” she said. “I don’t think anyone’s home.”
“Hang on.” Alannah pulled her phone out of her pocket, thumbed the screen and switched on the flashlight app and played the light through the window. She was taller than Jesse and could hold it over her head.
Jesse bent again and peered through the glass at the neat living room the light displayed. “This can’t be Aran’s place.” She pulled back and looked at the number on the door. “Do we even have the right street?”
“Why, what’s wrong with it?” Alannah shoved the phone at Jesse. “Let me see.”
Jesse raised up on her toes and held the phone up over Alannah’s back as she peered through the window.
Then Alannah straightened and took back the phone and switched it off. She shook her head. “It’s too neat.”
Jesse shuddered. The cold was eating into her face and bones.
From further inside the apartment, a light abruptly blazed out. Both of them lurched backward with breathless shrieks of surprise. Then they glanced at each other and grinned weakly. Jesse felt foolish.
Alannah pressed her finger against the bell once more, then knocked heavily.
Nothing.
“Fuck this,” Alannah said. She held out her arm. “Here.”