Kiss Across Chaos (Kiss Across Time #10) - Tracy Cooper-Posey Page 0,81

Marit was at the stove, stirring a pot. “Chicken soup,” she called over her shoulder.

“And garlic bread,” Alannah said by the microwave, that pinged as she spoke.

Sydney pushed Jesse onto the solitary stool behind the peninsula. “Eat,” she said. “I’ll see if there’s any news.”

Marit poured soup into the bowl sitting waiting on the counter and slid the bowl in front of Jesse, and added a spoon. “You keep saying you’re basic human.” Her tone was chiding.

“I am,” Jesse said dully. She made herself pick up the spoon.

Alannah put the garlic bread in front of the soup bowl. “Not if you can shout across the timescape like you did.”

Jesse looked at her, startled.

Alannah was smiling.

“That’s why you all came?” Jesse said.

“You didn’t notice that everyone who arrived first was a jumper?” Marit said. “Even Neven, which will tickle him pink when he puts it together.”

Jesse tried to eat a spoonful of the soup. It was too hot. And the anxiety building in her gut was too overwhelming. She dropped the spoon back into the soup with a plop and slid off the chair. “I have to know,” she breathed and hurried across the house to the surgery.

The door was open and Sydney stood just inside it. Taylor hovered in the corridor and looked up at Jesse as she approached. “You’ll just be in the way,” she warned.

“I’ll stay back. I can’t just wait.” Jesse moved around her and edged into the room.

Sydney must have gone back to Granada on her way to the surgery, for Rafe was in there, too. The four men stood around the surgical bed Aran lay on. He was bare from the waist up, and the spotlight was trained upon the ugly wound in his side.

Two doctors, two scrub nurses and all of them looked grave. Alexander watched the readouts on the vitals monitor over the bed, frowning. The monitor was beeping, but the blips weren’t regular.

He glanced at Veris, who didn’t look any happier.

“If we could just stabilize him…” Alex said.

Jesse’s heart squeezed.

Sydney glanced at her, then shocked her by picking up her hand and holding it.

Jesse began to shake again.

“There’s always the last alternative,” Brody said, his voice hoarse.

“No!” Jesse said forcibly.

The four men turned to look at her, with a range of expressions from amazement to puzzlement.

“Why not, Jesse?” Sydney asked in her calm voice.

“He doesn’t want that. Not now,” Jesse said. She was dismayed to hear her voice break. “He wants to jump. He likes it. His whole life is set up around it. If you take that away from him, he’ll have nothing.”

Brody studied her, as Veris and Alexander looked at each other. “He’ll still have you,” Brody said.

Jesse felt the jolt down to her toes.

Veris cleared his throat. “Okay, Alex. Game on. You heard the lady.”

Alexander pulled the stethoscope from around his neck and tossed it toward the counter, then rolled his sleeves up even higher. “Jesse, Sydney said you shouted through the timescape.”

“If you say so,” Jesse said dully.

Alexander nodded. “Can you shout now? Talk to Aran? Sometimes, the thing that makes the solitary difference is the will to live. But he has to have a reason to want it.” His gaze was steady.

Jesse swallowed. “I don’t know how to reach the timescape. I’m not a jumper.”

Taylor said from the doorway, “I can get her there.”

Alex nodded, his gaze already pulling to Aran. “Do it. We’ll take care of the rest.”

Taylor tugged gently on Jesse’s elbow. “Come with me.”

Jesse followed Taylor into the front room. Taylor stood before her, her large brown eyes steady. “Once we’re there, you have to forget I’m with you. Do you know why?”

Jesse nodded. “I have to be myself. I have to be…real.”

Taylor gave her a small smile. “Better it stays between us, anyway.” She put her arm around Jesse’s back. “Ready?”

Jesse drew in a shuddering breath. “Yes.”

Taylor was just like Aran. She barely moved at all, yet the blackness slid over them. It wasn’t cold. It wasn’t airless. It was nothing.

Taylor?

I’m here. Call to him. See if he answers.

Jesse turned her back on Taylor—mentally, at least. She wondered how she was supposed to do this. But she had “shouted” at the jumpers. What had she done then? She had sort-of leaned toward the house. She had warned them. She remembered calling to them, not with her mouth, but in her thoughts.

Ah….!

Jesse gathered her energy, as she had before, and in her mind, called out to Aran. It was inarticulate. Formless. But she could