Vane arched a skeptical brow. "That a threat?"
"It's a promise, Vane. I have my army camped on your doorstep to protect your family. I ask the same of you."
"I'll respect your trust, Celt. But only because I know how rarely you give it."
A look of mutual understanding passed between them.
Vane put his sunglasses back on. "You ready, baby?"
Sunshine stiffened at his offhand endearment. He might be cute, but she had no intention of letting him get away with that one. "You're not my boyfriend or my brother, so lay off the 'baby' thing, okay?"
He flashed a set of killer dimples. "Yes, ma'am." He held the door open until she walked past him. "See you after dark, Celt."
"Yes, you will."
Sunshine paused on the porch and looked about for their ride out of here. "Where's your boat?"
"I don't do the boat thing. It's loud and it takes too long."
"Then how are we going to get out of here?"
Vane smiled devilishly and held his hand out to her. "Trust me?"
Was he joking? "No, I don't even know you."
He laughed, a warm, rich sound that was seductive and charming, although strangely enough, it had no real effect on her. She could appreciate how appealing he was, but her heart and loyalty belonged to Talon.
"All right, then, Dorothy," he said. "Close your eyes, click your heels three times, and say, 'There's no place like home.' "
"What?"
Before she could blink, he took her hand and they flashed from the porch to a wooded area where a small trail broke through the trees. She had no idea where they were, but Talon's cabin was nowhere in sight.
Sunshine gasped. "What did you do?"
"I beamed you over."
"What are you, Scotty?"
He gave her a taunting look as if he were enjoying her discomfort. "It's correctly called a lateral time jump. I just moved you through horizontal time from Talon's porch, across the swamp to where my motorcycle is hidden. Simple."
"Horizontal time? I don't understand."
"Time flows in three directions," he explained. "Forward, backward, and laterally. If you do nothing at all, time always flows forward, but if you catch the Rytis just right, you can choose one of the other directions."
Totally confused, she frowned at him as she tried to comprehend what he was telling her. "What's the Rytis?"
"For lack of a better term, it's warp space."
When she continued to scowl, he pulled his jacket off. "Let me explain it this way." He held the shoulder of his jacket in his right hand and the end of the sleeve in his left. "Time is like this... If you want to get from here"-he moved his right hand-"to here," he said, moving his left, "you see how far you have to travel?"
She nodded as she noted the long length of his sleeve. The man had really long arms.
"The Rytis is essentially invisible waves that move around us all the time. Through everything on the planet. They echo and flow and sometimes they buckle. In essence, they do this." He compacted the sleeve between his hands so that his left and right hand were next to each other. "Now to travel from hand to hand, it takes a few seconds instead of several hours."
"Wow," she breathed as she understood. "So you can travel in any time direction? You can even go back in time?"
He nodded.