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  I’m up there, he thought. The younger me—the boy Shad who had visions of the “pretty lady with green eyes.”

  Back then he’d had white-blond hair and black eyes—the opposite of his present coloring. It was a peculiar trait of Shadow Twins that their eye and hair coloring reversed when they hit puberty. But now, in this time frame, he was still a little boy. So young…so innocent…

  He wondered what his younger self would think if he could see him now and was glad that he couldn’t. Not that he could risk going near his younger self—the Time Warden had warned specifically against it, just as he had told Shad he needed to stay away from any timeline where he existed at more than one time, which was one reason he was in such a hurry to get Harper to the future.

  But it was just as well. The younger Shad would be traumatized if he saw the way present-day Shad manhandled the “pretty lady.” The way he stripped Harper bare while she cried and pleaded with him not to.

  Shad took a breath and hardened his resolve. It twisted his heart every time, but he couldn’t let Harper be permanently marked during the loop. Stripping her was for her own good. She…

  His thought trailed off and his eyes widened.

  For the first time ever, in the hundreds of loops and dozens on dozens of twisting paths those time-loops had taken, Harper was taking off her own clothes.

  “Harper?” He could scarcely believe it. He’d been certain that he’d seen every possible path play out and in every single one of them he was forced to subdue and strip her before they could loop. How could it be she was voluntarily undressing herself?

  “What?” She looked up at him, half-fearful, half-defiant. “You said take off my clothes, so I’m taking them off. Did you change your mind?”

  “No.” Shad shook his head wonderingly. “No please—continue.”

  “I’d ask you not to look but I guess that wouldn’t do any good,” she snapped.

  “I can’t risk you running,” Shad said, frowning. “But I will look only at your face.”

  He kept his eyes trained on her lovely features as she fumbled with her clothing, though it was difficult to do. He had so many memories of her lush curves… her creamy brown skin so much darker than his own pale tan…the way she offered herself to him and her salty-sweet taste as he knelt between her thighs to worship her with his tongue…

  No, he told himself fiercely. No more of that! It hurts too fucking much. Every time you lose her it’s like ripping out your heart. Stay distant this time, Shad. Maybe that way you won't lose perspective and you can fucking keep her alive.

  At last, Harper stood naked and shivering before him, one arm wrapped protectively around her full breasts while the other hand shielded the tender V of her sex.

  “What now?” she asked, her teeth chattering. It was a perfectly comfortable 65 degrees Fahrenheit or 18 degrees Celsius, but Shad reminded himself that she was used to Florida temperatures and it rarely got chilly here.

  He braced himself for the next part.

  “Now, we loop,” he said evenly. “Which means you have to be in contact with me since I have the looper embedded under my skin.”

  He turned his hand over and showed her the underside of his left wrist. The small, flat device had been implanted under the blue bracelet of veins by the Time Warden himself and didn’t Shad wish he could get his hands on that bastard. But it was too late for that—too late to go back and tell the Warden he’d set the beginning of the loop at the wrong place. Shad couldn’t do a damn thing while he was stuck in this loop except keep going, praying that the next time he lived it he would get it right.

  I’d better get it right this time, he thought, looking at the dull red glow under the skin of his arm. The glow had been bright green when the Warden had first implanted it. Over hundreds of attempts the light had gradually faded to blue, then yellow, then orange, and now red…the most ominous of colors.

  Because the looper was running out of power.

  This could be the last loop—the last chance, Shad thought to himself and felt his stomach clench unhappily. If he didn’t manage to save Harper this time, he might not get to try again. And that meant she would die…and everyone else he loved would die with her.

  No, I can’t think like that! If this is my last chance, I have to fucking make it count.

  “Come here,” he told Harper, who edged towards him warily, as though he were a wild beast which might decide to gobble her up. “Come on, I promise it will only take a moment.”

  “What will only take a moment?” she asked in a small voice. “I don’t think we should—”

  “Looping will only take a moment. And it’s too late to change your mind.”

  Before she could protest, he grabbed her and pulled her to him, wrapping his arms around her shoulders and back and pressing her tight against him.

  He heard her muffled squeak of protest at the abrupt intimacy as he tapped at the glowing spot on his arm. At first he thought nothing was going to happen—thought that this last reset had finally drained the looper forever and they were going to be stuck here in this time where there was nothing he could do for her.

  Then the air around them began to shimmer and the past, which was Harper’s present, faded away as they time-looped into the future.

  Chapter Two

  “Where are we? What is this place?” Harper stared around herself in disbelief and dismay. They appeared to still be on Earth but a changed Earth. The beach was still there but the clear green waves she remembered had been replaced by greasy black, as though the entire ocean was one vast oil slick. The air was heavy with gray smog and the only vegetation she could see was a few withered stalks of black grass along the side of the road.

  “This is the Earth under Hive dominion,” Shad said grimly. “Come on—we have to move fast before a Seeker senses you.”

  “A what?”

  But he was already pulling her through the rutted parking lot with its broken and crumbling asphalt, though where he was taking her, Harper had no idea. She just stumbled along behind him, staring at this strange new world in horror and trying to keep herself covered.

  He came to an abrupt halt in the back corner of the parking area and Harper almost ran into his broad back.

  “Hey, what—?”

  “Watch.”

  Shad put out a hand and pressed against thin air—or it looked like air. But when he withdrew his palm there was a faint shimmer and a door swung open. Not a house door, though—it was more like the door to a car.

  “What is this?” Harper stared wide-eyed. She wasn’t used to seeing doors appear out of thin air.

  “My ship. Get in—we have to get out of here fast.”

  “But…it’s invisible,” she exclaimed. “What are you, Wonder Woman? You have an invisible jet?”

  “It’s just stealth tech but it won’t keep them off our scent forever,” Shad growled. “Especially if they sense a fertile female in the vicinity. We have to get out of range. Come on!”

  He pushed Harper into the strange doorway and she looked around, bewildered as her eyes got used to the dim lighting. Then she registered what she was seeing. She’d seen pictures on the news of the Kindred’s vehicles—this was clearly one of them.

  There were two seats up front with a complicated-looking array of instruments. There was a living area in the middle of the ship, which was where they were standing, with a comfortable if battered looking couch opposite a narrow counter which apparently doubled as a galley kitchen. Near the back was a closed door which led to the very end of the ship—maybe some kind of a bedroom?

  This ship was different from the one she’d seen in the news-vid, though. That Kindred vehicle had been shiny and new with silver chrome sparkling everywhere. Though it was spotlessly clean, everything in this ship looked dull and worn and ragged—as though it was years old.

  “Not much to look at,” Shad rumbled behind her, making her jump. “But at least the stealth tech works. The Kindred haven’t made a new sh