Page 59 of Destiny Reclaimed
His pulse ratcheted up and he shifted in his chair. Of all the possibilities that ran through his mind regarding what she might say to him, time travel was not one of them. Was this lady a loon?
If not for the fact he promised to hear her out, he would have risen off his chair and escorted her to the door. Instead, he lifted his arms from his lap, rested them on the table surface, and leaned forward. A gesture to show her he’d make good on his promise. “No, but go on.”
She sucked her ruby red bottom lip into her mouth and clasped it between her teeth for a moment before releasing it. “I do. You see. There are what we call Preservers, Protectors, and Modifiers. Preservers travel back in time to preserve history when evil travelers—Modifiers—try to change it for their own benefit.”
Good Lord, this lady was crazy.
Her head bobbed up and down and she blew out an exaggerated breath. “I know. It sounds ridiculous but please, just hear me out.”
The desperation in her tone had him nodding again.
“Preservers preserve their family line’s specific history. Protectors are assigned to Preservers to help them do such. Protectors serve many Preservers, not just one.”
“What does this have to do with me?”
The woman’s shoulders lifted with the deep breath she took. “You’re a Preserver, and I’m your Protector.”
He was already having a shit day, and the last thing he wanted was to have to deal with a crazy lady. “I’m sorry, but we’re done here.”
He pushed his chair back from the table to rise, but before he could stand the woman reached out and placed her hand over his. A spark of electricity shot through his system and ground him to the chair.
Gabriela’s gaze intensified as it bored into his soul. He froze in place. Her hand tightened around his. Her eyes seemed to serve as a portal to another world—another time. In the ocean blue depths of her gaze, a scene played out. He saw himself at the controls of a war plane, crashing into the bloody water. Then he was in waist-deep water helping a wounded medic onto a landing craft. Then boarding a navy ship.
Little pricks of pain tugged at his earlobe. He wanted to touch his ear, but he still couldn’t move.
Everything went black. When his vision returned, a new movie shone in the woman’s eyes. This time he was in Vietnam and watched himself at the controls of a Huey helicopter. Strange, since he wasn’t a pilot. The show continued. Soldiers loaded wounded onto his chopper. The loud woosh of the rotors wasn’t enough to drown out thepop...pop...pop...of the gunfire. His gaze focused on his bloody hand, then on a bullet hole in his helmet.
Pain ripped through Jack’s right hand and left eye as if the injuries happened in this instant as he watched this movie. Straining through swollen eyes he saw himself lying on a hospital bed. A nurse spoke to the soldier in the next bed, then turned her attention to him. The likeness of the crazy lady across the table from him and the nurse was astonishing, but not identical.
The movie reel went black, and he blinked, then it started up again, he was back in Vietnam. This time he helped carry a fellow soldier to an evacuation chopper. Unlike the other views, he remembered this clip as if it had happened yesterday. What he realized now though, was that the tiny woman across the table from him was the soldier who’d assisted him. She was dressed in a man’s uniform and strong as one, too. He watched himself glance to the shuttering blades of elephant grass a short distance away and followed the line of sight. Horror seized his heart. He gasped and snapped his free hand over the healed wound on his shoulder.
“I was there to protect you,” she finally said. “But you saved my life that day.”
“How did you know...why were you there? But you’re a woman,” Jack stuttered.
She released his hand and leaned back in the chair. “I’m your Protector,” she reminded him. “I time travel when you travel. It doesn’t matter where you travel to, I’ll be there.”
Between her annoyed glower and taut facial muscles, he knew he’d insulted her. He hadn’t meant to, but a woman combat soldier in Vietnam was unheard of.
This was bizarre.
“My apologies. I didn’t mean to infer you weren’t capable—”
Her hand flew into the air, cutting off his words. “I know what you meant, but I’m not here to get in a philosophical debate about that right now. We have more important things to deal with at present, such as getting your rightful past, present, and future back. If it was just you, it wouldn’t matter so much, but your family’s rightful destiny impacts so many other people and the future of the American people as a whole. We can’t sit idle and do nothing.”
What in the hell was this lady talking about? For heaven’s sake, his dad was a janitor, and he was just the manager of a dime store in small-town USA. How did they have any impact on the American people?
Gabriela leaned forward and squinted at him, forcing her penetrating gaze back into his soul.
Not wanting to be subject to any more of the outlandish visions she somehow put in his head, he turned his gaze away from hers and stood. “I think it’s time for you to leave.”
She didn’t move.
“I’m not leaving until we figure out what to do. It took a long time for me to track you down, and I broke the rules to do so. That’s how important this is.”
“Rules?”
“The rules of engagement for Preservers, Protectors, and Modifiers. Outside of time travel, we are not supposed to communicate or attempt forced travel. But I can’t figure out another way to get things back on track unless the rules are bent. Arthur is in the catbird seat since he was able to alter history—the future. He has everything he wants right now, so he has no reason to initiate a time travel. But you, you have every reason.”
