Page 56 of Kiss Across the Universe
“Sausages, hash browns, toast, eggs and fried green tomatoes,” Aran said. “Five minutes.”
“Rafe is trying to put me to sleep with high carbs and fat?” Jesse guessed.
“Propping you up so you can keep going a while longer,” Aran replied. He pushed locks of hair out of her eyes. “You’ll have to sleep sometime today.”
She nodded. “Just not at the same time as you.”
Military thinking. Leave someone awake and alert at all times. “Rafe’s here,” Aran reminded her. “And Remi’s out in the shed, digging through the weapons cache.” He grinned. “So much for not needing a weapon.”
“Hedoesn’tneed weapons. Not what we think of as weapons. He throws things, remember?”
“I do. I saw him take out a sprinting man at 100 yards with a beer bottle, when I was fifteen,” Aran admitted. “Now I shift to high alert whenever he gets near throwable objects.”
“He’s also the outside sentry,” Jesse pointed out. “So I can relax long enough to eat and drink a gallon more coffee.”
“Come and eat, then,” Aran told her, and held out his hand.
She took a deep swallow of the coffee, took his hand and let him lead her downstairs.
Rafe was putting the two plates on the little table under the back window when they moved into the kitchen. He waved to the plates, and sat at the other end of the table with them.
“You are a prince among vampires, Rafael,” Jesse told him and kissed his cheek.
“I was born penniless and grew up a slave. Not a drop of nobility in me,” Rafe said, but he sounded pleased anyway. “All five are still sound asleep,” he added.
“Better than a baby monitor,” Aran said and picked up his knife and fork and ate hungrily.
“While I have the attention of both of you, there’s something I’ve been meaning to say,” Rafe said.
Jesse glanced at Aran, lifted a brow. Aran shrugged and kept eating.
She turned her attention to Rafe. “Yes?”
Rafe threaded his hands together in front of him. “No one in the family will ever tell you this, Aran, and I’m only saying it out of one corner of my mouth, and I’ll deny I said it if you ever try to claim I did, but the way you’re using time to make a living…well, it’s admirable, in a way. Sydney likes that you have no fear about using time, while the rest of us have crept around it, afraid to rattle the snake cage. You’re doing what she thinks we should do.”
Aran ate another forkful of the tomatoes, even though his appetite had abruptly diminished.
“Make money?” Jesse said, her tone cool.
“Use time, instead of pretending this extraordinary gift some of us have is a toxic curse upon the family.”
“Hell, Rafe, ifFarheard you….” Aran said, putting down his knife and fork.
“Which is why I’m saying thissub-rosa,” Rafe said calmly. “Thing is, Aran, you’re using it the wrong way.”
Even Jesse stopped eating.
Rafe held up his hand, probably sensing her sudden wariness. “No,wrongway isn’t what I mean.” He gripped his hands together. “I don’t know how many others in the family have noticed, Aran, but I have. You’re visibly older than you should be. You’ve been spending too much time in the past. And if we can see it, how long before normal humans—friends and colleagues—how long before they start to notice? Especially these days, the way people take photos all the freaking time with their cellphones…all it will take is someone pulling up a photo of you taken even five years ago, and being staggered by the difference.”
“People age at different rates,” Aran said dismissively.
“Are you being a life coach right now, Rafe?” Jesse asked. There was still a tinge of coldness in her voice. She was on the defensive because she thought Rafe was attacking him.
Aran put his hand on her wrist, to reassure her. “It’s okay,” he said quietly.
“Is it? Rafe is saying…what exactly, Rafe?” Jesse said, turning to him. “That Aran shouldn’t do any more jumping?”
“No, I’m not saying that,” Rafe said easily. He wasn’t moved by Jesse’s prickly attitude, but then he’d faced down Veris and even Brody, both in high dungeon and holding weapons in their hands, and he’d done it more than once. Rafe onlylookedlike a thirty year old Latino fresh from the provinces. “Iamsuggesting that you stop making the very long jumps back…oh, don’t bother denying you do that. You could step into the bathroom, disappear back into ancient Mongolia for twenty years, and return to the bathroom a minute later and none of us would even notice. Except that if we were to compare how you look now with how you looked five years ago, we’d judge you had aged by ten or fifteen years. So you’re making jumps and staying back in time. I don’t care where or why. But for Jesse’s sake, you should think about an alternative career.”
