THE PERFECT TEN (Boxed Set)

turned, searching for Callan who was right behind me. I grasped his shoulders. “What was V’ru saying about C’raydonians?”
    Tony stuck his face next to Callan’s. “We gotta go. That thing takes off in three minutes whether we’re in it or not.”
    “Move.”  My one word shoved Tony out of the way. I pleaded with Callan, “I have to know.”
    He lifted his hands, cupping my shoulders, disappointment rippling through his voice. “C’raydonians lived in our world at one time.”
    Lived? “And?”
    “They were...after the K-virus...they...”
    “Say it!”
    “They were rabid. Dangerous to the rest of the survivors.”  He sounded guilty having to admit that. “C’raydonians were hunted to extinction by sentient beasts fifty years ago because everyone feared them breaking through the laser curtains protecting our cities. The last ones disappeared forty-five years before I was born.”
    “What?” I felt lightheaded. “That means–”
    “That you shouldn’t be alive.”
    “Why...how could I end up in 2013?”
    Tony yelled, “ Come. On. Rayen! ”
    The whining noise screeched louder. Wind swept from the open space and into the jungle around us, rattling through the dense foliage, whipping the blood-red earth into a frenzied, dense funnel cloud.
    Callan shouted down the wind. “The C’raydonians had time travel to the past. You may have been thrown into a portal in an attempt to spare your life and have been bouncing your way back in time. The beast that chased you is a sentient machine built to track and kill C’raydonians. It may have followed you into the same time travel portal.” 
    I shook with the news. My people were dead. My family. I should be dead.
    We were hunted...as dangerous beasts.
    Callan sucked in a quick breath and rushed on. “V’ru spoke to me in my mind before I left. He said many young people were lost in the C’raydonian Siege. He warned that the TecKnati would be thrilled to discover a living C’raydonian to imprison and run tests on...”  His fingers tightened on my shoulders, demanding I heed his words. “Staying here puts you, and us, at risk. You must go.”
    I didn’t believe he really thought I was a risk to him if I remained. Not the way he added “and us” almost as an after thought. “I don’t understand.”
    “I’m telling you to stay in the past. Where you’re safe, Rayen. If the TecKnati find you here, they’ll take you to SEOH and he’ll kill you.” He whispered, “Don’t come back for any reason. I don’t want you to die.”
    Tony grabbed my arm, pulling me around. “Now means now! The pod’s spinnin’ into view.”
    Out in the field beyond the jungle, a whirling circular mass of gray metal emerged.
    I let Tony pull me away to where Gabby stood looking as if she was going to bolt in some direction, but I wasn’t sure whether she’d head for the transender or back to the village.
    When Tony released me and pulled Gabby’s arm, she followed him. I fell into step behind them, ducking my head so I wouldn’t be swallowed by the winds.
    My insides were ripping apart.
    I didn’t care if I was C’raydonian. I couldn’t be rabid. Just couldn’t.
    At the edge of the field, I stopped and turned. Callan stood two steps behind me, as if determined to protect me to the last second.
    I closed the distance between us and reached for him.
    He yanked me into his arms, covering my mouth with his, letting me know in the most honest way he could that he didn’t want me to go. His lips embraced mine with fierce determination, just as he did everything else. His arms banded my back and hugged me close. All the turmoil and chaos disappeared.
    Nothing existed except this moment.
    A life I had more questions about than answers.
    But nothing could make me question what I felt for Callan. I might not fully understand it, but I knew no one would ever mean as much to me.
    Warmth burst inside me, but not like it had before. This time the heat that rushed through my body with the power of a tidal surge, threatening to consume everything in its path.
    Just as his lips were consuming me with every touch.
    Tony yelled, “ Raaayen! ”
    I broke away, regretting the separation as if I’d lost an arm or leg. “I will return. Don’t even waste your breath arguing. I’m coming back. That’s a promise.”
    I kissed him quickly once more and swung around, running across the field where Tony stood with his mouth gaped open and Gabby grinning. When I got to