Darkest Designs by Dale Mayer Page A

This was still Storey’s bedroom.
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    The same bed, pictures on the wall, sketchbooks and paper tossed haphazardly around the room. So much of her personality permeated the room it made him smile. And then he froze. This was exactly like the first time he’d seen Storey’s room. When only her mother lived with her here.
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    What had happened to the time twist where Storey’s life had shifted, creating an alternate form of the reality she had lived? In the new reality, her father, whom she hadn’t seen in a decade, now lived as if he’d never separated from her mother. And the family’s religious beliefs and lifestyles were all different. For Storey, it had been incredibly unnerving. For Eric, it was just plain fascinating. Who knew how many realities co-existed out there.
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    But time was wasting. He stepped through and grabbed up anything he thought Storey might need. Some larger sheets of paper folded within a smaller sketch book and a sweater. She’d had everything she needed for the last trip to the Louers’ dimension, and as far as he remembered, she’d still had her travelling pouch during that last jump with his father. But…that didn’t mean she still had it. He still had his packets. He checked to make sure, but they were both there. Good. Now what else could they need?
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    As he rummaged through her desk he found several of her granola bars. Perfect! He snatched them up and wondered at the sensibility of going downstairs for more food. She had to be hungry and not knowing how long they’d be before getting out, he crept down the stairs and into the kitchen. The room was empty. He pulled cupboards open and studied their contents. Nothing looked familiar. He shrugged, and started filling his package with anything that looked edible. Then he opened the fridge and grinned when he saw a block of cheese. Tammy would be in heaven. As would her pet, Skorky. Those two had eaten anything and everything, but especially cheese.
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    He snagged the block and several apples and decided he’d taken enough time. He slipped out the kitchen door and ran to the treed area. Once under cover, he coded in Paxton’s lab. Within minutes he stood inside the normalcy of his world, his mentor still huddled over his key board.
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    â€œAny news?” He asked striding forward.
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    Paxton swiveled, his features brightening as he saw Eric. “No. Nothing.”
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    Damn. Even as he registered the swear word, he realized using it no longer mattered. The simple rules he’d lived by all his life were overshadowed by the urgency of Storey’s situation. “Then we have no option.”
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    He walked over to the monitor, noted the coordinates where Storey currently stood and punched them into his codex. “I’ll send you a message as soon as I land.”
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    Not giving Paxton a chance to argue, Eric walked to the portal station and hit the button on his codex to take him to Storey. The last thing he saw as the smoke rose quickly to take him away, was the stricken look on Paxton’s face.
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S torey stared as Dillon stood on the paper. On, not in . She groaned. She needed the portals to work. “Stylus, it didn’t work.”
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    No. It can’t.
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    â€œBut I need it to work. This one was going to Paxton’s lab. Would it be better to try for my dimension?” She searched through her packet for a portal to her bedroom.
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    No.
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    She sighed, trying hard to hold back the frustration and fear from overwhelming her. This couldn’t be. “Okay,” she said slowly thinking, “We came from the Louers’ new dimension. Then it makes sense to return that way. That pathway has to be relatively fresh – as compared to one which Dillon traveled so long ago. So in theory, we should have an easier time going back there.”
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    And she’d take that place over this one any