Twin Speex: Time Traitors Book II by Padgett Lively

so sure…
    Odell was confident that the vagrant in question was no old wino confused with too much drink. Perhaps they would find the gun after all. Maybe hidden under his mattress at home or thrown into a dumpster a few blocks from the studio. He had to move quickly.
    Odell leaned his head back against the wall. Ivy had looked up at him, her eyes intent and pain gouging deep furrows in her forehead.
    “ …proditoris aevus .”
    She had used the last of her strength to pull the delicate gold chain with its circular pendant from around her neck and press it into Odell’s hand.
    Even through his shock, Odell knew he would be searched. And while the pendant was innocuous enough, it could still be held for several days before being released back to him. So he had shoved it in between two volumes on the shelf behind his mother’s head before the police arrived.
    Odell slid down to the floor and crawled over to the bookshelf. He studiously ignored the large bloodstain beside him as he pulled one of the books from its place. The necklace fell to the carpeted floor where it lay glittering in the darkness.
    He had seen it almost every day of his life adorning his mother’s long, slender neck. She never took it off. Odell picked it up, stuffed it into his pocket, and quickly stood as he prepared to leave.
    The room spun, and he dropped abruptly back to the floor again. He breathed deeply and shut his eyes as he tried to ignore his churning stomach. Odell knew the signs of a trans-dimensional shift. Stronger than a poste me , it signaled a change in the timeline that could last for hours or even days. He never knew. He only knew that they had become more frequent, and that Ettie could now feel them to some extent.
    Odell didn’t understand why he or Ettie were conscious of an effect that seemed to strike no one else as particularly odd. It was one of the many questions he was going to put to his mother when he had found her near death in this very office.
    He brought his hands, now encased in black leather gloves, to brace against the shelves and pushed himself off the floor. His tennis shoes had been replaced by ankle-high boots, and the hoodie had morphed into a lightweight wool coat. He thrust his hand into his trouser pocket to assure himself that the necklace was still there.
    His surroundings had changed to reflect a more derelict building. Paint peeled from the walls and dust covered the floor and furniture. Thankfully, the bloodstain was not there.
    The sound of sirens didn’t surprise him. In this timeline, he was most definitely a wanted man. How they could even know he was in the building was beyond his comprehension. He only knew he had to move and fast.
    Odell glanced quickly out the window to assess the situation. A paddy wagon and patrol “cruiser” were out front of the building. The wagon was pulled by two large draft horses, but the cruiser was propelled by a powerful steam engine. In fact, the engine comprised over half the size of the vehicle. It was built to carry only two officers, and speed was its primary function. It had the high grill and bumper of an old Chrysler Saratoga, but almost no space separated that from the windshield and the bench seat behind it. The engine was attached to the back with a dizzying array of wires and two large exhaust pipes bounded it on both sides. It had a dune buggy feel with its small front tires and much larger back ones. Although levers provided rather imprecise steering, the cruiser was indeed fast. It created short bursts of speed before slowing down to cool and recharge for another burst. It was rare that it didn’t catch a running man, or horse, for that matter, within the first burst.
    Odell cursed under his breath. They weren’t playing games. Only one option was open to him now. He saw an officer exit the vehicle and knew the other one was likely already in the building. He raced out of the office and turned down the corridor toward the stairwell.
    “Halt!