Free NOCB 070 - Time Raiders - Delilah Devlin - The Warrior's Touch by Nocturne

Chapter One
    Farideh Kalani gritted her teeth to keep them from chattering as she felt herself being pulled one way and then another while spiraling downward. She arrived with a jolt, her thighs spread over the back of a large black stallion, her body bent over his neck as the two of them thundered across rolling hills, the horse’s hooves cutting into grass and stone. Which would have been a problem before the time jump, because she’d never ridden anything larger than a pony at the county fair. However, now she reached down to catch the trailing reins, and forced herself back, pulling at the stone bit in her mount’s mouth.
    The horse gave a shrill whinny and a little buck, but Fari pressed her knees into his sides, and gradually he gentled, easing into a trot.
    She grinned, then raised her head and breathed the clean, brisk air of ancient Scythia. Heavy gray storm clouds were rolling in from the south, whipping up a wind that carried the scent of the sea, and salt she could taste.
    Glancing down, she noted she sat atop her horse with only a padded saddlecloth between her dark wool trousers and the animal’s warm back. Her boots were stuck in leather stirrups sewn to the saddlecloth. She wore an embroidered jacket trimmed in fur around the cuffs and neck, with a row of gold appliqués embossed with gryphons and lions along the hem. She slipped a gloved hand under her sleeve to check for the silver ESC cuff, her ticket home, and breathed a sigh of relief to feel its warmth against her skin.
    Grasping the reins with confidence, she trusted the skill that had been implanted in her mind, along with her new knowledge of the geography around her.
    If she didn’t make the fortress city of Tanais by nightfall, she’d be pitching a tent, of sorts, in the rain, tying together two cushioned saddlecloths with those leather stirrups.
    Although she had the knowledge to construct the tent, she wasn’t eager to lie on the hard ground within the tiny shelter, huddled for warmth against her current companion.
    Sergeant First Class Caleb McAvoy was already too smug and too sexy for her peace of mind. Speaking of the devil… The pounding of a second set of hooves approached at a fast clip behind her.
    “Darlin’, you’re pullin’ too hard on the reins.” As usual, the lazy Texas drawl managed to melt her and to irritate the hell out of her at the same time. He skillfully slowed his own roan gelding beside her.
    Fari gritted her teeth again, then aimed a cool smile over her shoulder. “Cowboy, I don’t need your advice. I’m now an accomplished horsewoman.”
    “Havin’ it in your head doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll instantly have all the confidence you need to use it— ma’am .”
    “Sergeant, you’re my support for this mission, not the other way around.”
    “Just sayin’…” The glint in his blue eyes revealed how much he enjoyed yanking her chain.
    Still, she was the ranking member of this two-man team. “I sincerely hope you can manage to censor your advice once we’re inside. Even if they don’t know what you’re talking about, that smart-ass grin you’re wearing will look strange.”
    “Babe, don’t worry about me. I’m all about the mission.”
    “That’s ‘lieutenant’ to you.”
    “Yes, ma’am.”
    He said the right words, but the wink he added…
    From day one, when they’d reported to the top-secret laboratory at Flagstaff, he’d been on her case.
    There hadn’t been much opportunity to train, only a short week. After they’d both been left drop-jawed at the news that they’d be making a jump back in time to ancient Scythia to retrieve an artifact, they’d been assigned rooms within the facility and put on lockdown. General Ashton wasn’t taking any chances that word of this new mission might leak out. Rumors had it they weren’t the only ones heading to Scythia, so the mission timetable had been pushed up to make sure they arrived first.
    Alien creatures, the Centaurians, were