“I’ve got it,” she said the moment she reconnected with her physical self.
Thorne stood behind Marguerite, his hands on her arms. Jean-Pierre moved in to support Fiona in a similar way, and Leto wrapped his oversized arms around her. She looked up at him and smiled.
I’m with you, he sent.
She felt it again, a wave of love that hadn’t been there before. She nodded, then turned back to Marguerite. “What’s our timing?”
“Twenty seconds.”
Grace looked up. “The mist is still intact,” she said. Everyone looked up.
“But not for long,” Marguerite said. She continued the count down, “Nineteen, eighteen, seventeen…”
“Fiona, I’m coming to you,” Grace said.
“I’m ready.”
Grace opened her obsidian flame power, which flowed quickly and easily now after so much practice. She focused on the job at hand, on protecting all the colonies. She let Diallo’s knowledge of the interconnected mist flow through her as well. She apparitioned to Fiona and slid inside. She felt Fiona’s ability to enhance a skill take over so that the obsidian power was responding to the event about to unfold. How different this was from the mass-folding experience, as though this time a whirlwind flew around the garden at tremendous speed.
“Hold steady,” Marguerite said aloud. “Eight, seven, six … Hold. Hold.” Then finally, “Now.”
The energy began to flow upward in a swirling stream of silvery light. But with the light, Thorne began to levitate as though part of the stream.
“Thorne,” Grace called out, although the voice was Fiona’s since she was possessing her. “What’s happening?”
“Thorne?” Marguerite added.
“It’s okay. I’m safe within the stream of energy, but I must go on this ride.” Then he was smiling.
Suddenly the stream of light whipped through the dome of mist and stopped the charring effect. The mist began to knit back together. The light sped off into space, carrying Thorne with it.
She could feel him traveling almost at an incredible speed as the obsidian power moved from dome of mist to the next, and the next. Each time the burning was stopped and the healing of the mossy mist commenced.
“This is amazing,” Marguerite said. “My Seer vision is tracking him. He’s flying to every colony and watching as the fire on each dome is quenched by the power we just released.”
Unbelievable, Fiona murmured within Grace’s mind.
Grace gloried in the achievement. How glad she was she had returned to serve as obsidian flame. Greaves had been so close to decimating all the hidden colonies, and the triad had stopped him.
* * *
Thorne was over the hidden colony above Nigeria One and watched the same miracle occur that had been happening all over the world. When obsidian flame had released the answering power that would counter the burning and destruction of the concealing mossy mist over the Seattle One colony, he’d been swept along in the wake.
Initially, he hadn’t understood why he was the one moving through space, but now he knew he served as a witness to what was happening. His report would further anchor the triad and support their power and reputation before the world. This alone would enhance Endelle’s reputation with all her allied High Administrators.
Watching the obsidian power quenching each dome of mist, then rebuilding what was burned, made him smile. This was a new world, a new beginning for Second Earth. He was sure of it.
The hot humid air rose from the continent beneath him as he continued to be caught in the stream of obsidian flame’s power. His silver aura glowed all around him. If he’d been visible to human eyes, he would have looked like a strange comet streaking through the dark night sky and even in the lightening dawn that appeared farther east.
When at last the stream of power brought him full circle back to Diallo’s garden, he explained what had happened and what the experience had been like. “Of course the most important part is that the colonies are safe once more.”
* * *
Leto had his arm around Grace’s waist, a natural place now for him to be. He listened to Thorne’s explanation of events and marveled at how different life was now among the Warriors of the Blood. Even Jean-Pierre looked relaxed as he leaned down to kiss Fiona on the cheek.
Marguerite had her arm around Thorne’s waist. She was beaming, as she should have been. The triad had done all that they’d needed to do and had saved all the colonists tonight, even more cause for celebration.
The air changed suddenly, as though charged with a new energy.
He looked around. Casimir? Leto sent.
The Fourth ascender returned. Let them know I’m here, and I’ll go visible.
Leto made the announcement, and Casimir materialized.
“Is something wrong?” Thorne asked. He looked from Leto to Casimir.
Casimir also glanced around the garden as though sensing someone was there. “Yes. But I’m not sure what’s going on? I don’t sense Greaves, though.”
Grace turned toward him. “My obsidian power is rising again.” She took a step past Leto, peering into the foliage near the south end of the patio. “Who’s there?”
Suddenly, swords were in hands as a figure materialized.
A woman, a very beautiful woman with cat’s eyes, appeared. She wore a provocative gown in a deep shade of peach. Her dark hair was dressed in waves. She looked harmless.
“It’s just me.”
Leto knew the woman, but not well. Her name was Julianna, and she was known to be Greaves’s companion. His uneasiness grew, especially when her gaze settled on Grace, so he kept his sword in hand.
“I have a score to settle, Grace of Albion. You know I do.”
“Julianna,” Casimir said. “You must leave. Nothing good can come of this.”
She turned toward Casimir, who was on her right. “What I will never understand,” she said, “is how you could have chosen Grace over me. You and I were soul mates, we understood each other, but as soon as you caught her scent, you were hers body and soul.”
“I used you ill,” Casimir said. “Blame me, not Grace. I pursued her when I should have attended to the woman sharing my bed. But I was a bastard then, and I’m trying to do better now. How can I make it up to you?”
“So that’s the way of it then?” Julianna’s eyes were wide. “You wish to redeem yourself? Greaves said you were immersing in water and trying to get yourself clean. But how does that make up for what you did to me?” Her gaze shifted to Grace. “For how that woman stole you from me.”
Leto’s uneasiness grew.
“Julianna,” Grace said. “I beg you to leave. If you do, all will be well and you can continue your life as it is now.”
“My life?” Julianna said, turning slowly to face her. “You dare to speak to me about my life? Casimir was mine, and you took him from me. You have done this, so you must die.”
Everything happened at once.
Julianna’s wrist flicked, and power flared, more power than Leto had ever seen a Second ascender deliver before. He threw Grace to the pavers and stepped over her body into the blast.
Oh, God, he would die.
But at the last moment, Casimir streaked in Leto’s direction, moving with his Fourth ability, protecting Leto as he had promised to protect him. Casimir took the full blast in the abdomen.
The air smelled of burned flesh.
Julianna screamed long and loud, “No.” Her voice echoed around the garden as she ran toward Casimir.
Leto lifted Grace up. She turned to stare at him. “Are you all right?”
“Yes. Casimir protected me.”
She turned slowly in Casimir’s direction. She put a hand to her mouth, then moved to drop down beside him. “Casimir, you must not die.” She began to weep.
Casimir shook badly as he turned to look at her, then at Leto. He nodded. “Good. You’re all right.” His eyes closed.
Leto glanced at Grace. This was what she h
ad meant, the task that Casimir had been destined to fulfill. Leto would not have survived the blast, and the only way Casimir could have been here to act as a shield was if he had taken Grace to Fourth and been changed by her presence in his life. What had she said? Something to the effect that the only way to keep Leto was to love Casimir.
And now Casimir was dying.
Leto knew he had less than minute to change the future if he could. Whatever animosity he had felt toward Casimir a few months ago had died in the past few days.
He touched Grace on the shoulder. She turned to him weeping, but he said, “Obsidian flame. You can do this.”
She straightened suddenly, as though remembering. She reached toward Marguerite and Fiona. Both women came running and joined her on the ground next to Casimir. Thorne and Jean-Pierre moved with them. “I acquired Horace’s healing ability earlier. I want to try it now.”
Julianna was still kneeling nearby and crying hysterically. But a moment later, at Thorne’s instigation, two Militia Warriors arrived and hauled her away, one on each arm. The trio vanished.
She would see prison time for doing harm against a fellow ascender.
* * *
Grace was trembling as she put one hand on Marguerite and one on Fiona. As the triad had proven during the spectacle event, touching wasn’t necessary, but right now that’s what Grace wanted. She was freaked; she needed to calm down.
But with the touch, the obsidian power rose, vibrating beneath all of them as they sat grouped around Casimir. She split-self, then jumped inside Fiona who, thank God, was waiting and ready.
The amplification of the healing power began, so that Fiona, possessed by Grace, turned and held her arms above Casimir. He was unconscious now, his body still. Grace felt little life in him—but if ever a power had been designed to do the impossible, obsidian flame was that power.
Healing flowed not in gentle waves, but in massive dips and swells so that Casimir’s body floated above the patio pavers. The smell of burned flesh disappeared first. Then Grace watched the organs re-form and the skin knit together. She remembered her own healing in Leto’s cabin, how swift it was because of Fiona’s ability to enhance a power.
Barely a minute later, Casimir’s eyes opened and he rose to his feet. He stared at his hands and fingers. He felt his stomach. He said something, but she couldn’t quite hear him.
“Casimir, what did you say?”
He turned to her. “Patience.”
Grace shook her head. She wasn’t sure what he meant, but then his eyes were wide. He was still in shock. Suddenly he grabbed her and held on to her. She felt that he was weeping.
Leto moved to look at her, but for the first time since Casimir had returned, he wasn’t jealous. Leto put a hand on Casimir’s shoulder. “Welcome back, brother.”
Casimir reached for Leto as well, so that Leto was caught in the same embrace as Grace. “You’ve both given me so much, I who deserved nothing. Thank you. And I promise that I will spend the rest of my life atoning for how I hurt each of you.”
When Grace drew back, it was Leto who held on to Casimir a little longer. “You saved my life. Repeatedly. I owe you everything. I could not have withstood Julianna’s hand-blast. So thank you, Caz.”
When Leto finally let him go, Casimir wiped at his face and nodded. “I was just doing my job.” But he laughed, and Leto laughed with him.
Grace stood beside them, wondering at this long journey that had brought both amazing men into her life: Leto so deeply fractured by his service and Casimir twisted in his hedonism because of centuries of sexual slavery.
She was moved and content and shaking with the remnants of the obsidian power.
Leto must have felt her trembling, because he slipped both arms around her and held her close. You were brilliant, he sent. Thank you, my beautiful Grace. Thank you for saving him.
Yes, everything was changing.
* * *
When Casimir folded back to the observation deck, he used his Fourth ability and reached out to Patience. He wanted her near him, he wanted to speak with her, he wanted to lay his life before her.
Death had come to him and he’d been spared.
Casimir? He loved her voice in his head. How quickly the breh-hedden could make such a small thing as the voice of a woman seen like the most important element of his life, as though his next breath depended on it.
Will you come to me? he returned. There is something I want to say to you.
Of course.
He smiled. She hadn’t argued; she had simply said, “Of course.”
She arrived within minutes, wearing her jeans, just like his jeans. He used to wear leather, but no more. Leather had been all that he’d been allowed to wear for centuries, then later all he’d worn to sustain his seductions. Jeans were so down-to-earth.
She smiled. “You smell like wine, and it’s getting to me.” But her eyes narrowed and her head tilted. “Something has happened?”
“Your sister just saved my life.”
“Grace? How?”
He asked her to sit beside him on the sofa. For the next hour, he told her everything about his life, about his association with Grace, about the redemption pools, about serving Greaves, about Leto, even about his early centuries often chained to a bed and passed from master to master. Everything.
She touched his fingers gently and with compassion. Later she rubbed his arm. She shed tears with him. She kissed his cheek and neck. She embraced him.
She told him about her reckless life, her lack of focus, the dangerous choices she had made over the centuries, then her journey here on Third. “I’ve never felt I belonged anywhere. And now you’re here. I hardly know what to think.”
“Will you date me?” he asked. “I mean, the breh-hedden will be difficult to withstand anyway. But if it’s okay with you, I’d like to date you, go out with you. I don’t want to just hop into bed with you.”
“I want to apologize for the last time I saw you. I kind of panicked and left you standing at the observation deck.” She drew a deep breath. “I’m not good with relationships. I never was. I’ve often thought it was a warrior kind of thing. I don’t know.”
“All I’ve ever known is how to seduce a woman. But I don’t want that with you, even though I know the breh-hedden would make it so easy.”
She nodded. “Tell me about it. All I can think about right now is how to get you out of your jeans.”
He laughed, but his expression sobered almost as quickly. “I want you so badly right now that I ache. But I think it would be wonderful to wait. I want you to trust me as I’ve seen Grace put all her faith in Leto. I haven’t been trustworthy for most of my life. I think it’s something that has to be earned.
“Also, I intend to complete Beatrice’s redemption program. And that will take time.”
Patience took his hand. “Casimir, I’d like nothing better than to date you. And I will wait as long as you need me to wait before we share a bed.”
Casimir felt his heart open as it never had before. He couldn’t believe this was happening to him. He felt as though an angel had taken pity on him, had believed in him, and had given him a method by which he could transform.
Of course, in reality, that angel was Grace.
* * *
All the walls had come down. That was the truth that Grace knew as she slid into bed beside Leto. They were back in the villa guest room and wouldn’t return to the cabin until the Seattle Colony was safe from Greaves permanently.
Something mysterious and magical had happened during the time that she and Leto had battled Greaves in Leto’s cabin. She had passed through some kind of veil that had given her new insight into herself. She had embraced Endelle’s ability to live out loud, and Beatrice had helped her to see that by returning as she had to Leto, to serve as obsidian flame, she had already begun the process of becoming real in her life, of giving up her ghost-ways.
Leto, it would seem, had experienced something similar. He was fu
lly present when he looked at her, when he touched her face, as he did now, when he kissed her.
She slid beneath him and parted her legs. She wanted this moment with him more than anything, to have him make love to her with both hearts wide open.
“I love you so much,” he whispered.
She looked into his clear blue eyes. Her heart strained toward him. She would never get enough of him, of being this close, of looking at him. “Everything is different now, isn’t it?”
He smiled a very soft smile. “Yes. That separation I felt is no longer there. Earlier in my cabin, facing death, somehow I began to see things more clearly, especially my relationship with you. I let go of my holding back. I realized that if I had been fully engaged with you, Grace, if I had shared myself with you in a deeper, more profound way, we probably wouldn’t have ended up in that situation.”
“I know what you mean. And because of my ghost-ways, I didn’t have enough life experience to do battle with Greaves. In that sense, I was as much to blame that the situation devolved as it did. But I’m here now, Leto.” She squeezed his buttocks, and his smile broadened.
“Me, too.” His gaze fell to her neck, and what do you know, his fangs emerged.
Her back arched.
He smiled a little more. She lifted her hand to touch the sharp tip. She punctured her thumb, then let the blood pool. She slid her thumb into his mouth and let him taste. He closed his eyes and groaned. He pushed his cock up against her hand. She squeezed his crown.
I’m too close, he sent.
She released him, and he shifted his hips. He found her entrance and pushed. She savored both sensations: what it was for him to feel how tight she was as he made his way inside her, and how much pleasure all that pushing gave her.
I love the connection, she sent. I love being this close to you, feeling you, then enjoying the pleasure you feel. It’s extraordinary.