Thorne nodded briskly several times, turning toward Samuel. “Since you’ve already been inside the grid, I want you to take lead.”
All eyes shifted to Samuel. “The only thing we’re not sure about is how to distract the wreckers so we can attack and get their weapons. We should figure out a way to move in from a flank position, maybe lure a squad of wreckers to us. But how do we trick them?”
“I know what to do,” Vela interjected. “When I was in the darkening, I slipped into Sharav’s head and saw exactly how this would go down, at least the first part of it. Trust me.”
“What did you see?” Samuel scowled.
Vela switched to telepathy and told him what she’d seen in the vision, of herself, naked on the floor.
But Samuel took a step back. “No,” he shouted. “Hell the fuck no.”
Vela wasn’t certain what to do or how to convince him this was best, but Endelle laughed and moved in to clap Samuel on the shoulder. “Settle down, warrior. Vela can do this thing.”
“You don’t even know what she suggested.”
Endelle met Vela’s gaze. “Sure I do. I dove straight into her mind and saw what you just saw. Nice ass, by the way. You work out much?”
“Stay on point,” Thorne said.
Endelle rolled her eyes. “Fine.” She addressed Samuel. “Vela’s right. The plan will work like a charm. Three men with weapons, coming across a vision like that? So, get over yourself, or the breh-hedden, or whichever monster has control of you right now.”
“What’s going on?” Leto called out, his deep beast-voice booming through the room. “Can you let us in on this?”
“Vela’s going to play ‘butt-naked decoy’. But you boys just be respectful, which I know you will be.”
Thorne and Leto exchanged a glance, then turned a boatload of compassion on Samuel.
“We know what you’re going through,” Thorne said. “Don’t worry. We’ll keep our distance.”
Samuel paled as he said, “Fine. I guess there’s only one more question to ask and answer: Vela, can you move all of us through the darkening at once? This will be a big group.”
Vela glanced at Fiona and Alison, Leto and Thorne. “Hell, yeah, I can. And Thorne, you’ll want to be in flight battle gear. And don’t worry, none of you need to be physically connected or anything, not for this trip.”
In a blur, Thorne changed.
Samuel took her hand and squeezed. “Are you absolutely sure?”
“Never more sure in my life.”
* * * * * * * * *
Samuel released his dark power, not surprised that all eyes shifted in his direction as his smoky grayle mist rose around him and his energy flowed, strengthening all that he was as a man and a warrior.
He knew the latent streams of power were still there, but for now, he was good.
He turned to Vela, still holding her hand. The soft answering smile eased him as he dipped his chin. “Take us into the darkening.”
“Let’s go.”
She might have blinked, he wasn’t sure, but the next moment, as a group, they sped without walking or running, just a swift form of levitation up one darkening grid tunnel after the next. Vela’s power held them together as a group, on and on, following some kind of internal compass that she possessed.
“We’re close to contact,” Vela called out. “As soon as the wreckers stop, fold behind them and do what you do best.”
Samuel held his sword in his free hand. Vela slowed their joint movement, then brought the group to a halt. In the near distance an explosion sounded.
She turned to Samuel and said, “Hang tough on this one, on what I have to do next.”
He tightened down his caveman instincts and nodded.
To the other men, she said, “You might want to look away. I’ll signal Samuel, then take care of business. Right now, get down, as low as you can.” Leto and Thorne nodded. “Alison, Fiona, you’ll be safest pressed against the grid wall.”
Two more nods.
She waved her hand and lost her clothes. Samuel watched her speed twenty feet away and stretch out on her side, on the stone floor that matched Duncan’s cell.
He could hardly recognize the feeling that ripped through him, but again fear and pride split him; a terrible fear that his woman lay, completely vulnerable, this far away from him, and pride that she’d reached beyond her previous convictions, setting them aside, to save another ascender’s life.
A second explosion, closer this time.
Alison and Fiona stood right next to the grid wall. He thought about Duncan and as his grayle power flowed, he extended his senses. Duncan was nearby.
Vela, how we doin’? he sent.
Duncan’s about thirty yards from here.
I can sense him now. Samuel’s biceps flexed.
They’re almost here. Ten, nine, eight…
Samuel continued the count so that the other warriors could hear. “Seven, six, five, four…” Leto and Thorne both leaned forward. “Three, two…”
A grid wall exploded not five feet from Vela, but she didn’t budge, not even a hair’s breadth. Wall debris, like black ash from a fire, blanketed the area and three wreckers broke through, three massive Third Earth Warriors, in kilted flight battle gear, shotguns over shoulders. Big motherfuckers.
“What the hell is this?” The leader stared down at Vela. Like the description of Sharav, he wore three braids on either side of his face, clipped back in low hanging loops. All the men had long hair, Warrior of the Blood long.
“Something stinks here.” The wrecker on the left backed away from Vela. “I say we waste her and get the hell out of this tunnel.”
Samuel gave the signal, a forward slice of his arm in Vela’s direction.
And just as the wreckers lifted their heads to look down the tunnel, Samuel folded. He reappeared, at the same time as Thorne and Leto, behind the men.
Samuel sliced across his adversary’s forearm, striking almost to the bone so that the wrecker’s shotgun fell to the floor. But a second later, the bastard turned to face him, a sword in his other hand, as though he’d barely felt the wound. He topped Samuel by at least two inches, and his skills matched the Warriors of the Blood.
Samuel bumped up his grayle power, adding new streams of the dark mist, which brought his opponent’s eyebrows up a couple of notches.
“Surprise.”
Game on and never had a sword felt so good in his hand, or his new power so magnificent as in this moment when he battled the bastard who had said, ‘Let’s waste her.’
Both Leto and Thorne had taken on a wrecker and a sword-fight ensued so that the sound of metal against metal echoed up and down the tunnel. Because the element of surprise had worn off, it was just vampire-against-vampire.
Chapter Seven
The moment the explosion had sounded, Vela had leaped to her feet, waved a hand and got dressed. She hurried back to join Alison and Fiona. She watched in awe as Fiona allowed Alison to access her body, to essentially take her over so that Fiona’s obsidian flame power could amplify Alison’s ability to reconfigure weapon identification. In the process, Alison’s body grew lax against the darkening grid wall, present-but-not-present.
Fiona gave herself a shake. When she moved, she even brushed her hair away from her face like Alison would have done.
As the battle raged, Fiona turned in the direction of the three weapons that had slid toward them on the floor.
Vela caught her hand, holding her back. “Are you sure?”
She turned to Vela and touched her forehead. “Don’t worry. I can do this.” Alison again, speaking from Fiona’s lips and staring at Vela from Fiona’s silvery-blue eyes. “I’m going to start working these weapons now. And I can feel it in every cell of my body that I can do this.”
Fiona, now Alison, moved swiftly in the direction of the battle, heading toward the nearest weapon.
Vela held her breath as Fiona stretched out her hand. The weapon flew toward her.
“Please work, please work, please work,” Vela murmured.
Beyond, the men battled.
The weapon reached Fiona’s hand and even at this distance, Vela felt an electric current pass up and down the tunnel. Fiona held up the weapon. “One down,” she called out.
Vela let go of a huge sigh of relief.
At almost the same moment, one of the wreckers fell to the stone floor and Thorne took his head.
Vela wanted to look away, but couldn’t. She’d never seen a battle close up before, not like this. The one she’d witnessed at the Superstitions had still been at a greater distance and within the safety of the darkening.
Thorne turned in Leto’s direction, and in a blinding move, folded, reappeared behind the second wrecker and shoved a dagger into his lower back. As the Third Warrior arched at the sudden unexpected pain, Leto drove his sword through his chest. When he withdrew the blade, the wrecker also toppled to the floor.
Leto removed his head.
Thorne turned, extended his hand in Fiona’s direction. She didn’t hesitate but tossed the reconfigured shotgun to him.
She repeated the process twice more, rendering each weapon harmless. Leto ran toward her and took one of the shotguns from her. He then moved back to Alison’s uninhabited body and stood guard.
All the while, Leto battled the wrecker, who had also released his grayle power, so that two plumes of mist, one dark and smoky, the other gray and almost green-tinged, flowed in strange whirls above the warriors, moving in a strange counter-dance.
Thorne stood off to the side, shotgun in hand, looking for an opportunity, his eyes intent on the battle.
Vela watched mesmerized as both warriors battled in an incomprehensible blur of levitation and folding.
Fiona returned to stand close to Alison and, like watching a sliding door part swiftly, the women disconnected and became themselves. Both remained silent as the final battle progressed.
Vela’s heart swelled at the sight of Samuel keeping pace with the Third Warrior.
“Look at him move,” Alison whispered. “My God.”
“I know.” Fiona breathed raggedly, her arms now crossed over her chest.
Then she felt it, another vibration through the grid. “More wreckers.”
“Shit,” Leto muttered. “At least we have the weapons.”
A distant explosion sounded.
They had to get this job done and get out of there. They were running out of time.
She had to do something. She focused on Samuel, and without giving it too much thought, she entered Samuel’s mind which whirred with movement, just as he moved. She relaxed and sent him her power, a soft stream of energy.
What followed was a kind of explosive response in Samuel as he whirled in the air, just as the wrecker whirled, but did a lateral whipping movement, took his opponent out at the knees.
Thorne moved in, and took his head.
The battle was over.
Vela called out. “We’ve got to get to get Duncan. Now!”
The men started running in her direction. She gathered her darkening ability, swept up the group and carried them swiftly, not backward, but onward, straight to Duncan’s cell. The darkening allowed her to see inside, where two workers were cutting an unconscious warrior down.
“Men, use those damn weapons and let’s get Duncan now. Here.” She patted the wall. Another distant explosion sounded. “We’ve got about twenty seconds.”
Samuel approached the wall, lifted his weapon and fired, which sent him backward on his ass, but the wall disintegrated. Thorne and Leto launched inside, pushed the slaves away, grabbed Duncan then hauled him back into the darkening. He was still bound by ropes and bled from one end of his body to the next.
Just as an explosion took out the wall opposite, Vela sped the group down tunnel after tunnel, faster and faster. She could feel Duncan’s life force ebb. The warrior was almost gone. Forget the execution, he’d been beaten and sliced to the absolute rim of death.
She heard explosions following her, but she also knew what she could do.
The next moment, she brought her team through their initial entry point and planted her hands on the wall to create the seal. Damn, shotguns exploded beyond the wall. She felt a terrible vibration. “I can’t hold it,” she called out.
Merl stepped in and planted his hands on the wall. His Third Earth mist rose and power flooded the room like nothing she’d ever known. Together, they sealed up the wall.
Then silence.
“Are we safe?” Endelle asked. “Jesus H. Christ. Are we safe?”
Vela turned to her. “Yes.” She eased away from the wall.
Endelle looked at Duncan’s unconscious form and called out sharply. “Jeannie.”
“Yes, Madame Endelle.”
“Get Horace over here to the palace. No, faster than that. I want him at my position.”
“Done.”
Five seconds later, Horace appeared next to Endelle. He dropped beside Duncan, but addressed Fiona. “I’m going to need you.”
The woman didn’t skip a beat. Vela watched as she repeated her drawing-in process, so that Horace’s power took her over and she went to work on Duncan. The moment Fiona put her hand on Duncan’s chest, he jerked once, then drew breath.
Tears sprang to Vela’s eyes.
They’d caught him just in time.
Duncan had almost died.
Samuel slid an arm around her waist. He was sweaty from battle, and the leather harness had stiff edges, but it was the best feel in the world as he drew her against him.
You did good, his words a thrill through her mind.
She’d never been in a battle before and for a first one, yes she’d done good. Her heart swelled as she wiped away tears that kept falling.
Duncan began to heal, faster than anything she’d seen before, but after a minute, Fiona sat back and separated from Horace.
She looked exhausted.
“I’ve got it now,” Horace said. “Go home and get some rest.” He smiled tenderly at her.
Fiona nodded. The couple hadn’t made a formal announcement, but rumor had it she was pregnant. She turned to Madame Endelle. “Permission to leave?”
“Granted. Jeannie, send Fiona home straight from here.”
“Of course, Madame Endelle.”
Fiona simply vanished.
Alison crossed to Vela. “You did an amazing thing tonight and showed so much courage. Well done.”
“Thank you.”
“I wish I could stay, but I have a flying toddler at home who will be up at the crack of dawn.”
Endelle once more barked at Jeannie and Alison disappeared.
Both Leto and Thorne stood on either side of Duncan, who was still unconscious. Horace, his hands moving from wound to wound and performing his healing magic, glanced up at Thorne. “This will take some time and he should have rest. I’d like to move him to the hospital but not by fold. Some of these cuts are deep and grazed his organs. He would have died if you hadn’t gotten to him.”
Vela’s throat tightened and Samuel rubbed his hand up and down her side and waist. We got him.
We did.
He saved me, Samuel added.
And now you returned the favor.
We saved him, all of us and my part was the damned least I could do.
By the time Horace had a still unconscious Duncan packed up in an ambulance for the drive to the hospital, Leto had returned to the Gateway to Third Earth.
Thorne took all three sawed off shotguns, intending to have his firearms expert work with them to see what shells were used and how the wreckers added their power to enhance the shot. Scowling, he muttered something about practicing with them at the Illinois Seers Palace, as he headed back in the direction of the Command Center.
Vela addressed Merl. “What would have happened if you hadn’t been here to finish seal up the Gateway?”
“Nothing good.”
“Sweet fucking Christ,” Endelle m
uttered.
“Is there anything I can do to strengthen my own power to seal up the breach?”
“I think so. You’re pretty amazing.”
Vela glanced at him, stunned that not a single flirtatious lilt attached to his words, Even Samuel remained settled beside her.
She smiled. “Thank you for that.”
“Well, that settles something for me,” Endelle said. “For the time being, the two of you stay with Merl. And stay in contact.” She turned to Merl. “I’ll need you to work with Vela to get this skill up to par because I’m guessing we haven’t seen the last of the grid wreckers.”
“Probably not.”
“So, you okay with this, Third ascender?”
“Hell, yeah. Least I can do for the Supreme High Administrator of Second Earth.” His nostrils flared. “You know, I don’t have to go home right away.”
Endelle chortled. “You’ve got balls, I’ll give you that. And I’m tempted because everything about you says you’ve got the right equipment and know how to use it.”
“Damn straight about that.”
Vela stepped a little closer to Samuel. She could almost see the sparks flying from one ascender to the other.
The heat in this room, Samuel sent in what felt like the quietest telepathic voice he could manage, could melt a glacier.
I know what you mean.
But I thought Endelle had hooked up with Braulio? Samuel scowled like he somehow disapproved.
Vela squeezed his hand. That’s just it. He hasn’t been around for the last month and she has no way to contact him.
Gotta be a bitch.
Exactly.
Well, Braulio had better get his ass back here because that’s one determined vampire.
No kidding.
Finally, after a long half minute of staring at Merl, and maybe debating the offer, Endelle said, “Thanks, but I’m sort of in a relationship.”
For a reason she couldn’t explain, Vela released a sigh of relief.
But Merl actually moved until just a spare few inches separated him from Endelle. “Well, you let me know if your boyfriend stops hiding out in another dimension. I’d love to spend some time taking care of you.”