“Warrior Samuel, back-up Section Leader for the Thunder God Warriors, I invite you to join the Warriors of the Blood. If you accept, you’ll be under my direct leadership and subject to terms of service as dictated by the Supreme High Administrator of Second Earth. And I do mean dictated.”
A masculine chuckle flowed through the room.
“All the warriors present in this room discussed and approved your invitation to rise to Warrior of the Blood status by the only manner a warrior can rise: unanimous agreement and consent. Your service will continue until you are called to either Third Earth for permanent ascension, or until the Creator should call you home. Do you accept our invitation?”
Vela tried to leave Samuel’s lap because the moment seemed to call for some level of decorum, but he prevented her, saying quietly, “Don’t leave. This is the way I want it; with you close by. We’re connected now.”
Her throat tightened. She met his gaze and nodded.
To Luken, he said, “I accept. With all my heart, and without the smallest reservation, I accept.”
The cheer that went up, so full of the deep masculine sound of the warriors’ combined voices, thrilled Vela to the center of her being. Nothing could have been more perfect or more beautiful.
Endelle glanced at Marcus. “What the fuck are you doing on your cell? Can’t you see we’re having a goddamn moment here?”
But Marcus looked up at her and said. “I know this isn’t the most appropriate moment, and Warrior Samuel, forgive me for this, but if we had the induction ceremony in Paris—” He let the suggestion hang.
Samuel said, “I thought it would be here, at the palace. I assumed it would be.”
Vela shifted to look at Marcus. “I get it,” she said, turning back to Samuel. “One of the rogue generals operates a base out of Romania Two and his strategies include working our allies in Western Europe. A ceremony in Paris would send a strong message.”
“Exactly,” Marcus said.
Endelle rolled her eyes. “Does everything we do have to involve some kind of political slant?”
At least five of the ascenders responded in unison, “Yes.”
“Well, shit.” She scowled. “I was looking forward to a kegger in the desert.”
Marcus just shook his head.
“Fine-uh,” she stated. “Luken, you came out of that damn royalty jungle in Western Europe Two, and I know you were glad to get the hell out. You okay with this?”
Vela knew that Luken had fringe ties with European royalty and that he hadn’t been back from the time he’d signed on as a Warrior of the Blood centuries ago.
“Of course,” Luken said. “We have to do everything we can right now.” However, he turned to Marcus and lowered his chin. “But don’t fucking ask me to do more than that, you got it?”
Marcus waited a beat, holding Luken’s gaze steadily, then said, “Understood.”
Endelle tilted her head. “Samuel, you good with all this?”
“Absolutely.”
The Supreme High Administrator of Second Earth made a raspy sound at the back of her throat. “Damn war.” She glanced around, her gaze finally landing once more on Samuel. “Take your woman home. You still live in your Scottsdale house, not far from Gideon’s?”
“Yes.”
She smiled. “We have something in common, you and me.”
“What’s that?
“We both like our homes to hang off mountainsides.”
He returned the smile. “I guess we do at that.”
She nodded a few times briskly. “Welcome home, warrior. I like this new grayle power of yours and you’ll make a fine addition to the Warriors of the Blood. Just to be safe, I’ll set a dome of protective mist over your house for the time being, at least until we see if any of Sharav’s buddies want you dead as well. We’ll pick all of this back up tomorrow. Both of you be at my office at ten.”
“Yes, Madame Endelle.”
She glanced at the group, left to right. “We have a war to finish, people, and now some sort of Third bullshit to deal with. Those of you heading out to battle, get going. The rest of you, head home.”
Everyone started rising from the couches and chairs or leaning away from walls, when Marcus spoke up. “One more thing, everyone. The induction ceremony will be black tie, with a ball afterwards and several receptions preceding. Just thought you should be prepared.”
A general round of groans followed, but Endelle summed it up, “Aw, fuck.”
Chapter Nine
“This is your home?” Vela looked around awestruck.
Samuel smiled. “Not what you expected?”
“I should say not and yet it suits you so well.”
Just as Endelle had said, he’d built the house on a hillside overlooking the northern reaches of Scottsdale Two, but the entire back half of the large sprawling home encompassed a massive atrium, three stories high.
He led Vela into the atrium, where three large, wood-carved hawks, painted in great detail, cruised the air streams. A forest of plants below them sweetened the air. “I’d had a sort of vision for this decades ago. I needed a house, but I thought, what the hell, I didn’t want the same-old, same-old.”
He gestured west. “You can see through the front windows and the view is beautiful night or day. That long ridge in the distance the White Tanks, of course, and beyond that the White Lake Resort Colony.”
She turned back to the atrium. “This is amazing. Stone, wood, glass.” She turned toward him. “Who did the work for you?”
“A designer. I don’t know if you’ve heard of her. Tazianne?”
“Of course. Who hasn’t? She’s won a lot of awards. I know that Warrior Antony has a piece in his villa.” She tilted her head. “You’re an amazing mix, Samuel: powerful as hell, kind, and now a surprising architectural aesthetic. And yet I’m not surprised. I’ve had a sense of you from the first, a gift of the breh-hedden, I think, and all of this fits, helping me to see the whole man. Although I suspect if I went to the fridge—” She let the words hang.
He shrugged. “What can I say? Unfortunately, Merl and I have a few things in common.”
As he met Vela’s gaze and absorbed her compliments, all that she’d said beyond the oh-so-true food comment, the shift in his life stunned him. How much his world had changed in two days that what had seemed right, now seemed so wrong, that he had lived his solitary existence content. “I want you to know that you’re the first woman I’ve brought here, Vela. I want you to know that, how much you mean to me.”
She nodded and reached for his hand. “So what do you want, Samuel, here, tonight? Do you know?”
“There’s only one thing I want right now, but I’m not sure how you’ll feel about it.” He drew her into his arms, adjusting to make sure he didn’t pin down all that hair, and took a deep breath. “I want to complete the breh-hedden with you.”
She slid her hands around his neck. “You know that means mind-diving, right?” But she smiled, such a beautiful smile, her large blue eyes glittering.
“I know that it means you’ll know more about me than you may ever want to know.” A chill went through him of what he’d endured at Sharav’s hand. He hated the thought of her seeing any of that.
“Samuel, I’m prepared. And I know that I’ll see things that will distress me, but I can handle it.”
He nodded. “Okay. So the breh-hedden is what you want as well?” he asked.
“Without question. You were so right about me. When I was chained up in Duncan’s cell, and your power beat at me, I remembered something about that attack in 1922: I wasn’t as unequipped as I’d always thought. I called for Jeff. I did that myself telepathically. The moment I realized my part in surviving the attack, I knew I wouldn’t ever go back to my former life, that what I wanted, what I needed was right here with you, with this crazy darkening power, and with whatever the future holds.”
He kissed her, a single kiss on the lips then drew back. “I hated seeing you chained up
then attacked by my own power and it’s going to take me some time to get over what happened to you, to us. At the same time, it pushed me where I needed to go. You were right; I’ve been afraid of connection all my life.”
“But you’re not anymore.”
He chuckled softly. “I wouldn’t say that. Let’s just say, I want to connect with you and I know I belong fighting beside the Warriors of the Blood. No question. But it’s you, Vela, you’re the why of this moment, why I would say yes to something so invasive as the breh-hedden.”
“I feel exactly the same way.”
“I know. God, I’m so sorry you had to be in that cell.”
“I’m not, well maybe I am, but look where it got us?”
He watched tears fill her eyes and love suddenly flowed like a powerful force through his body, a rush of heat, affection, and desire combined. He kissed her and she moaned, her lips parting. He drove his tongue into her, tasting her, savoring the feel of her in his arms. Never in a thousand years would he have believed that something like this, so full of passion, sex, and love would have descended on his life.
He was amazed. “Let me take you to bed.”
She nodded.
He slid an arm around her shoulders beneath the weight of her hair and using his free arm to catch her behind her knees, he lifted her up. Carrying her meant something, that she belonged to him and more of that warm affection flowed.
He moved out of the atrium and down the stone path that led to his bedroom. The wall curved, so he shifted her at an angle taking care that he didn’t bump her head or crush her foot.
As he carried her across the threshold, she gave a soft cry. “Look at that view.” Scattered lights twinkled in a long vista north to south.
“That’s why I chose this site.” His bedroom had a wall of windows and no neighbors, just a view of distant lights, and various hills creating a soft dark skyline against a panorama of stars.
He turned her in the direction of his massive larger-than-king bed.
“And that’s a big bed,” she said, laughter in her voice, a sound he’d come to love. Vela had a basic love of life.
“What can I say? I like room to spread out when I sleep.”
She looked up at him and caught his face in her hand. “And you won’t mind me taking up some of that space?”
His heart did that balloon floating thing and a soft moan left his throat. “No. I want you taking up that space more than anything in the world. I love you. There I’ve said it. I love you, Vela.”
“I love you, too. I honestly didn’t think I’d have love again, ever. My life had closed down to this small little box that I’d crawled into when Jeff died. And now you’re here, this tremendous miracle in my life.”
“This is a miracle, isn’t it?”
She nodded, then leaned in to kiss him, a sealing of vows spoken, of desire and need, of hearts reaching and joining.
When he drew back, he said, “I will always love you, Vela, and be so grateful that you came into my life and that you didn’t hold back when all this happened between us. You could have, but you didn’t.”
“I feel exactly the same way about you, that I’m so grateful.”
He set her down on the bed, her light floral scent teasing him all over again, reminding him that what he had with Vela belonged to just a handful of ascenders.
The breh-hedden.
When she stretched out on her back, he leaned down, planting his hands on the bed, on either side of her, and kissed her, a soft pushing at her lips, imagining doing the same thing between her legs.
When her lips parted and his tongue slid into her mouth, he groaned. Her scent now suffused the air; the breh-hedden at its best.
He sighed as he drew back. “I feel as though I’ve known you all my life. How strange is that?”
“Very, but I feel the same way. I think we may have lived a lifetime together in the past two days.” She chuckled softly. “Maybe several lifetimes.”
“I think you might be right.”
She reached up and slid her hands into his hair, pulling it forward over his shoulders. “I love your hair.” She leaned close and sniffed. “It smells like you. Chocolate and man together.”
“Mmmm, and I’m smelling—” He sniffed then shook his head. “I know your fragrance, but I still can’t place it. Maybe one day I’ll figure it out, but it’s very light and floral. Seductive.”
She leaned up and kissed him. Your scent heats me up so fast.
He kissed her repeatedly, drawing her closer, savoring the feel of her against him. But he thought-the-thought and got rid of his weapons harness, which prompted an approving murmur from her throat.
After a moment, she pulled back to meet his gaze, a hand on his chest. “I think I should tell you flat out that I’m nervous about completing the breh-hedden. I mean, I want to. I really do. I don’t have any doubts, I’m just excited and anxious at the same time. I can’t imagine what it will be like, but did you see Leto and Grace earlier?”
He chuckled softly, kissing her neck. “He wanted her home in bed.”
“I know. And now here we are.”
Samuel could sense her fears, but they felt normal to him and to a degree mirrored his own edged-up state. But he thought he knew how to get things moving in the right direction.
While she lay on her back, he started unbuttoning her blouse, and each time he did, he dipped down and kissed her chest, lower each time, until his tongue slid between the beautiful line of her cleavage.
Her hands worked his hair and slid over his back.
He plunged his tongue in and out until she panted and pressed against him, trying to get closer.
It takes so little, she sent, to get worked up with you. I have your scent in my nose and I swear it feeds straight into my brain and makes me dizzy and weak.
I want you weak, he returned, continuing to ply his tongue between her breasts. At the same time, he worked the rest of the buttons loose and shoved her blouse away.
He drew back just enough to have a good look. Vela had beautiful breasts, very round and full. He put his hand on her bra and folded it away.
Her nipples, now tight buds, called to him.
Once more he dipped but this time to take a breast in his mouth. He flipped his tongue sideways over the nipple then sent, I want to release a potion. Okay?
Oh. God. Yes.
Her legs hung over the side of the bed so he pushed her knees wide, then stepped between.
Because she was nervous, he had a plan and he meant to work it so that by the time he took her the distance with the breh-hedden, she’d be more than ready.
He settled a hand low on her hip, leaned over her once more and, with his lips, slowly tended to each breast.
You feelin’ this, Vela?
Yes. Your tongue is like fire on me.
He flicked her nipples, one after the other, with just the tip of his tongue, moving between them. When the moaning started, he paused over her right breast, released his fangs and struck, the potion flowing at the same time. He removed his fangs and took as much of her breast in his mouth as he could. He sucked hard on the nipple.
Small cries left her throat in a series of staccatos. I’m on fire. Oh, your potion is amazing.
He sensed her need and folded off her jeans then rubbed her inner thighs and worked his way toward her mons. He played with her bareness, tracing her swollen lips down and down until he found the source of her wetness. He slid his finger inside and her body arched.
“So close,” she said aloud.
He removed his finger, then plunged two inside and thrust in and out in a strong steady rhythm, sucking her nipple and letting the potion do its work.
* * * * * * * * *
Vela loved a well-placed potion. The fire around her nipple kept spreading through both breasts and even now seeped into her abdomen.
Samuel used his fingers exactly right, not too fast, so that she lived on the edge of an orgasm, panting lightly, waiting f
or the potion to travel right where she wanted it, straight through her clitoris.
I’m holding steady for you, Vela. You waiting until the potion floods your entire body?
Her mind sent something in answer to his question, a ‘yes’, but probably garbled. She trusted Samuel to understand and since she felt or heard him chuckle, as he continued to suck and to plunge his finger in and out of her, she felt confident he knew exactly what she wanted.
The potion continued its journey. She turned her head to the side, grasping for small puffs of air, and releasing even smaller bits.
She was so close, so close.
Her voice emitted small grunts and she didn’t even care how it sounded. She kept her mind focused on only one thing, the way the potion crept lower, now only an inch away, now less.
The sensation flooded her clitoris all at once and she screamed as she came.
Samuel thrust his fingers harder, which intensified the pulses deep in her body.
Her back arched and the sensation held, throbbing, sending pleasure over and over through her well, into her abdomen, up and up. But when it passed, she was still left with more fire, more need.
Samuel slowed his movements. Then after a few seconds he began again, which caught her by surprise because another orgasm swept through her, the fire all along her torso now spreading up through her shoulders and down her legs.
She wanted to grab him, roll his hips onto her and beg him to take her, but she couldn’t seem to move, just feel the pleasure rolling through her in successive waves.
Finally, she grew very still, almost frozen in place, as though holding onto the sensations that had just rocked through her.
“That was…magnificent.” She couldn’t believe she’d even gotten the words out of her mouth.