The Darkening (Dawn of Ascension)

  He caught bare arms, because somewhere in Samuel flying at Merl, the Third ascender had lost his robe and dropped into a fighting stance.

  Samuel grappled with him, wrestling him to the ground, then letting his fists fly.

  Merl folded out of his hold, levitated. Samuel’s dark power recognized his foe and responded with similar levitation and folding, until once more he made contact.

  But Merl had more power and the next thing Samuel knew, he lay face down on the carpet, a knee in his back, and one arm pulled back and upright to the breaking point.

  “You done throwing a fit?”

  “Don’t talk to my woman that way.” The words sounded slurred since they were half-spoken into a thick carpet.

  “Fine.”

  “Fine.”

  Merl let him go. Samuel rose to his feet, breathing hard, sweating, mad. He glared at Merl. “Just leave Vela alone. She’s mine.”

  Merl opened his mouth to speak then closed it. “Hold the phone. Are we talking that breh-hedden shit here? I mean I heard rumors that Thorne had been laid waste. It’s the breh-hedden, isn’t it?”

  But Samuel stepped into him and got about an inch away from his nose “Breh-hedden or not, stay the fuck away from my woman. We clear?”

  Merl narrowed his eyes and though he said nothing, he stared back, nostrils flaring.

  But suddenly the air above them was full of light, then little pin-pricks of fiery pain hit his bare shoulders, arms and back. He waved his hands, as Merl did, batting away the annoying bites of fire.

  “What the hell is that? Another trick Merl?”

  “I didn’t do that.”

  “Are you two Neanderthals finished?”

  The sound of Vela’s voice, as well as the cessation of sparks falling all around him, caused Samuel to turn and stare at her. “What was that?”

  She turned a palm up and a small firework appeared, which she then launched toward the ceiling. When it floated down, it winked out in a succession of small bursts of flames.

  “Why did you do that?” Samuel asked.

  “Because you’re both being ridiculous, especially you!”

  “Why, me?” He jerked his thumb toward Merl. “This asshole was disrespecting you.”

  “And you were treating him like a moron. Knock it off.”

  Her criticism rankled.

  Merl pulled at the sides of his bottoms. “I have little holes in my pjs.”

  Vela rolled her eyes but walked toward the entry wall. “Sorry, Merl, but I don’t give a rat’s ass about your pajamas.” She planted a hand on the wall, her blond hair falling almost to her waist. He decided he loved her hair. “I need to know about this. What it is, how we got through, and what those explosions were. You said something earlier about wreckers.”

  “Yeah, Merl,” Samuel said, without affection, “Tell us about the wreckers.”

  Merl held out his hand and a lit cigarette appeared between his fingers. He took a puff, once more squinting slightly, glaring. The bastard.

  After he’d released a puff of smoke in Samuel’s direction, he said, “Look, I don’t know who either of you are, but clearly you’ve got a lot of power between you. Which one of you saw the gate?”

  Vela turned slightly toward the wall. “I did. We’d reached the end of the tunnel and I saw a glowing archway here, in this location. Samuel couldn’t see it, but he used his sword to break through.”

  He narrowed his eyes at Samuel. “Only a powerful warrior can use his sword to make a breach in a gate.” Then back to Vela. “But it’s the rare ascender who can locate gates like mine.”

  Vela turned toward him. “So then you had enough power to find this gate in the first place?”

  Merl took another drag, another sip. He glanced at her. “Hell, no. I paid a fortune, a life’s fortune, to have the gate made then erased from all the grid documents.” His eyes grew cloudy.

  Samuel tried to figure out what would have caused a vampire like Merl to have given up his fortune, his occupation, the life he’d built on Third Earth, to come here and live, literally, off the grid. He wanted to think the worst of Merl, that he was some kind of psychotic outlaw, but he sensed that Merl possessed a warrior’s honorable core, despite his interest in Vela.

  Merl sat down in a low-chair angled from the corner of the room. “All right you two, have a seat and I’ll tell you what’s going on, or what I think is going on.” He sighed heavily. “Well, it was a nice five-decade run. Fuck.”

  Vela crossed to the couch opposite the entry wall. She sat down, shoving the left mass of her hair over her right shoulder. Somewhere along the way, she’d set her martini glass down.

  Samuel remained where he was. “I’ll stand.” He reached down near Merl’s chair, picked up the terry robe and threw it at Merl’s bare, muscled chest.

  Merl laughed, waved the hand with the cigarette, and the terry was once more wrapped around him. But he smirked.

  “Probably a good idea you don’t sit down,” Merl said. “You’d mess up my furniture, with that black smoke that leaks out of you. It’s called grayle, by the way.” He even spelled it. “And rare on Third. Not the grayle, just the color of it.”

  “How so?”

  “Those gifted with this kind of power, like me, can release just about any shade of grayle from light gray to white. But not that charcoal shit. You’ve got tremendous latent power because of it.”

  Recalling the way his power had streamed and killed those men, Samuel had to agree. He quickly repressed the guilt that was always about an inch away.

  Merl glanced between the two of them and frowned. He didn’t speak right away, but the line of his lips tightened. Finally, he said, “All right, I want to hear this from the beginning then I’ll answer your questions. How the hell did you end up in the darkening grid that connects Second and Third Earth?”

  Chapter Four

  Vela reeled from the recent scrapping match between the men. She’d never seen anything like it, or at least not to this degree. She’d witnessed similar antics when her husband and other Militia Warriors would gather in a knot around the BBQ and do some proverbial chest-thumping.

  In this case, however, Samuel had looked ready to tear Merl apart. Fortunately, the Third ascender out-powered Samuel with his own Third ability, otherwise the men would probably have battled for hours.

  She’d therefore done the only thing she could think of, which had actually worked, when she’d rained a series of about twenty fireworks down from the ceiling until each stopped his caveman posturing.

  Of course, it would have helped more if she’d actually disliked that Samuel had gone caveman on her. At the very least, the breh-hedden had a strong sexual component and watching the warrior exhibit all that possessive behavior had worked her libido like throwing a match on a gasoline-soaked campfire.

  Poof, instant blaze.

  She knew what had been going on and that Merl had been putting out his own feelers, though she thought his intentions ranged on the side of riling Samuel up.

  The discussion had turned, just as it should, to their current predicament, and since her power had led her here, straight to Merl, who lived in some kind of reclusive state on Second, she told him all that she knew, including what she’d seen of Duncan’s horrific imprisonment.

  Merl had started out intrigued by what had brought them into his house, but by the end of her narrative, he’d slumped in his chair, took the last drag of his cigarette before folding it away, then released a heavy sigh.

  “Well, fuck,” he said succinctly.

  Samuel crossed his arms over his chest. “Not helping. But damn if I don’t think you know exactly what’s going on.”

  Merl slid his gaze in Samuel’s direction and the men exchanged a long look until Merl finally dipped his chin. “In part. But I’ll begin here. The fact that the two of you were able to engage the darkening grid, and travel between dimensions, tells me that certain warring factions of Third Earth have begun an infiltration of th
is dimension. Someone’s on the prowl, looking to utilize whatever power Second has to offer, maybe even to take over, who the hell knows.”

  “But what does that have to do with us? Why Vela and me?”

  Merl shrugged. “I’ve always believed that forces are constantly at work to sustain balance in our dimensional world, and I don’t mean Upper Dimension forces, but something outside our comprehension. Call it the Creator or the Universe, whatever.”

  Samuel snorted. “You’re talking metaphysical bullshit.”

  Merl met his gaze. “If that idea doesn’t appeal, think of it as genetic intervention, that certain ascenders have genetic markers that get ticked when elements or stressors arise, like war. Then powers emerge, like yours and Vela’s, to counter other darker, more chaotic energies.”

  Vela twined a thick lock of her hair around her finger and turned toward Samuel. He’d said that his power had taken hold while he’d been bound by ropes and tortured. And hers had emerged at a time when three rogue generals were about to plunge Second Earth into a new round of war and misery. Maybe Merl was onto something.

  She released the lock of hair. “Well, setting philosophy aside, tell us about Third Earth, what’s going on up there?”

  “Nasty war. Much worse than Second. You don’t want to get drawn into their conflict but it looks like you just might. The trouble with Third is that there are several factions vying for supremacy right now, not just one.”

  “What’s at the heart of the war?” Samuel asked. “Territorial disputes?”

  “Vast disputes, going back millennia.”

  “Is there a Militia Warrior contingent involved?”

  “Yes, spread through the various factions, and each has an elite Warrior of the Blood force as well, which is why the war is so damn problematic; you’ll find men of great worth, slaying other men of equal worth.”

  “But haven’t you just described every war that either vampire or humankind has ever waged?” Vela asked.

  At that, Merl shifted in her direction and drew in a deep breath. “Samuel,” he said, staring at Vela. “You have a woman of great perception here and of understanding.” To Vela he added, “I believe you’ve spoken a truth, but perhaps only part of it. Not all warriors are honorable. But in the case of Third Earth, imagine Warrior Thorne battling someone just like him, in every respect. Now imagine being unable to get any faction to a negotiating table.”

  Once more, he drew a cigarette into his hand, already lit, and dragged deep. She read his story in this simple, habitual reaction to a reminder of no doubt what he’d left behind in his world. Maybe where he’d failed.

  She frowned. “Merl, were you kicked out of Third or did you leave on your own?”

  He rolled the cigarette between his knuckles, staring at it. “If any of the factions find me, they’ll kill me, which is why your busting through my wall at the end of a grid tunnel pisses the hell out of me.”

  “Are you in danger, I mean right now?” She leaned forward slightly.

  “Maybe. I don’t know. Depends on the wrecking squad that traced you.”

  “So they work in squads,” she stated.

  “Yep. And any of the factions can send squads through the darkening grid in order to destroy what they perceive as the enemy. The weapons are sawed off shotguns, very inelegant, but effective, and besides blowing a trespassing ascender to hell, can break through the walls of the grid, which in turn allows for quicker movement.”

  “So, they must use explosive shells,” Samuel said.

  Merl nodded. “10 gauge. The wrecker’s own power amplifies the shot. You get a goddamn righteous explosion, enough to blow away your target and take down a grid wall, which ain’t easy. Wreckers are a highly specialized and extremely well-paid faction of any army. I worked as one for a couple of decades at the turn of the 20th century. There are limitations, however, but that shotgun makes up for most of them.”

  “What happens once a section of grid is destroyed? Does it get repaired?”

  “Yep, with crews dedicated to clean-up and others to restoring grid walls. All Third Earth shit, developed centuries ago. You were just lucky that Greaves didn’t catch wind of it but even Chustaffus knew not to encourage that beast.”

  “Chustaffus?” A chill shot through Vela, her instincts shouting at her that here was the real enemy.

  “The reigning Prince of Darkness. Sort of. He’s never been able to solidify control. But then, I’m not sure control is even what he wants. I used to think it was, but he has a perverted love of chaos. The more he can create, the happier he is.”

  “So we were being pursued deliberately.” Samuel rocked on his heels.

  The next smoke plume blew in Samuel’s direction. “Do you honestly think it was anything else? From what you’ve told me, the wreckers already had wind of you and had put a trace on Vela’s darkening aura. The moment she returned into the tunnel grid, the trace would have alerted the specific faction’s crew that went after you both.

  “But what I really want to know is how the two of you found me. You shouldn’t have been able to.”

  Samuel shifted in Vela’s direction, his brow furrowed. “Vela has some kind of built-in guidance system that takes her through the grid. Wouldn’t you say that’s right?”

  She nodded. “Exactly.”

  Merl whistled. Glancing from one to the other, his gaze finally landed on Samuel. “Well, though I’m reluctant to give you any cred at all, you’ve got some serious chops, and you’ve the temper of a Warrior of the Blood, even a Third Warrior. But what I don’t get is where the hell did this power come from? How did it develop? This is Third Earth warrior shit, yet you’re still very much a Second ascender. So, exactly how long have you been releasing this badass mist?”

  Vela sensed Samuel’s thoughts shift, a kind of sliding into the dark experiences of his past. His molars moved against each other and his gaze slanted away from Merl. But he spoke of the torture, a few clipped sentences, ending with, “When Duncan found me in Honduras, he basically helped me to escape. I’d been experiencing a growth in power, but that day, it rose unexpectedly, streams of it that I couldn’t control, and I slaughtered those around me, all except Duncan who’d heard me shout at him to get the hell out of there. I didn’t even have a warning it was coming.”

  Merl scowled. “Grayle power can be like that, especially when it first arrives. Most warriors have signs of it long before the initial release and a mentor helps control the process. The problem is, no two grayle powers are exactly alike and sometimes bad things happen, like what happened to you.”

  “Can those streams be controlled?” Samuel held his breath.

  “You have to learn how to access them first.”

  Samuel shook his head. “I have no idea how to do that and believe me I’ve tried.”

  “Be patient. It’ll come. But can I ask you if you ever saw your torturer?”

  “Yes, though I never heard his name spoken. He was a tall motherfucker, built warrior big, finely trimmed goatee, long, thick black hair, black eyes. He wore three braids on each side of his head, the whole mass clipped back. Sound like someone you know?”

  Merl stubbed out his cigarette in the ashtray at his elbow. Sometimes he used the ashtrays and at other times, he’d fold the lit cigarettes away. He dropped his head in his hands. “Shit.”

  “All right,” Vela said, “Who the hell is he?”

  “Sharav. One of Chustaffus’s minions. Well at least now I can frame this, make sense of it. You were essentially in the hands of a madman.”

  Samuel snorted. “Hell, I could have told you that. He spent a lot of time hurting my wing-locks.”

  Vela shuddered.

  But Merl’s chin dipped a couple of times as he looked up at Samuel. “The grayle comes from the locks. Your boy was experimenting on you, trying to create what apparently he succeeded in creating.”

  “A freak?”

  Merl shook his head. “Sharav made a Third Earth Warrior from basic S
econd material. But it looks like his plan must have backfired.”

  The pronouncement set a vibration in Vela’s bones as her gaze drifted to Samuel. Her instincts boiled, running at her with critical information, that his status as a Third Warrior had great significance in her world and that her darkening power, fully able to engage in Third Earth, meshed with his.

  “And when did Sharav capture you?”

  “Eleven years ago and I spent a decade in that hellhole.”

  “Then they’ve been here awhile.”

  “What does that mean?” Vela asked.

  Merl met her gaze. “The only access through normal folding has to occur through the Gateway to Third Earth, the one that Warrior Leto now guards. Which means, that one or more of the factions has found a way, through the darkening, to move back and forth between dimensions with no one the wiser.”

  Vela shifted in her seat. “Are you able to travel through the darkening?”

  Merl once more shook his head. “When I lived on Third, I could, but not from this entrance point and believe me, I’ve tried. Once I set up this gate, I couldn’t go back.”

  Vela glanced around his living room. The house looked settled, like it had been inhabited for a long time. The bookshelves opposite had papers stacked on them. A flat screen TV sat on a table by the wall to her left with three ashtrays lined up in front of it. The furniture resembled Danish modern from fifty-years-ago with a lot of light colored wood and simple lines. “So, who are you in this world, on Second Earth I mean?”

  “I’m part of a small group of outcast Third Earth ascenders. I’m going to have to meet up with them in about a half-hour and talk over this turn of events. In the meantime, you’ll have to stay put. If you’ve been tagged, as I think you’ve been, spies here on Second will track your movements. Right now, you’re invisible and you should stay that way until I can get you more info.”

  “One question,” Samuel asked. “If Sharav has been moving around on Second Earth, why hasn’t he come for me?”

  Merl’s lips curved slowly. “Could be a dozen reasons but my guess is that he’s afraid of you on some level, maybe of that part of your power that he can’t control. Doesn’t mean he won’t kill you if he gets the chance.