Awakening (16 page)

Endelle shook her head. “We’re not sure.”

Merl nodded. “I think you’d be wise to get some wrecking guns over here on the double. This feels like the grid to me, like the palace has been targeted. Not sure I can say why, it just does.”

“I’m on it,” Luken said. “Merl, while I’m gone, get these men up to speed.” He gestured quickly to each. “Owen, Alex, Joshua. I’ll be right back.” He spoke into his shoulder com as he moved, shouting orders to the warriors on duty at Militia HQ.

Thorne said, “Endelle, do you have reason to expect an attack here?”

Endelle felt a terrible pressure on her chest. “I don’t know, probably. Like I told you a few minutes ago, Yolanthe is after Rachel and Rachel is in my sitting room. So, how about you move your personnel out of here and take as much of this equipment with you as you can. Those guns will destroy everything.”

Thorne turned and started shouting orders for everyone to get to Apache Junction Two and to take the hard drives with them. Within seconds, the dozen or so computer towers were being loaded onto a cart and wheeled in the direction of the landing platforms. Each member of the Command Center team tucked a laptop under his or her arm and hurried toward the platforms as well.

Endelle addressed Thorne. “I take it you’ve run drills with your techs.”

“Damn straight I have.”

CHAPTER FIVE

Death’s shadow

Brings wisdom.

Collected Proverbs –
Beatrice of Fourth

The vision of an imminent attack on the palace had Duncan tense as hell. He was still deep inside his vampire nature, and Yolanthe’s amber link continued to glow.

With the woman still asleep nearby, he mentally touched the link. He could feel the nature of it and how much the connective power felt like Yolanthe, a combination of self-control and narcissism.

He slowly began to feed his power into the link and with each subtle increase he began to rise to consciousness. He didn’t want to wake the beast; he just needed to slip out of his trance.

The next moment, he blinked several times and saw the ceiling of Endelle’s private suite.

“Duncan?” Rachel’s voice.

He slowly sat up as his mind cleared.

Rachel was sitting in a chair at the end of the couch, her eyes wide as she met his gaze.

“You’re back,” she said. She rose from her chair.

“I am.” But because of the vision, he had to act quickly. “I already know we’re in trouble here. Tell me what’s happening.”

She gestured to the Command Center. “Luken is here with your squad. Merl’s in uniform, helping out as well. Thorne, too. Endelle put them all on alert.”

“Oh, thank God. What about weapons?”

“I don’t know. I still have the guns from the wreckers who showed up in your bedroom.”

“What do you mean?”

Rachel gave her head a shake. “I’ll tell you later.” She pulled the two guns from behind her chair and tossed one to him.

“Ammo?”

He watched her extend her hand and a moment later a box of at least a dozen shells appeared.

Taking the box from her, he set it on the table, loaded his weapon, and slid several shells into the pockets of his kilt.

Rachel had nowhere to store hers, but she placed two cartridges in her gun. “Don’t worry. I can fold additional shells into my hand so I’ll leave the box on the coffee table.”

He nodded, and was about to head into the adjoining room when the initial vision once more flitted through his head. There would be so much gunfire. “Rachel, I don’t want you in there. This battle’s going to be messy.”

Rachel’s lips parted but no words came. Instead, she pressed her hand to her chest. “I’m supposed to be there, with you. I can feel it. I think … I think we need to be in a shielded position.”

He thought for a minute, reflecting on what he’d seen in the vision. “That’s right. We are.”

“What do you mean?”

“I had a vision. In fact, you should shield me right now.”

Rachel drew close. “This is going to be bad, isn’t it?”

“Very bad.”

He watched Rachel take a deep breath. But with her wrecker gun in hand and without touching him, she began to form the shield. He could feel her power flow in his direction.

Probably because of the
breh-hedden,
desire for her rose in a swift stream as well. He leaned close and slid his arm beneath hers, grateful he was with her. Once he made contact, however, power erupted between them.

“Can you feel that?” she asked, turning slightly to meet his gaze.

“Yes. This is incomprehensible, the
breh-hedden.
”

“I know.”

He squeezed her arm. “And I didn’t do well after we made love and I’m sorry. It’s the old shit. I didn’t mean to be so cold.”

“And I know that as well.”

Luken appeared in the doorway, but called back over his shoulder. “They’re not in here. Or maybe Rachel’s shielding Duncan.”

Endelle’s voice rang out. “Don’t worry about them, just get your ass over here. Now. I hear rumbling.”

Luken whipped around and headed back into the Command Center.

Duncan took Rachel’s arm and followed after Luken. “I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“I know. Please, don’t worry.”

“Too late for that.” He tried to suppress the feeling that the vision hadn’t told him everything, but couldn’t.

Once they reached the Command Center, Duncan expected Endelle to say something. Instead she met his gaze and nodded to him, a wrecker gun in hand. Clearly, she had nothing on her mind right now except preparing for battle. This wasn’t Endelle’s first engagement, and it sure as hell wouldn’t be her last.

The warriors that remained in the now otherwise empty rotunda were lined up in two arcs facing the large, open air balcony. Each arc was slanted off to the side of the opening. The arrangement appeared the same as it had in the vision and that helped Duncan to breathe a little easier.

A familiar rumbling sounded through the room along with a distant muffled explosion.

The wreckers were close.

Merl, no doubt leaning on past experience, counted down. “Five … four … three … two … one.”

The air exploded and wreckers began leaping into the space, initially firing at all the empty tables and monitors.

Duncan unloaded as did everyone else. Wreckers fell, but more poured in behind them, firing as they entered the space.

Luken moved fast and before the next wrecker could fire, he engaged
mano-a-mano
. Everyone else loaded and fired, loaded and fired.

Some of the wreckers stayed hidden inside the grid only to suddenly appear then discharge their weapons. Duncan felt shards of marble chewing up his legs which answered at least one question; he wasn’t protected behind the shield, just invisible.

Endelle shouted profanity as smoke filled the room. She waved her arm and the smoke dissipated. Great to have someone of power keeping the field clean.

When the wreckers disappeared and the grid grew quiet, Merl called out a warning that the retreat was a feint. More would come any second.

Merl directed everyone off to the sides again, out of the line of fire.

“Jeannie,” Endelle shouted. “Get rid of these corpses.”

Jeannie called out, “On three, cover your peepers. One … two … three.” Duncan closed his eyes for a moment as a flash of brilliant white light hit the room. And just like that, the bodies and debris vanished.

But a split-second later, the wreckers reappeared in the opening of the grid, firing all over again.

Duncan watched Owen fall to the ground, his right arm cut up and bleeding bad. But the screams and curses from inside the darkening grid told their own tale.

Duncan was officially out of ammo and called out to Endelle. Because he was shielded, he was pretty sure no one else could hear him.

Endelle shouted for an additional weapon for him.

Owen, all the way across the room, alerted Endelle, then tossed the gun to her in a high arc to avoid the constant crossfire. She caught it easily in her hand. A second one followed.

Endelle slung each of them in turn to Rachel, who passed one to Duncan. Each commenced firing again.

Then suddenly, all activity from the grid ceased.

“A new set of wreckers is coming in to replace this crew,” Merl shouted. “Everyone lie flat and get ready. Endelle, let Rachel and Duncan know.”

Endelle responded, “They can hear and see everything.”

“Okay. Good to know.”

Duncan dropped to the floor and Rachel quickly stretched out beside him. Like him, she held her gun at her shoulder, ready to fire. She was trembling, but composed.

Another group of wreckers appeared, six shotguns exploding. If any of the palace group had been standing, they would have been hit.

Duncan fired his weapon quickly, reloading in between as fast as he could. Rachel continued to fold ammo in from Endelle’s suite, loading and firing as though she’d been doing it forever.

Duncan saw that a new arrival had a tight bead on their position. The wrecker was aiming for what he couldn’t see but clearly knew to be there. In a swift movement, Duncan pulled Rachel close, then rolled them both swiftly to the right at least ten feet.

The wrecker fired, blasting a hole in the marble floor where they’d just been.

Rachel started to reload her weapon, but came up empty when she tried to fold shells from Endelle’s suite.

“We need more ammo,” Rachel called out.

Endelle reached for the box next to her then slid it in Rachel’s direction, but it got stuck on torn up pieces of the marble tile.

Endelle cursed, but went right back to firing her weapon. Wreckers dropped one after the other.

Rachel left Duncan, but thinned the shield out a little too far and became visible. She grabbed the ammo and slid it the rest of the way to Duncan.

“Rachel! Your shield.”

Endelle called her name and tossed Rachel a gun.

As two more wreckers appeared in the grid opening, Duncan turned his attention to the battle. Both faced in Rachel’s direction.

He heard her get off a shot as he lifted his shotgun and fired at almost the same time. Both wreckers also got off shots before they fell dead.

Then everything turned unearthly quiet.

Smoke once more filled the space.

Endelle called for Jeannie’s assistance again. After another count-down and closing of eyes, the dead wreckers disappeared.

Merl’s voice this time. “That’s it. Battle’s over.”

“How do you know?” Duncan called out rising to his feet. Parts of the room were hard to see because of the smoke.

Merl responded. “It’s a lack of vibration. You get really familiar with it in the grid. But hey, I’m going to grab their guns before the grid closes up.”

Through the veil of smoke, he watched Merl step into the grid and begin tossing out shotguns and belts as well as several metal boxes of ordnance.

Endelle once more waved her arm and the smoke cleared.

And that’s when he heard a terrible gurgling sound not two yards from him, on his left.

He knew then what had happened and turned slowly to stare down at Rachel. She’d been hit along the side of her waist, but the nature of the blast had severely damaged her internal organs. There was blood everywhere.

In his vision, he hadn’t seen the end of the battle, just the beginning.

Endelle was already shouting something to Jeannie about getting Horace over to the Command Center. Then suddenly Horace was right there, kneeling beside Rachel and working his healing magic on her fast and furious.

But Duncan still remained as though fixed in place, his head dizzy, his heart pounding hard. His eyes burned. And he couldn’t move a goddam muscle.

Horace started shouting, calling for his team and for Fiona, Jean-Pierre’s
breh.
Fiona had the ability to amplify various powers.

Together, Horace and Fiona had recently pulled Duncan back from the grave as well.

Duncan finally felt capable of movement and knelt beside Rachel. He took her hand but there was no answering response to the pressure of his fingers.

“I’m sorry,” he murmured. “I never wanted this to happen.”

Blood pooled on her lips and dripped down her face, but she made eye contact.
I’m so cold. So cold.

No, Rachel. Don’t do this. You must know I love you.

I know.
But even her telepathic voice faded and her eyes closed.

Rachel?

He got no response.

He could feel the healing waves as Horace worked hard to rebuild her organs. His team arrived, pushing Duncan out of the way. He didn’t protest.

Instead, he stood by, looking down at her but hardly seeing her through a cloud of tears. He felt numb from head to foot as though he didn’t even exist.

A surge of power had Rachel’s body arching. Her lungs barely moved, though, as she made small gasping sounds.

Fiona arrived. She knelt beside Horace, closed her eyes, and the next moment Horace’s body stiffened quickly then relaxed. At the same time, Fiona slid backward to lie prone and unconscious on the floor.

Fiona now lived inside Horace.

Extraordinary waves of healing began to flow from the healer, amplified through Fiona’s power like nothing Duncan had ever felt before.

He pressed a fist to his mouth and waited.

Duncan?
Rachel’s telepathic voice, but very weak.

Yes? I’m here.
Would she be all right? Would she live?

There’s an angel behind you with red hair.

Oh, fuck.

He spun.

Yolanthe.

She’d done this. She’d sent the wreckers to the palace. To kill Rachel.

He leapt for her and wrapped his hands around her neck, squeezing hard but nothing happened. Instead, she just smiled then drifted away. Some kind of Third Earth holographic bullshit. Yolanthe’s voice floated through his mind,
I’m coming for you, Duncan.

Returning to Rachel, he watched as a slight amount of color entered her cheeks. Because of the team working on her, he couldn’t get close, but he could hold her gaze. “I hurt,” she whispered.

Those words broke him because it meant she would live. Hot, stinging tears flowed down his cheeks. He nodded to her in response and kept wiping at his face with the palms of his hands.