Awakening (8 page)

Merl drew close. “It’s a magnificent sculpture.”

“Yes, by one of our award-winning horticultural artists. I think she’s called Tazianne.”

After a moment, he asked quietly, “Are you okay? This has been a lot to take in.”

Was she okay? Hell, no. She wanted to lash out, to yell at Merl. Maybe this was his fault. After all, he’d come from Third Earth and had been hiding out on Second for fifty years if she’d understood his history correctly.

Instead, she forced herself to be rational as she responded, “I’m fine. I’ll adjust.” Then she turned toward him. “Actually, you might be exactly what I need right now.”

“Anything you want, ascender.” The grin he offered her made her roll her eyes.

But she’d been around warrior-types most of her life, all very much like her brother Gideon who had become a Militia Warrior shortly after ascending. So, she didn’t take Merl too seriously.

She responded, “Spoken like a man or at least a warrior. The thing is, I have no intention of just lying down for this princess-bitch so I’d like you to teach me how to fire a wrecking gun. Then I want to keep one of those guns in my possession for the next time these Third Earth assholes decide to bust into my garden.”

He took a step closer, apparently unwilling to surrender the field so quickly. “Again, anything you need, I’m you’re man."

She knew he was teasing, but his words and attitude were really unfortunate because she caught sight of Duncan not ten feet away. Duncan’s green eyes had turned dark with rage. She felt the
breh-hedden
sizzle in the air as he launched at Merl, slamming him against the far wall, adjacent to the open doorway.

He might have had the advantage of surprise, but Merl had been a warrior and his true nature kicked into high gear. As Duncan rose off of him, fists up, Merl shot upright.

Before Duncan could blink, Merl had gotten in an uppercut to his jaw, throwing Duncan’s head back. The momentum of the hit, laced as it was with Merl’s Third Earth ability, threw Duncan over the open front door threshold, all the way across the patio, and onto the lawn.

“Fight!” Zacharius shouted.

The sounds of a brawl-in-progress brought all the men and a wild-eyed Endelle flowing out the door.

Rachel wasn’t too far behind because she’d caught Duncan’s cider scent and the
breh-hedden
had her in its grip all over again. For some reason, she liked that he’d gone caveman.

Merl hadn’t exactly won friends with his flirt-with-anything attitude and the brotherhood cheered their latest member on.

When Duncan stopped for a breather and Merl followed suit, Rachel couldn’t take her eyes off her
breh.
He looked magnificent with his eyes on fire, his muscles pumped for fighting, and his scent wafting over her like a layer of mist.

Then he mounted his wings and the moment he did, a whole lot of stunned cursing went around the men. And why wouldn’t they be astounded; Duncan’s wings were now huge, bigger than most, and they were beautiful.

Rachel put a hand to her chest and for a moment simply couldn’t draw air into her lungs. His wings were bigger than before though still green like his eyes and with powerful black bands around the edges.

“Oh, my,” she murmured to no one in particular.

“Shit,” Endelle said. “They’re almost as big as mine.”

Duncan, however, shouted at Merl. “You giving up, Third ascender?”

Merl, blood pouring from his mouth, hunched his shoulders in response and stripped off his red silk shirt. “Like hell.”

His turn to mount and within three seconds, his massive black wings with row after row of soft violet bands caused another series of exclamations to flow around the warriors.

And of course, an air battle was a whole new ballgame.

Luken arrived suddenly. “What the hell is this? I’ll have steaks ready in about three minutes.”

Endelle chortled. “Merl made a pass at Rachel and Duncan saw it.”

“Holy fuck. Well, then.” He joined the other men and cheered as loud as any of them as Merl and Duncan flew at each other, wings tucked to gain speed for a moment then unfurling to do battle, fists and legs flying.

Rachel felt dizzy in part because she was breathing way too hard. But she was also caught up in tracking the men. Duncan broke free and wheeled away to gain altitude.

Merl flapped in such a way that he remained in one place, while he watched Duncan come at him from a higher position at full speed. His wings did a kind of rotating flip that drew him aside at the last moment. At the same time, he caught Duncan hard in the back, with his foot, as he flew by.

Duncan was only ten feet above the ground when he caught himself with his wings at full-mount and stopped from plowing into the lawn.

Rachel hardly saw Merl. Her eyes tracked her man, and he was glorious. He flapped slowly at first then faster and once more went at Merl. But this time he knew the Third ascender’s trick and adjusted so that he caught Merl’s left wing.

The ensuing and very loud snap caused all the warriors to groan loudly.

But to everyone’s surprise, Merl kept flying even though part of one wing dangled. The Third ascender was using levitation to stay in the air!

Rachel could see that Duncan now hesitated because of Merl’s broken wing. That kind of damage done to a Second ascender would have had him falling to earth.

It was clear to her, however, that Merl wasn’t giving up; the warrior was pissed.

This wasn’t good.

Without giving it a second thought, she stripped out of her dress and bra and prepared to mount. She wasn’t as quick as these two men in releasing her wings, so it took time for the mesh to rise and the swelling of her back to complete.

Then the rush came, a tingling through her entire body so close to the feeling of sex that her breath caught. Before she flapped her wings, however, she brought forward the shielding power. She rose straight up into the air, naked except for her red thong, and headed straight for Duncan as fast as she could.

Merl flew at top speed as well, wings at close-mount. He was aiming right for Duncan from a higher altitude, rage on every feature of his face. He had to be in an enormous amount of pain, but still he pressed on.

At the last moment, before the collision could happen, she tackled Duncan around the waist, pushing him backward several yards. At the same time, she let her shielding power flow.

“What the hell!” Duncan shouted. He caught her around the waist. “What are you doing?”

Glancing over her shoulder, she watched Merl scramble in the air, turning in a circle, hunting for Duncan.

Back to Duncan, she said, “What am I doing? Stopping the fight, idiot. And unless you want everyone seeing me bare-breasted, you’d better return me to the patio where I left my dress. Otherwise, I’ll let the shield go then all these warriors will get an eye-full.”

Duncan was breathing hard, his eyes wild. But when his gaze landed on her breasts, she watched his attention finally shift from Merl to her.

Suspended in midair with his wings flapping and holding them both in place, he took several deep breaths. She could see he was attempting to compose himself. Battle adrenaline didn’t leave the body easily.

With his wings wafting and her own barely moving, he leaned into her and kissed her. His hand sliding over her breast and fondling. And it felt damn good, too good, shake-up-her-life good.

“Rachel. I need to take you to bed.”

“But what were you thinking attacking Merl like that?”

“I wasn’t. Besides, the bastard deserved it.”

She didn’t even try to answer that one since to some degree, Duncan was right. Merl knew better, but he’d flirted with her anyway.

Duncan finally floated them down to the lawn. Drawing in his wings and giving her time to do the same, he held her hand as he led her back to the patio.

Because she kept him shielded, they were able to blow right past the warriors. Not one of them turned in her direction; clearly her shield held. She heard the confused chatter that went similar to what had happened in the hallway behind the med-bay: where had the two of them gone?

Endelle had of course turned in their direction and said, “Why’d you stop the kiss, not to mention that very nice boob-in-the-hand feel-up? I would have enjoyed some in-air action.”

Rachel shook her head but refused to take her comment seriously. Instead, she suggested, “Maybe you should call Horace because I suspect Merl is going to be in some serious pain, if he isn’t feeling it already.”

Endelle grimaced but pulled her phone from her bustier and made the call.

Rachel put her bra back on, then her dress.

“Hey,” Duncan said. “We’re still covered by your shield but you weren’t touching me at all when you got dressed. I thought maybe we had to be touching, or something.”

She looked at him and held her hands wide. “I know. And now I’m wondering how far I can stretch this.” She started backing up toward the front door and the shield held with the first step, the second, and even the third. But at the two yard point she could feel her power begin to thin. As she kept moving, the shield finally just dissipated completely.

“Hey, Duncan is here with Rachel,” Santiago called out. “By the door.”

~ ~ ~

Endelle didn’t have a lot of hopeful moments in her life. Mostly, she went from one disaster to the next, trying not to fall into a hole and get stuck there. But right now, because of what Rachel had just done – the woman who refused to be part of the war – she felt hopeful.

She’d had a nightmare of a vision that all but predicted both Luken and Duncan’s deaths as well as the shifting of the war to a disastrous conclusion.

But every time the
breh-hedden
showed up, something miraculous happened.

And that gave her hope.

Horace arrived in the villa foyer beyond Duncan and Rachel. Duncan turned toward him and gestured in the direction of the warriors crowded around Merl. The Third ascender sat with his knees on the grass, breathing hard, his complexion pale. The gossamer web that both created the feathers then exploded through the wing-locks, hurt like the devil when broken.

That snap had caused Endelle to cringe inwardly. Even plucking the feathers hurt, something she did in front of other ascenders just to unsettle the room and give her an advantage. But Merl had his Third Earth abilities and he would heal quickly enough. Faster with Horace, of course.

She had some tough decisions coming up and one of them she’d already made. But now she had to inform the recipient and it wouldn’t be pretty.

When Luken headed in the direction of Antony’s pool to collect the grilled steaks, she followed after him, though moving slowly so she didn’t catch up right away. She needed her head on straight for this one and she knew just how much what she intended to tell Luken would grieve him.

He’d lose regular contact with Havily, for one thing.

And he’d have to give up his leadership of the Warriors of the Blood for another, something Endelle knew he valued immensely. And he’d been damn good at it especially with so many Militia Warriors rising in power toward What-Bee levels.

His likely death, however, was something Endelle couldn’t share and her throat tightened.

Sometimes life was one fucked up shitfest after another.

She could smell the steaks and how they were charred just right. Her stomach growled.

He saw her coming and his usual smile faltered until he was frowning. Yep, he knew her well, and that she wouldn’t have come back here for a social visit.

He had a platter on the adjacent counter, where he began stacking up the super-sized ribeyes. “There’s been only one time in recent memory that you wore that kind of expression,” he said. “Fiona was on her knees next to a cage that held a real bastard of a prisoner and she started reciting the names of hundreds of blood slaves.” He slid a long, two-prong fork into another steak and stacked it on the others. “You have the same look right now that you had then, as you knelt beside her, so I’m thinkin’ this can’t be good.”

For all his beefiness, and the appearance of being nothing but muscle, Luken had both a fine mind and a perceptiveness that made her job both easier and harder. “I need you to resign as leader of the Warriors of the Blood.”

He paused, staring in the direction of the pool but his gaze had clearly landed on nothing in particular. He looked like she’d punched him in the gut. “Why?”

Now that was the exact question she couldn’t answer. What would she say? ‘Because I had a vision you were going to die, so I’m sending you to your death.’

Instead, she told the other part of the truth. “Because I need you to form a special ops team, and to lead that team. You’ll be heading to Third with Duncan.”

He frowned. “Shit.”

He added the last of the steaks to the platter and didn’t say anything more as he headed to the door that led inside.

Endelle moved forward quickly, holding the door for him. Through the long hall, she could see that some of the men had already clustered in the kitchen. Medichi was scooping several quarts of potato salad into a large ceramic bowl. He had some of his famous Limoncello that Santiago poured into small glasses and passed around. Rachel was hunting for linens and silverware.

The villa was often the off-hours center for the brotherhood these days, especially if women were involved. Parisa, Medichi’s
breh
, had made it a habit to invite all the men and the bonded women over often just to socialize. Parisa would be here now, as well, but apparently she was at Vela’s house, mentoring her, maybe.

Endelle had received numerous invitations over the months to join in, but she understood quite well that her presence caused a kind of stress that didn’t help her men. So she rarely attended.

Luken handed the platter of steaks to Antony. He didn’t go into the kitchen, however, but remained with Endelle. She led him into a small, nearby garden room that had a view of the front lawn and the olive grove beyond.

Luken shifted to face her, his back to the kitchen. “And what exactly is the special ops team supposed to do?”

“I don’t know exactly, and Merl will be on the team as well, though I haven’t told him yet. But for starters, Rachel will need to be protected as well as Duncan.