Gates of Rapture (The Guardians of Ascension)
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Authors: Caris Roane
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To Kenra Daniels,
Fellow author,
Who knows how to “lay down her life” …
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Jennifer Schober, a gazillion thanks for all your hard work on my behalf.
Rose Hilliard, working with you is dynamite.
Danielle Fiorella, thanks for great covers—always.
Laurie Henderson and Laura Jorstad, thanks for the care you give my manuscripts.
Liz Edelstein,
Heroes and Heartbreakers
ROCKS!
My special thanks to Anne Marie Tallberg, Eileen Rothschild, and Brittney Kleinfelter for your continual support of my beloved warriors.
And once again, many thanks to Matthew Shear, Jen Enderlin, and the hardworking team at SMP.
My beloved held me in his arms
He whispered tender words
He spun golden thoughts through my mind
He moved quickly, his weight a beautiful anchor
I approached the gates of rapture trembling
The world exploded in a flash of brilliant light
And I was changed forever.
—Grace of Albion, “The Convent Years,”
from
Collected Poems
, Beatrice of Fourth
CONTENTS
Praise for the Guardians of Ascension series by Caris Roane
Understanding
Comes in its own time.
—
Collected Proverbs,
Beatrice of Fourth
CHAPTER 1
Leto Distra, out of the Eastern European tribes over three thousand years ago, was no longer just vampire, but something more, something he despised.
He was now part beast, a form that he couldn’t control and which made a mockery of his life, his philosophies, and his civilized mind. At least he had a warning when the beast was about to emerge, a vibration that traveled down his left leg.
Sonofabitch, there it was. Very faint, which meant he had time—but not a lot—before he had to remove himself from everyone he knew.
He was dangerous in his beast-state, uncontrolled.
As he walked near the warrior-games contest grounds in the Seattle One hidden colony, he held a child in his arms. The toddler had his arm hooked around Leto’s neck, a great comfort. Leto kept his right hand free for his sword. He’d been a warrior too many centuries not to sustain the basics, and for days now he’d been on edge. Something was in the wind, as though a decision had been made about the future of Second Earth and the war with Darian Greaves.
He glanced up at the blue sky. Early September in the Cascade Mountains was a beautiful time of year and perfect for the games.
A cluster of children, mostly under the age of seven, dogged his heels as he took one last tour of the contest grounds. For some reason, kids liked him, and the truth was he enjoyed their attention. They eased him. Not much did these days, not with Grace gone from his life these past five months. He missed her and he needed her. He was a beast clawing to break out of his cage.
Adjacent to the event grounds was a fair-like atmosphere that resembled something from medieval days, lots of colorful tents bearing handcrafted objects ready for sale. Other booths would soon become aromatic with food grown, slaughtered, steamed, and barbecued by the locals.
His stomach growled at the thought.
Hundreds of feet overhead, an innovative mist created a protective veil over the land that only the most powerful could see and which always confused the human mind. Anyone drawing near the dome of mist would experience disorientation and would turn to head in the opposite direction. In this manner, all the hidden colonies of Mortal Earth had escaped detection for three millennia, from the time the first colony was created.
The leader of the Seattle Colony, Diallo, had spent centuries perfecting his mossy-mist creation. He also checked the viability of the veil several times a day, especially since, only a few months ago, the colony had been breached by the enemy for the first time in its long history.
That breach, unfortunately, meant that a second attack wasn’t so much a probability as an eventuality. One day, Greaves and his merry band of death vampires would find a way in. And then what?
He glanced at Brynna. She walked beside him, on his left, and just a little ahead of him.
How we doin’?
he sent. It was easy to contact her telepathically, because over the past few months they’d become good friends.
Brynna was also in constant telepathic contact with the colony’s Militia Warrior Section Leaders who were right now patrolling the external edges of the mist-dome, a thirty-mile perimeter.
She glanced at him, gave a single nod, then continued the telepathic communication.
Three of the squads are inbound with more discovery.
Shit.
Exactly. This ain’t good.
He looked up, his gaze shifting across an intense blue sky above, searching for a sign of death vampires. The Seattle Colony was hidden deep in the Cascade Range well to the east of the large city. All the hidden colonies were named for the largest cities or towns nearest them.
Greaves and his minions are getting closer,
Leto sent.
Yep. There’s no debating the situation anymore. Gideon said his team picked up five more little black boxes. The techs are working on them as we speak, but everyone agrees that they’re probably transmitters of some kind.
The first black box had been discovered the day before.
It’s just a matter of time, then. God help us. And if Greaves can subdue the colonies worldwide, he’ll take all the refugee Seers and put them to work in his Second Earth facilities in South Africa, Colombia, and India. He’ll finally have the advantage he’s been working toward for the past fifteen years.
Hey. A little perspective here, Leto. You’ve brought the Militia Warriors up to speed in every hidden colony around the globe, and we even have reinforcements from Second. Jean-Pierre’s been bringing MW powers online, and that wouldn’t have happened otherwise for another millennium. We’re stronger than you think. We can protect our Seers from anything he throws at us.
I’ve just been uneasy for the past few days. Can’t explain it, like I can feel forces moving into position.
You are so damn negative.
Tell me I’m wrong.
I’ll do one better. I’ll tell you what your real problem is: You need to get laid.
Okay, Brynna had a point. He chuckled.
That’s better, asshole. Just remember, you built a strong force here on Mortal Earth and tied it to Thorne’s army on Second. We’re not helpless anymore. Trust in that, beast-man.
Beast-man.
He laughed. Brynna always made him laugh.
She smiled as she swept her gaze forward in the direction of the event grounds.
Do you see this obstacle set? I’m going to win it tonight.
He shifted the child in his arms, getting a little more comfortable as he moved steadily forward. A stack of logs fifteen feet long, bark still on and braced by huge steel girders, climbed at a steep angle sixty feet into the air. Creating the obstacle-set had been a feat all by itself, but the Thunder God Warriors—the nickname for all Militia Warriors in any country—had outdone themselves.
The teamwork required to pull the games together had been an army-growing exercise. And if Leto knew one thing, it was how to build an army.
He stopped and stared up at the precise stack of logs. To win this set, a warrior would have to possess thighs of granite and speed, extraordinary speed, preternatural speed.
You haven’t got a chance in hell,
he sent. He loved poking the bear.
She turned and glared at him.
Like hell I don’t.
He merely smiled.
She rolled her eyes.
If all those brats weren’t hanging on you, like you were Christ or something, I’d flip you off.
Brynna learning restraint?
he sent.
Impossible.
She sighed.
I’m trying.
Brynna had been one of the biggest surprises of his life, and a good one at that. She was tall, six-two, and had a couple of tattoos and piercings, straight black hair just past her shoulders, and steel-gray eyes. She was a refugee Seer, having escaped from a Seers Fortress a few centuries ago. Through the future streams, Diallo had found her and brought her to the colony to escape Second Earth Seer oppression.
She liked men, and more recently she’d discovered she liked making war. She was now a Militia Warrior.
She’d suggested more than once that they take their friendship to a much more productive level, but he’d refused. Sex with Brynna would have been wrong. She was his friend. No, she was more than that. She was his best friend. As much as he wanted to take a woman into his bed, he valued all that she was in his life way too much to dilute it with sex.
But there was another reason he’d refused.
His
breh
had shown up in the form of Warrior Thorne’s sister: Grace Albion. Her surname was an ancient designation the family had all but dropped. Grace and Thorne’s family originally came from the British Isles. Everyone knew her simply as Grace. But oh, God, even thinking about her brought a flush rising to his skin.
He took a few deep breaths. Thoughts of Grace tended to bring on his beast more quickly. Sure enough, the vibration strengthened, so shit.
But Grace was gone. She’d been gone all these months, having left with the Fourth ascender, Casimir, to who the hell knew where. Because no one could find her in the future streams, not even Marguerite, Thorne’s powerful Seer
breh,
it was presumed Grace was off-dimension. He wouldn’t be surprised if Casimir had taken her to his home world, Fourth Earth. Casimir wasn’t a warrior, just some very powerful but worthless hedonist who had also caught Grace’s
breh
-scent and somehow enticed her to go with him.
But all of it was a nightmare starting with the bizarre fact that Grace had caught the scent of not one but
two
brehs
: himself and Casimir. The
breh-hedden
alone was such a new concept on Second Earth that no one could explain why Grace had actually ended up with two.
But Grace had taken it in stride, one of her many fine qualities, even if the situation had ruined something in Leto’s heart. She seemed to have a strong intuition that her bizarre connection to Casimir was necessary, to Leto’s survival as well as her own. So instead of completing the bonding ritual of the
breh-hedden
with Leto, she’d taken off with Casimir, convinced she had to for all their sakes.
