Gates of Rapture (The Guardians of Ascension) (28 page)

She struggled to find the word, to make her mouth move. “No,” she murmured at last.

The soft chanting resumed.

*   *   *

Leto had his sword in his right hand and one of his daggers in his left as he battled three Third Earth death vampires, all cloaked behind what must have been Greaves’s mist. He’d already killed three of the bastards.

Casimir had his own problems with the remaining four, who apparently specialized in hand-blast capability. Greaves had clearly learned from the failure at Nazca. Sparks showered everywhere. Casimir kept working the vampires away from Leto, protecting him as he battled sword-to-sword. One hit with a Third Earth hand-blast and Leto wasn’t sure he’d survive.

His opponents were damn experienced. More than once he’d gotten a mild skin burn because one of the pretty-boys would fold behind him and slice at his calves. He could feel that his battle sandals were partly cut away and that blood dripped into the soles. His feet were slippery.

When two folded at once, he lunged under the raised arm of the death vamp in front of him, caught him in his kidneys with his dagger, and took him down. He’d made the right call. The other two materialized in the exact spot where he’d originally stood.

He increased his speed, darting forward and swinging his sword at the same time. He took the hand of one of the vamps, who now rolled on the ground screaming.

The last bastard wasn’t about to be distracted. Leto folded well beyond the prone death vamp, and before he even noticed, Leto brought his sword down hard and took his head. The vamp still standing was almost on him. Leto lifted his sword, and the weight of his opponent’s downward strike sent heavy, almost paralyzing vibrations down his arm.

At the same time, he caught movement to his left. One of the death vamps had broken from Casimir and was lifting his hand in Leto’s direction.

Again Leto lunged, rolling on the ground below the closer vamp.

The hand-blast was ill placed and hit his opponent, sending him screaming into the air and flying backward about ten feet.

Leto was now exposed and on the ground. He waited for a moment while the hand-blast geared up. Then just as he saw the pretty-boy’s smile widen, Leto pivoted, folded, arrived behind the vamp, and thrust his sword through the spine.

Turning, he saw that the three remaining death vamps had moved in tighter on Casimir and that the Fourth ascender had started to struggle. Casimir was not a warrior.

Leto used his speed, and took two heads. The final death vamp standing, turned at the commotion, which was a fatal mistake because Casimir lifted his hand and caught the bastard in the throat with a hand-blast. His head lolled and he toppled over, his skull crunching hard against one of the severed heads.

Leto bent over at the waist, breathing hard. He still had his sword in hand. His gaze drifted back and forth. If Greaves intended to add to the party, he was ready.

“Thank you,” Casimir said.

Leto glanced at him. He was trying to be mature about the presence of the Fourth ascender since it was clear the whole situation was an ascended convergence, but he still resented Casimir for having taken Grace away. He nodded, then reverted his attention to the corpses. Three of the death vamps needed finishing, so he moved swiftly and took heads.

He took one more long look around, but everything seemed quiet. Satisfied that he wasn’t still under attack, he glanced up at the mist.

Greaves.

Did he really think he could take Leto this way? Was that his purpose?

Then his chest tightened with one simple thought: Grace might be alone in the garden.

He folded to the lane beyond the mist, but the moment he did, his mind felt as though it had just been struck down by a mallet. He couldn’t give shape to his thoughts. Even his body felt heavy and unmovable. But why? What was happening to him?

Casimir materialized next to him. “Are you all right? What’s wrong?”

Leto struggled to find the words. “Help Grace. Protect her.”

“No can do. I stay with you, Leto. Sorry. And it looks like Greaves is using his thrall power on you.”

“Fuck.” He had to get to Grace. He could sense she was in danger. For one thing, he couldn’t
feel
her anymore, not any of her physical sensations.

With great difficulty, he rose from the dirt lane and peered up at Diallo’s large house that overlooked the valley. She was up there, waiting for him. She had agreed to wait, to stay in the garden. At least three squads of Militia Warriors had set up a command center in the house, and Gideon had just gone up there a few minutes ago. She should be safe.

Yet somehow, he knew she wasn’t.

He called to her, mind-to-mind.
Grace, Grace.

No answer, which was not possible. They were bonded.

He tried to fold up to the house but couldn’t. He began to walk the long driveway, one uphill step in front of the other. He focused on Grace, but thinking about her only made his mind muddier.

Instead, he focused on Gideon.

That was better. Gideon. One foot in front of the other.

Casimir walked beside him. He glanced at him, even though it was difficult. He sent,
Can you fold me to the house?

“I’ll try.” Casimir put his hand on Leto’s shoulder. He could feel the attempt to fold him, but Casimir couldn’t do it, either.
Sorry, Leto. This is Greaves’s party.

Greaves. That asshole.

But the moment he thought of the Commander, he fell to his knees and a terrible pain sliced through his mind.

Oh, shit. Once more he shifted his focus to thoughts of Gideon. He kept what was left of his mind centered on the Militia Warrior. Gideon was tall. Yes. He was at Warrior of the Blood level now, but he refused to leave the Thunder God Warriors. Jean-Pierre had brought Gideon’s powers online. Yes, his brother warrior, Jean-Pierre, had developed new powers once he completed the
breh-hedden
with Fiona. He could now lift other warriors up to higher levels. Yes, that was what Jean-Pierre could do, and that was what he had done for Gideon.

He just had to keep thinking about Gideon or Jean-Pierre.

His feet were so heavy, but it didn’t matter. He understood that his
breh
was in trouble, but he wouldn’t think her name.

On and on he pressed, but it was like moving through a nightmare. Finally, he made it to the front walk. At last, he pushed the door open. Two Militia Warriors drew their swords to challenge him, though they immediately backed off when they recognized who he was.

“Forgive us, Warrior Leto.” Each looked him up and down because he was still in his beast-form.

“Gideon,” he whispered. His voice sounded hoarse, and he’d barely been able to get the word out.

They called for Gideon. He came running. He had blond hair, but not so dark as Jean-Pierre’s, nor so light as Luken’s.

“Warrior Leto, what’s wrong? You’re covered in blood. Are you injured?”

He put his hand on Gideon’s shoulder and breathed hard as he said, “Grace. Danger.”

“She’s in the garden. Shit, what the fuck has happened?”

“Go to her.”

Gideon called his men in close, and as one powerful unit they marched into the garden calling Grace’s name.

*   *   *

Greaves was sweating and exhausted. The effort to mind-control two such powerful ascenders, in two separate locations, was costing him. But he was close to shutting Grace’s mind down, getting her to agree to go with him, and the longer he worked her mind, the more he could feel her resistance breaking down.

Come with me. Say the word out loud, and I will fold you to my home in Geneva. Say that you agree to come with me.

Her lips moved. Her jaw worked. She lifted her face to him.
I want …

The next moment he heard Militia Warriors shouting. They were calling for Grace. He was out of time. Though he had mist around himself and Grace, the garden was small and the most any of the warriors had to do was to just push through. Or fold.

“Over here.”

Greaves heard Casimir directing traffic. Shit.

“Gideon, break through here.”

Grace, say you’ll come with me.

*   *   *

Grace was growing weary, fighting against Greaves. She knew if she said yes, it would feel so good. But something deep inside her, perhaps even her soul, refused to give up. If only she could open her eyes.

She felt a strange sliding up and down her arms, and she heard her name called as if from a great distance.

She wouldn’t go with him. “No,” she said, and her voice sounded stronger. “No. I won’t go with you.”

“Come back to me.”

“No.” She began to struggle against the arms now gripping and shaking her. She slashed out at Greaves with her fingernails and screamed at him.

Then suddenly, Leto was in her mind.
Grace. Grace. Can you hear me?

Leto?

I’m here.

She fought harder and flew at Greaves. She started screaming and pushing at him, clawing at his face, kicking him. She wouldn’t go. She would never go with him willingly.

“Open your eyes.”

But it wasn’t Greaves’s voice that she heard.

She forced herself to obey. Finally, she popped her eyes wide. Leto was in his beast-state standing beside the chaise, next to her. She was safe, but he had blood running down his face in deep scratches. “What happened to you?” she cried. Then she understood. “Oh, Creator help me, did I do that to you?”

“It’s okay. I will heal very fast.” He dragged her into his arms and held her tight. “He almost had us. Both of us. He used some kind of mind control. I couldn’t think straight. I barely made it up the hill to get to you.”

Grace pushed back. “He promised me so many wonderful things, to bring peace to Second Earth, no more war, if I would just go with him. He had me in thrall.” She shuddered.

“He’s gone. But we can’t stay here. He got through Endelle’s mist.”

“How could he have known where I was?” Even as she spoke the words, she understood. “Stannett and the future streams.” She shook her head and slid her arms around Leto’s neck. “Leto, we’re in trouble. Greaves divided us, even though we’re bonded. He found me because of the future streams. I … I don’t know what to do. Where do we go? Where do we hide that he can’t find us?”

*   *   *

Greaves folded back to his penthouse in Geneva and collapsed on the floor in the living room, facedown. His fingers grasped the thick carpet, and he squeezed. He experienced a profound preternatural exhaustion. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d exerted so much effort. Trying to gain control over two extremely powerful ascenders at the same time had used him up.

So much power. His body vibrated with what he’d felt from both Grace and Leto. Greaves had power, but he’d just attempted the impossible, to wrest a woman from her
breh
.

Maybe he would have succeeded if Casimir hadn’t joined Leto in his fight against the death vampires. Even then, the shield he’d put around Leto should have kept him immobile. But Leto wasn’t himself anymore. He had somehow gained the power to transform into a Third Earth warrior.

The entire time he’d been working at breaking Grace’s will, he had felt Leto’s impossible walk up the hill to Diallo’s house. At least Casimir had been unable to help him fold to Greaves’s position.

Grace. My God.

There was something within Grace’s power structure, because it was anchored by the earth, that was both highly compassionate and at the same time incredibly erotic, unlike anything he’d ever known. He panted as he lay on his carpet.

Grace would never be sadistic, but she had power that vibrated along the insides of his thighs and up through his testicles. For a woman who espoused all things spiritual, she was surely a reincarnation of Aphrodite. She could command him if she understood her power. That she didn’t and probably never would was the only real advantage he had in this situation. He couldn’t be manipulated by her because it would never occur to her to make the attempt.

Greaves had been so close with Grace, so close to getting her to surrender. By the rules of COPASS, neither he nor Endelle could kill anyone outright or abduct them. And though he had over a third of COPASS in his pocket, he knew an outright abduction wouldn’t be overlooked by those members of the ruling committee who still held to their morals.

For just a moment, however, he had debated taking her and having her killed immediately, which would have ended the obsidian flame threat.

But the repercussions would have been swift. Endelle would have gone to Prague and argued against him in front of the entire COPASS committee. He was simply unwilling to take that kind of risk at this late hour, not with a decisive battle looming before him.

He could feel the battle coming now, and with it his chance at securing his ambitions. In so many ways, he was fully prepared. He even had an ace up his sleeve, something no one knew about. If all else failed, he would use this specialized power and hopefully overcome whatever odds presented themselves.

Yet because of a mere woman, the key to obsidian flame, he was living a nightmare. All his plans had come down to Grace and her ability to fulfill the power latent in the triad. He understood that once a triad came together, there was always one member who could acquire the abilities of other ascenders. The nature of the power or ability didn’t matter—from wielding a sword to healing the mind to throwing hand-blasts. Once that triad member learned the skill, obsidian flame could then magnify that skill a thousandfold. He knew for a fact that there was at least one triad operating on Third Earth. He had witnessed for himself a valley of warriors slain by a single hand-blast, and in turn he had seen a hundred thousand people folded out of the path of a flash flood.

If only he’d had been able to persuade Grace to surrender to him, he could have turned her over to his favorite death vampires and let them dispose of her.

But she had held steady to the end. He had failed.

His blood finally settled down so that he could ease himself up off the floor. He showered and changed into a fresh Hugo Boss suit. He put on his pinkie ring of black onyx. He would head to Estrella next and continue working military strategies with his generals.