Gates of Rapture (The Guardians of Ascension) (29 page)

Before leaving, Greaves checked on Julianna, his current love-slave. She was facedown on the bed, naked, a sheet just covering her buttocks. Her wing-locks were torn but healing well. Their last session had been one of the best yet. Despite his arousal while feeling Grace’s earth-based power, Julianna was his preference. The claw that he could bring forth from his DNA-altered left hand tingled at the thought that she might be healed as early as noon, at which time they could enjoy another energetic half hour or so.

He glanced at her nightstand and frowned. There was a vase with at least two dozen long-stemmed peach-colored roses in it. He saw a card on the table.

He wondered if someone was attempting to seduce his woman. Casimir had once held Julianna captive in his Paris One apartment. Maybe he wasn’t as reformed as he appeared.

Greaves moved to the table and read the card. He couldn’t help but smile. Sometimes he thought he and Stannett were brothers. The words on the card, in Stannett’s hand, were very simple, “Grace has come home. Casimir, too.”

He saw something gleam behind the vase. Ah, a half-empty bottle of Jack Daniel’s. Julianna had needed some solace.

He leaned down and kissed one of the upper shredded wing-locks. “Patience,” he whispered. “You will have your chance to destroy one or both of them, I have no doubt.”

Grace had stolen Caz away from her, and to a woman of Julianna’s temperament, that was an unforgiveable sin.

*   *   *

Grace sat across from Leto in the Apache Two conference room, her arms folded over her chest. It was past midnight now, and all the events of the day and evening had taken a toll. She was beyond exhausted. But no decision had been made yet about where they would settle down for the rest of the night. Leto had reverted to his normal size, and he’d changed from his stained battle gear into jeans and a dark T-shirt. He’d even showered in the Militia Warriors locker room.

The recent encounter with Greaves had shaken her. The bastard, for she could think of him as nothing less in this moment, had almost taken possession of her. She’d almost given herself into his power. She shuddered. She had no doubt that once she’d agreed to go with him, he would have had her killed.

She chewed on the inside of her lip.

Leto met her gaze. “Grace, please talk to me.” He leaned forward with his elbows on his knees, his hands clasped loosely between his legs. He looked so beautiful, and so different from Greaves. Leto had wonderful thick raven-black hair. She loved feeling his hair. She reached out and touched it now.

Greaves was bald. That circumstance alone should have made her fight him. She still couldn’t believe that he’d been able to place her in thrall like that.

“I don’t know what happened, and I’m frightened. He almost had me.” She shivered and hugged herself tighter.

“Grace, I can feel how tense you are. I just wish I could have gotten to you sooner. But as soon as Casimir and I defeated the death vampires and I folded out of Greaves’s mist, I could hardly move. If I thought about you, I experienced such pain.”

Grace rose from her chair and started to pace. “He has so much power. My God, his power.” That’s what struck her as she walked the length of the Militia Warrior conference room. The vastness of his power. That’s what she could recall and what truly frightened her.

“But he didn’t succeed,” Leto said. “With either of us, and it cost him to do what he did. Mentally, I mean. To hold both of us in some kind of thrall like that, for at least twenty minutes, to keep us separated though we share this bond, means that he’s not all-powerful. He would be drained and even vulnerable right now.”

“He was after me, intent on destroying obsidian flame.”

“No doubt.”

She met Leto’s gaze. “I’m the real threat here. I’ve never wanted to admit it to myself. I shouldn’t be surprised that he came after me. But you know what I really don’t understand? What does a soul-based power have to do with destroying armies? I’m like Alison. I don’t want to kill anyone. I don’t think I could.”

Leto shook his head. “I don’t know. I don’t have anything close to your power, nothing like obsidian flame. I’m just a recovering death vampire who can get big enough to give you a good ride.”

Grace stared at him, then laughed. “I can’t believe you just said that.” She laughed some more. “Give me a good ride?”

Then he smiled, and before long he had joined her. She sat down opposite him again and laughed until tears streamed down her cheeks. She couldn’t seem to stop. For Leto to have reduced everything to his ability to pleasure her when he grew into his beast-state seemed so funny. She wished Marguerite were here. Her Convent cellmate would have found what Leto said hilarious.

“I shouldn’t have said that.” He palmed his eyes and laughed some more. “I know what we have is more than just sex.”

Grace went to him and sank down to the side of his knees. She put her head in his lap. She giggled some more then looked up at him. “Well, it is pretty awesome that you can change size. I mean, isn’t that something most men dream about?”

“Oh, shit, I’ve become a cliché.”

“I guess you have.” But she kissed his knees, then his thighs, and again laid her head down. “Leto, I’m really tired. Where can we go? I need sleep more than anything right now. The last couple of days have really drained me.”

He tilted sideways and slipped his phone from his pants pocket. He thumbed, and a moment later she heard him talking to her brother. The conversation lasted a couple of minutes as one location after another was suggested and discarded.

Finally it was settled that they would go to Medichi’s villa. Antony had recently installed a new security system, and Endelle sustained mist over the property. She’d done so ever since Havily and Marcus had lived there over a year ago.

Maybe the enhanced security system would be enough, but at this point, with fatigue settling like an ache into her bones, Grace didn’t care. She just wanted her head on a pillow, any pillow.

A moment more and Leto had her flying through nether-space.

*   *   *

Once at the villa, Leto stared at the couch in Medichi’s formal living room and the memories flooded back.

Five months ago, Luken had supported him, half-carrying him to the sofa where Leto had thought he would breathe his last. Though Grace had fed him twice from her vein, it hadn’t been enough, and Leto had been near death. He’d been taking dying blood a long time, a hundred years, but he’d made the decision: no more. If he had stayed the course, he would have died, probably that very night.

But his brother warriors and their
brehs
had stepped in and changed everything. Havily donated her powerful, unusual blood, and he had been permanently healed from his addiction. He never again experienced the severe cramping that occurred at the withdrawal of dying blood. He owed his life to Havily, and to her
breh,
Marcus, who had allowed him to take her blood, and to their small group for providing all the extra support he’d needed.

Seeing the couch now brought it all back, how his life had changed forever in that moment. Glancing at Grace and giving her hand a squeeze, he was grateful.

She met his gaze and smiled. He just wished that he could see the future more clearly, especially the why of his beast-state and just what role he was meant to play in Grace’s life, even in his world. And what would happen if he really was in his ascension to Third Earth?

Grace had spoken more than once about how she had gone through life as a ghost. The truth was, he could relate. Even though they’d completed the
breh-hedden
and even though they had amazing sex together, he didn’t feel a complete connection to her.

But he didn’t blame her. He blamed himself. He was as much a ghost as she was. In all his long life, he’d never truly given his heart to another ascender for safekeeping, not once. Maybe the death of his mother had ruined him in that way, but he kept an invisible emotional barrier all around his heart, always protecting himself, always working hard to be the best warrior, perhaps unwilling to love until the last death vampire was slain.

It was in this way that neither he nor Grace had been ready to complete the
breh-hedden
. It felt strange to be able to feel the pressure of his palm against hers, to know what his skin and the squeeze of his hand felt like from her point of view. They were so close, and yet still so far apart. He wondered if he could ever truly let go with her, truly give his heart completely, truly yield to all that the
breh-hedden
could be.

Parisa appeared from a side hall at the southern end of the villa. She carried several black towels folded over her arms. “I found some extras in the second suite. I’m putting you in the room closer to the library.” When she reached a rectangular table in the center of the hall, she waved them forward, then gestured to her left.

Leto put his arm loosely around Grace’s waist as he walked beside her down the hall.

Parisa was another beauty, Antony’s
breh
. She wasn’t as tall as Grace, perhaps an inch or so shorter. Her hair was long, dark brown, and layered. She had extraordinary violet eyes.

She led them to a room on the left, and as she pushed the door open, she said, “Antony won’t be home until dawn. He’s out battling at the New River Borderland. Of course, as soon as he gets back, I’ll be putting him to bed.” A faint blush climbed her cheeks as she held the door wide.

Grace passed into the room, and Leto followed her. The bed was a massive carved mahogany and looked bigger than a king, which was a real plus, especially if Leto went beast. Grace moved to stand near the doorway leading to the bathroom, her arms folded across her chest.

“I know this has been a long night,” Parisa said, her voice quiet. “I just wanted to say how sorry we are about the Seattle Colony. There simply are no words.”

Leto nodded. “Most of the colonists were able to fold to the Portland hidden colony.”

She nodded. “Thank goodness for that. Well, you both must be exhausted so I’ll leave you now. Also, Endelle said she was adding a smaller dome of mist over the villa itself, which should make it impossible for Greaves to get to you.” She glanced toward the window. “Antony insisted on several squads of Militia Warriors as well. They’ll be patrolling the grounds nearest the house day and night. I think there are eighty warriors out there right now.”

“So many,” Grace murmured, but she actually took a deep breath and her arms fell away to hang loose at her sides.

Even Leto felt it, a sense of security, at least for now. “Parisa, thank you so much. We’ll be very comfortable here.”

She smiled. “I’m basically on Antony’s schedule for now, so I’ll be sleeping away the day with him when he comes home at dawn. Just make the villa your home, especially the kitchen. Have anything you like.” She glanced from one to the other. “Sleep well.”

She closed the door.

Leto turned to find that Grace was staring at the carpet and blinking. He went to her, took her hand, and kissed her fingers. “Take your shower. You’ll feel better.”

She nodded and headed for the bathroom.

All good things know a proper time of fulfillment.

—
Collected Proverbs,
Beatrice of Fourth

CHAPTER 12

Several hours later, Grace awoke to a strange sensation that she couldn’t place at first: a kind of rumbling. She thought,
Tank, maybe?
But as she came more fully awake, she realized that Leto was snoring, his head facedown on his pillow.

She smiled and rubbed his shoulder gently. How normal this seemed.

The snoring jerked to a stop, and he lifted his head. He blinked a couple of times, then rubbed his face with both hands. “I couldn’t breathe. I was dreaming I was flying way too high and there wasn’t enough oxygen.” His eyes rolled as he turned to look at her. He blinked some more.

She continued to rub his shoulder slowly back and forth. “I’m not surprised. I think you were suffocating against your pillow.”

He dropped his head back down on the pillow. He chuckled, shifting to look up at her. “I sure hope I wasn’t snoring.”

“Not at all.” She didn’t mind lying.

The wrinkle between his brows relaxed. “That would be wretched, indeed. Nothing so unromantic as a loud snore. But I must say, you’re a terrible liar.”

She chuckled, stretched, and turned to look out the back window. Dawn had broken. “I always forget how high up in the foothills of the White Tank Mountains Antony’s villa is. I can see a lot of the peaks from here. Oh, look, there’s a deer on the lawn. A doe.”

Leto shifted on his side. Because of the
breh
-bond, she could feel the sheet tug at his legs until he kicked the tangle away. He moved closer and stretched out beside her. He draped his arm over her stomach.

His forest scent drifted up and teased her nostrils. Desire, always so close to the surface because of the
breh-hedden,
swirled through her body.

“Meadow,” he whispered. He leaned over and kissed her cheek, then her throat, and moved lower to her breasts.

She didn’t protest when he pushed the sheet to her waist and began to feast. It was so strange to experience what he felt, just how soft her breast was against his lips, and the feel of her hardening nipple when he began to suckle.

All the dual sensations increased her need.

With one hand she held on to the headboard. She used the other to pet his head. He suckled her breast, tugging on the nipple. His hands pushed at both breasts. His shoulders hunched.
God, I love feeling what this feels like to you.

“I know what you mean.” She drifted her hand down the back of his head, over his long hair, the exposed and always sensitive wing-locks.

She slid the tips of her fingernails over a lock, and he writhed. She did, too, because she could experience what that felt like. She added just a little pressure, and he sucked harder on her breast.

I can feel the sensation of my mouth on your breast, what it feels like to you,
he sent. One more suck and she clenched.