Gates of Rapture (The Guardians of Ascension) (42 page)

“Leto the beast. The way you say it makes me want to be this way forever.”

“I wouldn’t complain.”

He pushed her legs apart. She worked with him. The smooth rock at her back could still cause some problems if she wasn’t careful.

But he hadn’t reached several millennia in age without having learned a thing or two. “That rock is too damn hard for what I need to do.”

“What do you need to do.”

“Slam into you, as fast as I can, for about thirty seconds.”

“Oh, I don’t think it will take that long.”

He smiled, then chuckled. “I’m going to fold us back to my bed.”

“I’m all wet.”

“I’m counting on that.”

He kissed her as she glided through nether-space. The next moment she was flat on her back, on his bed, and what do you know, there was a towel beneath her. He found her entrance and pushed, but, yeah, she was wet and he glided all the way in, as deep as he could get.

He groaned.

The dual sensations about killed her.

He planted his hands above her shoulders, and looking down at her began to pull his hips back, then thrust. She felt like she couldn’t catch her breath, even if she wanted to. He moved faster and faster, and as soon as she started to come, all that he was experiencing brought her orgasm crashing down on her. She screamed. He roared. The sound of his voice drew the orgasm out so that she writhed beneath him.

He grunted and gathered her up in his arms, but his hips didn’t quiet down. “Shit, I’m going to come again,” he shouted.

He moved faster again, faster than before. She pushed her mind against his and felt his shields falls. She dove within and sank, then dove into the center of his soul.

He cried out over and over.
Oh, my God, Grace.

She felt how her presence changed all his physical sensations, enhancing them. Pleasure began driving up her body, over her flesh, up into her well, tugging and pulling, higher and higher, invading her abdomen and her chest until this sweeping orgasm even flew through her mind.

She saw stars, the pleasure was so intense.

On and on, it cascaded through her mind, through her body, his body, hers, until she lay slack and Leto’s body was a heavy weight on her.

He moaned.
So good.

She was still moving through his soul, the part of him that was his truest self. She felt deeply content, then he was just suddenly there with her, his soul engaging with her soul.

He moved with her like a dance, flowing around her, over, through, under, above. She responded and felt overcome with a profound sense of peace. Maybe there were holes in their current relationship, things neither of them could define very well, but in this moment she felt one with him. And it was beautiful.

Two souls merge,

Life flutters anew.

Oh, my beloved

Open for me,

Bid me welcome,

Not
adieu
.

—Grace of Albion, “The Convent Years,” from
Collected Poems,
Beatrice of Fourth

CHAPTER 18

At midnight, Grace lay across Leto’s chest, his massive arms surrounding her. He was still in his beast-state and she kept petting his body, savoring how big he was, and that he was hers. She kissed him and loved on him.

He squeezed her shoulders and sighed. “That was amazing.”

“Yes, it was. I’m glad you brought us back to your bedroom. This has been one of the most wonderful nights of my life. I feel very free and relaxed, more myself than at any other time I can remember.” Which seemed strange, since she was still convinced that she was holding back. But was she? Maybe the limitation she experienced was somehow different than she imagined.

He squeezed her again and kissed the top of her head. He chuckled. “I loved what you did in the pool when I was stretched out on that rock, when you slipped into the water and arranged my legs so you had to come up underneath me. I think I will remember that moment as long as I live.”

She giggled and smiled. “We should spend a lot of time in the hot spring. I love being in the water.”

“Grace, when you were in my soul, it felt like heaven.”

She drifted the tips of her fingers over his pecs. He caught her hand and kissed her fingers.

“But this frightens you,” he said.

“A little, but I’m not sure why. It’s all so new, I guess.”

“You mean the
breh-hedden
?”

She pivoted to look up at him. “Not just that. Everything. These powers that just seem to keep expanding and being part of obsidian flame. I still can’t believe we folded over two hundred thousand warriors—”

“—and don’t forget the birds.”

She laughed. “And the birds. But we got everyone to safety. I mean, who can do that?”

“A team of powerful ascended women, that’s who.”

He leaned down, caught her lips, and kissed her. She kissed him back, pushing herself a little farther up his chest, wondering just how far down this road they really were.

She loved Leto, so very much. Her heart was given, that much she could feel within herself. Maybe she did have parts missing, but she had a powerful instinct that time would make those ghost-like parts of her more real. At least, she hoped so.

She was about to make a comment on how much everything was changing when a sudden light filled the room. A moment later, Greaves was just there, standing at the foot of the bed, his hands behind his back.

“My, Leto, how you’ve grown?”

“Greaves. What the fuck are you doing here? And how the hell did you get through two layers of mist and one of them Endelle’s?”

The Commander simply lifted a brow. “Are you kidding?”

Then he began to pace.

Grace couldn’t reach the sheet to cover her body so she huddled next to Leto. He sat up, leaning over her, shielding her with his massive chest. Her heart started thumping.

She couldn’t believe the enemy was in Leto’s bedroom.

She waved a hand, and now wore yoga pants and a tank top. Good enough. She put her hand on Leto’s shoulder.
I’m clothed,
she sent.

He didn’t relax, not even a little. Clearly, nudity wasn’t their biggest problem.

“I think I’ve been amazingly forbearing and gracious,” Greaves said. He slid his hand along the smooth edge of the footboard. “Nor did I need to announce my presence. I could have struck and slain you both, but that hardly would have been gentlemanly, now would it?”

“You won’t kill us,” Leto said. “COPASS, by law, would be forced to take action. Endelle would insist on it. You still don’t have a majority of Second Earth Territories in your camp. COPASS would have had to submit to the majority’s will.”

He shrugged. “Perhaps.” He wore his usual immaculate dark wool suit. His bald head gleamed. He stopped pacing and turned toward Leto. “Perhaps I don’t care anymore. I think you and I both know exactly what is at stake in this room right now. Do you think I don’t know that you took half my army away from me? Or that Warrior Marcus has turned my less-than-successful bombing attempt into a PR nightmare?” He waved a hand toward Grace. “Or that her return hasn’t made my life a nightmare?

“But there is something more, Leto. You wounded me. I trusted you and you betrayed me. I had wanted to believe in our friendship, I even had thoughts at times that we could become more than friends. I know it’s foolish of me, but you hurt my pride and that is the truly unforgiveable sin.”

Grace extended her thoughts to Casimir. Why wasn’t he here? He was supposed to be Leto’s Guardian of Ascension. Yet she could tell he wasn’t in the cabin, wasn’t anywhere near.

Greaves rocked back on his heels, then smiled. “No, my dear Leto, I’m finishing this tonight. Don’t bother trying to fold or use your telepathy. None of it will work. I didn’t just add my mist, I shrouded your cabin. No one in. No one out. Not even Casimir, I’m ’fraid.”

Grace still had her hand on Leto’s shoulder. He was still in his beast state, but his body had heated up, almost burning beneath her fingers. She could feel his rage vibrating along his skin. Even if he had wanted to hold back, to try to reason his way out of the situation, she knew that he had suffered too much, endured too much, to do much more than engage in battle with Greaves right now.

Leto rose from the bed, his chin low. He folded on battle gear without flexing a single muscle. He lowered his body into a fighting stance. “Bring it,” he growled.

Greaves had thrown down the gauntlet, and because Leto was a warrior first, he had to do battle by every honorable code in his body. But he was no match for Greaves.

He would die in this battle.

And Grace would die with him.

Worse yet, the world would fall to this monster because obsidian flame could not function without her. With the triad out of the way, Greaves would gain the advantage. Over the centuries, he had gathered enough weaponry, turned enough death vampires, created a big enough army, and garnered sufficient support from enough territories to complete his dominion of Second Earth.

Grace felt her obsidian flame power rumbling deep within the earth. She sat up and allowed the power to flow up through her legs, inhabiting her more forcefully than ever before.

She wasn’t sure yet what she meant to do or even what she could do, but before she could act or even contact her obsidian sisters, Greaves threw something at her and a searing pain sliced through her shoulder.

She turned to look at the source of the pain, but movement was incredibly difficult and hurt like hell.

Her right shoulder was now pinned to the wood headboard with a long thick dagger.

A loud, heavy growl flowed through the room, a beast enraged, and Leto began flinging powerful hand-blasts at Greaves one after the other. But Greaves barely broke a sweat as he met each one with the open palms of his hands, apparently absorbing all that energy.

My God, the power Greaves had.

Get out of here, Grace!
Leto shouted within her mind.
Do what you can to escape. Now.

She reached for the knife and, grinding her teeth, pulled it out. She screamed and fell forward. She tried to fold but couldn’t, just as Greaves promised. She didn’t know what to do, or what else she could do given the situation. And she was in so much pain her mind had turned to mush.

But she had to focus. She worked at ordering her thoughts. What about her power to acquire abilities? Could she somehow make use of it now, in this terrible situation?

Maybe if she joined forces with Leto, but my God her shoulder her hurt. She could barely move her arm.

She reached deep for her healing abilities. Her obsidian power amplified them so that the wound began to close. She whimpered in relief.

And what of obsidian flame? Could she bring her obsidian sisters through Greaves’s shroud?

She sent a telepathic message to Fiona, but even though her obsidian power was in play, it couldn’t pass through the shroud. The same with Marguerite.

She looked up. Leto seemed to be holding his ground, still flinging hand-blasts, but for how long?

*   *   *

Leto hurled the hand-blasts one after the other, as though his desperation to keep Grace safe had amplified his power. But for all that, Greaves met each blast effortlessly. At least the swiftness of the blasts did keep Greaves from attacking Grace again. But why did she remain on the bed?

“I see you have a new form,” Greaves said.

Leto didn’t answer. Anger fed his power, and he flicked his wrist three times and rushed power at Greaves.

But his former master shunted them aside. “Your abilities have expanded.”

“Yes. So has my motivation. I want to live now. I didn’t before.”

“You should always be prepared to die.”

“Fuck off.” He shunted a couple of Greaves’s hits aside while powering up. But he felt Grace’s presence suddenly and simply allowed her to enter his soul very deep. He knew what she was after and felt her acquire the same power.

Good thinking,
he sent as he flipped another blast at Greaves.

As soon as she left, and he could sense her reshaping her powers, he hit Greaves with all he had. Grace joined him.

Grace’s unexpected blasts struck Greaves in the chest, and he flew back against the wall by the fireplace. Leto knew better than to stop, and Grace must have had the same idea because they advanced on him and rained hand-blasts at him in quick succession. His body jerked and started to smoke until finally he fell limp.

Leto moved to stand over him. Was this possible? Had he and Grace together defeated the monster?

Grace approached him. “Is he dead? I can’t believe we might have actually killed him? Is he dead?”

The answer came swiftly as the body vanished and Greaves called to them. “Come, come, my children. Did you think killing me would be so simple? Or that even together you had enough combined power to destroy me?”

As Leto turned, Grace with him, the next blast flowed over Leto’s body like a sheet of molten ore, heavy and burning hot. This time he was thrown against the same wall, and Grace with him. He had no illusions about what had just happened. This blow would finish them both. All Greaves had to do now was bring in his death vampires.

So was this how it would end for him and for his woman, smashed up against the wall, in the same place Greaves had just inhabited?

He opened his eyes to slits. He could manage nothing more. Grace was in a heap next to him, her limbs bent at weird angles and blood flowing from her nose and mouth. He smelled burning flesh. He tried to reach her mind, but nothing was there.

*   *   *

The pain was beyond Grace’s comprehension or tolerance.

Before she could make sense of what she had done, she apparitioned and the moment she did, the pain was gone. At least Greaves couldn’t prevent her from doing this.

Her first thought was again of Casimir. Maybe she had sufficient power to bring him through the heavy shroud that Greaves had created over the cabin. She focused on him, and her ghost-self flew through the cabin and the dense shroud all the way through nether-space, past Second Earth, to the portal to Third.