Gates of Rapture (The Guardians of Ascension) (52 page)

Instead, Darian might as well be bathing in fire.

How great were his sins.

More than could be numbered.

He was the author of blood slavery, he had led countless ascenders into addiction to dying blood, and he’d used his squads of death vampires to kill any who stood in his way.

Her son had no conscience.

And so he screamed.

Beatrice covered her ears and wept, unable to fathom how many years or decades or even centuries would be required to wash away the last ramification of all his evil deeds.

*   *   *

Grace had forgotten the trials of childhood. A vampire’s long life had created a nearly infinite distance between the sufferings of the two decades required to reach adulthood and the almost boundless challenges of living as a mature ascender.

She glanced at Leto, who stood on the opposite side of their small campsite, in a clearing in the forest on Mortal Earth, deep in the Cascades. He’d built a large campfire that had roared and crackled and was only now settling down.

She sat with Kendrew on her lap. He was the elder of Casimir’s boys—six years old now. Sloane sat in his kiddie camp chair, but he had drawn as close to her as he could get and held her hand tight.

These boys had had a rocky beginning, but their lives were beginning to smooth out and Grace was part of that, as she had promised.

But it was Kendrew who had brought up the current offense. He had entered the first grade in the Seattle hidden colony’s school and—children being what they had always been—one of his schoolmates had already brought up a supposed past crime of his father’s. He had told Kendrew that Casimir had been the instigator of a bomb attack in Las Vegas Two that had nearly killed twenty thousand people.

“I know for a fact that is completely untrue,” Grace said.

Kendrew twisted in her arms and looked up at her. “My papa didn’t do that terrible thing?”

“Not at all, and you can tell your friend that Fiona was there, Warrior Jean-Pierre’s
breh,
and she told me that it was Greaves who had ordered his death vampires to blow up the building. Your father hadn’t even known about it.” Greaves had intended for Casimir to die as well, but Grace didn’t think Kendrew needed to hear that.

Kendrew smiled and turned back around to face the fire. Sloane now leaned against her arm. It was getting late, and the boys were tired.

Grace shuddered inwardly on Kendrew’s behalf. Maybe the six-year-old who had attempted to malign Casimir had gotten the facts wrong in this case, but one day someone would speak the truth about his crimes; then what would Grace say? Casimir’s list of wrongdoings was long, horribly long, and the truth one day would be out.

She leaned down and kissed the top of Kendrew’s head. He had curly hair like his father. “Your father is one of the bravest men I’ve ever known because he saved Leto’s life and almost died doing it. There is nothing greater on earth than laying down one’s life for another.”

At that, Kendrew once more turned into her and looked up at her. “He is brave.”

“Oh, yes. And smart, so very smart. And he has the funniest sense of humor.”

Sloane’s hand grew slack in hers. She could feel his body sinking against her.

“And now, my darlings, time for bed.”

Kendrew didn’t protest, but slid off her lap. Sloane, on the other hand, at three, could barely walk he was so drowsy.

She called to Leto. He turned and smiled that beautiful smile of his, now full of affection for her, of love. She inclined her head in Sloane’s direction. He moved swiftly and lifted the three-year-old as though he were a feather.

The boys’ tent was at a right angle to theirs and held two cots. She tucked Kendrew in and kissed him. She put her hand on his forehead and offered a prayer and a blessing.

She left the tent and Leto performed a similar ritual with Sloane, though the younger boy’s eyes were closed when he put his large hand on the small forehead and offered another blessing and a prayer.

When Leto zipped down the front of the tent, he led her back to their larger tent. Before going inside, he glanced around. “I was going to put a dome of mist over our campsite, but then I realized it wasn’t needed. The colony is safe, and the one vampire powerful enough to break through Diallo’s mist is corralled on Fourth Earth.”

In the distance, she heard wolves howl, a long plaintive cry in the dark. She loved that sound. She loved Mortal Earth, where all life had begun, humankind and vampire-kind alike. She loved the hidden colony as well. She would have been content anywhere, in any dimension, with Leto, but she confessed she was happy in this quiet, secret ascended world, happier than she would have been on Second Earth.

This was a good place to begin her life with Leto, camping with Casimir’s boys. She wanted to have children, and maybe one day she would.

*   *   *

An hour later, Leto was buried inside Grace and trying not to laugh. Making love to her and attempting to keep as quiet as possible in order not to awaken or frighten the boys had given his woman the giggles.

“I’m just not used to this,” she whispered, laughing all over again.

“Hush,” he said, but his smile was broad. “You’re not helping, and if they wake up we’ll have to stop.”

At that, she grabbed his bare ass and sunk her nails. “Oh, please don’t stop,” she whispered back.

He thrust hard into her just once, which made her entire body arch and her mouth fly open. He crushed what he knew would be a loud moan, by kissing her and driving his tongue into her mouth.

She gave up her laughter then, and with her own hips met his pelvis in answering grinds. But her moans started anyway. Ah, well, it couldn’t be helped. Grace was very vocal, and he loved it. Better to just make it quick.

By now he knew her body well. Because of the
breh-hedden
he could feel her responses, the pleasure she felt with each thrust, just as she had to be experiencing what it was like for him to have her body encase him and pull on him.

Heaven,
he sent.

Yes, oh yes. I’m so close.

I can feel that you are.

He felt her orgasm ride through her body, which caused him to speed his thrusts just a little bit more. Sharp cries left her mouth. So much for keeping their lovemaking a secret from the boys. Hopefully they were sleeping deeply enough.

He came then, pleasure streaking through his cock so that even he, despite his self-control, uttered a long low moan. But his pleasure brought her again, so he sustained the rocking until her body grew quiet and slack beneath his.

Her hands were on his face, something she had done from the beginning. “I love you, Leto.”

“I love you, too.”

“You’ve made me happier than you’ll ever know.”

But he thought he knew. If she experienced even a tenth of what he felt, the joy, the deep sense of peace, and even a feeling of purpose in their
breh-hedden
union, then he did know something of her happiness.

Later, as Grace fell asleep in his arms, Leto gave thanks for the life he’d been given, for a life that had been returned to him in full measure. How far he’d come from Moscow Two when he was on the brink of death. Now he stood, and perhaps would forevermore, at the gates of rapture.

ASCENSION TERMINOLOGY

AAF pr. n.
Allied Ascender Forces, Endelle’s army.

ALA pr. n.
Ascenders Liberation Army, the name Greaves assigned to his army.

answering the call to ascension n.
The mortal human who experiences the hallmarks of the
call to ascension
will at some point feel compelled to answer, usually by demonstrating significant preternatural power.

ascender n.
A mortal human of earth who has moved permanently to the second dimension.

ascendiate n.
A mortal human who has answered the
call to ascension
and thereby commences his or her
rite of ascension.

ascension n.
The act of moving permanently from one dimension to a higher dimension.

ascension ceremony n.
Upon the completion of the
rite of ascension,
the mortal undergoes a ceremony in which loyalty to the laws of Second Society is professed and the attributes of the
vampire
mantle along with immortality are bestowed.

the Borderlands pr. n.
Those geographic areas that form dimensional borders at both ends of a dimensional pathway. The dimensional pathway is an access point through which travel can take place from one dimension to the next. See
Trough
.

breh-hedden
n.
(Term from an ancient language.) A mate-bonding ritual that can only be experienced by the most powerful warriors and the most powerful preternaturally gifted women. Effects of the
breh-hedden
can include but are not limited to: specific scent experience, extreme physical/sexual attraction, loss of rational thought, primal sexual drives, inexplicable need to bond, powerful need to experience deep
mind-engagement,
etc.

cadroen
n.
(Term from an ancient language.) The name for the hair clasp that holds back the ritual long hair of a
Warrior of the Blood.

call to ascension n.
A period of time, usually involving several weeks, in which the mortal human has experienced some or all of, but not limited to, the following: specific dreams about the next dimension, deep yearnings and longings of a soulful and inexplicable nature, visions of and possibly visits to any of the dimensional Borderlands, etc. See
Borderlands
.

Central pr. n.
The office of the current administration that tracks movement of
death vampires
in both the second dimension and on
Mortal Earth
for the purpose of alerting the
Warriors of the Blood
and the
Militia Warriors
to illegal activities.

the darkening n.
An area of
nether-space
that can be found during meditations and/or with strong preternatural darkening capabilities. Such abilities enable the
ascender
to move into nether-space and remain there or to use nether-space in order to be in two places at once.

death vampire n.
Any vampire, male or female, who partakes of
dying blood
automatically becomes a death vampire. Death vampires can have, but are not limited to, the following characteristics: remarkably increased physical strength, an increasingly porcelain complexion true of all ethnicities so that death vampires have a long-term reputation of looking very similar, a faint blueing of the porcelain complexion, increasing beauty of face, the ability to enthrall, the blackening of
wings
over a period of time. Though death vampires are not gender-specific, most are male. See
vampire.

dimensional worlds n.
Eleven thousand years ago, the first
ascender,
Luchianne, made the difficult transition from
Mortal Earth
to what became known as Second Earth. In the early millennia four more dimensions were discovered, Luchianne always leading the way. Each dimension’s ascenders exhibited expanding preternatural power before
ascension
. Upper dimensions are generally closed off to the dimension or dimensions below. See
off-dimension
.

duhuro
n.
(Term from an ancient language.) A word of respect that in the old language combines the spiritual offices of both servant and master. To call someone
duhuro
is to offer a profound compliment suggesting great worth.

dying blood n.
Blood extracted from a mortal or an
ascender
at the point of death. This blood is highly addictive in nature. There is no known treatment for anyone who partakes of dying blood. The results of ingesting dying blood include, but are not limited to: increased physical, mental, or preternatural power; a sense of extreme euphoria; a deep sense of well-being; a sense of omnipotence and fearlessness; the taking in of the preternatural powers of the host body; etc. If dying blood is not taken on a regular basis, extreme abdominal cramps result without ceasing. Note: Currently there is an antidote, not for the addiction to dying blood itself but to the various results of ingesting dying blood. This means that a
death vampire
who drinks dying blood, then partakes of the antidote will not show the usual physical side effects of ingesting dying blood; no whitening or faint blueing of the skin, no beautifying of features, no blackening of the
wings,
etc.

effetne n.
(Term from an ancient language.) An intense form of supplication to the gods; an abasement of self and of self-will.

folding v.
Slang for dematerialization, since some believe that one does not actually dematerialize self or objects but rather “folds space” to move self or objects from one place to another. There is much scientific debate on this subject since at present neither theory can be proved.

grid n.
The technology used by Central that allows for the tracking of
death vampires,
primarily at the
Borderlands
on both
Mortal Earth
and Second Earth. Death vampires by nature carry a strong, trackable signal, unlike normal
vampires
. See
Central
.

Guardian of Ascension pr. n.
A prestigious title and rank at present given only to those
Warriors of the Blood
who also serve to guard powerful
ascendiates
during their
rite of ascension
. In millennia past, Guardians of Ascension were also those powerful ascenders who offered themselves in unique and powerful service to Second Society.