Wings of Fire (35 page)

She glanced at Parisa and scowled. “Shit. He folded through my mist. And he folded straight to you. Shit.” Her scowl deepened as she continued to stare at Parisa. She also nodded several times. “So let me understand you, vampire. So far, you’ve escaped Rith by cutting him with your dagger while in France and today by dematerializing?”

“Yes.”

“Both times you got lucky.”

“I would have to agree with you.”

Endelle grimaced and cocked her head. She wore a headband that bore an assortment of brown feathers angled into the air, pheasant maybe. If they’d been arranged to stand straight up, Parisa thought the headpiece came shockingly close to images of Native American culture.

Her Supremeness continued, “How the hell were you able to dematerialize when you’ve only been ascended about half a minute? I mean, I could do that when I ascended, but then I’m, well,
me.
”

Parisa shrugged. “How the hell did I have wings on Mortal Earth?”

At that, Endelle laughed. “You know, your speech patterns have changed. You used to be rather stiff in the ass. You’re loosening up. I think that’s a good thing. Medichi good in bed? Is that why you seem so different? Does he satisfy you? He should. He’s hung like a horse.”

Parisa’s mouth opened and stayed that way. Her cheeks flamed.

“Endelle, for Christ’s sake,” Antony cried.

Endelle rolled her eyes. “Creator, save me from prudes.” She turned around and leaned against the railing. She cast her gaze up and up. “I love the White Tanks. They just do it for me. The contour of the entire mountain range is goddamn breathtaking.”

Parisa slid her gaze up Endelle’s profile. She really was a great beauty even though it was hidden most of the time behind her sailor’s mouth. She had lovely olive skin and features reminiscent of an Arabian princess. She should have been draped in lovely silks instead of cowhide and feathers.

Parisa gave herself a shake. She was here for a reason. Focus. “I don’t know what to do. If Rith can get onto the villa grounds then he’ll find a way to enthrall me again.”

Endelle nodded. “Is Medichi still training you? Are you flying much?”

“We were going to do that after we talked to you.” Her thoughts whipped to Fiona, and she turned to Antony abruptly. “What time is it?”

Antony drew his phone from the pocket of his jeans. “It’s been half an hour.”

“What the hell,” Endelle cried. “Do you have someplace better to be? Am I fucking boring you?”

Parisa couldn’t help it. She laughed. “I’m sorry but you’re so funny.”

That wasn’t the right thing to say. The pheasant-like feathers lifted straight up. Parisa added quickly, “I’ve been voyeuring Fiona, quick snapshots, to see the sky in the window above her bed.” She explained about the search grid.

The feathers eased down and Endelle’s brows rose. “Well, damn, ascender, you’ve got a brain in that pretty head of yours. Not half bad.” She narrowed her gaze and appeared to be thinking. After a moment, she said, “Okay, keep up with the weapons training. The more you know about how to use your dagger, the better.” She looked past Parisa to Antony. “I think we should set up some Militia Warriors to serve as guards around the property as well. Rith isn’t a fighter, so he’ll be less likely to try to take Parisa if there are warriors everywhere. When I get back to the office, I’ll give Seriffe a shout. Also, why don’t you set up a telepathic link with Parisa? That way she can reach you instantly.”

Parisa put a hand to her chest and stared once more into the sunken garden—anywhere but at Antony or Endelle. Paths meandered from one to the other, crisscrossing. Tourists walked to and fro.

A teenager, wearing baggy pants, stripped off his T-shirt and mounted his wings. He flew in the lumbering pattern of youth all the way to the top of the hill. A voice came over the loudspeaker. “There is no mounting of wings in the garden. Retract immediately or we’re sending security in.”

The teenager, now standing next to a teen girl, lifted his hand in a one-fingered salute, but he drew his wings in then put his arms around the girl. Parisa smiled. At least some things hadn’t changed on Second Earth. It all seemed so
normal
. There was that word again …
normal.
There was nothing normal about a vampire trying to abduct her … again.

She looked back at Antony. He frowned at her and she could probably guess at his thoughts since they’d so recently had a fight about this very thing, about how he thought they should get closer as in complete the
breh-hedden
and how she didn’t. Yes, it might make it safer but she didn’t want to be that close to Antony, or anyone, much less share what amounted to a Vulcan mind meld.

“So do you think this is a good idea?” she asked. “A telepathic link?”

He smiled but it was crooked and maybe just a little bitter. “Yep. It means that we could communicate telepathically over long distances.”

“We do that anyway,” she said. “I called to you from Burma, remember?”

“This is different, a solid connection, a link. No one else could break it or interfere. With ordinary telepathy, someone could cut off our conversation. That wouldn’t be possible with a mind-link.”

“What the hell is the problem, ascender Lovejoy?” Endelle cried. “Why are you resisting this? You need a fucking link to Warrior Medichi. EOS. It’s also like GPS. He’ll know your location without needing you to send a mental image and don’t frown at me. Just do it. Damn, I’m so sick of the whining. Do you want to live or not? Huh? Answer me that, because it’s a goddamn simple question.”

One thing about Endelle, she could boil an issue down in two or three sentences. Did she want to live? Yes. Did she want a mind-link with Antony? No. It meant intimacy and it felt like she was being forced into yet another box.

“Fine,” she muttered. “But I’m not happy about this.”

Endelle snorted again. “Who the hell cares if you’re ‘happy’ or not?” She made air quotes.

“There’s something else,” Parisa said. “And it might even interfere with a telepathic link.”

Endelle met her gaze. “I can’t even begin to imagine what would interfere with a mind-link.”

“A voyeur-link.”

Endelle moved her head back and forth slowly. “What the hell is a voyeur-link?”

“I think Greaves created a link with me when I was in Burma.” She told her about Greaves’s visit, about the kiss, about dropping her shields, and waking up on the grass. “The thing is, whenever I opened my voyeur window from that moment on, I would experience pain, sharp pain. Lately it’s gotten better, and now after a few seconds it disappears but I suspect that’s because Greaves is trying to be discreet.”

Endelle was nodding. “Which would explain why there were so many death vamps waiting at the Toulouse house.”

“Exactly. I’ve experimented with it, but I was wondering. Since you’re so powerful, could you see if I’m right? Could you search my mind for that kind of link and break it?”

“The author of a mind-link has to break it.”

“That’s what Antony said but I’d still like you to see what’s going on.”

Endelle sighed. “You’ll have to lower your shields. All the way. Can you do that or do I have to kiss you, too?” Her lips actually curved. So besides cursing, and wearing outrageous clothes, Endelle could sometimes make a halfway decent joke. Nice.

At that, Parisa laughed. “No,” she said, still smiling. “For you, I’ll lower my shields.”

“Huh,” Endelle said. “Looks like you might even trust me a little.”

Parisa shrugged. “Maybe a little.”

Endelle just shook her head. “You’re one stubborn female, but I’ll admit you’ve got some potential.”

Endelle put her hands on Parisa’s face. Parisa closed her eyes. She took a deep breath and let her shields fall, all the way.

Endelle traveled through her mind like warm water. The movement was gentle—quite a contrast with the woman’s rattler-like temperament.

Parisa knew when Endelle found the voyeur link, because pain snatched at her, deep searing pain that caused her to push at Endelle’s arms and fall backward on her bottom next to the railing.

She drew her knees up to her chest and tears flew down her cheeks unbidden.

“Jesus,” Endelle cried. “What did you do that for?”

Parisa looked up at her and scowled. Antony had dropped down beside her. “You okay?” He asked that a lot.

But Parisa met Endelle’s gaze. “That hurt like hell. What did you do?”

“Nothing,” Endelle cried. “Not a damn thing. I got to the link and looked at it.”

“It felt like fire inside my head.”

Endelle shrugged. “You’ve just confirmed the truth that only the author of the link can break it. I could barely get near it without causing pain.”

“Do you think it’s Greaves?” Antony had a hand under Parisa’s arm, and she leaned on him as she scrambled to her feet.

“I couldn’t tell but from everything you’ve just told me and from the burning sensation, I’d say yes, this smacks of that pansy-ass bastard.” She huffed a sigh. “Well, ascender Lovejoy, there’s nothing more I can do here and, unlike you, I have to get back to work. But no more whining, goddammit.” She lifted her arm and like that she was gone.

That was it? That was all the help she was going to get from the most powerful vampire on Second Earth? Great.

Parisa was about to turn to Antony and say something to him, but a wind came up with grit flying in her face that stung, a wind that had Endelle’s signature all over it. She cried out and Antony moved in front of her, muttering a string of curses.

“Fuck,” he said. “She can be such a bitch.”

“You know,” Parisa said, “she really wasn’t much help, was she?”

Antony chuckled. “She has her moments. This wasn’t one of them. Let’s get back to the villa, we’ll do some flying then more work with the dagger and sword. I’ll download a few more memories if you like.” He paused and met her gaze. He still stood in front of her. She watched his chest rise and fall in a heavy sigh. “I won’t force a mind-link on you. Even though it’s a good idea and I really want you safe, I think this must be hell for you right now.”

“Yeah, it is. But you know, I think Endelle is right about one thing. I’ve been feeling sorry for myself and I’m going to try to do better.”

Antony put his hand on her shoulder, gave her a gentle warning, then she was flying through nether-space.

The stories told of Luchianne, the first vampire, always mention her
royle
wings, which were said to produce inexplicable flames.

—From
Treatise on Ascension,
Philippe Reynard

CHAPTER 17

When Medichi got Parisa back to the villa, he remained in the foyer with her. He drew his warrior phone from the pocket of his jeans and ran his thumb across the smooth black exterior.

“Carla here. How may I serve?” It was still daylight so Carla was on duty. Jeannie showed up at dusk, and for an hour or two their schedules would overlap.

“Hi, Carla. How’s it going?”

“Hello, Warrior Medichi. Just fine. We’re cruising the grid. I have two of my techs in here today just to keep the search progressing as fast as we can.”

“Nothing yet?”

“Sorry. We have aerials of both the Burma anomaly and the Toulouse anomaly so we know what we’re looking for but we really need to narrow the search down. We’re over China, where it’s light right now, but so far it looks clean.”

“Parisa just did a quick voyeur. The sky is still very blue, wherever it is that Rith has the women.”

“That’s good. Right now we’re looking at anything from Beijing to Sydney, anywhere that the sun hasn’t set.”

“That’s a lot of ground.”

“Yep. Thanks for checking in.”

He thumbed his phone then slipped it back into his pocket.

He turned to Parisa. “The grid is somewhere over China right now.”

“Good. We’re getting closer. “

He nodded. “I’m trying to be sensitive here, so bear with me. I know Endelle was adamant about a mind-link and I think it’s a good idea, maybe even a necessary one. But because of your voyeur-link with that bastard—” He clenched his fists then struggled to relax his hands. He took a couple of deep breaths. “Anyway, if you don’t want to create a mind-link with me right now, I’d be okay with it. Honestly, with all that you’re going through, I think this should be your call.”

Her eyes widened. “Thank you for that, Antony. I really appreciate it.” After a moment she added, “Why don’t we hold off on that for a little while. The headaches—” She blinked and her mouth fell a little. “Wait a minute. Antony, I just realized we could play Greaves with the voyeur-link.”

“How?”

“Well, so far it seems to me that Greaves never connects instantly, so there must be a slight delay for him when I open the link. I’ve been able to take these peeks at Fiona, but there’s no flash of pain. The whole pattern is so obvious to me now. But I could establish my own pattern of voyeuring innocuous things, let him check in and watch, then get bored and leave. That might disrupt him just enough to ensure we get the slaves out.”

“Damn, that might just work,” he said.

She smiled. “I’m going to try it now.”

She closed her eyes and for the next few seconds he watched her. She winced then took a deep breath, but he could tell she was sustaining a voyeur. The whole thing lasted a good long minute.

Finally, she opened her eyes and smiled once more. “I panned your library that whole time. Right at the beginning, after a few seconds, I felt the usual sudden pain. But then I think
the master
got bored.” She even laughed.

“Then we can use your knowledge of the process to our advantage.”

Her smile broadened. “Absolutely.”

Medichi smiled and something warmed in his chest. Here she was, stuck with a fucking voyeur-link to the vilest vampire on the planet, and she was laughing. She ought to be rewarded.

Though he considered taking her back to bed, he knew there was something else she loved doing,
a lot.

He smiled at Parisa. “Well, how about a flying lesson?”

The sheer joy on her face tightened his chest. He loved that she wanted to fly, he approved of her drive to learn to use Second Earth weaponry, and he really admired the way she was putting her life on the line for Fiona.