Gates of Rapture

CHAPTER 17

Grace had just heard Brynna confirm the fourth and final fold when Thorne’s voice intruded again, this time with an edge. “Obsidian flame, get us the hell out of here.”
Grace’s heart rose in her throat. This was it. She was still in possession of Fiona and she needed to do the mass fold of the parade route, but she couldn’t calm down. Then Leto’s words filled her mind: Ease down, Warrior, and focus on the coordinates. You can do this.
Grace took a deep breath and turned her attention to the spectacle performers in the air, to the slow flap of Fiona’s wings, to the troops on the ground and in the stands. She took another deep breath and simply let the fold begin.
She began the slide through nether-space just as the first bomb exploded.
Her mind swirled around and around. Her head hurt. Then her mind went blank.
After a long moment, she opened her eyes and blinked. She was on her feet, and Leto was holding her upright. Her wings flapped slowly. In the distance, she could hear bombs exploding.
She gave her head a shake. Leto was in front of her, his hands on her waist as he looked into her eyes. She could tell he was worried. “Are you all right?” he asked.
“Did we make it? Was I too late? Is everyone safe?”
“Obsidian flame got everyone out, to the last swan. You’ve been dazed for about five minutes, which is why you feel disoriented right now.”
“Dazed?”
“Yes. I think it happened because you folded while in your split-self configuration and within half a second a shell exploded as we were all mid-fold.”
“That was close.” She looked around, but all she saw was the row of tanks. She was alone with Leto in the desert. “And are you sure all our troops got away?”
“Yes. As soon as the fold took place, and because of all the training that Seriffe has demanded of his Militia Warriors for years, all two hundred thousand of the parade troops, as well as the warriors that held civilian places in the grandstands, started folding to prearranged barracks around the world. The spectacle performers, the birds, and their handlers are in Apache Junction Two.”
“And Greaves’s army—or rather your army?”
“Brynna confirmed. We have one million warriors on our side.”
She rubbed her forehead, but she smiled and her heart expanded. “That’s fantastic. Now, tell me what the parade grounds look like?”
“Like a battlefield.”
“Did Greaves show up with his troops and tanks?”
“No. It looks like he meant only to blow the site all to hell with his artillery. Fortunately, Marcus got it all on film. No doubt he’ll have this flying around the Web right away, along with obsidian flame’s mass fold.”
“And everyone’s really safe?”
He nodded slowly. “Everyone’s safe.”
“We did it,” she said softly.
“Yes, we did. Now retract your wings so I can get you back to the palace.”
She looked around, then called out, “Casimir, show yourself. I can feel that you’re here.”
Casimir became visible and he was smiling. “That was a beautiful show you just put on. I’m proud of you, Grace.”
“Thank you.”
Casimir glanced at Leto and waited.
“What?” Leto snapped.
“I won’t leave until you’re both out of the desert.”
Leto scowled. “You would have taken me out of the air if you’d had to, wouldn’t you?”
Casimir merely dipped his chin, but he added, “I didn’t need to, though, did I?”
“No, you’re right. You didn’t.” He put his hand on Grace’s shoulder. “To the palace.”
With her wings safely retracted, Grace smiled, and was once more flying through nether-space.
*   *   *

Greaves still couldn’t believe what had happened. He had even viewed the disastrous results on the Internet. The ruse had been perfect. All he’d thought about over the past twenty-four hours was when and how to obliterate obsidian flame with a bombing; it never occurred to him that he was looking at a massive f*cking deception.
But to add insult to injury, the Web was full of Marcus’s propaganda about how Greaves had attempted to do harm to the women of obsidian flame and to a bunch of swans and geese. PETA Two was in an uproar. Talk about spin.
He might have found it amusing that he’d actually been duped, but he was far too angry and the stakes had been way too high. The terrible reality had already begun sinking in that Leto had taken back at least half the army he’d built on behalf of the Coming Order. Half.
He couldn’t say he was heartsick. You had to be in possession of a heart to be heartsick. In this sense, he was a true vampire, the kind of Mortal Earth mythology, the creature without a heart.
He didn’t even particularly feel despair.
No, what possessed him so strangely in this moment was a rage so pure, it was like a flame in his soul expanding, growing hotter, burning brighter, and most of all demanding recourse.
He needed recourse.
Action.
A hunt.
A devouring.
Now.
This night.
If he’d been interested in sex in that way, he would have killed someone right now for the pleasure of it and orgasmed hard.
But what he needed was different. He needed destruction of that which he believed had caused his failure. His dreams for the future were everything. He had a vision for the world, for Second Earth and for Mortal Earth, and once he had accomplished this goal, he meant to tackle the cesspool that he knew Third Earth to be.
He would transform three worlds, then over time continue to move upward until he saw the fulfillment of everything, a transformation of all six known dimensions.
That something so ridiculous as a beast and the blue variety of obsidian flame had gotten in his way seemed the height of absurdity. He understood now so well just why it was necessary for the true ruler to begin his reign with murder and to sustain that level of killing so long as opposition presented itself.
He was forbidden by the rules of COPASS to kill anyone outright, just as Endelle could kill no one outright. These rules had been designed to serve him, because he knew that Endelle had more power than he did and that if she was ever unleashed upon the world, she could cast a net of dominion far wider than he.
But she just didn’t have the right frame of mind.
He believed in his cause, but he also believed in the law. He just wanted a greater command of the creation of the law so that his purposes would always be served.
Therefore, he could not kill outright.
But that didn’t matter.
He had many arms to do the deeds that needed doing.
And a killing this night was required.
He gathered a squad of four powerful death vampires, then folded with them to the Seers Fortress. He found Stannett, just as he suspected, naked again, all the women dead, and the man covered in his own juice.
Following a peculiar stench, he turned to his right, and there was the Militia Warrior, her chest gone and her internal organs spilling out of her body, all very charred.
He ordered his death vampires to hold the still-unconscious Stannett upright. He then folded all of them to the basement and strung him up in chains.
He put his hand on Stannett’s head, letting healing waves flow, until the bastard came around.
Stannett blinked and squinted, then said, “Forgive me. I don’t know what happened.”
Greaves clucked his tongue. Already his temper was settling down. “You know precisely what happened. You killed the woman so that you could do as you pleased.”
“It was all too much,” he whined. “I’m not used to working that hard, and my head hurt.”
“So you are saying that you’ve been suffering terribly?”
“Yes, very badly.”
“Well, let us take care of that.”
“Thank you, master. And I am sorry.”
“As am I.”
Greaves signaled to his squad. “Please, take what you need from him.”
“No,” Stannett cried. But Greaves was done with the man’s pleadings, whimperings, and failures.
And now Stannett was done.
The vampires moved on him as by great practice, each choosing a vein. One sank to his knees and struck one of the lower access points. Another moved behind him and struck one side of his neck. The other moved in and attacked the other side. The fourth grabbed an arm and punctured Stannett at the inside of his left elbow.
Stannett cried out repeatedly to Greaves, begging for a second chance. As his blood left his body, he continued to call for mercy. The sound of his pleading voice as he was drained of life was exactly what Greaves had needed to calm his rage and his frustration.
The death vampires were killing machines and did their job systematically.
Within two minutes, Stannett’s head slumped.
Another two minutes brought the death vampires rising from a very white body. Each made a fist to exhibit arms bulging with muscles. Their eyes were manic with pleasure. Dying blood was a glorious thing.
Feeling much calmer, Greaves sent the squad back to their bunker beneath Estrella Mountain, then folded to Geneva. Julianna welcomed him with open arms and gave a squeal of delight as he released his claw from his left hand.
Her screams further eased his soul so that by the time he had finished deep inside her, he knew what steps to take next. He focused first on Casimir. Because Greaves had been associated with him recently, he had a sense of the man. Using his voyeur window, he was able to locate him at the portal to Third Earth.
He knew that Casimir was making use of his own voyeur window to keep track of Leto, and right now he needed Casimir to focus on something else.
Greaves created his own little deception: Using a trick he’d been developing lately, he messed with Casimir’s window reception so that images of Leto would fade in and out. Casimir would assume it was his own difficulty, which hopefully would buy Greaves enough time to get the next job done.
And he would not wait until morning to do it.
*   *   *

Back at the palace, Endelle was having a great time. The hour was past ten, and the celebration of such a profound victory, without one casualty, was one of the most pleasurable moments of her life. Marcus and Havily already had the Web full of the stories of obsidian flame’s ability to do a mass fold, which also featured a video that showed the folding-away of the entire spectacle event, including swans and geese, followed by Greaves’s illegal bombing of the empty parade grounds.
Endelle had asked that the video be kept on a loop so that at any time she could look over her shoulder at the monitor and laugh.
Fighting a battle without a single loss, and at the same time bringing over to her side half of Greaves’s army—well, damn, she was in a state of bliss.
She had her own bottle of Silver Patrón and filled her shot glass to the rim for about the tenth time. She stood up and lifted it high. “This toast is for Grace, for coming back to us, for taking her place as obsidian flame, for coming up with the most awesome strategy ever, and mostly for having the courage to enter my own twisted soul and pluck my mass-folding ability right out of what she says is a blue flame lock, whatever the f*ck that is. To Grace.”
All her warriors were present, all nine WhatBees. She’d freed up the rest of them from Borderland duty so that she could celebrate with her elite Warriors of the Blood, the men who had kept Second Earth safe for all these centuries.
The men, as well as the women bonded to Kerrick, Marcus, Medichi, Jean-Pierre, and Thorne, all gained their feet and held up a variety of glasses in Grace’s direction. The woman blushed at all the praise.
“To Grace” resounded to the top of the dining hall rotunda, then back again.
The sound, made big because of so many masculine voices, pleased Endelle’s soul.
She sipped her tequila, smiling as she drank. Goddam but she felt good. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt this fantastic, this free, this satisfied, and sex hadn’t been involved at all. But this had been as good as a good lay, flying like that, knowing she could pose for the cameras and show off her costume, heading up her army, leading obsidian flame. Yeah, damn good.
But that fold! Especially while in full-mount and not one feather out of place once she hit the ground. Shit, that had been something else. The power had rolled along the parade route starting at the back, like an all-encompassing wind that passed through her body yet caught her up at the same time, and shunting her in a quick ride through nether-space. Her wings had held—another miracle provided by obsidian flame. No way in hell would she try it on her own. Wings could get thoroughly trashed during a fold, and that kind of destruction would hurt like a motherf*cker.
She glanced at Grace. The woman had truly surprised her in about every way possible. That she’d left the Creator’s Convent in Prescott Two to shack up with Casimir-the-Hedonist on Fourth Earth had been one of the shockers of the century. But that she’d come back so changed was another shocker, wearing loose clothing, lots of makeup, and her hair curled. A lot of her restraint was just gone. Maybe Casimir had done that for her, or maybe being with Beatrice, or maybe it was the breh-hedden.
So Grace was back, the third leg of a now über-powerful obsidian triad, and all cuddled up with Leto. Endelle had extended her hearing a couple of times, because eavesdropping was just plain fun. Grace kept whispering to Leto that she wanted him to “go beast.” Endelle was pretty sure she knew what that meant, and if she’d been in Grace’s shoes, she would have done the same thing.
She sipped her tequila, then laughed again, no less so when Leto called out to Thorne, “Hey, how about having Jeannie fold us back to my cabin.”
Thorne frowned slightly. “The cabin in Seattle?”
“Yes,” Leto said. “The colony is secure, and I’m going to create my own dome of mist over my property.” He glanced at Medichi and smiled. “Besides, I think the villa will be crowded tonight.”
Medichi laughed. “Very crowded.” He leaned close to Parisa and kissed her full on the lips.
Thorne opened his mouth, probably to argue with Leto’s request some more, but Leto already had his tongue in Grace’s mouth again.
Endelle met Thorne’s gaze, but she understood the need for some alone time. “I’ll add my own dome of mist over the cabin.” She then called out to Jeannie and gave the order.
Leto and Grace vanished.
Endelle was almost tempted to open her voyeur window and have a brief look-see at the couple, but she really was trying to work on her boundaries. Alison kept preaching to her about them, and she supposed she was right. So, instead, she poured another shot of Silver Patrón and savored the moment.
Tonight had been a major victory, maybe not the final one that would end Greaves’s plans for good but a solid step in the right direction. She had no doubt that the little peach would retaliate, but she doubted it would be in the next few hours. Would he want a straight-up battle, now that he’d lost half his force? She honestly didn’t know.
*   *   *

“Go beast for me,” Grace whispered, licking at Leto’s neck.
Leto was in agony. She’d gotten him worked up at the palace, but each time she said, “Go beast for me,” he swore he almost came.
Maybe it was the way she said it, kind of pleading with an ache in her voice. He could also feel just how aroused she was, her nipples in hard beads against his palms. So strange to feel her sensations at the same time he pressed his hands into her breasts.
He leaned against the wall by the fireplace, and she leaned into him, her hips pressing upward in a sensual roll, stroking the full length of him with her body.
“Go beast for me, Leto.”
He wanted to, but he also wanted to take his time with her. “You were wonderful tonight,” he said. “You were amazing.”
She stopped licking his neck and looked up at him. Her gold-green eyes glittered. “It was an incredible experience,” she said. “Have I thanked you for supporting me like you did? I’m not sure I would have gotten through it without your help. You calmed me enough to get the fold done.”
He kissed her. “You’re welcome … again. For about the hundredth time.”
She smiled and kissed him back. “Don’t you think I deserve a reward?”
“Oh, I don’t know.” But he pressed her bottom with both hands and flexed his hips.
She hissed, and her hips responded so that she rolled over him again. She licked his neck, but this time she began to suck. A shudder went through him.
Go beast for me, Leto. I want you big … everywhere.
Leto closed his eyes and just let the pleasure of her mouth on his neck ride him. He could feel how much she enjoyed her lips on his skin, and sucking at him. But it was all too much.
The only question he needed to answer was simple: Where? Then he remembered how much she liked water. He groaned and tried to calm down.
He pushed her away. “I have an idea, but you need to be naked.”
She nodded. Her lips were so swollen. She waved a hand, and her flight suit disappeared.
He had to close his eyes again for a couple of reasons. One of them involved how easy it would be to just spill all over the floor, but the other was much more critical. The hidden colony was still covered in mist—Endelle had seen to that, and she’d covered his cabin as well. But not the hot spring. Mentally, he got the deed done. Yep, power was great.
“How about a soak?”
She drew in a deep breath. “Your bathtub might fit us both, but not if you’re in a beast state.”
His woman had a one-track mind. “I’m thinking about the hot spring.” He waved his own hand this time, and his clothes disappeared.
Her turn to shudder. Her knees buckled, so of course he had to catch her. “I’m going to fold us both to the edge. You ready?”
She nodded. “Uh-huh.” Then she kissed him.
He landed on the rocks, and because her lips were still pressed to his, he barely kept his balance. He drew back and smiled. “You’re so anxious.”
“I’m hungry,” she whispered.
“Well, let me feed you then.”
She listed sideways, so he did the only sensible thing: He fell sideways, pulling her with him straight into the pool.
The warm water helped to calm things down. For a reason he couldn’t explain, some inner desperation perhaps, he really needed this time with her to last. He felt oppressed with things he didn’t understand. Yes, they’d had a victory tonight—and yet had they done anything more than just infuriate a tyrant, a man with no conscience, who had a vast army?
“Leto,” Grace whispered against his ear. “Why so distressed?”
He looked at her. “You can feel that?”
“Yes. Your whole body has grown tense. I want to make love to you, and your thoughts are practically shouting at me.”
He shook his head. “I’m not sure exactly what’s bugging me. I’ve been uneasy ever since seeing the southern sky lit with those bombs. Greaves will want revenge. We’ve wounded something far worse than anything physical.”
“His pride.”
“Yes, at the very least his pride. But we’ve stripped him of his advantage.”
She pushed away from him and threw herself backward into the water only to rise and float, her breasts like two small islands, her eyes closed.
Leto watched her float. Dammit, he’d ruined the moment for her. He had only been thinking of his own fears and concerns. But Grace was the one who had done the heavy lifting tonight, and her success should be celebrated.
“I feel like an ass.”
“Well, then come feel my ass but not until you’re ready. I can wait.”
He stood up and pushed through the water to get to her. She stayed floating on her back. She was looking up at the dark night sky.
“The mist you created over the pool is beautiful. You have a small swirl that’s quite elegant.”
He dipped down and put his hands beneath her back to support her, then he moved her in a circle faster and faster until she was giggling. But the restraint was there, within him, almost screaming at him: Don’t get involved, don’t get close, don’t give your heart, don’t forget how quickly a war can rob you of everything. Would he ever be free of this terrible holding back, this unwillingness to engage fully with her?
He feared the answer.
And he was definitely being an ass.
So he gave her the one thing he could give her, but this time all he had to do was think the thought and he began to transform.
*   *   *

Grace felt the movement in the water, like gentle pushes here and there. Leto had released her back. She sighed. But her eyes were closed, and she was trying hard not to be so disappointed.
All she had wanted was to be with Leto, and have him go beast for her, but he seemed lost in his worries and she couldn’t fix that. So, she floated and tried not to think about him or the tangible space that seemed to always be between them despite the fact that they were fully bonded.
Then she realized what that pushing sensation was.
She popped her eyes open and stood up in the water.
She gasped. “How did you do that? I didn’t know except the movements in the water felt a little different.”
He looked down at her from his increased height. His fangs had emerged. All that former desire came rushing back to her, especially since the moist air of the hot spring smelled heavily of the forest and man, Leto and beast.
Her nostrils flared as she took in his scent. At the same time, she put her hands on his massive pecs and began to fondle him. She loved his body in this state. She could hardly explain it. But he was just more of himself: more to touch, to feel, to experience from both his sensations as well as hers.
She slid her hands around his waist intending to hug him, but she felt his wing-locks and they were dripping.
She drew in a sharp breath. “Turn around,” she commanded.
His eyelids sank low. “Meadow scent.”
“Just turn around.”
He obeyed, and the water sloshed from his heavy thighs; small waves washed over her. She began at the lowest wing-lock and rubbed back and forth. He arched his back and roared.
The sound gripped her low, which caused him to roar again.
She glanced around the pool and found a large boulder that was smooth as it angled into the water. She took his hand and guided him over to the rock. “You must let me do this to you. I want to. Will you let me?”
He chuffed his response and spread himself out on the rock facedown. The water came up to the tops of his thighs.
Her lips trembled as she moved into him. He was a visual feast, and he was hers, both to command right now and to enjoy.
She moved behind him and pressed her hips against his buttocks. He groaned.
She leaned over him and licked a line straight up the center of his back. She stroked the sides of his hips from his waist down to as much of the thigh as she could reach below the water, then she came back up. The whole time she moved her hands closer to the front of his thighs, slower and slower until she wrapped her hands around the base of his stalk. At the same time, she started licking his wing-locks.
He chuffed against the rock, breathing hard.
Grace, you’re killing me.
Good.
She leaned close and focused her attention on the mid-point wing-lock on the right side of his back. The lock was big, like everything about him right now, including what she held in her hand. She rubbed her cheek along the lock and felt moisture at the aperture. She glided her left hand up his cock and felt moisture at the tip.
She flicked her tongue over the end of his wing-lock. The pleasure he felt, which she could experience because of the breh-hedden, tightened her internal well. He tasted of the forest and man. I wish I could lick both tips at once.
His hips pumped, and he groaned. He planted his forearms on the rock and buried his face between. I wish you were under me right now.
Grace released him and sank beneath the warm water, spreading his legs wide and pulling them away from the rock. She pivoted and carefully rose up, taking great pains not to clunk her skull on the hard rock.
He kept making room and growling. As her head breached the water, she licked his cock ever so slowly as she continued to rise until she could take his crown in her mouth. He was big and filled her mouth. She sucked.
Grace. My God. Grace.
Her body clenched because she could feel how her mouth felt on him while at the same time enjoying the pleasure of him in her mouth. The breh-hedden might have been many things, but erotic defined this part. She could feel what he felt, the way his forearms braced his forehead, the way the water felt sloshing around his thighs, and the way her fingernails felt pressing into his buttocks.
She sucked harder and his hips flexed then pulled back. He was close. Hell, she was close.
She released him, and he groaned long and loud. She pushed his stomach away and worked her way up until she was reclining on the rock beneath him. “Is this under you enough?”
He was so beautiful in this state: Leto and so much more. He stroked her face with his big hands, then leaned down to kiss her. When he drew back, he said, “When I enter you, I’m not going to last long.”
She smiled and reached up to kiss him back. “I won’t, either.”
“This whole pool smells like I’m walking through a summery meadow.”
“No it doesn’t, it smells of the forest and man, of you, of Leto the beast.” She smiled and petted his cheek.
“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