Gates of Rapture

CHAPTER 6

As Grace stood in the middle of the event grounds, she swore the very air among the small group took on a tactile quality that could actually be touched.
Leto took command.
He whipped his phone from the deep pocket of his kilt and punched a couple of times. “Hey, Diallo, sorry to intrude, there’s a problem and we need you. Can you fold to the landing platforms? We’ll meet you there.” He nodded as though Diallo could see him. “Good.”
He then changed phones, whipping his warrior phone from the top slit in his flight battle kilt. He called Jeannie and issued the order to get Endelle to the colony immediately. “To my position.” He then contacted the colony’s Militia Warrior HQ. He authorized Madame Endelle’s fold, then added, “I want all the Pacific Northwest warriors on alert. Let the Section Leaders know. We’ll be assembling teams at the landing platforms ASAP.”
Grace held her power steady, uncertain what she was doing, but she went with her instincts. Something big was happening, something dangerous, that much she could sense. The problem was, her head was really starting to hurt. She took deep breaths.
She fixed her gaze on Marguerite and continued to hold her palms up. Thorne turned to Marguerite. “Are you ready to do this?”
She nodded, then closed her eyes. A second later her body jerked, but Thorne kept her steady so that she didn’t fall. Her eyes moved rapidly beneath her eyelids, back and forth, as though she was reading something. Her body jerked again and her hand went to her stomach as she opened her eyes.
She looked at Grace then at Thorne. “We have maybe ten minutes, but I don’t know where this is. It’s an attack on one of the hidden colonies. The top of the mossy-mist dome just like this one”—she pointed up—“looked as though it had been burned off and was still burning. Death vampires, maybe two hundred of them, were flying into the colony from all directions.”
Leto nodded. “Okay,” he said quietly. He held his warrior phone and issued orders.
Grace glanced in the direction of the landing platforms. It was amazing to watch all the Militia Warriors, dozens of them, start gathering in squadrons, off to the left of the platforms as though by long habit. Leto’s drilling, no doubt.
Leto addressed the group. “I’m sounding the alarm.” He spoke into the phone; the next moment a series of tones hit the air in groups of three. The colonists and the foreign contestants all stopped what they were doing. The contest grounds fell completely silent.
To Grace’s complete shock, everyone began moving in prearranged directions away from the grounds. Within seconds, only Militia Warriors remained, and all of them were assembling with amazing speed by the landing platforms.
“Leto,” Jean-Pierre murmured. “You have worked miracles here.”
Leto nodded, but he set his gaze on Thorne.
Thorne was the man in charge, the one who was building Endelle’s army and working with dozens of Militia Warrior Section Leaders to formulate battle plans. He said, “It’s clear we’re looking at trouble with a hidden colony here on Mortal Earth, so I’m deferring to Leto on this. He’s set up the global defense system for this dimension.”
Leto glanced toward the landing platforms. “My men know what to do. What we need is the location of the attack.”
A moment later, Endelle folded right next to Thorne, adjusting a strange necklace of pinecones and butterflies. She twisted her neck and gave the necklace one more turn. “Just got the call from Jeannie that we have some deep shit going on here.” She caught sight of Grace. “And why does our latest obsidian flame look like a goddam glowing Smurf?”
A few nervous barks of laughter followed.
Grace couldn’t help herself. She laughed as well, then sobered instantly. Dear Creator, her head really hurt.
“We’ve got trouble.” Leto said. He glanced at Marguerite then back. “Future streams just told us one of the colonies will be under attack in a few minutes.”
“Which colony?”
“We don’t know.”
Endelle turned to Thorne, “Well, you’re obsidian flame. Can’t you find out?” She planted her hands on her hips, which drew Grace’s gaze back to the pinecone-butterfly necklace, then to the bees that appeared to be buzzing around Endelle’s calves and knees.
Grace was convinced that no one was as absurd as the ruler of Second Earth. She might even have laughed at the strange outfit, but her obsidian power set up a new wave and her head really started to pound. She winced.
Then she understood. “I think I can find the colony. I remember now that when Leto was in trouble in Moscow, my obsidian flame power led me to him through my split-self apparition. I believe I can do it again here. Marguerite, why don’t you show me what you saw in the future streams, and we’ll see what happens.”
“Okay.”
Grace crossed to Marguerite and put her hands on her face. “Show me,” she said quietly.
The vision flew through her mind swiftly and seemed to resonate with her obsidian power. The next moment she was flying through space in that same split-self, her ghost-like apparition, the one she’d used to bring Leto out of Moscow Two. She could sense that she was heading south, as in South America.
When she arrived at the vision’s destination, she looked around. She could see both the limited farmland and the nearby barren hills. She saw a small town, maybe ten or twenty thousand people. Not far, and to the east of a dry riverbed, lay the colony, all secure and locked down with Diallo’s mossy-mist creation protecting the location. However, as she turned in every direction, she could see death vampires on each horizon all headed toward the colony.
She dipped her apparition-self toward the lights of the town and found the name on a couple of storefronts: Nazca. She knew this place. The entire world was fascinated with the famous lines that an ancient culture had drawn in the sand, which could still be viewed, all these hundreds of years later, from high in the air. A spider and a hummingbird were the most famous designs.
Satisfied, she thought the thought and her apparition-self began flying back to the Seattle Colony. When she reconnected with herself, it took a moment to adjust. She opened her eyes and found everyone staring at her with wide eyes. Leto had shifted to support her, holding her by the waist.
She blinked a couple of times. “I’m sure that must have seemed strange but I have the location. Nazca, Peru.” At the same moment, however, her headache tore through her skull. She dropped to her knees, clutching the sides of her head. She felt Leto’s strong hands on her shoulders and as if at a distance she could hear his voice, but she couldn’t respond. Tears streamed down her face. “Grace, I’m here. What’s wrong?”
Marguerite said, “She has to get that sheath sliced, Leto. It’s her power. It’s trying to break through. Better do it soon.”
“Understood.”
*   *   *

Leto couldn’t just leave Grace in so much pain, but he had his teams to lead. He stood up and looked at Endelle. “I need to get my warriors down to Peru now. Can you help Grace?”
Endelle smiled. “Leave her to me, Warrior. Get your men to Nazca.” When Endelle drew her phone into her hand and a moment later started barking orders at Alison, telling her to get her ass down to the Seattle Colony, Leto knew he could trust the situation.
He turned and headed to the landing platform. He wasn’t surprised that Thorne, Jean-Pierre, and Arthur followed him. Diallo was waiting for him and Leto filled him in.
Diallo frowned. “The Nazca Colony only has a population of four hundred and you say several hundred death vampires will be attacking?”
“Yes.”
“It would be a slaughter.”
“Not if we can help it. I’m sending the squadrons now.” He glanced at the top of the ramp. Gideon stood there awaiting orders. Leto placed a call to the colony’s Militia HQ and folding coordinates were laid in within seconds.
Leto met Gideon’s gaze and let the orders fly. “To Nazca. Now.”
The squads began to fold in brisk succession, eight at a time. Within one minute a hundred warriors had folded to Peru, and the second hundred began folding equally as fast.
Leto nodded to Diallo. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw that Alison was already with Grace.
He turned and ran up the ramp with what he now thought of as his own squad. Once he reached the top, he, Thorne, Jean-Pierre, and Arthur folded to Nazca. Gideon would remain behind to keep the warriors en route to the battle zone until at least a thousand Militia Warriors were doing battle.
Once Leto touched down, and thanks to long training, he moved swiftly away from the landing site, mounted his wings, folded his sword into his hand, and took to the night skies.
Out in the desert, the moon lit up the skies like a beacon. It was so bright that the ground seemed to be covered in snow.
His warriors, male and female, battled death vampires all over the sky, but it was to the colony that Leto headed. He knew that any colonists attacked by death vampires would die within seconds. No mercy would be shown.
He pulled his wings in tight, dipped and corrected to miss battling squadrons. He aimed for the now visible world of the colony. There was a main street and low simple buildings made of stone blocks, carved out of the land.
He could hear screams coming from houses and alleys between. Once he reached the ground, however, he retracted his wings and entered the first house he came to. There was a lot of blood and too many bodies. He raced through and found a death vampire in the back room with a teen ascender, drinking her down, raping her.
He threw a dagger into his kidney, which brought the death vamp arching back and off the young woman. Leto moved swiftly and with his sword took the bastard’s head.
The girl pushed away from the monster, then crawled to the other side of the room. He didn’t want to leave her, but he had to go. “Hide,” he said.
She held her neck and nodded. She slid quickly beneath the bed.
He left by way of the window, jumping out.
His night progressed in exactly that way. He went from house to house hunting for evil, finding it, striking it down.
He came upon four death vamps in a house on a hill near a small dry streambed. These pretty-boys were huge, and he recognized them for what they were. They belonged to a group of recruits brought from Third Earth, something Greaves had been doing for the past year. No one knew exactly how he’d been doing it, but Greaves was a vampire with many tricks.
Leto knew he wasn’t a match for these vamps in his current state. When three of them turned and stared at him indifferently, while the other continued drinking a woman to death, Leto felt the vibration go down his left leg, then his right.
For the first time, he did exactly what Brynna had been encouraging him to do all along: He let his beast take over. At the same moment he mentally adjusted the belt of his kilt as well as the buckles of his shin guards and battle sandals. He got rid of his weapons harness altogether.
“Motherf*cker” came out of one of the oversized death vamps. “Where the hell did you learn to do that, traitor?”
Leto smiled. Now, there was one of the great ironies of his life—that a death vampire would call him traitor.
His sword almost felt small in his beast-sized hand. “What’s the matter, pretty-boy? You afraid of me?”
“Just because you can morph like a Third Earth warrior? Hell, no. There are still four of us and only one of you.”
“Bring it, a*shole. Let’s see what you’ve got.”
Leto felt more powerful than he ever had before. He held out the palm of his left hand and let a hand-blast fly. The sound was almost deafening in the small house.
The death vamp on the left took it in the chest. He flew backward, hard into the wall. His ribs were smashed in. He wouldn’t be breathing anymore.
Leto aimed another hand-blast at the second death vamp, but since the bastard had decided to deliver his own deadly blast, the searing energy met in the middle, soared upward, and blew part of the roof off.
All this activity had the advantage of getting the fourth death vamp off the woman. But knowing the power of these Third Earth death vamps as he did, Leto was still no match for their combined strength and skill, so he used his primary advantage: his battle experience.
He folded behind them, shoved a dagger through the back of one, then folded outside the building and waited.
Two to go.
“Get him” came from inside. “He’s out there. I can smell him.”
Leto cloaked himself in mist. He listened. He felt the air move behind him. He swung his sword and took the bastard’s head off. It hit the stone lane with a terrible thump.
Only one left.
Leto looked up the lane. He extended his vision and saw a number of colonists rising up to look at him. He waved them down and they disappeared.
Good. The people were hiding. Part of the strategy among all the colonies was to teach the people to move the most vulnerable well way from the buildings when the death vampires came.
He smiled, remembering something Arthur had done to taunt death vampires. He made a raspberry sound with his lips. “Come out and play,” he shouted, letting his mist melt away.
He wasn’t going to hide this time.
The last death vamp leaped through the window, and it was game on. He was huge, like Leto, and had Third Earth skills. But Leto had been a warrior for three millennia while it seemed this bastard had been relying on size alone to win his battles.
Leto circled, his sword held out and away from his body. He watched the bastard’s eyes; when they shifted he lunged, blocked, stepped back, then whirled. With another swift lunge, he caught the pretty-boy up through soft part of the belly.
His scream swallowed up the night air.
Leto withdrew his sword. The death vamp fell forward and Leto, also with the practice of millennia, took his head.
He leaned back, bent his knees, and roared into the air.
He pivoted and headed back to the main street on a run, his gaze strafing the sky above, then every shadow nearby. By now, a thousand militia warriors were swarming the town. There were bodies of death vampires everywhere, some moving slightly, others inert.
Gideon had the north end secured and Diallo had already arrived to begin repairing the mist that had been burned away.
The air smelled of smoke and blood and fear.
The fighting was thickest now at the southern end, but the battle was almost over. His warriors were steadily collecting death vampire bodies and moving them to Gideon’s position.
Standing off to the side, Leto watched Gideon direct traffic. He had his warrior phone to his ear, issuing removal orders either to the morgue at Apache Junction Two or to the one at Central Command. Headless bodies and the detached heads began disappearing as fast as they were collected.
The mission proceeded with great speed, all the warriors moving on lightning feet. Months of training had paid off.
Gideon kept sending repeat details to scour each house, each garden, each nearby ravine, and especially the underground cisterns, hunting for the enemy. There was no way they were leaving a single death vamp behind.
Leto approached Gideon, knowing that he would look strange to the warrior, but it couldn’t be helped. Besides, in this form, Leto had vanquished four Third Earth death vamps. Not half bad for a beast-man.
Gideon’s eyes widened a little, as did the eyes of a number of the Militia Warriors near him.
Leto shrugged. “Better get used to it. Apparently, this is my new look.”
Gideon glanced around and ordered everyone back to work. “We’re bringing in backup squads to patrol through the night.”
“How many?”
“Twenty.”
“Good.” That would put eighty warriors on the ground. “And the healers?”
“As soon as the fighting in the south is done, we’re bringing them in. Horace has forty ready to go. But, Leto, we have at least twenty dead colonists, and several of our warriors didn’t make it.”
It could have been worse. It could have been a disaster. That’s what he thought but that’s not what he said. “We’ll need counselors in here as well.”
Gideon nodded. “Mei-Amadi will take charge of that.”
“Do we know how the colony was identified by the enemy? Did any of your men find transmitters?”
“Yes,” Gideon said. “They’re everywhere. But we knew it was just a matter of time.” He looked up. “Diallo feels confident this renewed layer of mist will eradicate the position of the colony. If Greaves’s army wants to come back, they’ll have to work for it.”
Several hours later, the Nazca One Colony was well in hand. Gideon sent dozens of Militia Warriors to search out the last of the transmitters.
Leto folded back to the landing platforms. He was the only one at that location. The grounds were quiet, as they should be. The hour had to be near two in the morning.
He was about to fold when he sensed something behind him. He turned around and watched a large shimmering appear in the desert. He drew his sword into his hand and was about to sound the alarm all over again when Greaves appeared with a contingent of ten Third Earth death vampires. On top of that, Greaves held both hands out in front of him. Leto could feel the hand-blast gearing up.
He saw his death in this moment as sure as Greaves was standing there. He couldn’t legally kill Leto, but he could wound him as near to fatal as he could get, then order his death vamps to finish him off.
Leto had only one thought: But Grace just got back.
Like hell, however, he would take this lying down. He lowered his chin and built up his shields as fast as he could. He drew a dagger from his weapons harness.
Greaves just smiled. “I’ve been waiting for this moment for months now.” He let loose with a hand-blast that roared at Leto like a freight train.
Leto’s shields buckled, and he was thrown off the platform and rolled downhill. The whole time, he worked at rebuilding his shields, but it was as though they’d been melted. Still, he had to try.
He glanced in Gideon’s direction, but he couldn’t see him. Greaves had put a mist around the battle. Of course.
Leto had just gained his feet when another blast hit, but to his surprise, it didn’t even touch him.
Another shimmering brought a new entity between Leto and Greaves. He was tall and bald but with writing on his skull—tattoos, maybe.
“Casimir,” Greaves called out. “What are you doing here?”
“Making sure Leto stays alive.”
This was Casimir? And he was here to defend Leto? What the hell?
What Leto saw next was a shower of energy that met in the middle between both men. Light and sparks flew up into the sky.
“I can do this for hours, Darian, and I have permission from Endelle to engage however I can to protect Leto. I suggest you get the hell out of here and take your pretty-boys with you before I blast your mist to hell and the rest of the Militia Warriors below decide to take on your men. What do you say?”
When he finished this speech with a flick of his wrist that sent a wave of energy piercing Greaves’s shoulder, Greaves waved his arm. Just like that, he and his death vamps were gone.
Leto had too much adrenaline in his system. He held his sword in a tight fist, and his whole arm shook. He’d faced death and would have died just now except for the aid of the one vampire he despised the most: Casimir.
The bastard turned around and faced Leto. He looked so different without his long hair. But there was something more. His dark eyes held a light Leto had never seen before.
“What the f*ck are you doing here?” Leto asked. “And what do you mean you’re here to protect me?”
Casimir’s smile quirked. “Is that any way to address the vampire who just saved your ass?” He looked Leto up and down. “Like the new look you’re sporting. Bigger.”
Leto took two deep breaths. “Grace is mine.”
At that, something of the old Casimir showed through. He rubbed the top of his head. “We’ll see about that. I think she should have a choice.”
Leto would have launched on him, but Casimir just held up his hand and Leto couldn’t move, which made him mad as hell. He roared.
“Relax, beast-man. I’m here as your Guardian of Ascension. That’s all. I relinquished Grace months ago. She’s yours.”
Leto had no reason to believe Casimir. “Shut it, a*shole, and please just return to Fourth Earth.”
“No can do. Greaves wants your ass in a sling—or did you not notice that he outpowers you about a hundred-to-one?”
Leto noticed.
“Yeah,” Casimir drawled. “I think he was a little ticked off that you oh-so-easily dispatched the other Third Earth vampires he’d sent to get this job done. Oh, and maybe because you defected back to Endelle’s side.”
Leto knew many definitions for the word nightmare, but right now, this situation in which Leto owed Casimir his life, had just created a new meaning. “What about Grace? Are you here to guard her as well?”
“Nope. Just you.”
Yep, nightmare. Leto was many things, but he wasn’t a fool. If Greaves had targeted him and had staked Leto out in order to finish him off, Leto was in for it.
He needed Casimir. Nothing could have put a fire on his nerves worse than that.
“You’re not staying in my house.”
Casimir just lifted a brow. “I’m not staying anywhere on Second Earth.” With that, he vanished, though Leto could sense he hadn’t dematerialized. As a Fourth ascender, he had powers that Leto couldn’t relate to, like going invisible—which he was pretty sure Casimir had just done.
Leto turned in a circle. He still held his sword in his hand. He focused and sure enough, he could sense Casimir’s presence.
Don’t be an idiot, Casimir sent. You need me right now, and I’m sticking around. I owe Grace at least that much, to keep you alive. Adios. At least for now.
This time, Leto knew that Casimir had gone. So had Greaves’s mist. He glanced down in Gideon’s direction, but no one seemed the wiser about what had just happened.
He let out a heavy sigh and headed back up the hill. Once at the landing platform, he folded to the Seattle Colony’s landing area then headed to HQ. The Militia Warriors on duty reported that the colonists were all in their homes; no lights were on anywhere since they were still on high alert. The warriors folding back from battle were immediately sent home to clean up and recoup.
He glanced out the window at the contest grounds, visible beyond the empty tents.
“Have all the competitors returned to their continents?”
“Diallo gave the order shortly after the last of the Militia Warriors folded to Nazca.”
Leto nodded, but his heart was heavy. So much for the warrior games.
He wasn’t under the illusion that Greaves had actually started the war, not by attacking one insignificant colony on Mortal Earth. Greaves had probably been testing the waters. But whatever this attack had been, it was just the beginning. The transmitters had been all around Nazca, one small colony in a relatively insignificant corner of the world. That meant that Greaves was probably tracking all the colonies.
He sent out a telepathic thread toward Grace. Where are you?
Leto? Are you back?
Yes.
He heard her sigh, or at least he thought he did.
Thank God. When you’re done with all your duties, I’m at the cabin, having a glass of a very nice German wine I found in your fridge.
Listen, I’m going to fold straight to the shower, but I don’t want you to join me. I don’t want you to see me like this because I’ve been battling.
Well, I confess you won’t have to twist my arm on this one. But, Leto, when you get here, I really need you to break open my obsidian flame power. I’m done with these headaches, and as I told you before, I’m done holding back from my role in the triad.
He felt a jolt go through him, an awareness that what Grace had just said to him was no small thing. Grace was staying. That’s what went through his mind. If she meant to embrace her obsidian flame power, it meant she was staying.
Something in his chest opened up, and he released a deep sigh. Relief washed through him. Grace was staying. He wouldn’t have to bid her good-bye anytime soon. Maybe things weren’t completely settled between them, but until this moment he had felt she could easily walk away.
On the other hand, would Casimir’s sudden return have an effect on her? Would the breh return? Jesus H. Christ, a Guardian of Ascension. What exactly did that mean? He wasn’t, that is, he couldn’t possibly be in a call to ascension to Third Earth, could he?
Battle fatigue had started settling in, however. He set aside this new development in his bizarre life and focused on Grace.
I’ll fold there after I’ve taken care of a couple of things.
Okay. I’ll be waiting.
He left orders that HQ was to contact him at his cabin if he was needed for anything. When he felt confident that the situation was stable, he thought the thought. The next moment he was washing blood and debris down the drain of his shower.
But as he washed his hair, and had to bend to get beneath the spray of water because he was still in his beast-state, he rose upright and looked at his arms and hands.
He wondered. In the midst of battle, he had so easily morphed into this state—and what do you know, he hadn’t passed out. And another thing, he’d folded without any repercussion.
As he thought about the situation, he realized that the major difference had been his level of acceptance. He’d wanted his beast to come, he’d focused on the change, and the next moment he’d become his beast-form. But could he return as easily?
He relaxed every muscle of his body, and as the hot water beat on his skin, he focused on his normal vampire state.
In stages, he felt the change come, a gradual reduction, an easing into his regular body. He held his hands and arms up and watched the transformation. This couldn’t just be a condition of having once been a death vampire—and what had the Third Earth pretty-boy said about morphing like a Third Earth warrior?
Not a Third Earth death vamp, but a Third Earth warrior.
Huh.
Much of Third Earth was a mystery, apparently even to the Upper Dimensions beyond Third. Third was cloaked in some kind of nearly impenetrable fog so it wasn’t clear what was going on in that world.
And here he was, having been described as a Third Earth warrior. He suddenly felt hopeful that his beast-like condition could mean something good for Second Earth. It certainly had in terms of battling Third Earth death vamps.
When he was dressed in jeans and a long-sleeved ribbed T-shirt, he made his way downstairs. Much to his surprise, Grace sat at the dining table with a meal she’d prepared for him. She had a platter of cheese, fruit, and some cold fried chicken piled on a plate.
And suddenly he was starved. He apologized as he dove in, but he hadn’t known he was hungry until he’d seen the food.
She smiled at him and laughed a couple of times. She leaned back in her chair and sipped her white wine. “I’m so glad you’re back. I was worried.”
He nodded, swallowed, wiped his mouth. “It must be hard sitting around waiting to get word on something like this.” He took a nice swig of wine.
Grace sipped and smiled some more. “Go ahead and eat.”
He took her at her word and made quick work of his meal.
When only a few bones remained, he sat back. “I forgot what it was like. I haven’t been in a battle like that in a while.” He looked at her and held out his hand. Shit. He would have to tell her about Casimir. The bastard.
She took his hand. “You okay?”
He hardly knew what to say. “What happened tonight is just the beginning. I think we’re in for it.”
“Was it as bad as I think it was?”
“Parts were, yes. But in reality we had very few casualties and we took care of a lot of death vampires tonight who will never again harm a mortal or an ascender.”
“Did we … did we lose many colonists tonight?”
“Gideon set the number at around twenty. But, Grace, if obsidian flame hadn’t acted, it would have meant complete devastation.”
“That’s what I thought.”
“But there’s something else, and I have no idea what it means or how you’re going to feel about this. I know I’m pissed as hell.” He fell silent thinking about what Casimir had just done for him and the announcement he’d made.
“Hey, don’t leave me hanging.”
He blinked at least once. “Sorry. I think I’m still in a state of shock. Casimir showed up. In Nazca.”
She leaned forward in her chair, but she was frowning. “He did?”
Leto nodded.
“What was he there for? I mean, did you get into a fight with him?”
“No.” He shook his head because he was still in disbelief. “Actually, he saved my life.” He told her about Greaves arriving armed with a large squad of Third Earth death vampires. Then he dropped the bomb. “I don’t know exactly what this means, but Casimir said he was now my Guardian of Ascension, that he had it all arranged with Endelle.”
“What?” She tilted her head and narrowed her eyes. Her lips moved as though she was trying to form a few words. “I don’t understand. Casimir said he’s your Guardian of Ascension?”
Leto nodded. “Yeah.” He scrubbed his face with his hand. “I don’t know the why of it, but I do know if he hadn’t shown up when he did, I’d be toast.”
Her head bobbed, and she set her glass of wine on the table. “I guess this is real. I mean, I knew the war would heat up once I returned because of obsidian flame, but it never occurred to me that Greaves would go after you. I thought it was all about me.” Her mouth then fell open. “Leto, tell me you’re not in your call to ascension to Third Earth.”
He shook his head. “I can’t be. You just came back and usually couples ascend together, at least if they’ve been married awhile. This doesn’t make sense.” He paused then met her gaze squarely. “Except for one thing. While I was out battling tonight, a Third Earth death vampire said that I was morphing like a Third Earth warrior.”
Her shoulders fell. “Leto, no. You can’t be ascending.”
She rose, and before he knew what she meant to do, she crawled into his lap, slipped her arms around his neck, and held on. “Leto, I’m trying to be brave, I really am. But this is one of those moments when I wish I was like Thorne and Patience.” He felt her trembling so he held her tight. He kissed her neck. “I don’t want to lose you,” she said.
“Well, first, I don’t know if I am ascending. Second, you could come with me. I mean, if you could stay on Fourth, why not Third?”
She leaned back and looked at him. “But the portal’s closed. I couldn’t visit you on Third if I wanted to, which means you couldn’t return to the lower dimensions, either.”
“Shit.” He rocked her and kissed her. He held back the storm of feelings that threatened him right now. The thought that he could be separated from Grace for any length of time tightened his chest until he could hardly breathe.
After a long moment, and once her trembling had subsided, she drew back and met his gaze. She kissed his forehead, his eyelids, his nose, then his mouth. She lingered and he savored, letting her do what she wanted.
Finally, she leaned back and drew a deep breath. “Okay, I guess we should deal with this one step at a time. First, we need to take care of my little problem.”
*   *   *

Grace led the way upstairs to Leto’s bedroom. She had been thinking about this moment from the time she’d left the contest grounds and returned to his cabin to wait for him. She’d drawn some hard conclusions.
Mostly, she wanted her blue flame powerfully expressed so that she wasn’t hindered by these terrible headaches. After that—well, she didn’t know what exactly would happen, but she did know that events tonight had brought her right next to the war, and given the number of colonists that had been saved, she was glad she’d come back when she did.
Once in the bedroom, she looked up at the unusual bed. “I’ve never seen anything like this.”
“It was handcrafted by a local artisan.” Dried branches, scraped clean and oiled, formed a canopy over the massive king-size-plus bed, which seemed like a fitting choice for a cabin deep in the Cascade Mountains.
“I couldn’t say no to the bed,” he explained. “The woman who made it lost her Militia Warrior husband last year. She needed the money to support her family.”
“I think it’s lovely.” She ran her hand over some of the smooth branches, letting her fingers glide over nubs and arches. “And the sentiment is equally beautiful.”
Opposite the bed was a large fireplace, enough for a roaring fire in winter. But in September, not so much.
He slid his arms around her. “How’s your head?”
“Much better, thanks to Alison. And did you know that her wings have emerged? She spent the day flying over White Lake with Kerrick.”
“Wait, that has significance, doesn’t it? When I tried to rejoin the Warriors of the Blood, Luken brought me up to speed about everything, especially about Alison and that she would one day open the portal to Third. Holy shit, do you think we’re headed there?”
Shivers suddenly chased down Grace’s shoulders and arms. “I hadn’t thought about that when I heard her wings had emerged. It would cast a new light on your possible ascension to Third as well.”
He leaned down and kissed her, then drew back. “I think you might be the missing piece of the puzzle, Grace. It can’t be a coincidence that your return here, to be involved in the war, has coincided with Alison’s wings.”
Grace felt overwhelmed suddenly, and the part of her that was deeply intuitive knew Leto was right. Her return was connected to Alison, even as much as her presence here would affect the war against Greaves.
“You did good tonight, Grace. I don’t want to think what would have happened if you hadn’t embraced your obsidian power, despite your headache, and gotten the Nazca location for us. It was some quick thinking, too.”
She looked up at the branches and once more let her fingers glide over a bend and a smooth knot. She shook her head. “I’ve avoided the war my entire life. Now here I am right in the middle of it. But then I ask myself, why should I be spared these fears and sufferings? War has afflicted human- and vampire-kind for most of history. I hid out in the Convent, sent there by my sister’s disappearance. I can see that now. I’m not exactly sure that I’m worthy of you, Leto. I think I’ve been a coward.”
He drew close and put a hand on her shoulder. “No one likes war, Grace. Those of us who are built for it serve because it’s the right thing to do. But when lives are destroyed, as they were tonight, there is no real solace. So why would you choose that, especially when it’s clear you’re built for other things?”
“I want to help, that much I know. I didn’t understand how much being of use would actually mean to me especially in this situation. But because Greaves won’t hesitate to slaughter millions of people if it suits his purposes, and if I can stop him, then I have a responsibility to do what I can.”
As she stared up into Leto’s clear blue eyes, at least one thing crystallized for her. He had been in her life a long, long time and she loved him. She knew his soul, his infinite worth, even if he didn’t. If having her obsidian flame power opened and utilized fully would help her to keep him safe, then whatever sacrifices she must endure would be worth it.
“So, how would you like to do this?” he asked.
She glanced at the bed. “Right here, lying on the bed, with you beside me.”
He smiled. “Then let’s do it.”

To set a course and stay the path

Sets the angels of heaven to rejoicing.

—Collected Proverbs, Beatrice of Fourth