Awakening (2 page)

Hell. Maybe they were worse.

Rachel, the woman he considered the love-of-his-fucked-up-life, had once told Duncan that he could build a wall faster than any man she’d ever known.

But then he’d been well-trained.

Yolanthe stopped pacing and moved close to look at him. “Why don’t you just tell me what I need to know? Rachel is the only thing that stands between us.”

Again, he refused.

Though he hadn’t been to Rachel’s home on Mortal Earth, he’d heard she’d moved to the Seattle One Colony because of the simpler, more organic lifestyle. “Sorry, Yolanthe. Not giving anything up, not tonight, not ever.”

“I’m sorry to tell you this, Duncan, but I’ve come to a decision. Your refusal to give me the information I require has made it necessary.” She drew a deep breath and lifted her chin. “I’m going to have to do a mind-dive and it’s going to hurt. A lot.”

He poked the bear. “Is that how your father hurts you? Doing mind-dives?”

She lifted her right brow a quarter of an inch.

So, he’d surprised her.

She pinched her lips together, then said, “You’re not to speak of my father, ever. Do you hear me? Because I have chosen you to work beside me, I intend to treat you with great respect.” She cupped her hands in front of her, palms up, and slapped them together gently for emphasis. “This one thing I will require of you, however, you must not disparage my father’s name. If you disobey, I won’t hesitate to perform a violent mind-dive and ruin your capacity to reason forever. No one would be able to help you then and you’d be left to rot in that hospital room.”

He was right; Daddy was the issue for this Third Earth bitch-princess.

“And now, I’m going to retrieve the information I need.”

Duncan had never had anyone do a mind-dive before, but from what he’d heard from those who’d been on the receiving end, it was extremely unpleasant.

He braced himself as she stretched a hand toward him and split his mind open like a sharp knife to a cantaloupe.

He’d made war for decades. He’d been bruised, sliced up, had bones broken, and generally maimed in about every way possible, so he knew what pain was.

But what he felt right now, as the woman pierced his mind, was beyond anything he’d ever experienced in his life. Intense pain ripped through him, setting every nerve in his body on fire.

As she dove, his whole life opened up to Yolanthe, which meant very soon she’d find his memories about Rachel’s move to Seattle One.

Somehow, he had to warn Rachel.

~ ~ ~

Rachel stood in her garden, the tip of her shovel in the gravel walkway, her arms wrapped around the wood handle. She’d tried everything she could think of to help bring Duncan out of his trance. She’d talked to him, wept over him, and yelled at him. She’d rubbed his arms and legs briskly, she’d used a combination of resonance and telepathy to try to get even the smallest response from him mind-to-mind, and she’d even had him put him in an ice bath. But nothing had worked.

Horace, their most powerful healer on Second Earth, had brought his team in to work on Duncan repeatedly. He’d even used Fiona, mated to Warrior Jean-Pierre, who could amplify his power. But not even that had made a dent in his current, inexplicable situation.

He was healthy enough given he’d had a catheter for two weeks, a feeding tube, an
IV
for hydration and another one that carried her blood. She’d donated every day.

No stone had been left unturned.

Yet nothing had worked.

She was past the tears now and felt almost cold when she thought of him. Her frustration had stolen her compassion because her love and fear for him had about killed her.

And she thought she’d been over him.

Hah. Much chance of that.

Two weeks ago, Warrior Samuel and his woman, Vela, had rescued Duncan from a Third Earth torture cell. Some maniac called Sharav had abducted him from the New River Borderland and applied every vile technique known to human and ascended vampire kind in an attempt to break Duncan down.

He’d almost died in the process. But together, Fiona and Horace had brought him back from the brink.

Afterward, though he’d been brought out of harm’s way physically, he’d been left in a trance that not even the powerful Endelle, nine-thousand-years-old and the leader of Second Earth, had been able to pierce.

So, Rachel had donated repeatedly. Something she’d done just fifteen minutes ago, in an effort to keep Duncan alive. Now she was here in her Mortal Earth home to work in her garden.

She’d been so lost in thought, however, that she’d forgotten to change out of her dress, which made her smile. She glanced down. She loved this particular dress, a soft white cotton that ran mid-calf. Duncan had always liked her in dresses.

Her throat tightened. He’d kiss her and say, ‘Easy access.’ He was such a guy, but she’d loved it. Duncan had always known how to sex her up, then bring her to a roaring climax.

And here she was, standing on the gravel path of her garden holding her shovel point down and wearing lavender leather ballet flats.

Her head hurt as well. The persistent ache was driving her crazy. She knew the source and that ticked her off because she’d promised herself never,
never,
to get involved with anything having to do with Duncan Wallace, or Militia Warriors, or the war ever again.

Now she felt like she was being sucked back into a relationship with the man who could build internal walls faster than he could blink.

To be fair, she had her own issues and no doubt consistently overreacted to Duncan’s repetitive efforts to create distance. But she really wanted to help, because – and here was her absolute hardest personal truth – she loved Duncan.

She rested her cheek on top of her folded hands, the shovel wiggling with the weight. She wished she could help more than anything, but at the same time resented the interference in her life.

For a long time now, she’d worked toward building a life for herself apart from the war. She’d landed in the Mortal Earth colony outside of Seattle One, perfectly content with her small woodsy home and the extensive garden that backed up to the Pacific Northwest Cascade Mountain forest.

Having added a microclimate, she was able to grow watermelons, tomatoes, and every other fruit and vegetable under the sun, at any time of the year. The co-director of the colony, Mei-Amadi, wasn’t exactly happy about the micro-climate, but she didn’t reject the fresh tomatoes either.

Rachel knew she was something of a hypocrite since she refused to use most of her Second Earth powers on principle. But when it came to her garden, she couldn’t resist.

The pain in the center of her head began to throb.

Then suddenly, she heard Duncan – or thought she heard him – calling to her telepathically.

It was very faint.
Rachel. You’re in trouble. She wants you dead.

A terrible shiver went through her.
Duncan?

But just like before, each time she’d tried to reach him telepathically, she received some kind of static in response.

And who exactly wanted her dead?

~ ~ ~

Duncan couldn’t cry out, couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe.

He hurt into the bowels of his body and deep into the seat of his soul where Yolanthe searched through his memories, his thoughts, his beliefs, everything that he was as a man, even what he’d suffered as a child.

She’d paused over the horror of his father’s teaching lessons, the ones beat into every fiber of his being. He’d even felt her grow very still for a moment and the pain had actually lessened.

But that reprieve hadn’t lasted long.

The woman searched and searched.

While doing her mind-dive and because her voyeur window had drawn his vision inward at the same time, he saw what she saw, all the memories and the glow of something rust-colored. He finally understood that this was the means by which Yolanthe retained control of him:
she’d formed an extremely powerful, Third Earth mind link with him.

If what he understood was true – only the creator of the link could remove it – then he was screwed.

She stumbled across another memory, one that he’d forgotten because it had taken place when that bastard, Sharav, had been torturing him.

Yolanthe had been there. She’d visited his stone cell, watching him with her pale blue, predatory eyes. “He’ll give us so much, my love.”

Sharav had gone to her, kissing her on the lips. “He already has.”

Somehow Duncan knew that Sharav was referring to sex, that the couple had used his suffering to get themselves off. Rage began to boil that once again he’d been at the mercy of powerful ascenders with vile, cruel natures. He’d grown up under the punishing thumb of his father, Sharav had tortured him, and now he was trapped in a trance.

To his surprise, Yolanthe seemed suddenly distressed, maybe that she’d inadvertently allowed Duncan to see those memories. She reversed direction and began to leave his mind. This time, the pain became so severe that he disappeared into the void of unconsciousness.

When he came to, Yolanthe stood near a warrior-type with long, black hair and three braids hanging down either side of his dark face.

Her reddish brow rose the familiar quarter-inch. “So, the grid has found Rachel at last? I just searched through his memories and couldn’t find a recent dwelling on Second Earth at all. I know he loves the woman, but apparently they haven’t been together for some time. So, where is she?”

“Mortal Earth. The Seattle area. A hidden colony of Second Earth ascenders, which is very well shielded.”

“Well, that would explain why it’s taken this long.”

Duncan’s mind hurt so badly that he could barely focus. But he forced himself to concentrate because somewhere in the muddle that was his head, he knew they were speaking about Rachel.

Oh, God, they’d found her.

His heart began to race. Despite the trance, he was connected to his body and could feel the catheter and the tubes, everything that was keeping him alive.

He had to get to Rachel to save her.

“Send your best wrecking crew through the Mortal Earth darkening grid. No one ever goes there these days and the grid won’t be watched or at least if you are discovered, you’ll be back by then and safe.”

“Your will is mine, Princess.” He bowed, one fist to his chest, then vanished in an abrupt fold.

Duncan’s chest felt crushed. Rachel would die in the next few minutes if he didn’t figure this out.

He forced himself to calm down, to think.

He recalled the glowing rust-colored ember deep within his soul: the mind-link.

On a hunch, he retraced Yolanthe’s path, diving deep. It hurt like holy hell but he didn’t care. He had to save Rachel and the only way he could set himself free was to find that link and sever it. He didn’t know if it was possible, but he had to try.

The trip probably only took a few seconds, but felt like an eternity. When he reached the glowing ember that indicated the link, he summoned every ounce of his preternatural power and began to work on the link, pounding it with waves of his essential vampire power.

The light began to waver and he felt the difference immediately, that at least for this moment, he was free.

He was free.

He didn’t wait, but flew back up through his mind, ignoring the searing pain and sure enough, the voyeur’s window was gone and he was in the hospital.

He sat up, but became so dizzy that he flopped back down on the bed. Slowly, he pulled the feeding tube out of his nose, gagging and sputtering.

Save Rachel.

He eased himself back up and drew the tube out of his penis, wincing the whole time. He then jerked both
IV
s out of his arms.

He dropped the railing and rolled out of bed. He would have fallen except he was able at the last second to grab the side railing.

He whispered to himself, his voice raw, “Come on, you fucker, get going.”

Once more, he summoned every last bit of his preternatural power, focusing on Rachel and her beloved garden. And just like that, he folded to Mortal Earth landing a few feet from where she stood with her shovel. The colony’s alarms shrieked because he hadn’t used their landing platforms.

“Rachel?” His voice barely worked.

She turned toward him, stunned. “Duncan?”

The dizziness returned and he felt himself falling backward.

~ ~ ~

Rachel dropped her shovel and ran to Duncan, just a few feet away. He had blood spatters on his hospital gown and he looked as pale as death. “Duncan, what happened? How did you get here?”

She knelt beside him and lifted his head, cradling him in her arms. His eyes rolled. She’d never seen him this weak before. “Duncan, please.”

He blinked. “Rachel. Wreckers. Apache Junction Two. Now.”

Rachel heard a faint, distant rumbling, a sound she didn’t recognize, but she suspected they were wreckers. She’d heard the stories; Third Earth warriors that worked their darkening grid. Her heart slammed around in her chest.

Wreckers. Here?

The rumbling grew stronger.

Every instinct told her to get the hell out of there. And when Duncan had said Apache Junction Two, she knew he meant Militia Warrior Headquarters on Second Earth.

Despite that she was breaking colony protocol by not heading to the landing platforms first, she focused on Militia HQ and began the fold. At the same split-second, the air in front of her exploded. She caught a glimpse of several powerful warriors, long-braids next to their faces, shotguns in hand.

They aimed at her and fired.

~ ~ ~

Endelle loved her scorpion belt. She’d paid a fortune to have the stinging creatures cast in metal and linked together. She donned her favorite black bustier, the one that sent her girls into the stratosphere and had all the men either staring slack-jawed or purposely looking elsewhere.

Either way, she loved the reaction. Keeping everyone off-center was a big part of her strategy for managing all the warriors around her.

Her thong had gotten twisted, so she took a moment to adjust the damn thing.