Gates of Rapture (The Guardians of Ascension) (11 page)

Leto backed up a step. Grace thought she knew what was going on, so she extended her hearing; sure enough, Thorne had set up a possessive growl. Yep, her brother was growling at Leto.

Marguerite whirled on Thorne and shoved at his chest with both hands, but he didn’t budge. He just glared at Leto over her head until she finally reached up and kissed him flush on the lips. She had to reach pretty far since Marguerite was the short one of the group at only five-five. She was also very pregnant. Thorne froze and kind of melted all over her, apologizing and kissing her neck and her chin.

Leto stood back from them, but he was smiling and shaking his head.

She heard Arthur’s voice as he said, “Holy shit, is that Grace?”

She glanced in his direction and once more felt a sudden heat rise on her cheeks.

“Grace?” Thorne’s gravelly voice cut through all the chatter. “Is that you?”

She shifted to meet Thorne’s surprised gaze. He was looking her up and down. She nodded.

He ran toward her and her heart warmed up. Was this Thorne? He actually smiled. He was holding her in his arms and twirling her in a circle until her legs and fairly full skirt flowed away from her. She must have looked like a large flag.

When at last she was begging him to stop, he set her down and he was grinning from ear to ear. She quickly adjusted her clothes, pulling the waist of her skirt up and the hem of her top down.

Leto moved up next to her. She heard him giving orders to Gideon and his men, but Grace was focused on her brother. “Thorne, you look so different—and can I say, wow, you actually look happy.”

Thorne extended his arm to Marguerite. “I
am
happy, and here’s the reason why.”

Marguerite led with her belly. Her hair was still short and very blond, which seemed to enhance her large brown eyes. She looked adorable. Grace greeted her with a hug, though she had to lean down to do it. They’d been cellmates in the Convent, and good friends. She’d missed Marguerite.

Thorne’s arm was immediately around his
breh
’s waist, part protective, part possessive, and a big part just wonderful affection. Marguerite put her hand on Thorne’s.

“So you’ve come home,” Marguerite said. “I heard you were on Fourth.”

“I was.”

“What’s it like up there?”

“Beautiful. I stayed at Beatrice’s palace. It was similar to Endelle’s palace but practical, with more hallways and private rooms, a lovely and very large central courtyard with plants from all over the world. And a hanging garden off the second-story balconies.” She felt shy again, since everyone was staring at her. “Oh, I guess I forgot the most important part. Many of the homes, like Beatrice’s, float in the air.”

“No shit,” Marguerite said. She then patted her belly. “Sorry, kids.” She glanced back at Grace and lowered her voice. “We’re trying to curb warrior-speak. But, hey, I’m so glad you’re back. We all are.”

“It’s good to be back.”

Thorne brought Fiona forward next. She was the gold variety of obsidian flame, the first to discover her power. Jean-Pierre and Arthur rounded out the half circle on the left, next to Thorne, with Leto on the right.

As Fiona drew close, Grace felt her obsidian power begin to vibrate and rise through the bottoms of her feet as though originating from deep in the earth.

“What’s happening?” Thorne asked.

Since Marguerite was already close, Grace glanced at each of them. Power vibrated from one to the next, flowing and rippling. As though they’d always done so, they touched shoulders and formed a circle.

“Oh, the babies are kicking like crazy now,” Marguerite murmured.

Grace’s power really began to flow, and she knew it was the same for both Fiona and Marguerite. Without warning, their powers combined, though Grace could tell hers was weak since it still hadn’t been fully released. She had a sense that the men had moved back a couple of steps, taking it in.

Power swirled and rose. She looked up and three flames of color twirled together; gold, red, and blue.

But the sensation began to feel uncomfortable for Grace and not quite right. “No,” she said. A headache crawled up the back of her skull and nearly imploded her brain. “No,” she said louder. “Please stop.”

“I … can’t,” Marguerite whispered.

“Jean-Pierre,” Fiona called out. “Help us.”

But it was Thorne who pushed between Marguerite and Fiona and broke the circle. All that power that had been flowing around and building now seemed to flow into him.

Thorne ended up glowing, but apparently that wasn’t unusual for his version of obsidian flame. Fiona, too, would glow. Grace remembered stories about Fiona—that when she was first learning to use her power, she would light up the Militia Warrior grid room in Apache Junction Two with her golden aura.

At least Grace could breathe again.

She stepped away from Thorne to look at him, to enjoy the silver light of his aura. She hadn’t seen him since his own obsidian power had emerged so many months ago. He lifted his arms wide and turned in a circle. “This feels like heaven.”

Grace’s headache worsened so that she half fell, half collapsed to a sitting position on the sawdust that covered the event grounds. Leto immediately dropped to his knees beside her. “What’s wrong?”

“My head. It really hurts.”

“Gideon,” Leto called out sharply. “Get one of the healers over here. Now.”

“You’re barking,” she said. She turned her head slightly and looked up at him, offering him a smile.

“You deserve a bark or two. You’re scaring me.”

“It’s just a headache, but it was so sudden. I don’t know what’s wrong.”

Marguerite looked down at her. “I do. You need Leto to bust open your obsidian flame power. It’s no picnic to get it opened up, though.” She glanced up at Thorne, whose glowing skin was finally settling down. “But it has its perks.”

When Thorne’s eyes fell to half-mast and he once more cuddled with Marguerite, Grace looked away. The sight of her brother so much in love warmed her heart, but her head still really hurt.

Thank goodness the healer arrived. The woman dropped to her knees and asked Grace to describe the pain. When Grace told her, the healer put her hands just above Grace’s head; the result was almost instantaneous. Soothing waves of healing warmth began to flow through her mind, and the pain drifted away. Her lungs opened fully and she breathed deep.

She looked up at the healer and smiled. “That was wonderful. And fast. Thank you so much.”

“I’m training to work with the Militia Warriors. They don’t have enough women in the healers division yet, but we’re getting more assigned to the training program every day.”

Grace smiled. Things were changing everywhere. She knew that Horace, who took care of the Warriors of the Blood every night at the Borderland battlegrounds, had mostly men on his teams.

Leto offered her a hand and helped her to her feet. She swatted sawdust off the back of her skirt.

She was about to apologize when a short male ascender, bearing a clipboard and a headset, approached Leto. “Five minutes, Warrior Leto. All is ready for you.”

Leto thanked him then glanced around the group. “Ready for opening ceremonies?”

*   *   *

When Casimir folded to the gateway to Third Earth, he had half expected to see the park bench from his dreams. But no such thing. He stood in a large room with windows across one wall that had the capacity to see through a dimensional Trough, something he’d never experienced before.

He turned to look at the opposite wall, which held a set of thick-looking steel gates like something borrowed from a Mortal Earth maximum-security prison. Instinctively he knew that no one could fold into the space without prior permission, undoubtedly from the Sixth Earth gatekeeper.

The side walls of the space were paneled in a fine-grained wood but had no other adornments. The wall to his left, however, had a door that led to another room.

He moved back to the windows, which were curved and created part of the flooring. This portion of the windows could actually be walked on.

He moved there now and below, at a great distance, perhaps a mile, was what he knew to be the extensive White Lake Resort Colony that stretched the length of White Lake on both sides of the man-made body of water. Located on the west side of the White Tank Mountains, the lake was lined with over a hundred hotels and public gardens.

As he looked around, however, he caught a scent, something similar to Grace’s scent, yet different. He could smell a meadow now, yet this one seemed richer—as though it had blossomed with a thousand wildflowers all at once.

The trouble was, he liked the scent and the scent liked him so that he began to be aroused. He shook his head. He’d already had one difficult experience with the
breh-hedden
. He didn’t want another. But beyond that, what was the likelihood that he would be given a second chance at having something so profound as a
breh
?

He chose therefore to ignore the scent, believing it must be his imagination. As he looked through the window once more, he felt the presence of the Sixth ascender before he saw him.

When the old man materialized, he inclined his head to Casimir. “How do you do? I’m James of Sixth Earth. I’ve been the gatekeeper here for a few millennia.”

Casimir extended his hand, and James shook it.

He’d heard of James. Grace had told him the stories of Alison, who had met him during her rite of ascension. Apparently, this was the same ascender who had persuaded Leto to serve as a spy for the sixth dimension by appearing to defect to Greaves’s camp.

Casimir had several questions, most having to do with the portal to Third, so he launched in. “Were you the one who sealed off the third dimension from all the others?”

James shook his head. “No, that was Luchianne’s call. A bit before my time.” Luchianne was the first vampire ever and had ascended to Second Earth eleven thousand years ago. “When she saw the danger Third Earth presented to the rest of the dimensions, she made sure the portal was sealed.”

“Grace told me that Alison was destined to open the portal,” Casimir said. “Has the danger that Third Earth previously posed to the dimensions diminished?”

“No, the danger remains as grave as ever. However, what will be needed to secure Second Earth from the difficulties of Third is to have the portal fully opened. Your former friend Greaves has been slipping Third Earth death vampires through a breach in the portal that we’ve been unable to locate. If we open the portal, we can seal the breach and thereby ensure that no more of these extremely powerful death vampires can pass through the Trough from this point forward.”

Casimir frowned. “But if Luchianne closed the portal, why doesn’t she open it back up to set it straight?”

“Luchianne is a stickler for the niceties. She wants a Second ascender to open the portal, which sets a precedent that only Second Earth can open or shut the portal. She doesn’t want Upper ascenders to have command over any of the lower dimensional Troughs.”

Casimir thought that made sense. Autonomy from dimension to dimension had always been the law. “When I was in Beatrice’s redemption pool, I saw that I was to become a Guardian of Ascension—but who am I guarding?”

At that, James smiled. “Haven’t you guessed?”

“I haven’t got a clue.”

The smile broadened to a grin. “Leto, of course.”

Casimir’s jaw unhinged and his mouth fell open. “Holy fuck.” How the hell did he end up as a guardian to a man whose woman he’d stolen? He sighed. Sometimes Fate had a twisted sense of humor.

“All right, so I’m Leto’s guardian. How will this work? Am I supposed to rent a house on Second or something?”

“You can use this space if you like. Nothing can touch you here, although I should warn you that there is a female, a Third ascender who has worked for me for the past century, making sure the gate isn’t tampered with. She’ll show up from time to time. She serves as a Militia Warrior here on Third, so she’s very busy helping to keep the peace.”

Casimir thought about the scent he’d smelled earlier. Maybe it was hers. If so, she wore a very strong perfume.

“As for how you manage your guardian job, I presume you have a voyeur window, right?”

“Of course.” What Fourth ascender didn’t? “Are you saying you expect me to spy on Leto?”

“Yes, to a degree. I can see that you’re a changed man, so I hope you’ll show some good sense where both Leto and Grace are concerned. And by
good sense,
I mean discretion.”

Casimir smiled, though his lips tugged up a little higher on one side of his mouth than the other. In earlier times, he would have kept the window open constantly and savored every naked ass, male or female, he could find, the more action the better.

But now he knew what remorse felt like, and he knew that Grace would be appalled if she even suspected he’d been tagging after her with a voyeur window hoping to catch a glimpse of her locked in a joining with Leto. He couldn’t help repress a sigh. “A few months ago, this would have been a dream assignment.”

“Kind of sucks to be reformed, doesn’t it?” James offered.

Casimir met James’s gaze. He was short for an ascender, and all that gray hair led Caz to believe he wasn’t looking at James in his usual form. “You sound like you know where of you speak.”

James sighed. “I do. But I also know everything will work out just fine as long as I do what I need to do.”

“Are those words for the wise?”

James nodded.

“Fine. I’ll be respectful and stay focused on my mission.” He glanced around once more. “And I’ll make this area my home base.”

“It’s a good space. The door to your left leads to a comfortable suite with a bed, a kitchen, a living area, the usual.”

“Thanks.”

James gripped his arm suddenly. “Guard Leto. This is most important. Use your Fourth Earth hand-blast capability if you need to and don’t let him get killed. He’s critical for the future of Second Earth.”

“Understood.”

“And as soon as you can, present yourself to Madame Endelle as Leto’s guardian. Protocol demands that she accept your services.”