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What do you intend to do, ascender? Darian’s voice was in her head!
She fortified her shields and effectively pushed him out.
The Commander, she whispered into Kerrick’s mind.
Where?
By Marcus.
I don’t see him. Kerrick wielded his sword against two opponents now. Sweat dripped from his body.
I see him, Alison sent. I can kill him. I know it.
I still don’t see him. Are you sure?
There. By Marcus. This will be simple. Move to the left, Kerrick. I can end all of this, right now, here, tonight. Adrenaline flooded her. One powerful hand-blast and she could take him out, forever. Maybe this was her purpose, the reason Darian had so feared her ascension. Maybe she was destined to end the war by taking his life.
He moved closer to Marcus but he began to fade. He must have been shoring up his mist. She wouldn’t have much time at this rate. She had to make a decision and she had to make it quick.
Her heart pounded in her chest. She had been unable to take Leto’s life even before she learned he was working as a double agent. She was a therapist and believed in the redemption of the soul. However, Darian Greaves fell into an entirely different category, and though taking life was repugnant to her, if she had the chance to stop him, to destroy the greatest force of evil on Second Earth, shouldn’t she do it? Her conscience spoke for her: The monster across the room had to be stopped.
Darian’s arms vanished from view, then his legs. Kerrick, I’m going to take him out.
Wait. Just wait. I don’t see him. I’m almost finished here. One last pretty-boy to go.
Alison held back a few moments more, but Darian’s head and most of his shoulders were no longer visible; she had barely a torso to aim at.
As Kerrick finished off the last death vamp and moved to the left, she saw her opening. She lifted her hand and gathered power into her palm. A blast that could pass through a dimension could also dispatch an enemy of Second Earth.
Good-bye, Darian, she sent. Just as she fired, Kerrick’s voice rang out, “No!”
What happened next occurred in slow motion. The blast left her hand and she stumbled backward. At the same moment Darian’s image disappeared as well as all the cobweb-like signatures of his mist. Beyond, Marcus, Luken, and Havily all stared in horror, facing certain death from her hand. Then, in preternatural speed and at the very last split second, Kerrick moved in front of them and took the full force of the blast in his abdomen and chest.
He kept flying at the same angle he’d been moving. He glanced off Luken to land another twenty feet away into an adjoining rotunda.
Alison stood transfixed at what had just happened, at what she had just done. So Darian hadn’t been there at all—or had he moved at the last second? Oh, God, had she just killed the man she loved?
The Commander stood beside her now and murmured, “Oh, how unfortunate. I had meant for the other three to die, but well done, my dear. You’ve taken out a warrior I’ve been wanting to be rid of for, oh, twelve hundred years.”
Alison lowered her arm and turned to her right to look into the Commander’s eyes. Comprehension struck. “You tricked me?”
He shrugged, stroked her cheek with his finger. “This is war, my dear. Welcome to Second.” He lifted an arm then vanished.
Alison folded straight to Kerrick and dropped down beside him. Swords still clanged, the occasional bright flash of light blinded her, voices called across the rotunda floor. What did any of it matter when her beloved lay on the floor, his eyes rolling in his head, his body shaking, and the black leather of his weapons harness peeled back from his abdomen? She couldn’t look at the destruction of his flesh.
She had to do something, fast. Surely, she could change what had just happened, what she had just done.
Pocket of time reversal!
Yes, of course.
She thought the thought but nothing happened. She stood up and reached out with her hands but nothing happened. She tried to latch onto the sequence, tried to find a rope of time, but couldn’t. Why? Why? Why not this time, when she really needed it? But no matter how hard she tried she couldn’t find the key.
When she suddenly heard the Commander’s laughter, however, she knew exactly why.
“Someone get the healer,” she cried.
More blinding flashes of light, but metal no longer clashed against metal. Large bodies gathered around her. She clasped Kerrick’s hand and begged him to hold on.
“Get Horace,” she cried.
She glanced at Thorne, who dropped down beside Kerrick’s head. He slid his arm beneath his shoulders and lifted him to rest on his lap. He kept a hand pressed to Kerrick’s forehead.
“Too late,” he whispered. Tears shed from his eyes.
Alison shook her head. No. No! No! This couldn’t be happening.
“Why did you fire at us?” Luken asked.
“I was deceived. I thought I saw the Commander in front of you. He tricked me.”
Kerrick could not die. She would not let him die.
* * *
Kerrick stared up and watched as the painted ceiling of the rotunda melted away and the black night sky appeared, a death vision. He lay on his back, life draining from him. He saw the drift of galaxies as his dying brain reached up and out.
He had less than a minute now. He could no longer feel what had a moment earlier been his ice-cold limbs. He barely had an awareness of his body—only a deep sense of regret.
Alison, he called again.
Kerrick?
Relief flooded what was left of his conscious mind. He shifted his gaze and there she was.
Drink from me, my love. You must take my blood. Now.
Too late. Love you so much. He closed his eyes. He faded into a very dark place.
* * *
“Thorne,” Alison cried. “Get Endelle back here. She can heal him.”
“I’ve tried. She doesn’t respond.”
Darian had thought of everything. Of course. No wonder she couldn’t use her powers.
“Then you must hold him to my throat. He’s got to have my blood.”
Thorne didn’t move. “He’s gone.”
“No.” She saw the despair in Thorne’s face. “Listen to me, Thorne. You must help me. He’s not gone yet. I would know. Please. Trust me.”
Thorne finally met her gaze. His eyes cleared. He nodded. “Medichi! Get Horace here. Now!”
“On it.”
Thorne pinned Kerrick in his arms, lifted him high onto his lap, and supported his chin. Alison took him to her neck, positioning his fangs. His face was slack but she had new ascended physical power now. She drove his fangs into her vein and because he was completely powerless, she directed her blood into his mouth. She used her hand on his neck to direct the flow down his throat.
