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“You know that club is really sexist.”
He glanced at her and smiled. “Tell me honestly, down the road, if you and I had never met, do you think you might have gone back?”
He sensed her sudden discomfort, but when a rush of lavender wafted beneath his nose he had his answer.
She shrugged. “Well, okay, maybe. Once. Just to see what it was like.”
“The women who go there enjoy themselves.”
“And those warriors enthrall the women.”
“In part. Try to think of it as a shortcut to the usual seduction. It’s really not much different.”
“We’re talking levels of power. It is different.”
“Except for one small thing. A woman has to be willing to be enthralled. Period.”
“Oh.” She was silent for a moment then asked, “And have you found most women willing?”
He glanced at her. He saw the challenge in her eye. Honesty might serve him in more ways than one, and he saw no reason to yield to a lie. “Yes.”
She looked away from him. He could guess her thoughts, especially since he couldn’t detect even the smallest trace of lavender shedding from her body right now. Good. If she found him disgusting, like maybe she thought of him as a sexist pig, then she’d leave him alone.
“Are any of the warriors married?”
“None of the Warriors of the Blood but a high percentage of Militia Warriors take wives … or husbands. We do have women who serve as Militia Warriors.”
“So there’s a difference between the two groups?”
“Unfortunately there’s a big difference. There are only seven Warriors of the Blood, but across the world there are hundreds of thousands of Militia Warriors. The militia serves as a peacekeeping force, sort of like your National Guard, but with many of the same duties as regular police officers, you know, handling disturbances, theft, home invasion, domestic disputes, homicides, the usual.”
“And the Warriors of the Blood?”
“We mostly serve Endelle fighting death vampires as a unit here in this part of the world.”
“I’m not sure I understand. Death vampires only reside in the Phoenix area? No other place in the world?”
He shook his head. “Not at all. There are death vampires in every territory, every country on Second Earth. Militia Warriors all around the world battle death vampires but only in large units, since it takes at least four Militia Warriors to bring down one death vamp. As for the Warriors of the Blood, we’re here as a layer of protection for Endelle, which tells you why the Commander keeps rounding up death vamps from other continents and shipping them to battle us. If he can break our ranks, put us in our graves, then he can break Endelle and her administration.”
“Seven men against one man who appears to command an army of death vampires? How does that work?”
“It didn’t used to be so bad but with the explosion of the population of Mortal Earth and the increased number of ascensions that occur on all seven continents of the world, the number of conscienceless ascendiates, ready and willing to drink dying blood, has increased as well. We’re a little overworked at present, and the number of Militia Warriors who die each year is heartbreaking.”
She shook her head. “Which leads me back to my original question—the Warriors of the Blood don’t marry?”
“I guess we got off topic but the answer is, rarely.”
“Why?”
The question pierced him straight through the heart. His memories of Helena and his children surfaced yet again. “It’s just too damn dangerous. Not for the warrior, but for those he loves.”
* * *
Alison held her arms around her sides like a vise. Her fingers plucked at her sweater. Chills kept running through her even though she wasn’t cold.
She fixed her gaze out the window and watched a blur of streetlights and old worn-out houses go by. How long since she had spoken? She glanced around. They were approaching I-10. That long, then.
Her thoughts had become a stormy sea, the waves high, a lot of crashing surf. She couldn’t seem to make sense of what was happening to her, the mind being a limited thing and only able to absorb so much.
Then there was the continued onslaught of Kerrick’s massive presence in her car, the lingering erotic male scent of him, his nearness, and the temptation of touching him at will …
She drew in a long shaky breath.
“You’ve grown quiet.” His deep voice filled the car and once more battered her senses.
“A lot to think about.” She shifted toward him. “What was your rite of ascension like?”
Did he just shudder? Great.
“Every ascension is different. You can’t compare the two.”
“Try me.”
“You don’t want to know.”
“Yeah. I do. I need answers, Warrior.”
His gaze snapped to hers then back to the on-ramp. When he’d merged into the light early-morning traffic, he said, “Well, I was a wild beast, full of rage. I still am when I think about what happened. The death vamps raped and drained my wife, Marta, my mortal wife, my first wife. She was dead before I found her. My son Evan, not a month old, was fussing in his cradle but alive.
“My ascension involved abandoning my son that same day. Once I completed the ceremony, I went on a rampage, killing and then more killing until I’d found every last one of those bastards who had essentially destroyed my family.”
Alison felt the depth of his pain. He remembered those days or weeks as though they were yesterday. A wife raped, a son abandoned. Jesus. “You ever wish it undone? Your ascension?”
He nodded. “I would undo it for Evan’s sake. I hate that I left him. I still think about him, hurt for him, wish I’d thought of him instead of my need for vengeance. I think abandonment is one of the worst things you can do to a child. You don’t have children, do you?”
Alison shook her head, even laughed. “Not possible.”
“You mean you can’t have children?”
She glanced at him. “As far as I know I can. I was referring to the power thing I was talking about earlier. Every year, my power kept getting stronger, and by the time I was in my late twenties, well, I couldn’t be with a man anymore, not without … causing damage.”
“I’m not surprised,” he murmured.
Alison needed to change the subject … fast. “If I ascend, do I have to leave my family behind? Is that one of the rules?”
