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She sighed then folded to the Cave. She snapped her fingers, which froze both men in place, on the ground. Marcus had his head arched back, eyes closed, and teeth gritted as he struggled to get out of a headlock. Kerrick’s face was beet red and his eyes bulged as he squeezed.
She looked them over. “Kerrick almost has him. No … I think Marcus will break out of this one.”
“Tell me we get to find out,” Santiago cried. “I have a hundred bucks on Marcus.”
“Lo siento, querido.” She snapped her fingers again and both men rolled away from each other then gained their feet. “So what the f**k was this about?”
Neither Marcus nor Kerrick spoke, just stood hunched over and tried to breathe.
“Just as I thought.” She trained her gaze on Kerrick. “Why the hell aren’t you in Queen Creek? You’re on f**king guardian duty or did you not get the memo?”
His face was a mess. Blood leaked everywhere and his mouth and left eye were swelling up like he’d been stung by a few dozen wasps. Even so, he came to attention, feet a proper distance apart, his left hand slung behind his back. “The shields hold, all of them, and I had to do something to try to stop this madness.”
“What madness?” Santiago asked.
Luken, who stood next to him, informed him of the upcoming arena battle.
“Madre de dios,” he cried.
“No shit.”
“This isn’t right,” Medichi said. He stepped forward and met Endelle’s gaze straight-on. “Can’t something be done?”
“COPASS already approved the engagement. But all you faithless vampires need to grow a pair. I have confidence in Alison, unlike the rest of you.”
“With all due respect, we’re talking about Leto,” Zacharius cried, “not some squirrelly-ass death vamp.” His long curly hair hung free from the cadroen and in the scattered light of the parking lot, he looked sexy as Hades. Even Endelle felt the call of his primitive nature and all those curls. Mortal women loved Zach and gave up the vein without a blink of an eye. He added, “Ascendiate Wells doesn’t stand a chance.”
“Of course she does and the good news is, for a few hours, you’ll all get a break. Greaves will have his army present at the arena to make a strong statement to the world about his power and promises of a Coming Order, blah, blah, blah, so there won’t be any activity at the Borderlands, thank you, God.
“Besides, our girl has some serious chops.” Her gaze landed on Kerrick. “Tell them what you did last night and why it’s not so f**king hopeless.”
He wiped his swollen bloody lips with the back of his hand. “I forged minds and let her experience some of my recent battles.” The words came out thick and slurred.
Expletives rounded the group.
“No f**king way,” Zach cried. “And she took it? How? I can’t even do that.”
Endelle shook her head. “She’s powerful, more than even she knows, more than I suspect even I know.”
Several gasps followed the last part of this statement, which pleased her to no end because it reflected their view of her as one approaching omniscience. Nice.
“We’re done here. I’ll see all of you at the arena tonight and for Christ’s sake arrive early in dress uniform, including you, Warrior Marcus. Alison Wells means something as-yet-to-be-defined to Second Earth and also to this ape over here.” She jerked her thumb toward Kerrick.
“And as for you,” she cried, glaring at Kerrick. “Get the f**k back to Queen Creek and do your goddam guardian duty. I’ll send Horace to you to get you fixed up.” She didn’t wait for an argument. She waved her arm and Kerrick vanished.
She then pointed to Marcus. “You, ass**le. One more word to Kerrick about Helena and I’m taking your left nut.” Just to let him know she could, she mentally gave a little tug, which made Marcus’s eyes pop, then she gave a sharp twist. He doubled over. “What do you say?”
“Yes, Madame Endelle,” he wheezed, his face turning a pretty strawberry-red.
She inclined her head to her second-in-command. “Thorne, get Horace. See to Kerrick first.”
“Of course,” he said.
“And for f**k’s sake, get some sleep.”
She didn’t wait to hear another word. She took a breath, turned her back on her warriors then just as she dematerialized, she smiled.
Goddamn but she loved her men, and a little roughhousing now and then was a good thing. A stiff drink helped. A good lay. Taking the vein. Without a whole variety of steam valves for testosterone, the whole world would have exploded by now, the earth’s magma along with it.
* * *
As Kerrick awaited Horace, he stood over Alison once more, his sword drawn, the one tangible means he had of protecting her, yet it was useless in this situation. She slept deeply now, her lips parted. She looked even younger with the comforter drawn partway up her cheek, her fingers curled around the edge.
His heart ached as he looked down at her. He wanted her in his world and he wanted her safe. In the short time they’d been together, she’d become a litany in his head, must protect, must protect. He’d never been so obsessed before but then again, Alison was like no other ascendiate he had ever known and yeah, she was the center of the breh-hedden for him. He was hooked in deep.
Making love to her had been flat-out erotic, intense, and drive-a-car-at-two-hundred-miles-an-hour satisfying. She matched him in power, this woman, this mortal, this ascendiate, and he was falling for her fast, an asteroid getting close to the earth’s gravitational pull and getting sucked straight in.
He’d been inside her head. He knew she had strength. He knew she’d go the distance even if the endgame was hopeless. Still, right now, asleep in her bed, she looked incredibly vulnerable. Dammit, his chest seized, drawing into a painful knot.
I can’t lose her.
Yet what chance did she have? She would be fighting the Commander’s most powerful general, a former Warrior of the Blood, an ascender with incredible ability.
His phone buzzed. He folded his sword into the far corner of his bedroom, palmed his phone, then thumbed. “Give,” he said, his tone flat.
Jeannie’s voice, weary at the tail end of a shift, came online. “Horace begs admittance.”
“Granted. Go home, Jeannie.”
“I’m off in about thirty minutes. So, tell me, duhuro, does she have a chance?”
The soft concern in her voice wrenched the knot in his chest all over again. “I don’t know.”
