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Good, she responded.
Ten, nine, eight …
Time was running out. She couldn’t warn him. She just pulled away from him and in a sharp blast directed the vision along the link.
Gideon stumbled backwards about three steps then caught his balance. He opened his eyes. “Got it,” he cried, his sword in hand, upright, ready. “Keep streaming, no matter what happens.”
Three, two, one …
And four beautiful creatures appeared in front of him, like magic, having folded straight through the dimension this time, delivered specifically to Gideon, no doubt, by one of Greaves’s powerful generals.
“Well, Militia Warrior, you ready to rumble?”
“Bring it on, ass**le.” Gideon’s voice was dark.
A fifth vamp materialized, caught sight of Elise, and said, “The woman’s mine.”
But her vision had already given Gideon a head start. He would now know the exact maneuver each would take so that he could meet the enemy blow for blow. She backed up against the rock and sank into her safest position. She held the vision close and continued to let it stream.
Gideon couldn’t afford to stall out for even one second, but receiving the visions had turned his mind to mush and he wasn’t sure how long he could sustain seeing them, reacting, then pacing his moves by making use of all the anticipatory information. It was like reading one line and having someone speaking the next line at the same moment.
Even so, he let the images come, one after the next, and with the practice of two centuries on Second Earth, serving that entire time as a Militia Warrior, he fought, blocking the necessary thrusts, moving with speed as indicated, his sword arm ringing with strike after strike.
He dipped and caught the death vamp to his right low across the abdomen, which took him to the ground. He whirled, according to the vision, and before the next one could react, he took the pretty-boy’s head.
He shifted with preternatural speed, levitated and caught the third death vampire in the air, slicing his hamstrings and sending him into a violent roll. The vamp slammed into the earth, his neck broken.
Gideon touched down and with the vision still pouring images into his head, struck blow after blow against the fourth death vamp, who worked backward in an attempt to move him away from the fifth bastard, and damn but the ploy was working. This death vampire had amazing sword skills, strong enough to match Gideon. He was now at least nine feet away from Elise and there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about it.
The images from her vision ceased as well, so he could only imagine what was happening to Elise behind him. What was the death vamp doing to her? Shit. He fought harder. He blocked one blow, vibrations ringing up his arm, then swung wide and low, but missed the killing strike.
That his woman could be taken or worse, killed, brought a burst of speed, so that he ended up behind his enemy then thrust his sword hard into the back of the vampire, all the way through.
When the pretty-boy fell face down in front of him, a sight met his eyes that shocked the hell out of him.
Elise stood over the last death vampire with a smallish boulder held high over her head. One massive boulder had just rolled off the death vampire and he was struggling to rise. Some of his ribs had to be broken, maybe his spine crushed. Sweet Jesus. She must have used her kinetic ability and surprised the hell out of her opponent.
He watched Elise lift the smaller boulder higher still, then with all the strength she could muster she crashed the damn thing down on the death vamp’s head. The resulting crack and spray of blood forced his feet to move in her direction.
Elise was breathing hard as she backed away from the monster. She flattened her back against the enormous boulder she’d been leaning against earlier. Her arms were spread wide and trembling, her hands shaking.
By the time Gideon reached her, she was making small grunt-like sounds, small huffs from the back of her throat.
Her eyes were wild.
He glanced behind him and saw that the air battle was over … for now. Duncan, another section leader, flew in his direction.
Turning back to Elise, he asked the only thing he could think of. “You okay?”
She shook her head. “I saw into his mind. Oh, God, I saw into his mind.”
Gideon moved closer. He extended his arms toward her, intending to comfort her but she held up a hand. “No. Don’t even think it. That’s not what I want, not what I need. Not right now.” She shook her head a couple of times. “I saw into his mind. I … saw the last woman he killed. She was pregnant, very pregnant, and he killed them both. I’m glad he’s dead. He’ll never take the life of another woman or another unborn child again.” Her voice was shocked out and uneven.
Gideon swore in a soft angry stream. Elise wouldn’t allow him to touch her, he didn’t know what to say to her, and he sure as hell didn’t know how to comfort a mortal who had just slain her first death vampire. She stood, staring down at the blood that pooled beside the killing boulder, her arms now wrapped around her stomach. She trembled from head to foot.
This was why he hadn’t wanted her to ascend. It just wasn’t fair to women of power that when they engaged their rite of ascension, they were faced with this.
He muttered a string of curses, then drew his warrior phone from the narrow pocket at his waist. He swiped across the front and a moment later heard Bev’s voice. “How can I help?
That voice again. He actually grew calmer. “Hey, Bev. We need clean-up at the White Tanks.” He looked around. “Damn, we offed twelve, no, make that thirteen, pretty-boys.”
“Well done,” Bev cried. “Let me engage the coordinates. Almost there. Just give me a sec.”
He drew close to Elise but still didn’t touch her. “Hey. Close your eyes when I say, okay?”
Her gaze was fixed on the blood that still seeped, forming an ever larger black lake in the dirt.
“Okay.”
Bev came back on the line. “You folks ready?”
He called out to the troops, “Clean-up. Eyes closed.” He glanced at Elise and when he saw that she squeezed her eyes shut, he gave Bev the go-ahead.
He closed his eyes. He loved Second Earth technology. A brilliant light flashed over his eyelids and when he opened his eyes, every single bit of debris was gone, blood, feathers, limbs, bodies, everything.
He watched Elise closely. She opened her eyes, but her gaze sought the ground and she continued to stare at what was now just an empty damp spot, nothing much left to remind her of her first kill.
Duncan drew close. He nodded; Gideon did the same. Normally, they would have locked forearms and shouted their triumph into the air, but not with Elise working so hard to hold herself together.
