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So she did. “I’ve had a dozen dreams over the last month, dreams about Second Earth, of living in an ascended world, of flying over a long narrow lake, of mounting a pair of dark blue mottled wings, beautiful wings. I have been full of this aching need here—” she put a hand to her chest—“I can’t ignore it any longer and something about this, about being inside your mind, has changed me.
“Because of all that you’ve told me over the past two years, I know exactly what’s going on with all the dreams and all these painful longings.”
He shook his head. His eyes had a wild look. “Don’t do this, Elise. I’m begging you, don’t say it. Don’t f**king say it.”
She lowered her chin. “I know that this is my call to ascension.” He groaned long and loud. He put his head in his hands. She continued, “I have no doubt that I’ve been called to ascension. Yet for the past month, before I had the vision of Rachel and the death vampires who were after her, I wasn’t going to act on it. Tonight has changed everything. I know that now.
“So here it is. In about an hour and a half, however long it takes me to get back to my house, then drive over to the north end of the White Tanks, I’m going to answer my call to ascension at the White Tanks Borderland.”
“No,” he cried, almost a shout. He shook his head back and forth, back and forth. “You can’t. I won’t let you. You can’t do this. I won’t have one more person on Second that I have to look after. Rachel has been enough. I need my freedom, Elise. I need to be a warrior. I can’t do more than that, be more than that.”
“No one’s asking you, Gideon. You’re not obligated to help me or to be with me or anything. I’m doing this for me, because I have to, becauseI’ve been called and I know I belong on Second. This has nothing to do with you.”
She thought the thought, and brought both sets of clothes back. She dumped his T-shirt and jeans on his lap. Though it made her cheeks burn, she withdrew the washcloth, thought another thought and sent it to her clothes hamper. Sometimes sex was just embarrassing, but what could she do? She started getting dressed the old-fashioned way, one leg at a time.
“You’re not getting it,” he cried. “I’ve felt your power. You’re not going to have a simple ascension. Darian Greaves, who heads up the opposition, will want you dead unless you agree to align with him. You know how things are set up. He’ll have three days during your rite of ascension to find a way to destroy you with impunity. That’s the law. You’ll have to battle your way into our world. Don’t f**king do this.”
He was breathing hard at the end of this speech, but his plea changed nothing.
When she had her jeans back on and most of the buttons buttoned, she met his horror-stricken gaze. “Get over it, Gideon. Sorry if this puts a crimp in your plans, but I’m ascending. Tonight. And don’t think I’m elated. I’m not. I liked my life. Ilovedmy life, but that life is over.” She took a deep breath. “Case closed.”
He turned away from her and let one big “fuck” bounce around the booth.
“Let me understand you,” Seriffe said. He had a low, strong voice. “Your woman, Elise, is answering her call to ascension and you want to serve as her Guardian of Ascension. But you do know that’s a job relegated to the Warriors of the Blood.”
Gideon stood in front of Colonel Seriffe’s desk. The Colonel was a big man, like Gideon, a worthy warrior, and commanded the respect of his men. He remained seated.
“I’ve been gaining power lately. Last night I offed two death vampires by myself. That’s been happening a lot.”
Seriffe narrowed his eyes. “I heard it was three.”
Gideon’s jaw tightened. “Not exactly. The third was a woman. I’m not proud of it, but she came at me, sword and dagger, and there was nothing I could do.” Female death vampires were very rare but it happened. None of the Thunder God Warriors liked taking a woman’s life, even if she was powerful, dangerous, and had killed innocent mortals or ascenders to get at the addictive dying blood.
Seriffe nodded. He knew the score. “I still think you’re out of line making this request.”
Shit, this wasn’t going well, but he didn’t know how else to approach what was fast becoming an unmanageable situation. He felt compelled to do all that he could to assist Elise. Whether he liked it or not, she was important to him, more than he wanted to admit.
There was only one thing to do and he laid it out. He told Seriffe about Elise’s vision of Rachel, the timing of the forthcoming event, everything. He couldn’t quite keep his hands steady as he spoke. Everything seemed to be funneling down to one major shitstorm.
“Looks like you’re f**ked,” Seriffe said. He continued to stare at Gideon from beneath thick black eyebrows. Seriffe’s olive complexion and strong features placed his ancestry somewhere in the Middle East. He had a wife and three young children. He was the best of men and a hard taskmaster.
“Colonel, I don’t know if I can explain exactly what’s happening here, but I have one desire, to make sure that Elise makes it through the next three days. If you can get me assigned as her guardian, I’ll use Militia Warrior support, lots of it, with your permission, of course.”
Seriffe remained silent, just staring, weighing, coming up with a judgment.
Gideon didn’t know what more he could say, but there was one aspect of the entire situation he felt he should relate. Shit, he so didn’t want to do this, to confess this. “There’s one more thing.” Then he spoke of the scents that he and Elise shared.
At that, Seriffe’s brows rose. “Jesus H. Christ, what are you telling me? That you’re caught in the grips of thebreh-hedden like Warrior Kerrick was a month or so ago?”
“It sounds impossible and the truth is I don’t know. But based on all those rumors about what Kerrick went through, this is f**king similar and let me tell you there is nothing pleasant about it. I … I want to kill any man who so much as looks at Elise.”
Seriffe, however, nodded very slowly. “We live in remarkable times, Gideon. I have felt this for months now, some strange enormous hand at work, changing our lives, our destinies.” He nodded again, faster this time. “All right. I’m going with my gut on this one. Give me five minutes. I’ll see what I can do.”
The relief Gideon felt nearly undid him. As Seriffe got on the com, he walked away from the desk to pull himself together. He felt like something lived inside him now, pulling him apart like a cyclone spinning in his chest.
