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One thing about Endelle, she could boil an issue down in two or three sentences. Did she want to live? Yes. Did she want a mind-link with Antony? No. It meant intimacy and it felt like she was being forced into yet another box.
“Fine,” she muttered. “But I’m not happy about this.”
Endelle snorted again. “Who the hell cares if you’re ‘happy’ or not?” She made air quotes.
“There’s something else,” Parisa said. “And it might even interfere with a telepathic link.”
Endelle met her gaze. “I can’t even begin to imagine what would interfere with a mind-link.”
“A voyeur-link.”
Endelle moved her head back and forth slowly. “What the hell is a voyeur-link?”
“I think Greaves created a link with me when I was in Burma.” She told her about Greaves’s visit, about the kiss, about dropping her shields, and waking up on the grass. “The thing is, whenever I opened my voyeur window from that moment on, I would experience pain, sharp pain. Lately it’s gotten better, and now after a few seconds it disappears but I suspect that’s because Greaves is trying to be discreet.”
Endelle was nodding. “Which would explain why there were so many death vamps waiting at the Toulouse house.”
“Exactly. I’ve experimented with it, but I was wondering. Since you’re so powerful, could you see if I’m right? Could you search my mind for that kind of link and break it?”
“The author of a mind-link has to break it.”
“That’s what Antony said but I’d still like you to see what’s going on.”
Endelle sighed. “You’ll have to lower your shields. All the way. Can you do that or do I have to kiss you, too?” Her lips actually curved. So besides cursing, and wearing outrageous clothes, Endelle could sometimes make a halfway decent joke. Nice.
At that, Parisa laughed. “No,” she said, still smiling. “For you, I’ll lower my shields.”
“Huh,” Endelle said. “Looks like you might even trust me a little.”
Parisa shrugged. “Maybe a little.”
Endelle just shook her head. “You’re one stubborn female, but I’ll admit you’ve got some potential.”
Endelle put her hands on Parisa’s face. Parisa closed her eyes. She took a deep breath and let her shields fall, all the way.
Endelle traveled through her mind like warm water. The movement was gentle—quite a contrast with the woman’s rattler-like temperament.
Parisa knew when Endelle found the voyeur link, because pain snatched at her, deep searing pain that caused her to push at Endelle’s arms and fall backward on her bottom next to the railing.
She drew her knees up to her chest and tears flew down her cheeks unbidden.
“Jesus,” Endelle cried. “What did you do that for?”
Parisa looked up at her and scowled. Antony had dropped down beside her. “You okay?” He asked that a lot.
But Parisa met Endelle’s gaze. “That hurt like hell. What did you do?”
“Nothing,” Endelle cried. “Not a damn thing. I got to the link and looked at it.”
“It felt like fire inside my head.”
Endelle shrugged. “You’ve just confirmed the truth that only the author of the link can break it. I could barely get near it without causing pain.”
“Do you think it’s Greaves?” Antony had a hand under Parisa’s arm, and she leaned on him as she scrambled to her feet.
“I couldn’t tell but from everything you’ve just told me and from the burning sensation, I’d say yes, this smacks of that pansy-ass bastard.” She huffed a sigh. “Well, ascender Lovejoy, there’s nothing more I can do here and, unlike you, I have to get back to work. But no more whining, goddammit.” She lifted her arm and like that she was gone.
That was it? That was all the help she was going to get from the most powerful vampire on Second Earth? Great.
Parisa was about to turn to Antony and say something to him, but a wind came up with grit flying in her face that stung, a wind that had Endelle’s signature all over it. She cried out and Antony moved in front of her, muttering a string of curses.
“Fuck,” he said. “She can be such a bitch.”
“You know,” Parisa said, “she really wasn’t much help, was she?”
Antony chuckled. “She has her moments. This wasn’t one of them. Let’s get back to the villa, we’ll do some flying then more work with the dagger and sword. I’ll download a few more memories if you like.” He paused and met her gaze. He still stood in front of her. She watched his chest rise and fall in a heavy sigh. “I won’t force a mind-link on you. Even though it’s a good idea and I really want you safe, I think this must be hell for you right now.”
“Yeah, it is. But you know, I think Endelle is right about one thing. I’ve been feeling sorry for myself and I’m going to try to do better.”
Antony put his hand on her shoulder, gave her a gentle warning, then she was flying through nether-space.
The stories told of Luchianne, the first vampire, always mention her royle wings, which were said to produce inexplicable flames.
—From Treatise on Ascension, Philippe Reynard
Chapter 17
When Medichi got Parisa back to the villa, he remained in the foyer with her. He drew his warrior phone from the pocket of his jeans and ran his thumb across the smooth black exterior.
“Carla here. How may I serve?” It was still daylight so Carla was on duty. Jeannie showed up at dusk, and for an hour or two their schedules would overlap.
“Hi, Carla. How’s it going?”
“Hello, Warrior Medichi. Just fine. We’re cruising the grid. I have two of my techs in here today just to keep the search progressing as fast as we can.”
“Nothing yet?”
“Sorry. We have aerials of both the Burma anomaly and the Toulouse anomaly so we know what we’re looking for but we really need to narrow the search down. We’re over China, where it’s light right now, but so far it looks clean.”
“Parisa just did a quick voyeur. The sky is still very blue, wherever it is that Rith has the women.”
“That’s good. Right now we’re looking at anything from Beijing to Sydney, anywhere that the sun hasn’t set.”
“That’s a lot of ground.”
“Yep. Thanks for checking in.”
