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He shook his head. “No, but I have a feeling that my being here won’t exactly be welcomed or understood.”
“Now who’s being cryptic? Cut the shit, Caz. What’s going on?”
“I’m here to serve as a Guardian of Ascension to one of your warriors. This particular warrior, it would seem, is ascending to Third Earth.”
“What?” Endelle had always had a good sense of things, especially when a major ascension was in progress. “Who the hell is ascending to Third?”
He swept a hand in the direction of the grandstands. “Why, Leto, of course.”
Even the air around her seemed to slow to a halt. Her mind got stuck in neutral and wouldn’t budge. She just kept staring at Casimir. Finally, she said, “That make no sense at all.”
“Are you sure? You said Leto has gone through a change. Could it be Third Earth–related?”
She frowned because certain things started making sense. Was that why Leto could change into something that resembled Greaves’s Third Earth death vampires? Maybe Leto’s ability to shift into an über-warrior wasn’t about his former addiction to dying blood after all.
But if he was ascending to Third, what about Grace? Usually, if an ascender was married, his or her better half emerged with new powers at the same time. Unless of course you counted obsidian flame as a power matching Leto’s ability to morph into Leto-the-Hulk.
A sudden loud thumping drew her attention to the south.
“Fireworks,” Casimir said. “How nice.”
“Sweet Christ, if you intend to start showing some manners, I might just puke.”
Casimir met her gaze and smiled.
At the distant end of the valley, fireworks shot into the air. These were not quite as high or as magnificent as the usual display, probably because they had to be contained within the dome of Diallo’s mist.
However, the effect wasn’t diminished in the slightest. Music blared through a number of loudspeakers, a kind of brisk Sousa march, and sure enough, at least a hundred DNA-altered swans and geese took to the skies in strict formation, guided by their handlers. Instead of flying straight over, however, they flew in spirals, around and around, in order to draw out the moment. At the same time, all those equally well-trained teens began climbing the poles and lighting the massive bowls of wood. Before long, the field was lit in a startling amount of fire-based light.
It might have been home-spun spectacle, but damn, it worked.
She knew Leto and Diallo had cooked something up as a competition for all the hard training the hidden colonies’ warriors had done all around the globe. But she hadn’t expected to find fairly grand spectacle and some goddam righteous oratory at the games as well. Leto had somehow reached into the hearts of every ascended vampire present, caught their souls in his hands, and squeezed hard until cries of near-ecstasy filled the valley.
Even she had been moved by his speech, ready to take up arms, or to do whatever she could against Greaves. Leto had moved her, had made her believe that they would win, somehow, and that it rested not on the might of an army, but on the convictions and lives of the average, everyday ascender.
Leto had spoken the truth as well, more than even he knew.
War was close.
The flying squadrons of geese and swans, and a smaller one of ducks, were opposite her now. The music had changed to something by Debussy so that the flying spirals had taken almost elegant and certainly more complicated patterns. Even the fireworks had slowed to match the music. A series of red whales swam in blue-and-gold fireworks off to the south. Magnificent.
And now Leto. My God, was Casimir right? Was he really ascending to Third?
As she extended her gaze to Grace and the crown of silver stars over her long blond hair, she wondered if obsidian flame would be enough, or Thorne’s army, or the secret colonial militia that Leto had built.
She spun in the air to face Casimir. “So, you’re here to protect Leto until he ascends to Third, have I got that right?”
He nodded.
She looked him up and down. “In a weird-ass, Fourth Earth white robe? You know most of my Guardians know how to use a sword.”
“I have other powers. Hand-blast is my specialty.”
“And you’re going to need it because if you get anywhere near Grace, I have no doubt Leto will aim to kill.”
But Casimir didn’t rise to the bait. Instead, he remained silent and turned in his newly acquired serene manner to watch the fireworks.
“You know, you’re kinda freakin’ me out here.” Then it dawned on her. “Holy hell, Caz, did you enter Beatrice’s redemption program?”
“Her lake of fire? Yes, I did. But I didn’t complete it.”
“Then there’s still time for you to become a more normal version of yourself.”
But he merely smiled. “When the hell was I ever normal?”
She exaggerated a big sigh of relief. “That’s more like it. You had me shaking in my stilettos for a minute there.”
At that he turned to her. “Endelle, never have I known you to shake in your stilettos or boots or anything you’ve ever worn in your nine thousand years of vampire life.”
Endelle grinned, “Damn straight. I’m not the Supreme High Administrator of Second Earth for nothing.”
“I believe protocol demands that I request permission from you to serve as Leto’s Guardian of Ascension. Do I have that permission?”
Endelle couldn’t help but smile. “Never did I think to see the day that you would either serve as a guardian or ask my permission for anything.”
Casimir chuckled. “Ditto. So, is that a yes?”
“Hells, yeah! Guard away. And if you have a chance to blast Greaves’s testicles off his cock-stalk, don’t debate the issue, just do it.”
Casimir laughed. “Don’t ever change.”
“Don’t plan to.”
He then gestured with a sweep of his hand over the contest grounds. “Are you joining in the fun?”
She shook her head. “Nope. Just came to see the kickoff. I’m setting up a command HQ at the palace. I take it I’ll be seeing more of you.”
He nodded.
Endelle couldn’t believe this strange turn of events: Leto ascending to Third and Casimir, of all vampires, serving as his Guardian of Ascension.
Well, she had her own issues to deal with right now, like setting up an HQ for what might just turn out to be one helluva showdown with Greaves.
“Later,” she murmured, then folded back to her palace.
