AllFreeNovel
Share Us
But it was Rachel who surprised him.
She left her chair and got in his face right alongside Endelle. “What do you think you’re doing calling me your woman? The hell I am, and I don’t need you to fight my battles, especially with Endelle.”
“Hey! Why especially me?” Endelle’s long hair flipped around at the tips.
Rachel straightened her shoulders. She wasn’t more than a few inches away from Endelle, but that didn’t stop her. “Because you don’t respect anyone unless they’re biting your ass, that’s why.”
A roll of laughter passed all around the room and Endelle grinned. “I think you might be right about that. Well, okay. I’ve always thought you had grit, just not a whole lot of smarts.”
Duncan’s breh nightmare once more kicked into high gear. He didn’t understand the cause, but Rachel showing so much moxie had lit his veins on fire. His fangs once more vibrated heavily in his mouth, wanting to descend, and sudden desire streaked through his cock.
He had to turn away and start doing math sums in his head or he’d embarrass the shit out of himself all over again.
Rachel, however, stayed put. Still glaring at Her Supremeness, she retorted, “It doesn’t take smarts to know that this war is a travesty on every possible front. You thought defeating Greaves would end things. Instead, it heated up the entire world and now you have three fronts instead of Greaves’s annoying antics.”
“Listen up, missy. I’ve had just about enough of your sanctimonious horse-shit. If it had been up to you, death vampires would rule this planet right now. In fact—”
What more she would have said got disrupted by Merl who took hold of Endelle’s elbow.
Duncan watched as Her Supremeness turned to Merl. “What?” she snapped.
“You need to tell the What-Bees why you really brought them here. They need to know it wasn’t about Duncan or even Rachel or even Rachel’s new shielding power.”
At that, Endelle nodded slowly, her expression for a moment taking on a distant, almost grief-stricken look.
“You’re right. I forgot.”
Rachel moved to stand beside Duncan and to his surprise, she slid her hand in his and gave a squeeze.
Duncan, what’s going on? In all the years I’ve known Endelle, I’ve never seen her look like that. She looks so sad.
I know. This is very strange. And I have no idea what Merl’s talking about. I honestly thought we were here to discuss the wreckers and Yolanthe’s intention to have you killed.
Endelle walked slowly toward the French windows, her scorpion shoes jangling softly. She took Duncan’s original place and turned to address the room. Oddly, her gaze went to Luken where it rested for a long moment.
Again, she looked incredibly sad.
When she began, however, she drifted her gaze around the brotherhood and nodded several times. “I’ve thought a lot about what I’m going to tell you and even how much I should share about what I know. I’ve decided to be open about everything with only one or two small exceptions. So, here it is: Events on Third have intruded in a way that won’t leave us, probably not for a long time.
“We have an enemy on Third, an extremely powerful adversary that Duncan already mentioned. He goes by the name Chustaffus and he’s set his sights on Second Earth. I don’t know all of his motivations, but he intends the complete subjugation of our world. Make no mistake, slavery is alive and well on Third Earth in those parts of the planet that Chustaffus dominates.”
She talked about the Third Earth darkening grid that could be used to transport all kinds of men and weaponry in support of the three generals. “And they do this as you know through the use of wreckers, warriors trained to blast holes in the grid wall, opening dimensional paths to Second. They used the grid just a couple of hours ago, tracking all the way to Mortal Earth. A squad of wreckers attacked both Duncan and Rachel in the Seattle One Colony.
“As many of you know, Merl used to serve as a wrecker which is one reason I keep him around; he knows all about their set-up, their methods, and their weapons. And he’s met Chustaffus.” She tossed a hand in his direction. “Tell them.”
Duncan shifted his attention to Merl as did everyone else. His eyes clouded over for a long moment and the lounge-lizard look disappeared as his cheeks and lips thinned out. Definitely a warrior.
“He’s a killer of the innocent and rules two-thirds of our world. He’s enslaved a large portion of the population and maintains a massive army. His forces do battle against Third Earth Warriors of the Blood, the latter working hard to protect those not yet under Chustaffus’s thumb.
“Tens of thousands of slaves serve his whims alone in Chicago Three where he’s headquartered. He has sons who also work on his behalf. And it was his daughter, Yolanthe, who took Duncan into a trance and kept him there through a Third Earth mind-link, of which few are capable of creating. I’ve always believed Yolanthe was underestimated. She is Chustaffus’s daughter, after all.
“But knowing now that Rachel is Duncan’s shield leads me to believe that Duncan possesses an ability, maybe yet undiscovered, that Yolanthe is after.” He shifted to meet Duncan’s gaze. “Would you say that’s accurate based on the time you spent with her?”
Santiago called out in his Latin accent. “What do you mean, time spent with the woman? I thought you were in the hospital?”
“I was physically in the hospital, but Yolanthe kept my attention fixed on her through the use of a Third Earth voyeur window.”
“Shit.” Endelle drew the word out as though it had three syllables.
