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He forced himself to calm down, to think.
He recalled the glowing rust-colored ember deep within his soul: the mind-link.
On a hunch, he retraced Yolanthe’s path, diving deep. It hurt like holy hell but he didn’t care. He had to save Rachel and the only way he could set himself free was to find that link and sever it. He didn’t know if it was possible, but he had to try.
The trip probably only took a few seconds, but felt like an eternity. When he reached the glowing ember that indicated the link, he summoned every ounce of his preternatural power and began to work on the link, pounding it with waves of his essential vampire power.
The light began to waver and he felt the difference immediately, that at least for this moment, he was free.
He was free.
He didn’t wait, but flew back up through his mind, ignoring the searing pain and sure enough, the voyeur’s window was gone and he was in the hospital.
He sat up, but became so dizzy that he flopped back down on the bed. Slowly, he pulled the feeding tube out of his nose, gagging and sputtering.
Save Rachel.
He eased himself back up and drew the tube out of his penis, wincing the whole time. He then jerked both IVs out of his arms.
He dropped the railing and rolled out of bed. He would have fallen except he was able at the last second to grab the side railing.
He whispered to himself, his voice raw, “Come on, you fucker, get going.”
Once more, he summoned every last bit of his preternatural power, focusing on Rachel and her beloved garden. And just like that, he folded to Mortal Earth landing a few feet from where she stood with her shovel. The colony’s alarms shrieked because he hadn’t used their landing platforms.
“Rachel?” His voice barely worked.
She turned toward him, stunned. “Duncan?”
The dizziness returned and he felt himself falling backward.
~ ~ ~
Rachel dropped her shovel and ran to Duncan, just a few feet away. He had blood spatters on his hospital gown and he looked as pale as death. “Duncan, what happened? How did you get here?”
She knelt beside him and lifted his head, cradling him in her arms. His eyes rolled. She’d never seen him this weak before. “Duncan, please.”
He blinked. “Rachel. Wreckers. Apache Junction Two. Now.”
Rachel heard a faint, distant rumbling, a sound she didn’t recognize, but she suspected they were wreckers. She’d heard the stories; Third Earth warriors that worked their darkening grid. Her heart slammed around in her chest.
Wreckers. Here?
The rumbling grew stronger.
Every instinct told her to get the hell out of there. And when Duncan had said Apache Junction Two, she knew he meant Militia Warrior Headquarters on Second Earth.
Despite that she was breaking colony protocol by not heading to the landing platforms first, she focused on Militia HQ and began the fold. At the same split-second, the air in front of her exploded. She caught a glimpse of several powerful warriors, long-braids next to their faces, shotguns in hand.
They aimed at her and fired.
~ ~ ~
Endelle loved her scorpion belt. She’d paid a fortune to have the stinging creatures cast in metal and linked together. She donned her favorite black bustier, the one that sent her girls into the stratosphere and had all the men either staring slack-jawed or purposely looking elsewhere.
Either way, she loved the reaction. Keeping everyone off-center was a big part of her strategy for managing all the warriors around her.
Her thong had gotten twisted, so she took a moment to adjust the damn thing.
