Brink of Eternity

Elise crossed the room to him. Maybe if they worked together on this, like they had while doing battle at the White Tanks Borderland. She lifted her hands in the direction of his face. “May I?”

One minute forty-five seconds, one minute-forty-four seconds …

“Yes. Anything.”

She placed her hands on his cheeks. A ripple of power flowed down her arms. He caught her hands and pressed them closer still. Her heart thrummed being this near to him. A sensation, so much like love, swept through her, threatening to carry her along on a swift current.

She reined in her thoughts and focused once more on the recent vision. The rocky riverbank, the fire now in glowing embers, the various tents, a cough in the night—all came into perfect view.

“I see them,” he said. “Okay. I’ve got it. Duncan, trace after us. Elise, we’re going now. You ready?”

“Absolutely.”

Gideon had his arm around Elise. “What’s our timing and where do you want us?”

“Forty-nine seconds.”

Elise drew away from him and scanned the riverbed. Gideon shifted his gaze as well. Logs had jammed up on the far side of the river, probably creating a swimming hole.

Moonlight reflected off the water and created a swathe of light.

“Gideon, you and I remain here at the west end,” she whispered. “Duncan, you’ll be battling on the east side, close to the river. And one more thing. I need to download the battle for you, to stream the vision into your mind. Can you handle it?”

Gideon didn’t mean to, but he grabbed Elise around the waist and pulled her close. “No. You’re not doing that.”

Elise stared up at him. “Yes, Gideon, I am. What are you doing?”

He squeezed his eyes shut. “Shit.” He released her. But the thought of her in Duncan’s head set every instinct to shouting at him.

Duncan narrowed his gaze at Gideon. “You gonna be okay with this?”

“No. But she’s got to do it. It’ll guarantee we get the job done fast so we can get the hell out of here. Elise, just do it.” He walked away. He paced as she drew close to Duncan and put her hands on his face. He barely restrained shouting into the night sky again. Duncan was a good friend, but Gideon hated anyone this close to his woman.

Except she wasn’t his woman.

So, shit. If she really did take up a job in Endelle’s government, his reality had just made itself known and he was not happy.

“Got it,” Duncan said.

Thank God Elise stepped away from him. She returned to Gideon. “What’s going on with you?”

“I don’t know. I just can’t bear you touching other men.”

“Well, get over it.”

He ground his teeth. “I’m trying. I know the score. I know this is necessary.”

“Fine.”

“Fine.”

“Is Rachel all set?” Elise asked.

Gideon nodded. “She has everyone in the center tent, crouched, with swords in hand.”

“Ten seconds,” she whispered.

The three death vampires flew in formation, the lead with a wingman to his left and one to his right. Elise knew that occasionally women joined the ranks, but right now there were just three men, with the moon shimmering off their glossy black wings. She couldn’t really see much more as they breached the tops of the redwoods and began a gliding descent into the broad stretch of open space that encompassed the river and massive rocky riverbed.

A familiar dizziness began once more at the base of her neck and swept through her brain. The vision began and she let it flow, this time of Rachel dragged through the top of the tent by a death vampire in flight. There could be no question that the enemy had come to take Gideon’s sister away.

Ten, nine, eight …

Elise moved into the shadows and crouched.

Duncan folded to the eastern side of the camp and brandished his sword to attract attention.

Gideon, to the west, used the same technique.

Moonlight glinted off the blades.

As if by signal, one vamp broke in Gideon’s direction, the other in Duncan’s. To Elise’s horror, the third headed straight for the central tent … as though he knew, as though he had foreknowledge.

Elise didn’t hesitate. The moment each warrior engaged a death vampire and the terrible sliding sound of metal on metal struck the air, she began running in Rachel’s direction. She had no idea what she was going to do, but she ran.

Then she understood it all, that of course her vision was shared by other Second Earth Seers and that the enemy had acted on the first vision to reset the attempted abduction for this moment instead of tomorrow night. The most recent vision of Rachel unfolded right in front of her eyes as the death vampire, using his sword, started hacking at the tent structure. He worked almost surgically at it so that the walls kept collapsing on those inside. Finally, he made a last slice, reached through an opening, and caught an arm.

He flapped his wings and began moving backward.

Rachel appeared, flailing.

Elise was almost there.

Just as Rachel’s feet cleared the tent, the death vamp dropped her back onto the now lumpish, writhing canvas as those caught beneath trapped tried to escape.

He turned in Elise’s direction, his enormous black wings, flapping slowly and keeping him aloft just a foot or so above the ground. Then the wings began to retreat into his back.

“Hello, Ascender Jordan.”

The sight of Rachel safe on the tent relieved Elise so much that she failed to understand what was really going on until it was too late. The death vamp moved with preternatural speed and caught her arm in a tight grasp. She had just started to struggle when, in the very next moment, she was flying, not into the air, but through nether-space, that long, familiar glide …

Chapter Eight

Gideon rose from the killing position, withdrew his blade from the death vampire’s chest, but only in time to watch Elise vanish. He glanced at Duncan.

His fellow Militia Warrior moved with unexpected speed, the result no doubt of having a preview of the battle, thanks to Elise. The death vamp had drawn in his wings and the pair fought over the uneven rocky ground. Was it his imagination, or was someone else in the ranks of the Thunder God Warriors experiencing emerging powers as well?

“How we doin’?” Gideon called out.

“Go! I’ve got this. Bring Elise back.”

“Tend to Rachel.”

“I will. Go.”

Gideon blurred his speed to the tent and found Elise’s trace, an iridescent light blue. He thought the thought, and whipped through nether-space.

When he arrived, ready to do battle, he froze at the sight of the death vampire holding Elise, her back to his front, a knife at her throat. A small lantern on the floor of what appeared to be a dark cavern provided the only light. “One step, warrior, and I’ll slit her throat.” He waved his knife around the cavern. “Then we’ll all just take turns drinking. Your choice.”

At least a dozen pretty-boys stood around, apparently ready to enjoy the show.

Gideon saw it all, the ruse, the trap, his death and hers.

As death vampires gripped him by the arms, he met her gaze and sent,I’m sorry. This whole thing was a setup.

I know.

In two hundred years, Gideon hadn’t known this kind of sudden despair, as though he had fallen into a hole that had no end. He expected his death to be swift, for a blade to simply slide through some vital part of his body, perhaps even through his neck, but no such horror occurred.

Instead, rough hands pushed him to his knees, bound his hands behind his back, then did the same to his feet, joining both with a rope.

The death vamp used the point of his blade and pierced Elise’s throat, just deep enough. Her small cry pierced Gideon’s heart. He leaned down and licked the flow of blood, then turned to look at Gideon.

“She tastes of power. When I drink her to death, my friend, my power will grow, then we’ll see what kind of war can be waged.”

Gideon saw red, a deep crimson sheen over his eyes. He pulled on the ropes, but whoever had bound him knew a thing or two about fashioning knots.

The death vamp leaned close to Elise. “Did you know one of the vampires he killed in a recent foray was a woman?”

“Yes.”

“Think less of him, Elise? Your woman-killer?”

“A death vampire, despite gender, still drinks people to death.”

“True. We wouldn’t want to discriminate, now would we? But don’t you want to know why I’ve brought you here?”

“I assumed it was because Greaves wants me dead, because of my level of power.”

“Greaves,” he snorted. He sounded disgusted. “What do I care about the Commander?”

Gideon watched Elise frown. She shifted slightly trying to look up at her captor. “Then if you aren’t in league with Greaves, what am I doing here?”

“You have to ask Warrior Gideon that question.”

She looked back at Gideon, still frowning.

Gideon shifted his gaze to the death vamp and enlightenment dawned. He’d never thought of death vampires as retaining any degree of their humanity. He had known plenty of monsters who did rage the earth, killing without conscience, hurting as many people as possible.

But there were always a few who had fallen into the lifestyle, perhaps unaware of the consequences, perhaps with a partial immunity to the full breadth of the addiction. He believed that was what he saw now as he met the death vampire’s gaze, in the deep shadows beneath his eyes, the crevices beside his mouth. He saw pain. A lot of pain.

“I killed the woman you loved,” Gideon said.

“Bravo. Give the warrior points for having at least some intelligence.” He pressed the point into Elise’s throat, broke skin, then dipped down to lick once more.

Gideon growled and strained at the ropes.

The death vamp laughed. “Elise, now you will learn something that all your precious warriors have failed to tell you. Did you know that many of us take wives and try to live out our lives as best we can? My wife wasn’t doing any harm. In fact, we were helping Mortal Earth by ridding it of criminal elements. We preyed on the drug and human traffickers in Mortal Earth Phoenix. My wife had been adamant about that. She was good for me. Now she’s gone and now, Gideon, I have what you love. But unlike you, I’m going to give you some time for a farewell, and I’m doing that because I loved my wife. She would have insisted on it.”