Brink of Eternity (Guardians of Ascension #2.5)(24)
Author: Caris Roane

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.