Wings of Fire (Guardians of Ascension #3)(34)
Author: Caris Roane

Yeah, Endelle approved. “And what is it you have to do next that’s got your thong hiked up around your waist?”

“I have to go back for them.”

“Back to Burma?”

Parisa clamped her lips shut. She even breathed dragon-like through her nose a couple of times. Then she marched in Endelle’s direction, her arms spread about a foot apart, her hands straight out in front of her as though she meant to shake both of Endelle’s hands at once. That or she was trying out a Frankenstein impersonation. Endelle was pretty sure neither was what she intended.

She was a bit surprised, however, when Parisa drew close enough to stand right in front of her and one extended hand landed on either side of her face. Parisa pushed back Endelle’s yellow headband of cockatiel feathers. The amethyst eyes closed and Endelle felt a hard push against her mind. She really didn’t think the librarian could hurt her, so she released her shields.

And she really shouldn’t have done that. The images flew like knives at first. She had to remind herself to relax and let them flow. Holy f**k the mortal-with-wings had power.

Endelle relaxed and the shared memories slowed down. Start over, Endelle sent.

Parisa took a quick breath and the images ceased. Then they renewed, beginning with a young woman in light blue flannel pajama bottoms and a dark blue tank top racing across a green lawn, begging for Parisa’s help. Tangling with that bastard Rith followed. Later, Parisa woke up with the woman’s name on her lips, Fiona.

That’s when the nightmare started. Endelle felt her stomach squeeze up in slow stages, hardening into a knot. She watched the whole show, the glass cells in a stone-like dungeon in which all the women lived, then the focus on the woman Fiona who was strapped down on a table, dead, really dead. Eyes glazed, blue lips, white complexion. But the techs brought her back, draining a bag of blood into her and using the defibrillator.

Finally, Fiona took a renewing breath, blood was forced down her lips, and … holy shit, was that an orgasm?

When the woman lay alone in her cell, the images stopped.

Parisa drew back. She met Endelle’s gaze but tears now tracked down her cheeks. Endelle didn’t hesitate, not even a split second. She grabbed Parisa and hauled her into her arms. She let Parisa cry and didn’t think less of her for it. The whole time she stared at Medichi over the young woman’s head.

Even Endelle’s eyes leaked a little, and her tears plopped onto Parisa’s head. “I didn’t know,” Parisa whispered. “I was there for three months and I didn’t know. I didn’t know.” The same words flowed over and over.

She’d heard rumors for decades that Greaves was experimenting with women, turning them into blood slaves, but she’d never believed it was possible. She thought about the small dose of blood the woman, Fiona, had been forced to drink. Without a doubt, Greaves must have been sharing his blood with the donors, not just keeping them alive but helping to bring them back to life. With the increase in preternatural powers, an ascender’s blood gained restorative properties as well.

When Parisa was no longer trembling or weeping, she pulled away from Endelle. Parisa met her gaze fully once more, but her eyes were red-rimmed and her nose swollen and dripping. Endelle folded a tissue into her hand from the desk behind her and handed it to the young woman.

Parisa thanked her then blew her nose. “The warriors went back for the women but all that was left was some of the medical equipment.”

Medichi moved in close. “There’s no sign where they went. Not even a trace to follow. He probably moved them to a nearby location by van then folded them elsewhere.”

“Makes sense. That’s what I would do.” She looked down at Parisa and slid her finger under Parisa’s chin. “How do you propose to do what my warriors couldn’t? How do you intend to find them?”

She sniffed and blew her nose. “I can voyeur them. Well, not all of them, just Fiona, the woman with the dark blue tank top.”

“Then what?”

“I don’t have everything figured out but we have to do something. Now that I’ve seen the horror they endure, I won’t stop until we have all of them safely here.”

“And that’s why you’re pushing for the ascension ceremony?”

“Yes. Of course.”

Endelle nodded. She glanced at Medichi, but the stone of his jaw was still in place. “What do you think?”

His gaze fell to Parisa, and he shifted his jaw around a couple of times. “I can appreciate and certainly approve of the use of her voyeur skills to locate Fiona, to try to contact her, but she’s talking about making the run herself. That’s all she’s been talking about for the last hour. I think it would be foolish.”

“Why?” Endelle asked. She was baiting him because sometimes it was just plain fun to watch one of her warriors go apeshit.

“Why?” he thundered.

Ah, there it was.

His face turned a dark, angry red. She particularly loved how Parisa shifted to glare at him. She even planted her hands on her hips.

“Yes, Warrior Medichi, why?” Even Parisa’s voice had grown stronger in the last three months.

He began to pace. He moved crazy-fast. She was only surprised steam didn’t flow behind him. “I’ve just gotten her back,” he cried. He flung an arm in Parisa’s direction. “Do you know what the last three months have been like for me?” He froze in mid-step.

“Shit,” he cried. He pulled his cadroen from his hair and threw it at the plate-glass window. It was a good throw and ordinarily would have done some damage, but she’d put in bulletproof glass after the last time she’d lost her temper. It was on the top floor, for Christ’s sake, and even with the glass company hiring the preternaturally gifted who could levitate, the whole process had taken a week—and it was summer in Phoenix. So, yeah, bulletproof glass.

His cadroen, made of leather and rhinoceros tusk, plopped onto the closest zebra skin. He stared at it. “It’s too soon to be talking about this. I’m too raw.”

He turned back to Parisa. He drew close and caught her on the inside of her elbow. “I know I’m behaving like a madman but I don’t want to fail you again, can you understand that? And the thought of you being anywhere near Rith—” He closed his eyes and drew in a long, loud breath through his nose. “Well, the whole thing makes me nuts.”

“Yeah. I’m getting that. But maybe we’d better come to an understanding right now.” Parisa faced him dead-on.