Gates of Rapture (The Guardians of Ascension) (19 page)

He loved her being inside his mind. She was a warm presence, soothing his loneliness. But it was time. He could barely hold back.
My turn. Just be prepared when I push past your shields.

Understood.

He sucked her neck and his hips moved swiftly now. He found the edge of her mind and shoved hard so that he was just there.

We’ve done it,
he said.

Leto, I can’t wait any longer.

He felt her begin to clench around him, tugging at him.

He released his fangs, she released hers. He rose above her, pounding hard now, staring down into her beautiful gold-green eyes. She held his shoulders and began to cry out, throaty sounds that caused pleasure to begin flowing through his cock. His orgasm was brisk, sharper than earlier because he’d come already.

But even as his body settled down, hers as well, he could feel something massive waiting as though just offshore.

“Do you feel that?” she asked.

He nodded. “Like something’s coming.”

He leaned close, as though a magnet drew him to her. He placed his lips on hers.

He felt something click deep within, a lock turning and sliding into place. She was his, and he was hers. Truly one.

He drew back and looked at her. He moved inside her but there were two sensations now, not just one. He felt the small jolts of pleasure it gave her and then his own pleasure.

She gasped.

He withdrew then plunged.

The dual sensation caused him to shout.

“Do it,” she cried out.

He began to stroke her again. “Oh, my God. The way you feel me.”

“The way
you
feel
me
.” She added, “More.”

He became a hard, driving machine once more and pumped. The pleasure felt magnified a hundred times because he felt her pleasure as well as his own. He hadn’t thought he’d be able to become aroused so quickly again, but there he was.

He kissed her neck, only he felt what it was like for her to have his lips pressed against her skin, how moist they felt. The sensation was strange but exhilarating. He wanted to know the rest, what it would feel like for her to come.

All his efforts became focused on what she was experiencing, what his cock felt like deep inside her, all the pleasure building in a line, it seemed, from the outer part of her to areas almost indefinable inside.

All that sensation made him harder and readier, which increased her sensation, which made her grip him … and back and forth it went. Her nails dug into his shoulders and that made her cry out. He could feel all her external sensations. He couldn’t feel things like her heart beating, but anywhere that he could touch her, even with his cock, that he could feel.

He kissed her and slid his tongue into her mouth, and, yes, he could feel the way she experienced his tongue.

But that seemed to be what caused her to fly once more over the edge because she cried out, “Your tongue. Oh, God.” Her neck arched and she was coming. Her pleasure seemed infinite and it brought him, which increased her cries until she was screaming and screaming.

He started seeing black spots before his eyes as he came, as his cock jerked, as her pleasure finally began to recede, as her body grew lax and eased against the sheets. Her head lolled to one side, her eyes closed, her lips parted. She was breathing hard.

He breathed hard as well but now he was frozen above her, staring down at her.

She had become something new to him, wondrous, surprising, extraordinary. “Grace,” he whispered.

She shifted her head, then looked up at him. She smiled. “You’re so beautiful, Leto. Have I told you that?”

“I can feel your body everywhere, the way we’re connected, the feel of the sheet beneath your head, your arms, your bottom.”

She lifted a hand and rubbed her thumb across her lower lip. He turned and kissed her thumb. “Do you think it’s possible we’ll never leave this bed again?” she asked.

He laughed. “So this is what it’s like. It’s so strange.”

“It is. I can feel what it’s like for you to be inside me.”

He pressed a finger between her brows. “I can feel that frown, how it pinches together. What’s wrong?”

“I’m not sure. This has been wonderful, but I’m uneasy, even afraid. Leto, we weren’t really ready.”

“I know. But we both agreed it had to be done.”

She nodded. “This was amazing.”

He kissed her again, and she kissed him back. He felt her tension leave.

After a long moment, he withdrew from her body and was surprised at how empty she felt when he left her. He’d never imagined what that must be like for a woman, to be so filled up, then so empty.

He rolled onto his back and lay looking up at the arch of branches overhead. Grace turned on her side, lifted his arm, and settled her head on his shoulder. He wrapped his arm around her. It was heaven to have her so close.

“I wish this moment would never end,” he said.

He felt her sigh.

A well-trained army

Can overcome astonishing odds.

—
Collected Proverbs,
Beatrice of Fourth

CHAPTER 8

As dawn crested the McDowell Mountains in the east, Greaves stood on the round patio located in the middle of his famous peach orchard. The microclimates he had created in order to grow and ripen peaches every month of the year had won numerous horticultural awards. He had been pleased at the time to have been so honored.

Right now, however, he could not have cared less. What good was an award-winning peach orchard when his kingdom hung in the balance?

He moved in a slow circle, pondering the nightmare that, in a matter of just hours, had become his life.

His spies had observed Alison, during the previous day, in flight over White Lake, her emerald wings glinting beneath the sun. Her
breh,
Warrior Kerrick, had flown with her, instructing her, protecting her, eventually surrounding her with a dense mist.

The portal to Third Earth was over White Lake, and Greaves had learned from his Seers Fortresses that Alison was destined to open the portal to Third sometime in the next few days.

In the next few days.

His mind still reeled. As far as he knew, no one on Second Earth was aware of the truth about his dealings with Third Earth and what he had done to the portal. A year ago, he’d created a breach that had allowed him to bring Third Earth death vampires through the Borderland to his Estrella Complex without anyone knowing.

But over the past week, he’d succeeded in widening the breach, which would make it possible to bring a large contingent through on command, at least a hundred Third Earth pretty-boys.

If Alison opened the portal, the breach would be discovered and closed. He was a vampire who liked known outcomes, and a regiment made up of primarily Third Earth death vampires would have ensured his success because, in sufficient numbers, they’d be able to wipe the Warriors of the Blood off the face of Second Earth.

Worse, of course, was that the portal and Alison weren’t even his largest concern. Alison was only a wedge of this shit-pie.

Casimir had returned to serve as Leto’s fucking Guardian of Ascension. Leto, that two-faced traitor, who should be strung up by his balls for eternity. Of course having a guardian meant only one thing: Leto was ascending. And yet Greaves had an uncomfortable knot at the center of his stomach that told him this would not be an ordinary ascension to Third Earth.

He pressed his hands to his face and breathed deeply. The orchard had just been watered so that the air was humid and cool as it entered his lungs.

He moved to sit down on one of the stone benches that bordered the patio. Then there was Grace’s abrupt return to the arms of her other
breh,
Leto. And if what he felt was true, she was the real source of his every concern. She had returned to take up her place as the third key to obsidian flame. It was almost as though her decision had somehow triggered Alison’s wings and Leto’s ascension.

If his recent plan to eliminate Leto at Nazca had succeeded, he would have been able to unravel this terrible synchronicity of events. But Casimir had shown up, fresh from his baptismal rites, and had met his own powerful hand-blasts with equal, if not stronger, skills.

As Greaves pondered his situation, he knew he had only one hope of coming out of this a victor: He must attain pure vision in which the absolute future was laid out before him and he could prepare and act accordingly. But would Stannett be able to curtail his pleasures sufficiently to get him the information he needed?

*   *   *

Casimir sat in a very comfortable recliner. He’d changed to jeans and a T-shirt, but the shirt was pretty snug. He smiled. One advantage of having participated in Beatrice’s redemption program was the absolute requirement of regular exercise, in a gym, including weight lifting. He was looking better than he had most of his life. And the truth was he felt better.

He even munched on an apple.

The suite came with a full bar, and he had been tempted, just for the hell of it, to make a peach blow, that absurd drink he’d made a few months ago in an attempt to seduce Greaves. He’d even pulled out the fresh peach and the soda water and was hunting around for the cream when he realized he’d lost interest. All he wanted was an apple and to cruise some Mortal Earth TV channels. He liked watching
The View
just to keep up.

Yes, he really had changed.

He took another bite of apple and was trying to figure out how to DVR
Criminal Minds
when he heard the steel gate in the observation room glide open.

His heart set up a racket. James had said a female Militia Warrior often came to the portal to do some work for him. He hoped to hell that was her.

He set his apple down and went invisible. If this wasn’t the woman, then he’d fold the hell out of there. Third Earth had some strange goings-on, and he wasn’t a warrior, not by a long shot. He also didn’t know what one of his powerful hand-blasts would do to the portal to Third if he had to use that skill to defend himself.

The door opened, and a woman crossed the threshold, a very beautiful, curvaceous woman.

“Is that you, James? Are you in the bathroom? Jesus, I can smell you. Did you bathe in wine or what?”

Casimir weaved on his feet. The scent was back, that intense wildflower scent, the one he had first smelled when he arrived at the observation deck.

And the scent belonged to this woman.

Oh, my God, it was a
breh
scent. He couldn’t be mistaken about that, because right now all he could think about was how to get this woman on her back. Worse, her scent was about a hundred times stronger than he’d ever experienced with Grace.

She wore jeans and a snug tank top that displayed beautiful breasts. She was as tall as Grace, which was perfect for sex. Her hips flared and her lips were full, two of his favorite attributes in the female form. She had a deeply sensuous look. Her hazel eyes looked familiar somehow, but he couldn’t quite place her. Her long light brown hair lay in waves over her shoulders.

Some of his former hedonism took root, and for a long moment all he could think about was stripping her down and taking her to bed.

But the newer part of who he was asserted itself. He forced himself to calm down, then he made himself visible.

Her eyes widened when he appeared, but she didn’t look too shocked, like maybe invisibility was more normal on Third Earth. “Who are you?” she asked. “And what are you doing here and did you bust up a bottle of vino or what? The entire room reeks of it.”

A wine scent. Grace had said he smelled of mulled wine.

He wondered what this woman would think of
breh-
scents.

He moved forward holding her gaze. “I’m Casimir of Fourth Earth. James brought me here to guard Warrior Leto.”

She blinked several times as though processing what he’d just told her. “So, you’re Casimir. I mean, I know of you because James and I talk a lot. And you took Grace to Fourth Earth as your
breh
.”

So she did know about the
breh-hedden.
“Then you know all about Leto and Grace? And you know about me, about events of five months ago?”

She nodded. “I felt so bad for my Grace. She was so torn, but James assured me that there were strong reasons for your presence in her life. I hear you entered Beatrice’s redemption program?”

He nodded. “I did. It’s been extremely difficult but the right path for me absolutely. I have two little boys—”

“Kendrew and Sloane.”

He smiled; he couldn’t help it. “Yes, apparently James does talk a lot.”

“But what’s this about you guarding Leto?”

“Apparently, he’s in his rite of ascension to Third and for some reason I was chosen to get the job done, I think because Greaves wants him dead.”

“Leto’s ascending to Third? But won’t that change things for Grace?”

“I don’t think any of us understands what’s going on. Leto’s supposed ascension just isn’t following the norm—starting with the fact that I was assigned to guard him. How does that make sense?”

“I see what you mean. So while you’re guarding him, you’re staying here?”

“James’s idea.”

She looked around. “Exactly how are you guarding him if you’re up here?”

He tapped his head. “I have my voyeur window tracking him constantly. I wasn’t going to follow him around at the Seattle Colony or wherever else he happened to go. Besides, he and Grace are engaging with the
breh-hedden
now, and I don’t want to intrude.”

At that, she cocked her head. “James told me a lot about you. All I can say is that Beatrice’s program really must be working for you to be staying out of their business.”

He smiled wryly. “Then you really do understand my previous reputation. And you called it exactly right. In fact, I would have made a point of annoying the hell out of him by constantly suggesting that we make it a threesome.”