Gates of Rapture (The Guardians of Ascension) (43 page)

She found herself in a room that had a wall of windows. Casimir was pacing the length. She called to him.

He turned toward her. His eyes went wide as he looked her up and down. “I saw you like this in Moscow Two when you took Leto away.”

“Yes, this is my apparition-form.”

“What’s happening? I just realized that something is wrong with my voyeur window. Is Leto all right?”

She shook her head. “Greaves has us trapped in Leto’s cabin, beneath a shroud of mist that no one can penetrate. I can leave in this form, but neither of us can fold out of the room. I’m hoping I can bring you back.”

“Let’s go.”

He moved toward her, and she put her apparition-hand on his shoulder. She thought the thought, but nothing happened. She tried several times, but she couldn’t move him back with her.

She shook her head. “This isn’t working. Just … let Endelle know. I’ve got to find some way to do this. I’m going to Beatrice. Maybe she can help.”

“Yes, go. I’ll do what I can here.”

She focused on Beatrice and began to glide past Third; then she was at the palace. Beatrice sat in her chair, the lavender yarn in a ball at her left elbow.

“My son has hurt you, hasn’t he?”

Grace explained the situation. “Can you help me?”

“Try to take me back with you.” Beatrice reached for Grace’s arm.

Once the connection was made, Grace once more attempted the return trip—but she couldn’t do it, not with another ascender.

Despite her apparition-form, she fell at the philosopher’s feet. She didn’t know what else she could do. She laid her head on Beatrice’s lap. “Did you know this would happen, that your son would take my life?”

“No, but it seemed like a logical thing for him to do. You are one of the greatest threats to his plans.”

“I learned Leto’s hand-blast skill just now.”

“You’re very powerful, Grace.”

She frowned as she fingered the silk of Beatrice’s skirt. She felt the woman’s gentle hand on her head. “I don’t want to die. I want to live and be with Leto, to share his bed. I want to bear his children, but I’m barren. My life has been so barren, so useless.”

“Don’t say that. You were always beloved wherever you went.”

“And yet I held back from love. Even after I completed the
breh-hedden
with Leto, it was as though I was still a ghost with him. He could be outside of me or in me, and yet could he really embrace me and hold me? Hold who I was? Oh, Beatrice, I didn’t want to be a ghost with him, an apparition. How do you make the apparition real when you’ve been a ghost your entire life?”

And there it was, the hard truth, the deep understanding that finally came to her. She had been a ghost in her life from the time she’d given up her baby for adoption. She’d lived in the shadows of life, always keeping herself safe, keeping herself from harm.

Now she was near death, as was Leto, and she had no way to help him or herself. How had this happened? Why had this happened? “I’ve lived in the shadows all my life.”

Beatrice spoke softly. “My dear, you don’t even know, do you?”

“What?”

“You stepped out of the shadows the moment you folded three dimensions and made love to a beast-man in the basement of the Cascades cabin. You’ve been out of the shadows at least that long. You just lack experience. So go. Make more experiences.”

Grace blinked. Had she moved out of the shadows? Was she more than a ghost?

And yet, as she thought about all that she’d done over the past four days, she realized she had never been that person before, taking charge, formulating enormous plans to alter Greaves’s ability to take over the world, then actually following through with the spectacle event and the mass fold of a million warriors. She was no longer the woman who’d lived in a convent for a century.

She was obsidian flame.

Which meant … that she already had the tools in her possession, had been learning them for the past several days, all that she would need to defeat the monster.

What came to her was so pure and so simple that she rose up in her apparition-form, kissed Beatrice on the cheek, then folded, not to the cabin but to the palace. This time, she wanted Endelle.

Beatrice had said she needed to make more experiences. Well, who had more experience than the scorpion queen?

Grace found her walking through the rotunda nearest her rooms, where she stopped and stared at Grace.

“So you can see me?” Grace asked.

“Of course I can see you. What the fuck are you doing here? I thought all you cared about was getting Leto to go beast for you.”

She told her about Greaves and how he had them both trapped and dying. Endelle put a hand to her forehead. “That bastard. Okay. What do you need me to do? I can try blasting through the shroud.”

Grace wasn’t convinced anything external could help at this point. “I need something from you.”

When Endelle once more suggested an assault, Grace said, “Just trust me right now to take care of this, Endelle. Please. I can do this. I just need something from your soul, and once I’ve acquired that ability, I’ll want you to bring the rest of obsidian flame here to the palace. And then, as soon as I can, I’ll bring Leto to you.”

Endelle became very still. She grew relaxed, her shoulders dropping. Opening her hands wide, she said, “Take whatever you need.” No more questions, or suggestions, no complaints, just
take what you need.

And here was the truth about the hard-bitten ruler of Second Earth: Endelle always came through.

“I need to capture your skill of living out loud. I mean, I think I’m already getting the hang of it, but I’d like a booster just in case.”

Endelle laughed. “You sure you’re ready for that?”

“Oh, yeah. It’s time. It’s been time for two millennia.”

“Then hit me, baby.”

Grace pierced Endelle’s mind and once more sank deep toward the woman’s soul. She found the lock she needed all lit up and inserted her blue flame key. The lock gave way, the door opened, and it was as though all of Endelle’s life poured over her: all the ways she met every challenge head-on, all the ways she could be cunning, all the ways she manipulated with sarcasm.

Grace drank it in.

Street smarts. That’s what Endelle had. And courage, mountains and mountains of courage. But mostly, Endelle had experience, that which Grace lacked the most, experience dealing with Greaves.

She thanked Endelle telepathically and sped back to the cabin. She moved to stand in front of Greaves. He still couldn’t see her or even perceive that she was near him, and he still sat in that chair, as if he had all night to finish them off.

Good. Although in this moment, she had to resist a very Endelle-like desire to slap the bastard silly.

She smiled.

Then she looked around. She let all of Endelle’s experience flow through her mind. She picked up one strategy and threw it out. She picked up another and turned it over in her mind. She felt more substantial in herself, more weighted, more real, as though having all of Endelle’s experience backing her up had sharpened her focus.

She apparitioned across the room to stare down at Leto. She blinked. She needed to do something with him, but what?

*   *   *

Greaves sat in the chair near the head of Leto’s bed. He’d barely broken a sweat and two powerful vampires lay facing each other in a tangle of burned and broken limbs. Neither was dead yet, and he would need to bring in a few death vampires to get the job done, but not just yet.

He savored this precise moment in his life, in his long career, in the brilliant path of his ambitions, because with just a little patience, he would see this pair good and dead; obsidian flame would be eliminated as a threat, and he could at last allow his plans to unfold.

He leaned his head back and he smiled.

Life was good.

*   *   *

Leto wanted to lift a thumb to touch Grace’s cheek, but he didn’t think he could. He didn’t know exactly how many bones of his were broken, but the pain was staggering. He couldn’t move, couldn’t even lift a finger. Her eyes were open, but there was little life present, if any.

How had it come down to this? What had he done wrong? How had he failed to keep Grace safe?

He had known she was at risk. The fact that she had outmaneuvered Greaves had put her in danger.

However, during the past several days with her, it hadn’t occurred to him even once to share his experience with her, and now that he looked at the situation, he felt like a complete fool. What could Grace have become if he had said to her:
Take what is mine, take all that is mine; all that I have experienced, I give to you freely and fully. Learn all that I have learned.

But maybe it wasn’t too late. He was a vampire of tremendous power and ability. More important, he could communicate all that to Grace, if there was even the smallest spark left inside her.

Grace,
he sent. His voice sounded thin, even within his own head.

I’m here. I’m safe in my apparition-form. I’m not feeling any pain. But I need something from you, I’m just not sure what.

I think I know. I finally get it, how I held back from you. Grace, I have within me all that you need in terms of skill and experience, even power. Just glide within me and feast.

I think you’re right. In fact, I know you’re right, but you’re in so much pain.

Pain doesn’t matter. Pain means life. Come to me. Take me now.

He felt her slide against his mind, then drop in and down. She knew the way to his soul where all his abilities lived, where he held all the deepest memories of action and forward motion, of decision and analysis, of strategy.

He felt her move within him and it was like heaven all over again, yet even more complete. She found the key to his vast experience as a warrior and as a leader of men. She opened the door, and he felt all that learned wisdom and understanding flow over her and through her. She caught it and held on.

*   *   *

Grace flew up and out of Leto’s most essential self, and when she’d departed she looked around. She stared at Greaves, so at ease in the chair. He still couldn’t see her.

She recognized what he was feeling: a deep satisfaction that he had vanquished them both, that now he could continue with his plans.

She accessed all that Leto had just shared with her, the analytical processes of his mind, how swiftly he would create strategies but toss them aside if they didn’t seem right, then his lightning-like ability to formulate new ones.

She did the same now.

She assessed the situation: her broken body, Leto’s as well, Greaves’s enormous power, the shroud he had placed over the cabin. She and Leto could never fight him and win, so this could never be about acquiring enough power to battle Greaves.

She could also sense that Leto was near death, so her most critical task involved healing and escape.

And now it all seemed so simple. She leaned down and kissed Leto while still in her ghostly form.

I’ll be back in a moment. I need to reach Fiona. I think I’ll be able to bring her back because I can possess her. I will need to see Horace as well, to acquire his healing ability. Stay alive, Leto.

I’ll be here
returned to her strong and steady. How different from the man in despair she had left five months ago.

Fiona, who had the ability to enhance power, would be able to amplify Horace’s healing power once Grace had Horace’s advanced ability.

Because she was still functioning within her obsidian power, Grace focused on Horace and her apparition-self began flying through space. She found him just finishing up with one of the Militia Warriors at the New River Borderland. She called his name. He turned toward her, but he couldn’t see her.

She explained where she was and what she needed. He nodded, saying, “Of course. I have heard of what you’ve been able to accomplish. Please do what you need to do.”

Grace took as few words as possible to explain her process. Horace, the most powerful healer on Second Earth, nodded and closed his eyes.

She dove within his mind, then fell into his soul, which was, as she knew it had to be for such a kind man, very warm and very beautiful. She found his healing lock, inserted her blue flame, and acquired the ability.

She drew out and thanked him.

She then apparitioned to Fiona, moving swiftly and smoothly through nether-space. When Grace reached her, she was in Endelle’s palace because Endelle had done as Grace had asked and brought her obsidian sisters to the central rotunda, ready for action. Thorne stood next to Marguerite, and Jean-Pierre was pressed close to Fiona, his arms surrounding her.

Grace took as few words as she could manage to explain the Greaves predicament.

“What do you need from us?” Endelle asked.

“I need to possess Fiona in this form.”

“Do it,” Endelle said softly.

Fiona moved toward her by way of assent. “Yes, do whatever you need.”

Something deep inside Grace blossomed, a sense of belonging and of hope, of being very present in her life and less ghost-like than she’d ever been before.

She focused for just a moment on her variety of obsidian flame power and let a new wave flow from the earth, up into her soul, even into this apparition-form that was as much a part of her as her corporeal self.

She thought the thought and simply took possession of Fiona. Her obsidian power flowed.

Together Grace sped with Fiona back to the cabin. Just as she suspected, because she was part of Fiona, she passed through the shroud of Greaves’s mist and into the bedroom. Her body and Leto’s lay crumpled and burned.

Oh, God,
Fiona murmured.

It’s all right. Now, I’m going to concentrate on the healing ability I learned from Horace. Are you ready to enhance the power?

Yes.

Grace just let the thought take form in her mind, and healing began pouring toward the bodies on the floor.

*   *   *

Leto drew a sudden deep breath and rose, his own body knitting together at lightning speed, miraculously, unbelievably. He wasn’t even sure exactly how this was happening, but he could feel Grace’s presence.