Obsidian Flame (57 page)

“Go ahead.”

She held on to his shoulders, pushing back just a little. He clasped his hands low around her waist, well below her wing-locks, and bent his knees for support. She arched her neck and closed her eyes. Her body rolled sensually and he could feel her wings release, which made his cock twitch all over again. Damn, the release was exquisitely sexual, no question about that.

And her wings, black with red flames, were so incredibly beautiful and powerful in appearance, enormous. Each flap moved his body as well. If he wasn’t as strong as he was, he would have been airborne, but he kept her anchored.

She relaxed, her wings still moving very slowly. “Your turn—and Thorne?”

“Yeah?”

“Did you feel my wings release?”

His voice deepened. “Oh … yeah.”

“I can hardly wait to feel yours.”

His back was a mess of weeping so it took but three deep breaths and his wings mounted. He groaned at so much pleasure. But the mount didn’t feel anything like before, almost as though … his wings were bigger now.

Marguerite groaned as well then opened her eyes. “That was amazing.” Her eyes widened as her gaze drifted from one wing to the next. “Oh, my God, Thorne. Can you see your wings?”

He flapped one forward then almost lost his balance. They were as large as Endelle’s—a span of forty feet. And the gray flame pattern was even more pronounced against all the silvery white expanse.

“Take me into the air,” she said, drawing closer so that she could wrap her arms around his neck. He smiled, drew his massive wings back, bent his knees, and with one strong downward sweep launched heavenward.

*   *   *

This was the vision,
she thought,
the reason we needed to be here in the open air.

Thorne flapped hard and she could feel with each powerful thrust of his wings and movement of his body how much he was taking pleasure in this flight, as though it were his first—and perhaps it was. This was their
breh-hedden
flight.

She held her wings in a close-mount position, which allowed her to keep her face against his muscular chest. Every sensation, as connected as they were, body-to-body, arms-to-arms, in flight, was a kind of ecstasy all in its own.

She held the sensation close and because she was still connected to his mind, she drew close to the round ball of his obsidian flame power and stroked.

He groaned softly.
I love you this close,
he sent.

She smiled against his warm body. She let him do the work as she kept her legs wrapped tightly around his ass, and because the air grew chill, she manipulated her wings to surround her. His body was on fire, a typical man.

She savored this flight and the depths of its meaning in her life, in their lives.

When they were far above the earth and the wind blew steadily, he popped his wings into parachute position, which rocked them back and forth.

I’m going to withdraw from you now,
he sent.

Yes.

When he pulled his cock from her, she would have been sad but she knew what was coming.

He didn’t.

What is that sound?
he asked.

The future.

She began to flap her wings and took his hand as she moved away from him.

The wind began to blow from the west in a steady warm stream. She stretched her body out to mimic his.

The future arrived and suddenly she was gliding beside him in an ever-increasing flow, faster and faster, until soon they were crossing the Pacific Ocean. The journey moved north to the Japan Islands then China, swinging south to Indonesia and Australia then east once more to India and upward, crossing the Himalayas, Tibet, and into Russia, zigzagging to cover the continents, on and on. As night fell, streams of light connected until they were circling the earth over and over, the light streams flowing and flowing until the earth was a ball of interconnected light.

She had a tremendous sense of purpose and she felt that Thorne was having a similar experience.

At last the journey began to slow until once more the earth appeared below, the vast expanse of the Sonoran Desert and the Metro Phoenix Two area, and the rim of the Superstition Monolith in front of the half-built dwelling.

Thorne touched down and her feet felt the earth once more. He held her in front of him as she retracted her wings, then drew her close once more.

But he didn’t withdraw his wings. They were glowing, as was he.

Within his mind, she drifted away from the seat of his obsidian flame power and looked up at him. He nodded.

She explored his mind until she found what held him captive, what had set his body and wings aglow, his eyes on fire, that which had transfigured him.

He was now the man in charge … of everything.

His future was clear. He would soon become Supreme High Commander of the Allied Ascender Forces. More would follow—that was what she felt and knew.

I’m to build an army,
he sent.

Yes.

There is more. But I don’t want to think about it.

She nodded.
And I’m to work on behalf of Seers all over the world, working for their freedom.

He hugged her.
That makes such beautiful, perfect sense.

Isn’t it strange? That my pursuit of freedom might be the vehicle to free so many others?

He held her close, his deep breaths moving her body in peaceful swells.

She had never been happier. Whatever the future brought, she would remember this moment as long as she lived.

Finally, she said, “How about you start filling that bathing pool of yours?”

“Let me get this straight. We both just experienced incredible, multi-orgasmic sex, we traveled the entire globe in some kind of blended vision and real life, and you’re thinking about the bathing pool?”

“Hell, yes, Warrior. I want a warm bath, I want you to take me on that well-designed and super-convenient shelf next to the pool a couple of times, then I want to sleep all spooned up with you for the rest of the afternoon. As for the night, well, we’ll just have to wait and see.”

She felt his body relax and he hugged her hard. He retracted his wings and, without saying a word, he had her flying through nether-space.

To make peace with a dragon,

Persevere in the presence of the beast,

with respect and affection.

—
Collected Proverbs,
Beatrice of Fourth

CHAPTER 24

A week later, Thorne entered the Militia Warrior complex at the security landing platform. Jean-Pierre waited for him, smiling a very warm smile with a knowing look in his gray-green eyes—his ocean-eyes as Fiona called them.

Thorne thought he understood. It was the look of a brother who had been through the exact same thing, knowing by experience both the suffering before the
breh-hedden
and the glorious mysteries after.

Right now he felt the cool tile beneath Marguerite’s feet and the warmth on her palm from the bottom of a ceramic mug. Now she was sitting down and probably staring out at the Mogollon Rim because she loved doing that. Brynna would join her soon and they would discuss the future of the Seers Fortresses of Second Earth.

If he pressed hard, he could enter her mind and see what she was seeing, but they were each learning to keep some boundaries. With so much intimacy now, some strong separation was necessary for them or one or the other would go mad.

So he set up a block and sighed.

But Jean-Pierre held his gaze, his crooked smile accompanied by a knowing nod.

Thorne nodded in response. Nothing needed to be said. No doubt there would be conversations in the future, about the
breh-hedden,
about handling the powerful women they’d been given to mate with, about ways to accommodate so much extraordinary intimacy without destroying it.

Hopefully, there would be centuries.

“Thorne.” His French accent eased over the name.

“Jean-Pierre.”

“So, what is this news you have for me?”

He glanced at the Militia Warriors who worked the landing platform. There seemed to be more than the usual contingent present. “Let’s go to your office.”

“Or yours. Seriffe cleared a space for you while they remodeled the north wing. Apparently you and Seriffe will both have offices when the work is finished. There is to be a large conference room and a new command center. Very impressive. Havily’s architect helped with the design.”

As they moved into the hallway that led in the direction of the offices and the HQ grid, Thorne said, “I noticed the extra security.”

“What do you mean?”

He jerked his thumb behind them. “At the landing platform.”

Jean-Pierre grinned, all those big teeth of his. “That was not additional security. Several of the men wanted to see the new Supreme High Commander of the Allied Ascender Forces.”

Ah, yes, his new duties. Endelle had bestowed the title on him in an official ceremony. The problem was, they still weren’t speaking. Endelle had become withdrawn from him, and he wasn’t sure what to do about it.

“You are different now, Thorne. Everyone speaks of it. Your eyes are clear, of course. I take it you are no longer such intimate friends with Ketel One.”

Thorne smiled. “No. Not so much.”

He glanced down the length of the hall and saw that Seriffe stood outside his office, the largest one on the premises. Eight Section Leaders of the Thunder God Warriors were lined up next to him, a formal greeting. He knew the men, of course, since they’d begun taking their squadrons to battle at the Borderlands during what had become a major time of transition for the Warriors of the Blood.

There was talk of merging the Section Leaders with the Warriors of the Blood, for the purposes of planning and strategy. But it was Gideon and Duncan who fought the merge the hardest. As close as they were to Warrior of the Blood status, they showed one of the most dominant traits of the elite warriors: territoriality, to the point of obsession.

It made Thorne smile, nothing more. That level of bullheadedness only confirmed his belief that they were ready for the grade bump.

Yes, everything was changing.

Seriffe welcomed him aboard and shook his hand.

He hadn’t seen Seriffe since his own status had changed, but the famous warrior, too, met him with a knowing look in his eye, the look of a man who’d been in charge of thousands of warriors for a very long time.

Seriffe gestured to the open doorway. “I want you to use this space until your offices and the new executive command center are ready.”

Thorne started to protest but instantly felt the restraining voice in his head, the one that connected to obsidian flame power, the one that gave him better insight, better understanding, and a longer vision of what the next few weeks, days, and months would have to be.

Thorne was now the Supreme High Commander, the one who would have the final say in everything that related to the coming battle between Greaves’s ALA and Endelle’s AAF.

This room was only fitting, and it spoke volumes about Seriffe’s character that he stepped aside so easily and allowed another man to take what had been his seat of command for a very long time.

He glanced at Gideon and Duncan. His first order would be to summon Militia Warrior Section Leaders from all over the world to begin the necessary army training.

But not today.

Thorne thanked Seriffe for the office. He invited him in, but Seriffe said he had a meeting scheduled with his men.

Thorne moved into the space. Jean-Pierre followed him in.

He inclined his head toward the door. “Close that, Jean-Pierre. I realize we have a lot discuss, but first I want to talk to you about the hidden colonies and another more personal matter.”

He moved to the desk and noticed that it had been completely cleared out and made ready for him. There was even a fresh memo pad with a wing watermark, something Havily had created as one of her first steps in changing up the quality of Endelle’s overall staff operation.

Jean-Pierre remained standing. He wore flight battle gear since for the remainder of the afternoon, yeah, he was training Militia Warriors.

Thorne decided to lay it out. “I met your great-grandson at the colony in Mortal Earth Washington—the Seattle Colony as it’s known.”

Jean-Pierre’s brows rose. “You must mean Arthur.”

“Yes.”

“We were not certain where he was. He just seemed to have disappeared, although he let his father know that he was well and safe, but he was not coming home. I suppose this is good news.”