She turned to Samuel and said, “Hang tough on this one, on what I have to do next.” He tightened down his caveman instincts and nodded.
To the other men, she said, “You might want to look away. I’ll signal Samuel, then take care of business. Right now, get down, as low as you can.” Leto and Thorne nodded. “Alison, Fiona, you’ll be safest pressed against the grid wall.” Two more nods.
She waved her hand and lost her clothes. Samuel watched her speed twenty feet away and stretch out on her side, on the stone floor that matched Duncan’s cell.
He could hardly recognize the feeling that ripped through him, but again fear and pride split him; a terrible fear that his woman lay, completely vulnerable, this far away from him, and pride that she’d reached beyond her previous convictions, setting them aside, to save another ascender’s life.
A second explosion, closer this time.
Alison and Fiona stood right next to the grid wall. He thought about Duncan and as his grayle power flowed, he extended his senses. Duncan was nearby.
Vela, how we doin’? he sent.
Duncan’s about thirty yards from here.
I can sense him now. Samuel’s biceps flexed.
They’re almost here. Ten, nine, eight… Samuel continued the count so that the other warriors could hear. “Seven, six, five, four…” Leto and Thorne both leaned forward. “Three, two…” A grid wall exploded not five feet from Vela, but she didn’t budge, not even a hair’s breadth. Wall debris, like black ash from a fire, blanketed the area and three wreckers broke through, three massive Third Earth Warriors, in kilted flight battle gear, shotguns over shoulders.
Big motherfuckers.
“What the hell is this?” The leader stared down at Vela. Like the description of Sharav, he wore three braids on either side of his face, clipped back in low hanging loops. All the men had long hair, Warrior of the Blood long.
“Something stinks here.” The wrecker on the left backed away from Vela. “I say we waste her and get the hell out of this tunnel.” Samuel gave the signal, a forward slice of his arm in Vela’s direction.
And just as the wreckers lifted their heads to look down the tunnel, Samuel folded. He reappeared, at the same time as Thorne and Leto, behind the men.
Samuel sliced across his adversary’s forearm, striking almost to the bone so that the wrecker’s shotgun fell to the floor. But a second later, the bastard turned to face him, a sword in his other hand, as though he’d barely felt the wound. He topped Samuel by at least two inches, and his skills matched the Warriors of the Blood.
Samuel bumped up his grayle power, adding new streams of the dark mist, which brought his opponent’s eyebrows up a couple of notches.
“Surprise.” Game on and never had a sword felt so good in his hand, or his new power so magnificent as in this moment when he battled the bastard who had said, ‘Let’s waste her.’ Both Leto and Thorne had taken on a wrecker and a sword-fight ensued so that the sound of metal against metal echoed up and down the tunnel. Because the element of surprise had worn off, it was just vampire-against-vampire.
Chapter Seven
The moment the explosion had sounded, Vela had leaped to her feet, waved a hand and got dressed. She hurried back to join Alison and Fiona. She watched in awe as Fiona allowed Alison to access her body, to essentially take her over so that Fiona’s obsidian flame power could amplify Alison’s ability to reconfigure weapon identification. In the process, Alison’s body grew lax against the darkening grid wall, present-but-not- present.
Fiona gave herself a shake. When she moved, she even brushed her hair away from her face like Alison would have done.
As the battle raged, Fiona turned in the direction of the three weapons that had slid toward them on the floor.
Vela caught her hand, holding her back. “Are you sure?” She turned to Vela and touched her forehead. “Don’t worry. I can do this.” Alison again, speaking from Fiona’s lips and staring at Vela from Fiona’s silvery- blue eyes. “I’m going to start working these weapons now. And I can feel it in every cell of my body that I can do this.” Fiona, now Alison, moved swiftly in the direction of the battle, heading toward the nearest weapon.
Vela held her breath as Fiona stretched out her hand. The weapon flew toward her.
“Please work, please work, please work,” Vela murmured.
Beyond, the men battled.
The weapon reached Fiona’s hand and even at this distance, Vela felt an electric current pass up and down the tunnel. Fiona held up the weapon. “One down,” she called out.
Vela let go of a huge sigh of relief.
At almost the same moment, one of the wreckers fell to the stone floor and Thorne took his head.
Vela wanted to look away, but couldn’t. She’d never seen a battle close up before, not like this. The one she’d witnessed at the Superstitions had still been at a greater distance and within the safety of the darkening.
Thorne turned in Leto’s direction, and in a blinding move, folded, reappeared behind the second wrecker and shoved a dagger into his lower back.
As the Third Warrior arched at the sudden unexpected pain, Leto drove his sword through his chest. When he withdrew the blade, the wrecker also toppled to the floor.
Leto removed his head.
Thorne turned, extended his hand in Fiona’s direction. She didn’t hesitate but tossed the reconfigured shotgun to him.
She repeated the process twice more, rendering each weapon harmless. Leto ran toward her and took one of the shotguns from her. He then moved back to Alison’s uninhabited body and stood guard.
All the while, Leto battled the wrecker, who had also released his grayle power, so that two plumes of mist, one dark and smoky, the other gray and almost green-tinged, flowed in strange whirls above the warriors, moving in a strange counter-dance.
Thorne stood off to the side, shotgun in hand, looking for an opportunity, his eyes intent on the battle.
Vela watched mesmerized as both warriors battled in an incomprehensible blur of levitation and folding.
Fiona returned to stand close to Alison and, like watching a sliding door part swiftly, the women disconnected and became themselves. Both remained silent as the final battle progressed.
Vela’s heart swelled at the sight of Samuel keeping pace with the Third Warrior.
“Look at him move,” Alison whispered. “My God.”
“I know.” Fiona breathed raggedly, her arms now crossed over her chest.
Then she felt it, another vibration through the grid. “More wreckers.”