Fifteen years ago her fiancé, a dedicated Militia Warrior, had been taken from her, his body brutalized by a death vamp and drained of his precious blood. Since that time Havily had lived with a fire in her belly, driven to make sure that his death had not been in vain.
She had met him shortly after his transfer from Los Angeles to Phoenix. She had fallen for him so fast, a brilliant tumbling that had led to a betrothal a mere six months into his tour of duty in the Valley of the Sun.
She had waited a long time for love, nearly one full century from the time of her ascension. Losing Eric, after having waited for decades for exactly the right man to come along, had destroyed her heart, her belief that she would ever know love in this ascended world.
Her life had been altered irrevocably when he had failed to come home after his shift, when she’d received the dreaded call, when she’d learned of his horrible fate.
Yet out of her suffering her passion had been born, passion for finding a way to change the course of the war. Above all, she had promised herself that Eric’s death would not be in vain.
Unable to serve on the front lines, since she was in no way suited to wield a sword, she applied herself to figuring out what she could do. The more she researched the difficulties facing Madame Endelle as Supreme High Administrator of Second Earth, especially from the time the first High Administrator defected to the Commander’s side, the more she saw what needed to be done. Call it a vision, but she knew, she knew, that a completely redesigned military-administration complex would go a long way to preventing more defections from the ranks of the High Administrators.
And tonight she would begin the process of making a difference in her world.
She smiled. She looked through the window at the night skyline visible from her Camelback Mountain home. Her town house was situated at the foothills, and the location gave her a stellar view of South Mountain as well as Endelle’s administrative headquarters farther to the east. She had bought this house in order to be close to Madame Endelle’s place of rule.
Still buzzing with excitement, she hurried to her office. Madame Endelle had demanded her immediate presence, so she had only a handful of minutes to make her preparations. Her primary concern was which of her presentations to take with her. She immediately dismissed the idea of PowerPoint since it would involve setting up a screen, running cables, and interfacing with a computer and digital projector. She sighed. Endelle would not have the patience for setup time.
She wished she had the preternatural ability of presenting her vision directly from her mind to the screen. However, to her knowledge no one could stream mental images, at least not on Second Earth. Maybe Third or Fourth, but not Second. There were a great many limitations to personal power on Second.
Okay. No PowerPoint.
Still, she smiled. She could not believe this was happening. Madame Endelle had summoned her. All her e-mails had finally gotten through. Or perhaps her beautifully crafted professional correspondence, for which she used the best letterhead with a watermark depicting a pair of full-mount wings, her own design. In the end, she had only one real choice, a project that had taken a full three years of off-hours to create. On a table tucked into a corner to the right of the door sat a large portable display case, in black leather, which bore a sturdy handle.
The size of the case was deceptive. Once she set the case on the table and unlatched the sides, the cleverly designed multi-layered complex, coupled with her telekinetic powers, rose to a height of five feet, spreading some eight feet in length and another three feet in width. She had worked with an architect for months to get every detail exactly right.
Beyond the excellence of the architectural display, she was ready for this moment. She had practiced her presentation over and over. Fifteen years of hard work and she now had her meeting.
She waved a hand and changed into her best Ralph Lauren jacket, black of course, including a black pleat-front blouse. She wore four-inch heels, putting her at six-two and hopefully somewhere near Madame Endelle’s six-five height depending on the size of heels the Supreme High Administrator wore. Havily intended to leave nothing to chance.
She stepped in front of a full-length mirror. Appearances were important, especially to Her Supremeness. She chided herself for using the slang appellation. Madame Endelle. Madame Endelle. She repeated the words and kept her voice clipped and formal.
She scrutinized her reflection. She didn’t have time to affect a formal chignon so she left her hair loose, a flow of soft peachy-red over her black suit. She nodded. Her makeup was still flawless from the morning’s effort. Thank God for improved cosmetics on Second Earth. She nodded again.
Her eyes, however, were a little bloodshot, not unexpected given the lateness of the hour.
No more stalling. Havily Morgan, get your beautiful self over there … now.
She went back to her office then took the display case in hand. With her briefcase in the other, she thought the thought then folded into the building that housed the administrative offices. She moved quickly to the wide glass entrance of Endelle’s suite. The interior was dark, of course, because the admins had already long since gone home for the night.
She stepped in front of the sliding doors. Nothing happened.
She tried several times.
She drew her phone into her hand and thumbed.
“Central.” She recognized Jeannie’s voice. Something about her tone eased Havily. She had no idea why, although she’d always heard that the women chosen to work at Central—and they were always women—had a calming effect on the warriors.
“Good evening again, Jeannie. I’m outside the offices, but the doors are locked and everything’s dark. Are you sure Madame Endelle is here?”
“Oh, yeah,” Jeannie drawled. “Her Supremeness has been holding court and wrecking everyone’s night for the past six hours. She’s there. I’ll give her a holler.”
“Thanks,” she said.
She thumbed her phone and as she waited, her heart once more took to hammering inside her chest. Yes, indeed, there were many changes that needed to be made.
And they began tonight.
* * *
After ten minutes of being back in her home, Alison finally stopped trembling. Yet her mind still spun like a top and couldn’t seem to land.
Her head wagged back and forth. This couldn’t be happening.
Vampires?
She stood bewildered in her family room staring at a wall of books, her favorite books, collected from the time she was a child. She stretched her hand out toward them, toward that which was familiar, trying to find purchase for her spinning thoughts and fears.