“Dammit, Alison,” Endelle cried. “Release your shields! So damn stubborn. So ridiculously powerful!”
She let go and a warm wave flowed through her body. The sensation was like swimming in tropical waters. She felt covered, surrounded, filled, oddly complete, as though until this moment something unknown had been missing from her life. Her eyes filled with tears.
So this was ascension, the true gift of ascended life, a wonderful ease, a sense of belonging and oneness. Was this what everyone felt?
Every ascension is different. Kerrick had told her that.
She opened her eyes and met Endelle’s gaze. For once, the leader of Second didn’t seem so hardened. Even the wooded appearance of her eyes had softened and she actually smiled. “Congratulations. You have completed your rite of ascension. From this moment forward, should Commander Greaves or any of his minions have the temerity to attack you, any or all will be held accountable under the full weight of the law. I say this to assure you that none of us expect further aggression. With that said, welcome, vampire ascender Wells.”
“Thank you,” Alison responded. She nodded several times. “Thank you.” Her mouth felt strange, her gums achy. Huh. The presence of fangs? Her heart skipped a beat as she thought of what she might do with her fangs and how Kerrick had used his when pleasuring her. Her body responded improperly and she took more deep breaths to compose herself.
“Turn around, ascender Wells, and greet your fellow countrymen.”
She turned slowly, her heart so full she couldn’t speak. The warriors set up a loud applause coupled with whistles and shouts. Havily grinned.
Kerrick smiled his crooked, off-center smile. He nodded and a blast of cardamom hit her square in the chest.
She staggered beneath the blow, but she smiled. She was like him now, truly his equal, and she couldn’t wait to be with him again.
He crossed to her quickly then gathered her into his arms and embraced her. “I didn’t know,” she murmured into his neck. “To think, I might have refused this.” He held her for a good long moment. She could feel the tension in every limb, in the way he held her so tight, a combination of fear and love.
He caught her chin with his fingers and placed a soft kiss on her lips. “Welcome to Second.”
When she met his gaze, she got lost, thinking of all they’d been through and all the ways he had made love to her, and should life be even a little fair, all the beautiful centuries they would have together. God willing.
But even then, as the warriors congratulated her, she watched them always checking over their shoulders, gazes shifting about, prowling, always on guard, fists bunching as though preparing any moment to bring swords into their hands.
Doubt ripped through her suddenly.
Would Kerrick and she truly have a life together or were they kidding themselves?
A servant arrived in the doorway and announced that dinner was served. Endelle’s stilettos clicked across the marble as she led the way into the dining hall.
Kerrick offered his arm, and together they fell in behind Her Supremeness.
Alison glanced behind her. Havily had taken Luken’s arm. The rest of the warriors also followed, except two. As she crossed the threshold she had a final glimpse of both Marcus and Santiago standing near the open wall, staring deep into the landscape beyond, hunting, searching. Santiago lifted his gaze to the skies.
She knew what they were searching for—death vamps.
A chill traveled down her spine, gripping her skin in a tight ripple of fear. No matter the assurances, this was her life now that she had ascended.
* * *
Marcus took up last place in line to go into dinner, waiting until Santiago completed his visual sweep of the exterior. His hand itched for his sword. He didn’t like the setup even though Thorne insisted the palace had a state-of-the-art security system. He hated the open walls.
What the hell was Endelle thinking? An attack could come from so many directions, through the various connected rotundas, all of which, by the way, were large enough for death vamps to take to the air.
As the party moved into the dining room, once more he looked up. The ceilings were tall motherfuckers and would allow for anything in flight to climb high then descend at will like a rocket.
The dining room was vast and would no doubt accommodate more than a dozen large round tables for a sit-down dinner of a hundred. So yeah, the space could easily shelter a small war. Especially tonight, with only one table set for the celebration dinner.
In the round. Fuck. He’d be able to see Kerrick easily and the sonofabitch could see him.
He shouldn’t even be here and resented the hell out of the fact that Endelle had insisted. What was the point? Alison had just completed her ascension ceremony. She was safe now—or at least as safe as she would ever be—and he could go back to his life on Mortal Earth, his real life. He ought to just leave but taking off would only piss Her Supremeness off, which was never a good thing. He wasn’t dismissed until she let him go. No questions or complaints allowed.
He avoided eye contact with Kerrick. Ever since they’d gone head-to-head, a silent truce had characterized their subsequent interactions. Of course he had one major distraction on hand, which kept him occupied most of the time anyway … Havily.
She looked incredibly tempting in a simple black dress and somewhat boxy black shoes. All that black coupled with her peachy-red hair, which hung in glossy waves to the center of her back, made him ache.
Thank God she’d gone in just after Alison and Kerrick. Luken had offered his arm and she’d taken it. Night had fallen and somehow her honeysuckle scent had gotten heavier and thicker as the hours wore on. He had a hard-on he just couldn’t seem to get rid of.
As he strolled behind Medichi, he had to admit one damn thing—Havily was his f**king breh. Four thousand years, one wife divorced, two wives buried, and at the dawn of all-hell-is-about-to-break-loose the woman meant for him shows up in the Sonoran Desert Two, looking like heaven and smelling like sin. Never had he been so drawn to a woman, so enthralled by her presence and by her scent. And he knew, he knew, she was equally attracted to him. She was also pissed off about it, since the disdain in her expression when she glanced his way was full of fire and brimstone.
He was a deserter and she despised him.
EOS.
So what the hell did any of it matter? He could give an armadillo’s spleen what she thought of him and the hell he would ever take a breh, a real breh.
Goddammit. He just wished to hell she wasn’t touching Luken. Her hand on his arm made him want to mount his wings, draw his sword, then slice the bastard all to hell.