Gates of Rapture (Guardians of Ascension 6)

It could have been worse. It could have been a disaster. That’s what he thought but that’s not what he said. “We’ll need counselors in here as well.”

Gideon nodded. “Mei-Amadi will take charge of that.”

“Do we know how the colony was identified by the enemy? Did any of your men find transmitters?”

“Yes,” Gideon said. “They’re everywhere. But we knew it was just a matter of time.” He looked up. “Diallo feels confident this renewed layer of mist will eradicate the position of the colony. If Greaves’s army wants to come back, they’ll have to work for it.”

Several hours later, the Nazca One Colony was well in hand. Gideon sent dozens of Militia Warriors to search out the last of the transmitters.

Leto folded back to the landing platforms. He was the only one at that location. The grounds were quiet, as they should be. The hour had to be near two in the morning.

He was about to fold when he sensed something behind him. He turned around and watched a large shimmering appear in the desert. He drew his sword into his hand and was about to sound the alarm all over again when Greaves appeared with a contingent of ten Third Earth death vampires. On top of that, Greaves held both hands out in front of him. Leto could feel the hand-blast gearing up.

He saw his death in this moment as sure as Greaves was standing there. He couldn’t legally kill Leto, but he could wound him as near to fatal as he could get, then order his death vamps to finish him off.

Leto had only one thought: But Grace just got back.

Like hell, however, he would take this lying down. He lowered his chin and built up his shields as fast as he could. He drew a dagger from his weapons harness.

Greaves just smiled. “I’ve been waiting for this moment for months now.” He let loose with a hand-blast that roared at Leto like a freight train.

Leto’s shields buckled, and he was thrown off the platform and rolled downhill. The whole time, he worked at rebuilding his shields, but it was as though they’d been melted. Still, he had to try.

He glanced in Gideon’s direction, but he couldn’t see him. Greaves had put a mist around the battle. Of course.

Leto had just gained his feet when another blast hit, but to his surprise, it didn’t even touch him.

Another shimmering brought a new entity between Leto and Greaves. He was tall and bald but with writing on his skull—tattoos, maybe.

“Casimir,” Greaves called out. “What are you doing here?”

“Making sure Leto stays alive.”

This was Casimir? And he was here to defend Leto? What the hell?

What Leto saw next was a shower of energy that met in the middle between both men. Light and sparks flew up into the sky.

“I can do this for hours, Darian, and I have permission from Endelle to engage however I can to protect Leto. I suggest you get the hell out of here and take your pretty-boys with you before I blast your mist to hell and the rest of the Militia Warriors below decide to take on your men. What do you say?”

When he finished this speech with a flick of his wrist that sent a wave of energy piercing Greaves’s shoulder, Greaves waved his arm. Just like that, he and his death vamps were gone.

Leto had too much adrenaline in his system. He held his sword in a tight fist, and his whole arm shook. He’d faced death and would have died just now except for the aid of the one vampire he despised the most: Casimir.

The bastard turned around and faced Leto. He looked so different without his long hair. But there was something more. His dark eyes held a light Leto had never seen before.

“What the f**k are you doing here?” Leto asked. “And what do you mean you’re here to protect me?”

Casimir’s smile quirked. “Is that any way to address the vampire who just saved your ass?” He looked Leto up and down. “Like the new look you’re sporting. Bigger.”

Leto took two deep breaths. “Grace is mine.”

At that, something of the old Casimir showed through. He rubbed the top of his head. “We’ll see about that. I think she should have a choice.”

Leto would have launched on him, but Casimir just held up his hand and Leto couldn’t move, which made him mad as hell. He roared.

“Relax, beast-man. I’m here as your Guardian of Ascension. That’s all. I relinquished Grace months ago. She’s yours.”

Leto had no reason to believe Casimir. “Shut it, ass**le, and please just return to Fourth Earth.”

“No can do. Greaves wants your ass in a sling—or did you not notice that he outpowers you about a hundred-to-one?”

Leto noticed.

“Yeah,” Casimir drawled. “I think he was a little ticked off that you oh-so-easily dispatched the other Third Earth vampires he’d sent to get this job done. Oh, and maybe because you defected back to Endelle’s side.”

Leto knew many definitions for the word nightmare, but right now, this situation in which Leto owed Casimir his life, had just created a new meaning. “What about Grace? Are you here to guard her as well?”

“Nope. Just you.”

Yep, nightmare. Leto was many things, but he wasn’t a fool. If Greaves had targeted him and had staked Leto out in order to finish him off, Leto was in for it.

He needed Casimir. Nothing could have put a fire on his nerves worse than that.

“You’re not staying in my house.”

Casimir just lifted a brow. “I’m not staying anywhere on Second Earth.” With that, he vanished, though Leto could sense he hadn’t dematerialized. As a Fourth ascender, he had powers that Leto couldn’t relate to, like going invisible—which he was pretty sure Casimir had just done.

Leto turned in a circle. He still held his sword in his hand. He focused and sure enough, he could sense Casimir’s presence.

Don’t be an idiot, Casimir sent. You need me right now, and I’m sticking around. I owe Grace at least that much, to keep you alive. Adios. At least for now.

This time, Leto knew that Casimir had gone. So had Greaves’s mist. He glanced down in Gideon’s direction, but no one seemed the wiser about what had just happened.

He let out a heavy sigh and headed back up the hill. Once at the landing platform, he folded to the Seattle Colony’s landing area then headed to HQ. The Militia Warriors on duty reported that the colonists were all in their homes; no lights were on anywhere since they were still on high alert. The warriors folding back from battle were immediately sent home to clean up and recoup.

He glanced out the window at the contest grounds, visible beyond the empty tents.