Gates of Rapture (Guardians of Ascension 6)

“Agreed,” Thorne added. He glanced his breh.

Marguerite smiled. “I’ll get on it.” She reached within her flight suit pocket and withdrew her phone. Leto heard her make the arrangements with her Seer teams.

Everything seemed to be coming together, except for one small thing. Leto felt sure that Greaves had something else up his sleeve, something unexpected that could still turn the tide of war against Endelle. However, he kept that suspicion to himself. Even if it was true, what could anyone do about it at this late hour?

He turned to James. “So what’s our timing here? Do you know?”

James smiled. “You’ll leave for White Lake in fifteen minutes.” His gaze slid over the group. “Warriors will want to change into flight battle gear. Obsidian flame will serve in support of Alison.” He turned to Thorne. “You’ll want to have Colonel Seriffe shut down all the hotels and gardens for the morning. Declare a state of emergency.”

Thorne immediately whipped his phone from his tunic pocket. Turning away from the group, he let Seriffe know what was happening.

To Endelle, James said, “I’m not allowed to be present, but I will be watching.”

* * *

Endelle retired to her sitting room for a few minutes just to gather her thoughts, even to savor what was happening. My God, it looked like everything was all but settled, or would be within the next few hours, especially since Greaves would be denied his Third Earth death vampires.

After all these centuries, everything was moving so fast and at each step along the way, over the past few days, Greaves has steadily lost ground. Half his army was gone, and he’d failed to destroy either the colonies or obsidian flame. With the breach repaired, he would lose another part of his strategy as well.

Yet even as she wanted to exult in this turn of events, this narrowing down of Greaves’s chances to actually win this war, she couldn’t. The bastard had never fought fair, not one day of his f**king ambitious life. What if he’d saved his best for last, something unknown and therefore unpredicted.

Still, her adrenaline was flowing.

The end truly was near—or at the very least a major battle that would change the face of things on Second Earth.

She heard the door to her suite close.

She turned and there was Braulio, the vampire who had been her lover a few millennia ago, who had served once as the leader of the Warriors of the Blood and who had supposedly died in her arms but magically returned to chap her ass over the past few months. He was somehow connected with James in this whole mess with Greaves and more than once had tormented her by sinking his tongue into her mouth, which made her want him to sink other things as well.

He wore a dark blue silk shirt and tailored slacks. His belt had a silver buckle with a scorpion detail.

She smiled. An homage, no doubt. She rose to her feet.

He moved toward her, looking her up and down. “I thought you’d be wearing squid tentacles or clamshells today.”

“Sorry to disappoint.”

His smile was crooked and all male. “A snug black-leather flight suit becomes you.”

She reached up and touched the scars at the back of her neck. She saw his gaze follow the movement, and she got a sick-gut feeling. “Aw shit,” she said. “You’re here to tell me what you did to me.”

He nodded. “It’s time. Like everything else right now.”

He moved in close and slid a hand up and down her arm. “First, I want you to know that I’m sorry that I did this against your will. I hated doing it, but I was under orders. And in this case I actually agreed with the decision because I believe it will save your life.”

“Ominous.”

“It is.” He’d never looked more serious, which increased her uneasiness.

“Spill it, ass**le. The suspense is killing me.”

“A lot of nasty shit has come out of Third Earth, including experiments with viruses built just for vampires. Greaves has that virus living in him. And now you do as well.”

She thought for a minute. “Are you saying you put a virus in me?”

He nodded. His eyes narrowed, but he didn’t add to his announcement.

Then she understood. “You gave me the virus by biting deep into my spinal cord.”

“It’s the best delivery method.”

Her breathing shifted, and her face grew hot. She listed on her feet.

He kept her upright, but she pushed him away and sat down again. She rubbed her neck and felt ready to weep like a baby. But something else occurred to her. She snapped her head in his direction.

He moved to sit on the coffee table in front of her and planted his hands on her knees. He met her gaze dead-on.

“If you gave me the virus,” she said, “then you have it, too.”

He nodded.

She sat back in her chair. “Before you tell me what the ramifications of this virus are, I need to know how you got the virus.”

“I volunteered. I wasn’t about to inject you with something that I didn’t understand.”

She put a hand to her chest. What the f**k had he done to himself? To her? And why was it so damn important?

Endelle had lived a long time, but everything that had ever happened to her had been her choice, not forced on her by another ascender. Even becoming the Supreme High Administrator of Second Earth had been an assignment she’d agreed to. Of course Luchianne had put her in a headlock, but still Endelle had said yes.

“So what does this virus do?”

“The upside is that you can shape-shift, or morph if you like, into any biological form you like, you can add appendages, you can change your DNA and grow things like claws.”

“Greaves has a claw he brings out on his left hand.”

Braulio nodded.

“Well, so far so good, but I take it there’s a downside.”

“A big one. Have you ever noticed that Greaves’s left hand is a just a little weak?”

“Yes, I’ve seen that. I figured it had to do with the claw.”

“It does. Changes become permanent.”

Endelle took a long moment to digest this aspect of the virus. She thought of herself, of becoming something different. She also thought of Greaves. “So is he some kind of crab monster because of that claw of his?”

“I don’t know. He may only have experimented with the claw.”

Endelle looked away from his dark blue eyes and the compassion she saw within them.

“Do you have changes that are permanent?”

“I have one.”