Page 82 of Gates of Rapture
He glanced at her nightstand and frowned.There was a vase with at least two dozen long-stemmed peach-colored roses in it.He saw a card on the table.
He wondered if someone was attempting to seduce his woman.Casimir had once held Julianna captive in his Paris One apartment.Maybe he wasn’t as reformed as he appeared.
Greaves moved to the table and read the card.He couldn’t help but smile.Sometimes he thought he and Stannett were brothers.The words on the card, in Stannett’s hand, were very simple, “Grace has come home.Casimir, too.”
He saw something gleam behind the vase.Ah, a half-empty bottle of Jack Daniel’s.Julianna had needed some solace.
He leaned down and kissed one of the upper shredded wing-locks.“Patience,” he whispered.“You will have your chance to destroy one or both of them, I have no doubt.”
Grace had stolen Caz away from her, and to a woman of Julianna’s temperament, that was an unforgiveable sin.
***
Grace sat across from Leto in the Apache Two conference room, her arms folded over her chest.It was past midnight now, and all the events of the day and evening had taken a toll.She was beyond exhausted.But no decision had been made yet about where they would settle down for the rest of the night.Leto had reverted to his normal size, and he’d changed from his stained battle gear into jeans and a dark T-shirt.He’d even showered in the Militia Warriors locker room.
The recent encounter with Greaves had shaken her.The bastard, for she could think of him as nothing less in this moment, had almost taken possession of her.She’d almost given herself into his power.She shuddered.She had no doubt that once she’d agreed to go with him, he would have had her killed.
She chewed on the inside of her lip.
Leto met her gaze.“Grace, please talk to me.”He leaned forward with his elbows on his knees, his hands clasped loosely between his legs.He looked so beautiful, and so different from Greaves.Leto had wonderful thick raven-black hair.She loved feeling his hair.She reached out and touched it now.
Greaves was bald.That circumstance alone should have made her fight him.She still couldn’t believe that he’d been able to place her in thrall like that.
“I don’t know what happened, and I’m frightened.He almost had me.”She shivered and hugged herself tighter.
“Grace, I can feel how tense you are.I just wish I could have gotten to you sooner.But as soon as Casimir and I defeated the death vampires and I folded out of Greaves’s mist, I could hardly move.If I thought about you, I experienced such pain.”
Grace rose from her chair and started to pace.“He has so much power.My God, his power.”That’s what struck her as she walked the length of the Militia Warrior conference room.The vastness of his power.That’s what she could recall and what truly frightened her.
“But he didn’t succeed,” Leto said.“With either of us, and it cost him to do what he did.Mentally, I mean.To hold both of us in some kind of thrall like that, for at least twenty minutes, to keep us separated though we share this bond, means that he’s not all-powerful.He would be drained and even vulnerable right now.”
“He was after me, intent on destroying obsidian flame.”
“No doubt.”
She met Leto’s gaze.“I’m the real threat here.I’ve never wanted to admit it to myself.I shouldn’t be surprised that he came after me.But you know what I really don’t understand?What does a soul-based power have to do with destroying armies?I’m like Alison.I don’t want to kill anyone.I don’t think I could.”
Leto shook his head.“I don’t know.I don’t have anything close to your power, nothing like obsidian flame.I’m just a recovering death vampire who can get big enough to give you a good ride.”
Grace stared at him, then laughed.“I can’t believe you just said that.”She laughed some more.“Give me a good ride?”
Then he smiled, and before long he had joined her.She sat down opposite him again and laughed until tears streamed down her cheeks.She couldn’t seem to stop.For Leto to have reduced everything to his ability to pleasure her when he grew into his beast-state seemed so funny.She wished Marguerite were here.Her Convent cellmate would have found what Leto said hilarious.
“I shouldn’t have said that.”He palmed his eyes and laughed some more.“I know what we have is more than just sex.”
Grace went to him and sank down to the side of his knees.She put her head in his lap.She giggled some more then looked up at him.“Well, it is pretty awesome that you can change size.I mean, isn’t that something most men dream about?”
“Oh, shit, I’ve become a cliché.”
“I guess you have.”But she kissed his knees, then his thighs, and again laid her head down.“Leto, I’m really tired.Where can we go?I need sleep more than anything right now.The last couple of days have really drained me.”
He tilted sideways and slipped his phone from his pants pocket.He thumbed, and a moment later she heard him talking to her brother.The conversation lasted a couple of minutes as one location after another was suggested and discarded.
Finally it was settled that they would go to Medichi’s villa.Antony had recently installed a new security system, and Endelle sustained mist over the property.She’d done so ever since Havily and Marcus had lived there over a year ago.
Maybe the enhanced security system would be enough, but at this point, with fatigue settling like an ache into her bones, Grace didn’t care.She just wanted her head on a pillow, any pillow.
A moment more and Leto had her flying through nether-space.
