Page 144 of Gates of Rapture
Endelle knew that Marguerite had seen something about the battle that horrified her.She had a split-second decision to make about what the group should know and finally called out to Marguerite, “Come here and show me what you’ve seen.Just me, do you understand?”
She nodded and moved past the other two women to reach up and put her hands on Endelle’s face.Marguerite let the vision flow.
When Endelle watched the images pass by in a swift wave, she watched the nature of her own transformation.She saw Greaves as well.She didn’t understand how her new form could battle his and possibly win.She was still herself, except without flight gear, and her wings had changed, morphing to enormous, ethereal, floating panels without feathers; more butterfly than bird.Her hair floated in a mass of iridescent pastel shades.Her naked body, while still very female, also bore what looked like a flame pattern of the same pastel shades and very iridescent.The effect was beautiful but not exactly the lethal presence she would need to defeat a monster.
In the vision she flew in Greaves’s direction; then the prophetic images faded to nothing.Was she flying to her doom?Because Greaves looked like a man now covered in impenetrable plates like a medieval knight, yet made up of his biological material.
She squeezed her eyes shut for a long moment absorbing what she had seen.
She simply couldn’t believe what would be required of her or how the form she had chosen could actually battle Greaves.
When she opened her eyes, she drew a deep breath and told Marguerite to remain silent and not to share the images with anyone.
“Endelle,” Thorne called out.“This isn’t right.You should tell everyone.”
“Perhaps I should,” she said, straightening her shoulders.“But there is part of the vision that concerns only me, which I intend to keep private between me and Marguerite.The rest, however, I can communicate, but I want all the Warriors of the Blood in the folding hangar as quickly as possible, in flight gear, theirbrehswith them.”
Thorne got on his com and started barking orders one after the other.
Endelle didn’t wait to watch anyone arrive.She turned instead and walked in the direction of the hangar.
Once through the broad doorway, she inclined her head to Gideon, who stood on the elevated command platform that overlooked the enormous room.She noted the tension in his eyes and in his stance.
Everyone felt the proximity of battle.
She moved to stand near the extensive folding platforms, her back to the room.She could feel her elite force arriving one after the other, as well as Havily and Parisa, who were bonded with Marcus and Medichi.
When everyone had arrived, she turned around—and the sight took her breath away.All nine of her beloved Warriors of the Blood, all in battle gear and ready for war, waited for her, shoulders back, spines straight, eyes alert.
These were her warriors, the men who had been with her for centuries, battling death vampires at the five major Borderlands in the Phoenix Metro Two area.Her throat felt tight, her eyes burned, her heart ached.
Each had suffered while striving to do right by Second Earth, to keep mortals and ascenders safe from the killing inherent in the soul of the death vampires.
She loved them all, but she wondered if her warriors knew how much she valued them.She let her gaze move from one to the next, starting with Kerrick who had bonded with Alison, the first of the men to be struck down by thebreh-hedden.Marcus was next, his slash of brows over light brown eyes.He gripped Havily’s hand.Medichi was the tallest, his arm tight around Parisa’s shoulders.Jean-Pierre, as was his habit, stood behind Fiona, his arms wrapped around her; Fiona’s head cradled against his neck and shoulder.
Thorne leaned down, saying something tender in Marguerite’s ear.She smiled up at him and kissed him.
Leto met Endelle’s gaze and gave a brisk nod, his arm hooked around Grace’s.Luken stood next to Grace, one of three remaining unbonded warriors.He had the biggest shoulders she had ever seen, bigger than even Braulio’s.He was her new leader of the Warriors of the Blood, having replaced Thorne.
Zacharius, with his thick curly hair that drove the women wild, smiled crookedly.Santiago stood next to him with all his Latin charm, flipping a ruby-studded dagger.
Her men.
Her warriors.
“Madame Endelle,” Gideon called out.
She turned toward him and nodded.
“I just received word that Greaves and a large contingent of death vampires are now in flight over White Lake, just beneath the Trough to Third Earth.”
Her heart rate kicked into high gear.“Do we have visuals?”
“Coming.”Gideon spoke quietly into his com.He tapped on his computer keyboard and a moment later the huge screen behind him came to life.
The visual left nothing to the imagination.In a vast line, from the vortex and gathered in row upon row to the south, were hundreds of death vampires, the bright sun of the desert glittering off the gloss of their wings and exposing the pale skin tinged with blue.Each wore a maroon weapons harness, the signature color for Greaves’s army.
Greaves led the parade, but he hadn’t mounted his wings.He merely levitated at the head of his force and he seemed to be wearing only a pair of pants.His body gleamed with oil, which confirmed what she and Marguerite had seen in the future streams.
