Page 79 of Gates of Rapture
Leto had his sword in his right hand and one of his daggers in his left as he battled three Third Earth death vampires, all cloaked behind what must have been Greaves’s mist.He’d already killed three of the bastards.
Casimir had his own problems with the remaining four, who apparently specialized in hand-blast capability.Greaves had clearly learned from the failure at Nazca.Sparks showered everywhere.Casimir kept working the vampires away from Leto, protecting him as he battled sword-to-sword.One hit with a Third Earth hand-blast and Leto wasn’t sure he’d survive.
His opponents were damn experienced.More than once he’d gotten a mild skin burn because one of the pretty-boys would fold behind him and slice at his calves.He could feel that his battle sandals were partly cut away and that blood dripped into the soles.His feet were slippery.
When two folded at once, he lunged under the raised arm of the death vamp in front of him, caught him in his kidneys with his dagger, and took him down.He’d made the right call.The other two materialized in the exact spot where he’d originally stood.
He increased his speed, darting forward and swinging his sword at the same time.He took the hand of one of the vamps, who now rolled on the ground screaming.
The last bastard wasn’t about to be distracted.Leto folded well beyond the prone death vamp, and before he even noticed, Leto brought his sword down hard and took his head.The vamp still standing was almost on him.Leto lifted his sword, and the weight of his opponent’s downward strike sent heavy, almost paralyzing vibrations down his arm.
At the same time, he caught movement to his left.One of the death vamps had broken from Casimir and was lifting his hand in Leto’s direction.
Again Leto lunged, rolling on the ground below the closer vamp.
The hand-blast was ill placed and hit his opponent, sending him screaming into the air and flying backward about ten feet.
Leto was now exposed and on the ground.He waited for a moment while the hand-blast geared up.Then just as he saw the pretty-boy’s smile widen, Leto pivoted, folded, arrived behind the vamp, and thrust his sword through the spine.
Turning, he saw that the three remaining death vamps had moved in tighter on Casimir and that the Fourth ascender had started to struggle.Casimir was not a warrior.
Leto used his speed, and took two heads.The final death vamp standing, turned at the commotion, which was a fatal mistake because Casimir lifted his hand and caught the bastard in the throat with a hand-blast.His head lolled and he toppled over, his skull crunching hard against one of the severed heads.
Leto bent over at the waist, breathing hard.He still had his sword in hand.His gaze drifted back and forth.If Greaves intended to add to the party, he was ready.
“Thank you,” Casimir said.
Leto glanced at him.He was trying to be mature about the presence of the Fourth ascender since it was clear the whole situation was an ascended convergence, but he still resented Casimir for having taken Grace away.He nodded, then reverted his attention to the corpses.Three of the death vamps needed finishing, so he moved swiftly and took heads.
He took one more long look around, but everything seemed quiet.Satisfied that he wasn’t still under attack, he glanced up at the mist.
Greaves.
Did he really think he could take Leto this way?Was that his purpose?
Then his chest tightened with one simple thought: Grace might be alone in the garden.
He folded to the lane beyond the mist, but the moment he did, his mind felt as though it had just been struck down by a mallet.He couldn’t give shape to his thoughts.Even his body felt heavy and unmovable.But why?What was happening to him?
Casimir materialized next to him.“Are you all right?What’s wrong?”
Leto struggled to find the words.“Help Grace.Protect her.”
“No can do.I stay with you, Leto.Sorry.And it looks like Greaves is using his thrall power on you.”
“Fuck.”He had to get to Grace.He could sense she was in danger.For one thing, he couldn’tfeelher anymore, not any of her physical sensations.
With great difficulty, he rose from the dirt lane and peered up at Diallo’s large house that overlooked the valley.She was up there, waiting for him.She had agreed to wait, to stay in the garden.At least three squads of Militia Warriors had set up a command center in the house, and Gideon had just gone up there a few minutes ago.She should be safe.
Yet somehow, he knew she wasn’t.
He called to her, mind-to-mind.Grace, Grace.
No answer, which was not possible.They were bonded.
He tried to fold up to the house but couldn’t.He began to walk the long driveway, one uphill step in front of the other.He focused on Grace, but thinking about her only made his mind muddier.
Instead, he focused on Gideon.
