Veiled (Rapture's Edge 2)

One-by-one, each of the warriors turned to stare.

A shiver traveled across Endelle’s shoulders and down her spine. What was she looking at? She felt confused and amazed at the same time.

“Merl, what does this mean?” she called out.

Merl shook his head. “I don’t know. I’ve never seen multi-colored smoke before.”

Luken. Again. Another sign something extraordinary was going on with him.

Luken asked what they were talking about, then looked up and his eyes widened. “Sweet Jesus, what the hell is that? I don’t get it. Why three colors?” He shifted his gaze to Merl.

Merl shrugged. “I don’t know. Power, I would guess, perhaps to match your physical dimensions.”

Alex added his two cents. “Tank-like smoke for a tank-like warrior.”

Laughter rolled through the team.

But Endelle couldn’t even smile. Instead, the familiar pressure inside her head increased suddenly as her gaze remained fixed on Luken. She rubbed her forehead. The damn headache hadn’t let up and she’d even contacted Jeannie at Central to see if a storm was moving in to account for the persistent pain.

No storm, however, just one nagging headache, something she rarely experienced given her self-healing abilities. She even contemplated hauling Horace over to Militia HQ just to get some relief. But she hated bringing him in when he spent every night patching up those warriors engaged in battling at the Second Earth Borderlands. They fought death vampires dusk to dawn. So, she waited. But if the pressure didn’t abate by daybreak, she’d call him to the palace once he was done for the night.

Duncan’s vision had changed everything for the team, no question. And according to his time-table, they had a couple of nights to gain the necessary Third Earth abilities to battle anyone they encountered when they finally passed through Yolanthe’s portal. But would these drills and so many emerging powers be enough? With the exception of Merl, the team simply wouldn’t be seasoned in battle for the higher dimension.

The sound of Luken’s voice, as he suggested repeating a drill, drew her attention back to the team leader. She’d never known a man like him in the course of her life, built like hell, stronger than everyone around him. When she’d first assigned him to take Thorne’s place as leader of the Warriors of the Blood, she’d thought him a temporary replacement until she’d seen him in action.

Luken was a natural leader and had lived in Thorne’s shadow. Now each man had a new job and if the Seers were right, Thorne would one day take her place as Supreme High Administrator of Second Earth.

But what about Luken? With so much talent and power, what was his destiny?

She repressed a sigh as her vision of a month ago once more rolled through her head of Luken sliced up during a battle on Third and falling from a point high in the sky all the way to earth.

The pressure in her head sharpened suddenly to the point of extreme pain. She rocked forward and held her head in her hands.

She realized she’d felt this before, as though something outside of her was trying to get inside her mind.

She sat upright and began to explore the crippling sensation. Then, instead of fighting the pain, she let it go.

And just like that, another vision rushed into her head. She levitated upward and felt as though she was falling backward at the same time.

She heard Luken shout her name.

The vision this time was of her, in a costume that rocked, lots of metal, horn and black leather, sort of a modern-day Viking, even better than the ones she’d sketched earlier.

Only where was she? The place was a deep woodland. She felt death vampires near her, maybe fifty yards out.

She turned, and there was Luken battling a large force of Third Earth Militia Warriors, sweating and struggling to keep up.

The next moment she had a sword in hand and she knew exactly what to do. She took up her place beside Luken and together they defeated the enemy.

The vision ended abruptly. She found herself staring up into the metal ceiling of the workout center and Luken was holding her in his arms. She turned into him, tears in her eyes as she put her hand on his face.

“Endelle?”

“I’m okay. You can put me down.” She had trouble swallowing, though. Her throat was so tight.

“What happened?” he asked. “You were in the air, on your back, then dropping fast.”

“You caught me?”