“We’re screwed.”

He kept backing up anyway. He ground his teeth. If he’d been able to fold, as any proper resident of Second was able to do, then he could have just put a hand on her and taken her to his house in Queen Creek. Now his safety and hers depended on a junk pile gaining speed like a tortoise headed for a siesta.

Goddammit.

* * *

Alison stared at her warrior-vampire-guardian as he drove the Nova backward down the alley. The desert couldn’t have been drier than her mouth and her chest fired off heartbeats like rounds of ammunition. “So what is it? Are the death vamps on their way?”

He shot his gaze to hers. “So you do remember?”

“I found the memories you took, so yeah, I remember the battle at the medical complex.”

“Christ,” he muttered. He slung his arm across the back of her seat as he looked through the rear window and guided the car at an increasing speed toward the street. “And yes, the death vamps are on the way.”

“Exactly how many?”

“At least three, maybe more.”

“But they’ll fall like you so we’ll have more time. Right? They’ll be hurt? They’ll need time to recover?”

He shook his head. “Nope. They’ll float down and they’ll most likely have a bomb with them.”

“A bomb.” Her breath came out in one long slow drag. “You know, you’re kind of scaring me.”

“Good.”

He backed into the street, the wheels squealing as he made a turn. He shifted to drive and once again the car lurched forward at a snail’s pace. He hit the steering wheel a couple more times and appeared to work his mouth over another obscenity or two. He moved into the sparse three AM traffic.

“Watch behind,” he said, “and tell me what happens.”

Just as Alison turned around to look out the rear window, a loud explosion ripped the air. Her whole body jerked in response.

“There’s smoke and fire, stuff flying everywhere,” she cried. “What was that?”

“A nifty little bomb called a shredder. It’s full of shrapnel and, when tossed in grenade fashion, explodes in a pre-set direction. One of the Commander’s little creations.”

The Commander again. Darian. Her Darian. The psychopath who talked about his fantasy kills the way most people described a family dinner. She shuddered all over again.

“We wouldn’t have survived if we’d been back there.”

“Blown to bits.”

She glanced at him. Her heart seized. What did this mean? “So Darian, the Commander, wants me dead?”

He nodded. “Yes, but keep watching. Tell me what else you see.”

She arched around again and sucked in a quick breath. “There are three men, one as big as you and the other two are like the death vampire at the medical complex. No wings, though.”

She turned to face him again. “Will they come after us? The men on the street?”

The Nova reached top speed and started rattling, but the warrior kept his foot to the pedal.

He shook his head. His arms and shoulders both relaxed. “No. High-speed chases aren’t allowed on Mortal Earth.”

“They won’t be sprouting wings?”

“Nope. No wings, which was why I’d been sent to the medical complex earlier. Our Second Earth technology picks up wings-in-flight pretty fast. The death vampire had been flapping his black pair for quite some time before I got there.”

Alison strove to calm her heart down. “So what are you doing here? I mean, you were at my office complex this evening, then at the club, now here you are.”

He glanced at her. “I’m here to protect you, Alison, as best I can while you go through the ascension process. I’m here to serve as your guardian.” He glanced in the rearview. “Have we left them behind?”

Alison turned around and scanned the street. The car had covered at least a mile and a half. Maybe more. He had the Nova at full throttle now and the car shook almost as badly as her legs. She could barely see remnants of the explosion at that distance.

“All clear.”

“Good.” He breathed a heavy sigh and eased off the gas a little. The shimmy evened out and the engine no longer sounded like it was being strangled. “Thank God.”

She felt numb and her mind had stopped working. She placed her palms on her legs and rubbed back and forth trying to ease the shaking. Could her life get any more bizarre?

“So let me understand,” she said, her throat in a knot. “We’re talking same earth, different dimensions, right?”

“Yes, Mortal Earth and Second Earth, but there are four more dimensions … that we know of.”

Okaaaay. “Just so I’ve got this straight, were you fighting several death vamps just a few minutes ago? And was one of them called ‘Leto’?”

“Yes.” He glanced at her again, his eyes wide. “How the hell do you know that?”

Her gaze skated back to the street. Only a handful of cars were out and about at this hour, cops and bad guys, and apparently vampire warriors and novice ascenders. Her brain felt fuzzy, disordered. “I think I heard the battle or at least part of it.”

“I guess you did.”

“I wish my legs would stop shaking.”

“Breathe,” he said.

For the next minute she focused on breathing, one in, one out. One in. One out. When her legs had settled down, she asked, “So why aren’t you dead? I mean, I watched you fall out of the sky and you landed on my car.” She waved in the direction of the battered hood. “There’s the proof.”

“The ascended heal quickly in most situations.”

She put a hand to her chest, knowing she had to make her confession. “I think I should tell you … I sent a blast from my hand up into the sky, back at the alley, I mean.”

“I know. I saw the results.”

She turned toward him. “So, I have to know … did I hurt you?”

“What do you mean?”

“You were unconscious after you crashed down on my hood.” She had just voiced her deepest fear, and her heart hammered out a few more loud beats.

“You think you caused my fall?”

“Yes.”

He chuckled. “The two events aren’t connected. The truth is, I got dumped. The woman in charge, Endelle, sent me into the Trough—the space between dimensions—so that I could get to you before anyone else. It makes for a quick trip but it hurts like hell.”

She nodded. She even managed to breathe a small sigh of relief. “So exactly how did Endelle send you into the Trough?”

“The same way you brought the statue into your hand earlier tonight. She just thought the thought.”

“She must be powerful.”

“You have no idea. Endelle is very old and should have ascended to an Upper Dimension long before this. She’s the Supreme High Administrator for all of Second Earth.”

“I have so many questions and you can answer them now, right? Unlike at the medical complex?”

He nodded. “Yes, because you answered your call to ascension.”

Call to ascension. The words spun around in her head. So, she had done it. She had answered her “call to ascension.” “So exactly what does this mean?”

He looked straight ahead and his voice dropped a notch or two. “Once a mortal answers a call to ascension, he or she begins the rite of ascension, a period of time that lasts three days, no more, no less, during which the ascendiate, if powerful, is vulnerable to attack, just like what happened in the alley.”

“So for the next three days I’ll be attacked?”

He nodded slowly. “Probably, but that’s why I’m here, to see you through.”

She felt queasy but ignored the sensation. “What happens at the end of the three days?”

“There will be an ascension ceremony, probably conducted by Endelle—again because you are so powerful—during which time you will profess your loyalty to her and to Second Society. She will then give you the power of Second Earth, through her hands, by which you will be permanently ascended.”

“And once I’m ascended, I won’t be attacked.”

“No. At least those are the rules. So far the Commander abides by the rules, although I’ll apologize up front about this despicable ‘trial period.’ Once you’re ascended, however, you won’t be hunted like this. You’ll take up your place in society in whatever way Endelle wants you to begin your service, and you’ll be left alone.”

Alison pondered what he’d said. “I guess what I don’t understand is why Darian wants me dead. It makes no sense. It’s not as though I’m a warrior or any kind of real threat to him.”

When he didn’t answer right away, she glanced at him. His jaw flexed several times like he was grinding his teeth.

“Tell me, Kerrick. I have a right to know.”

He eased back on the gas, signaled then turned left onto a residential street. He parked beneath a spindly palo verde tree. He shut off the engine. “All right, here it is. We’re at war, Alison, not a declared war like World War Two or anything like that but war nonetheless.” He raked his fingers through his hair in the direction of the leather clasp. He rubbed his neck then sighed. “Darian Greaves, your Darian, has ambitions to rule two worlds. He’s been developing an army for centuries made up of death vamps and ascenders alike. My warrior brothers and I battle death vamps every night as part of this ongoing war. We also serve as guardians to powerful ascendiates, which is what you are, a powerful ascendiate.”

“So not all ascendiates are powerful—” She paused.

“Not at all, and the bottom line is that when an ascendiate has your level of power, he or she can by the nature of that power become useful to either Madame Endelle or Commander Greaves. It’s kind of a tug-of-war for assets, albeit a deadly tug-of-war. And right now, you’re considered an asset.”