The doors opened, maybe for the tenth time, he wasn’t sure, but a woman’s voice, a blunt, crude voice, called into the elevator. “Somebody get me a goddamn hose.” Endelle had arrived already? Shit, how long had he kept Vela inside?

Samuel pulled away. If he’d been in pain before, right now he felt like someone held his balls in a vise. He was so close to release that his abdomen spasmed.

Vela clung to the upper sides of his weapons harness, breathing hard.

“You’re wasting precious time,” Endelle said. “You know that, right?”

“Keep your panties on,” Samuel snapped. “We’re coming.” Jesus, was he really talking to the Supreme High Administrator like that? The ruler of Second Earth?

He turned around to apologize, but Endelle only laughed. “Come on, warrior.

Let’s get this next job done. With what you went through in Honduras Two, the least you deserve is a beautiful blond getting your rocks off.” She waved an arm toward the ceiling of the elevator. “And just so you know, security has been enjoying the show.”

“Aw, shit.” He glanced up at the camera and knew a bunch of ascenders were smiling back at him. He didn’t care about himself so much, but it bothered him that Vela was exposed like this. So, he glared at the red blinking light and said, “If I find one hint that you’ve been spreading this around Second Earth, I’ll hunt the last of you down and beat you as close to death as I can get, are we clear?” A voice came over the speaker.

“Erasing the CD now.”

“Then we have an understanding.”

“Yes, Warrior Samuel.” Damn, they even knew his name.

He put his arm around Vela’s shoulder and led her into the hall in the direction of Endelle’s office.

Once inside, he took in the zebra skin rugs, the antique tusks that supported the unpolished marble desk, a fireplace to the left that looked as though it was never used and the full wall of windows that offered a magnificent view of miles and miles of the eastern desert. He loved this land, the dry air, the forever blue skies, the prickly nature of the inhabitants, human and otherwise. Desert living wasn’t for the weak.

He glanced at Vela. Neither was taking on a vast power like Third Earth darkening abilities capable of moving through dimensions. His woman, yes his woman, stood facing Endelle’s desk, her shoulders squared and ready.

He understood something about Vela right then, that she would go the distance.

He knew many Militia Warriors like this, good men and women who he would trust with his life. Most of them would go on to become Section Leaders and they always set the best example for the troops.

“What do you suggest, Madame Endelle?” But the leader of Second Earth just shrugged. “Beats the hell out of me. I don’t do the darkening the way you described.

You’ve got Third Earth chops. I don’t.

This is your show, Vela. Though the one thing I can tell you is to go with your gut.

The rest will follow.” Vela turned toward Samuel. “I have no idea what we’re going to find, but I think you should have your sword with you.” Samuel glanced at Endelle, lifting his brows. “Can I do that here? Fold my sword to me?”

“Do it. We don’t have the same security restrictions as either Apache Junction Two HQ or the palace. Thorne’s been after me about it, but for now he can just bite me.” Samuel withheld a smile. Thorne was revered among the Militia Warriors, a man’s man, and destined apparently to replace Endelle. So to hear her say something like that about Thorne, perhaps more than anything else that had happened, made him know his life really had changed.

He thought the thought and folded his identified sword into his right hand, the blade held away from Vela. He moved to position himself on her right side.

“You ready to go for a ride, warrior?” she asked.

He knew what she meant, but their recent engagement in the elevator made him think of other things. He repressed his thoughts if not the squeeze he gave her waist or the smile that moved his lips inappropriately.

But her lips quirked as well, which made him wonder if the breh-hedden might have chosen wisely for him after all.

She shifted her gaze away from him.

He watched her concentrate on what couldn’t be seen, probably searching for Duncan.

He tightened his hold on her waist and suddenly they were moving fast through the dark tunnel matrix she’d described, flying down one tunnel, reaching a branch, choosing with deliberate ease the next tunnel, then flying some more.

He saw the same things she’d described earlier as images raced past him. Once he’d become accustomed to the movement, he tried to see what made up the images that flashed by.

Eventually he saw landscapes and cities, a lot of smoke, ruins, people in rags, some warriors in flight battle gear, people running and large whirlwinds of light which turned out to be weapons of heavy capacity and destruction. He watched people being blown to bits, heard others scream, saw warriors flying and bearing swords. Then more landscape, a beautiful peaceful earth, then even greater turmoil.

His heart sank as Vela continued to move him through the darkening. Third Earth, too, was a world at war and somehow, one of the culprits had gotten hold of Duncan, but to what purpose? And why execute him?

Vela began to slow and his sword hummed in his hand.

“What is it? What’s wrong?” He looked around carefully.

“Do you hear that sound?” He listened hard. And there it was.

“Like a very distant explosion.”

“Yes. The last time, I barely made it out alive. They’re coming for us and they’re coming from the direction of Duncan’s tunnel. I think they must know we’re here.” When another explosion sounded, closer still, that was all Samuel needed to know. “Get us out of here, Vela. There’s no point in moving forward if they’ve got a fix on us and it seems they do.” He turned her in a one-eighty, keeping his sword well away from her.

Then her voice was in his head. Samuel, the return route has changed, but I don’t know why. I don’t know if we’re being directed that way, and it’s an ambush, or what?

Remember what Endelle said, go with your gut.

Then I have to change course.

Do it. I’ve been a warrior a long time. Going with your instincts will get you where you need to go, every damn time. You’re connected to this power, so follow its lead.

But even as he said this to her, mind- to-mind, an explosion sounded behind them, much closer this time.

She flowed faster than before, taking tunnel after tunnel. He could feel the dimensional crossing, like a bump in the road, but still they were pursued as another explosion sounded.

Closer.

She reached the end of a tunnel. A dead end. I don’t know what to do?

What do you see? All he saw was darkness, like a wall of infinite black.

I doorway with a kind of gold seal around it.

Another explosion. Try knocking.

An explosion sounded so close his ears rang.

Fuck that. Samuel, use your sword.

He didn’t pause to ask questions. He summoned his dark power and as his smoky mist swirled around him, he sliced at the wall with his blade and what do you know, an opening peeled back.

A man in long black terry robe, a cigarette in one hand and martini glass in the other, stared back at him and muttered.

“Oh, shit!” Samuel stepped through the opening, dragging Vela with him, turned and faced the breach but he saw nothing just the wall.

But he heard another explosion.

“Fuck.” Their host said. “The wreckers followed you.” Samuel turned back to face the robed stranger. “What do we do?” He rolled his eyes, settled his cigarette carefully on an ashtray, placed his martini glass on the coffee table then went to the wall.

Samuel pulled Vela close as another not-so-distant explosion rocked the space.

“I could use some help here,” the stranger called out.

Vela went to the wall, and placed her hands on it alongside the man.

“Shit, this isn’t working,” the man shouted.

Samuel’s instincts kicked in and he went to the stranger. He placed his hand on the man’s back and his own power flowed. A kind of zing went through him, into the stranger, and the power amplified about a hundred fold.

Then everything went black.

Sometime later he woke up on his back.

“He’s awake now,” Vela said.

He shifted his head slightly. Vela had hold of his hand, her knees curled next to him. Her long, unruly hair, full of waves and curls, hung beside her face, an almost angelic look. He squeezed her hand.

“You okay?” she asked.

He glanced around. He was on the floor, in the same room, the stranger’s living room. “What happened?”

“You amplified Merl’s power and he sealed the tunnel back up. Looks like we opened up an exit point that had been closed for about five decades.” He glanced at her other hand. She held a martini glass. “You’re drinking?”

“Seemed like a good idea.

Greygoose dirty. Very nice. And we were very lucky Merl was here.” She’d called him by name twice.

He didn’t like that. At all.

He sat up, his head spinning. Shit, where was his identified sword. Only he could touch the grip or the hilt. Jesus.

“Where’s my sword?” Merl said. “It’s humming over there.” He gestured behind him.

Samuel widened his eyes. His sword was stuck about ten inches into the wall, on the opposite side of the large room, at least thirty feet away from where he now sat. There were many issues to address right now like how much he didn’t like his new host since he could sense his male- hunting stench, but he needed to take care of his weapon first.

As he rose to his feet, he said, “I take it we’ve reached some kind of safe haven here on Second and you must be from Third.”

“Guilty.” Had Merl actually said that?

Samuel crossed in front of him, catching his gaze and holding it hard, as he passed by.

The man held up both hands in surrender, a new cigarette in one hand and a half full martini in the other.