Burning Skies Read Online Free Page B

times like these, the clinics were critical.
    Horace nodded. “Good. We’ll be able to work better in a hospital environment.” He was a lean man, with wavy brown hair to his shoulders. He wore a loose V-neck pullover shirt of white cotton with navy embroidery that followed the neckline. He reminded Havily of the hippies on Mortal Earth during the 1960s.
    Thorne rose to his feet and moved away from Luken a couple of yards. He called Central and spoke to Jeannie. Not long afterward, the rest of the warriors started showing up. A few minutes later the six men, including Thorne, stood in a half circle next to her. Except for Warrior Medichi, they all wore black leather kilts, black weapons harnesses that allowed for wing-mounts, black gladiator-style sandals with shin guards, and silver-studded wrist guards also in black leather. They were a powerful brotherhood, all spattered in blood from fighting, all bearing swords in hand. Santiago flipped his jewel-encrusted dagger in his free hand.
    Warrior Medichi never mounted his wings and wore his version of battle gear: black cargoes, black tee, steel-toed boots. He did, however, wear the same weapons harness, the silver hilt of a dagger protruding from the central angled slot.
    As a group they stared down at Luken, but no one said a word, five warrior souls exhausted from the recent months of accelerated battling. Commander Greaves had been importing an increasing number of death vampires from all over the world to fight the Warriors of the Blood on a nightly basis, a strategy that had culminated here tonight with the use of some kind of incendiary bomb that had burned Luken while he was in flight.
    Santiago slid his dagger into his weapons harness, a slot just lower than his heart. He drew close and put his hand on her shoulder. “Thanks, Hav. Madre de dios, his beautiful wings.” He withdrew his hand and vanished.
    The men couldn’t be gone from the various Borderlands for long. The death vamps arrived in waves, and any that slid unchecked down the Trough, that nether-space between dimensions, would claim victims on Mortal Earth tonight.
    Kerrick came forward and also put his hand on her shoulder. She looked into his green eyes. “We’ll take care of him,” she said. She still held Luken’s hand.
    He nodded as he dematerialized.
    Jean-Pierre came next. “Merci, soeurette.” The term was affectionate and meant “little sister.” His eyes were wet as he followed Kerrick’s lead and was simply gone.
    Zacharius approached next. He bent low and kissed her on the cheek. He stroked the back of Luken’s hand with a finger; then he, too, folded away.
    Medichi knelt beside her, and she felt the strength and comfort of his powerful arm as he squeezed her shoulder. “We will never forget that you were here for him when we couldn’t be.” A movement of air, a little breeze at her back, told her he was gone.
    For some reason, as she gazed at Luken, the fact that he lay with his head near the base of a tall stand of ocotillo, that he didn’t even have a scrap of cloth to separate his fine blond warrior hair from the dirt, made the tears come and they just wouldn’t stop.
    A few minutes more and the healers began to arrive so that there were five in all, each with hands poised above Luken’s skin.
    After what felt like hours instead of a dozen more minutes, the ambulance pounded across the open desert terrain. Only then did she release her hold on Luken’s hand. But because Horace insisted that her touch was as vital as any of their healing efforts, she rode in the ambulance all the way to the emergency clinic, her fingers once more wrapped around Luken’s.
    She only let him go when the burn specialists arrived and he was hooked up to an IV.
    She was reminded, yet again, that even the most powerful of vampires could die.
    *   *   *
     
    Marcus woke up with a headache. He opened his eyes and glanced at the low dresser across from his bed. The sleek chrome clock pulsed