Gates of Rapture (The Guardians of Ascension) by Caris Roane Page A

as offering all sorts of incentives to align with the Coming Order.
    But Grace was back, and he would have to start dealing with her. She and Leto would be his primary targets over the next few days. His secondary object was to destroy the hidden colony network on Mortal Earth. His Seers Fortresses had relayed a constant stream of prophetic information about that network, which indicated Leto had built up a formidable army among what turned out to be a thousand hidden colonies worldwide on Mortal Earth. According to Seer information some of those colonies had over ten thousand residents.
    But finding the colonies had been a bitch. However, with the first location mapped and his teams reporting great success with his transmitter concept, he knew that within days all of the colonies would be visible on his electronic grid.
    For that reason alone—that the hidden colony network was nearly in his grasp—the timing of Grace’s return frustrated the hell out of him. Once he knew the exact locations of each colony, he had planned on destroying them one by one and thereby the army that Leto had built within the Militia Warrior population of each colony. After each community was brought under his control, he would then extract what he believed was a vast wealth of Seers and force them into his various Seers Fortresses. He dared even the powerful Marguerite to best him then.
    But now Grace was back, which would no doubt put obsidian flame into play. The timing was an absolute bitch.
    He closed his eyes and calmed his spirit. He would need to keep a cool head to face the challenges of the next few days and weeks. He developed a new mantra: Stay focused, capture and eradicate Grace, destroy the hidden colonies.
    As he rose from his chair, he decided it was time to put to work his most powerful Seer: Owen Stannett.
    He focused on Stannett and found him in his private meditation room, where he knew the pervert liked to cruise the future streams and do his own form of porn viewing: real couples, future time. He gave him a mental nudge as a warning, waited a few seconds, then simply folded from Geneva Two all the way to the inner depths of the Illinois Two Seers Fortress.
    He found Stannett on his chaise longue, zipping up his pants and rising to a sitting position. “Master,” Stannett said, looking up at him. His cheeks were flushed as he patted the immaculately coiffed wave alongside his head.
    “Enjoying yourself I see.”
    At that, Stannett smiled. “Always, but to what do I owe the honor of your visit?” He turned and slid his legs over the side of the chaise.
    “Well, my friend, if you had not been so busy beneath your leathers, you might have noticed a slight wavering in the fabric of space and time, a rumbling as it were in the order of the entire universe.”
    Stannett frowned.
    “Grace has returned.”
    His eyes went wide. “Well, finally. What do you intend to do?”
    “To find her and separate her from the herd if I can. Then I’ll give her to one of my Third Earth death vampires as a snack.”
    Stannett eyed him carefully. “I’ve always wondered how you managed to bring Third Earth death vampires down here to Second Earth when the portal to Third has been closed all this time.”
    At that, Greaves smiled. He had his own secrets, and since he didn’t really trust Stannett, he said, “I have many powers, my friend.”
    Stannett chuckled. “Well, I do like the idea of giving Grace to your vampires to feed on.”
    Stannett was not a squeamish vampire, but then a man who had raped his own Seers when he was the High Administrator of the Superstition Mountain Seers Fortress did not have the loftiest morals.
    “I want you to recommence your experiments harnessing yourself to six Seers. I must have pure vision .”
    “But, master, you know the difficulty. The Seers keep dying.”
    “I no longer care. I shall have the best Seers from my Mumbai, Johannesburg, and Bogotá Fortresses shipped here as needed. From all