Free Dominion 4 - Ascendance by Lissa Kasey Page A

the power back to the earth and sought within the recesses of the soil for strong and willing roots. They moved for me, breaking free and snapping at him. The limbs were thick and grabbing, like some dark octopus rising from the ground. Several roots grabbed his legs. He took them in both hands and ripped them apart.
    That stung. The earth admonished me with a pulse of pain before raising thicker brown limbs to the surface. Sam fought with them for a few minutes before putting his hands to the ground and forcing it to move beneath me. I struggled to keep my footing while the earth shook. Then another root popped free and wrapped around my waist, dragging me toward him. He was borrowing my power.
Dammit!
    I touched the root, forcing it to curl away, and instead it writhed, shifted, and became a growing sapling. The others coming at me met the same fate, but Sam didn’t stop. He wove around the new trees like some sort of superhero in a comic book. When he got to my side we both moved in unison, fists flying—me thrusting the earth into my punch, and him with all his vampire strength.
    The bright lights and sudden overwhelming pain were unexpected. I think I lost consciousness for a few seconds, then blinked my way back to the surface of myself. The bubble of protection had burst. I hurt, but the earth power pulsing through me healed me just as fast, repairing busted veins. Something about being in California brought me closer to the earth, gave me more power, or maybe that was just Sam again.
I struggled to sit up, finding it hard to breathe even as the pain began to recede.
    Sam lay about twenty yards away. He moved slowly, a hand to his chest, and shook his head from side to side. The sound of his wheezing and cursing reached me and made me laugh. Wow, we’d really beaten the shit out of each other. And what had we gained?
    I touched the blood that still trickled from my skull. He had blood in his lungs, I could smell it. It wouldn’t kill him, but it probably hurt pretty badly. I limped to his side. He flinched, but I put a hand to him and to the earth, pouring the healing into both of us. The shock on his face told me he hadn’t expected my help.
    “Are you done now?” I asked him. The power I’d been playing with had taken its toll, making me really tired. Even I could handle only so much of the earth at once.
    “You are both done,” a voice said from closer to the street. Gabe crouched beside a nearby tree. How long had he been there? He didn’t look angry, but he didn’t look happy either. He’d changed clothes since I saw him last, now wearing jeans and a T-shirt. When he approached us, I felt his nudge to our link and opened for him. His worry flooded me. “Were you trying to kill each other?”
I flushed, feeling a bit foolish even though I hadn’t started the fight. Sam looked away from both of us.
    “Come on, let’s get you bandaged up.” Gabe pulled us with him, and then dragged us away from the park and toward their hotel, probably. Neither Sam nor I protested. We followed along quietly. I couldn’t look at either of them. Had I really used my Pillar power to try to mess up a vampire I was jealous of? How stupid was that? I could have hurt Sam just ’cause I was pissed off.

Chapter 10
    T
HE hotel was pretty plain, but the windows had coverings specific for vampires. The place had two beds, one unmade, the other done up military style like Gabe always did. He shoved me to his bed and dropped Sam to the other before disappearing into the bathroom. The water ran for a moment, then he returned with a first aid kit and a couple of damp towels.
    “That was really stupid. What were you thinking?” He handed a towel to Sam, who wiped off his dirty face. He’d already healed and the blood had begun to dry. Gabe dabbed at the cut on my forehead; apparently it still bled, because it made him frown. It stung a little, but the embarrassment of the fact that we had been fighting over him mattered