Chains of Darkness (12 page)

He’d always kept his liaisons with women on a strictly superficial level. At the very least, a man ought to know his limitations, especially where women were concerned. He had no interest in hurting Claire or any female, but if he got much closer, yeah, he’d hurt her, emotionally if not physically.

By the time he left the shower, he’d shored up his resolve to do all that he could not to make a mess of things. He wrapped a towel around his waist, feeling more confident. But when he left the bathroom, the mere sight of Claire overturned his resolve. Even with her hair damp, she looked so beautiful that his lungs seized.

She wore snug black jeans and a double set of tank tops, one cut low and hanging off her left shoulder. She looked damn sexy as she moved in the direction of the dresser. Even in profile she was beautiful. Despite looking away, desire rushed through him so fast that he coughed and sputtered.

“You okay?”

“Sure. Fine.”

She settled her brush on the dresser and turned to meet his gaze. “I called Rumy and ordered breakfast for us. I probably should have asked for your preferences.”

He waved a dismissive hand. “I’m sure whatever you chose will be fine.”

“Good.” She smiled. “And as for me, I think I’d eat anything right now. I’m so hungry, probably because I’ve been feeding you.”

He wished she hadn’t said that. He looked anywhere but at her because the thought of sinking his fangs in her neck or her wrist, or a dozen other places he could think of, sharpened his needs all over again.

In an effort to distance himself, he searched for his battle leathers and slipped them on. He added a long-sleeved black T-shirt and steel-toed boots. He was now ready for whatever came at them next.

CHAPTER 5

When breakfast arrived, Claire sat opposite a very quiet vampire. She worked her way through a wonderful spinach-and-mushroom omelet while Lucian ate waffles that he speared into bites stacked three high.

And he’d stopped talking to her.

He didn’t look at her, either.

Just keeping things simple.

She sipped her coffee and sighed, but the silence didn’t seem like a solution. “I like the clothes Rumy provided for me. He really takes care of the details.”

“Yes, he does.” His gaze shot to the shirt hanging low off her shoulder. He kept chewing, then speared another section of three-high waffles, sliced it off from behind with a knife, and in they went.

Earlier, Lucian had called Rumy and arranged for them all to meet in Rumy’s office to plan their next move. “Did Rumy say anything else when you talked to him? Anything about Daniel’s tip line, for instance?”

Lucian shook his head but remained focused on his meal. He looked so damn serious.

He also looked sexy as hell, which she decided was not hard for him at all. She liked his short hair; parts were almost spiked but not quite. His face had a faint stubble, and the dark blue, long-sleeved T-shirt he wore really set off his smoky eyes.

This close, and with him looking away from her, she was free to just take him in. There were permanent tension lines around his eyes. She was pretty sure Lucian held himself together by sheer force of will.

She wondered what would happen if he ever really let loose. What would that even look like? Who would he be?

She blinked and recalled what it had been like riding him. These were errant, dangerous thoughts, of course, because suddenly her mind was full of the sight of him beneath her, before he’d put his fangs on her neck, before he’d almost drained her dry.

You were exquisite.

His gaze flashed to hers. “What?”

Had she spoken? She hadn’t meant to, but the word had slipped from her mind, aimed at his. “Nothing.”

He scowled. “What’s with the rich scent you’re throwing at me? I thought you wanted to keep things simple.”

She blinked at him, then glanced down at her omelet. Using the side of her fork, she cut off another section. “I want you to know that though parts of what happened over the past twenty-four hours have horrified me, other parts were incredibly beautiful. Sex, for one thing.” She chuckled and felt her cheeks grow warm. “I mean before you almost killed me.”

Glancing at him, she saw a shard of guilt pierce his eyes and she regretted her words. She shot a hand forward and grabbed his wrist. “I am totally teasing you about that. And you didn’t kill me.”

“I could’ve. Hell, I almost did.” He looked panicky, and the chain vibrated on her neck heavily. “I was out of control.”

She held back a smile. “Well, think of it this way. If you’d succeeded, because of the chains, you would have died as well, so justice would have been served.”

At that, his lips quirked. “You have the strangest way of looking at things.”

She laughed. “I guess I do. Maybe it’s from having taken care of a kid for two years. We played video games a lot, and the movies he thought were the funniest drove me crazy and might have affected my ability to reason. Imagine.”

He seemed to relax. He even separated the three-part stack so that he only ate two segments at a time. “I want you to know that I will do everything in my power to make sure you get home. I know we have a mountain to climb between finding the extinction weapon and rescuing Zoey, but we’ll get this done.”

She nodded. Suddenly tears touched her eyes. “I’ve missed my family so much, my mom and dad, my brothers, even their horrible teasing.” A vivid memory came to her about how she’d go into the bathroom and when she came out, both her brothers would be waiting there as though standing in line. Her mother would just laugh when she complained.

“You were robbed of precious time with them. Unforgivable.”

She sipped her coffee, considering him. “So why exactly haven’t you become an Ancestral?”

He shrugged, adding more syrup to his waffles. “For the simple reason that power corrupts, especially vampires. You have to understand, I’m Daniel’s son. I’m like him in more respects than Adrien is, and more than Marius ever was. I fear that I’d become like him—that instead of helping my world, I’d become the asset to Daniel he’s been hoping for all these years. You don’t know how much it plagues my mind.”

“Lucian, I don’t think you see yourself clearly at all. You could never be that man.”

His brows rose and his lips parted. “I’ll always be grateful that you’ve said that to me. But I want to change the subject just a little, something for you to think about. When the day comes that I take you back to Santa Fe, you’ll have the option of having your memories stripped. You won’t remember a thing. Your human specialists will call it selective amnesia because of what you’ve been through. I can do that for you, if you want.”

Claire sat back in her chair, pondering his offer. Her gaze drifted back to the bed, to being with him. She’d lost the past two years, and yes, she wished her life had unfolded in a different way. But would she truly want to forget that she’d cared for Josh, or that she’d seen Lucian through a terrible bout of blood-madness, or that she’d had the most amazing sex of her life with him?

What was the measure of a life except all the combined memories, good and bad? She was a social worker by profession, which meant she’d seen a lot of bad stuff touch the lives of other people. They often had to keep enduring child or spousal abuse, or the chaos of alcoholic parents, or drug-addicted family members who kept stripping a household to the bones financially.

Not a single human she knew had the power to get rid of their memories forever.

Why should her experience be any different?

“You’re thinking about this really hard, aren’t you?”

She shifted her gaze back to him. “You felt that from the chains?”

But he nodded in the direction of her lap.

Glancing down, she saw that her legs were crossed and so were her arms. She smiled. Body language really didn’t lie. “I was thinking about whether or not it would be truly wise to let all these memories go. I’m not sure I want to go that far.”

“It would be a difficult judgment call, that’s for sure. But it’s available if you want it.”

“Thanks.” She thought about picking up her fork again, but the remainder of her omelet had grown cold and she was no longer hungry.

He wiped his mouth with his napkin and glanced at her plate. “Are you done? If so, we can head to Rumy’s.”

“I am. Just give me a sec.” She took time to brush her teeth, which prompted him to do the same.

Then, like any old couple, he held the door for her.

But just as she would have crossed the threshold, she looked up at him, grabbed the front of his shirt, and pulled him down to her. Kissing him once on the lips, she said, “You’re a good man, Lucian, one of the best I’ve ever known. Don’t you forget that.”

She saw the doubt that flickered through his eyes, but rather than let him argue the point, she headed back up the hall in the direction of Rumy’s office.

Once there, Rumy seemed oddly nervous, this time grazing the tips of his fangs with his index finger.

“What’s going on?” Lucian asked. “You look like a mouse staring down a snake.”

Rumy sighed heavily, turned around, then picked something up off his desk. Claire saw that it appeared to be a display board covered in green velvet.

“What is this?” Lucian scowled, but Claire could feel through their shared chains that his heart rate had jumped a notch. He must already have an idea what they were looking at.

“Gabriel had these delivered about two hours ago. They’re for you and Claire—but only if you want them. He said to tell you no pressure.”

Claire drew up beside Lucian and watched as Rumy lifted back the velvet cover. Mounted on another piece of velvet were two sets of elegant silver chains, each made up of two rows of interlocking loops.

“Hell the fuck no.” Lucian crossed his arms over his chest and glared.

“Are these the double blood-chains?” Claire was so intrigued.

“Yep, and only Ancestrals can wear them—and their partners of course. They also have the ability to jump-start Ancestral power. Gabriel had them made up special for Lucian and for you, if you want them. So what do you say?”

Lucian snorted. “For starters, I’d rather be hung upside down and zapped with Tasers for the next century than put these on.”

But Rumy smiled ruefully. “Okay, but tell me how you really feel.”

Claire wasn’t surprised at Lucian’s response, since he’d told her of his reservations so recently. But she’d probably never get a chance to see this kind of blood-chain again, so she drew close. Power vibrated through her, even called to her from the chains. Unfortunately, she made the mistake of reaching out and touching one of the links. The next thing she knew, she was flying backward.

*   *   *

Lucian felt power surge through him from the double-chain the moment Claire made contact. He crossed to her quickly and picked her up in his arms. She was out cold again.

She was breathing steadily, however, so he could at least relax about that. He wouldn’t have been surprised if the sudden burst of power had stopped her heart.

Claire?

Nothing returned.

Yep, out cold.

Though he had little enough experience with blood-chains, he still didn’t understand why Claire touching them would have resulted in such a swift, unexpected power boost. Even his chain sang with new energy and power flowed through his bones—an addictive, dangerous kind of power, the kind that lived in Daniel. What the hell had Gabriel been thinking to tempt him like this?

Of course, the double-chain meant exactly what Rumy had said: If Lucian put it on, he’d become an Ancestral, something Gabriel had wanted him to do for a long time. Gabriel, an Ancestral in his own right, had been a surrogate father to him and to his brothers when they’d escaped Daniel’s house all those centuries ago. Lucian respected him, but he couldn’t take this step.

Claire came around slowly, her eyes opening as she turned toward him. “What happened? And why do I feel so good? Like I’ve been drinking or something.” Absently, she plucked at his shirt just above his right pec.

“Do you remember touching the chain Gabriel sent over?”

“Vaguely. Hey, you’re holding me in your arms.”

“I am.” Between the power surge and the fact that she’d recently fed him, his desire for her rose once more.

His gaze fell to her lips and images suddenly filled his mind, of taking her to bed and showing her that he really knew his way around a woman’s body, being generous with her the way she’d been giving up her blood for him.

Despite their recent agreement to keep things simple, if they’d been alone, he would have said exactly those words to her.

But they weren’t alone and Rumy was grinning at him in that lascivious way of his. Worse, Claire was now rubbing Lucian’s pec with a sensual swirl that made him think if she dipped any lower and touched his nipple, he wouldn’t be responsible for the consequences.

He knew by the shared chains that she was feeling it, too.

Desire. Pure desire.

And all because she’d touched the double-chain.