Unchained (Men in Chains Book 3) (3 page)

Finally, she drew back, the dizziness having returned but for a different reason this time. She placed a hand on his chest and in a soft voice asked, “What was that?”

He shook his head slowly, which told her he was as confused as she felt. “I don’t know. I didn’t mean to do that. I don’t think I’m helping my cause very much right now.”

He closed his eyes and took a couple of deep breaths, maybe trying to regain control of himself.

Shayna took a step back. She needed to do the same thing, to find her rational mind. Besides, she still wasn’t sure the man even existed, although he was becoming more real by the second.

But there was one thing she knew for sure, she had her own life, her own plans, and she wasn’t willing to toss them aside for the sake of problems in a world not even her own. “I’m sorry, Marius, but I can’t go with you. I wish you well, even if I’m still questioning your existence.”

He released her right arm, but only enough to rub the side of his head and squint. He looked like he was in pain.

“Are you okay?”

“No. I’m sensing something or someone nearby.”

Movement beyond his shoulder brought her gaze shifting to a new apparition, a much more complex one. This time several men, a dozen by her count, dressed similarly in black leather and big like Marius, arrived about thirty feet away, landing on the sidewalk and in the street, as though they’d been in flight as well.

To a man, they had the look of military, just as Marius did. Had he brought reinforcements in order to persuade her to get on board with his plans?

“So let’s say I wasn’t slipped some kind of hallucinogenic, or a roofie, or anything else—do you know who those men are? I’m guessing by the way they arrived that they’re from your world. So did you bring them to intimidate me, because it’s kind of working.”

Marius turned and, at that moment, everything changed. For one thing, Marius started cursing up a shitstorm, then, “Daniel sent his troops. We are so fucked.”

He said other words, but when he turned to her he looked really upset, even guilty as hell. “I’m sorry, Shayna, but we just ran out of time.”

She didn’t know what he meant by that until he grabbed her, pinned her to his chest, then launched straight up into the air.

For at least two seconds, she didn’t know what had happened. But as Seattle disappeared below her, she realized he’d abducted her and that she now flew toward a heavy bank of dark clouds that streaked lightning like crazy.

She’d get killed by the storm.

Fear shot through her skull, her heart pounding hard.

She started to struggle, but he held her clamped in his arms. He shifted his flight, angling so that she now had a different, more distant view of Seattle. She screamed long and loud.

No one can hear you. I’ve created a disguise. Let’s just hope like hell it holds.
His voice again, once more inside her head.

He started flying faster and faster.

But what she didn’t understand was that despite the thunder clouds, the lightning, the rain, she passed through all that mass as though surrounded by a gentle breeze. How was this even possible?

But the next moment, pain pierced her head like nothing she’d ever known before. She writhed and screamed all over again.

Sorry. Altered flight hurts humans, but it can’t be helped. I had to make this happen fast.

Though she had no idea how she was communicating telepathically, the words formed in her head and she responded.
Oh, God, I hurt. You bastard, you’re killing me.

Somewhere in the middle of things, the world turned black.

CHAPTER 2

Marius thanked God when Shayna passed out. He knew the pain he’d caused, but it couldn’t be helped. He didn’t have higher levels of power like some vampires, which was the only thing that could have prevented the pain, and he needed to lose the small army that Daniel sent after him by flying at top speed. If they caught up to him, he’d die and so would the woman in his arms.

Then where would his world be?

He had one advantage: He was faster than the men chasing him. His father’s DNA had given him that. All he had to do was get out far enough in front, then shift course, and they’d never find him.

What he wanted more than anything was to get back to Rumy’s place, to The Erotic Passage, because he and Shayna would be safe there. However, he’d bet every cent he had on the likelihood that Daniel had men waiting to intercept. He’d never get within a thousand yards of Lake Como, maybe not even Italy, without being attacked.

As he flew, he glanced down at the Great Plains stretching out beneath him. Shifting slightly to check his back trail, he saw Daniel’s men in the form of a few specks scattered in a long row, essentially on course for Italy and Rumy’s club. They’d lose visual in a few more seconds. But he knew one way to help things along, a trick he’d learned from his surrogate father, Gabriel, a vampire of tremendous power.

Slowly, he built a secondary disguise around himself. Daniel would have been able to see through the disguise, but not his lackeys.

When the shield was complete, he decided to test it out and dropped three hundred feet, straight down, then hovered in the air. He held Shayna tightly against him, keeping her safe.

Slowly, he levitated backward until he semi-reclined in the air. In this position, he could watch the men in flight above him, but still remain levitating in altered flight. Yeah, he had some chops.

Daniel’s men drew closer and closer, but remained in the same horizontal line as well as altitude, eyes forward.

Not one vampire hesitated in the air. No one looked around or down or anything. Besides the fact that they couldn’t see him, they weren’t even looking for him.

He took a breath, then another, and finally heaved a sigh when the warriors disappeared from sight. He could feel their flight pattern as if he’d built it inside his head. He was right. They were all were headed east in the direction of Lake Como.

And that meant Daniel had called them back, no doubt to join a second contingent already waiting to intercept Marius near Rumy’s famous sex-club complex.

Marius remained in position pondering his next move. Now that he knew for sure he couldn’t return to Rumy’s, he had to find shelter elsewhere. He needed to hide out, regroup, explain things to Shayna, and hopefully get her on board.

Like both his brothers, Adrien and Lucian, he had several secret homes scattered around the world, places he could escape to when needed. He had a place in the States, but decided against remaining in North America. Daniel may have left some of his forces behind to search the continent for him.

Keeping his disguising shield tight, he shifted course to the south and formed a mental image of his home in the Andes. He had a residence in the hill caves near General Carrera Lake on the Chilean side.

Once he fixed his mind on the bedroom of that dwelling, he took off, flying on autopilot toward South America, unconcerned about weather, planes, birds in flight, mountains, anything. Traveling in altered flight would allow him to pass easily through anything solid, and his internal vampire guidance system kept him on course.

Fifteen minutes later, after traveling thousands of miles, he closed in on the lake. If he’d been at Ancestral power, like both Daniel and Gabriel, he could have made the trip in a tenth of that time. More than once over the past year of imprisonment and torture at Daniel’s hand, Marius had considered engaging his latent Ancestral power. Yet he hesitated, for the simple reason that he didn’t want to follow in his father’s footsteps. He’d long since made the decision to avoid rising to Ancestral status if he could possibly help it.

He began to slow, and eased through the hills, descending through solid matter as though it were no more significant than heavy fog. His cavern was sealed off from the outside, which made it ideal in terms of remaining secure from human trespassers.

But it had one other advantage. Three hundred years ago, he’d hired an Ancestral to create an intricate layered disguise over the small private home so that very few vampires would ever know of its existence. With luck, Daniel didn’t know about it, either.

He touched down in the bedroom, dropping out of altered flight, and carefully settled Shayna on his bed. She looked absurdly pale against the dark-gray silk comforter. She was probably cold as well, being human. His own vampire genetics kept him warmed up no matter how low the temperature fell.

He took a down comforter from an adjacent armoire and covered her up. The fact that she released a sigh and visibly relaxed told him that he’d called it right.

Removing his coat and hanging it on a peg next to the armoire, he crossed to the fireplace. He stacked up a bunch of kindling, then created a tepee of smaller logs. Within a few minutes, the fire took hold and started warming up the room.

He’d left almost everything about the cave in a semi-finished state. The original architect had hired craftsmen to square up the walls and to create a rough-hewn ceiling that flowed in a circle, with a portion indented to a peak. But nothing was smooth or polished.

He’d always liked the effect.

With the fire heating the room, he returned to the bed. Two stone shelves, also carved from rock, created shallow bedside tables. He lit a branch of candles, the only lighting in his home. His own vampire vision kept the space in a glow, but he didn’t want Shayna coming to consciousness in a pitch-black room.

He sat down on the bed next to her, frowning. She represented something to him, something he had a hard time placing. Maybe it was her innocence, even though a year and a half ago, she’d made a fairly typical mistake of falling for one of her professors.

Once she’d won Rumy’s online game that identified her as a human with tremendous if latent tracking abilities, he’d had her investigated. Marius knew quite a bit about her, including the fact that she had no immediate family left. Though she’d been on her own for a long time and very independent, her life as an American college student would in no way have prepared for the things she was likely to see and do if she stuck with him.

He slid a finger under the blood-chain at his neck. The metal had been infused with his blood when it was forged, and he had a matching chain in his pants pocket ready to bind Shayna to him. Once bound, their powers would combine, they’d form a tracking pair, and they could then go on the hunt for the extinction weapon.

He rose up slightly and drew the second chain out of his pocket, holding it in his hand as he settled down beside her once more.

The prudent course would be to slide the chain over her head right now and be done with it. She’d be enraged, but he could force her with any number of threats to get her to help him find the last weapon. And for a long moment, he debated doing just that.

She moaned softly, though still unconscious. She’d be coming around quickly now, and she’d be in pain.

But there was something he could do to help. At least he was pretty sure it would work.

Using the second bonding chain, he spread it out in a double line, laying it over Shayna’s throat. She arched slightly, then relaxed. He could feel some of his power leaving his body and he knew the proximity of the chain next to Shayna’s skin now allowed her to siphon his power and start healing. Altered flight was hard on humans, causing severe headaches and nausea.

Watching her draw a deep breath, he again considered slipping the chain over her head. If he did, she’d really be able to take on his power. The latent abilities that she’d previously exhibited would grow stronger, and her healing would progress quickly.

He was damn tempted.

He touched the chain at her neck and touched his own and felt a corresponding power surge within his own body. Her body arched again, stronger this time.

He’d gain from the bond as well, maybe even enough enhanced power and ability to battle his father if it came to that.

But he hated the thought of violating her freedom. It was bad enough that he’d basically abducted her from Seattle. But to go this far, to actually make it impossible for her to take the chain off without risk of dying—shit, he didn’t think he could go through with it.

But he was tempted.

The sooner they started hunting the weapon, the better.

He leaned forward, planting an elbow on his knee, then dropped his head into his hand.

He couldn’t do it.

When Rumy had first given him information on the winner of his little online game that proved Shayna’s ability, Marius had thought he could rip Shayna out of her life and force the bond. Once her power came online, she’d be able to find the last of several dangerous, mass-destruction weapons and keep them out of the hands of Marius’s maniacal father. In that way, Shayna would help save not just his world but the human world as well, since Daniel had designs on both.

Despite his belief that two worlds hung in the balance, though, he couldn’t force her to do anything against her will.

He just couldn’t.

Shayna must be given the chance to choose.

As he debated, his stomach cramped and without thinking, he began to rock as he attempted to force the pain away. Daniel had kept him blood-starved during his last incarceration, which had left him with a problem he’d have to deal with sooner or later. He would be cycling through a bout of blood-madness at some point, a condition caused by being deprived of blood, but hopefully not before he had everything settled with Shayna and maybe even the extinction weapon already in hand.

For now, he worked to control the pain in his gut and the disorienting swirls in his head. After a few minutes, he brought his symptoms under control and the debilitating pain eased back. Based on past experience from other episodes of blood-madness, he’d be good for several hours, possibly even a couple of days.

*   *   *

As Shayna came to consciousness, she felt that Marius was close by, even though she couldn’t open her eyes. She could sense his presence in a way that was as much a mystery as his sudden arrival in Seattle.