Текст книги "Born in Chains"
Автор книги: Caris Roane
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Текущая страница: 13 (всего у книги 17 страниц)
The repeated blows, however, had done something to Adrien, and he saw spots in front of his eyes. But he flew fast and hard as Lily clung to him, her arms and legs wrapped tight around him.
Yet as he flew, the wounds he’d sustained caused more spots to float before his eyes. His disorientation increased.
Adrien, you’re heading deep into the earth. Can you shift course? Adrien?
Was Lily speaking to him? Where was he? I need to stop.
But he couldn’t do that. If he stopped in the middle of rock they’d both die and he didn’t have a sense of where he was. I can’t see or think. Lily, I can’t do this, can’t get us out of here.
He felt pressure on his neck. Yes you can. More pressure. Just keep moving and relax. You’re doing fine. More small bits of pressure. Then he realized Lily was kissing his neck.
For some reason that made him smile. His mind cleared at least enough to allow him to feel the heat of what he knew was the earth’s magma.
He turned, heading back toward the surface.
Much better. I must be siphoning more and more of your power because travel is easier on me now. Her thoughts reached into his mind and eased him. Adrien, is it possible to get a magma burn? I might have blisters on my ass. What were you thinking, vampire?
Adrien smiled a little more and he sped up. Flying through the last of the rock, he took them into the air toward the stars. He could finally breathe.
Oh, thank God.
You okay?
Fine. Just a blistered butt. How about you? Dear old Dad gave you a beating, one of many in the course of your life, I take it.
He didn’t like that you called him an asshole. He would have killed you.
He felt her draw in a long deep breath. She hugged him hard. I think I might owe you one. Again. She fell silent, then after a moment said, I’d be dead right now, wouldn’t I?
Yep.
What a prick, but damn if you aren’t traveling fast. You took on a new piece of power, didn’t you?
Had to.
Where are we headed?
Rumy’s. We’ll be safe there.
He wanted to say more, but the spots began to return. Daniel could never get deep inside The Erotic Passage.
We’re almost to the lake. Hold on. I’m not feeling one hundred percent yet.
I’m good.
He slipped around to Rumy’s private entrance and slowed. His brain was still shifting about so he had to attempt his landing twice. Even then, he ended up on his hands and knees.
Lily slipped off his back as the door opened.
He looked up and Rumy smiled. “On your hands and knees, I see. Looks like Lily’s got you trained. Glad someone finally did.”
As Adrien stood up, his brain refused to function and he listed to the left. He would have gone straight over the low balustrade and into the lake, but Lily caught his arm and pulled him back.
“Hey,” she said. “Where you going?” Then, “Rumy, I need some help here. That bastard Daniel tried to fry him in Mexico.”
Rumy called out and the next thing Adrien knew, he was being lifted up by several pairs of hands. This time the black spots grew to the size of potatoes, and that was the last he knew.
CHAPTER 13
Lily sat at Adrien’s bedside.
He looked really bad. His face was both seriously burned as well as black and blue. Because she’d removed his shirt and leathers to bathe him while he healed himself, she saw how almost half his body had either serious red welts or massive bruising from Daniel’s preternatural bludgeoning.
He lay on his back on a bed in one of Rumy’s guest suites. The curly-haired owner of the expansive nightclub had immediately provided shelter, just as Adrien had said he would.
Now Lily was alone with Adrien, sitting at his bedside, touching him, wishing he would heal faster, wanting him to wake up to talk to her yet knowing he needed rest more than anything.
Earlier, when Adrien was settled in bed, she’d talked things over with Rumy, needing to be reassured that Daniel wouldn’t be able to reach them here. But Rumy was adamant that his security surpassed everything else out there and that even the über-powerful Daniel Briggs couldn’t get through the layers of disguising shields he had in place throughout his cavern system.
She also got a message to Gabriel about Adrien’s condition since by now she understood that he was like family to Adrien. Gabriel had eventually called her and set up events for the following evening. Apparently, the Ancestrals were having their annual Gala at the Black Caverns Beijing Resort, a place known as a high-end playground for rich vampires and rumored to have extensive human sex-slave trafficking. Adrien, having advanced to Ancestral level, would now be allowed to attend the gala with Lily as his guest.
Lily at first refused since they needed to keep searching for the weapon, and not waste their time attending a black-tie affair. But Gabriel then informed her that the Beijing system had numerous associations with the extinction weapon. With Lily’s tracking ability, if the weapon, or some part of it, was there, she’d probably sense it immediately. So she’d agreed to set up the event on behalf of herself and Adrien.
When she told Rumy what the plans were, he offered to arrange to have evening wear secured from their respective Paris and Manhattan homes and delivered to the guest suite.
So there was nothing to do now but to get Adrien healed up, to sleep through the day if he could, then to attend the gala that night at nine o’clock Paris time.
For now, however, she stayed by Adrien’s bed for a long time, just tending to him. When he moved restlessly, dealing with his pain, she would touch him and he would calm down. She watched the bruises grow lighter, the welts diminish, the burns fade. The restless episodes grew fewer and farther between.
Still she waited in the chair, turning everything over and over in her mind: the weapon, her son, the stress of the hunt, all the time pressures, the attacks, and of course Adrien, and all the tenderness she felt toward him.
And then the terrible truth that Adrien was Daniel’s son.
My God, what Adrien must have endured.
Adrien slept with his eyes squeezed shut as though even unconscious he lived with a certain level of tension. And why wouldn’t he?
Daniel was his father and had probably done terrible things to him for who knew how long.
Adrien moaned and, after a long moment, opened his eyes. He rolled his head to look at her. He tried to sit up but flopped back down on the pillow. “Lily.”
She leaned over him. “We’re safe at Rumy’s. Just concentrate on healing yourself.”
His eyes were closed as he nodded. He turned away from her to rest on his right side, the sheet sliding down to his waist, exposing his back. She put her hand lightly on a healed portion of his shoulder and rubbed gently. Adrien sighed and seemed to relax, if just a little.
She loved how he looked but would feel much better when the redness and bruises went away for good.
But as she looked, she saw a thin, silver line that ran from the top of his back, four inches from the base of his neck, straight down his spine. The line continued, so she pushed the sheet away and saw that it ended almost at his tailbone.
She didn’t understand what she was seeing. Vampires always healed … unless … the wound occurred repeatedly. This was one thing Kiernan had told her.
Her fingers trembled above the scar. The edges of the room began to spin.
“No,” she whispered. She didn’t want the vision to come. She didn’t want to see anything that related to the long silver line. And so long as her fingers hovered, the vision remained just out of reach.
She didn’t want to see.
And yet in some inexplicable way, she felt obligated to know the truth, to understand what Daniel had done to his boys.
She summoned her courage, took a deep breath, and pressed her fingers against the scar. Once more, the edges of the room spun, going faster and faster until the vision opened and she saw Adrien as a child, chained facedown to a table, trembling.
Daniel held a thin, sharp blade in his hand. “This will make you a man. The more pain you can tolerate, the stronger you will be. My father taught me and now I’m teaching you.”
He set the blade four inches from the base of the boy’s neck and began to cut, a deep cut that flayed the skin, splitting it into two parts that folded back as he progressed down the spine.
Lily heard Adrien’s screams, watched his legs thumping, his arms thrashing though bound, his body held flat by one of Daniel’s hands as he continued to cut, down and down.
She couldn’t bear watching another second. She moved her hand away from Adrien and the vision ceased, dissolving into thin air. She swiped at her now wet face, then sat back in her chair and wept as quietly as she could. She wept for Adrien and for herself, for Josh and for all her neighbors who had perished, for Lucian and Marius bound by chains in prison, for so much pain and suffering.
When her tears slowed and finally stopped, when she’d blown her nose and no longer felt as though her heart were being ripped from her chest, she marveled at the vampire recovering in front of her.
He’d survived a horrendous childhood, enduring unimaginable pain and suffering, and had become exactly what Daniel had predicted, a real man, at least by her own definition. A vampire, yes, but one who understood loyalty and service, who cared more about others than for his own safety, who could have fallen into rage and bitterness after leaving his childhood behind but instead served his world with relentless dedication. And he was the man who had swung Jean-Luc in a circle, giving evidence that he knew how to love despite the deprivations of his youth.
Her heart swelled at the memory of being with Adrien at the Trevayne system, at all the memories of Adrien.
Another truth surfaced: In this short but very intense time with Adrien, she’d grown to respect him and to care deeply about him. She might even be falling in love with him.
But as she stared at his back, her thoughts took a hard turn as she recalled Adrien’s reaction to the man in The Ruby Cave, chained to the table, the one Eve had used her floggers and chants on. Eve had told her she should put Adrien on the table, that he could benefit from it. Was this why? Did Eve know what Adrien had endured at Daniel’s hands when he was just a boy, what it would mean for Adrien to be chained to a table?
Her heart rate picked up as new thoughts tripped through her mind, one sensual image after the other, of having Adrien chained and under her control the way Eve had suggested, what it could mean to him but uncertain what it would mean for her.
She stood up from the chair, her gaze still fixed on Adrien’s perfect back and the thin silver line that told the tale of his life. She owed Adrien a lot, even her life. She wanted to repay him, at least in a way that made sense to her. Yes, this she could do for him, especially since everything in her heart told her it was exactly what he needed.
Her chain vibrated heavily now and she left the room, closing the door behind her, grateful that Adrien’s double-chain gave her the extra distance. She withdrew her phone from the pocket of her jeans and called Eve and told her what she wanted to do.
To her surprise, Eve wasn’t flippant with her, nor did she make a sexy joke. Instead, she praised Lily for having the courage to do what needed to be done.
There would be plenty of time before the gala to explore a journey into the darker side of sexual experience. Eve made several suggestions on how to go about it.
After making the arrangements, Lily showered, slipped into a cotton nightgown, and stretched out beside Adrien. His body, tense until she pressed herself up close to him, relaxed into her.
“Lily?” he murmured, his voice thick with sleep.
“I’m here.”
“Good. You need your rest.”
A tear escaped her eye. Why did he have to say that, to be thinking about what she needed when he was still raw from his wounds and still purple from so many bruises?
The tenderness that she knew to be at the heart of Adrien’s soul confirmed that she was doing the right thing to take him to Eve’s apartment in Rome, to chain him down on the dominance table, and maybe lay some of his ghosts to rest.
The heat from his body covered her in a drowsy warmth, a very welcome sensation. She had so much to think about, but the night’s adventure had taken a toll. Before she knew it, she joined him in a dreamless abyss.
* * *
Adrien awoke to darkness, his back really warm, his chest cool.
Ah, Lily was curled up behind him.
He reached for her, found her arm then her hip. She snuggled tighter, murmuring something unintelligible against his shoulder.
In the dark, he took a deep breath. She knew the truth about him now, the terrible truth about his genetics and his parentage, something he could never undo. What would she think of him now? Probably the worst, and he wouldn’t blame her.
He released a heavy sigh, but despite his distress, he fell asleep again.
When he awoke later, he was alone, although he heard the shower running.
He recognized one of Rumy’s guest suites, this one very private, in the lowest level of the Como cave system, extremely secure. Rumy had given them shelter.
He could always rely on Rumy.
He stretched his hearing beyond the walls of the suite but could hear nothing. Of course, some of the guest suites were miles away from the club and it was probably still daytime, the hour when all good vampires slept.
He sat up wondering what the hell to do next. This whole thing had to be getting to Lily. That’s when he heard the softest muffled sounds through the noise of the shower. He extended his hearing and realized she was crying.
The last time she’d wept, he’d been making love to her and her grief had overwhelmed her. Was she thinking about her lost family? Probably. Or maybe just the hell his kind was still putting her through.
He flopped back down on the bed and clasped his hands behind his head. He hated to hear a woman cry, but he also knew that tears were a release. He wished he could help, make it better, make this whole damn infuriating, impossible situation just go away.
But he couldn’t. He was as stuck as Lily and no closer to getting back to his brothers, to releasing them from prison, than he was to finding the extinction weapon.
He reviewed all that had happened in the crystal cave with Silas and his enthralled killers. Those unfortunate men had probably thought they’d been hired to do some general cave maintenance, check for damp, remove stalagmites in living areas, relocate young colonies of bats to human-based caves.
Instead, Silas had used them as a weapon.
Here was one more prime example of the abuse that Ancestrals imposed on regular vampires, using basic enthrallment skills that had cost how many men their lives. Vampire law was basic and ineffective: If you held the knife, you were guilty. Never mind that an Ancestral could exert mind-control over lesser vampires and use them to commit murder.
One more reason he despised that he’d added the more powerful bonding chain and taken the first step toward joining the ranks of the Ancestrals. But at least his brush with Daniel had told him he’d made the right choice: Both he and Lily would be dead right now if he hadn’t added the double-chain.
He lifted his arm and flexed. The bruises, welts, and burns were gone, not even a twinge of pain, one more sign of his increased power, since even his self-healing abilities had improved.
His thoughts turned to the extinction weapon. One thing he knew for sure right now was that Daniel intended to get hold of that weapon any way he could. If he had to create other tracking pairs by making use of Lucian and Marius, then he would do that. If Adrien didn’t deliver or didn’t join him like Quill and Lev had, then Daniel would probably kill Adrien, as simple as that, which of course meant that Lily would perish as well.
He didn’t want her to. He wanted her to live.
He also wanted her to trust him, but she still kept her secret. Not that he blamed her. If he’d been in her shoes, having lost her family to a vampire attack, would he have trusted a vampire?
He snorted. Not even a little. In fact, if humans had killed his family, those he loved, he was pretty sure he would have gone on a killing rampage of his own and never looked back.
But here Lily was, bound to him, sleeping with him, donating her blood, saving his life repeatedly, and not just for the secret she kept. He’d come to know her in these past two, now three nights. He valued who she was, who the blood-chains told him she was, how much she’d loved the family she’d lost, how she’d slept close to him last night, stayed with him, comforted him. No one could fake that kind of character and if he didn’t know better, he’d almost say he loved her, which of course seemed impossible.
He wasn’t a vampire who could ever really love, not with Daniel as his sire. Always at the edge of his consciousness was the knowledge that he could become like Daniel, as vile, as self-focused, as cruel. He struggled against that darkness every day of his life.
But there was the other part of him, born of his mother who’d died. He had memories of her when he was young, of her singing and holding him, teaching him, and, yes, of weeping as Lily wept now.
His mother had been a good woman, a fine human woman, and Daniel had killed her.
Sometimes Adrien could barely breathe for the rage he felt against Daniel, for the deaths notched into his belt.
He closed his eyes and forced himself to take deep breaths, to press down all that rage, that hatred.
He left the bed, slid into his battle leathers, and moved into the expansive living room. He’d never been in this suite before, but Rumy did everything right; fine wood and leather furniture and blue crystals that formed a wave-like pattern above a stone fireplace. A smaller waterfall to the left, similar to Eve’s, filled the space with welcome humidity.
His thoughts turned once more to Lily and he wondered yet again what secret she kept from him.
* * *
Leaving the shower, Lily dried off and blew her nose. Mourning her husband and daughter from time to time was as necessary as breathing and had been for the past two years. Her separation from Josh and living with her fears about what might have happened to him over the last two years brought on a similar round of grieving.
Was he truly alive?
Had he been hurt?
Would he even know her or be able to forgive her for not protecting him?
And should all things work out, should she actually find the extinction weapon and get him back, would he blame her for not having found him sooner?
Two more tears rolled down her cheeks.
She swiped at them and forced herself to breathe deep, to take healing air into her lungs, to try to move on.
Kiernan had told her that he’d had a caregiver in charge of Josh all this time, a human woman. Lily had asked who she was and had even questioned Kiernan about her qualifications, but Kiernan just laughed at her and said, “Suffice it to say she’s in my employ permanently. I could even say she loves the kid.”
These were her only consolations, that Josh might have been well looked after.
She forced herself to rein in her emotions, at least for now. She focused instead on Adrien and the night ahead.
She’d heard him leave the bed and get dressed, the results of finely tuned vampire hearing, so it was time to get moving and to let Adrien know about the two big events soon to come.
But just as she would have risen from the floor, a very different kind of thought streaked to the surface of her mind. Can I communicate with Josh?
Leaning against the side of the white porcelain bathtub, she suddenly sat up straighter. She’d been siphoning power from Adrien from the time she’d put on her chain, and now her power was even stronger because Adrien had reached the first level of Ancestral status. Though it was a long shot, she closed her eyes and took in a slow deep breath. She relaxed her shoulders and let her mind go loose. She focused on only one thing: her son.
The strangest sensation intruded, like movement, like she wanted to float in what must be a northeasterly direction, maybe toward Russia, as once more her tracking ability surfaced. She stayed as relaxed as she could and sent her thoughts in that direction so that pretty soon she could feel a flow of thought moving at light-speed until it encountered … Josh.
Stunned, she held herself, her mind, her thoughts completely still. Was she imagining this or was it real?
She wanted to scream with excitement, but she needed other things first. She touched the object, which felt warm to her thoughts. Yes, she felt her son and he was very much alive.
Alive. Josh really was alive!
Taking another deep breath, she formed one word and reached into his mind. Josh.
A kind of movement returned, but cloudy and ill formed, a child’s mind.
I’m here, Josh. I can sense your presence. Mother is here.
She felt the warmth of his mind relax in much the same way that Adrien had relaxed beside her while he slept. Mom?
She trembled now. Yes, I’m here. Are you okay? Tell me you’re all right!
I’m fine. Claire is here. She’s taken care of me. Mom, I miss you.
I miss you, too. So much it hurts. She couldn’t believe the amount of energy she was expending to sustain the conversation. Listen, honey, I’m doing everything I can to get back to you, but there are some things that have to be done first.
I know. Mr. Kiernan told us.
Good. That’s good. Pain swelled inside her head. She couldn’t hold this much longer. That’s what I need to know. She felt the power fade. I’ll do everything I can to bring us back together. I have to go. The power began to fade. I’ll find you, Josh. I love you.
Okay … Mom?…
Then nothing. Her telepathy returned to her, however, in an almost rubber-band snap of pain. She put her hand to her head, wincing. But she didn’t care that she hurt. She’d talked with her son. Josh really was alive and a woman named Claire had taken care of him. At least Kiernan hadn’t lied about that.
She didn’t know what she felt for a long, long moment. Not relief exactly, though that was there. Then she felt it: joy. Josh was alive. She’d kept that thought in the forefront of her mind from the time Kiernan had first contacted her, but she’d never quite believed it. Now she could. Her son was alive. She’d felt him, talked with him.
Her son was alive.
She realized she was smiling. She was sitting on the bathroom floor and smiling. Her son was alive. Alive.
And there was one person she wanted badly to share that news with.
The door opened and Adrien, dressed in only his black leather pants, stepped into the room. “I could feel you speaking to someone telepathically. What’s going on?”
Her heart began to race. She wanted to tell Adrien so badly.
“I feel your distress and your excitement. Tell me.”
Slowly, she rose to her feet. “Please don’t ask. I want to tell you but it’s a condition of my part in the hunt for the extinction weapon. If I reveal this secret, I don’t know what will happen.”
Adrien stared at her and nodded.
She slipped back into telepathy. You’re disappointed that I won’t tell you, that I won’t trust you.
His smile was crooked. It’s unreasonable, but yes, I am. I want your trust more than anything.
I do trust you and I wish I could tell you. You’ve become so important to me. I …
She’d almost said the most impossible words of all, that she loved him. She emitted a kind of gagging sound, then turned in a circle as though she could run from the thought. “What’s wrong with me? These damn chains. I feel what you’re feeling and now—”
“I know.” His hands were on her once more, her back to him, but she relaxed and let him touch her.
“The nightmare that wouldn’t end,” she said.
He didn’t say anything but surrounded her in a warm embrace. He was so kind, so loving. He was a vampire—and yet he was so much more than that. She whirled in his arms and hugged him hard, her head resting against his shoulder.
After a moment, he drew a deep breath. “I suppose I should call Rumy, ask if there was any activity after we returned.”
She pulled away to look up at him then told him the plan, first that she had a surprise for him then the gala.
“A surprise? What kind of surprise?”
After she answered or chose not to answer all his questions, she suggested dinner first, after which she would take him someplace unexpected.
* * *
By the time Adrien had finished grilling a pair of steaks, he knew something was up. His chains now hummed against his neck and chest and he could feel Lily’s excitement.
As he cut a bite of rib eye, he asked, “What’s going on in that head of yours?”
She met his gaze. “Just decided to take the advice of a friend.”
He might have argued or at least made an attempt to ply the information out of her, but a new scent rose above the aroma of his meal, which made him pause mid-bite and stare hard at Lily. She wasn’t just excited, she was excited. Her sweet feminine scent floated in streamers of sensation and her desire fueled his.
He shifted in his seat. They’d have some time before the gala and Lily had even gotten their clothes here, which meant they’d have a couple of hours or more to be together.
He brought his fork to his lips, paused, then shoved another bite of steak in. He chewed, maybe a bit harder than he should have, but the thought of taking Lily back to bed had become a quick fluttering of erotic images through his mind.
He also felt a familiar tingling near his heart that told him he’d need blood soon. But Lily was willing and by the scent of her, she’d be more than happy to donate. Over the decades, he’d served the blood needs of many aroused female vampires so he knew what it was for the donor, how stimulating the slice of the fangs and the ensuing suckling could be.
He couldn’t believe how far they’d come down this road. He thought of her as belonging to him, a regular donor now, his lover, even a good friend. Yes, he thought of her as his friend, someone he could count on in the way he could count on his brothers. Was it just the bonding effects of the chains or was there more here, much more than he had ever thought or dreamed possible?
He stole a glance at her as she speared a bite of steak. She had thick lashes, a beautiful complexion, a lovely human.
When she met his gaze, she asked, “What?”
He leaned into her and kissed her on the mouth then searched her face. “Would you believe me if I said I’ve fallen in love with you?”
Her breath hitched. “I don’t know. We’re under the spell of the chains, right?”
He shrugged. “Do you remember when you first came to me in the cave, before you bound me with the chain? I felt something even then, a drive toward you that I still can’t explain.” He felt a deep tenderness emanating from her, almost throbbing in soft waves.
“Me, too. Almost from the first.”
He kissed her again, only this time he let the kiss linger.
When he drew back, she took a deep breath and swore she trembled. “Keep eating,” she commanded. “You’re going to need your strength.”
Because of the chains, he sensed the deep sexual nature of her intention toward him, which caused him to list in his seat. But he obeyed her and focused all his attention on downing his food.
When at last he settled his fork and knife on his plate and she’d eaten the last of her meal, she turned to him and slid her hand along his thigh. “I’ve had something prepared for you, Adrien, and I hope you’ll like it. Also, I can feel that you need my blood and I’m ready to give it up for you again.”
Since she followed up this bold statement by kissing him, his need for her spiked. He slid off his stool and she came with him, a flow of movement that felt just right as she landed in his arms. He kissed her again, this time piercing her mouth with his tongue, which made her whimper and her hips press against his.
He swiveled his hips just enough to let her feel that he was ready for her, which drew her hand gliding down his back and pressing his buttocks as she arched her hips into him. He needed to take her to bed and was about to suggest the bedroom when she pulled back, her hazel eyes glittering with passion.
She lifted her chin just a little. A dare? “I asked Eve if we could use her Rome apartment for a couple of hours and she said yes. I want to take you there. Will you come with me?” Her scent enveloped him.
Adrien’s heart rate climbed. He’d never been to Eve’s apartment though she’d invited him hundreds of times over the past two centuries, from the time she’d bought and refurbished it.
She’d even described in detail some of the specialty equipment she’d installed in one of the rooms.
He swallowed hard. “You don’t want to just stay here?”
“I have something specific in mind, Adrien. Will you let me have my way right now? It will mean you’ll have to trust me.”
“What’s going on?”
He felt both reluctant and ready. Maybe it was the eagerness in her face or the glitter in her eyes, or that right now she had a hand on each of his butt cheeks and was caressing him, but like any man in his right mind, he said, “Let’s go.”
Since they were already in Italy, the flight took about eight seconds.
When they arrived, dozens of candles had been lit and not a single electric bulb burned.
He released her and turned in a circle. Lily had already moved away from him, following what turned out to be a path of small votives on the floor. His heart began to pound.
Eve was all about dominance.
So what had Lily arranged?
And why here?
Lily walked down a long hall, where more candles showed the way. At the end of the hall was a set of double doors, slightly ajar. When she slipped inside, he would have followed, but she stopped him with a hand on his chest. “Give me a sec. There’s something I need to do first.”
He nodded, mouth dry.
When the door closed, he put his head on the smooth carved wood. His heart was now banging around in his chest. If it beat any faster, it would come loose from its moorings.
He’d never been harder.
He scratched softly on the door and whispered, “Lily. What are you doing to me?”
He didn’t expect an answer, but one came, straight into his head. Do you trust me?
