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The Pharaoh Cavern system wasn’t far, but it was one of the most heavily fortified in his entire world: Gabriel’s lair.
He shot a telepathic message to the owner and a second later landed in the middle of Gabriel’s outer entrance cavern, with a dozen automatic weapons leveled at him.
Gabriel, wearing a long, Arabian robe, moved into the space, his hands spread wide, letting his men know everything was okay.
“Lucian, where the hell have you been?”
“Four Diamonds.”
Gabriel whistled. “And you found one of the weapons. Is this the one Arsen and Salazar were trying to sell to Daniel?”
He nodded. Gabriel started to ask another question and Lucian really did want to answer, but Claire was shaking now. He pulled her off his back and into his arms. Her hands were bleeding, as was her face. Her hair was singed badly, her beautiful auburn hair. “We need help here. Claire got me through the obstacle course, but at a price.”
His own pain, he ignored.
Gabriel shouted a dozen orders, which sent his security team to the edges of the space and closer to the entrance in a protective array.
Gabriel’s household staff began arriving on a run, and because Lucian was burned as well Gabriel asked permission to take Claire from him.
Lucian looked down at her. His ridiculous protective instincts didn’t want to let her go, but he was in bad shape as well.
Lucian took a deep breath. “Please, take her. You’re the only one I would trust with Claire right now.”
Gabriel hefted her easily, but kept her head near Lucian so that he could see her. Gabriel then shifted to altered flight. Lucian sped next to him.
A special healing bath had been prepared for Claire, something his kind had designed for burn victims, which had always had a beneficial effect on humans as well. She couldn’t speak.
Claire?
I hurt.
We’re going to take care of you.
At the same time, Lucian sent his power to her, ignoring the pain of his own burns as he sent his vampire healing in her direction.
Once in the bathing area, Gabriel handed her back to Lucian. The female servants cut her clothes off while he held her, then he saw the level of her wounds and cringed. She had third-degree burns on her feet and portions of her legs, her face, her arms, and especially her hands.
One of the women gave her something to drink, and because the drink contained an opiate he knew she’d be out of pain soon. He settled her into the bath. She whimpered and shook, but the water eased her, and after a few seconds he watched her entire body relax.
He kept sending her his healing power so that with her face covered in ointment and most of her body submerged, she finally spoke to him. Better. Much better.
You’ll heal fast now. You’ll see. And you can sleep if you want to, which might be best.
Sounds like a plan.
Knowing that Gabriel’s staff would take extremely good care of her and that few other places on earth were as well guarded as the Pharaoh system, not even Rumy’s, Lucian finally left the healing room.
He found Gabriel waiting for him along with more staff to tend his burns. There were women present, but he turned slightly in what would be Claire’s direction. Out of respect for her, he asked for them to leave, to send back only male vampires to do the rest.
Gabriel stared at him, his usually straight brows raised. “This is new.”
“Tacit understanding until Claire leaves. We’ve both been having major possessive issues because of the chains.”
“And will she be leaving?”
“Of course. She’ll rest and recover then I’ll take her home tomorrow night.”
Gabriel said nothing. He didn’t even appear to have an opinion on the subject, and maybe as a long-lived vampire he knew his opinions would have had little effect anyway. No matter the reason, Lucian was grateful he kept his trap shut.
Staff brought in two leather chairs so that he could sit with his surrogate father outside the healing room. Gabriel gave him a questioning look, but Lucian didn’t have the energy to explain that he couldn’t have left Claire for anything in the world right now. Though the double-chains would have let him move sixty feet in any direction, the truth was he needed to stick close.
Claire had, once again, saved him from a tremendous amount of pain and suffering and had almost single-handedly found the extinction weapon. He shared all of it with Gabriel, including Daniel’s fatal use of his slaves—he’d probably killed off four dozen or so trying to get to the prize first.
“But it was Claire’s unusual ability to detect and to see through the disguises that gave us the advantage. Even Daniel didn’t realize what had happened.” He told Gabriel about the ruse, the solid wall that Claire could see through but Daniel couldn’t.
“That machine is heavy, Lucian. I went back and checked it out. How the hell did you carry it here?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know. Ancestral power, I guess. I just couldn’t let Daniel get it. But what do you intend to do with it?”
“Anything relating to the extinction weapon that we receive here gets destroyed. I personally see to that. We’re also offering counterbids against Daniel for any information that pans out. We’re determined to put an end to this once and for all but this, what you and Claire have accomplished, is a huge victory.”
Lucian nodded but he felt the frown on his face, the pull of his familiar scowl, the one Claire had teased him about.
“What is it, son?”
“I want to use the weapon as a trap. I want to bring Daniel to earth once and for all.”
“You want to destroy him.”
“I do.” Lucian compressed his lips. “It needs to be finished. He killed Marius in front of me while he had me trapped in the Dark Cave system.”
Gabriel looked as though Lucian had just punched him in the stomach then landed a heavy blow to his jaw. “Oh, God, not Marius.”
Grief boiled in the air between Lucian and Gabriel. His heart ached; his chest felt like it was caving in on him and would never be normal again.
Gabriel took deep shuddering breaths and kept his eyes closed. Lucian sat in the hallway outside the healing room, in the brown leather chair, beside the man who had trained him out of his rage and into his fighting leathers. He suffered the loss of the youngest brother, the one who, like Claire, had always known how to joke and smile.
After an hour, one of the wait staff brought honey-sage mojitos. Lucian thought it an odd drink—he would have preferred whiskey—but right now he would take anything.
