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Glancing past him, she saw that Daniel seemed intent on their location. “Your father might have figured something out.”
“Then we’d better go. Hold on.”
“Do it.”
* * *
Lucian smiled. Claire had said that to him a lot over the past three nights: Do it.
He pulled a battle chain from his leathers and with a quick jerk of his wrist caught the upper loop with the chain. He’d need that extra distance to keep from having his feet or legs blown apart. He gave a tug to make sure the chain held and sent a shot of pure power down his arm to secure the hold.
“Ready?”
With her arm snug around his neck, she whispered, “Ready.”
Then he headed straight into the stratosphere, shooting skyward with Claire’s dense disguise surrounding them. He pulled the weapon up off the boat to trip the wire then, in that same split second, let the weapon fall back to the deck.
By then he was two thousand feet in the air and moving fast.
He heard the explosion then a moment later felt the power of the blast beneath him, but dimming by the split second until Claire’s voice reached him. Hey, vampire, it’s cold up here and now I can’t breathe.
Lucian had gone far enough and fell away, heading south and west, in a trajectory toward Uruguay and his secure cavern.
As soon as he had Claire safe in his home, in the living room, he checked her for injuries but found none.
“You are fast,” she said.
“Thank God you’re okay.”
“Yeah, yeah. Call Rumy. Let’s find out what happened from where he sat.”
He held her next to him as he made the call. “Tell me everything.” He put the phone on speaker so that Claire could hear as well.
“Gabriel’s guard had orders to stay here until the situation resolved, just in case Daniel made a play for my club. But here’s how it went from my vantage. Daniel and his boys kept flying over the lake until the explosion. Each was blown back a few hundred yards, but unfortunately each recovered. They didn’t turn in my direction but took off, heading east, probably back to Daniel’s lair in the Dark Cave system. So they’re gone, as are the boat and the weapon. The lake’s a mess. I sent a crew out there, under the cover of my own disguise, to get everything cleaned up.”
Lucian huffed a sigh. It was too much to hope for that the blast would have killed any of them. “And Marius? Zoey?”
“Marius said to tell you that he’s fine, but he’s in bad shape, like you were. He’s in blood-madness recovery now. Eve has about a dozen of her girls donating. He’ll be out of the woods in a couple of days. He said he and Zoey know some stuff about the Dark Cave system and he has a plan that’ll probably involve Zoey—but from what he can tell, she’s willing to do her part. She said to tell you, Claire, that as soon as she’s feeling better, she’ll call, and that she never stopped thinking about you. She said you were the reason she’d stayed alive as long as she had. She wanted to find you, if she could, and help you.”
Lucian felt his chains vibrate heavily. He turned to look at Claire and saw tears running down her cheeks. He pulled her to sit down on the couch beside him, holding her close.
“Claire?”
“Just give us a minute, Rumy.”
“Got it.”
Imagine Zoey worried about me, when she was the one who’d been auctioned and used. She covered her face. By Daniel.
Claire, she wouldn’t have known what happened to you, that you’d been in Florida taking care of Josh. She would have assumed you’d been sold into slavery as well.
I know.
He gave her another minute to regain her composure. She pulled a tissue from the pocket of her jeans, a wad of them, and blew her nose. “Sorry, Rumy, I kinda lost it, but I’m back. So Zoey’s fine?”
“Marius had enough strength to get her to the back entrance, but my staff was waiting for them. She’s very weak, but we’ll take care of her, you know we will. One of our medics has her on a blood transfusion right now and we’ve got a healer coming in soon. She’s eating chicken broth as we speak and talking about needing to get back to the Dark Cave system; she says five human slaves die every day and an equal number are brought in to replace them. She seems determined. I recognized the fire in her eye. Looked like your fire, Claire. Damn, I’m glad you’re back. You staying this time?”
Lucian’s heart stopped. He couldn’t breathe. Her answer had more significance than anything else he remembered from his four centuries of life.
She shifted in his direction and settled a hand on his face, staring into his eyes. “Rumy, I’m going to say something to Lucian, but you can listen, too, if you want.”
Lucian met her gaze, his heart slamming around in his chest. Claire spoke softly. “I was in that hotel room maybe an hour when I knew I couldn’t stay in Santa Fe. The moment I saw the chains, the ones Gabriel sent by way of Rumy’s gift, I knew I couldn’t return to my old life. I don’t understand all the forces that brought me here, that landed me in the middle of your life, but if you’ll have me, if you want me, I’ll stay.”
“Do I want you?”
Lucian forgot about the phone and about Rumy. He turned toward Claire and pulled her into his arms. He kissed her hard, driving his tongue deep.
Finally, he pulled back and stared into her eyes. “Do I want you? More than life itself. I never thought to have a woman in my life, any woman, vampire or otherwise. But you came, showing up in the Dark Cave system, in that pit, surrounded with a disguise that fooled even Daniel.
“I didn’t want to let you go the first time, but I thought you should have a chance at the life you wanted. I wasn’t even sure I deserved you.”
“Are you sure now?” She petted his cheek and kissed him, then drew back.
His lips curved up, and he leaned his forehead against hers. “I’ll always doubt that I deserve anything. That’s the truth of what happened to me, the darkness that will always live in me. But I don’t care, either. I want you and so long as you want to be here, with me, that’s all that matters.” He kissed her again.
Rumy chimed in. “Hey, someone bring me some popcorn. This is getting good. I’m hearing slurping noises.”
Lucian chuckled as he drew back and Claire grinned.
Lucian returned to the task at hand, angling toward the phone. “Let Gabriel know that the weapon’s been destroyed. I suppose you’ve already told him about Marius.”
