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“When I came to you in Seattle, Shayna, I didn’t want to rip you out of your life. I need you to know that. Only the arrival of Daniel’s security force would have caused me to take you into the air and bring you here.”
She now had the chain wrapped around her fingers, her thumb rubbing over the links. After a moment, she lifted her gaze to her surroundings. “You know, you have very little lighting in here but I swear this room has started to look like it’s lit in a glow. How’s that possible?”
“You’re starting to experience what our vision is like. We are, as your human lore suggests, extremely sensitive to sunlight, and yes, it can kill us. Humans moved out of cave living very early on, but our kind had to remain hidden deep in the earth. It’s the perfect environment for us.
”
She nodded her gaze flitting around his rustic bedroom. “You must be very content here, Marius.”
He was surprised by the statement. “Do you actually like this room?”
“I do. I think the stonework is fantastic. Rugged. Simple. Very clean. The craftsman clearly had a steady hand. There isn’t one cut that jars the eye and I’m seeing some unique patterns.” Her gaze drifted upward to the chiseled-out ceiling. “I like this design, how the indentation reaches to a point in the center of the ceiling. It’s very aesthetically pleasing.”
Marius tilted his head back. “I’ve never tired of looking at it.”
“And it’s just symmetrical enough that I doubt you’ve ever felt the need to improve it.”
He’d had the same thought about this space. “No, never.” Funny to think that he’d kidnapped this woman, only to find out she appreciated this room for almost the same reasons he did.
He rose from the bed, crossed to the fireplace, and added a couple more logs. He liked Shayna a lot. She had a calmness about her he hadn’t expected. She was of course shocked out by where she was; he could sense it in her underlying tension.
He shifted his gaze back to her and saw that she’d scooted up to a sitting position. She thrust a couple of pillows behind her, but kept the comforter tucked around her legs and waist. She still siphoned his power, maybe fearing that if she didn’t her head would start to hurt again.
He drew a chair close and sat down, but leaned forward to clasp his hands between his knees.
“So you want me to find this weapon before Daniel does.”
“In a nutshell.”
CHAPTER 3
Shayna stared at Marius, holding on to the blood-chain as though it was a life preserver—and maybe it was. Besides, she liked the feel of his power as she streamed it. She also loved being able to see so easily in the dark, and of course she really liked being out of pain.
Her brain whirred, working to process so much new information, and she let her thoughts fly in whatever direction they chose.
Her first musings went to the obvious, her overwhelming attraction to Marius, which made her current predicament even that much more complicated. The last thing she wanted to do was to make a decision about this strange chain-bonding, weapon-finding plan of Marius’s simply because the breadth of his chest made her weak in the knees.
It didn’t help that she hadn’t been with a man since her breakup a year ago with Michelson. She’d wasted six months on him. But even after what seemed like a decent twelve-month interval, she still wasn’t quite over him. He’d done something to her during their brief relationship, step by step tearing at her self-esteem so that in the end she’d allowed him to do things to her she hadn’t confessed to a living soul.
So it came as a complete shock that when she finally felt the powerful stirrings of interest in another man, it was with a vampire.
She closed her eyes and leaned back against the pillows once more. She needed to stop thinking about her interest in Marius and instead focus on making sense of all that he’d just told her. A decision needed to be made.
Opening her eyes, she met his gaze once more. “The thing is, Marius, though I can appreciate that you’ve essentially asked for my help in resolving an issue in your world, I don’t see how I can agree to help. What you’re asking goes against everything I believe in. I’ve discovered a new secret world, but the last thing I should do is launch into an intervention. At the very least, I should make a study of what’s actually happening. Perhaps in time I might come around to helping you, but it wouldn’t be right to dive in with only your version of events.”
Her adrenaline kicked in. “Of course, I would love to study your world, to perhaps visit a number of your caverns, to speak with a cross section of your people, which would help me to begin understanding your culture. But assisting you without sufficient knowledge is out of the question.”
He remained leaning back against the chair. His jaw shifted slightly. “You do realize I could force you to help me.”
“Yes. I suppose you could.” She frowned, wondering if he would do just that. Her thumb rubbed the links back and forth, which increased her sense of him. He was incredibly determined, and that frightened her. “But you wouldn’t, would you?”
“No, but I think maybe we need to take a trip.”
“A trip?”
He nodded. “To another part of my world, something I think you need to see. You said you needed more information and I’ll happily supply it.”
His eyes suddenly took on a haunted look. Maybe she needed to make things clear. “I want you to take me home, Marius. I have no intention of forging this strange tracking-pair thing with you. I’m not an adventurous type, for one thing, but I think I’ve already explained my reasons. I will not intervene, not without a systematic review over a period of months, even years. My conscience won’t allow it.”
