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He felt her calm her mind. I’m fine. But this is a trap. Don’t come. Do you hear me, Marius? Don’t come. He intends to bind you and somehow use you in his takeover plans, though I have no idea how any of that would work.
Marius grew very quiet, because as she had from the first, Shayna stunned him. Daniel had abducted her, but instead of Shayna begging him to save her, she offered a warning: “Don’t come. It’s a trap.” Who else would have been thinking not of herself, but of him?
God, he loved her.
And there it was, the complete revelation of the true state of his heart, nothing hidden or held back because of misplaced guilt.
He loved her.
You’re not to worry about me, Shayna. All I want you to do is to send me an image of where you are, of your current location. I can’t see through your eyes right now, because Daniel has this place heavily disguised. But if you’ll place an image within your mind, of the widest panorama possible, I will find you.
No, please don’t, Marius. All he can do is kill me.
Shayna, I’m coming whether you help me or not. It would be a helluva lot faster and easier if you would do as I ask, but it’s up to you.
I don’t want you to get hurt.
His heart swelled at the words. Can you trust me right now, Shayna? Because I’m telling you that’s not going to happen.
Of course I trust you. I have almost from the first, even when I was flying through the air out of Seattle. He felt her mind settle into its usual determination. Here goes.
A jumble of images rushed at him, but eventually one came forward with perfect clarity and Marius couldn’t believe what he was looking at.
Stay calm. I’m coming.
He felt Daniel’s telepathic approach and shut down the communication so that his father couldn’t read it.
Opening his eyes, he stared first at his brothers and Rumy, then Gabriel. “You won’t believe this, but Daniel has built a massive arena large enough to hold fifty thousand troops, in an extremely well-disguised system. And every seat is filled with men shouting triumphant war cries. Looks like they’re preparing to go to war.” He glanced from Daniel to Rumy and back again. “Either of you got an army that large?”
Rumy grinned, his fangs pressing into his lower lips. “Hell, yeah, and they’ve been itching to go after Daniel and his men for a long time now.”
Adrien asked, “So where are we going?”
“To the Himalayas.”
Where it all began.
* * *
Shayna stood very still on the central black stone platform of the arena. Daniel had made it clear that if she moved, he’d hurt her using his blade, and he’d enjoy watching her blood flow. She had no choice but to stay put.
She tried really hard to hold it together, but her fingers trembled and nausea boiled in her stomach.
Earlier, he’d taken her from the tablet room in the Pharaoh system after she’d instinctively, but without effect, thrown one of the ancient clay tablets at him. He’d brought her straight here, into one of the dressing rooms, then turned her over to several of his slaves.
They’d dressed her in a light-green floor-length gown, split up both sides to the waist. She’d fought them, of course, but they’d finally given her a shot of some kind of fast-working paralytic. She’d never been so frightened in her life: She wasn’t able to move even a muscle. She couldn’t even blink.
Minutes later, with several vampires working on her, she was given another shot and the feeling in her arms and legs slowly returned. But oh, her head hurt. And she couldn’t siphon Marius’s power, so right now she’d reverted to a fairly fragile human state.
A glance in the mirror told her she’d been dressed up for either a stage performance or to be put to work in one of the Dark Cave system’s upscale clubs. The front of the dress was cut halfway to her navel, and her breasts were squeezed together with the most uncomfortable bustier ever created.
Her blond hair now sat hig
h on her head and dressed with pheasant feathers and she had teal glitter on her cheekbones that fanned upward to her temples. Thick false eyelashes weighted her lids.
She even wore five-inch stilettos, a nightmare all on its own.
Marius was also on his way, which made her sick with worry. How could he battle and defeat either Daniel or the tens of thousands of his seasoned soldiers now cheering their leader maniacally?
