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“It’s not that simple. If Daniel gets the weapon…” His gaze slid away from hers and she knew he’d started thinking hard. He rose to pace to the fireplace and back.
Finally, he returned to stand in front of her. “Shayna, you don’t know how much my thinking is aligned with yours on this subject, philosophically I mean, but I’m desperate here. For that reason, I want to show you something, and it won’t be pleasant, but you need to see what I’ve lived with for such a long time. You said you can sense my guilt, and you’re right. I live with tremendous guilt all the time because I haven’t been able to help eradicate the worst criminal to impact our world in my lifetime.
“But even until a few days ago, even I didn’t understand the level of horror he’s inflicted on women of your world. Not just women of my world but yours. I want you to see for yourself what he’s done. Then, if you still want me to take you home, I will. Would you at least agree to do that, to see what Daniel has done to your people?” He drew a deep breath. “Again, it may be one of the hardest things you’ll ever have to see.”
Shayna saw the philosophical loophole, since he’d spoken about women in her world. But she wasn’t happy about the position he’d just put her in at all. If humans were involved, maybe she had responsibility after all.
She had a couple of questions she needed answered before she agreed to go. “Are we talking human slavery?”
“Of the worst, most brutal kind, but it will mean going deep into Daniel’s Dark Cave system, which will be dangerous.”
Shayna frowned. She couldn’t believe how clearly she could sense him, almost reading his mind. “He tortured you there recently, didn’t he? I say that because some of your guilt comes from there, doesn’t it?”
He nodded slowly.
Her throat began to ache. Why was this on her? She was a university student, not a soldier. She didn’t have the kinds of abilities Marius possessed. Yet he’d brought her here and asked for her help, assuring her she had something of tremendous value in the situation.
But what did she owe him really?
Tears burned her eyes. She hated being put in this position—as some kind of savior in his world. She’d never asked for this, and she definitely didn’t want any part of it.
And yet as Marius stared at her, a fire in his eyes, and as she felt the chain still wrapped around her fist, she could sense his desperation. She knew then that she couldn’t refuse to take the trip with him. She had to at least agree to do that much, if only to assuage her conscience once she gave him her final answer.
Afterward, she could simply tell him to take her home and be done with the whole horrible thing.
Despite what was going on in his world, she didn’t want to travel this path. She wanted to go back to her life, her careful plans to spend a year in the field then return to the University of Washington and work steadily on her dissertation. She had a doctorate to earn and she truly hoped one day to make a serious contribution to the field of cultural anthropology.
She didn’t look at him as she said, “I’ll go with you, but only because I can sense this is what you need from me in order to let this whole thing go.” Finally, she lifted her gaze to him.
“Thank you,” he said. “And I promise you that I do know how much I’m asking of you and that none of this is fair to you.”
“How can you possibly understand what I’m feeling? You don’t know what it is to be human and whipped into the air suddenly by a species that’s only supposed to exist in folklore.”
He smiled ruefully, then put his hand on the chain he wore. “In the same way you can feel my guilt, I can sense how you want more than anything to just go home right now.”
Of course the street ran both ways. “Right.”
He moved the chair back to its original position, angling it by the armoire. “We should go now. I suggest you put the blood-chain in your pocket while we fly. You can keep siphoning my power by touching it, but you need to be prepared that the flight will hurt despite the chains. Only vampires of special power, called Ancestrals, can fly humans around our globe pain-free. But you’ll able to stream the healing power, and that will help.”
She’d just gotten rid of the pain and could hardly stand the thought of launching into flight once more. But she’d never been one for holding back once a decision was made; she’d always had a tendency to jump in with both feet.
She pushed the comforter back and slid off the bed. With the chain secured in her pocket, and her hand tucked inside so that she could grip it at the same time, she nodded to him. “I’m ready.”
* * *
Marius found himself admiring the woman in front of her. She had principles she tried to live by, and she’d just agreed to do something that would physically hurt her. She could have thrown a fit, gotten hysterical, but she didn’t.
He held out his arm to her, and when she didn’t move toward him, he remembered that all she knew about flying was what had happened in Seattle when he’d grabbed her and launched into the air. She didn’t know the drill. “Step onto my right foot with both of yours and put your arm around my neck.”
Sh
e didn’t hesitate, another thing he liked about her: Once she made the decision, she was committed. But would this trip to Daniel’s heinous Dark Cave system be enough to persuade her to join him?
He clamped his arm around her waist, pulling her tight against his side. “Do you feel secure?”
“Very.”
“Good. You were unconscious for most of the trip here, but you probably won’t be for this one because you’re siphoning my power. You have hold of the chain?”
