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Shayna glanced upward, sensing where he was. She caught a glimpse of him, blood trailing as he shifted to altered flight and headed through the rock of the cavern ceiling.
Shayna saw Marius’s bloody dagger as he turned away from her. The battle still raged all around the cavern.
Then suddenly, a new host of fighters entered the space, which changed everything abruptly.
One of Daniel’s crew shouted an order and just like that, the rest of Daniel’s force shifted to altered flight and retreated, disappearing through dripstone and rock alike.
Silence reigned for about ten long seconds. Then Marius gave a cry of triumph, a guttural masculine shout that vibrated all the way through to Shayna’s heart. She’d never heard a better sound in her life. Tears flowed down her cheeks.
She’d survived something horrible, despite the severe headache that still hurt her.
She was safe. She released a deep sigh and the odd thought went through her that apparently she would live to see another day.
Through the haze of her pain, however, something sparked within Shayna’
s mind as she realized all over again that she was looking at a brand-new, never-before-discovered civilization. Yet the men celebrated as warriors had through the millennia, with shouts of triumph.
Marius turned toward her, his face blazing with passion and a sense of victory. But almost as quickly the expression died away and concern filled his hazel eyes. “Shayna. Shit, I’m so fucking sorry you had to see all this. And you’re hurting. Let me get you out of here.”
She nodded. She tried to gain her feet, but the pain in her head was too much. Marius leaned down and gathered her up in his arms once more as though she were as light as air.
She slid her arm around his neck. Despite the fact that he’d been warring, he smelled amazing, that wild grassy scent of his. He called out a few orders, mostly involving the disposal of the enemy fighters. There was some discussion about the one called Rumy, then suddenly she was airborne once more, moving through solid rock as though it were little more than a bank of fog.
However, he must have taken off too fast, because once again her brain felt skewered with swirling knives. She tried to access his power, but it was too much. She screamed, then blacked out. Again.
* * *
Marius settled Shayna on his bed, this time in his secret New Zealand home, a place even more secure than the one in Chile.
She looked horribly pale against the black linen, her blond hair fanning out. He still couldn’t believe that she’d made herself disappear like that, a trick very few vampires could do. And it wasn’t a layered disguise. She’d actually made herself invisible, even to Daniel, but how?
He trembled as he looked down at her. The battle adrenaline was easing back but had left him with the shakes. Not a good thing since it wasn’t a normal reaction of his after a battle, which meant his other problem had started to surface. He wasn’t in trouble yet, but he soon would be. He’d already been through one round of blood-starvation recovery, which involved a violent madness. And now it looked like the second one was on him.
And he needed to be tied up in order to keep Shayna safe.
A few years back, in anticipation of his world going from bad to totally wrecked, he’d searched for the best hiding places he could find. Though he’d used other Ancestrals to create the layered shields, for this one, his most secure location, he’d had Gabriel create the heavy layer of disguise around the entire system.
No one could find him here, not even Daniel.
For the moment, they were safe.
He worked to get his boots and socks off. For what he had to go through, his wrists and ankles would have to be bound. If he thrashed and the boots connected with Shayna, he could kill her.
The process of blood-starvation recovery was never simple and was similar to an addict’s withdrawal process except in reverse. Instead of the body reacting to the absence of drugs, a vampire had a difficult time adding blood back into his diet once deprived.
His system was now in the process of beginning the second violent episode that would include sweating, shaking, and dementia. He probably wouldn’t even be aware of most of what he would go through.
But Shayna would.
When he’d escaped from Daniel just a few days ago, he’d gone through his first round, then Rumy had sent him to bring Shayna into their world. He had hoped by now to be back in one of Rumy’s apartments where several of his staff could tend to Marius, strap him down, and even donate blood during the process.
He had one option and contacted Rumy telepathically. Hey, Rumy. Your security team did a great job as usual.
They did. I’ve been listening to their reports. Seems a couple of them saw Shayna disappear right in front of Daniel. What’s up with that?
He paced the bedroom, an arm pressed against his stomach. She’s got so much latent ability, I’m constantly astonished. Daniel would have killed her if he could have caught her.
Instead, you stuck him.
