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Her dizziness returned, only different this time. As she stared at him, he seemed to fade as well as the grip on her arm. She thought maybe she was fainting, but instead the space around her began to spin, increasing the sense that she could topple over.
She remained upright, but new images arrived. She saw Marius standing in the doorway of what had to be a bathroom. He wore a robe of some kind, silk maybe, and dark blue with a pattern on it.
She moved, only it wasn’t her, but some future version of herself in the vision. She couldn’t see it clearly, because strange dark waves covered parts of it. But from what she could make out, she was in a bathroom unknown to her and she was completely naked. What was he saying? Something like he thought she could use the robe. She watched as he hung it up on the back of the door.
Shayna did not understand what she was looking at, except that she was now drying off with her towel and didn’t seem in the least distressed. Which meant that she was incredibly comfortable with Marius although he seemed to be uneasy.
She felt herself speak within this weird vision, a very strange sensation: Thank you. I love the paisley in your robe. Is that silk you’re wearing?
For reasons she couldn’t explain, she felt that this was some kind of vision of the future. She knew then that she’d slept with Marius and that she’d loved it.
Oh, dear God, what the hell was happening to her?
When she closed her eyes, the present returned, and she found that Marius still had hold of her arms but was essentially holding her upright.
“Shayna,” he called sharply. “What’s going on?”
“I don’t know, but you and I … we were together. In a bathroom somewhere. You were dressed, but I’d been showering.”
“Shit, have you just had a vision of the future?”
“I think so. Or maybe one possible future. My head aches from trying to make sense of everything. This really can’t be happening.”
* * *
Marius Briggs saw her confusion. He hated doing this to her, confronting her about issues in his world and trying to persuade her to come with him.
And now she’d just had a vision of the future. He could hardly wrap his head around that, or around the fact that she’d seen them together, as a couple.
More than anything else, she’d just confirmed his belief that she could help his world. She had more power than he’d seen in a long time, and she was human, another confirmation that she was the right choice.
But how could he make her understand how much she was needed? The fact that she could see him also reflected the nature of her latent power and that Rumy had been right to send him here to Seattle.
He just had a couple of problems. First, he shouldn’t have left Italy when he did, because he was still recovering from the effects of blood-starvation and the long flight had weakened him.
Second, what he was about to do went against every single one of his principles. He believed in the rights of the individual over everything else. But in this situation, if Shayna didn’t actually agree to come with him, he might have to abduct her.
Even thinking about it made him sick in his gut, but he was out of options. He had an entire world to save, maybe even human earth as well, and Shayna Prentiss was the only woman on the planet who could help him right now.
She just looked so damn young to be the last, best hope for his world.
But Daniel was driving relentlessly through the vampire world, going after the final extinction weapon full-bore. The weapon, through the use of a pre-set decibel, had the ability to kill any vampire within its proximity with just a flip of the switch. If Daniel got hold of the weapon before Marius did, his entire culture was doomed to either slavery or annihilation. Daniel, the psychopath that he was, would take great pleasure in either venture.
Torture was Daniel’s specialty, but mass murder would no doubt have tremendous appeal to his sick mind.
Shayna, according to Rumy’s best information, had a unique, human ability to form a tracking pair with Marius. If she would agree to work with him, together they could secure the location of the weapon before Daniel. The trouble was, Daniel was offering a fortune to anyone who could find the weapon.
And the hunt was on.
Essentially, Marius was running out of time. He’d taken precautions to make his way secretly to Seattle, to find Shayna, and to bring her back to Italy with him. But Daniel was a powerful Ancestral and might have sent his men to watch his movements. He could be under attack at any moment.
Then there was Shayna herself. He didn’t want to intrude in her life in this way, but he had no other recourse. She was the one. The telepathy, that she could see through his disguise, as well as her unexpected vision had confirmed it.
Knowing he had to do everything he could to persuade her, he released his disguise fully, something he hadn’t wanted to do in case he’d been followed. But he wouldn’t just snatch Shayna without trying to talk to her, to persuade her so that he didn’t have to resort to abduction.
He glanced around, but so far so good. He’d know if any of his kind had shown up.
“The wavy lines are gone.” Her light-blue eyes went wide. “Why is that?”
