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She had her elbow on the table and waved her fork in the air back and forth several times. “How did you do the split-self thing, the one with a primary self and a secondary one? Of all the things I’ve seen in your world, that single act astonished me the most. How can you battle as two people?”
He could do more than just battle, but he decided that was more than Shayna should have to deal with right now. He shrugged. “Actually, I’m not sure of the physiology of it and it’s not something all vampires can do.”
“But you can. And your brothers?”
“Yes.”
“Is there a working theory as to how the process functions?”
He sipped his wine. “Well, some think it might be a sort of super speed—being in one place but moving fast enough to appear as though you’re in two different locations.”
“Is that what it feels like to you?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know. Not exactly. I think it’s just a function of our world, like altered flight. It just is. We walk, we levitate, we fly, we have visions, we create strange intricate disguises, and some of us can split into two beings for short periods of time.”
She settled back in her chair appearing to absorb his answer. “You are a unique race.”
At that, he smiled. “Thank you. Now it’s my turn. So what do you think of the tablets? Is this a code you can break?”
“Historical linguistics isn’t my field of expertise,” she said, dragging a piece of bread through the hummus. “I’ve only had a couple of classes, though I am completely fascinated by the subject. Is there anyone in your world who knows the ancient language, who speaks it, and perhaps created a working alphabet?”
“You could start by surfing our Internet.”
She took a sip of wine and leaned back in her chair, her gaze sliding over the waterfall. “If I could just get that alphabet, I could work at a translation. Then I think I might have something for you.”
“I’ll see what I can find out as well.”
She met and held his gaze. “Thanks. Marius, I’m sorry I haven’t been paying attention to you and I do know that you need to, you know, hit my vein.”
The thrill that her choice of words created rocked his entire body. He had to take a really deep breath to keep from launching straight at her throat.
She leaned close and took his hand. “I wish I could have captured the look on your face right now.”
The scent of her sex suddenly permeated the air. Her response to him had been present almost from the beginning, something that had kept him on fire for her.
He squeezed her fingers, losing all appetite for the food on his plate. His desire to haul her into the bedroom intensified.
This time Shayna took a deep breath, another sip of wine, then turned her attention to her plate. After a bite of hummus and bread, she didn’t look at him when she said, “Eat.”
Marius picked up his fork and followed her lead. He took one forkful of the bulgur salad, then another. For what they’d both been through, she was right. They both should replenish their reserves.
“Do you really think I’ll be able to help by looking over these ancient tablets?”
“Gabriel seems to think it’s worth a shot, and I would count on his opinion for that. He’s been an Ancestral as well as part of the policy-making sector of our world for a long time. Daniel has tried to off him several times, but he seems to stay one step ahead of the bastard.
“He helped develop the courts, which Daniel recently undermined and took over. No one in our world has had enough raw power to match Daniel. And over the years, a lot of our most influential leaders have had to go underground in order to survive. Many, of course, were assassinated through the years.”
She dabbed at the hummus. “So in your opinion, Daniel has been working for a good long while to consolidate his power, including trying to take possession of a working extinction weapon.”
Marius nodded. “A year ago, when he arrested Adrien, Lucian, and myself, he launched this particular nightmare. Before that, we’d worked hard to keep his ambitions in check. We patrolled the world nightly and battled his forces when they tried to strong-arm our leaders or engage in kidnapping and torture. As soon as he took over the Council of Ancestrals, and afterward our five main courts, he arrested us and sent us to the Himalayan prison. At least half the Council went into hiding at the same time.”
She fell silent and continued to eat steadily, but her eyes flitted about in that searching way of hers as though seeking answers to questions she hadn’t yet posed.
“I hope I can help,” she stated at last.
“You’ve already done so much. But please, don’t feel obligated to stay. You’ve done what we set out to do, to capture the weapon. This”—and he waved in the direction of the workroom—“well, I’m sure there are experts in our world who can take over.”
At that, she turned toward him, laughing. “Obligated?” She gestured with an arm flung in the same direction as his. “I’ve been given the opportunity of a lifetime, my deepest heart’s desire. No, Marius, I don’t feel obligated. More like, I’m wondering how I’ll ever leave.”
