Born in Chains (Men in Chains)

  The soft moan that left her lips, combined with the rush of her sweet, feminine scent, helped him to know that she was as engaged as he.

  When he lifted his head, tearing himself away from her soft breasts, he drew her carefully into his arms. “Is this love?” he asked.

  She shook her head and shrugged. “I don’t know, but it’s damn close.” Her eyes glistened.

  “Aw to hell with it.” He kissed her full on the lips, ruining the gloss she’d applied so carefully.

  * * *

  Lily slung her arm around Adrien’s neck and kissed him back. From the moment she’d seen him by the fireplace, her desire for him, her need for him, had risen all over again. That he looked magnificent in black and white didn’t help matters at all.

  But it was more than just his appearance, which always tended to weaken her knees anyway. He had a different air, a different feeling about him, something the chains helped her to feel, of course, but even his posture was different, a little straighter, his chin higher.

  She understood that feeling because she shared it—a kind of brazen confidence born from overcoming a few things, like being able to dominate a vampire on a sex table, or tracking a weapon through miles of extended caves, or even being able to siphon Adrien’s power and finally communicate with her son.

  Yes, she understood what Adrien was feeling extremely well because on the coattails was that elusive thing called hope. Maybe now, after accomplishing so much together, they could succeed at what needed doing, at finding the weapon and rescuing Josh because of it, so that Lily could at last bring him home.

  As she drew back, she wondered if she should tell Adrien about her son. Hadn’t he earned the right to know the truth despite Kiernan’s warning to keep it a secret? Didn’t her hard-won relationship with Adrien demand the truth?

  She wanted to tell him. Desperately.

  She planted a hand on his chest.

  “What is it?” His brow furrowed, a familiar look for him.

  She made the decision and the dam within her broke. “Adrien, my son isn’t dead. He’s alive. Kiernan has him. He’s had him for two years, since the attack on my neighborhood. He’s kept him all this time, without my knowledge, when I thought Josh was dead, so that when Daniel wanted to use him to get to me, to create this”—she touched the chain at her neck—“he’d have the tool he needed, the only thing that would have ever persuaded me down this road with you.”

  Adrien blinked a couple of times. His head jerked as he processed what she’d just told him. His lips parted; he might even have murmured something. He finally said, “I imagined so many things, this secret that you’d kept from me, but not this. Oh, dear God.” He stepped sideways, releasing her. He seemed to have trouble breathing. He pressed a fist to his forehead.

  She needed to tell him everything. “I’ve been through hell since I learned he was alive. And I can’t imagine what my son has gone through. I contacted him earlier, before Rome. I made telepathic contact. He’s alive. I truly didn’t know for sure until just then that he really is alive. I mean Kiernan let me talk to him once, but these men have such resources at their command I thought maybe he’d faked the whole thing. But I spoke to Josh this evening. He has a caregiver, a woman named Claire. A human.”

  She seemed to run out of words and speaking them aloud somehow made it worse, the truth of what she’d been through, what her son had suffered. A strange strangled sound came out of her throat. But Adrien caught her and drew her into his arms. Her eyes burned but she couldn’t cry. The horror of her son’s situation and of her own held her in mute paralysis.

  But Adrien’s arms soothed her and helped dissipate all that rising horror and emotion. “It’s okay, it’s okay. It’ll be all right. We’ll get him, we’ll find him. Somehow we’ll bring your son home.”

  “How?”

  And then the real question surfaced, the one she’d been ignoring from almost the beginning, pretending she didn’t care because she hated all vampires: how could she and Adrien ever turn over the extinction weapon to Daniel? How could she ever trade Josh’s life, though precious beyond words, for a weapon that would be given to a monster who wouldn’t think twice about obliterating entire cavern systems of vampires on a whim if it suited him?

  He pulled back from her but he took hold of her arms, staring hard at her. “Lily, listen to me. We’ll take this, as we have from the start, one step at a time. Now that I know what’s really going on here, what has motivated every step of your journey, it changes the game.”

  “There’s no way out.” Her words came out hushed.

  “There’s always a way out. We just can’t see it yet, and right now we have a gala to get to. Maybe something will surface in Beijing that we can use. Have you tried tracking the weapon by focusing on China?”

  She shook her head. “My thoughts have all been about Josh.”

  “Of course they have.” He shook his head. “Your son is alive. How old is he?”

  “Ten. He was eight when he was taken. Two years ago. Oh, God.”

  He nodded several times in a row. “All right. Beijing. We need to go there now, get things rolling again.”

  Lily forced herself to breathe once more and turned her tracking ability to China. She thought of nothing else but the weapon and Beijing. Adrien rubbed her arms slowly and she closed her eyes. His power flowed through her, the tremendous power she siphoned from him continuously.

  The pull began like a gentle tug on her body to a place she could only define as very dark, but quickly became a grip of need: She had to get to China. Adrien, what is the name of the Beijing resort?

  The Black Cavern.

  I have a fix on it, and the pull of the weapon is strong, really strong. Her tracking ability roared to life as it never had before, she felt the location rushing toward her.

  Good.

  She drew in a sharp breath as another sensation arrived. The weapon is there. I can feel it. The weapon is in Beijing. But this was followed by another pull as she cried out. “Oh, my God, Josh is there as well. I can feel him. Josh is at the Black Caverns.”

  “Has he been there all along?”

  Lily shook her head. “No. When I used telepathy earlier, it just didn’t feel as far as China. Does that make sense?”

  “Yes, it does. Well then, we’d better go.”

  She nodded. He pulled her tight against him and the flight began. The entire distance, Lily’s heart ached as she thought about her son, yet she feared that the whole situation couldn’t possibly lead to a happy outcome.

  She wondered, too, why Kiernan would have brought Josh to Beijing—or maybe it was Daniel’s doing. Did he know something that she didn’t, about the Black Caverns and the extinction weapon? Did he know, for instance, that both she and Adrien, as a bonded tracking team would be there, at this particular gala?

  A dark sensation moved through her as Adrien brought her closer to Beijing. Daniel would want to hurt them both because of what had happened in Mexico. She felt naive suddenly, that her previous and very brief spurt of confidence hadn’t taken into account that once Daniel had tested Adrien in Mexico, he’d now turn up the heat. And what better way to remind her of the pact she had with Kiernan than to bring Josh to the Black Caverns.

  But she strove to calm herself as Adrien flew them east. She needed her wits about her, to hold Daniel at bay, if possible, while she sought the weapon, maybe even to get to Josh and take him away before Daniel could stop her.

  The flight lasted less than a minute, a huge change from her first night with Adrien.

  He took them to the far edge of what turned out to be a landing field for those just now flying in.

  Adrien chose a spot and brought them down gently, using the experience of four centuries to avoid other couples.

  Lily held his arm tight as she walked beside him through a grand but very dark hotel entrance, a dozen chandeliers illuminating what turned out to be walls of glimmering obsidian detailed with white crystals in small,
scattered diamond-pattern designs.

  She reached out for Josh, and maybe it was her mother’s heart or maybe her tracking ability, but she knew exactly where he was, even though at least two miles of rock separated her from her son. I know where Josh is.

  We’ll get to him, Lily, as soon as we can. But first the weapon. I’ve been thinking maybe we could destroy it before Daniel got to it.

  If only we could.

  Too many ifs and maybes in this equation.

  She wanted to reach out to Josh telepathically, to let him know she was nearby, but she feared alerting Daniel. What if he could discern her telepathic communications with Josh? She just didn’t want to take the chance.

  One step at a time.

  With such a large gathering of Ancestrals, even the air felt different, humming with power as she descended a wide, carved staircase into the Beijing resort.

  Moving down a large hall, she used her tracking ability and focused on the weapon. What came back to her was a massive machine not far from where Josh was being held, and the pull from this machine was enormous.

  The extinction weapon.

  She truly had found the weapon, or at least one significant version of it.

  She shared the news with Adrien, who stiffened.

  Another frightening thought intruded. Do you think Daniel already knows where it is?

  Adrien shifted to meet her gaze, shaking his head. I sincerely doubt it, but he may have had reason to guess it might be here.

  You’re probably right. If he knew where it was, he wouldn’t have gone to this much trouble.

  When she entered the banquet room, she climbed three steps, grateful because of her heels to have Adrien’s support. The tables were laid out on a raised portion of stone and carpeted with thick, plush burgundy-and-black carpet.

  At the far end was a dais beside which Daniel, his two subservient sons, and other elegantly garbed Ancestrals chatted together.

  She had to admit, though, that of all the male Ancestrals present, Daniel exceeded them all in basic charisma. He had a champagne glass in hand and smiled, always his smile. He wore a finely tailored tux, like Adrien’s, his black hair oiled and combed straight back.

  “He seems to enjoy his role,” she whispered to Adrien.

  “That he does.”

  Daniel stood smiling, his gaze roving the guests, of whom there had to be at least three hundred present. Since there were only about five hundred Ancestrals in the vampire culture, the number here tonight was significant.

  Every race was present, so that it would seem the vampire world truly did share basic human genetics. But somewhere a couple of genes had taken a hard turn that had to do with the ability to grow and release fangs, increase bodily strength, and develop a severe reaction to sunlight. The rest, even Daniel’s behavior, was very human. In her opinion, he was a contented psychopath who had somehow maneuvered his way into a position of power, reveled in his rule, and intended to do whatever he needed to keep it, including acquiring, and probably using, a weapon that could wipe out his species.

  As she glanced around, and saw that many vampires were staring at her, she sensed a kind of group curiosity and amazement, especially since the chain she wore drew a lot of attention. Adrien’s chains were less evident, hidden as they were beneath his shirt. But as she let her own gaze wander, she noticed that a lot of women present wore chains similar to hers, though enhanced with other jewelry. There were even women with multiple chains.

  From a nearby group, Gabriel joined them. She greeted him with a kiss on each cheek, something the Ancestrals tended to do. He seemed grateful that she was there, but especially Adrien, whom he clapped on the shoulder a couple of times. “Rumy has kept me informed,” he said quietly.

  Adrien merely nodded, then patted Lily’s hand. She still clutched his arm, her heart pounding in her chest, thoughts bouncing rapidly from Josh, to the weapon, to Daniel and back again, over and over.

  Gabriel drew a small, silk-wrapped packet from the inner pocket of his coat. He offered it to Lily. “I brought you a gift.”

  She met his gaze. “You did?” She’d never been more surprised.

  “With all that you’ve been through, I thought you needed this, a small gesture. No, don’t open it now.”

  Lily felt the air around her waver slightly. At first, she thought she was having another revisiting vision, but the blue silk of the present, cool beneath her fingers, had begun to vibrate.

  She looked down at it frowning, then back to Gabriel.

  The wave-like feel of the air suddenly made sense, especially when Gabriel’s voice pierced the center of her brain. I’ve created a brief disguise and we have only a few seconds to speak, but by now you know what you’re holding; the companion chain to Adrien’s. Lily, it would be permanent but it would geometrically increase his power for every ability he possesses. Keep that in mind. You’ll have a choice to make soon. Follow your instincts and trust in Adrien’s goodness above all things.

  The air warmed up, the disguise dissipated, and Gabriel turned to greet someone else. She slipped the gift into her velvet purse, her heart pounding once more.

  Adrien had also turned away, perhaps because of Gabriel’s disguising skill, and she no longer held his arm. She took deep breaths and let the moment unfold.

  She had with her now the companion double-chain to Adrien’s, one that would bind her to him forever. She could never escape him or this world.

  But she could increase his power.

  Josh, the weapon, Daniel, escape.

  Double-chain, no escape. Ever.

  Her gaze moved to Adrien, who turned and introduced her to a handsome couple, but she couldn’t register their names. Her ears felt full of fog.

  She shook hands and Adrien passed her a glass of champagne. She smiled and nodded.

  Double-chains.

  She looked up at Adrien, seeing him in his element, as a man of confidence and ease among vampires, now his peers because of his rise to Ancestral status. He was already four hundred years old and would live to be much, much older.

  What had Gabriel been thinking to have given her the companion double-chain?

  She had a choice to make.

  But her decision had long since been made the moment she gave birth to Josh. He was her priority. Her mother’s heart demanded it. She would do anything to make sure he lived.

  Her gaze drifted to the dais. Daniel watched her from over the rim of his glass. He was forty feet away, at least, yet she felt as though he stood next to her.

  The air began to spin.

  Another revisiting vision.

  She wasn’t surprised to see Daniel in the same space, but the tables were gone and he stood with another vampire. Silas.

  From the past, Silas frowned. “And you think the weapon is here, in the Black Caverns?”

  “There are more rumors about this place than any other site on the planet.”

  “What do you want from me?”

  Daniel snorted. “To help me find the damn thing.”

  “Watch your blasphemy.” Silas tweaked the cuff of his robe.

  A smile spread over Daniel’s face. “And you, my friend, should watch your hypocrisy.”

  “But you know if I find it, I won’t let you have it.”

  “And yet you just might since I can make it worth your while. You know I can.”

  Silas grew very still and, after a few seconds, nodded slowly.

  But at that moment Daniel turned toward Lily from within the vision and met her gaze dead-on. “Hello, Lily.” He looked around. “What is this? Ah, the annual gala.” He peered past her. “Here, at the Black Caverns. I’ll be seeing you then. I take this as a good sign. You have two children, right?”

  Lily nodded.

  Daniel laughed, waved his arm, and the vision vanished.

  When the room came back into view, she realized two things: that Adrien had his arm around her and was asking her if she was all right, and that Daniel had raised his glas
s to her from across the maze of Ancestrals.

  Are you all right?

  Lily couldn’t answer the telepathic question. Though Daniel had shifted his attention to a beautiful African female vampire who clung to him, a hand draped high over his shoulder, she still stared at him.

  The monster who had inflicted unimaginable pain on his children.

  The vampire who owned sex-slave clubs specializing in human females.

  The ruler determined, at all costs, to get his hands on the extinction weapon in order to control everything.

  And closer to home, the man who had seen into the future, during her revisiting visions, discovered her identity and orchestrated the slaughter of her husband and daughter and the kidnapping of her son.

  Lily, what’s wrong? I can feel that you’re distressed, but not like before. What’s going on?

  She turned to him, aware that the other Ancestral couple looked concerned as well. But she couldn’t worry about them right now, or anyone else, only the terrible truth of her current situation and the events she would soon set into motion.

  She blinked once then twice, and in the space of those few seconds, her life and purpose shifted entirely. She turned to Adrien, meeting his gaze. I’ve come to a decision. I can’t, I won’t do this anymore. I won’t be used to hunt for the extinction weapon and I sure as hell won’t turn the location over to Daniel, not now, not ever. I’ll die first.

  Adrien’s arm tightened around her waist. But Lily, Daniel will kill Josh.

  A lump formed in her throat and her eyes filled with tears. I’ll find him, So long as I live and breathe, I’ll travel to the ends of the earth to get him back. Now that I have a telepathic link with him, somehow I’ll find him and save him. But I’ll no longer be enslaved to Daniel, who would use the weapon to kill so many.

  CHAPTER 15

  Adrien fell back into his old self. That was the only way he could describe what happened to him once he understood the level of Lily’s determination to end the hunt for the weapon and find her son on her own.