Chains of Darkness (13 page)

How hard are you?

Oh, God, Claire’s voice in his head really didn’t help, so he responded in kind.
How wet are you?

Enough to handle what you’ve got.
Her voice sounded loose and needy inside his head.

We’re both feeling too much right now. Must be because of the double-chain.

Maybe. Or maybe it’s just you, Claire. And how much I want you.

Aloud, he said, “Rumy, would you give us a minute and turn off your damn security cameras.”

“You got it, boss.”

The moment he left, Lucian lowered Claire to her feet, then turned her in his arms, slanting a kiss over her waiting mouth.

In turn, she grabbed hold of him, her fingers digging into the muscles of his arms, shoulders, back, whatever she could reach and fondle.

His hands went straight to her bottom. He cupped her and pulled her against him, grinding into her. His tongue drove in and out of her mouth, mimicking what he wanted to be doing to her.

When she suckled his tongue, he groaned.

Finally he pulled back, breathing hard. Her lips were swollen, her light-brown eyes dilated. His gaze drifted over her face, memorizing her features that, because of the damn chains, seemed to have gained critical, life-altering importance to him in only a night and a half.

He wasn’t sure what to say, but he would never forget this moment, her beauty, her long wavy auburn hair, her creamy skin, the small indentation in her chin, the laughter in her soft, light-brown eyes.

She caressed his face. “You’re driving me crazy, you know.”

“Same here.”

He’d smiled more than usual in the past few hours. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d done that. Even with his brothers, smiling was rare. Marius had been able to make him smile, and on the rare occasion to laugh until his sides ached.

His thoughts fell hard to that other reality: Marius.

Now dead.

What is it, Lucian?

Just thinking about Marius. My brother is gone. Sometimes it hits me hard. I was thinking of him just now.

She hugged him, and he returned the embrace.

After a minute of just holding her, and once his body had calmed the hell down, he brought Rumy back in.

At the same time, the landline on Rumy’s desk rang. He crossed the room to answer it, but after a moment he turned in Lucian’s direction, frowning. “What’s her name, the one asking about Zoey?”

“Zoey?” Claire’s voice sounded small in the room. She glanced at Lucian and instinctively drew closer to him. He took her hand, holding it tight.

Rumy kept nodding. “Repeat that last bit.” He paused. “Okay. And you’re sure they’re from a club in Santa Fe? What did you call it? The Prickly Pear?”

Lucian heard a sharp intake of breath from beside him. “Oh, God, no,” Claire murmured.

Rumy pressed two fingers to his temple, concentrating hard. “Tell me where they’re at again?” Another pause, then, “Thanks, Sam. I owe you one.”

Lucian leaned close to Claire. “You were abducted from that club, weren’t you?”

“Yes. This does not sound good.”

Rumy settled the phone on its cradle. “Claire, were you taken from The Prickly Pear?”

“I was.”

“Shit. A vampire known to have connections in Daniel’s sex-slave operation owns that club. But one of my informants, who works at the Hawaiian cavern system, said a couple of girls arrived recently and they’ve been asking about Zoey and you. They said they were from Santa Fe. It can’t be a coincidence. Anyway, this system is a suspected trafficking center.”

Lucian lifted a hand. “But the disguising effects there are some of the most powerful I’ve ever seen. We could never break through to see what was going on, because an Ancestral created the fields.”

“Which means I might be able to help.” Claire squeezed Lucian’s hand.

Rumy nodded. “That’s what I’m hoping. The owners of the pineapple-exporting firm are a couple of major slimeballs. I’m pretty sure they paid the Ancestral a huge fee—and maybe a percentage of their trafficking business—to get that level of protection and secrecy. Anyway, the informant talked to one of the guards about half an hour ago and here we are.”

“What are their names? The girls who were taken, I mean.” Claire squeezed Lucian’s hand.

“Amber and Tracy. Do you know either of them? Apparently Amber has straight black hair almost to her waist, if that’s any help.”

“Oh, God.”

Lucian felt Claire’s sudden horror and wasn’t surprised, as he glanced down at her, to find that she was trembling.

Who is she? Who’s Amber?

Claire turned toward him slightly. “Amber is Zoey’s younger sister. Lucian? Is it possible vampires just kidnapped Zoey’s sister?”

Lucian frowned. “It’s possible, especially if she’d been hunting for information about Zoey.”

“Doing her own investigation.”

“And asking the wrong people.”

“But what are we going to do?”

*   *   *

Claire still held Lucian’s hand. She had never felt so solemn in her life. This simple phone call to Rumy, a communication from halfway around the world, had just added a new layer of complexity. Not only was someone she knew in trouble, but the whole situation reminded her yet again of the dark forces she and Lucian fought.

She knew Amber well, because she’d practically lived at Zoey’s house for over a decade and had even babysat Amber when she was a kid. Right now, she had to be eighteen, a very tender age for most young women.

And if something wasn’t done right now, Amber would disappear into the vampire world’s sex-trafficking nightmare, just like Zoey had. Both women could be dead within two weeks. If not, they’d probably perish sometime in the next eighteen months.

She looked into Lucian’s steely gray eyes. She felt his distress, even his anger at the abduction, at more innocent lives taken.

He ground his teeth.

“Lucian?”

His rage made the chain at her neck feel hot, as though his anger burned within the metal and now scorched her skin.

Then she felt it, an answering rage within her own spirit: at having been abducted herself, at losing two years of her life, at Zoey’s fate and now Amber’s.

Still holding Lucian’s hand, she realized they shared the same understanding, as well as the same purposeful reaction.

His gaze left the floor and slid in a long slow trek toward Rumy’s desk, landing finally on the green velvet display board.

Claire felt her chain vibrate with another pulse of sudden, quick anger followed as swiftly by Lucian’s resolve. On every level, she saw what needed to be done, not just to save Amber from what sounded like an impossible-to-find trafficking center, but for the more inclusive purpose of tracking and locating the extinction weapon. In order to expand their tracking ability as well as to enhance her own ability to detect and create disguises, Lucian would have to rise to Ancestral status.

Without the increased power, they would struggle to accomplish any of their goals, including rescuing Amber and her friend. Flight would remain unbearably painful for Claire, their current tracking ability was weak compared with their pressing need, and even if they somehow found the extinction weapon, Lucian wouldn’t have sufficient power to take Daniel on.

But she recalled Lucian’s greatest fear: that in embracing the full potential of his power he would become like his father.

She met his gaze, knowing he had a tough choice to make and that only he could make it.

His lips turned down, and his gray eyes darkened. “I know the Hawaiian system. No one can get in. The disguises are beyond anything I’ve ever seen, maybe even beyond your current power, Claire. And that system is far away. I couldn’t even fly you there without causing you a shitload of agony all over again.”

She looked deep into his eyes and saw everything there, the totality of his determination and how much he would sacrifice, just as she would. And here was a trait they shared in common, something that might be even more binding between them than the blood-chains. Each would sacrifice. Each would do what had to be done.

She had to do this.

So did Lucian.

She might not understand all his reasons, but hers were simple: She knew Amber and she knew Amber’s mother. She couldn’t let this happen to either of those women, not when Zoey had been lost to her family for the past two years, maybe even forever. The household had endured enough suffering with Zoey’s kidnapping. But even beyond Amber’s abduction, there were thousands of young women in the same kind of jeopardy.

And Daniel Briggs was behind it all. From what Rumy and Lucian had said, Daniel led the way when it came to sex slavery. And all roads seemed to lead back to him.

She began to understand the impact the extinction weapon could have on her world as well. Once Daniel had full control of the vampire world, he could expand his vile sex-slavery operations so that more and more human women, just like Amber and Tracy, would fall victim to him. More than ever before, she saw the absolute necessity of making sure that Daniel’s plans failed.

“Lucian, I want you to know that I’ll do whatever it takes to help you stop Daniel. He’s set the worldwide stage for this level of sex trafficking. He has Zoey in his power and now his organization has abducted Zoey’s sister and her friend. I don’t think I really connected all the dots before, but none of this will change until he’s brought down.”

He closed his eyes, a frown never far from his forehead. She felt how upset he was that the very thing he’d promised himself never to do looked like the only way he could save his world from calamity. Saving Amber would be a side trip, though a critical one. But becoming an Ancestral in order to get the job done would accelerate their efforts on all fronts.

Lucian turned and faced her fully. “The only way we make this work is with your disguising power enhanced with an infusion of Ancestral power. I truly doubt we’d even be able to find them otherwise. But once I rise to this level, nothing will stop us from finding the weapon. I’m sure of it. As far as my biggest concern goes, I have no idea which way this will fall.”

“You mean whether the new power level will somehow seduce your dark side?”

“Exactly.”

“But you’re willing to take the risk.”

“I am, but are you? This could backfire and you could get hurt.”

She took his other hand and held his gaze with all the ferocity she could manage. “With all my heart, I believe you’re incapable of resembling anything like Daniel Briggs.”

*   *   *

From the time he could remember, Lucian had fought his basic nature, the one that matched Daniel Briggs point by point: his level of rage, his desire to hurt, his willingness to fight anyone to the death. He was more vampire than Claire would ever understand, and to some degree, when she questioned his civilization, she had it right about his species. What else could account for such a vast network of human trafficking in his world?

His gaze settled on the double-chain. The new set would hit him about three inches below the well of his throat and were just big enough to slide over his head. And Claire would wear the matching one in order to sustain their bond. She would continue to siphon his power, but otherwise the primary changes would occur within him.

He couldn’t believe that after four hundred years, he was making the Ancestral leap. But it had to be done. If he had any hope of stopping Daniel from getting the extinction weapon, he needed to be at Ancestral level right now and he needed Claire with him.

He turned toward her, meeting her steady gaze.

He picked up the set meant for him and for the strangest split second wished Claire stood beside him. Then suddenly she was there and touched his shoulder.

“I can feel the difference and you haven’t even put them on.”

He breathed hard now, because he was feeling it as well, the potential in the double-chain. His life would change from this moment forward. Nothing would ever be the same—and even more troubling, he’d never be able to go back. He would become an Ancestral. Once his power rose, he would be born into that new realm.

He stared into Claire’s light-brown eyes, still breathing hard. He’d resisted and feared this moment his entire life: The double-chains would make him Daniel’s equal, his competitor, his true enemy.

And once the chain was on, Daniel wouldn’t be far behind.

But would the rise to Ancestral status make it impossible for him to battle the constant evil that threatened to take him over? Or would he become a sadistic killer? Would darkness rule his mind and his thoughts the way it did his father’s? Or was he truly the man Claire believed him to be?

Claire’s beautiful voice eased through his mind.
Are you ready?

He nodded slowly.
I am.

Lucian drew the chains close. He could smell the power of them now, what they would bring him. He wanted that power—and here was another of his truths: He’d longed for Ancestral power from the moment he’d first learned of its potential.