Caris Roane - Chains of Darkness

By then he was two thousand feet in the air and moving fast.

He heard the explosion then a moment later felt the power of the blast beneath him, but dimming by the split second until Claire’s voice reached him. Hey, vampire, it’s cold up here and now I can’t breathe.

Lucian had gone far enough and fell away, heading south and west, in a trajectory toward Uruguay and his secure cavern.

As soon as he had Claire safe in his home, in the living room, he checked her for injuries but found none.

“You are fast,” she said.

“Thank God you’re okay.”

“Yeah, yeah. Call Rumy. Let’s find out what happened from where he sat.”

He held her next to him as he made the call. “Tell me everything.” He put the phone on speaker so that Claire could hear as well.

“Gabriel’s guard had orders to stay here until the situation resolved, just in case Daniel made a play for my club. But here’s how it went from my vantage. Daniel and his boys kept flying over the lake until the explosion. Each was blown back a few hundred yards, but unfortunately each recovered. They didn’t turn in my direction but took off, heading east, probably back to Daniel’s lair in the Dark Cave system. So they’re gone, as are the boat and the weapon. The lake’s a mess. I sent a crew out there, under the cover of my own disguise, to get everything cleaned up.”

Lucian huffed a sigh. It was too much to hope for that the blast would have killed any of them. “And Marius? Zoey?”

“Marius said to tell you that he’s fine, but he’s in bad shape, like you were. He’s in blood-madness recovery now. Eve has about a dozen of her girls donating. He’ll be out of the woods in a couple of days. He said he and Zoey know some stuff about the Dark Cave system and he has a plan that’ll probably involve Zoey—but from what he can tell, she’s willing to do her part. She said to tell you, Claire, that as soon as she’s feeling better, she’ll call, and that she never stopped thinking about you. She said you were the reason she’d stayed alive as long as she had. She wanted to find you, if she could, and help you.”

Lucian felt his chains vibrate heavily. He turned to look at Claire and saw tears running down her cheeks. He pulled her to sit down on the couch beside him, holding her close.

“Claire?”

“Just give us a minute, Rumy.”

“Got it.”

Imagine Zoey worried about me, when she was the one who’d been auctioned and used. She covered her face. By Daniel.

Claire, she wouldn’t have known what happened to you, that you’d been in Florida taking care of Josh. She would have assumed you’d been sold into slavery as well.

I know.

He gave her another minute to regain her composure. She pulled a tissue from the pocket of her jeans, a wad of them, and blew her nose. “Sorry, Rumy, I kinda lost it, but I’m back. So Zoey’s fine?”

“Marius had enough strength to get her to the back entrance, but my staff was waiting for them. She’s very weak, but we’ll take care of her, you know we will. One of our medics has her on a blood transfusion right now and we’ve got a healer coming in soon. She’s eating chicken broth as we speak and talking about needing to get back to the Dark Cave system; she says five human slaves die every day and an equal number are brought in to replace them. She seems determined. I recognized the fire in her eye. Looked like your fire, Claire. Damn, I’m glad you’re back. You staying this time?”

Lucian’s heart stopped. He couldn’t breathe. Her answer had more significance than anything else he remembered from his four centuries of life.

She shifted in his direction and settled a hand on his face, staring into his eyes. “Rumy, I’m going to say something to Lucian, but you can listen, too, if you want.”

Lucian met her gaze, his heart slamming around in his chest. Claire spoke softly. “I was in that hotel room maybe an hour when I knew I couldn’t stay in Santa Fe. The moment I saw the chains, the ones Gabriel sent by way of Rumy’s gift, I knew I couldn’t return to my old life. I don’t understand all the forces that brought me here, that landed me in the middle of your life, but if you’ll have me, if you want me, I’ll stay.”

“Do I want you?”

Lucian forgot about the phone and about Rumy. He turned toward Claire and pulled her into his arms. He kissed her hard, driving his tongue deep.

Finally, he pulled back and stared into her eyes. “Do I want you? More than life itself. I never thought to have a woman in my life, any woman, vampire or otherwise. But you came, showing up in the Dark Cave system, in that pit, surrounded with a disguise that fooled even Daniel.

“I didn’t want to let you go the first time, but I thought you should have a chance at the life you wanted. I wasn’t even sure I deserved you.”

“Are you sure now?” She petted his cheek and kissed him, then drew back.

His lips curved up, and he leaned his forehead against hers. “I’ll always doubt that I deserve anything. That’s the truth of what happened to me, the darkness that will always live in me. But I don’t care, either. I want you and so long as you want to be here, with me, that’s all that matters.” He kissed her again.

Rumy chimed in. “Hey, someone bring me some popcorn. This is getting good. I’m hearing slurping noises.”

Lucian chuckled as he drew back and Claire grinned.

Lucian returned to the task at hand, angling toward the phone. “Let Gabriel know that the weapon’s been destroyed. I suppose you’ve already told him about Marius.”

“He knows on both counts, and he’ll be here in about twenty minutes. He might take Marius back with him, but something tells me he won’t be anxious to leave Zoey. I think she might have fed him, as weak as she was. She has recent, unhealed puncture marks in her throat.”

“What does that mean?” Claire asked.

“When the holes don’t close up, death is near. Don’t worry, we got her in time.”

He watched her swallow hard and nod several times in a row.

“Oh, and one more thing, Lucian. Gabriel said he thinks you should join Adrien in the Amazon system. Catch your breath and we’ll all figure out what to do about Marius and Zoey, okay?”

Lucian met Claire’s warm brown eyes once more. How does that sound? Could you handle going underground for a while? With me?

I don’t want to be anywhere else right now.

This time, before he kissed Claire again, he ended the call then turned his phone off.

“What happened to your hair?” Josh asked the obvious question and it was such a young-boy thing to do that Claire ran to him and picked him up in her arms. Despite how big he was, she swung him in a circle. Siphoning Lucian’s power had a lot of advantages.

So much had happened in such a short space of time that it was hard to remember she hadn’t been separated from him for very long at all, just a few days.

He’d reached that age, however, and pushed her away, his cheeks reddening. “Stop it, Auntie Claire.” But he grinned, and his eyes shone. “I want you to meet my mom.”

Claire turned toward Lily, and a stream of understanding and affection flowed between the women. They were family now, bonded to brothers.

An embrace followed, and Claire’s shoulder grew damp really fast. “Thank you for taking care of him,” Lily whispered. “Thank you, Claire, from the bottom of my heart. I owe you so much. I can never repay the blessing that you were in Josh’s life while we were separated.”

Claire drew back, her own emotions threatening to stampede her, but she didn’t exactly think it would help Josh if the two women in the room dissolved into tears.