Chains of Darkness (26 page)

He shrugged, then he laughed, that thing she could make him do. “We’re men. Our dicks dictate most of our decisions. I didn’t mean anything by it and I know we both need to move on.”

The amused light in her eye dimmed. She sat down to put on a pair of socks and soft brown leather flats. “Yes, we do. I’m trying, Lucian, but all this sex is getting to me and making feel things that I know aren’t real, can’t be real, and can’t last. Know what I mean?”

He leaned his elbow on the upper brace of the steel rack, looking down at her. “Yeah, I do. We’ll get through this, Claire, and I’ll get you home as soon as we have the extinction weapon in hand and after we rescue your friend.”

Claire slid her foot slowly into the second shoe. She stared at the floor and released a deep, almost labored breath. “It’s funny to me how what we each wanted to accomplish dovetailed like this—your father having bought Zoey, I mean. Now I have yet another reason to detest Daniel, as if what he had already inflicted on your world and on you and your brothers wasn’t bad enough. God, Marius…”

She shaded her face with her hand.

He kept forgetting that she’d witnessed his brother’s murder. Another shard of pain took a slice off his heart for a brother lost, one he’d loved for four centuries.

But he couldn’t dwell on his loss, not yet, maybe not until he had Claire safely home. Right now she had to be the focus, as well as the extinction weapon and Zoey.

“Sorry,” Claire murmured. She then rose and jerked the fur from the rack. “So, have you got the tickets?”

He patted the inside pocket of his long leather coat.

She glanced at his chest, then her gaze skimmed him head-to-foot. “This is a different look for you. It’s nice. Your other jacket was shorter. I like this long look, kind of Old West.”

His lips curved. “Yeah, I’m a real cowboy.” For fun, he flashed the tips of his fangs.

She grinned then laughed. “The cowboy vampire. Okay, that just sounds weird.”

“Yeah, it does.” He reached out and caught her arm through the thick fur. “We good, Claire?”

She put a hand on his face. “We’ll always be good, you and me. You’re my kind of peeps.” She nodded several times then drew back. Pulling on her gloves, she added, “So it’s Siberia, then?”

“Yep.”

“Ready if you are.”

“Your timing is perfect.” He held out his right arm, she stepped into him, and as he clamped an arm around her waist, he shifted into altered flight and headed northeast.

*   *   *

The moment Lucian touched down, Claire was more grateful for Rumy’s foresight than at any time before. It was cold, way too cold for Claire to be comfortable, but the faux fur, lined with down, kept her from freezing her tush off.

The landing area for the River of Lights show went on for at least an eighth of a mile. Lucian slid his arm around Claire then turned back to look over his shoulder.

She looked up at him.
What is it?

Jitters. Don’t know why.

Do you think we’ve been followed?

It’s possible.

After that, she marveled at the disguise around the entire built-up entrance. “I’ve never seen so much movement in a shielding disguise before.”

Lucian laughed. “Part of it’s for show—even vampire children can see through it.”

Claire knew that there were children in Lucian’s world; vampires were born into the world just like humans. But their long-life genes were balanced out with the difficulty of procreation. Children were a rare occurrence.

Practicing birth control was unheard of. That Daniel had somehow managed to produce several sons from several human women had been deemed a result of his considerable Ancestral powers and nothing less.

Vampire attendants, for what turned out to be a gondola ride experience, directed the arriving guests into four lanes. The guides wore costumes, with tall colorful hats and fur-lined vests.

Soft orchestral music floated across the lanes. Two female vampires levitated, carrying baskets of single red roses to sell to the guests.

Claire frowned, wondering what was going on, then looked around and noted just how many couples there were, some locked in tender embraces.

Hold on. This is a romantic getaway, isn’t it? Because I can see a hotel through the disguise on the left.

You can see that?

Sure.

You amaze me, Claire.

I don’t think seeing through the disguise is about me; it’s about you. Ever since you took on your Ancestral power, my abilities have kicked up a notch.

An attendant approached with a basket slung over her arm. “A rose for your lady?”

Claire met Lucian’s questioning brow but shook her head.

Lucian reached into his pocket anyway and withdrew a money clip. He handed the woman twenty euros, but she handed it back and in a quiet voice said, “For you, Lucian, no charge. Keep up the good fight, boss.”

He took the flower, and she moved on. He touched the soft petal to his lips then turned to Claire.
The good fight. Is that what I do?

She slid her arm around his.
Yes, and that defines you exactly, who you really are, boss.

He frowned slightly, then handed her the rose.

She took it, and just as Lucian had she let the velvety petals glide over her lips, but her thoughts had turned to the mission at hand.
Of all the places to hide a clue to the whereabouts of an extinction weapon, why in a Tunnel of Love gondola ride?

Lucian smiled.
Last place anyone would look?

You may be right.

Once inside the initial cavern, couples could purchase a bottle of champagne, served in a silver bucket with two glasses. If done properly, sipping the champagne would last the entire mile-long trip, which apparently required a full hour to complete.

An hour to go a mile.

Every gondola was self-propelled and ran on a track beneath the water, much like rides at a theme park.

The seats were comfortable and semi-reclined, but Claire had reached the limits of her patience.
Lucian, can’t you just fly me along the river’s course until we find the serpent pillar? I think this is going to drive me crazy. We have a weapon to find, a psychopath to trap, and my friend to save.

Unfortunately, no. There’s no flight allowed. An electric webbing throughout would cause serious pain to anyone who levitated.

What are we going to do when we reach the pillar?

We’ll play it by ear.
He glanced at her.
Is this changing your mind?

Not even a little, but it is making me nervous.

A female voice from a speaker inside the gondola told them to prepare for the magic of the River of Lights, to give themselves fully to the experience, and to be assured that they would have complete privacy the entire trip.

The back of the gondola formed a kind of partition so that they could see nothing behind them. The gondola moved forward and passed through a series of curtains so that when the boat emerged into the first cavern on the river, Claire murmured, “Oh, my God.”

“It’s beautiful.”

“Have you never been here?”

“No.”

Unlike the best-known human caves, in which stalagmites and stalactites formed the greater fascination for explorers, the vampire world had an almost opposite sensibility: Caves were meant to be transformed, kept free from damp, with the richest mineral veins polished to a glow. They had teams working on caves constantly to remove all kinds of mineral buildup within their developed cavern systems.

When the walls of a cave were a simple stone, crystals were added, or various exotic granites and marbles. Sculpture had been perfected as a high form of art.

Music played in the background. As the gondola moved slowly around each intricate turn of the river, lights played over more sculptures, intricate stone carvings, and beautiful crystal mosaics.

In the face of the beauty in front of her, Claire forgot her present struggles. She took Lucian’s hand, overwhelmed.

Suddenly the hidden world of the vampire looked very different to her, full of beauty and subtlety, romance, and even children and families. She was looking at the opposite side of Lucian’s civilization. “I had no idea.”

“I guess you haven’t seen much beauty in our world over the past few days, have you?”

She shook her head as the gondola left the cavern behind and entered what appeared to be a long, dark tunnel. She heard a soft moan in the distance.
Is that what I think it is?

These gondolas are meant to be very private.

But this tunnel carries sound.

Lucian chuckled softly. He squeezed her hand.
I wish we were here under very different circumstances.

I’m trying hard not to think about it.

But the dark tunnel ended, bringing the gondola into an immense new cavern and another display of vampire artistry. Realizing that the ride wouldn’t get them to their end point for at least another twenty minutes, and needing to keep from thinking about how she wished Lucian would kiss her, Claire let her mind drift and her eyes take in the sights in front of her.

The entire ride was linked with dark tunnels, which created the ideal preparation for the next extraordinary display.

Just as the fourth cavern opened up, which involved a thematic use of obsidian and white crystals, Lucian nudged her.
Look how the river turns at the exit point.

She sat up straighter and fixed her gaze at the far end of the cavern.
Yes, it turns almost parallel to the rest of the ride; a ninety-degree turn.

Exactly. Now all we need to find is the serpent pillar.

Yeah, but have you given any thought to busting through the electrical field? And before you dispute what you’d be up against, remember that I saw what Tasers did to you in Daniel’s Dark Cave system. You were incapacitated.

I wasn’t an Ancestral then.

But she felt his doubts and maybe his remembered experience, the pain of having had that much electrical current disrupting his vampire circuitry.

She forgot about the black and white crystals, her gaze now fixed across the cavern despite the switchback path of the gondola or the occasionally extreme height of some of the sculptures.

Setting the rose aside when the gondola made the ninety-degree turn, she held her breath.

There, to the left, it’s a disguise, Lucian, can you see it? The most beautiful blue.

I don’t see it.

That has to be the hidden cavern.

At the same time, she saw the six-foot stone statue in the shape of serpent.

There’s the serpent.
Her heart started pounding in her chest.
I see it.

I’m going to throw us through the field and it’s going to hurt. But we don’t have to do this, Claire.

Like hell we don’t. I’m ready, Lucian. I can take a little pain. Just say the word.

Ten feet remained until they would enter the next tunnel.

Just tell me where the disguise seems thinnest.

Claire’s heart thumped in her chest, her gaze rising.
Near the ceiling line, but it’s very jagged.

Give me the distance; it’s time to go.

Twenty feet straight up, then over eight feet, no more.

Ready, Claire?

Hell, yeah.

She wasn’t exactly prepared for how he simply lifted her up and launched her into the air, holding her only by her arm.

The electrical field burned and jolted her senses. When she landed, she felt like she’d fallen on pillows because her mind was floating, making sense of nothing.

Then she blacked out.

*   *   *

Lucian couldn’t move, and the space was very dark. Something sharp pressed into his face, his neck, and other parts of his body. Where the hell was he?

His mind faded in and out, the way his early recovery from blood-madness had felt, when only one thought out of three made any sense at all.

Now he remembered. Shit, that had hurt. Where was Claire?

Claire.