Unchained (Men in Chains Book 3) (28 page)

“Quill fired up the extinction weapon.”

Because she was trembling, he set her in motion, guiding her back to the bed. “Why don’t you sit down and tell me every detail.”

He already hurt deep into his soul, knowing what he was about to hear.

She sat down and planted her hands on her legs for support. “I want to stream this for you, Marius. I think you should see it for yourself.”

He didn’t want to do this. He didn’t want to watch a massacre. But what he wanted didn’t matter. “Okay.” He sat down on the bed beside her and took her hand.

She closed her eyes.
Ready?
Her telepathic voice, full of her distress, made him flinch.

Yes. Go ahead.

As the first image showed up, he realized that her issue with the visions was gone, something in other circumstances he would celebrate. But not now.

The vision played like a movie. He was looking at the cave where Daniel had killed all those women in front of him.

This time, a large metal cage had been assembled in the center of the room and inside were females, all vampires. Sex slavery wasn’t human-specific. A lot of clients preferred vampires because they were much stronger physically, could take greater abuse, and could self-heal quickly.

The women looked confused but otherwise sat close together, some holding one another for support. Each bore bruises and cuts.

He felt nauseous and wanted to look away, but he had to stand witness to this horror.

Shayna panned back, part of her gift, and the weapon came into view with its red hood, silver main housing, and shiny black base.

He could see a simple metal flip switch. A human woman, shackled and very thin, with bruises all over her arms, waited close to the weapon. She glanced over her shoulder to look back and to her right, her eyes wide with terror.

Shayna panned back farther and there was Quill, a maniacal smile on his lips, madness in his eyes. He had his arms crossed over his chest.

The next moment Quill shifted to altered flight then nodded to the human.

She flipped the switch and the weapon hummed to life, making a sound that vibrated at first in the lower registers. The female vampires began to rise to their feet. He sensed their mass anxiety.

The vibrations grew increasingly higher-pitched and as his own eardrums began to ache, the women started to scream, holding their hands to their ears.

It all happened so fast, the women tearing around wildly, ramming into one another, screaming, followed by blood pouring from their eyes, noses, and ears.

They began to drop suddenly, one by one in quick succession, and he knew they died, just like that. Quill appeared to be safe while in altered flight. He nodded a second time to the woman, who flipped the switch once more and the vibration stopped.

As the vision ended, Marius opened his eyes. He realized he’d let go of Shayna’s hand to press his palms against his ears. The vision hadn’t carried the full measure of the vibrations, but his ears hurt and the pain extended through his skull.

“Are you okay?”

He felt Shayna’s hand on his back and nodded. “I’m fine, but they’re all dead.”

“They are and it was horrible for them and so fast,” she said. “I didn’t think it would be so quick.”

He sent healing power to his ears and to his mind so that after a minute, he no longer hurt, just his chest because of the mass murder.

He gave himself another minute to absorb and to recover, then turned to Shayna. “Can you tell me if the weapon is still in that location?”

He watched her close her eyes again. She shook her head, but she suddenly gripped his hand. “Marius, I’ve found it, but you have to see this. I don’t understand why it’s in this place. This makes no sense.”

“Go ahead and stream it.”

The images arrived like a new onslaught. The weapon sat on a land bridge within a large cavern. Below were a couple hundred human slaves, all staring up, milling around, nervous. Something was going on.

He opened his eyes and met her gaze. “This isn’t a vision, is it?”

She shook her head. “It’s just the location, here and now.”

“The Dark Cave system?”

She nodded. “Yes, but it feels like a trap.”

“I couldn’t agree more.”

This time her shoulders rose and fell with a quick intake of breath. “We have to go get it.”

“Yes, we do.”

“But how? Because I’m convinced we’ll be attacked.”

“Let’s get you dressed, then we’ll make a plan.”

“I need to get my dress.” She stood up and headed back into the bathroom.

He followed after her and watched her start tidying up the space, something she didn’t need to do. He didn’t understand at first until he saw that her fingers trembled as she wrapped up the hair dryer and put it away on a wood shelf beneath the sink.

She was in shock.

When she started wiping down the sink, he went to her. He turned her to face him and surrounded her with his arms. “It’ll be okay.”

She hugged him hard. “I’m scared,” she mumbled against his shoulder. “I don’t want to be, but I am. It was awful to watch them die.”

“I know and you have every right to be freaking out right now.”

“I want to be stronger than this.”

He rubbed her back up and down. “You’re doing just fine. I’m so proud of you.”

After a moment, she calmed down and gathered up her clothes. “I’m ready.”

He flew her to her original room. She went immediately to the closet and he picked up his phone again and placed a call to his brother. When he heard Adrien’s voice, guilt poured over him once more, that old remorse that lived in him like a wound that would never heal. “Marius. We’ve been hoping we’d hear from you, but didn’t want to call.” A phone ringing at the wrong time could alert the enemy.

“I wanted to let you and Lucian know what’s going on. And I want you to share with Gabriel what I’m about to tell you.” He quickly outlined all that had happened, beginning with his call to Rumy and the later explosion. “I knew his mind, Adrien. He’d always said if Daniel started moving in on The Erotic Passage, he’d destroy the whole system before he let that bastard take over anything.”

Adrien was silent for a moment. “Sounds like Daniel’s serious this time. He’s making his move.”

“We think so, too. Shayna and I are going after the weapon. She’s seen the location. I know you’re in hiding, but if things go wrong, you may need to go after the weapon yourself. I know your woman, Lily, has the same tracking ability as Shayna. I need you both to be our backup in case things go south.”

“We will. Just keep us informed.”

“And there’s something else; Daniel had Quill kill off a number of vampire sex slaves by firing up the weapon. It happened so quick; they died so damn fast.” He then relayed the vision that Shayna had streamed for him, answering any questions that came to Adrien’s mind.

Adrien huffed a heavy sigh. “Daniel has to be stopped.”

“I’m getting the feeling that something big is on the horizon.”

The tension level in Adrien’s voice rose a notch. “What do you mean?”

He shifted to look at Shayna, watching her slide into a pair of jeans, then zip up. She already wore a long-sleeved T-shirt, cut low, which she mitigated by putting on a dark blue tank top backward like before. She sat down on the edge of the bed to put on socks and a pair of running shoes.

“Just a feeling. Be sure to let Gabriel know. And be ready. I might need your help in the next few hours.”

“I’ll tell both Lucian and Gabriel. And don’t worry. We’ll contact Rumy and see what’s going on. We’ve got your back.”

Marius hung up and slid his phone into the deep pocket of his battle leathers. He turned to Shayna and told her what was going on.

“I heard most of it,” she said, standing up and straightening the outer T-shirt at the hem.

He crossed to her and once more took her shoulders in hand, meeting her gaze straight on. “Shayna, I can go by myself on this one. You’d be safe here with Rumy and the other refugees.”

She shook her head and had never looked more serious. “No, you’ll need me. That much I know. I can feel it.”

She patted his vest and down the sides of his pants. “Good. You’re fully armed.”

He couldn’t help it; his lips twisted into a smile. Shayna was checking to make sure
he
was ready for war. “Of course I’m armed.”

“I guess that was a silly thing for me to do, but I’m nervous.”

“Me, too.”

She rolled her eyes. “You are not.”

“I hide it really well, but only an idiot goes into battle unafraid.”

“Okay.”

“Okay, then.”

He opened his arm and she hopped onto his foot, slinging her arm around his neck. She held his gaze for a moment, then kissed him full on the lips. “Let’s go get that weapon, warrior.”

*   *   *

Shayna had never been so frightened before, though she didn’t really understand why this situation was worse than any of the others. Except that Quill could fire up the weapon and Marius could die, which would mean she would be trapped in Daniel’s lair. There was that.

As he flew her east, in the direction of the Dark Cave system, she thought back on all that had happened beginning with first meeting Marius in Seattle, seeing him from the corner of her eye in flight and wondering if someone had slipped her a roofie at the club she’d been at.

Now she was here, flying once more, experiencing no pain, just an almost paralyzing fear because of what might await them or the thousand things that could go wrong.

The flight took way too long, yet wasn’t long enough at the same time. When he made his descent and they began to pass through rock, the sound of her heartbeat pounded in her ears.

He broke through the main cavern and there it was, the last of the extinction weapons, sitting on an eight-foot-wide land bridge above a large pit at least eighty feet across. She couldn’t imagine what Daniel was thinking by putting it there except that it looked like a piece of bait. So if this was a trap, how did they get the weapon and not fall prey?

The ceiling of the cave rose another couple hundred feet. In the pit, all the human women, shackled, emaciated, and bruised, huddled at the edges, forming a large circle well away from anything that could fall from the bridge.

Her gaze became fixed on the weapon. A large hook in the center of the red top was probably used for transport. Maybe the original concept involved cranes for placement.

Shayna, Daniel is already here.

Where? I don’t see him.

He’s beyond the land bridge hovering about thirty feet away, with a very large force.

If we shift out of altered flight, can you sink a dagger between his eyes?
Once the words left her mind, she realized just how deep she was into this world. She couldn’t imagine Shayna-the-college-student ever talking so easily about killing someone.

Marius, I’ve been holding back siphoning your power, believing that you needed it to fight, but I think I should change that strategy. I need to see Daniel for myself. I need to see everything that’s going on. Can I take more?

He turned toward her slightly.
Don’t hold back. Take as much power of mine as you need. We’re in this together and you’re a big part of the equation. And you definitely need to see what we’re dealing with here.

She held his gaze for a moment, and some of her trembling stopped. He was counting on her, on all her weird abilities in his world, and she wanted to be ready for whatever Daniel threw at them both.
We’re improvising, then.

Not sure we have a choice, but given Daniel’s level of power, it’s probably best anyway. If he had an inkling of any plan we might have, he could anticipate my maneuvers and block them.

She nodded and shifted her gaze back to the weapon. Focusing on the blood-chain at her neck, she centered her thoughts on siphoning what she needed.

As the power began to flow, her ability to see through Daniel’s disguise sharpened. The layers started to melt away until he and at least fifty of his men came into view. Her heart seized. They were all dressed in black and big like Marius, all hovering in the air, daggers and chains in battle-ready positions. Rough them up a bit and they’d look like a biker gang.

Daniel, smiling as always, hovered in the middle, Quill and Lev on each side.

She trembled all over again. Too much adrenaline. Once more she worked to calm herself. How were they supposed to defeat an overwhelming force like that?

Shayna, I can see a way out, but we’ll have to play this just right, so let me ask you something. Could you levitate if I let go of you?

She searched her abilities and her body.
Yes, but only in brief spurts.

Altered flight?

Yes. The same. Very limited.

Good. That’s all we’ll need for this. For now, I’m going to keep holding on to you, hoping that Daniel and his boys missed that you’ve got these skills.

She began to see the direction of his thoughts.
The only way out of this is to set off the weapon and I’ll have to do it, human that I am.

That’s what I’m thinking. I may have gained speed, but not enough to battle fifty soldiers, Daniel, and his sons all at once. But the timing has to be right.

Shayna gathered her courage.
And first, we have to lure them out of altered flight.

Shit, you’re trembling. There’s still time to go back, Shayna.

At that, she laughed.
Not on your life. I didn’t come all this way to run-and-hide now, but I appreciate the thought. As for the way I’m shaking, just ignore it. Call it battle nerves or something.

You’re doing fine. You’re one helluva woman, and I’m proud to know you.

Marius smiled at her. In the middle of all this nonsense, he smiled. Her heart swelled, liking this man so much.

And he was proud of her.

Reverting her attention to the weapon, she said,
There’s a switch in front. Do you see it?

Yes.
Marius’s arm tightened around her waist.