Unchained (Men in Chains Book 3) (12 page)

When Rumy arrived, Marius didn’t leave the bedroom doorway. He didn’t want Rumy to see Shayna even in his robe, though the garment hung well past her knees. None of his rooms had proper doors and he felt protective of her. She didn’t need another vampire looking at her until she was dressed.

“Thank you,” Shayna said quietly.

Marius had his back to her while she slipped into the jeans and T-shirt Rumy had brought. There were other clothes as well, but the casual set would do in his home.

She’d already blow-dried her hair so that it hung in two straight lines over her shoulders. Her eyes and face had a healthy glow, a real sign she was siphoning his power. “Any aches?”

She shook her head as she straightened the bottom of the T-shirt. “How do I look? Presentable?”

One thing that was true of either human or vampire females: They worried about their looks.

He went to her and settled his hands on her shoulders. “You look amazing.”

“Thank you.” She put a hand to her stomach. “I’ve been smelling the food and I’m starved.”

“Then let’s eat.”

As he led her into the living area, Rumy held up one of Marius’s antique LPs. “How the hell did you find this Billie Holiday?”

“I have an agent, always looking. Paid a fortune for it.”

“No doubt.”

Marius turned toward Shayna. “I’d like you to meet Rumy, a good friend and owner of The Erotic Passage.” He turned toward Rumy. “Meet Shayna Prentiss.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Rumy.”

“And you. I hear you saved our boy’s ass here.”

She glanced at Marius. “And he saved mine.” She nodded several times, but when she looked back at Rumy her gaze fell to the LP and she blinked.

Marius asked, “What is it? Something wrong?”

*   *   *

Shayna stared at the vinyl record that Rumy held in his hands. Marius had asked her something, but she was too caught up in staring first at the LP then at the cave’s different living areas to process his words or to respond.

She moved slowly in the direction of the sitting area.

“Shayna,” Marius said quietly, tracking next to her. “Are you having another vision?”

“She has visions?” Rumy sounded stunned.

She turned and shook her head at Marius. “Not a vision this time. I’m just … looking.”

She’d had this experience before, when she’d arrived in Honduras at a remote village and knew she’d stepped back in time. It was one thing to read about a civilization, to study its current political difficulties, to get a sense of how the community organized itself. But to be in the middle of a undiscovered civilization like this one was a new playground altogether.

Until this moment, Shayna had been too busy staying alive, or helping Marius through his blood-starvation recovery, or even having sex with him, to completely assimilate that she was an outside observer in an entirely different world.

Her heart thrummed as the anthropologist in her came alive.

This part of the cave had a similar decor to the bedroom, the pieces made of fine-honed teak and leather. Some of the walls had been tiled with slabs of rich polished granite, others were left in a raw state, while a third evolution involved the chiseling of the original cavern stone into intricate patterns, clearly the work of craftsmen. In a couple of places, she saw the same pattern as in Chile and in his bedroom here. She began to wonder if she was looking not at a unique sculpting design, but rather a language, similar to ancient cuneiform.

Her heart thrummed a little harder.

She waved a hand at the wall. “Is this something your world encourages? The chiseling of designs in stone?”

Both Rumy and Marius responded. “Yes.”

She could have spent a solid year just studying the sculpturing techniques and patterns of their culture alone. The one on the ceiling intrigued her because it ran at a perfect right angle to the wall that separated the kitchen from the living area. The space had been engineered on so many levels.

She even felt a cool breeze moving through, constantly freshening the air. She had so many questions and wished she had her iPad with her to start making notes. Her gaze moved around each space swiftly. She’d left her iPhone in her other jeans and wanted to be sure to take more pictures before she left.

Marius moved close to her, sliding an arm around her waist. “You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”

“Well, yes, of course.” She turned to look at him. He’d fed from her. The man was a vampire, a warrior in his culture, a man fighting for his entire civilization. And she had the profound honor to stand witness, in this moment in time, to what was transpiring in his world.

But she was also being rather absent from both men.

She glanced from Marius to Rumy. “Sorry, it’s the scientist in me and a great deal of curiosity that I’m having trouble restraining right now. I guess you could say I’m just assimilating your world.” She turned to Rumy. “I’m being rude. Forgive me.”

“So Marius kept me informed and you’ve sure been put through the wringer. How you holding up?”

She lifted her hand that held the blood-chain. “I’m surviving mostly because I’ve been able to siphon Marius’s power, which is an incredible and, at critical times, a healing experience.” She glanced around. “There isn’t a single light in evidence, but everything appears to be glowing.”

“Yep,” Rumy said. “Vampire power.”

She shifted her gaze back to him and smiled. He was shorter than Marius by several inches. He clearly worked out and liked showing off his tight, muscular body in a snug black T-shirt and gray tailored slacks. His shoes had that handcrafted look. The tips of his fangs showed, though, which apparently had left calluses on his lips. He kept his curly hair cut close to his head, and not even his fangs could detract from his well-groomed appearance.

Rumy moved in her direction, extending his hand toward the dining and kitchen area. “I imagine by now that you’re starved, especially after what you’ve been through. I’ve brought some of the best food around.”

Shayna sat down at the dining table and watched the men unearth the carry-out food and arrange it on plates. Marius opened a bottle of wine, a Chianti to go with an antipasto salad, a savory pasta puttanesca, and loaf of bread.

And in that moment, with the men serving her a wonderful meal, her gaze fell to the blood-chain wrapped around her wrist and laced through her fingers. Her eyes suddenly filled with tears.

Only a few hours had passed, but she felt as though she’d lived a lifetime. She knew that Marius wanted her to stay, desperately, but some questions deep within her heart remained unanswered.

Glancing once more at the intricate stone carvings of the walls and ceiling, she shifted her gaze to Marius. “Will you show me the rest of your home after we’ve eaten?” Maybe something about his culture, hidden in the carvings, would give her the answer she sought.

Marius held two glasses in one hand and the bottle of wine in the other. “Of course.” He moved toward the table, Rumy behind him. “Ready to eat?”

“Absolutely.”

Rumy settled several plates on the table, some containing the food and two blue earthenware plates ready to be filled. Marius set the glasses at each place setting, then poured the wine slowly.

He rounded the table and took his seat adjacent to her.

Rumy patted his hands on his thighs. “Okay. You’re all set.” He waved a hand toward the living area. “Along with the clothes, my friend Eve sent along some toiletries. Just let me know if you need anything else, Shayna, and I’ll plan another trip in.”

“I will and thank you so much.”

Rumy nodded to Marius then lifted his hand, his fingers twisted close to his ear, in the call-me motion.

“I will.”

Rumy waved, shifted to altered flight, and left.

Despite the fact that she had a decision looming over her head, Shayna savored every bite of the excellent meal and each sip of wine.

When she finally finished eating, she knew the time had come to figure things out. But before she did anything else, she went to her jeans and pulled out her iPhone. She wanted to take some pictures of the familiar carvings.

CHAPTER 6

Shayna followed Marius to an arched stone opening past the kitchen. The hall sloped downward, but again her vision caught the same, familiar carvings that involved repeated straight lines. The more she saw the patterns repeating, the more she felt certain she was looking at something similar to cuneiform, a type of written language used by the cultures of ancient Mesopotamia. She wasn’t an expert by any means since her field was cultural anthropology and not linguistics, but her curiosity was aroused anyway.

She might have been headed to Malaysia for her fieldwork, but seeing Marius’s undiscovered world was like being in a candy store.

An expansive opening to the left revealed a room she would call a study, with a broad, uncluttered desk. In the center sat a laptop. He moved toward it and the chain around her wrist vibrated softly.

He ran a finger through a line of dust. “I haven’t been here in over a year.” His voice was quiet, reflective.

She recalled now that Daniel had imprisoned three of his sons for supposed acts of treason and that he’d tortured each of them.

How quickly her reason for being in his home came flying back at her. She knew she should choose helping him and saving the human women she’d seen being treated like animals. She wasn’t even sure what held her back.

Except, of course, the obvious: that she risked her life and all her plans by remaining in this cave. She’d worked hard toward all that she’d planned for her life—to study, to become an expert in her chosen field of study, to teach. How could she throw all of that away for a culture completely unknown to her?

She hardly knew Marius.

She’d turned over control of her life to a man once before, and the results had been disastrous for her. The affair she’d had with Michelson had begun as a thrilling experience because he’d been like Marius, very passionate. But their relationship, even in the bedroom, had been about her sacrificing for what Michelson needed at any given moment.

Michelson had been her role model, living the life she wanted. He was dedicated to his work as an anthropologist and spent hours on his research every day. By the time she’d recognized his “passion” for the selfishness that it truly was, he’d shattered her self-esteem with his demands and constant criticisms.

She’d needed months, including several intense weeks of therapy, to get herself back on track and to reestablish her self-esteem. She’d also made an important promise to herself to be wiser in the future.

How wise would it be to jump in and join Marius? How was that choosing for herself?

Yet somehow she knew life was more complex than simply analyzing the pros and cons of the situation. She could feel how in tune she already was with Marius’s world. For one thing, she’d just had sex with him, as shocking that still seemed to her rational mind.

An oil painting of a hawk soaring through a massive cavern above a river hung on the wall behind the desk. Tall filing cabinets in what looked like mahogany flanked a table bearing a decanter and cut-crystal tumblers.

“You like whiskey?”

He nodded. “A fine single-malt.”

He moved in front of her, crossing to the right. Another smaller tunnel opened into a tall cavern that clearly served as a library, with more of the unique carvings. Hundreds of books, most of them bound in leather, lined several tall bookshelves, each sunk into the stone walls. Comfortable leather club chairs and a matching couch sat in the center, while off to one side a large table and tall, ladder-back chair invited the stacking of books and papers and lots of research.

She drew a deep breath. “I could live in this room.” She’d spoken the words aloud without thinking.

She moved toward the grouping of furniture where a globe of the earth sat on a tall wood stand. She examined the names and realized she wasn’t looking at human earth, but at the location of every cavern system on the planet. Most of the names were familiar earth-based names but usually followed up with the word
system.
She glanced at him. “I see a name in Egypt—the Pharaoh system. So this globe reflects your world.”

He nodded.

She stopped the globe at New Zealand. Several systems were labeled, one of them the Hawk system.

“Does the hawk have meaning in your world?”

“It’s a symbol sometimes of courage, sometimes of dominance and strength.”

She met his gaze. He personified these qualities but she had the feeling that he didn’t think of himself in that way.

He was close to scowling again and she could feel his impatience, even his disapproval.

*   *   *

Marius saw how tightly Shayna clutched the chain, still wrapped around her wrist and threaded through her fingers. He felt her tension and sensed her indecision.

He’d never been more frustrated in his life. Why couldn’t she see how much she was needed here?

He’d already made the decision not to force her to stay, yet every cell in his body screamed that she was the one, the answer to the crisis howling through his world.

He feared saying too much or not enough.

If he knew her better, he’d know how to proceed, what to say to encourage her.

Instead he had to do what was for him the hardest thing in the world: keep his trap shut.

He led her from the library, which he could tell had caught her attention. Her heart rate had increased and what had she said? That she could live here?

For a few seconds he’d felt hopeful, but no decision had followed.

“Where is your fieldwork,” he asked, at last.

“On a small, primitive island in Malaysia. I’ve been planning this trip for years.”

The words spilled from his mouth. “All those women you saw in the Dark Cave system had plans as well.”

She turned to him, her light-blue eyes wide and accusing. “That’s not fair, Marius.”

He remained silent for a moment. He knew she hadn’t had an ideal life by any stretch of the imagination, but she’d never been enslaved or tortured.