But why should she have to do that? Why was she even here? How could his world have devolved so badly that a vampire like Daniel would have control over any human’s life?
Then the other half of the equation surfaced as well: Daniel still had control over Lucian and Marius. If Lily refused to go farther, would Daniel kill Adrien’s half brothers in retaliation?
When he thought of his brothers, his heart seized. After this night, would he ever see them again? He shook his head. After this night, would he even be alive?
Adrien shifted slightly to stare hard at his father. As soon as Daniel met his gaze, Adrien telepathed, You’re not getting the weapon. Not tonight. Not ever. Not so long as I have breath.
Daniel offered a half smile. Then you’re a fool, my son.
The air all around the room began to flow in strange visible waves. As Adrien glanced around, it was as though the room fell into stasis: glasses raised to lips but unmoving, gestures halted midair, bodies frozen in gala poses.
He blinked and shifted to look down at Lily.
She turned toward him. What’s happening?
Adrien released a long breath. Daniel. I challenged him, told him he wasn’t getting the weapon.
Then we’re in for it.
I need you to know that I agree with you wholeheartedly. This is the right thing to do.
She nodded, but pain flashed through her hazel eyes and his chains vibrated heavily. He knew she was terrified at severing the link to her son, but he also felt her determination to get him back. And this was a place to begin, to stand up to the monster wherever that might lead.
He watched Daniel levitate above the silent, immobile crowd of Ancestrals, floating in his powerful way.
When he arrived, he stood in front of them both but addressed Adrien. “You don’t possess a tenth of my power, which means you’re going to put your woman here through a world of hurt before the night is out. Are you ready for that?”
“We can’t let you have the weapon.” Lily’s voice sounded strong and sure.
Daniel shifted his gaze to her. “So you found it.”
She said nothing. When he tried to enthrall her, Adrien again blocked him with a thought, which brought Daniel’s gaze back to Adrien in a quick flash.
Daniel snorted. “Too bad Lily didn’t take on a double-chain. Then this might even be a challenge.” He lifted his right arm and snapped his fingers.
The wavy lines dissipated and movement and chatter began again abruptly, as though nothing had ever happened.
Adrien tried to put Lily into flight, but he couldn’t move; Daniel’s power now surrounded him. At the same time, from all four corners of the room, Daniel’s hired thugs—dressed in black—poured onto the raised stone platform, streaming through the guests who started to cry out, some in protest, some in surprise and fear.
Before Adrien could do anything, manacles, radiating with Daniel’s power, appeared in his father’s hands. A split second later Adrien wore them and now he was paralyzed, just as he had been as a boy, unable to move.
But he was no longer a child. He recalled the powerful manacles that Lily had used on him while in Rome, so Adrien summoned that same power. He could feel an effect and as his gaze shifted to Daniel, again, he watched a dart of surprise pass through the monster’s eyes.
Soon enough Daniel’s confidence returned as he exerted his energy toward the manacles.
Adrien felt them clamp down hard. This time nothing he could do moved them. His only consolation was that sweat beaded on Daniel’s forehead so Adrien knew the amount of effort he expended to strengthen the Ancestral power he’d infused the wrought iron with.
Satisfied, Daniel turned on his heel while ordering his men to bring them to the dais.
A deep half circle had formed, creating a large space in front of the dais where Daniel left Adrien and Lily.
As gasps filled the room, Daniel levitated slowly, the showman that he was, to hold himself above everyone, his men spreading out to either side of him, battle chains hanging down with the threatening blades slack at the bottom.
He moved forward just a few feet so that Adrien could see him.
Daniel waved an arm to encompass his captives. “I fear, my most beloved compatriots, that I have discovered a sinister plot in our midst coming from my son Adrien. As many of you know, he recently achieved Ancestral status, something I had hoped to celebrate this evening with all of you. Instead, what I have learned is that Adrien has bound himself to this human in order to form the outlawed tracking bond, and has been searching for the extinction weapon for the past three nights. He even embraced his Ancestral status in order to gain enough power to accomplish his goal.”
The crowd hissed at these words.
Daniel’s performance went on and on as he detailed each step of their journey, more proof that he’d been following them from the beginning. Adrien felt the hard stares of his peers.
Many, like Gabriel, knew what Daniel was up to, but a great majority believed, or chose to believe, Daniel’s lies.
Lily’s voice entered Adrien’s mind. They believe him, but how can they?
For many, this is about survival. From the moment Daniel took over the Council of Ancestrals, he’s been harassing and blackmailing the weakest. I don’t blame them. And Lily, I’m so sorry.
She might have said something in response, but Adrien had fixed his mind on the immediate future, on trying to figure a way out of this mess. He didn’t want to die, and he especially didn’t want Lily to perish—or her son.
But what could he do? If Daniel incarcerated him again, that would be one thing, but his father’s dark side reigned in this moment, and Adrien had the sense that Daniel intended to make an example of him, maybe for Lucian and Marius’s benefit.
The next moment Daniel’s voice rang out stronger than before. “Justice must be served tonight, both swift and sure. I hereby pronounce judgment on my son and the woman to whom he so unwisely bound himself, the human who led him onto this wayward path of destruction. I, Daniel, despite my love for Adrien, must order an execution, this very night, for both these traitors to our kind.”
Daniel turned and met Adrien’s gaze. An unholy light had entered the monster’s eye, something Adrien had never seen before. For the first time in his life, Adrien knew he would die at Daniel’s hand. Every time before, he sensed that his father had intended only to inflict as much suffering as he could, but not now, not this time.
“What do you say, my fellow Ancestrals? Do these traitors deserve to die?”
Shouting filled the banquet room as well as scattered calls that Adrien and Lily should be taken to the Pit.
“The Pit, the Pit,” became a horrendous chant within the obsidian cavern.
Adrien? Lily’s voice pierced his mind, a soft query against the harsh calls for their deaths.
He turned to look at her, full suddenly of all that he felt for her, his respect and admiration, his trust in her, his belief in her essential goodness, her rightness of character. And in this moment, he understood that he loved her, something he’d never before truly believed himself capable.
I love you, came from his mind.
She blinked, and her eyes filled with tears. I love you, too. A soft smile, full of affection followed, then, With all my heart, Adrien; with all my heart.
Daniel’s voice, louder than all the shouting combined, echoed through the cavern, “To the Pit!”
* * *
Lily felt disconnected from her body, as though the path she walked right now led straight into hell. Her heart beat like a mallet against a drum, so hard that the thumping resounded painfully in her ears.
Worse, she could feel Josh now and knew that with every step she took, she drew closer to him, which meant Daniel already had him at the place of execution.
How convenient that the Pit should be located in the Black Caverns.
She wanted to reach out to her son telepathically, but to do what, to tell him that they were vastly outnu
mbered by a mob bent on their execution?
She took another breath.
The path that apparently led to the Pit had a downward slope now and Ancestrals poured into the space from every direction, all coming straight from the banquet to watch the execution.
Was this really happening?
She still carried her purse, the one that contained the double-chain that Gabriel had given her. If she put it on now, would it do any good? And if she did, and somehow she survived, she’d be bound to a vampire forever. She’d never be able to leave Adrien, she’d never have the choice.
She drew the silk package out of her purse, letting the purse slip to the floor from her hands. As she walked, she opened the small packet and pulled the double-chain out.
Immediately she felt a vibration flow through her body.
Lily, what is that?
She opened her palm and showed him. Adrien pressed his lips together and shook his head. Won’t do a damn bit of good and if we’re able to survive, I’d hate that you were bound to me like this. You’d never be able to leave my world. Don’t even think about it.
She sighed and nodded, then wrapped the chain around and around her wrist, wearing it like a bracelet. The vibration remained, but she sensed no particular bond was being forged.
Still, she thumbed the chain with her opposing hand, wondering if there was some possible way out of this mess, something she hadn’t seen either about Daniel or the situation, or even her own abilities.
Though her heart still thumped in her ears, she focused her attention on her surroundings, on the nature of the Pit into which she was descending, on the love she had for Adrien.
She felt his rage now rising within him, that familiar terrible ire that had defined him from the moment she had first placed the binding chain around his neck.
Yes, rage had defined Adrien, rage birthed in his childhood and continuing as he watched his society’s inequities unfold.
She knew that tonight had become for him the culmination of his life experiences. He was a man who battled to keep his world in order while his father, always besieging good vampires and humans on the opposite side of justice, kept the secret world in a state of chaos.
The tunnel opened up into a huge cavern, an arena-like space, all black as the name of the resort promised, the walls in polished obsidian with intricate diamond etchings in an array of patterns. Soft light from dozens of sconces lit the space in a dim glow.
Looking up, she saw that even the ceiling had been worked well, this time in a dome of polished rock that overlooked the rows and rows of seats, all in a circle above the place of execution below.
From other hallways, Ancestrals poured into the arena filling up the seats. Lily drew in a sharp breath realizing that they’d come to watch her die. Historically, crowds often watched public executions, but in more modern times, in her human world, justice-ordered deaths occurred behind closed doors.
She wasn’t used to this on any level, including the horrifying spectator aspect of the event.
Adrien’s voice pierced her mind. I’m disgusted as well.
She moved forward and grabbed his manacled hand. He squeezed her fingers in response.
But that was the last contact she had. Quill emerged from a nearby tunnel, which caused Adrien to stiffen, drop her hand, and turn in his direction.
“Happy, brother?”Adrien spat.
Quill smiled. “More than you’ll ever know. I’ve wanted you dead for a long time, punished for your disrespect toward our father. Now let’s go.” He snapped his finger in Lily’s direction. “And bring the woman.”
The guards hefted Adrien, picking him up beneath his arms, pulling him off-balance so that he fell forward. They dragged him toward a set of stairs that led downward to the place of execution, his body thumping down the stairs the entire distance.
She cried out, “Stop it. What are you doing? He’s done nothing wrong. Daniel did this. It’s always been Daniel.”
But the crowd above shouted her down this time, calling her a liar and a traitor. Of course the closest seats were taken by Daniel’s men, so that was no surprise.
She moved quickly down the same set of stairs that led to the base of the Pit. But that’s when everything shut down for her because standing opposite, past two tables made of slabs of black granite, Josh stood staring at her, manacled at his wrists as well, a dark heavy chain looped between them.
Daniel waited beside him, his arm resting over the back of Josh’s young shoulders.
And Daniel smiled.
She stopped in her tracks, staring at the child she hadn’t seen in two years. “Josh,” she whispered.
A thrashing began deep within her soul, a need to get to him, to hold him, to protect him, to beg him to forgive her for being unable to help him.
But looking into his eyes, his expression now old beyond his years, all such maternal thoughts ceased. She grew very still as she met his gaze. Instead, she opened herself to her siphoned ability to sense what others were feeling and directed that power toward her son.
The first thing she felt was the depth of his fear, which he’d been living with for two years, fear of his situation, of the guards around him, of the arm resting across his shoulders. So much fear, which prompted another resurgence of her mother-guilt and a second internal flailing.
But again, the serenity in Josh’s eyes stopped what was useless in this situation.
What she felt next, however, was a determination so similar to what Adrien exuded, her heart finally began to settle.
“I love you,” she called out.
He didn’t speak, but nodded slowly and never lost eye contact. So restrained, so grown-up, long before he should have been, all the heinous signs that he’d been through a severe trauma.
Josh was taller now at ten and came to Daniel’s shoulder. His hair was slicked back and his cheekbones looked sharp, as if he hadn’t been fed as well as he should have, or maybe he’d been unable to eat. He wore a black T-shirt and black jeans, and he was barefoot. Even from here she could see that his feet were filthy. But a child without shoes was a child who couldn’t run away.
Maybe more than any other thing the sight of his feet did her in. Something inside her began to scream. She arched her neck and let the sound pour out of her. She screamed until her lungs ached and her vocal cords could take no more.
When she stopped, she was staring up at the tall domed ceiling at least five stories up.
And the crowd was finally silent.
When she looked back at Josh, it was Daniel who caught her eye. His gaze had a foggy appearance and his lips were slack. No doubt he was euphoric because she’d just given him exactly what he craved the most: the suffering of others, the pain of others.
When she glanced at Josh again, his eyes were tight and he mouthed something. It took her several seconds before she understood he was saying, simply, Mom. She nodded and using her telepathy said, I’m okay now. I love you, Josh. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.
He didn’t say anything in response, but held his lips together tightly, two white lines.
So here she was, Lily Haven of Deer Valley, Arizona, and of Manhattan, soon to be executed, standing halfway between her kidnapped son and the man she loved, with no way out.
* * *
The sounds of Lily screaming her anguish at the sight of her son had quieted Adrien, had brought him out of his rage and into the present moment. His senses sharpened as the emotions of the now silent spectators hummed through his veins.
The guards grabbed him once more. Though he resisted, he was quickly overpowered, picked up, and thrown onto a hard slab of granite, one of two altar-like tables in the Pit. More chains were wrapped around him, securing him, chains that held Daniel’s powerful signature and kept him immobile.
He stared up at the tall, curved black ceiling, his mind rolling backward to being a child. How many times had he been in this position, chained to a table and subjected to knife cuts, delivered close-up so
that Daniel could watch him suffer? How many times? A hundred? A thousand?
And how much Lily’s screams had fed the beast that lived inside Daniel, the one that needed the pain of others to thrive and to be satisfied.
He didn’t want his father to win so Adrien lay very still, gathering his thoughts. He had to figure this out. He’d gained Ancestral status. Surely there was some way to access his power and overcome the chains.
The guards moved Lily in the direction of the second table. Surprisingly, mother and son didn’t speak, but then what could be said? He’d watched Josh’s reaction to his mother’s screams, he even remembered what that was like. How young he had been when his own mother had screamed her pain, her anguish.
But he wouldn’t bring those memories to this table.
This table belonged to now and not to the past. This table was about creating a new set of memories.
He glanced at his father, who smiled. Of course.
Join me, Adrien. Daniel’s voice pierced his mind. And all this will end. I will even spare the human’s life and her son’s. Just say you will serve me and I will end this suffering.
For a split second he considered agreeing to it, if for no other reason than to spare Lily and Josh, but reason returned.
He also knew that Daniel wouldn’t keep his word. He’d never let Lily and Josh go.
Adrien responded with a single word: Never.
How unfortunate, but have it as you will.
* * *
Lily stood beside the granite slab, a guard on each side of her, as she waited to be chained to her place of execution. She didn’t look at Josh again. How could she without falling into another round of screaming anguish.
Quill’s voice, loud and strong, sounded through the arena as he stated again the reason for the execution, the illegal hunt for the extinction weapon.
The crowd responded with shouts and condemnation.
Her eyes began to burn. Once more she looked up at the gleaming black dome of the ceiling. She had heard that in a spiritual sense obsidian meant “truth.”