She stared up at a beautiful ceiling made up of purple crystals. The room had three regular, Seattle-type walls, and only one of carved rock. This had to be a house built inside a large cavern, yet it still had a partially human feel.
She released a deep breath because the squared-up walls reminded her of her Seattle apartment. It felt so human that for the first time in the past two days, she almost felt at home.
The linens had a fresh smell as though they’d hung out on a line and dried in the air and the sunshine. So where was she? Heaven maybe.
Her last thought had been that she’d needed to warn Marius to stop taking her blood. While he’d been drinking from her in flight, she’d started feeling light-headed and dizzy. But he’d been half out of his mind with pain and his own blood loss. If he fell from the sky, they’d both be dead.
She also recalled having a serious doubt that he’d be able to make it to Cuba, then landing in a cave. He’d asked her to make them visible, but that was the last thing she could recall before she passed out.
Now she was here, but she had no idea where “here” was.
She lifted her arm, and the tubing that carried replacement blood into her body. So was this a medical facility? And whose blood was this? A vampire’s?
The dizziness returned accompanied by a boatload of fatigue. Marius wasn’t nearby—that much she could sense. She quickly reached for her blood-chain and breathed a huge sigh of relief when she found it intact. The bond held.
She tried to go back to sleep but couldn’t. She was too worried about Marius. Was he okay? Had he survived his injury?
She reached out for him. Marius?
Shayna. Good. You’re okay. I’m here. They’re working on my legs.
How long have we been here?
A few hours.
And exactly where are we?
Rumy’s villa in the Como system, very private and more secure than any other place on earth. Daniel can’t get to us here.
Thank God.
I’m going to send someone to you.
Okay.
She honestly couldn’t manage more than that. A few minutes later, a woman showed up with a tray of food. She wore a woven gown of some kind and her dark-brown hair was drawn back in a twist. “Are you hungry?” She smiled when she asked.
Shayna put a hand to her stomach. “Starved.” She didn’t wait to be told but scooted up in bed, propping pillows behind her.
“I am always hungry after I’ve donated to a vampire.” She settled the tray over Shayna’s lap.
“You’re human?” Shayna was shocked.
“I’m a refugee out of the slave trade here in the vampire world. I’m originally from San Francisco, and yes, very human.” She glanced down at the tray. “But have some of this soup. It’s homemade with organic vegetables and you will feel a hundred percent better once you’ve eaten. I promise you.”
Shayna had so many questions, but that wasn’t exactly new. She lifted the spoon and dipped into what proved to be a thickened broth with beans and bits of ham, carrots, and celery. Her stomach growled, telling her to get on with it, the faster the better.
The first spoonful was like heaven, and she felt as though she hadn’t eaten for weeks instead of just a few hours. She had to work to calm the panic she felt.
When she’d settled down, she glanced up at the woman. “What’s your name?”
“Yvonne and you’re Shayna. I’ve been told that you’re in a grad program in anthropology and that you might have a few questions for me.”
Shayna’s brows rose as she took another spoonful of soup. Apparently, Yvonne had been warned. She smiled as she responded, “Only about a hundred.”
When Yvonne chuckled and said “Fire away,” Shayna knew she’d found a friend.
* * *
Marius hurt, especially in his lower extremities. Hours later and despite his own healing efforts and a team of specialists, he was still in pain.
Rumy had finally brought in a surgeon since the bomb that had exploded had planted shrapnel everywhere. Fortunately his trajectory and the way he’d held Shayna cradled in his arms had spared his upper torso as well as her body from injury.
But even his ass hurt.
Rumy stood nearby in an expensive black silk shirt, arms crossed over his chest. He grinned at Marius.
“What are you smiling about?”
“You’re alive, dammit, and you shouldn’t be.”
“Fuck off. I’m in pain.”
Rumy made a sad face. “Oh, poor powerful Marius.”
He didn’t exactly want sympathy, but Rumy was pissing him off.
The surgeon snapped on his gloves. “Roll onto your stomach and let’s get this shit out of you.”
At that, his lips curved. Though it hurt like hell, he did as he was told.
He spent the next hour trying not to wince, especially since a few bits were big and had gone in deep.
* * *
The human, Yvonne, had talked steadily with Shayna for hours. She’d long since finished her soup, but she’d heard enough to confirm yet again that she’d done the right thing in staying with Marius.
Yvonne had escaped from the Dark Cave system after eighteen months of sex slavery. Shortly afterward, Rumy had taken her in. She’d lived in the villa, deep in the Como cavern system, for over thirty years. But she didn’t look like she’d aged, which begged yet another question that Shayna needed to ask, unless the answer surfaced by itself. The woman appeared to be so peaceful.
“It took years to recover from what I went through in Daniel’s system, but now I have my children, three of them, and a vampire husband I’d never leave. He’s one of Rumy’s security detail here in the villa.”
Ah, that explained it. Yvonne was bonded to a vampire, and apparently that kind of proximity had an anti-aging effect on humans. Very interesting.
According to Yvonne, over two hundred people lived near the villa in what had grown to be a small village. The community had a central store and a park, and a school for all the kids—of which there were fifty now, of various ages. And all because Rumy had taken former slaves into the villa for rehabilitation. Many refugees had passed through, but a large number had fallen in love with different members of Rumy’s security outfit and made homes here.
Shayna thought the whole thing so fascinating that she wished she could spend a solid year doing fieldwork in the village. How much she would learn!
Yvonne had been near death when she’d arrived. “I was one of the few lucky ones. I would have been dead in a couple more days. I couldn’t keep anything down and our handlers loved to torture us repeatedly at that point, when we were of no use servicing the clientele. We’d then be used in betting pools to see how long we’d last. Bets would be placed up to the minute and various tortures were performed as part of the process. I’d just entered that horrible phase when one of the vampire guards snuck me out. I don’t know how he did it, but now I’m here, and we’re married.”
“So was he working undercover for Rumy, then, that the guard-now-your-husband actually took the risk to get you out?”
“Exactly. Rumy had him there to keep tabs on Daniel and his operation. But that was the last run he made. Rumy pulled him out for good after that, feeling it would be too much of a risk for him to return.” Her eyes twinkled as she smiled. “But I think the truth goes deeper. Rumy knew the guard loved me, so for his sake and mine, he brought the guard here to serve on the villa security team. Rumy is a gem if you haven’t figured it out by now.”
“He’s amazing. And funny.”
Yvonne chuckled. “He is that. And short. And he has that adorable lisp because of his fangs.”
“Why are his fangs like that?”
Yvonne rolled her eyes, then lowered her voice. “Don’t tell anyone, but he used vampire Viagra when it first came out. Overused, I should say. And he didn’t pay heed to the label warnings. Now he can’t retract his fangs.”
Shayna started to laugh and for a long
time couldn’t stop. Yvonne laughed with her.
When Shayna finally settled down, she marveled at Yvonne’s fortitude and that she could speak of what had happened to her so easily. But no doubt that ease had come with time.
She touched her blood-chain, aware that Marius was still in a lot of pain. “Can you go find out what’s going on with Marius? I don’t understand why he’s not healed up yet and I know that if I ask, he won’t give me details.”
“Men,” Yvonne responded, but smiling at the same time. “I’ll be happy to find out what’s going on.”
Because Shayna had finished her soup, Yvonne took the tray away, promising to return as soon as she had word about Marius.
Shayna sipped a glass of water and kept sipping. Yvonne had encouraged her to drink a lot right now. Vampires released a serum when they tapped into a vein that replenished the blood supply quickly, but liquids really speeded up the process.
So she sipped, wondering if she’d need to donate again given all that Marius had been through.
Now that she’d eaten, had her transfusion, and was hydrating, her usual energy and accompanying restlessness returned. She wanted to be up and doing, to see Marius for herself, and to have a look at the vampire–human hybrid village.
Her heart pounded at the thought that she would be able to observe the combining of two cultures, brought together, as so many were, through an act of violence. She knew from her studies that war and the accompanying rape of women frequently produced offspring who then impacted how both cultures moved forward.
She really wanted a chance to speak to more women, like Yvonne, who had fallen in love with and married vampires. If her own heart beat a little stronger because of these thoughts, she tried to ignore what simmered in the back of her mind. Even so, the thought formed itself for the first time, shaking her to her trembling knees: Could she have a life with Marius?
She had to be out of her mind to even be thinking such a thought, yet there it was, staring her in the face. She had to admit at least this much to herself: that beyond feeling an enormous attraction to the man, she also respected and valued him.
She smiled at the ridiculous thought of making vampire babies with him. Yet Marius’s mother had been human, and even Yvonne had three children.
She leaned back against her pillows and closed her eyes. These thoughts were too hard and too impossible to even consider. She forced herself to recall all her excellent plans, her love of anthropology, and her desire to teach others what she knew about a subject she loved.
Having ordered her thoughts, she turned her attention to the one thing that could get her back home to Seattle more swiftly, before her affections became firmly attached: She had to get the remaining part of the extinction weapon. As far as she could tell, Quill and Lev had just secured the top and the base to the final weapon.
Yet she felt uneasy. The wavy lines that dogged her visions had left out important aspects about both Sweden and Costa Rica. She was sure of it. In fact, she’d begun to suspect that both trips had been a ruse, or at least a lure. Daniel knew Shayna was with Marius and that she had tracking abilities. He would have known she’d be on the trail of the weapon.
When she thought back to what Daniel had wanted Quill to do in Costa Rica, to try yet again to persuade Marius to join their world-domination efforts, somehow she knew that Daniel already had the weapon. In fact, she was sure of it. Yet she also knew that the wavy lines had marred her ability to get the whole picture, and before she offered up any more vision-type information to Marius, she needed to get rid of those lines. She strongly suspected that she would have known about the bomb if she’d had full access to the last vision.
When Yvonne returned and reported that Marius had just finished having the last of the shrapnel removed, and that he’d had the work done without anesthesia, Shayna groaned. “I can’t even let a dentist touch my mouth without several shots of Novocain.”
Yvonne smiled. “These vampires are tough, especially the fighting men.”
Shayna considered laying her problem before Yvonne, but the woman was human and showed no real signs of the kinds of strange power that Shayna could access.
She needed to talk to a vampire. Maybe Yvonne would know someone who could help.
Once Yvonne knew what she needed, she nodded wisely. “I know exactly who you should talk to. Let me have a chat with Rumy and see if we can bring her in. She’s different, though, and she’ll have a bizarre take on things, but she’s also incredibly perceptive in a surprising way.”
Yvonne was ready to take off, but Shayna called her back. “Listen, I’m going stir-crazy in this bed. I feel fine and I’d love to get up and get dressed, but I don’t have any clothes.”
“Oh, of course.” She crossed to an armoire, a lovely antique, and opened the doors. She gestured to the clothes hanging inside and stacked on shelves. “Rumy stocked it so you’re all set. Consider these yours.”
Shayna held up her arm still hooked to the IV. “What about this?”
“Let me talk to Rumy. He probably knows what the orders are.”
She was only gone a couple of minutes before she returned wearing a smile. She quickly removed the IV. “You’re all set and I think Marius is out of surgery as well.” She glanced at her watch. “We’ll have our main meal in about an hour and we’d love for you both to join us. We eat together as a community once a week so it will be a madhouse potluck, with fifty lively kids running around.”
Shayna smiled and something inside her relaxed. “That sounds wonderfully normal.”
Yvonne offered her another smile then left, closing the door securely behind her.
Shayna breathed a big sigh of relief. She really needed to be moving. It was one thing when she felt so faint, but now that she was recovered, she had a job to do—and ultimately a life to get back to.
If she and Marcus could find the damn weapon, she’d have plenty of time to finalize her plans for getting to her fieldwork in Malaysia.
As she hunted through all the blouses and tops, all cut way too low, of course, she finally decided she’d have to wear a tank top backward and a second shirt like normal. The rest was typical Rumy fare: black lace thongs, sexy lace bras that would force her breasts up and out, and snug jeans. She ignored the stilettos lined up like aggressive troops going into battle, relieved to find a pair of flats. She’d be comfortable and could hopefully keep the take-me-now factor on low rumble.
She stripped off the cotton nightgown and stepped into a lace thong. The bra was a little snug and her breasts, always on the full side, poured from the cups, as usual. The closet had a full-length mirror so she couldn’t help but look.
She was almost sexy.
She ran a hand down the narrow curve of her waist. Michelson had said her proportions were all wrong, her waist too small, her hips too big, her legs too long.
Shayna, are you all right?
Marius’s voice in her head startled her. I’m fine. I’m getting dressed.
It’s just that you felt angry all of a sudden. I sensed all this renewed energy then a shift that felt like you wanted to hit something. You’re sure you’re okay?
Something is bothering me, she responded, still looking at herself in the mirror, but it has nothing to do with you or this situation, just an asshole I’m pissed at right now.
But not me?
Of course not.
Good. I was worried. Rumy told me you’d needed a transfusion. I’m so sorry.
You couldn’t help it, Marius. You were losing blood and trying to keep us both in the air. But you got us safely to Cuba, and Rumy took us the rest of the way. We’re on the mend and I’m so glad you’re out of the woods. What’s the prognosis?
I have healers with me now. I should be good to go in a few minutes, then I’ll come to you.
I’ll see you then. She felt Marius shut down and thought it was a good thing, at least for now, because she had something important to think through and it had to do with her ex.
/> She continued to look at herself in the mirror, turning so that she could see her firm ass. She ran three miles a day come rain or shine and had for years. She was fit and, dammit, she looked it.
She looked good.
In fact, she looked hot. Her breasts spilled out of the underwire bra. She shook her head, hearing Michelson’s complaints about her basic anatomy. “That lying sonofabitch,” she said aloud. “I’d put his head in a meat grinder if I could. Asshole.”
“So who are we talkin’ about and please dish, because I like your style, my beautiful blond one.”
Shayna whirled toward the doorway, startled by the sudden arrival of a woman who had to be over six feet tall.
“Who are you?” The woman was also blond, but with really long hair caught up in a ponytail that still hit her mid-buttocks. She was beautiful, with ice-blue eyes that had an upper slant at the sides—cat’s eyes, they’d be called. She wore a ton of makeup, snug leopard-print pants, black, leather flats, and a black silk bustier that left little to the imagination.
The woman was stacked.
“I’m Eve. Didn’t Rumy or Yvonne tell you I was coming? Yvonne called and said you need a consultation.” Her gaze fell to Shayna’s cleavage. “Well, don’t you have pretty breasts. I could use you in one of my shows, if you’re game.” She had a wide mouth and eyes that sparkled.
“One of your shows?” Shayna slid into her jeans and quickly donned the tank top.
“I own and operate a club in The Erotic Passage, all consensual and aboveboard. No slaves, nothing that hurts anybody. You’d be a hit.”
Of all the things Shayna had experienced so far, none had come close to astonishing her as much as meeting the owner of a sex club who dressed the part and didn’t mind recruiting humans.
Shayna’s lips twisted into a smile. “I like sex well enough, but I’m really not interested in performing on stage.”
Eve chuckled. “But we could do the whole anthropologist-meets-vampire thing. My clients would go crazy. Do you wear glasses?”
“A bit cliché, don’t you think? And the answer is no I don’t, and again, no, not interested.”