She nodded and picked her way over to the wall near their initial entry point.
He dipped into the deep side pocket of his battle leathers and withdrew his iPhone.
Rumy’s voice came barreling on the line. “Marius, how’s it going? Are you still in New Zealand? Anything I can do for you?”
He glanced around and explained about the recent encounter.
“Holy shit! You almost had him, didn’t you?”
“Almost, but not quite. He’ll be more careful next time.”
“No doubt. So what do you need me to do?”
“Order cleanup.” Marius turned in a circle. “Fifteen dead.”
“Got it. I’ve got your GPS. Stay put and I’ll have a team up there in a few minutes.” The cleanup crews were some of the fastest fliers around. They specialized in removing any sign of their civilization, especially in an unimproved cavern system like this one.
While waiting for the crews to show up, Marius turned in a circle, always staying on the alert. At the same time, he gathered up his weapons. The crew would clean them for him, one of the many shit-jobs they did and for which he would always be grateful.
Shayna had her phone up at the carving-height level, taking more pics. He felt her usual curiosity, but also her concern. Levitating, he joined her.
“So what have we got here?” He wondered if he should mention that when she returned to Seattle, he’d probably have to strip her phone of all these pics. He decided that was a conversation for a different night.
She placed her hand on the carvings. “I’m convinced more than ever that it’s important I understand these symbols.”
“Maybe we can address the issue with Rumy.”
She turned to smile at him. “He would definitely be one of the places to start. If I were studying your culture, I’d probably seek him out as my prime source of information.”
“And you’d be wise. He knows everyone in our underworld.”
She frowned slightly. “So I have to ask, did you kill Daniel?”
Marius shook his head. “Not a chance. That dagger could have sliced his heart in two, but his self-healing ability would have knit it back together before three beats had passed.”
“Well, that at least explains why you’re not doing cartwheels.”
“Cartwheels, huh?”
“Celebrating.”
He chuckled softly. “No, it’s not time to celebrate yet.” He looked her over. “Are you sure you didn’t get hurt?
“Not even a little.”
“May I check?”
She glanced down at her body, frowning. “Of course, but really, I stayed out of the fray.”
Despite her assurances, he felt her arms and legs, slid a hand down her back, and opened her coat to examine her torso. If his gaze got hung up for a moment on her cleavage, he took a deep breath, then cleared his throat. “You seem to be fine.”
“I told you, so why did you check?” Though the words sounded accusing, her tone was still more intrigued than offended, very typical of this woman. She wanted details about everything.
He met her gaze. “Sometimes adrenaline, in a battle situation, prevents the pain from hitting the nerve centers in the brain until later. Then, of course, you’re in for a world of hurt the moment the feel-good fades.”
She pushed her hair away from her face. “I’m okay, really. But I’m still trying hard not to look at all these dead men.” She shuddered.
“Then keep taking your photos.” He glanced behind him. “The cleanup crew should be here anytime now.”
“I know.” She turned back to face the wall, then stepped sideways a couple of feet and took more pictures.
At the same time, the crews arrived.
Marius nodded at the lead man, who inclined his head in return, then quietly started issuing orders. More men arrived, along with a handful of women, dropping down from altered flight, stretchers in hand. A couple of them carried emergency medical kits, but none was needed.
Bodies were quickly loaded onto the stretchers and covered up with heavy, rubber sheets. As soon as the straps were secured, each team of two took off.
“Wow,” Shayna murmured. “That’s incredibly efficient.”
“It’s a good system.”
The leader spoke quietly into the com at his shoulder and a minute later a new, larger team of at least a dozen men arrived. Most had tanks strapped to their backs, of varying sizes.
“Ghostbusters,” Shayna murmured.
He smiled. He knew the film well. “Not exactly. Just a little stain removal, then steam cleaning.”
She drew close to him and watched the process as the final part of the cleanup took place. “Again, wow. So parts of your world function really well.”
“I’d have to agree with that analysis.”
Once the leader made a circuit of the space and pointed out a few missed spots, he dismissed the crew, each slipping into altered flight and disappearing. When only he remained, he picked up Marius’s weapons and approached drew close. “How are you, warrior?” He handed Marius his weapons, now pristine and dry.
“I’m good, Joe, thanks for asking.” Marius loaded his vest and battle leathers once more.
“We were all sickened when the Council of Ancestrals gave in to Daniel and he imprisoned you and your brothers. We appreciate what all of you have done for us. Just wanted you to know.”
Marius settled his hand on Joe’s shoulder. “And I appreciate what you do.” He then took a moment and introduced Joe to Shayna.
“Pleased to meet you, Shayna.” He smiled. “And you should know that you have a good man here. One of the best.”
“I know.”
Marius glanced at her, feeling the chain at his neck vibrate with the warmth of her emotion. She really meant it.
“Blessings to you both,” Joe said, lifting a hand in farewell. He turned and launched, gliding upward into altered flight, then through the stone with the ease of at least two centuries of practice.
Shayna’s gaze drifted over the now pristine battlefield. She shook her head, and he felt her disbelief.
He chuckled and slid his arm around her shoulders. “Let’s get out of here and see if we can’t access your vision-tracking ability again. If I recall, Quill and Lev had a long list of possibilities to go through to figure out where the rest of the weapon is. They’ve got one-third of it now, with that red roof section. But all we have to do is to keep them from getting the remainder.” He held out his arm, and she climbed aboard.
He immediately shifted to altered flight but made his way slowly in a northerly direction just in case Daniel had some of his men waiting for him in the south.
“I was sure glad I had the jacket and boots on. That cave was cold.”
“Yep, the ice creates a real freezer effect.”
Shayna had closed her eyes when Marius launched, unwilling to watch him head straight for a solid wall. She wondered how long it would take before she wouldn’t flinch. For now, eyes closed.
She sensed when he’d moved high into the air. She had no problem opening her eyes at that point. But approaching anything solid made her tremble.
He moved swiftly, faster than ever, and yet she had no pain now. She wondered what it meant or why Marius’s power had increased so suddenly.
With her arm wrapped around his neck, she thought about what the leader of the cleanup crew had said to him, thanking him for his service to their world. He was clearly well respected.
She slipped into telepathy. Marius, you’re revered in your world, aren’t you? Rumy definitely had that vibe going on and now Joe.
I wouldn’t use the word revered, exactly. She could feel how uneasy the compliment made him. Although I’m sure it would define how Adrien and Lucian are viewed. They’re both older and they’ve done so much more than I ever could to help our world.
As Shayna took in this statement, the oppressive guilt returned just like that. He’d spoken about feeling guilty about the women that Daniel
had used to try to force him into joining his team, yet somehow she knew that another, difficult issue lay beyond his distress. It’s hard for me to believe that your contribution hasn’t been as significant as your brothers’.
Well, you’d be wrong. You just haven’t been here long enough to know the truth.
This time, not only guilt rode him hard but also a profound sense of shame, as though he’d done the unforgivable.
So what did you do, Marius? Because I’m feeling your guilt again, a heavy weight that you carry with you all the time.
As they flew south, he grew very quiet. She couldn’t imagine how many tens or even hundreds of miles they’d already flown—his speed was amazing.
Finally, he said, The chains don’t lie, so I know I can’t pretend that what you say isn’t true. I live with a constant remorse about things I’ve done, terrible things, but I have no intention of revealing the details. I’ll only say this: What I did cost my brothers years of suffering and I shouldn’t have lived. It’s as simple as that.
What could she say to this admission? Though she found it hard to believe that Marius would have done anything to have hurt his brothers. Well, I just wish you didn’t have to live with so much guilt.
He adjusted his arm around her waist, getting more comfortable. Shayna held on tight. It was a long way down.
Marius’s voice once more flowed through her mind. If I could undo what happened, I would, but I can’t. So how about we shift our focus. While we’re in flight, I’d like you to try tapping into your tracking ability again. We have something a lot more important to deal with than my past crimes.
Fair enough.
Shayna took a moment to make the shift from Marius’s shame and remorse to her latest struggle, grappling with a strange power that still didn’t function properly for her. She closed her eyes once more and focused her thoughts on the extinction weapon, but as before the waves appeared, blocking a good portion of the images that wanted to come to her.
She wished she had more confidence generally because maybe then the waves wouldn’t even be there, obscuring half of what otherwise she might see. She could even hear Michelson laughing at her. A half-ass job as usual, Shayna. He always thought it was funny to point out her shortcomings.
She forced the unhappy thought away. So now here she was, needing to be fully present in a life-threatening situation and finding it hard. Besides, what did she know about these abilities that Marius’s power allowed her to express? They were like clothes she’d borrowed, but that really didn’t fit.
Still, she pressed on. This much she could do: She knew how to battle through even when she didn’t know what she was doing.
Despite the ever-present waves, images emerged slowly of Daniel asleep on a couch, bare-chested, his hand on top of the knife wound, his complexion pale. She sensed nothing would happen for a while since the man causing so much trouble was temporarily incapacitated.
She shared what she saw with Marius. All I see is Daniel, on his back, eyes closed, recovering.
He’s still lying down?
Yep.
Huh. I must have gotten deep into a vital organ.
Shayna said, I’m guessing by how high the wound was that you pierced his left lung. But I’ll never forget how surprised he looked when your dagger struck home.
You and me both.
So why do you think you’ve had a sudden increase in power and ability?
I’m really not sure, but I keep coming back to the one constant: My power increased each time I fed from your vein, especially this last time. Nothing else in my life is different. Just you.
Well, I have a different view altogether.
While in flight, with clouds whipping by like soft feathers against her face, he drew back just enough to make eye contact. And what would that be? He seemed genuinely bemused.
Call it an instinct, but I think it’s possible you might have more latent ability than either of your brothers, possibly even more than Daniel.
Marius, once more on autopilot, held her gaze. He even laughed. Sorry, but that’s just not possible.
Think about it. Daniel has all but begged you to come on board, and when we arrived in that cave, I think he could have killed you, but he didn’t. No, he’s holding back and I think it’s because he knows your potential. He really does want you to rule beside him. He might even need you to make everything work.
Marius shifted his gaze back to the path ahead. Well, you couldn’t be more wrong. And if you’d ever seen Adrien or Lucian, you’d get the whole picture.
You really look up to your brothers, don’t you?
I do. I think, well, they’re my heroes. There’s no one like them, and I wouldn’t be alive today if they hadn’t gotten me out of Daniel’s compound all those centuries ago. I owe them everything. No, I honestly think this latest power increase is about you.
Shayna didn’t respond. She disagreed with him on an essential level, but she doubted he’d ever believe her. She already knew that whatever bad thing he’d done in the past was keeping him from seeing himself clearly. Maybe feeding from her had triggered a new power, but the rest was all Marius.
And she was feeling too much for him. Dammit, there was just so much to like about the vampire. She knew he had issues, but she loved that he was so loyal to his brothers, that he treated those around him so respectfully, and that he would sacrifice himself without a second thought for the world he loved.
And just like that, a new vision opened up, again with annoying wavy lines. Daniel once more, but his eyes were open now and even though it had been just a couple of minutes, he looked better. The bastard was healing fast, just as Marius had said he would.
Quill was there again, with Lev standing in the shadows of his brother’s stronger personality. Quill’s complexion had turned ruddy. “You should have killed Marius when you had the chance, Father. Why didn’t you? You could’ve taken them both out and, as a result, he almost killed you. When will you figure it out that Marius is your real enemy, not the hope for the future you believe him to be.”
Daniel shifted slightly on his couch to face Quill. “I find your incessant jealousy unbecoming.”
“You owe me, Father, not that traitor.”
“But he will fulfill a need of mine that you can’t. He’s the one that…” He said something more, but the presence of the lines occasionally marred the audible portion as well. When Shayna could hear him again, he was saying, “Have you chosen the next location? Let me look at the list of places again.”
As usual, the vision faded in and out so that she could only catch glimpses. Something was in the background, that same sense of a vast space, perhaps a cavern as large as a skyscraper, but she just couldn’t tell. Maybe it was night somewhere and Daniel was on a chaise longue outside.
She couldn’t hear the men speak, but she saw them and watched their lips move. By this time, the waves were making her nauseous.
When the image sharpened once more, Daniel handed the list back to Quill. “Fine, then check out the Costa Rica cave and if for whatever reason Marius should show up, don’t kill him—and that’s an order. You’re to try to bring him back here. Use whatever means you can. We need him. If he ever discovers…” But the remainder of his words faded with the lines.
The vision dissipated, in part because she really couldn’t take the waves a second longer.
She shared the information with Marius.
Where in Costa Rica? Did either say?
Nope.
All right, Shayna, see what you can do. Try focusing on the weapon this time and on Costa Rica.
As Marius veered southwest, she felt his whole body wind up again in anticipation of finding something significant in Costa Rica. He sped up at the same time.
There’s just one thing, Marius.
What’s that?
She brought up her issue with the wavy lines, concerned that she was missing out on vital information.
Marius squeezed her waist. Try not
to worry about that right now. Just do your best. Let’s find out what’s in Costa Rica. And if we discover that the imperfect visions are a problem, we’ll address that next. How does that sound?
It sounds good. I’m just really worried about what I’m missing.
I’m getting that, Shayna. And I appreciate you going the distance with me right now.
She turned her attention to the new location and took a deep breath, trying to quiet her mind. Of course it didn’t help that she felt Marius’s excitement, his warrior readiness to engage in battle again. She knew he would be happy to take on Quill and Lev, who were clearly Daniel’s minions in this final hunt for the last extinction weapon.
Still, she settled her mind and focused instead on the weapon, the one element in this situation that could bring complete victory for Daniel. She centered her thoughts on the square red component that Quill and Lev had removed from the Swedish cave.
She sensed that the recovered portion had already been taken to the Dark Cave system, something she relayed to Marius.
She continued to hold the image of the red roof in her mind, then let her tracking ability fill the rest in. She could see a different component this time, one with a smooth black surface, maybe enameled, but the same square shape and size.
When the image faded in and out once more because of the waves, she turned her focus to Quill, because she felt certain he was the key in this situation.
Once she did that, his serious, hostile face came into view and sure enough, he’d just arrived in Costa Rica. She could feel it with every cell of her body. The location locked into place.
I’ve got it.
That’s fantastic. Let me have it.
She siphoned an additional burst of Marius’s power, which gave her a flush all over her body, then sent the image to him through the same telepathic means.
These waves are hellish. I don’t know how you stand them.
Shayna admitted to feeling the need to hurl a couple of times.
But you’re not flight-sick?
Flying with you has become a dream.
Good. Okay, I’m locked on target and we’ll be there in no time.
With a destination in hand, Shayna asked, So what do you know about the caverns in Costa Rica?