Born in Chains

Adrien’s brows rose. “From a revisiting vision? A man spoke to you from inside a vision?” He seemed incredulous.

Lily nodded.

“What did he look like?”

Lily described him. “He scared me, Adrien.”

“And his eyes were similar to mine, but lighter?”

“Yes, goldish flecks.”

Adrien turned around and dropped into the large leather chair by the door. “Fuck.” His scowl formed a deep furrow between his brows.

Lily had a sinking sensation in her gut. “Who was he?”

He met her gaze. “You probably already know.”

But it was Rumy who enlightened her. “I guess you’re screwed, because you just met our equivalent of the Prince of Darkness, Daniel the A-hole. He gives vampires a bad name, and that was long before I opened The Erotic Passage, long before an underworld, long before anything of importance, really. Some say he built the black market himself, that he keeps as many rogue vampires drugged out and in service to him as he can, and he has more sex-slave rackets going than hills have ants.”

“Daniel,” Adrien murmured in a low voice. He shaded his eyes with his hand.

“Okay,” Lily said, moving carefully through what felt like an emotional minefield. “I’ve just met the evil one.”

He grabbed the chain at his neck and shook it, his rage flowing in waves. Daniel is the most powerful vampire on the planet, and has been living at this power level for over two thousand years, maybe longer. But Daniel—His thoughts ceased like a wall falling down between them, as though the memories were too painful to continue.

He took a deep breath. “These problems with our world won’t be solved in a day or a week. Maybe not even in a millennium. What disturbs me right now is that you told him your name and where you live.”

“Yes, I did. He had control of me in that moment, the way Giselle did earlier. I can’t even fathom that level of power—that he could speak to me and reach me from the past.”

She staggered on her feet, and Adrien suddenly rose up and caught her as she listed. “Oh, God, Adrien, please don’t tell me that in this moment Daniel discovered who I am and because of it he hunted for me until he found me and two years ago destroyed my family. Please, don’t tell me it’s true. Please don’t tell me that I was the cause of my family’s destruction?”

He drew her hard against him, holding her tight in his arms. She buried her face in his shoulder. She didn’t need him to answer these questions; she felt them to be true. Somehow Daniel had reached into the future and seen this day, using it to exploit her.

He tilted his head, and compassion filled his eyes. He drew her into an embrace, holding her fast. She forced air in and out of her lungs, and choked back the tears that wanted to escape.

Lily, what happened to your family isn’t your fault, because you can’t protect against crazy. It’s not possible. Do you hear me?

Lily nodded against his shoulder. On the deepest level, she knew he was right. She’d thought the same thing every time some madman went on a killing spree. All the details would come out in the news, and everyone would try to figure out how to prevent it from happening again.

But when people were out of their minds, they were still going to run the red light.

I’m so sorry, Lily.

And Daniel is insane, isn’t he?

The worst kind of insanity.

As the seconds passed, however, something new entered her mind, her thinking, a kind of cold hatred that found in Daniel a single pertinent object.

She drew back from Adrien slowly, crossing her hand over his chest to flow down his opposite arm until she had his hand in a tight grip, right palm to right palm.

He seemed to know, to understand her meaning and her intention. They’d each been wounded by Daniel, as had the entire vampire world. “He needs to be taken from the face of the earth.”

Adrien nodded. “Yes, he does.”

“I’ll help you. I swear it, Adrien, by all that I hold dear, I swear that I’ll help you.”

Rumy called out, “I’m glad you two lovebirds have gotten everything settled between you, but what do you want me to do with these assholes?” He inclined his head toward the floor.

Adrien waved a hand in their direction. “Get rid of them.”

Rumy’s security uttered several approving grunts, grabbed up the fanatics, and vanished with them through the walls.

“Good riddance.” Rumy clapped his hand and took a deep breath. “Ah, that’s much better. The air smells fresher now, cleaner somehow.”

She met Rumy’s gaze. “So, do you know anyone here who might know where we should look for the weapon? As you can see, we’ve got a shitfest going on.”

At that Rumy grinned, the tips of his fangs sliding over his lower lip. “I like you.” To Adrien, “She’s a keeper.” Back to Lily. “Since I’ve basically told you all I know, which is why I sent you to that prick Hardesty, your best bet would be to ask Eve. She knows even more than I do about the underworld. If anyone has information that I don’t, Eve will.”

“So where do we find her? Is she working tonight?”

“She’s here every night.” Rumy slid off the desk, which he then rounded to flip open a laptop. He started tapping keys. “She’ll probably be in her theater right now, but I’ll check for you.” He continued tapping the keys and after a moment a strange, rhythmic slapping sound ricocheted through the room.

“Nice. She’s flog-fucking one of her subs, big motherfucker, too. Listen to the rhythm. She knows how to use a flogger like no other dom I know.”

Lily felt the air in the room change.

She glanced around. All the men had become fixated on the sound and the deep moans that accompanied the slaps. There was something else, something in the background, soft and low. Not music exactly, but close.

To her surprise, she turned her ear toward the screen and with a power that only made sense because of the shared blood-chain, she stretched her hearing.

The background sound proved to be a woman chanting softly, but the words seemed to be in a different language.

“What is she saying?”

All the men glanced at her, predatory shifts of attention, and she suddenly became acutely aware how short her skirt was, how much leg she revealed, and the exact height of her boot-heels.

Yep, sex charged the air, a blatant raw sensation that plucked at her body in several places at once.

Adrien drew close, turning to face her and standing slightly in front of her, to shield her from the other men. “Eve is a dom and she’s reciting Ancestral chants that affect a male vampire’s desire.”

“We need to talk to her now.”

He searched her eyes carefully. “I don’t know you very well, Lily, but Eve’s theater can be hard to take if you aren’t prepared.”

“I don’t care about that,” Lily said. “It can’t possibly be worse than anything else we’ve been through so far.”

“You’ve got a point.” He turned back to Rumy. “Is she still using The Ruby Cave?”

At that Rumy smiled, a crooked tilt to his scarred-up lips that looked lascivious and cute at the same time. “Yep.”

Adrien thanked him for his help.

Rumy called out, “I’ll keep my ear to the ground. If I hear anything you need to know, I’ll give you a holler.”

Adrien nodded, turning back when he reached the doorway. “You’ve been a good friend to me.”

“You’re all right, Adrien. You’re always welcome here, you and your brothers.”

He thanked him again, then took Lily by the hand.

Once in the cool hallway, she asked, “What did they do to those men?”

“I won’t pull any punches here, Lily. They killed them.”

“No prison time?”

“That’s part of the problem. We don’t have dedicated prisons and no real justice system.”

“What about that cavern where you were held?”

Adrien snorted. “That’s not a prison, just one of several locations Daniel uses to inflict pain, or couldn’t you tell?”

“How would I even know what’s true or not true about your world?”

“Another good point.”

He led her back the way they’d come, crossing to the other branch of the tunnel, which led deeper into the Como system.

The tunnel widened and intersected with a broad avenue-like hallway, richly appointed with crystals in patterns over the walls and an opalescent gleam to the floor.

A number of sounds assaulted her at once. First was a low level of music that had a strong bass beat, very rhythmic, like Eve’s floggers, very sexual. She had to keep reminding herself that this was essentially a sex club.

Adrien led her down the broad hall, which opened up into a massive cavern, definitely the biggest one she’d seen so far.

Much to Lily’s surprise the music was live, performed by a band of musicians composed of beautiful men in elegant leather outfits, studded, exposing muscular arms and chests.

She watched them for a moment, and noticed that the audience listened while seated at small intimate tables, candlelight casting a soft glow throughout the space.

She opened her mind to his. Everything is so tasteful. I thought—But she broke off the rest of it. Maybe he was getting tired of all the slurs she cast on his kind.

Adrien smiled, however, something he didn’t do much, as he glanced down at her. You thought it would be one big orgy? He still had hold of her hand.

She couldn’t help but chuckle. Yes, that’s exactly what I thought. I mean, the flogger—

Rumy has dozens of specialists. He runs a tight ship, everything by appointment, each theater with doors that close. His hand was on her waist and she felt the sudden tension in him as he guided her to yet another hall. “This staircase takes us to a new level of the cavern system.” She descended what proved to be about a hundred steps that circled down and down.