Born in Chains (Men in Chains #1)(25)
Author: Caris Roane

“Good. I take it you’re finding our means of travel difficult to take.”

“Nearly impossible, unless I’m fully prepared and we take it really slow.”

He stepped away from her suddenly. In fact, he crossed to the opposite side of the room, but she wasn’t certain why.

When she rose to her feet, however, she turned to find Adrien in a state. He was growling again, his head low, his fangs bared. His flecked teal eyes had what was now becoming a familiar wild appearance.

Instinctively, Lily reached up and put her hand on his face. Is this because he touched me?

Adrien turned into her hand, kissed her palm, then hauled her into his arms. His thoughts came at her in a fragmented jumble: Kill Sebastien. Don’t. Lily, my God. Hurting. Fangs. Must stop. Lily. What’s happening? I could take her now. An entire string of expletives followed.

Panicked, Lily threw her arms around his neck. I’m here, she said.

Lily?

I’m here.

I’m sorry.

What do you need?

He can’t touch you again.

He won’t. He didn’t understand. I’m sure he gets it now.

She felt him take a deep breath, then another. Because she was pressed up against him, she also felt his arousal and was stunned all over again. Was it possible she’d need to give it up for Adrien, again, in a stranger’s study?

She wasn’t sure she had a choice. Tell your friend to leave the room.

No. I’ll get through this. I can’t keep giving in to this terrible need I have for you.

He trembled as he pulled away from her, but they were alone. Sebastien had left the room anyway, which helped.

At first Lily opened her mouth to yell at Adrien, but what she sensed through the chain stopped her. The vampire was humiliated by what had just happened.

He moved to a large desk, planted his hands on the top, and worked at his breathing. She stared at him, uncertain what to do. Her chain began to vibrate heavily against her neck as powerful emotions worked in Adrien. Humiliation, yes, but something more, something that fueled his rage.

He shook from head to toe and without warning, he lifted his head and screamed into the air.

Lily jumped back several paces at first, then moved back to him. She put a hand on his arm, wanting to calm him, but he jerked away. He paced the room in a circle and shouted. More profanity followed, reams of it.

“Adrien, what’s wrong? Talk to me. Maybe I can help with this, whatever’s going on with you.”

“You want to help? You, a human. And what are you going to help with? Can you change my DNA or that this damn chain has my c**k in an uproar? Or that when I catch even a whiff of you I want to bite down hard on your throat and never let go?”

She took a step away, one hand sliding up her neck. Her breath came in heaving gulps. She’d had sex with him twice and both experiences had overwhelmed her, made her crave more. Because of the chain, she could feel his need, that he meant what he said.

She stared at him, unwilling to admit just how much she responded to the call in his eyes, to the size and beauty of him, or to his primitive nature. And she hated herself for it, for desiring him like this, the feeling that not to have him would somehow destroy her life, even her soul.

She saw that he worked to control himself.

So she did the same. “We’ll get past this, Adrien, both of us. We’ll get the weapon and somehow get the chains off, the sooner the better, then we’ll both be free of these inexplicable cravings.”

He met her gaze but shook his head. “Did you have to be so beautiful?”

Lily grew very still. Tension filled the air. Silence as well. Maybe she breathed, she wasn’t sure. Adrien held her gaze, his eyes dark with longing and need, now glittering in the soft dark of the room.

She heard movement near the doorway and wasn’t surprised when Sebastien appeared. “Rumy called just before the fanatics showed up, demanding information about the extinction weapon. I wouldn’t have survived the attack without Rumy’s warning, but I’ve lost a good friend tonight.”

“I’m sorry,” Adrien said.

Sebastien nodded, his expression grim. “I’ve made a couple of phone calls. I think you should head north, to the Trevayne system. Alfonse is expecting you. I told him to take you to the vault.”

Lily felt Adrien growing calmer by the second. Perhaps that was why the Ancestral had rejoined them, to change the subject and to give Adrien something else to focus on.

CHAPTER 6

Adrien kept his gaze fixed on Sebastien, his chest tight. It helped a lot that he’d shifted his attention away from Lily. He drew another deep breath. “What vault?”

“The one only three other Ancestrals know about, Alfonse being one of them.”

Lily turned to face Sebastien as well. “What’s in the vault? Is the weapon there?” Adrien could sense her sudden excitement.

Sebastien shook his head. “No, but there are documents about experiments performed here in France. I read them forty years ago. They were of a scientific nature and might have included design plans, I’m not sure. I’m asking that you secure them and take them to Gabriel. He’ll know what to do with them.” As a respected Ancestral, Gabriel knew a lot of trustworthy vampires. If anyone would know what to do with these documents, he would.

He glanced from one to the other. “You’re in this together and you’re in deep. You’re both pretending that what’s happening here is simple, with the chains and with each other, but it’s not. Adrien, you and your brothers have served as one of our few policing forces, and you’ve done a great job. But our society, if we’re to survive, needs more than that, from you especially. You have tremendous Ancestral power, I can sense it in you. And you’ve always spoken loudly about the need for an improved court system. We must have that if we’re to hold maniacs like Daniel at bay. And now that he’s making a power grab by using you both to get the weapon, it’s even more important that you tap into your Ancestral legacy.”

“But when I’ve spoken of this, most of the Ancestrals insist that Daniel is an anomaly among vampires, that we shouldn’t build an entire system around one freak. And if we can locate the weapon at all, it’s unclear what we’ll do with it. We’ll handle that when the time comes.”

Sebastien nodded. “But Daniel’s not the only one vying for control, is he? Who do you think was behind the attack here?”

“I know that Silas leads this group.”