I can feel your pain, Jacques. You are having a hard time concentrating on what you’re doing. Your mind is very scattered. Of what use are you to Byron if you get caught? Come back to me.
I will get him out of there. Just stay with me, Shea.Jacques concentrated on her, held her strength and warmth in his mind to fight the growing pain. The ground seemed to roll beneath his feet; the rain pounded down on him. His flesh was burning; he could smell it. Cuts opened up and bled freely. He caught at his chest as pain ripped through him, tearing muscles and bone. His throat closed off; breathing became impossible. His heart pounded until he felt it had to explode.
“Jacques!” Gregori gripped his arm. “It is part of the trap set for you specifically. The vampire knew you would come, and you are caught in the web. He is amplifying your own fears and the pain you suffered. He is not here; it is merely a warp you are trapped in. Know it is not real, and fight your way out.”
“I do not understand.” Pinpricks of scarlet dotted Jacques’ body, stained his shirt. His eyes were alive with pain and madness.
I do.Shea snatched at the information in his mind. She wrapped him in the warmth of her love. Feel me, Jacques. Concentrate only on me and what you feel when we touch, when we kiss.She pictured it in her head, him holding her so possessively, so tenderly, his mouth finding hers hungrily. The way she felt, hot and silken with heat, needing and wanting him. Her mouth as hungry as his. Her hands tangled in his thick hair. Feel me, Jacques.Her whisper moved over his skin like the touch of her fingers.
Jacques narrowed his focus until he blocked out everything but the smell and taste of her, the touch of her fingers, her soft, sexy voice. She became his world, was his world, would always be. Nothing else was real. She was his heart and his very breath. Her breathing regulated his back to a steady in and out. Her heart brought the rhythm of his slowly back to a normal pattern. His skin was on fire, but with sensual hunger rather than the pain of torture.
Her breath seemed to warm his ear, his mind. I love you, Jacques. Do what you must, then hurry home to me.She released him with great reluctance, the warmth of her love lingering behind.
Jacques shook his head to bring himself back to the present situation. Almost at once the earth moved beneath his feet, and the pain tried to hammer at him. But the vampire would not snag him twice in the same trap. He wrenched himself forward, concentrating on the way Shea’s mouth tasted, the curve of her hip beneath his hand, the way her eyes lit up just before she laughed. He held her close to his heart, kept the vision of her wild mane of hair in front of him as he pushed his way through the warp and out into the open land.
“Good,” Gregori approved. “But this one is very adept. I am uneasy over the way this is going, Mikhail. Let us take to the air above the wires and approach from different directions. I will go in first. Our people cannot afford to lose either of you.”
“Gregori,” Mikhail reminded him softly, “if the child is your lifemate, and you do something careless, you are condemning her to death. Keep that in mind when you enter this place of madness.”
Gregori’s silver eyes slashed at his old friend. “Do you think I would chance harming her in any way? I have waited several lifetimes for her. These humans are nothing. They have persecuted our people for far too long. I mean it to stop.”
Mikhail nodded, his dark eyes, so like his brother’s, black ice. “You are up to this, Jacques?”
Jacques’ smile was a humorless promise of retaliation. “Have no worries about me. I am looking forward to this.”
Mikhail sighed. “Two bloodthirsty savages thinking they are in the dark ages.”
Jacques exchanged a humorless grin with Gregori. “The dark ages were not such a bad time. At least justice could be dispensed easily without worrying about what the women would think.”
“You both have gone soft,” Gregori snickered. “No wonder our people have such problems. The women are ruling, and you two besotted idiots just follow along.”
Jacques’ solid form wavered, became transparent. “We will see who proves to be the soft one, healer.” His body completely disappeared from sight.
Mikhail glanced at Gregori, shrugged, then followed suit. None of this was to his liking. Gregori was a time bomb waiting to explode. And only God knew what Jacques was capable of. It seemed the worst possible time to confront an enemy, just as they were weakening from the light of day.
Gregori waited until Mikhail and Jacques had disappeared before allowing his body to dissolve. He launched himself skyward, wincing as the sun’s light, penetrating the dark clouds, hit his eyes. He cursed silently. Raven was alone with a woman who knew next to nothing about their people’s capabilities. She was very weak. The child was his only hope, and it was stupidity to rescue a Carpathian male who was on the verge of turning. A few more years and Gregori would be hunting him.
Jacques moved across the meadow, high above the gleaming wires. Water danced off the thin strands like crystal droplets. He moved around the blackened ruins in a slow circle, looking for the entrance hidden in the ground. It bothered him that he didn’t know exactly where it was, or that the others might know before him. It made him feel as if he were ill, totally incompetent.
Soft laughter sent warmth curling through his body. Since when have you ever been incompetent? You made me crazy even when you were lying allegedly helpless, in bed. The first time you kissed me, I forgot my own name. That is not incompetent.
Jacques found the tension easing out of his body. Shea had a way of doing that for him with just the sound of her laughter, her warmth. I am looking for the entrance to the cellar. The ground appears to be completely undisturbed.
As I walked across the meadow and approached the burned area, the stone fireplace was on my right. I circled the perimeter from the right side. The door was buried in the dirt. I couldn’t see it, but I felt it with my hand. I remember the fireplace was to my right by about ten feet or so.
Thanks, little red hair.Jacques crouched in the rain, ran his hand along the mud-slick soil.
“There is something over here,” Mikhail said softly, his eyes searching for a hidden trap. His body hovered over the area as he examined the ground. “There are marks on the ground, as if a branch has been dragged over it. Dirt and rocks have been scattered over the spot.”
“Do not touch it!” Jacques ordered sharply. “The fireplace should be to your right and farther out.”
“You remember this?” Gregori asked skeptically.
“Shea remembers. It must be another trap. The rain would have removed those marks.”
“They did not have much time to set such traps,” Mikhail observed. “Byron was taken no more than an hour ago, if that.”
“Perhaps we are underestimating this vampire, Mikhail. I could manufacture such traps, and so could you. Aidan and Julian could do so, and no doubt Jacques. Who else do we know who has this kind of power?” Gregori asked softly.
“There are few others over the age of six hundred years,” Mikhail said.
“Perhaps this is a crime of hate more than of age,” Jacques ventured. “What was done to me was done with the idea of causing as much suffering as I could take before death claimed me. That is a crime of hatred, one of revenge.”
Gregori and Mikhail exchanged a quick, knowing look. “Of course, you have to be right, Jacques,” Mikhail agreed for both of the ancients. “A vampire would avoid us, not try to draw us to him. So whom did you anger enough to warrant this much hatred?”
Jacques shrugged calmly. His own hatred was deep and smoldering, a rage so ingrained that he knew the demon would rise within him the moment he encountered any of those involved in his torture and imprisonment. Whoever hated him so much had created a like feeling within him, hatred that not only matched but surpassed anything the vampire might feel. “You know more of my past than I do, but it really does not matter, as long as he believes I wronged him,” Jacques said. “It is here. The door is here.”