Adrien’s need to help his brothers survive, his fierce intention to keep the extinction weapon out of Daniel’s hands, and his mounting drive to keep Lily safe, built a cement foundation beneath his battling abilities. Power flowed like it had never flowed before, as Adrien stood up to his father for the first time in his life.
Sweat dripped from his forehead and chest. The energy he exerted coupled with the pain of the wounds taxed his strength. He stared hard at Daniel and let him feel how much he despised his father, hated him for the vampire he was, for the pain he’d inflicted on him and his brothers from the time he could remember, but mostly for the deaths of all three human mothers.
Yes, he hated Daniel.
And he wanted him dead.
With that desire, he opened up another fraction of his Ancestral power and let it flow. A jolt of energy fell on Daniel and he jerked backward as though punched in the face. A shot of surprise passed through his light teal eyes, then pleasure as he battled back. “That’s it, Adrien, keep reaching for your power. It’s intoxicating, isn’t it? There’s more, so much more. The fullness of your Ancestral power will be like nothing you’ve ever known.”
Adrien reached for his power, deep within his mind and his soul. He saw the open door and a beckoning of bright light and heat. He saw how easy it would be to just take it all in, drawing the power through his body, but he couldn’t for no other reason than doing it would be what Daniel wanted. Beyond that, would walking through that door turn him into a monster?
He had to do something, however. He couldn’t stand against Daniel forever. He knew his limitations.
Lily, I’m getting us out of here. Be ready.
I am. Do what you need to do. I can sense your intentions from one second to the next.
He’ll strike and I’ll fall. Latch onto my back like before.
Do it.
As Adrien drew back his power, Daniel completed the third blow. Just as it struck Adrien and as Lily latched onto his back, he took her simultaneously out of the cavern, engaging in altered flight, straight through the opposing wall of rock. He was right. Daniel didn’t have Silas’s ability to stop him from flight.
The repeated blows, however, had done something to Adrien, and he saw spots in front of his eyes. But he flew fast and hard as Lily clung to him, her arms and legs wrapped tight around him.
Yet as he flew, the wounds he’d sustained caused more spots to float before his eyes. His disorientation increased.
Adrien, you’re heading deep into the earth. Can you shift course? Adrien?
Was Lily speaking to him? Where was he? I need to stop.
But he couldn’t do that. If he stopped in the middle of rock they’d both die and he didn’t have a sense of where he was. I can’t see or think. Lily, I can’t do this, can’t get us out of here.
He felt pressure on his neck. Yes you can. More pressure. Just keep moving and relax. You’re doing fine. More small bits of pressure. Then he realized Lily was kissing his neck.
For some reason that made him smile. His mind cleared at least enough to allow him to feel the heat of what he knew was the earth’s magma.
He turned, heading back toward the surface.
Much better. I must be siphoning more and more of your power because travel is easier on me now. Her thoughts reached into his mind and eased him. Adrien, is it possible to get a magma burn? I might have blisters on my ass. What were you thinking, vampire?
Adrien smiled a little more and he sped up. Flying through the last of the rock, he took them into the air toward the stars. He could finally breathe.
Oh, thank God.
You okay?
Fine. Just a blistered butt. How about you? Dear old Dad gave you a beating, one of many in the course of your life, I take it.
He didn’t like that you called him an ass**le. He would have killed you.
He felt her draw in a long deep breath. She hugged him hard. I think I might owe you one. Again. She fell silent, then after a moment said, I’d be dead right now, wouldn’t I?
Yep.
What a prick, but damn if you aren’t traveling fast. You took on a new piece of power, didn’t you?
Had to.
Where are we headed?
Rumy’s. We’ll be safe there.
He wanted to say more, but the spots began to return. Daniel could never get deep inside The Erotic Passage.
We’re almost to the lake. Hold on. I’m not feeling one hundred percent yet.
I’m good.
He slipped around to Rumy’s private entrance and slowed. His brain was still shifting about so he had to attempt his landing twice. Even then, he ended up on his hands and knees.
Lily slipped off his back as the door opened.
He looked up and Rumy smiled. “On your hands and knees, I see. Looks like Lily’s got you trained. Glad someone finally did.”
As Adrien stood up, his brain refused to function and he listed to the left. He would have gone straight over the low balustrade and into the lake, but Lily caught his arm and pulled him back.
“Hey,” she said. “Where you going?” Then, “Rumy, I need some help here. That bastard Daniel tried to fry him in Mexico.”
Rumy called out and the next thing Adrien knew, he was being lifted up by several pairs of hands. This time the black spots grew to the size of potatoes, and that was the last he knew.
CHAPTER 13
Lily sat at Adrien’s bedside.
He looked really bad. His face was both seriously burned as well as black and blue. Because she’d removed his shirt and leathers to bathe him while he healed himself, she saw how almost half his body had either serious red welts or massive bruising from Daniel’s preternatural bludgeoning.
He lay on his back on a bed in one of Rumy’s guest suites. The curly-haired owner of the expansive nightclub had immediately provided shelter, just as Adrien had said he would.
Now Lily was alone with Adrien, sitting at his bedside, touching him, wishing he would heal faster, wanting him to wake up to talk to her yet knowing he needed rest more than anything.
Earlier, when Adrien was settled in bed, she’d talked things over with Rumy, needing to be reassured that Daniel wouldn’t be able to reach them here. But Rumy was adamant that his security surpassed everything else out there and that even the über-powerful Daniel Briggs couldn’t get through the layers of disguising shields he had in place throughout his cavern system.
She also got a message to Gabriel about Adrien’s condition since by now she understood that he was like family to Adrien. Gabriel had eventually called her and set up events for the following evening. Apparently, the Ancestrals were having their annual Gala at the Black Caverns Beijing Resort, a place known as a high-end playground for rich vampires and rumored to have extensive human sex-slave trafficking. Adrien, having advanced to Ancestral level, would now be allowed to attend the gala with Lily as his guest.