She stared at him, fully aware that twenty feet separated them now, well beyond the original proximity distance.
/> Slowly, while his back was to her, she moved away from him, returning to the bathroom. She kept waiting for another tug on the chains, but none followed.
“Marius?” she called out.
“What? Where did you go?” He sounded so normal, but she heard the doors to his dresser opening and closing, so he wasn’t really paying attention.
“I’m in the bathroom. Notice anything strange about that?”
Everything grew very quiet, until she heard him moving back in her direction.
When he arrived in the doorway, he held his chain up. “What the fuck?”
She shrugged. “Something happened. I got this funny feeling, sort of like a vibration while you were moving away from me, then a small snap. You might have been too fixed on gathering your weapons to have been aware of it.”
He shook his head, clearly perplexed. “I don’t know what this means.” He started backing up, clearly wanting to test the issue for himself. She moved to the doorway to watch how far he could go.
He kept moving well beyond the earlier ten-foot boundary, then stepped through to the hallway beyond. I’m going to levitate from one end of the cave to the other.
Sounds like a plan. This issue needed to be tested now.
She could sense he was in motion and moving faster.
I’m down by the waterfall and still no tug.
This is incredible. I still feel bonded to you. I can sense that you’re stunned.
I am that.
He returned suddenly in altered flight to stand in front of her. He put his hands on her arms. “I knew that your blood had done something to me, but dammit, I think it’s given me a bit of Ancestral power, the kind Daniel has.”
“Really?” This was good news. “That’s fantastic.”
“I know. Okay, let’s get dressed. We need to find out what else I’ve got going on, and we need to get to Sweden.”
She followed him into the bedroom and stood back as he drew a pair of what he called battle leathers from the dresser.
She stood back, watching him lose the towel and plant a foot into the pants. Marius went commando, which warmed up her cheeks all over again at the sight of his ass, as well as his movements that had his muscles rippling all over again. He was like an amazing wild animal.
As he zipped, he glanced at her over his shoulder. “Are you watching me?”
She sighed. “More than I should.”
“Well, I’m glad. I like you looking at me and I like even better how that makes you feel.” He shrugged into a snug black T-shirt then crossed to a cabinet in the far corner. He began sliding battle chains into thin slits in the leather pants. Larger rings dangled from the top, undoubtedly for ease of removal.
“This change between us is about you, Shayna. Your blood has pumped me up.”
“I guess it has.” She moved closer and felt down both arms. “You are bigger. I mean, I thought so at the time, but you are.” She then reached down to touch one of the rings. “Are these the chains you battled with last night?”
“No, this is a new set. Those need to be cleaned up and polished. I’ll get to them eventually, but right now you’re my priority—and getting that damn weapon.”
The part of her that had boundless curiosity, that had caused her to choose anthropology in the first place, launched into hyperdrive. The questions flowed rapid-fire. Why did he carry so many weapons? What was the advantage of the long chain over the short? How many daggers? Why did he carry different sizes? Did the battle situations dictate which weapon to use, and how did he make the decision?
He smiled and finally answered the last question. She’d hardly given him time to do more than that. “I make my decision by instinct mostly at this point.” Seeing her interest, he took a couple of minutes and showed her each weapon, even demonstrating how the long chains spun and describing how with the exact right flick of the wrist the chain could incapacitate the enemy. The short chain was used for strangulation and, with enough force, decapitation. The daggers didn’t require explanation.
She’d watched him fight, and the other vampires as well. She could still hear the whirring of the chains, the grunts of the men, and sometimes the crack of a head against stone.
“You don’t use guns?”