Daniel stood in what appeared to be a throwback to ancient Rome, with a shiny black breastplate over his chest and a black velvet robe trimmed with silver hanging from his shoulders all the way to the floor. But he’d kept the leather pants and glossy boots.
She had to admit, he looked the part of a man intending to rule two worlds. He kept turning in a circle and every time he raised his arms, the soldiers’ cries rose and swelled to a deafening roar.
His sons Quill and Lev stood off to his right side in similar attire, except in burgundy, and of course the capes were much shorter. All three men wore snug leather pants and black boots laced up the front.
But beyond the central depression of the stage, the arena rose like a massive football stadium. She couldn’t even see the height of this cavern or the length.
Most frightening of all, however, was the simple fact that Daniel had gathered what looked like a full-blown army into the black stone seats of the arena. Tens of thousands of vampires, all in uniforms that bore the hawk emblem and the ancient symbols for “One Earth, One Race, One Ruler.” They shouted so loud that even Shayna’s less sensitive ears ached.
Off to the side on a raised platform, a vampire sweating rivers and waving his fists and arms kept urging Daniel’s army to cheer. She’d listened to a few lines, but it seemed like typical propaganda with phrases like The good of the few must be sacrificed for the good of the many, which usually meant that individual freedoms would be eradicated at the whim of the dictator until Daniel had full control of everything and everyone. From what she’d learned, the entire vampire culture embraced the rights of the individual above everything else.
More mentions of Daniel’s benevolence and plans to improve the lot of every vampire in their world made her stomach turn. She had only to think about what existed in the Dark Cave system to know what Daniel’s world would actually look like on a global scale. He excelled at so many things, and “spin” would naturally be one of them.
The most telling aspect of the arena, however, was the circle of sunlight on the central stage that shifted slightly as the earth moved on its axis. She hadn’t actually seen what happened when a vampire got burned, but she’d felt Marius’s profound aversion to sunlight. And a sunlight-based killing zone in the arena was the perfect psychological threat to keep Daniel’s followers in line.
She’d soon realized that the visions she’d had early on, though marred at the time by the dark wavy lines, were of this space. As she looked around the arena, she saw one of the reasons for Daniel’s success. He paid attention to detail, from the use of symbols as a powerful promotional tool, to the careful engineering of the whole arena structure, the torch lighting that added a strong, wild tension, the branding colors of black and silver and a smattering of maroon reflecting power and strength. Daniel had clearly spent money, time, and considerable effort in creating an infrastructure for his ambitions, all built, of course, on the rape, torture, and murder of human and vampire slaves.
She wanted to reach out to Marius, to warn him about the pool of killing sunlight and the reach of his father’s plans. But she knew that despite Daniel’s outward focus on keeping his soldiers cheering and stamping their feet, he watched her closely.
Suddenly she knew that Marius had arrived, even though she couldn’t see him at first, because his power flared through her entire body. She was siphoning once more and it was all she could do to keep from crying out.
She took it in, breathing deep and feeling such a profound sense of relief that she swayed on her feet.
Still, she kept her telepathy shut down. Neither did Marius try to reach her.
But he was there. She could feel him in every cell of her body.
She looked around, trying to find him. But he could have been anywhere given the number of bodies in the arena.
* * *
Marius hovered behind a layer of disguise not far from Shayna, and invisible even to Daniel, something he would never have believed possible. He held himself in altered flight, fully aware of the changes in his physical body and in his level of power.
He sensed that Shayna knew he was there, but he didn’t dare try to contact her. And he had to spend a helluva lot of energy not reacting to how she looked or that fifty thousand men leered at her. All part of Daniel’s ploy, no doubt, to distract him when he arrived.
He streamed the images of what he saw, the arena and Daniel’s army, the deadly patch of sunlight and Shayna, all straight into Gabriel’s head. He could even hear, despite the enormous distance between northern India and Egypt, what Gabriel said aloud to Adrien, Lucian, and Rumy.
Gabriel had finally revealed that he and Rumy had been building a secret force for a long time, in various locations around the world. The Ancestrals in hiding had all agreed that one day Daniel and his forces, however big they might prove to be, would only be defeated by military action.
But these efforts had been the biggest secret of the vampire world, kept hidden even from Marius and his brothers. Because Daniel kept his sons as perpetual targets, Gabriel and Rumy had made the decision early on to keep this knowledge from them. Marius had concurred with the wisdom of this part of the plan. Daniel had many forms of torture and knew how to get information if he really wanted it.
Right now Gabriel streamed images back to Marius of each of five forces, from different parts of the globe, tens of thousands of vampire warriors, already in the air and headed toward northern India. Marius saw them like a movie inside his head. Because he knew when each would arrive at the Himalayan system, he could calculate the exact moment when Gabriel’s invasion of the arena would take place.
He couldn’t reveal himself until the precise moment when the invasion started, otherwise Daniel might be able to intervene with his enormous power and end the battle before it began. He could create layered disguises over his army, however, or even with a single order cause them all to disperse.
So Marius waited.
He had a full minute remaining before the first of Gabriel’s forces penetrated the arena. Marius had already created a path through the layered disguises that Daniel had put in place, more evidence that Marius’s level of power had gone into hyperdrive.
As he scoped the entire arena, he knew he had to make Quill and Lev a priority. If not, they’d do everything in their power to protect Daniel; Marius wouldn’t stand a chance.
The best and simplest solution possible came to the forefront of his mind. Prior to his confession to his brothers, he probably wouldn’t have thought to reach out to them; his guilt would have held him captive.
But now he didn’t hesitate. Adrien and Lucian hovered just outside the system, waiting for Marius’s orders. He reached for them both at the same time, and forged a telepathic conversation among all three of them. His powers truly had entered a new, incredible phase.
Adrien, I need you to take out Quill. Lucian, immobilize Lev. If either of them or Daniel has even a split second to act, we’ll lose our chance to end their reign once and for all.
Adrien said, We’re with you, Marius. Just waiting for your orders.