Unchained (Men in Chains 3)
“I intend to take him down.”
She put her hand on his arm suddenly. “Marius, you should tell your brothers how you wronged them.”
He appeared shocked. “I can’t do that.” He shoved a hand through his hair, and she felt his remorse flow through him yet again.
“Tell them. It might help. It might even surprise you. I think you’ve carried this damn thing long enough.”
“You don’t understand. My brothers are all I have. They’d never forgive me.”
“Well, I would.”
He laughed harshly. “Only because you don’t know the truth.”
She grew very still. “You’re right. I don’t know, but isn’t four hundred years of service a proper length of time for atonement? Because I’d bet my life that you never betrayed them in all that time.”
“No, I never did.”
“So as I recall, you were a child when this thing happened.”
“My age doesn’t change what I did.”
“Well, there’s no point arguing, and once again I’m intruding way too much. But would you mind if I had a little time just to be here, before we left? It’s a way of saying good-bye, because I’m pretty sure I’ll never be back.”
He nodded. “Whatever you want to do.”
She could hear his phone ringing as he suddenly slid his hand into his pocket. He glanced at the screen. “It’s Gabriel. I’ll need to take this.”
He moved quickly away from her into the adjacent room.
Shayna watched him for a moment, then sat back down in her chair in front of the computer screen. She almost went right back to work as she clicked the mouse and the Frenchman’s dictionary p
opped back up on the monitor. She was a worker bee by long and enjoyable habit, so it took her some doing to close the search engine for good.
Knowing she’d fall into a funk, she rose from the chair and pulled on her gloves. She decided to use her last moments examining the tablets as her way of saying farewell.
She brought a new tablet from the stack, placing it beneath the magnifying glass, getting lost in the imagery within her mind, trying to picture the vampire so long ago who had made these indentations in the soft clay.
She often made up scenarios in her head. Would the scribe have kept a beverage in a cup nearby? Did he smoke hemp rope beneath a canvas with some of fellow scribes during his breaks? Did he have an exercise program to keep fit while spending most of his life hunched over slabs of clay?
“What do you see?” Marius settled a hand on her shoulder.
“Just looking at the level of detail, the precision of the length of each indentation.” She glanced at him. “Everything okay?”
“Actually, yes. My brothers are coming here, to Gabriel’s conference room, to discuss the possibility that Daniel is up to something. We’ll be talking new strategies as well.”
“Good. That’s good.” She wanted to ask a few questions, but held back. Her job here was done. Still, she smiled. “I don’t suppose you could let me stay here while you have your meeting.”
She felt the tension drain suddenly from Marius. “I’d like that. I really would.”
She turned and put her hand on his shoulder, caressing him. He responded by taking a step toward her and sliding his arm around her waist. She moved closer still, pressing up against him.
A soft moan escaped his lips as he tilted his head and kissed her.
Shayna slung her arms around his neck. She hadn’t meant for this to happen, but her need for him rose like a tsunami. Desire flowed through her until she writhed against what had become firm really fast.
But this wouldn’t do at all. She was leaving.
She drew back. “Marius, what is it with us?”