Unbound (46 page)

“Thank you, for being patient with me. It’s hard for me to share this part of myself without being forced by fear of being harmed or in danger.” Her hands ran down his back to the top of his jeans and he shivered. Then she felt an odd interference, like static on a radio and the set of Cayden’s face and his posture changed completely. His eyes went wide and he sat back on his knees.

“Are you ok, baby
?” she asked out loud, not sure
if he could hear her mentally. He didn’t respond. Or at least she couldn’t hear him if he did. He looked like he was struggling to get away from her but couldn’t. She leaned up on her elbows and shook her head to clear the static and the confusion it was causing. That’s when it happened. The experience went from a romantic evening with Cayden, to a nightmare in the space of a second. Cayden lurched forward and wrapped his hands around her neck. He was choking her. Dani looked into his eyes with betrayal and hurt overflowing and spilling in the form of tears. He was ringing the life from her body, painfully.

“Isn’t this sweet?” a deep voice came from the bathroom. “You two look so much in love. It’s too bad he’s going to choke you out with his bare hands. He’ll live the rest of his life knowing he incapacitated you and watched while I carried you away to your death. However long that may be. Once you’re disabled, I’ll take you to the master. He’ll drink in your energy and absorb all your little tricks. I bet you don’t even know half of what you’re capable of yet.”

The mocking voice came around the side of the bed and sat in a chair across the room. Someone had been in the room that whole time. He’d been listening to everything, with the exception of the inner dialogue they were just having. Dani shifted her eyes to the chair but couldn’t see the person in the shadows, except for his large mass and black clothes.

“Your lover is going to watch helplessly as you slip through his fingers, yet again. Of course, he won’t remember my face later. That would ruin my career. You know, I could make him not remember what’s happening now but that wouldn’t be any fun at all. He should be made to suffer as you suffer under him. He has been quite a poor guardian indeed, hasn’t he, Danielle?”

She looked back up at Cayden and tears were running down his face and dropping onto her chest.

“Can you hear me?” she asked telepathically. “I can’t hear you anymore.”

He blinked frantically at her in response, like it was the only free movement he had left. He couldn’t stop, and she couldn’t force him off of her. She was mentally strong but physically nowhere near a full-blooded vamp. The room was beginning to fade around the edges. She gasped for air and fought against the steal grip of Cayden’s fingers crushing her larynx.

“You see now that you’re not the only vamp with the ability to control the minds of other vamps. I thought I was the only one but most of us don’t make our abilities known, so we can’t be exploited the way you will be. The master doesn’t even know the extent of my ability. He only has my word that I’ll bring you in at the first opportunity. I guess it couldn’t hurt to give you a little mind control 101 since you are going to die today anyway. You see once a vamp has another vamp under mind control they block out everyone else. It’s first come first serve, just like when we manipulate humans. So you can’t overcome my grip on his mind. Also, the fact that you conduct mind control makes you impervious to it yourself and likewise for me. So you can’t control me in order to save yourself.” He leaned forward and rested his forearm across his knee, bringing his face into light. He was a warrior. She’d seen him around the
Enclave
many times but was never introduced to him. He seemed like one of the guys that didn’t approve of a woman living among so many men. He smiled at her.

“You recognize me don’t you, beauty? I’ve been watching you as ma
ny of us have. We’re everywhere
little girl
,
and we watch your every move. I’ve enjoyed watching you work out and train
to be a warrior princess. As if
you could defend yourself against me with a pair of boxing gloves. It’s really a shame such a delicious creature has to die.  I would love to show you the darker side of life, but the master wants you desperately. It’s become sort of a thrill for him to chase you, to play cat and mouse. You’ve been great fun, but it’s time for the game to end.”

She had to try getting free one more time before she passed out.  Cayden would never forgive himself. It seemed as if he could hear her so she looked into his eyes and reached out to him.

“Cayden, I’m gonna have to lift you off of me telekinetically. I can’t hold out much longer.” Her mental capacity was waning. She used all her strength to try lifting him but his hands were so tightly wrapped around her neck she couldn’t break free. The dark warrior in the corner laughed at her efforts. Cayden’s eyes were tortured and shining with tears of anger.

“Plan B, Cayden. I’m going to try breaking his concentration in hopes it will help you move. If you feel any release, I need you to take off and go for help. Do you understand? I need you to leave so he can’t use you against me.” It was getting darker and speaking to Cayden was difficult.

Lack of oxygen was finally taking its toll. She went limp under Cayden. Her eyes were open and unseeing as his tears continued to fall on her face. The dark warrior jumped up from his seat to evaluate her condition. He wasn’t supposed to kill her. He had to deliver her alive or the Master couldn’t take her energy. He removed Cayden’s hands from her neck and checked for a pulse. It was all the distraction she needed. Danielle threw Cayden’s body toward the door, and everything else in the room that would move
at the warrior. The chair he’
d been sitting on struck the back of his head with force, and unbalanced his concentration enough to give Cayden a chance to run.

She caught a second wind when she realized Cayden was safely out of the room
. She
scrambled off the bed. Everything from the mirror on the wall, the brush she left on the dresse
r, to the lamps pummeled the ro
g
u
e warrior. She cursed a blue streak when he attempted to cross the room toward her. She used her few remaining seconds to call out to as many people as she could, not knowing if it would work from so far away or if she could reach someone she’d never touched telepathically before.

The telepathic mayday call was for Cayden. Her targets were Gage, Chase, Griffin and Mason. Then the huge man was on her. She could hear Cayden, through their brand new connection in her mind, screaming for her to follow him. She couldn’t. This was going to be a fight for her life and one of them was going down. She refused to be taken alive again. If her power was what they wanted, she would make sure they lost it in the end. Her strength would not be turned on her friends and family, or anyone else for that matter.

He had the advantage of strength but she had telekinesis and neither of them could use mind control on the other, so this was going to be a brawl. Every time he slammed her, she threw him. If he hit her, she bombarded him with the various objects in the room. He tried to hold onto her but she had enough training with the warriors at this point to make herself a hard target and the battle raged for what seemed like an endless time. Broken glass, broken furniture and blood riddled the room. Finally, he got her by the throat and tried to finish his earlier mission. It was working. She was exhausted and he was choking the life out of her.

“I’m going to have some fun with you before I turn you over, beauty.” he hissed into her face. “You’ve excited me with all this foreplay. I’ll have to slake my hunger on your little body. Would you like to be awake for the fun? I promise you all those little boys sniffing around your skirt haven’t nearly given you what you need.” He pushed the length of his body against her nearly naked body and the ridge of his huge erection pressed into her belly.

Nothing but her panties remained by the time this beast descended on her and Cayden in bed. That seemed like hours ago, but in actuality, it had been
only minutes since Cayden
fled the room in search of help. She was fighting in this state of undress so her body was cut and battered but he enjoyed it greatly, now that she was all but defenseless. There was no damn way he was getting anything but his ass handed to him tonight. She prayed that help was on the way and gathered every ounce of energy she could muster. The warrior released her throat and held her against the wall with his body while he did his best to get her panties down. The violation made her so angry and the building energy in her gut bubbled over. She reached up to grab him by the neck. She wanted him
to feel the
same
pain he
inflicted on her. He would see this little body was not his to touch as he wished. In an explosion of fury and terror, she unleashed the overflowing energy that was throbbing inside her. It launched them both across room. Her hands still around his thick neck, they hit the far wall with force and slid down until the full weight of his body crushed her to the floor.

* * *

Cayden had to wait for reinforcements to arrive before he could return to Dani’s room. It killed him to leave he
r there but she was
right. That guy could use him against her and then it would be two on one. She wouldn’t be able to beat those odds. He sat on the curb with his head in his hand, with the image of her delicate neck wrapped in his huge hands replaying over and over. It was one of the worst experience
s of his life. When she went
limp under him, he thought he’d murdered her. She had looked up at him with the blank eyes of a corpse and he knew he’d killed his only love.

His only love had given him the gift of her thou
ghts and memories of him. She’d let him in and showed
him the depth of her feelings for him. She let him feel her eager need for him and it was the greatest high. She was devoting herself to him and asking for love and commitment in return. Everything he was so afraid of became everything he wanted most in life at that moment. When she asked so sweetly for everything he wanted to give her anyway, his heart soared. Now he knew why Chase had made such a big deal over the mental connection but he also knew that she shared her mind with Chase i
n times of fear and pain. She’
d given Cayden the gift out of affection and hope for the future.

Up to a certain point, he knew for sure she was still alive because he was catching her thoughts and brief glimpses of the scene through her eyes. He guessed since Dani allowed him into her mind the connection hadn’t been truly severed, so he was intercepting vivid flashes of pain and battle. The last thing he saw was a huge man crushing her against the wall. Her thoughts ran toward a dark place Cayden didn’t want to imagine. He was going to violate her before taking her away. Try as he may to reach her, she was silent. The entire ordeal from beginning to end had lasted twenty minutes but it had been an eternity since he left her in the room with that man. Cayden hadn’t seen the man because he wasn’t able to turn his head but he saw recognition in Dani’s eyes when she lo
oked at him. He said he watched
her train. He was warrior, one of his brothers. No one else would have access to the
Enclave
’s training facilities.

All at once, everyone converged on the scene. A Wrath truck pulled up and men poured out. Chase sped onto the lot with Griffin hot on his tail, Mason in the passenger seat. The people at the front desk looked frightened and confused when the mass of black clad, gun-toting men entered the lobby. On the way up to the third floor, Cayden filled in his father and the rest of the men listened intently. Chase looked like he would vomit when Cayden relayed having been in bed with Dani and very distracted when the attack hit.

They had to kick the damn door in due to the key card locks. The room was a disaster and at first, they didn’t see her. Only the body of a huge vampire male in the same black outfit the rest of them wore was face down on the far end of the room. Once the room was secured and they were sure no one else was hiding in the room they crossed to the body on the floor.

“Help me! Danielle is under this piece of shit!” Mason called.

It took several Wrath guards to lift the huge male off of her and the shockwave that crossed the room was tangible. He was a well-known Wrath leader in full uniform. There was a large chunk of glass protruding from his back and blood coated the floor. The glass had come from a light fixture that was no
w crushed into the wall.  He
died from blood loss. She’d killed one of their own. He was a Wrath leader, well known to every warrior in the room. He was a loner and a mean bastard to work with but nobody ever suspected he was a traitor. The warriors started rumbling about the law and the expectation of a trial, should the girl survive. Cayden slid to the floor at the bottom of the bed.

* * *

That sweet child was nude. The only scrap of cloth on her was the panties that had been pushed down to her knees. Her body was covered with cuts and bruises. Her neck was the worst looking injury. Griffin grabbed the blanket off the bed and covered her before he scooped her up off the floor and laid her across the bed.

“Somebody get her some clothes. Cayden get your ass
over here and help me dress her,
” Griffin barked. He could see Cayden leaning against the end of the bed in bewilderment. Danielle look like death but she was still breathing.