Dark Carousel

by Christine Feehan

  Sielamet. You must rest now. They healed you, but you are exhausted. Blaze will see to Liv and the other children. She'll talk to Genevieve so she'll know to look after Lourdes for a couple of nights. When you wake, I'll be with you.

  This was the hard part. She'd accepted the conversion and all that came with it. She'd embraced being Carpathian, but . . . There was this. Sleeping in the soil. She had to admit, it felt comforting, even soothing, but it wasn't over her face.

  Reading her need for a few moments' delay so she could come to terms with sleeping in soil, Tariq changed the subject. "Emeline wanted Liv to see what she faced. She also wanted her to have confidence in the fact that the Carpathians would be there for her when she needed them."

  "That's true." Charlotte snuggled closer to him. She was tired. Exhausted. She trusted him to make certain she didn't feel as if she were buried alive.

  "I just wonder how Emeline can have faith in us for the others, but not for herself."

  "I think she just needs time." Charlotte kissed his throat and closed her eyes. "I do need to sleep, Tariq. Just don't let me wake still under the soil."

  "Of course, sielamet. I have you. Always."

  17

  Deep beneath the soil, under the basement of the huge Victorian mansion, Tariq's eyes snapped open and he willed the earth to open above him and took his first breath. Charlotte was in his arms, and as he gave a thought to be thankful she was asleep, she stirred. Her eyes opened, and he could see the panic in them.

  I can't move.

  It is the paralysis of our kind. The sun is still high. We cannot move during these hours. While giving her the explanation, he was already assessing the reason he'd been awakened before the sun had set.

  Her heart went wild. Seriously, Tariq, I can't move at all.

  Tariq scanned the compound. Let your heart follow the rhythm of mine. Relax. Ordinarily we sleep during this time. I'm surprised you awakened. He shouldn't have been surprised. He should have expected that anything to do with the children would draw her attention.

  That stopped her panic. What's wrong? Why did I wake up?

  Feel the compound above us. Let your mind expand to encompass all of it. You want to look above and below the compound as well. Always when you awaken you must do that. It allows you to feel if an enemy is near. In this case, you should find . . .

  Liv. She's by herself, walking away from her house. What is she doing? Fear crept into Charlotte's voice.

  Deep inside, he had to admit, he felt that same fear, but he refused to allow her to see or feel it. Liv was fragile. Too fragile. He worried she would harm herself. He should have considered converting her the same night he converted Charlotte. He'd been so concerned they'd harm the children, that the pain would be too great for them, but they'd found the way to do it. He just had lingering doubts. They were children. Still . . .

  He touched Liv's mind. She was sound asleep. He wasn't in the least surprised at that; she often walked in her sleep.

  I'll show you. I built a command center down here in the event this place was ever attacked during the day when I couldn't defend it as well.

  But we can't move. Not a muscle.

  It can be done with patience and practice. I had many years to figure out how to do this. I have lived in the human world for centuries. I've had to adapt to modern ways and think in terms of modern warfare.

  He waved his hand without moving his arm and a console appeared low, on his right side. Overhead, a bank of screens lit with an eerie glow. The entire compound, every house, the fence lines, the shore, all of it appeared on various screens. Liv walked slowly, steadily, one foot in front of the other, away from the houses and toward the gate.

  Donald. Mary. Liv is up again. Tariq sent the call, certain they were already on the move, prepared for Liv's daytime escapades. The couple was always ready to intercept her when she sleepwalked and get her back to bed.

  Almost as soon as he sent the alert Donald and Mary came onto the screen, strolling hand in hand as they always did when they were together. They caught up to Liv just as she entered one of the corridors Tariq had designed and made sure were always erected during the day. The corridors were a maze, and every few feet doors could drop down if necessary to trap someone inside. Not visible to the naked eye, the maze made it nearly impossible for Liv or any of the children to wander off during daylight hours. The corridors led to the front gates from several directions, but because they were unseen, they were very difficult to get through.

  They watched as Donald gently put his hand on Liv's shoulder and Mary circled her with a comforting arm as she bent to talk to the child. A few moments later, Liv cried and shook her head repeatedly as the couple firmly turned her back toward the house she shared with her brother and sisters.

  I should be the one to comfort her and put her back to bed, Charlotte said, her eyes on the screen. I hate this feeling of helplessness.

  Tariq had had centuries to learn to endure. Charlotte was new at it and aside from her initial panic when she found herself paralyzed, she had done well controlling her heart, keeping the rhythm steady and her breathing even.

  You can't just rely on the screens, sielamet. Expand your mind. Encompass the compound. Be aware always of your surroundings.

  Charlotte's eyes were glued to the screen and the progress the Waltons made with Liv. Liv sagged against Donald, forcing him to take most of her weight. She stumbled several times as if she still wasn't all the way awake. When the camera caught her face, tears tracked down in a steady flow.

  How can you stand this, Tariq? It must have been hell when you first brought the children here.

  That much was true. It was still hell. Like Charlotte, he wanted to go to Liv and comfort her. The best he could do was send warmth into her mind and soothe her before helping to send her to sleep. Shockingly, he found Val in her mind, soothing her as well. Her restlessness had awakened him, too. Tariq was going to have to give that some thought: the fact that a restless child could awaken a powerful, dangerous ancient and he would take the time to try to soothe her was so extraordinary that it bothered him. He didn't like mysteries.

  The first few days after they arrived were bad, he said to Charlotte. I didn't know what to expect from them--especially Liv or Emeline. Emeline never leaves her house other than to sit on her porch, and that's rare. Liv walks in her sleep nearly every single day. Mary and Donald expect it now.

  Liv and Emeline both are afraid to sleep because Vadim can come to them while they're unaware. He demands Emeline come to him or he will force Liv to harm herself.

  Tariq sighed. He was well aware that even with the safeguards woven by the combined efforts of all the Carpathians, they couldn't prevent Vadim from attacking from within the two females. The vampire had taken their blood, forced Emeline to take his. His puppets had torn into Liv with their teeth, spreading their master's blood like a virus.

  It is Emeline Vadim visits in her sleep, and he gets to Liv through Emeline's dreams.

  He had no way to stop that. No matter how they'd tried to weave safeguards over both houses where Liv and Emeline stayed, Vadim still managed to attack while they slept. Mary had held Vadim in check in his attacks on Liv with her extraordinary gift. She sang, and the melody and lyrics soothed and put the child to sleep and then followed her into her dreams so that Vadim hadn't been able to get through.

  He'd asked Liv if Mary's songs were still helping; she'd shrugged and shaken her head and then shrugged again. He'd touched her mind to see her memories. Vadim was the biggest part of her memories; in fact he was slowly taking them over, as if she really had been infected by a virus.

  I shouldn't have waited, Charlotte. I was so afraid of harming her by the conversion, by acting too fast without thinking it all the way through, that she's suffered, perhaps unnecessarily. Emeline isn't mine. I have no idea what is the right way to go about helping her.

  She needs time.

  Charlotte's voice soothed him, but . . . I'm not
certain she has time--if any of them have time. We have to come to a decision on Liv and act on it this next rising. That told him he was still concerned about converting the girl and what harm could be done to her. He was a man who was thorough. He studied a problem from every angle and then attacked it with confidence, but these were children and he was responsible for them. More, he cared about them. If he lost Liv in the conversion, he would never forgive himself.

  Liv was now in bed, Mary singing softly and Donald sitting on the opposite side, holding Liv's hand. Even as she drifted off, there were tears on her face.

  I should be there with her, Charlotte reiterated, and her voice broke.

  That little catch in her voice made his heart hurt. Sielamet. It won't be much longer. We're building something good here. I'm going to send you back to sleep and when we next wake, we can call the others to help in converting Liv. It was all he could give her. Her tears broke his heart, just as Liv's did. The only solution was to bring Liv fully into their world. It wouldn't change what happened to her, but it would give her other tools to deal with the trauma, and Vadim wouldn't be able to get to her.

  I would like to go on record that this paralysis thing is for the birds. Seriously, Tariq, the rest of it, even the blood thing and being in the ground, I can deal with, but not being able to move sucks. Anyone claustrophobic might have a real problem with this.

  Just like that, Charlotte managed to push the harsh realities of his life away to replace them with a softness and warmth inside. With amusement. She was so perfect for him. For the children. For his fellow hunters, the ones she was a little afraid of, but still worried about and admired and respected.

  You do realize it is impossible not to fall in love with you. He took his gaze from the screens and watched her face. The softness. The way she looked as if she might cry.

  That's how I feel about you.

  Mary has a beautiful gift. She can sing Liv to sleep. If I could sing, sielamet, I would sing you to sleep, but I don't have that gift.

  He felt her smile, and it touched him somewhere deep inside. If it was possible to love a woman completely in such a short period of time, he was already there. He knew her intimately, inside and out, and she was everything he'd ever wanted.

  Sleep now, my love. I will wake you in the soil so you can practice opening the earth and closing it over you.

  I'm not certain I'm ready for that, Tariq, but I'll try.

  There it was again. One of a thousand reasons. It scared her to think about the soil closing over her head--a very human reaction--but she was willing to give it a try. For him. He saw that very clearly. But not just for him. She wanted to be independent, and she wanted to be able to take care of her children.

  He added that to the already thousand reasons he'd fallen hard, and he sent her to sleep. He would wait until he was certain Liv had settled and didn't need further aid. His greatest worry was that she would harm herself. He watched Donald and Mary slowly get up and slip out of Liv's room, retreating back to their small cottage. They'd lived in their car so long that anything larger than the little cottage was daunting to them. They held hands all the way back to their home, strolling rather than hurrying.

  The camera system was thorough, allowing him to see every square inch of his compound. He'd designed the defense system himself, working with Josef, the young Carpathian he considered a genius. He'd never actually met Josef, but they communicated regularly via computer and cell phone. The boy had ideas, a really good grasp on modern technology and how it could help living and working right in the city the way Tariq did. He liked the kid and wished he'd relocate to San Diego and help him and the other hunters track down the women in the database for psychics.

  Tired, he took one last look at Liv to assure himself she was all right and down for the day. She appeared to be sleeping soundly, and then, just as he started to shut down the system, he saw her body jerk. Hard. Like a seizure. She thrashed on the bed and then sat up, shaking her head over and over, wiping her face with her hands as if trying to remove something from her skin.

  His first thought was to call on the older couple again to settle her, but when Liv got off the bed, he saw her movements were jerky. Like those of a marionette. Or as if she was fighting for freedom. He'd taken her blood. He had taken that of all the children. It allowed him to know their thoughts and whereabouts at all times. It kept them safe as well as keeping the other hunters, Emeline and Blaze safe.

  Tariq touched her mind very gently, always careful to be respectful. No one liked their thoughts monitored, especially a child like Liv. The moment he touched her mind, he knew she was asleep, yet fighting an unseen demon. Chaos reigned. The need to get up and go somewhere was a compulsion. She didn't know where she was supposed to go, but she wanted away from her brother and sisters because . . . A low growl slipped out of his mouth. She had been directed to kill her brother. Her hand had even curled around a kitchen knife earlier but then she'd managed to turn the blade toward her own stomach and instantly the compulsion was gone, to be replaced by a stronger one. She wasn't to harm herself.

  Vadim. That answered the question as to why Liv didn't want to sleep and whether the master vampire could reach the child as he did Emeline. They thought since she was receiving Vadim's voice through Emeline's dreams that he couldn't possibly give her commands. Liv had vague, uneasy memories of dreams of the master vampire during her waking hours. She didn't realize he was directing her to do his bidding while she slept. She just knew she didn't want to sleep.

  Donald. Mary. Liv is up again and I believe she's sleepwalking under Vadim's direction. You'll need to intercept and stop her immediately.

  Liv was on the move, this time leaving the house and turning away from the front gate. She looked at it several times and nodded her head, but then turned toward the main house. Was Vadim's army out there right now? Waiting for Liv to bring down the safeguards? She could invite them in, but she'd have to get through the invisible labyrinth of corridors, and he doubted she could do so. In any case, Mary and Donald would stop her if she got close.

  He felt the stirring in his mind. Donald getting out of his comfortable chair. Calling to Mary, who was in the kitchen fixing them a bite to eat.

  While Liv stumbled toward the main house, he saw Emeline come out of her house and stand on her porch, looking around warily as she did each time she emerged. In the light of the sun, he could see how pale and gaunt she was. The trauma to her had taken its toll. She was a beautiful woman, by any standards, but there were dark circles under her eyes and she was so thin she shivered continuously as if she couldn't regulate her body temperature.

  Tariq swore softly in his own language. He wasn't Emeline's lifemate, but he felt responsible for her. More, he admired and respected her as did Maksim, Blaze's lifemate. He was going to have to intervene soon. No matter that Emeline had asked for time; she was wasting away right in front of them. As with Liv, he would have no choice with Emeline, either.

  Liv disappeared into his home. He had no idea what she was planning to do and it made him uneasy that she moved through the hallway unerringly, as if she had a purpose now. She didn't pause at Lourdes's or Genevieve's door, but continued on to the large kitchen.

  Liv, wake up, honey. You're sleepwalking. He was gentle, not wanting to startle her, but kitchen meant knives. If necessary he could muster up the strength to remove a weapon from her hand from the distance where he was, but it wouldn't be easy.

  She stumbled, but kept walking, right past the block of knives sitting on the counter, straight to the door of the basement. Now he was really uneasy. What could she possibly be up to? More importantly, what was Vadim up to?

  Liv. He poured more strength into his command. Wake up now.

  The sun was at its highest peak. He was at his weakest. He'd designed his security system to prevent intruders from harming the occupants of the compound. The safety nets he had for the children were mainly outside the houses.

  Donald, she's in
my house, coming down to the basement. Be prepared for a battle and protect yourself if necessary. Have Mary use her voice to counteract Vadim, but you have to wake her up fully and then keep her awake.

  Like Charlotte, he detested that he was helpless, lying in the healing earth while his child was in trouble and he couldn't get to her. Already, he thought of Liv and the others as his children. His family. He needed to be the one to go to her and hold her safe in his arms when she was threatened.

  He still didn't understand how Vadim could get to the child in spite of the powerful safeguards woven around the compound. It should have been impossible for the vampire to get so completely to the child, so how . . . A memory came to him. In passing, Maksim had mentioned to him that Blaze and Emeline were very, very close and Emeline saw things in her dreams. She had dreamt of the tunnels running beneath the city and the vampires and monsters occupying that labyrinth. She'd shared the dreams with Blaze--literally.

  Blaze didn't have that gift--Emeline did--yet night after night, Blaze dreamt the same dream, running the tunnels to save the children, over and over until the two women had perfected their abilities in their dreams. Emeline had projected her dreams into Blaze without realizing she was doing so. She was close to Liv. Very close. Liv went to see her every evening. They already knew that Emeline had projected her dreams of Vadim to Liv, but she was awake on her porch. Was it possible that once Vadim had that path to Liv, he didn't need Emeline to keep it and now he had complete access to the child?

  On the monitors he saw Donald and Mary stepping out of their little yard and heading across the compound toward the house, hand in hand as usual. He pushed a sense of urgency into them, wanting them to hurry. He had a bad feeling.

  Liv went down the wide, wooden steps and turned away from where Charlotte and Tariq rested toward the large workroom where the unassembled carousel horses were along with all the tools and paints. She went right to the bundles that contained the horses and chariots that Vadim had placed his blood in.