“That is how she could speak Carpathian so fluently and perfectly.”
“Yes. She had to understand, and she had to be able to appeal to what you would most understand.”
The fact that Ferro and Sandu had bound their souls as well to Lorraine was both touching and shocking. Warriors, especially ancient ones, would never, under any circumstances, bind themselves to another Carpathian male’s woman. In doing so, they, too, had risked their lives when she had traveled to the nether world to retrieve him.
“Why?” He didn’t understand. “I have lived my lifetime. Far more than my lifetime.”
“She has not,” Ferro said simply. “It is possible that we might find our lifemates in this century, but you did find her. She is a good, worthy mate. She deserves happiness, and she hasn’t had that in a while. We might never have the chance to achieve that for our women, but we could for yours, and you are ekäm—my brother.”
There was a sincerity in Ferro’s voice that humbled Andor. Ferro had rarely spoken to any of them, but he’d seemed different these last few weeks, more willing to communicate. The modern world was changing them all in some subtle way. Andor hoped it meant that all of the brethren would have more time to search for their lifemates so that they would have a better chance to find them, rather than locking themselves away as too dangerous for society.
“Ekäm.” They clasped forearms in the age-old greeting of warriors as Andor made his reply. Ferro had been his brother for over two hundred years.
“You did not bind her to you,” Ferro said. “Why?”
“I was too weak, but also, I knew the chances of me surviving were very slim. I did not want her to live a half-life here on earth. She is human. If she remained human without ties to me, she could eventually find another to go through life with.” The thought didn’t sit well, but he knew he didn’t want his woman to be alone, pining for a man she’d never had until the day she died. “I would not be a true lifemate if I had not looked out for her.”
Ferro nodded. “That is true, although it would have been easier to retrieve you.” His gaze moved slowly over his brethren. “You are pretty torn up. Did you know any of them?”
Andor shook his head. He was exhausted. He knew he had been given ancient blood and the healer must have worked on him, but the truth was, he didn’t feel much better than he had when Lorraine had buried his body in the hope that he would be alive when the others came. Ferro had said they had been fighting for him for several risings. He had assumed that meant he had been back in the land of the living for those risings. If he hadn’t . . . He glanced again at Lorraine.
“Did she hold me to this earth while all of you slept?” Because if they hadn’t rescued him in a single rising, he would have slipped back no matter how much headway the healer had made in bringing him back from the other world.
“She did,” Ferro answered. “She is worthy of you, Andor.”
He was astounded. She was human and not tied to him. How had she managed such a feat? “The question might be, am I worthy of her?”
“I believe you are.” Ferro turned his head and looked out into the night. His features had changed subtly. He looked more dangerous than ever. “We cannot stay here much longer.”
Realization came to Andor. “The vampires are continuing their attacks.”
Ferro nodded. “We have fought off three attacks, but our fear is they will send puppets during the day against Lorraine.”
“Bury me deep with safeguards and take her back to the Asenguard compound where she will be safe. They will think I have been taken with you.”
Ferro shook his head. “She will not leave you.”
“That does not sound like you. You would force your woman to go to safety.”
“Perhaps persuade is a much nicer way of putting it, but yes, she would go. I am a different man and my lifemate would be a different woman.”
Lorraine sat up, her chestnut hair tumbling madly in every direction. Andor watched it fall around her shoulders and settle down her back. Somehow, the silky strands were as shiny as ever. Her skin was very pale but looked as soft as ever. Those large green eyes of hers moved over his face, anxiety in them. She smiled at him as she came up on her knees beside him. “You’re awake. Oh my God, I can’t believe you’re awake.” Her gaze shifted to Ferro, moved over him, taking in every detail. “You’re healed again this evening. It’s such a miracle how you do that. I was worried when you went to ground.”
Ferro shrugged his axe-handle-wide shoulders. “There is no need to worry. I will heal or I will not. Worrying does not change the outcome.”
She rolled her eyes and then looked back at Andor. “I’m so glad you’re awake.”
“We are going to have to have many discussions about what is acceptable and what is not,” Andor said, his voice as stern as he could make it while he feasted his eyes on her. She was beautiful to him, glowing from the inside out. He knew her outer shell would be considered attractive by humans, but that mattered little to him. It was what was inside her that counted, that and the fact that she was his other half. She was his. He belonged to her.
“Yes, I couldn’t agree more,” she fired back. “Because getting yourself torn up like this is entirely unacceptable and not very wise. Whatever reasons you have for having no regard for your well-being aren’t good enough.”
“I will leave you two to your reunion. Andor, I caution you, do not try to move or come out from under the soil. The healer has worked every night with one of us as well. Until the others arrive, we cannot risk more damage.” Ferro stood, facing outward. “Stay in camp close to them and be prepared. The enemy is close.”
“How close are the brethren?” Andor asked.
“They come,” Ferro said. “They do not give away their positions.” He turned and strode away.
“He is amazing,” Lorraine said. “I don’t think he ever gets tired. He’s like a machine. Sandu and Gary are as well.” She reached out and brushed his hair from his face. “You really scared me, Andor.”
“You know that if the healer had been unable to retrieve me from the other world, you would have died as well. By binding yourself to me and following me to that other place, you risked everything.”
“So did they.”
“They are not you.”
“Andor, would you have gone after me?” She settled back on her heels.
He wanted her hands back on him. In his hair, on his jaw, just touching him. He needed that touch. “Of course. I am your lifemate.”
“Exactly.”
“You have no idea what that means. You were not searching for centuries for me. I deliberately did not bind us with the ritual words so if I died, you could continue on.”
Her smile was slow in coming but when it came, his heart clenched—it was so beautiful. “Perhaps you did bind us, you just didn’t know it, because when your brothers couldn’t find you in that cold, dark place, I did.”
He couldn’t reprimand her anymore. He was too proud of her. “Thank you, sívamet. I would have been lost without you.”
“It was a joint effort.” She brushed her hand down his face, her touch lingering. “Being locked in your mind, it’s amazing how much one learns. I think those few nights were a lifetime of learning, maybe several lifetimes.”
“You have the advantage. I was unconscious.”
“I think you were a little more than unconscious. You really scared me,” she reiterated. “You can’t do that again. What were you thinking, taking on seven of them? Two were considered master vampires, at least that is what Sandu told me.”
“He should not have.”
“If you were feeling better, I might kick you. I don’t have girlie kicks, either, Andor. When I kick you, you’re going to know I did, so refrain from ever treating me like an idiot. Of course, I have to know the difference between a master vampire, a lesse
r one and a pawn. I’m going to be living in your world. That means I’m going to encounter them, and if we have children, they will encounter them. My sons will need to learn to fight, but so will my daughters. I don’t believe in being helpless. I shoot. I can use a knife. I have practiced with a flamethrower and I’m deadly accurate. The others have helped me learn the things I need to know and I’ve found your mind, which is filled with battle tactics, extremely helpful.”
Andor shook his head. “I cannot believe that my own brothers have encouraged you to be a little hawk. I doubt they would be quite so lenient with their own lifemates.”
“You don’t understand, Andor.” She leaned closer to him. “I lost everyone, my entire family. Everyone I loved. I couldn’t save them. It was already too late by the time I got home. I wasn’t about to lose you. Can’t you understand?”
“I understand,” he said gently.
Her grief tore at him, and then she gave a little shrug, pushing her greatest sorrow down so she could function.
“We’ve had to fight off a few attacks and everyone is exhausted. We needed everyone to be able to help if we were to succeed. Women are capable of fighting these things if given the proper training. I’m not saying all women should, but neither should all men. We’re all different, Andor. I found that out when I trained in my parents’ dojo.”
When he shook his head, she framed his face with both hands, insisting he really hear what she needed to say. “I was raised on martial arts and I loved it. My family lived that life. Others came to learn various degrees of self-defense, or wanted to train to fight in a ring to get trophies. Some of the people that came through were very gentle creatures and couldn’t find it in themselves to attack no matter what. Others were eager for the challenge, for the battle.” She let go of him and sank back to her knees again.
“What are all these weapons?” Andor nodded to the various items that surrounded him, laid carefully out in a circular pattern about six feet from him.
“I have to fight from a distance, so I needed several flamethrowers and ways to kill a vampire should they get past Sandu, Gary or Ferro.” She shuddered. “They really are disgusting, vile creatures. Ferro and Sandu have really helped me build up my shields to make them stronger. I do the exercises all the time. Two of the vampires nearly penetrated them and got to my memories. I couldn’t believe how powerful they were. I could feel the compulsion in their voices. I didn’t want them to be able to find you there, just in case. You were in the ground, and they didn’t know you were even alive or anywhere near here. If they’d managed to kill me . . .”
“Stop. Do not say it.” Real fear gripped him. After centuries of searching, if they brought him back only for her to have died, he feared what could happen. “It is frustrating to know I cannot aid the four of you.”
Her face changed instantly. Softened. Her eyes went to a sea green. “I know it must be horrible for you to just have to lie quietly.”
“It is far more than being uncomfortable, Lorraine. It is the fact that the four of you, my woman and my brothers, are in danger and cannot leave because of me. I have never been in such a position before.”
“I know that,” she replied, her voice soft with some emotion that tore at his heart. “I’ve seen you, inside your mind, your memories, the way you protect everyone. You’re the guardian, the one who would stand for all of us. Now you have to allow us to stand for you.”
“It is so much more difficult than one would think.”
“I have to take care of business. Unlike Carpathians, who have only to wake up and clothe themselves to look completely refreshed, I have to wash up, brush my teeth and use the bushes for business.”
“I can help with the washing and brushing of teeth,” he offered.
“No,” another voice chimed. “You can’t.”
Andor glanced over at the healer. Gary sat up. He looked so exhausted, Andor wanted to order him to go to ground. A Daratrazanoff was not the kind of man to be ordered. They gave orders. Gary spoke in a soft voice, but it carried, and with it, authority.
Andor had never been one to recognize authority. He had sworn allegiance to his prince so many centuries ago he could barely remember. Like his brethren, he believed his prince, Vlad, had betrayed them. Instead of destroying his firstborn son, he had allowed a series of events to unfold that nearly destroyed their people. Vlad, through his inability to cause his lifemate sorrow because of her love of their child, had brought the Carpathian people to the very brink of extinction. Andor and the other ancients living in the monastery had not sworn their allegiance to the new prince, the second son of Vlad.
Lorraine leaned close to Andor, her silky hair brushing his face as she kissed the side of his mouth. “I’ll be right back. You two can posture at each other.” She smiled at Gary. “Good evening. I see you didn’t go to ground again. Ferro said that is very dangerous and that you need the healing soil.”
“I was too exhausted to open the earth,” Gary admitted.
“Perhaps, but I think you were guarding me as well as Andor, offering your body in exchange for ours.” She stood, dusted off the seat of her jeans, which called attention to her bottom, and sauntered away, toward the trees.
Andor watched her go, but his mind was reeling with the implication that Gary had been too tired even to open the earth. He had slept out in the open, just in a shallow depression beside Lorraine. They were all at the very end of their strength, even the healer. That told him far more than he’d realized about how dire the situation was. If the ancients couldn’t even get into the soil by the end of the night, they were expending too much energy keeping him alive.
Andor felt the healer move in his mind. He was strong. Ancient. A formidable man with insane fighting skills. He was a powerful healer, one very much needed in the United States, especially now that they found the vampires had slowly, over the centuries, fortified their position and had a good foothold already.
You will not live if you move too much. We have been unable to heal those wounds. Three are worrisome. I need to be able to concentrate on them, but the vampires know we are here and we’re hiding something. That something is you. Lorraine won’t go with an escort to the Asenguard compound without you. If we are to save her, we must save you.
I will order her to go.
All the orders in the world will not work on her.
Then she must be forced.
We are all tied to your fate. The four of us and you, Andor. She will not leave you. You may not have bound her to you with the ritual words, but the bindings are tighter than any I have seen without them. Part of that is her. She has a will like iron.
Ferro indicated that he felt the presence of vampires. I could see the darkness begin to take him over, Andor cautioned. He wanted Gary to realize the danger to Lorraine was very real, iron will or not. The others might have provided her with weapons, but if the vampires sent a concentrated force after them, especially during the day when they couldn’t aid her, she might be lost to them all. They must be close.
Gary nodded. They harass us continually. Sandu and Ferro sent for the others. I cannot begin to heal you properly until they arrive. They were also under attack. Sergey has become quite a battle strategist. Gary named the master vampire who had formed a plan centuries earlier and then methodically carried it out. He had shown himself only when he was at his greatest strength and was certain he had the ability to be victorious. Now, his army was nipping at the heels of the Carpathians, weakening them on a nightly basis.
“Call Lorraine back closer to us,” Andor said. “You can shield her from any eyes while she does what she has to do.”
Gary shook his head. “In truth, I cannot spare the energy. I have to get you to the point that you can travel. We need to take you to the healing grounds Tariq has built up. We also need the reinforcements of ancient blood. You have to stay very still and keep your body buried
under the soil. You can’t move. I’ve managed to remove the poisons from your body that were injected into you as well as their parasites. I cut out the dead tissue and have stimulated some growth. There were so many places leaking blood, I couldn’t get to them all, so as fast as I stopped one, another seemed to spring up.”
“Lorraine has yet to understand that a hunter seeks to end the vampire when he finds one. I had no choice but to fight them.” It was no apology. He stated a fact. Hunters sought out the undead, tracking them from lair to lair. It was their job to destroy them wherever they were. In this case, he had been drawn into a trap. Three lesser vampires had been used as bait. It had mattered little to him, they all needed to be terminated.
“I understand,” Gary conceded. “But it doesn’t make the healing any easier.”
Gary’s head snapped up at the same time Andor felt the dead space in the night’s air that indicated the unseen presence of the enemy.
Lorraine. Get back here now. Are you within the safeguards?
Of course, I feel it. The four of you have shared your minds so much, you’ve trained mine. He thinks I’m all alone out here.
O jelä peje terád, emni—sun scorch you, woman, you are not bait for the undead. He was going to wring her neck when he was able to move again.
Her soft laughter flooded his mind and then it was cut off abruptly and she was gone. Behind her, along the walls of his mind where she had just brushed her amusement, pouring into him and making him feel whole, he felt a piercing pain, like a knife jabbing. It was the lingering sensation when all else vanished.
6
One moment Lorraine was laughing, amused by Andor’s archaic way of thinking, and the next something stabbed deep into her mind. She had the presence of mind to shut herself off from Andor, recognizing the attack of a vampire. This one was strong, stronger than anything she could imagine. The stab went deep, the pain radiating outward to encompass her entire brain. It was painful enough that she went down to one knee, dropping her head into her hand. Something had been ripped out of her mind before she’d managed to slam down her shields.
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