Each was removing signs of blood and attempting to heal himself. She knew Ferro would need blood and have to go to ground. Fighting a master vampire took a toll on their bodies, no matter how skilled in battle one was.
“He can use animals to spy on us?”
“A master vampire can use any living creature to spy,” Andor said. “Sergey Malinov was considered the weakest of the Malinov brothers, yet he was the one all along that should have been targeted. Even his own brothers did not realize the extent of his planning and treachery. He has at least two splinters of Xavier, the high mage, in him, which means he has access to Xavier’s memories and spells.”
Lorraine held up her hand to stop him. “I can’t deal with this. It’s all too fantasy for me. Mages, vampires, men surviving on blood and sleeping in the ground. I have to get away for a few minutes. Go for a walk or something.”
Andor gripped her hand tighter. Sívamet. You know you cannot. If I could, I would walk with you somewhere quiet and beautiful. I would point out the stars and carry you across the sky so you feel the peace of the night. It is beautiful beyond all imagining. Give me a few more days and I will make this right with you. You have my word.
Speaking to Lorraine so intimately stirred feelings in his chest that were growing deeper each time he was in her mind. Her face softened and she lay down beside him, turning to just face him as if she could block out the rest of them. He glanced at Ferro and Sandu and immediately both men sat on the other side of his lifemate, protecting her from the gazes of the other men.
“Dragomir, it is good to see you. Isai, thank you for heeding the call.”
“You are a mess,” Dragomir said, crouching beside him. “Tariq was not happy that he was kept from coming in person. He is guarded day and night. At night by ancient hunters, and by day, his well-trained, human army.” There was a trace of amusement in his voice. “I have given blood to the healer, and he will do his best to get you fit for travel.”
Andor nodded. More than anything, he wanted to get Lorraine to a safe place. He tugged on her wrist and brought her hand back to his mouth, biting gently on her finger. “Perhaps you should go to the compound, Lorraine. There are women there who were human at one time and now are Carpathian. They will be able to make you feel less alone.”
You make me feel less alone. I just need time to think things through. Everything has happened so fast and every time I think I understand the dynamics of your world, it expands or changes. It is a very frightening place.
He reached for her hair, that silky mass of chestnut strands he loved to rub between his fingers and crush in his fist. Even with all the warriors surrounding her, as ancient and skilled as they were, during the daylight hours, she was alone. They needed to get to the compound. He cursed the fact that he was the one putting them all in jeopardy. Still, even if Tariq sent a helicopter for him, it wouldn’t solve the problem of getting through the gauntlet of Sergey’s army. They didn’t want to take the fight to the compound, where there were more women and children to protect.
“They are coming at us fairly hard and steady,” Sandu said. “It makes no sense, Andor.”
Andor was always their thoughtful one. He worked things out step by step. Very logically. When one separated emotion from decisions, the right decision was almost always made. All of them were the same in that they didn’t feel, but most simply didn’t bother with anything but battle. They looked to Andor to figure out the whys.
“It does make a kind of sense, considering at this point, Sergey has only one goal. He doesn’t want anything else but Elisabeta back. He seems to have abandoned everything and is looking for ways to get her. She has been with him for hundreds of years.”
Lorraine’s eyes opened and fixed on his face. “A master vampire has feelings for a woman? I didn’t realize that there could be female vampires.”
“She isn’t a vampire. It is impossible for a Carpathian woman to become vampire. Sergey captured her and found he could feel through her. There is no way he wants to give her up,” Andor explained. “She is safe within the compound at the moment, but he will be desperate to reacquire her.”
“She is healing in the earth, although it is only her mind we hope to heal. He punished her, but he didn’t harm her,” Dragomir said.
“He harmed her,” Andor said. “You just cannot see the scars.”
“She will seek to go back to him.”
Every head turned to regard the healer. He had taken blood from Isai, Andor’s brethren from the monastery. Gary looked closer to his full strength in spite of the few lacerations Andor could see on him.
“Why do you say that, healer?” Sandu asked.
“She has had no one but Sergey Malinov in her life for hundreds of years. He has been her everything. She is submissive to him and only responds to orders. Didn’t you see her? Observe her as she was put into the ground? She is lost without him. She cannot make decisions for herself, and once she is aboveground she will be lost. She has never made a single decision for herself. She depended on him for sustenance, for company, for every single thing.”
“Why would he do that?” Lorraine asked, sitting up slowly and looking at Gary.
“Vampires want to feel,” Gary explained. “They were once Carpathians and they wanted to feel so much that they willingly traded their souls in order to feel a rush when they fed while killing their victims. You can imagine what a treasure Elisabeta would be to him. She is of the light and that light would shine into his rotted soul. He would feel the things she does through her mind. He kept her as pure as possible in order to never lose that. No one, not even his brothers, knew he had her.”
Gary moved to Andor’s other side. “Stay still. Your arms were supposed to be under the blanket of soil.”
The healer glanced at Ferro, looking him over in a single perusal to ensure the ancient could heal his wounds or one of the others was capable of doing it. Without another word, he shed his body, and Andor could feel that white-hot light moving through him.
“We cannot have a traitor in our midst,” Sandu said.
Ferro turned his head sharply. “Elisabeta is no traitor.”
“She was taken as a very young woman and has had no contact with anyone other than Sergey Malinov,” Dragomir said. “Some thought Emeline was a traitor because Vadim Malinov had taken her blood and forced her to become pregnant, but she fought valiantly against him. Who knows how many centuries went by before Sergey gained complete control over Elisabeta.”
“When she was taken from the cage, there were signs of punishments, and we were told he had hurt her and threatened to harm any who sought to aid her,” Isai added.
“I misspoke,” Sandu corrected immediately. “It is true that she is not a traitor. What happened to her is unfortunate. Perhaps she should be escorted back to the Carpathian Mountains.”
Unfortunate? Lorraine was horrified by their choice of words.
“He would only follow,” Isai said. “I have been watching for signs of him. He has spies surrounding the compound. Sergey will know the moment she has risen. He will fight to get her back. I think he will send an army after her.”
Andor had the feeling he knew why Sergey was so interested in his own woman. “Lorraine is very vulnerable. He thinks she is Carpathian. She fought off his pawn. She has now stopped a master vampire from ensnaring her. If he wants Elisabeta so badly, he will continue to go after her. Having had complete rule of her for hundreds of years, he is just as much bound to her as she thinks she is to him, but he will try for another woman. Lorraine is out here in the middle of nowhere and several ancients have come to protect her. He would never conceive that she is still human.”
Lorraine gasped and tried to pull her hand loose. Andor tightened his hold on her. “Csecsemõ, he will not be able to get near you. Look at my brothers. Look around you. They are here to help keep you safe.”
Andor’s chest was on fire, and he had to work hard to keep that from his lifemate. The healer was extremely powerful. Over many centuries, Andor had been wounded, at times suffering a mortal wound, which meant others had had to aid in healing or he would have succumbed, but nothing had ever felt like it did with Gary working on him from the inside out. It felt like a blowtorch was being applied.
“I don’t understand how he had this woman and no one was able to get her back.” There was a small note of anger threading through Lorraine’s voice.
“In those days, when she was taken,” Andor said, “there were human wars being fought. Our people were scattering, some sent out by Vlad to other places. Many people, both human and Carpathian, disappeared and there was little to be done about it.”
“Elisabeta has a brother, Traian,” Dragomir added. “Tariq told me Traian searched for his sister, or any word of what happened to her. She disappeared without a trace. No one suspected the Malinovs. It was speculated, much later, when it was discovered that Xavier, the high mage, was working against our people, that he had taken and killed her as he did Rhiannon.”
“What will Tariq do once Elisabeta rises?” Lorraine asked. “Would he send her away? If he does, Andor, we have to help her. It sounds as if she’s been conditioned to do whatever this Sergey has told her. She needs someone to talk to, to help her get over that.”
“How does one get over hundreds of years of training?” Isai asked. “It is impossible. She has been shaped by these endless years with a sadistic vampire.”
“Her lifemate will know what to do, what she needs,” Dragomir assured Lorraine. “And Tariq would never turn her away, any more than he would have turned Emeline out of the safety of the compound. He just knows he has to be more watchful.”
“If her lifemate held out,” Sandu said. “It is entirely possible he has turned or is long gone. In any case, if Sergey cannot get to her physically, he has a blood-bond with her.”
Dragomir looked at his brethren for a long time. “Emeline had a blood-bond with Vadim. He attacked her nightly, but she held out against him and she was human. I know you believe Elisabeta will give up vital information on the compound and our defenses to Sergey, but she will not want to return to him. She may feel she has no choice because she knows no other way, but she will not betray us.”
“You are so certain of this you are willing to risk Emeline and your child?” Sandu demanded.
Lorraine’s fingers threaded through Andor’s. He looked up at her face. She was definitely upset over the unfortunate Elisabeta. Sívamet, no one will turn away from this woman. She is one of ours and will be cherished as the treasure she is. If her lifemate were to find her, he would know how best to help her.
How? How can he know?
His heart lurched unexpectedly. There was no trace of tears on her face or in her eyes, but it was there in her mind. She really hated what had been done to the absent woman. She didn’t know her, had never met her, yet she was very upset on Elisabeta’s behalf. He fell a little more in love with her. He knew the intimacy of their mind-to-mind contact allowed him to see into who she was and what she stood for. They were surrounded by so many of his kind, yet it was just the two of them right then.
A lifemate takes a vow to cherish his woman. To see to her happiness. Just as we can see into each other’s minds, he will be able to do the same for Elisabeta. Her happiness will be placed above his for all time. She will feel the same about him. She will want to make him happy in all things. It is the way of our people. Elisabeta may be even more determined to see to her lifemate’s happiness, but even if that is so, he will balance those needs for her.
Andor wanted to be healed. To be alone with her. To be able to take Lorraine into his arms and hold her close. She needed comfort.
“Do you think he’s out there right now watching us?”
Ferro’s head came up sharply. “Sisarke, he is not close, but his spies surround us. We will be in top fighting form when we leave this place. Andor will be ready soon. We needed fresh blood supplies. Have no worries. We will get you safely to the compound.”
Sandu nodded. “All this talk of Sergey has made you uneasy. That was not our intention. Elisabeta is one of our women. Even if Malinov managed to brainwash her to the point that she would think to betray us, we would never abandon her. We would have to think of ways to counter the harm he has done to her. I know I sounded harsh to you. I felt your disapproval when I misspoke and called her a traitor, but you have been inside my mind enough to know I would not abandon one of our women.”
Lorraine tightened her grip on Andor’s hand, and he closed his fingers around hers so she would know he was right there with her. She wasn’t alone in the midst of all the others. He would always champion her. “I know, Sandu, it’s just that I’m human. I’m very modern. You’re talking about a woman who never had a chance and all of you are so very removed and distant, as if you’re talking in the abstract. That hideous monster took her at a young age and forced her to live a certain way with him.”
“He tortured her into submission,” Isai said helpfully.
Andor wanted to throw something at the man. “Truly? You could not have tried to put a little sympathy in your voice when you imparted that information to her?” He glared at his fellow monk.
“What? I was telling your woman that none of us believe Elisabeta is to blame for whatever she has become. Was that not being sympathetic?” He looked to Lorraine. “Was that not sympathetic?”
Dragomir gave a little sniff of disdain. “And you say great songs have been written about you.”
“They are of a great warrior,” Isai reminded.
“Clearly not a compassionate warrior,” Dragomir insisted.
“Compassionate and warrior are mutually exclusive, and you failing to understand the two do not belong together explains why you have no song,” Isai said.
“What are they talking about? Songs?” Lorraine asked.
“The Carpathian people tend to have songs sung about great warriors,” Andor explained. “Dragomir is upset because he has no song.”
“If he was not so compassionate,” Sandu said, “he might have gotten one.”
Lorraine glared at Sandu. “Compassion is what makes a great warrior. You have to temper your murderous skills with kindness, or you might find yourself looking like a terrible bully and brute.”
Andor kept every vestige of humor from his face, but it was impossible to keep it out of his mind. Lorraine turned her glare on him, and he hastily tried to change the subject. Before he could speak, Gary was suddenly back in his body, swaying with weariness, looking extremely pale, as if he had spent far too much time separated from spirit and body. The moment Gary appeared, Dragomir was there, offering blood.
While he did so, Isai shed his body and entered Andor. Lorraine observed the smooth transfer. “I find it amazing how much all of you are so unselfish. You offer one another blood and you heal one another, in spite of the dangers surrounding us.”
Andor smiled at her. “We hunt alone as a rule, and often hunters do not like to share or exchange blood because should we turn, the other can always track us. Speaking of which, has anyone heard how Aidan Savage is faring?”
“Who is Aidan Savage?” Lorraine asked.
“He is Carpathian, lifemate to Alexandria. She has a younger brother, Joshua, who is getting up there in age, I think,” Dragomir said. “I have had to catch up quickly with all those Tariq has to call on. Aidan resides in San Francisco and has his hands full with a very large territory. It was Tariq’s bad luck that the Malinovs targeted Southern California for their stronghold. Aidan is alone unless the Dark Troubadours are performing and then he has help if he has to hunt the vampire.”
“What is happening for him to have need of help? Aidan Savage is renowned for his abilities. Even I have heard of him,” Sandu said.
“The
re were two master vampires wreaking havoc in San Francisco. They were aware of his presence, and they trapped him. He fought them both, and I believe it was Alexandria who came to his aid. She fought with him when he was mortally wounded. I have no idea how they were able to drive the two off when Aidan was hurt, but they did, and Alexandria was able, with the help of young Joshua and a human male who works for them, to get Aidan back to their home and into the ground.”
“I would have thought the prince would choose him as his representative here in the United States,” Andor said.
Gary politely closed the slash in Dragomir’s wrist and sank back onto his heels. “He is moving to the East Coast as soon as he is well enough to travel. He is used to living in cities now and so establishing residency in several larger cities in the East will be easy enough for him. Others will be joining him. It was Tariq’s bad luck to have established his businesses here, and he has always been a part of human society. He understands them. Aidan has learned to do that as well. Like the De La Cruz brothers in South America, he has always had a human family looking out for him during the day. That same family looks after Joshua while Aidan and Alexandria sleep.”
“Are you all right?” Lorraine asked him, anxiety betraying the fact that she was tied to Gary and could feel his fatigue.
Gary nodded. “I just need a little time to recover. All of us will take turns working on the worst of Andor’s wounds. We hope to have him ready to travel by the next rising.”
Andor shook his head. “That gives her another day to get through without a guard. If Sergey is looking to acquire her, he will eventually strike during the time we are underground.”
“For all intents and purposes, Andor,” Gary said with a sigh, “you were dead. You have three mortal wounds. Three. Not one. Three. Each of those wounds would have killed you. They have to be dealt with before you can travel. If you tried to shift, everything we’ve done would be undone. We will be flying you home on the back of a dragon.”
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