Mikhail sighed. «In the old days, those with lifemates did not hunt the vampire. Now it is a necessity.»
«I have hunted for centuries, as have most of the ancient hunters-and Gregori. We know no other way of life anymore. It is not just a necessity, it is who we are.»
«Why did the lifemates keep them from hunting if they were more experienced?» Jaxon asked.
«Because even when we had women and children, we knew how precious they were,» Mikhail explained. «If we lose the male, we also lose the female, and that was not an option for us. Now we may have no choice but to allow our women to fight as well.»
«Not all the women, Mikhail,» Lucian reminded. «Only those who have the skills and the
desire to fight. Women like Jaxon and Destiny.»
Mikhail sighed. «And Natalya. She was in the thick of the battle. She told me that her twin brother, Razvan, fathered several children. Colby, Raphael's lifemate, is one of his daughters.»
«The Dragonseeker women always were unpredictable. They always will be. If Razvan had other children besides Colby, we need to find and protect them. I take it Dominic will be going out as soon as he is healed to look for his kin.»
«It will take time to heal his wounds. Even with our best healers, it has been difficult. Francesca will try again soon and if we find this woman who can heal the earth, perhaps she can help by enriching the soil where he lays.»
Mikhail stood up. «I must go. The celebration is in a couple of hours and I have several visits still to make. I know I have no need to remind you to be on the alert, but still-I feel I would be remiss if I didn't.»
Lucian stood as well, and once again gripped Mikhail's forearms in a gesture of respect. «You have my full allegiance, Mikhail. Should there be need, call to me-I will fight at your side, always.»
A brief smile failed to take the shadows from the prince's eyes. «The Daratrazanoff family has always been at the side of the Dubrinskys. We fight as one.»
Jaxon lifted a hand to the leader of the Carpathians as he left the house. «He seemed so sad, Lucian, I felt like crying,» she said. «And I never cry.» She pressed a hand to her aching heart. «Sorrow came off of him in waves.»
Lucian swept his arm around her. «You're always so sensitive to other people's feelings. Mikhail has a heavy burden to bear-to keep our species from extinction. He still remembers the old ways, gone now for all time. Back then our people thrived and lived together in a society. It is his responsibility to guide us into a new life, one where we can survive and live in harmony with other species around us. Like me, he cannot help but look back at what we had and look into the future with worry. I do not envy him his task. It is a terrible weight to carry on his shoulders.»
«Do you really think our enemies are going to go after the women and children?» She swallowed hard, closing her eyes against the memories flooding her of her own brother murdered by a mentally ill man. Her heart pounded at the thought of finding young Skyler or one of the infants brutally murdered.
«We will watch over them.»
«But we already know Skyler has been targeted,» she protested. «I tried not to care for her, but it's impossible. She's wonderful-and so young and old at the same time. Gabriel is worried about this Dimitri claiming her, and now this.» She swept a hand through her hair,
clearly agitated. «I feel like locking her up.»
Lucian burst out laughing, carrying her hand to his mouth to press kisses into the center of her palm. «Now you know how I feel-how every male feels about protecting his lifemate and his children.»
She scowled at him. «I don't need protection, Lucian. I'm capable of looking after myself. Skyler's a teenager. What if this Dimitri character tries to carry her off?»
«Dimitri is added protection for Skyler. I do not understand how she triggered his instincts at such a young age, but she has and he can do no other than to ensure her health, safety and happiness. It may take him a little while to conquer the demon, but I have every faith that he will.»
«Why?»
«Dimitri has always valued honor and responsibility. He rarely even bent the rules in his youth. He may want to carry her off, but in the end, unless something terrible happens, he will do the right thing by her.» He shifted her into his arms, holding her close to comfort her, her memories now so fresh and distressing. «On the other hand, it is always better to make certain.»
She tilted her head to look up at him. He always made her feel safe. She had never known that sensation before he entered her life, certainly not as a child and not as a young woman. Lucian had changed her entire life and given her back hope and promise and dreams. She slipped her arms around him. «I want for Skyler what you've given to me. She deserves-and needs happiness, Lucian.»
He nuzzled the top of her head with her chin. «I know, little one. With Gabriel and Francesca looking out for her, and the two of us as well, Skyler will be just fine.»
Jaxon wrapped her arms around his waist, pressing her cheek against the steady beat of his heart. «Have I told you today that I love you?»
«Not yet, but I was going to get to that. A little prompting on my part usually gets more than satisfying results.» He inhaled her feminine fragrance. Jaxon. The woman he could never do without. She was so small, so fragile looking, but with the strength of steel and a will of iron.
«Well, I do,» she replied.
«What?»
«You know very well what.»
Lucian lifted her with ease, bringing her up to his hungry mouth. «Say you love me and say it right now, woman.»
She wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist. «Or what? Are you threatening to punish me in some despicable way?»
His teeth nibbled at her pulse, scraped and teased, while his tongue danced a seductive rhythm. «Say it, stubborn woman.»
«Your head is already far too big.» Her fingers stroked his long hair. «If one more person looks at you as if you are the bomb…»
«The bomb?» His eyebrows shot up. «Where do you get such slang?»
«I'm hip, baby. Totally hip.» She laughed at his expression. «Actually, Skyler told me I was the bomb and I couldn't wait to try it out on you.» Her smile faded into a small frown. «Maybe we should go find her, make certain she's really all right.»
«It sounds like a plan. I wanted to run with the wolves anyway and if we do that, we may have a chance of finding and talking with Dimitri.»
«Why is there a 'but first' in your tone?»
Clothes floated to the floor, leaving her bare breasts pressed tightly against his chest and his hard shaft pressed against her already slick entrance.
«I want to make love to you.»
«You always want to make love. And you did this evening three times. I think you need help. You're a sexaholic.» She squirmed, pressing her most feminine core against him, rubbing slowly back and forth to entice him as she kissed her way up this throat. She lifted her body several inches to poise just above him.
«You attacked me this morning,» he pointed out.
«Did I? I'd forgotten. Well, maybe I did.» She slid down his body, impaling herself on his hard thick shaft, feeling him slowly, inch by inch, invading, filling her. She began a seductive ride, moving over him, muscles tight and hot, slick and silky with desire.
He caught her hips in his hands and took over the pace, so that their movements were perfectly synchronized and they moved as one, the now familiar fire building between them. She tilted her head, wanting his kiss, the sweet explosion of his commanding mouth taking hers, tightening every muscle in her body, sending darts of fire racing through her bloodstream.
Making love to Lucian was one of the few times when she ever relaxed her vigilance– and she knew it was the same when he touched her. Her teeth teased his lower lip, slid over to tug at his ear, all the while the pressure kept building and building deep inside her-in him. «I do love you,» she whispered, the sound barely audible over their combined heartbeats and heavy bre
athing, over the sound of joy escaping his throat in the form of a
growl. But he heard. She knew he heard. His fingers tightened possessively as he swept them both into a world of pure passion.
Chapter 9
Skyler sat on the railing of the porch and stared out into the glistening world of white. Pain vibrated through her body-through her very soul, until she felt so weighed down by it she could barely breathe. Inside the house she could hear Gabriel and Francesca laughing as they played with Baby Tamara. Every now and then she felt their light touch, as they assured themselves that she was close by.
She made certain that they only touched the surface she presented to them, a teenage girl in a strange, exciting new place looking forward to a Christmas celebration. The Carpathian blood they'd shared with her made the facade easier, and a lifetime of hiding her emotions from others made the task simple.
She bit hard at her lower lip and studied her long fingernails. She bit them all the time, but they grew back quickly, stronger and better than ever thanks to the Carpathian blood Gabriel and Francesca had shared with her. She still couldn't touch people without reading their emotions. If anything the blood had enhanced her abilities, and it could be dreadfully uncomfortable. She disliked attending school, and preferred the tutors Francesca provided, although she knew her adopted parents thought she needed the company of younger people. She didn't. She needed to be alone.
«Skyler? Are you all right?»
The male voice jerked her head up. Josef stood in front of the railing, hands jammed in his pockets.
Biting down hard on her lower lip, she was careful not to let the misery show on her face. The pain was making her sick to her stomach. Even her vision seemed blurry. «Sure.» She could barely manage to get the word out, and she didn't bother trying to flash him a false, cheery smile.
This wasn't her pain. Somewhere out there in the forest, the man who claimed to be her lifemate was suffering agonies. She wanted to ignore it, but she couldn't. Guilt clawed at her insides. She knew pain intimately-and despair. In spite of everything, she was intrigued with the man. He was way old, of course. And too dominating. He would definitely expect her to obey him, and that wasn't her style at all. She conformed to the wishes of Francesca and Gabriel because she loved them, not because she had to.
«Skyler.» Josef's voice broke again into her thoughts. He hopped onto the rail and crouched close to her. «Look at me.»
«Why?»
He dragged a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped her face. «You have little drops of
blood on your forehead.» He pretended not to notice when she winced away from him, refusing to allow his fingers to brush her skin. He simply wiped, careful not to touch her, and drew back to huff out a long stream of air. «What's wrong?»
«Nothing.» How could he not feel it? How could Francesca and Gabriel not feel the pain and sorrow weighing so heavily in the forest? The wolves did. She could hear them off in the distance, their mournful song filled with sadness and distress. Didn't Josef at least hear the animals?
Skyler wiped her hand over her face, as if she could draw a veil over the truth. That man, so invincible-looking, so stern and cold and bleak, a man with ice in his veins and death in his eyes, had looked at her-looked right through her-and touched her somewhere no one else had ever been. She pressed her hand hard against her aching heart. It hurt. It shouldn't, but the feeling was like a vise squeezing with a steady, relentless pressure.
«It isn't 'nothing' when you're sweating blood, Skyler. We're friends, aren't we? You can tell me what's wrong.»
Skyler didn't know if she had friends. She trusted her adopted parents and Lucian and Jaxon. Other than that, she never allowed herself to be alone with anyone. Francesca thought time was going to heal her, but Skyler doubted it. In order to preserve her spirit– her sanity, she had retreated from the world as a child, and perhaps she'd stayed away too long. She didn't know how to be a friend-or a partner.
«Yes, of course we're friends,» she said, giving the obligatory answer. Over the years she'd found if she just said what people expected to hear, they went away happy and left her in peace.
Josef relaxed visibly. «Why didn't you come over to Aidan's and play the new video game? It's way cool.»
«I was helping Francesca make the gingerbread houses for tonight.» She wrapped her arms around herself protectively.
«Antonietta's making some cool thing for this dinner tonight. You should come over and help. I'm heading back there now.»
«I've met you a dozen times already and know you from online, but haven't met Antonietta. It's intimidating to think about meeting her. She's so famous.»
«She can play the piano,» Josef conceded, «but she isn't stuck up or anything. She was blind before she was with Byron, but I don't think she sees much better even now.» He grinned, white teeth flashing against the dark outline he used around his lips drawing attention to his tongue-piercing as well as the hoop in his lip.
«I thought when one is converted, all the scars and imperfections disappear.» She touched the crescent-shaped scar on her face. «And how can you be pierced? Doesn't your body heal
itself?»
Josef sighed. «It's a real fight,» he conceded. «I don't wear them most of the time because the holes are always closing up within minutes, but I have to keep up my rep, so I just concentrate on it all the time around everybody and I can keep the piercing with no problem.»
«Is that why the skin's grown over the diamond on your nose?» Skyler asked, rubbing her chin along the top of her drawn-up knees. She stared out into the sparkling white world. It seemed a fairy tale, all crystal and ice. Cold-like she was. She closed her eyes briefly against the sorrow pressing down on her, trying to listen to the wolves, trying to sort out their song. She'd always loved them, always had such an affinity for them, and now the sound called to something lonely and primal in her.
Josef clapped his hand over his nose. «Not again! I hope it wasn't like that when the prince saw me.» He regarded her with a narrowed gaze. «You are coming over, aren't you? Antonietta's really nice. Byron is too, but he doesn't want me to know he is.»
Skyler shook her head. «I can't right now. I'll catch up to you later.» She needed to be alone, to think things through for herself. She liked Josef, but he was a distraction and he didn't have a clue that she was upset. Dimitri would have known. The thought came unbidden and filled her with shame-with regret. With anger.
«Come on, Skyler, don't be a big baby. Just because your parents think you need a babysitter doesn't mean you can't come with me. I'm over twenty-one.»
She glared at him. «Really? I thought you were Joshua's age. You aren't going to goad me into doing something wrong, Josef.» Which made her feel even guiltier. He might not be able to goad her, but she intended to disobey her parents. The terrible weight in her chest pressed harder, the sorrow nearly choking her. She had to make it stop-make Dimitri understand it wasn't about him or her rejection of him. It wasn't personal. She would have rejected anyone. He had to move on.
«You're just angry because I made fun of you having to wait for an adult before you could walk home,» he said. «I was only teasing you. There's no need to be upset.»
«I'm not a baby,» she snapped, pressing both hands into her wildly churning stomach. Maybe if she threw up on him he'd go away. «You didn't have to tease me.»
«Sure I did. That's what friends do.»
That brought her up short. They were friends-of a sort. She liked Josef. She just didn't like being alone with him-with any man. With anyone. She swept one hand through her hair and tried not to cry.
Josef, reading her expression, tried again. «The prince came by while I was at Aidan and Alexandria's and he said he was going to have Gregori play Santa Claus tonight. Man, that's
gonna freak out all the kids. It ought to be fun.»
«Freaking out a bunch of little kids isn't funny, Josef. Especially not when it comes to Santa Claus. You could t
raumatize them.»
«You're beginning to sound more and more like Francesca.» He didn't make it sound as though he was complimenting her. «I'm not traumatizing them. Gregori is-and I didn't choose him-the prince did.»
«Tonight, make sure you don't help scare the children, especially Tamara.»
They glared at one another for a long moment in silence. When Josef went to turn away with a sullen expression, she cleared her throat. «Can you shapeshift?»
He puffed out his chest. «Of course.»
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