She laughed. He loved when she genuinely laughed. He knew that was so rare for her, and when he could actually give that to her, those moments of joy, he found those were the times he valued the most.
“I would like that, kont o sívanak, but somehow I do not think they will allow us the freedom to do so. No doubt one of the brethren will be calling you soon, wondering where we are. We have this battle plan, and you and I are an integral part of it.”
“The more I think about it, the less I like this idea,” Ferro said with a sigh, rubbing his face on the curves of her breast, leaving red marks from the short stubble he knew she liked when he was extremely attentive between her legs. “Why is it that no matter what I do, you always seem to be in some kind of danger?”
“Tariq put the call out for more Carpathians and I thought many came. Am I wrong?”
Elisabeta was always that voice of calm—of sweet reason when there was none—when it came to putting her in danger.
He growled at her to show his disapproval. She laughed again, not in the least impressed with his very lethal imitation of a wolf. He bent his head to her bare breast and nipped. She jumped and settled when he lapped soothingly at the little mark with the healing saliva of his tongue. Her fingers fisted in his hair.
“Josef will be in more danger than I will. I do not like that he will put himself in the open like that in order to draw the Malinov cousins in. I honestly do not think it will work. Sergey I can call in. He will not be able to refuse my call, but they will send servants to collect Josef. They will be counting on the diversion to search the place they believe the object they seek is.”
“Have you remembered where that is?” He stroked his hand down her body, a bit possessively, from her throat to her waist.
Ferro knew they were running out of time. He detested giving up their brief moments together. It was never enough. No matter if they spent a day, a week, a year alone, for him it wouldn’t be enough. He wanted more time to just take her in. Revel in her. Please her. Find ways to make her laugh and enjoy life. Show her the wonders of the world. Learn things together. Have firsts. Just be.
“I have no way of knowing where Tariq put his piece of the object. But I am trying to find the Malinov piece. I think I am getting closer. It is a lot of centuries and conversations to go through in order to find that one thing we are looking for. Ruslan was the one who referred to it once. I think he was the brother who thought he knew where his father had hidden it. He did not want to tell anyone else, so they would consider him too important to conspire against. In the beginning, when they first turned, they all had major issues with vanity and the need to be the one in charge. All of them were quite cruel and violent. They had to overcome those traits to get back to working smoothly with one another.”
Elisabeta gave a delicate little shudder and Ferro immediately wrapped his arms around her and sat up, pulling her with him so she was sitting in his lap. He wanted to assure her that she was safe, but it seemed each time he said that, she was attacked in some way. He drew in a deep breath.
“We are powerful together, you know that, right, Elisabeta?” He rubbed his chin over the top of her head, back and forth, allowing her hair to catch in the stubble along his jaw. “I have always been a force against the vampire. They fear my name. We are twice that force when we are together. You may be gentle and kind but you have learned to bend with the wind, not break. We are forged together in a way few will ever understand, certainly not our enemies.”
“I no longer fear Sergey,” she whispered, tilting her head back to rest it against his chest. “I have learned so much from you. I realized that all this time I gave him power over me. He kept me starved and afraid. He kept me from knowing even the smallest thing so that I would feel completely dependent on him. You opened my cage and set me free.”
Ferro tightened his arms around her. “You were so terrified of being out of that cage at times I felt as if I was torturing you.”
“This journey has been frightening,” she acknowledged. “But in a good way, Ferro. I found myself learning faster and faster, taking in everything you showed me. Lorraine and Julija showed me many things. Even Emeline shared with me. So many people were around me, willing to give me knowledge. I was afraid of them, and if I’m honest, still am, but I can feel myself getting stronger, growing in courage with each rising, thanks to you. You give me courage, Ferro. You make me believe in myself.”
“You are going to need all that courage today, minan piŋe sarnanak.” Ferro knew he was going to need it as well.
He stood up reluctantly, taking her with him, setting her on her feet. With a wave of his hand he clothed both of them, dressing her in the longer dress she preferred.
“I heard you extend an offer to Josef to help train him in the ways of a hunter, you and your brethren. That was very sweet of you, Ferro.” Elisabeta turned into him, sliding her slender arms up his chest and around his neck to link her fingers together there.
He winced a little at the word sweet. He had never been considered sweet in his life. The kid needed confidence that he would make a good hunter of the vampire. Ferro was certain Josef would have no problem. He paid attention to detail. He had the desire and drive. Body type didn’t matter as much as stamina did. At the end of the day, sometimes it came down to who was in the best shape.
Josef didn’t back down from a fight. Ferro had studied him. It didn’t matter who confronted him; if he believed in what he said, he argued his position passionately. All of the brethren had respect for the kid. Like Ferro, they wanted to train him so that he had the best of chances when he was old enough to hunt the vampire. There would come a time when he would lose his emotions and his ability to see in color, and all that he would have left to him was his honor. It was then that he had to believe in himself. The foundation they gave him was important. He couldn’t be adrift, thinking he was never good enough. He had to believe he was an honorable Carpathian male and an asset to his people as a hunter.
“All the brethren are going to work with him,” Ferro told her.
“Because you asked them to,” Elisabeta pointed out.
He wrapped his arm around her waist. “Sívamet, do me a favor and never use the word sweet in front of any of the others. I would never hear the end of it. Especially in front of Sandu. Or Lorraine.”
“Lorraine thinks you are sweet.”
“No, she doesn’t. She thinks I’m a caveman and I like that she thinks that. It makes for fun evenings when she visits with you. Julija, on the other hand, can think I am sweet. You can share that with her as often as possible, just not when the brethren are around. I have no wish to be turned into a toad, or suddenly have a tail or donkey ears, no matter how temporary. She’s mage and can be vengeful.”
Elisabeta’s joyous laughter spilled out, filling the air, lighting Ferro’s world. The forest took on a distinctly festive atmosphere, a phenomenon he found happened quite often whenever he was in Elisabeta’s presence.
“You deliberately keep the others from knowing you have a sense of humor.”
That was true. He wasn’t the kind of man who would ever be that comfortable being too close with his neighbors.
Elisabeta rubbed her face against his chest like a little cat. “You persist in thinking that once I come into my own power, growing as modern as Lorraine or Julija, that I would not choose you because you are a dominant, overbearing tyrant. That is completely absurd. First, you are not any of those things. And second, I am your lifemate. As you need to please me, I need to please you. That is the way lifemates work. And you lived with the brethren for centuries. All of you follow one another. You are a family. You fight for one another. You are already setting up homes here in this compound together, so that negates what you were just thinking about yourself.”
Ferro closed his eyes and held her to him, savoring her. Her scent. The feel of her feminine form up against his. “We are going to do this together. If nothing else, minan piŋe sarnanak, we will en
d Sergey’s reign of terror once and for all.”
She tilted her head. He saw trepidation, but there was also belief in him. In her. In them together. She nodded her head slowly. “We will, Ferro. And we will keep Josef safe as well.”
He took his time kissing her because he found he needed to. There was so much courage in Elisabeta. So much steel. She had thought herself small and insignificant, and all along she held so much power in her slender, womanly body and that quick, intelligent mind. He was fiercely proud that the universe had partnered him with such an unbelievable treasure.
Music blared, the lights spinning dark purple and blue as Josef sauntered into the underground nightclub, his gaze arrogantly scanning the crowd. Women turned to look as he passed them. Like all Carpathians, there was a magnetism to him that was blatant in the fluid way he moved. He was dressed in black leather pants, a black shirt with cord laces going up the front. He appeared confident, sexy, charming and very modern as he walked briskly through the first bar straight toward the second one.
Behind him, two couples had also entered, talking together, their faces obscured by their costumes, the men taller, holding hands with their partners as they cut through the crowd going toward the second bar. Barack and Syndil, two members of the Dark Troubadour band, legends in the Carpathian community, were dressed in black, taking in everything and conveying the information to the other Carpathians as they followed Josef. Dayan, another band member, and Corrine, his lifemate, also followed, dressed in black, their makeup impeccable, impossible to be recognized as Carpathian as they moved through the crowd, picking up the strains of thoughts as well as conversations.
The underground club was designed to appeal to the goth crowd. It was very popular with both the goth and goth-vampire cultures. The full basement beneath the large nightclub had been renovated into three bars, each looking like a series of caves, one leading into the next. All had wellmarked exits, but the interiors were dark and lit mostly with wall sconces that looked like old-fashioned candles so that flames flickered on the walls of the caves.
Each bar was quite large and shaped like a cave, the sides appearing as if carved from the inside of the bowels of a mountain. The walls seemed so real, glittering with rock that had strains of minerals and even gems running through them. In a few places water appeared to leak in steady trickles that created dark curved streaks playing through the “dirt” of the walls. Rocks jutted out here and there, giving more dimension and realism to the feeling of a cavern.
Colors pulsed through the bars, dark purple and blue, a bruising heartbeat that vibrated the floor and walls and bodies of those inside, connecting them together. It became a singular experience to attend the club, one to be repeated, almost an addiction, a need to return again and again to find others accepting of differences so many felt.
The feel in the club was quite different than Ferro expected. It wasn’t the men drooling over the women, looking for a quick lay. It wasn’t even a bunch of depressed crazies coming together to hang out, staring into their glasses of alcohol. These were people of all ages, dancing to different types of music, dressing the way they wanted, accepting one another the way they were no matter age, gender or preference for partners.
Ferro was with a contingent of Carpathian hunters scattered around the underground club, unseen, a part of the walls, impossible to detect by the human psychic males that had been placed in the nightclub systematically over the last few years. Tariq had been shocked that so many had been. Seventeen of his servers had been identified by Josef as actually working for the enemy.
Tariq had looked at the work schedule and discovered that all were working this rising, that they had traded shifts with others to be certain to be on, which only proved Josef was correct. One other had also traded shifts, making him appear suspicious, so they added his name to the roster, bringing the number to eighteen.
They couldn’t have any of the human psychics working close together and take a chance that their combined gifts would give away the fact that many of the Carpathians were in the club. Fortunately, the building was four stories high with a club on each floor. Each floor had a different type of dance music playing, creating a different atmosphere. The center of each floor was open so one could look down and see onto the dance floors of the clubs below it—all but the underground cave, which was kept extremely private.
The underground club added an additional working environment that had to be covered. Not only was the nightclub enormously popular, crowded and always busy, but Tariq employed quite a number of workers for each separate club. Tariq simply shifted the workers around.
Woman is approaching me, Josef announced. Definitely human. Her mind is protected. She has to be Sergey’s.
Ferro and each of the other Carpathians reached out very gently in an attempt to try to scan the redheaded woman walking boldly up to Josef. She was short, with large brown eyes and a generous mouth.
She looks a little bit like Skyler did when she was younger, Josef said. He nearly groaned. I think of Skyler as a little sister. How am I supposed to flirt with this girl?
It’s called acting, Dayan said. We all know you’re good at that. Anytime you’re around the prince you put on a good show.
Ferro would have given anything to ask questions about the kinds of things the kid did when he was around Mikhail. Any of the Carpathians could have broken through the shield erected in the woman’s mind, but Sergey would have known and immediately been alerted.
Elisabeta, can you tell if Sergey was the one to place the barrier in the girl’s brain, and if so, can you push past it without his knowledge? Ferro asked.
Elisabeta was hidden, Julija and Lorraine close to her, along with Blaze, Maksim’s lifemate. Ferro had an aversion to the women being anywhere near action that could be as intense as this battle might prove to be, but they needed Elisabeta close and they wanted to keep the humans safe. Cornel and Dorin intended to start a bloodbath right there at the nightclub for a diversion no matter what. To save lives, they had to take the risk.
Yes, her name is Linda. She was protected by him, but it was easy enough to move past it. Her orders are very simple. She is to get him to take her to the third bar and go to a specific table in the far back near the exit. They are waiting to take him there. Linda will distract him while they come up on him.
Does she know about the plans for the vampires to hunt in this bar or the ones upstairs?
No. She has no idea. They did not warn her to leave.
Of course they hadn’t. Ferro wasn’t surprised. Once she did her job, she would be of no more use to them. More than likely they would throw her in the van, or whatever means they used to transport Josef, and take her as well for her blood. They wanted to feast this rising. The vampires were looking forward to it.
I can call Sergey to me, Elisabeta offered.
Not yet. I have to know where Cornel and Dorin are. Where their servants are. The hunters have to stop them, Elisabeta. Then we will go after Sergey. He is the least of our worries for now. We protect Josef and the humans.
She was silent a moment. This is not the best place for me to be, Ferro. If I were higher up and not so closed in, I could give exact locations for you, just as I did when I could tell you where Sergey was. You want me safe. I understand that, she added before he could protest. But you also need all these people safe. That is our true purpose as Carpathians. You just stated what we were to do. Let me move locations. You, Sandu and Gary can escort Lorraine and the others with me. Every Carpathian warrior can stand by if need be, but I am telling you I will be far more valuable to you if I am where I can be useful.
Ferro tasted fear in his mouth. He had known all along it would come to this. When he had first woken, that moment even as his heart had taken its first beat, he had known Elisabeta would be in terrible danger. There was Josef, his arm slung around Linda’s neck, sauntering slowly through the third bar toward that back table where he knew a trap waited for him. An ambush.
&
nbsp; Josef. A kid with more courage than he should have. Elisabeta. His woman, terrifying him with her bravery, knowing she was facing the Malinov brother who dared to deceive her centuries earlier, kidnapping and keeping her in a cage, mentally and physically torturing her. Ferro had to have that same courage. If they could do this, then he could as well.
Josef, delay reaching that table until I let you know it is safe to do so.
Josef whispered in Linda’s ear. She shook her head, but he just laughed and turned them, heading toward the actual bar where people were lined up to get drinks. Ferro waited until Josef was at the bar, engaging with others around him. Dayan and Corinne had come up behind him. Barack and Syndil had hemmed Linda in on the other side, making it just a little difficult for them to move. Syndil immediately began talking with Linda. Her voice was very mesmerizing, enthralling Linda so that she barely realized minutes were slipping away as Josef waited patiently for his turn instead of calling for a drink as he could have.
Ferro immediately hurried to the second cave and the middle of the wall where the women waited unseen and impossible to detect, protected by not only the Carpathian warriors but Julija’s mage magic. Julija alone would have been a force to be reckoned with, but the combination with the Carpathian ancients should have put Ferro’s mind at ease. It should have, but Elisabeta was his world, so it didn’t.
“Where do you need to be?” He knew exactly what she was going to say before she even said it.
“The rooftop.”
Out in the open. Exposed. Of course it would have to be the rooftop. He looked in despair, first at Lorraine and then to Andor, Lorraine’s lifemate. Andor knew. Isai, Julija’s lifemate, understood the danger as well. The rooftop was where the vampires could strike easily with just about any weapon. The two ancients had joined him to escort the women to their new location and then weave safeguards around them.
“Is there a second choice?” Isai asked.
Elisabeta looked at Ferro. For the first time, he silently willed her not to answer. If she couldn’t do it on her own, as she normally couldn’t, then maybe he would have every reason to justify keeping her safe—but he knew better. He knew he wouldn’t.
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