Andor knew he couldn’t let go of her. She was far too skilled in martial arts. If she actively fought him, he would have to subdue her in other ways so she wouldn’t get hurt. “Lorraine.” He spoke her name with the command and power of centuries of being a predator. “Stop this right now.”
She subsided immediately, succumbing to the power and authority in his voice.
“Now, breathe with me. Let your heart follow mine.” He knew it was a panic attack and whatever he’d said to trigger it had to be discussed. “Whatever you are afraid of, I am right here with you. I can help.”
Lorraine shook her head, but her breathing was beginning to get under control and her heart was already following the lead of his.
He let her calm while the others waited patiently. Gary and Sandu had moved even closer, as if by their presence she would feel safer, but Andor knew this wasn’t about her safety.
“Talk to me. Tell me what is wrong.”
“You said even if he left half of him behind in me, you would stay. You and the others. The way you said it, you meant it.”
“I am your lifemate. Nothing would induce me to leave you.”
“The brethren would surround you, Lorraine,” Sandu explained. “Sergey will not get you.”
“I would work until we got to him,” Gary said. “It would not be the first time, although had he actually splintered himself in half, he would be greatly diminished and easy to vanquish so there is no chance he did that.”
Her breath came out in a little sob. “But he can put something of himself into me. That’s what you’re saying. Just like he did the psychic males. He can make me do things to hurt others …”
“Stop.” Andor said it in the same commanding voice. “You keep forgetting to breathe. First, Lorraine, think logically. No matter how hard any of the vampires or the psychics tried to get inside your mind, you were able to resist. Even if that crow planted a sliver of Sergey into you, and we didn’t find evidence of it, he could not make you do something to harm others. Your shields wouldn’t allow it.”
“But if he’s in me …”
“Puppets are not made that way. There is blood given by the vampire. There are … other things given. You cannot be made into a puppet.”
“I just want to go away from here.” There was panic in her voice. “When we came in together, I heard the sound of children. I know there are several people here.” Her gaze jumped to Dragomir’s face. “Your lifemate is pregnant. Do any of you really think I would stay when you so obviously believe me to be a threat?”
“No one thinks you’re a threat, Lorraine,” Tariq countered, his voice gentle. “We all have seen the way you fought with Andor and the others. You’re needed here. Your skills as well as that fierce determination. We want our women to learn those skills, and you would be a tremendous asset. I know you have been learning combat since you were young.”
“It isn’t the same.”
“It is,” he countered. “It is a skill set. A mind-set. Once the muscles remember those moves, battle experience can be drawn on, but not until then.”
The other warriors nodded, and Lorraine’s protest died on her lips.
“We are trying to discern what Sergey is up to,” Tariq continued. “Vadim, his brother, planted slivers before, but in the end, that weakened him and I believe Sergey wouldn’t do that to himself. He needs his strength to run his army, to hold them to him. If the conversation you had with Jannik is anything to go by, I would say there is dissention in the ranks. Please stay and let us figure this out together.”
Andor could see why the man was a leader. He didn’t order Lorraine. He appealed to her logic and her belief that the women and children as well as the men should learn to defend themselves. Tariq was speaking with total sincerity, which came through.
He is a good man in an impossible situation, Andor added. He believes it is necessary for all the women to learn to fight the vampire, but some of the men still oppose him. We are ancients and most come from a time when women were cherished and protected.
We can be cherished and protected and still learn to defend ourselves should we end up in trouble.
He had to admit, that snippy little note in her voice sent blood rushing just a little too hotly through his veins. “Are you ready, Lorraine?” He didn’t want to wait and let her think too much on whether or not slivers of vampires were hidden in her body somewhere.
She nodded. “Yes. I’m sorry I freaked out.”
He would ask her later what freaking out was. It was a term he was unfamiliar with. He pushed the fight scene into everyone’s mind and paused it just as the large bird flew right at the back of Lorraine’s skull. Talons dug into her back, holding the crow to her while the beak slashed deep. The picture was frozen in their minds.
Andor, like the others, studied it. Crows surrounded her, cutting her off from escape. Cutting her off from the vampire she had rushed out to stop before realizing it was a mistake. They were in the air, the entire flock, circling her, wings outstretched, talons ready, but not one other actually appeared to be attacking her.
“They are herding her,” Siv said. “Straight to him. The big one.”
“In some way, they are also protecting her from the vampire,” Sandu noted. “The one on the ground.”
Nicu nodded. “Look at it closely. The vampire was furious. She had bested him, and he has been around for centuries. She should not have had a chance against him. He had been careful, I suspect, to keep from killing her and that gave her the advantage. When she took it, see his face? His eyes? How contorted he appears? She burned him. Nearly killed him. A human and a woman at that. He wanted to kill her and had every intention of doing so. Look where some of the birds are.”
The others were silent. Tariq drummed his fingers on the tabletop. “They dove at him, while the others separated them. He wasn’t supposed to kill her.”
Beside him, Lorraine tensed up again, but she didn’t say anything, just listened to them discussing the battle. Andor didn’t blame her for feeling upset. He wouldn’t want Sergey to put a splinter of himself inside him. Anything vampire was vile. Having something that could be an asset to the undead inside one’s body, where the vampire could spy, was sickening.
“Okay, now go one frame further,” Tariq said.
Andor had to have that interpreted for him. Tariq was very at ease in the modern, human world. Andor had only been involved with them all a short time. He was still trying to play catch-up. He looked to Gary, who, in another life as far as Carpathians went, had been human.
“Freeze it the next movement.”
Andor complied, and they all once again studied the rather large bird as its beak drove down into Lorraine’s skull. At the same time, its talons scraped the skin of her back open and the wings beat hard to keep it in place so the beak could do damage, stabbing deep. The wounds on her shoulders and back were almost superficial, and compared to the curved, wicked piercing of the beak, they were nothing. The healing had to be done to her skull.
“She was targeted, but I saw nothing in its beak. If it had something, the transfer was made from the mouth to her skull,” Tariq said. “Is that agreed?”
The warriors nodded, all in agreement. Andor had been very careful to watch. “Did anyone see that crow before the battle began? You all flew over the area repeatedly in order to spot the enemy. I looked at the flock of crows often, but never saw one that size.”
“I was in the forest with them,” Sandu said, “and I didn’t see it.”
“We took the form of a crow and sat among them,” Dragomir volunteered. “That large one would definitely have caught my eye. It was not there.”
“It was somewhere watching,” Andor said. “That had to have been Sergey. He directed the entire battle, and we didn’t know.”
“All of you are ancients and yet you didn’t sense his presence. That doesn’t bode well for us,” Tariq said.
“There would have been no way to know who was there and
who wasn’t,” Dragomir said. “That explains the master vampire. Sergey knew we would have sensed his presence had he not brought that kind of powerful vampire with him. He was the ultimate sacrifice.”
Gary nodded. “Ferro had no trouble ferreting out his trap. He told me he knew the undead he fought couldn’t have been a master vampire for too long because, although he did wound him and the wounds were severe, the fight didn’t last long at all.”
Tariq sighed and drummed his fingers again on the table. “Another sacrifice in order for Sergey to be there at the battle. He was determined to orchestrate it and participate when the time was right. A master vampire and four lesser vampires was a huge sacrifice. He was up to something that was very important to him.”
Gary nodded. “I think it best if we try again. This time each of us will trade places. Sandu, you take the brain, I’ll take arteries and veins. Maksim, you take her organs, and this time we will add Dragomir. You inspect her bones.”
Andor felt Lorraine’s instinctive retreat, but she didn’t protest. This time she leaned into him. What if they don’t find anything? Should we leave? I can tell that all of you believe he planted something in me.
We know what a sliver looks like. Dragomir and Gary have dealt with them. Every ancient has seen them and at one time or another had to remove them. If it is there, they will find it. Have no worries. There are four of them looking.
Andor wanted to reassure her. If they found nothing, he didn’t want her panicking and deciding she had to run from them. He wasn’t going to allow her to leave the compound until he knew she was safe. Until he knew what Sergey had done to her, or what he wanted from her, Andor wasn’t about to let her set one foot out of the safety area.
He joined with Sandu so when the ancient shed his body and once more slipped into hers as nothing but pure spirit, he could see and feel as well what they encountered. The light from Gary was so bright and hot it illuminated every part of Lorraine’s body. Dragomir and Maksim added to that white heat. Sandu was even more meticulous, worried now, as were all the others.
After watching the crow attacking his lifemate, there was no doubt in Andor’s mind that she had been specifically targeted. Knowing that Sergey had sacrificed a master vampire so the ancients wouldn’t detect his presence made the entire thing even more worrisome. More than anything, Andor wanted to convert his woman and get her into the healing earth. He knew her skills in battle would triple just from becoming Carpathian.
As carefully as Sandu inspected every fold of her brain, every valley and hill, the slopes and shadows, he found nothing that even faintly resembled a splinter. Andor knew slivers were tiny and could embed in the tissue, so that it appeared to be part of whatever it attached itself to. Still, even wriggling to fasten itself to the surface, the sliver had to be lying on the exterior and there would be a tiny dark spot, as if the tissue was in shadow whether light shone on it or not.
Andor had found more than one, always a mage sliver, in the centuries past that he had searched someone for them. He knew Sandu was well aware of exactly what to look for, as were the others searching through Lorraine’s system.
I found nothing. Sandu should have sounded reassuring, but he didn’t.
When the others emerged, as pale and exhausted as Sandu, they all shook their heads. Andor glanced at Tariq and saw him exchange a long look with Gary and knew Tariq was communicating privately with his protector and adviser. Gary shook his head even as he took the wrist offered to him by one of the triplets. Tariq sighed.
“I understand you have not completed the ritual bond,” Tariq said.
“Not as yet,” Andor said, his tone warning the other man to back off. It was one thing to choose to follow him and protect him, it was another to have the man telling him what to do. He, as well as his brethren, didn’t acknowledge any authority over them. They still were uncertain whether or not the ruling prince was worthy of that position.
“I understand.” Tariq sat back in his chair. “You can have the use of the smaller house just beside the lake. The soil is excellent, Andor, and Lorraine will be comfortable in it while you rest and heal.”
Andor winced. That was a reminder that his woman would be alone and vulnerable while he was beneath the ground. No, while they all were beneath the ground. He detested that for her. He could plant a suggestion to sleep, if she allowed it, but that didn’t mean she would. Or he could force sleep, and that was the last thing he ever wanted to do. Lorraine would forgive many things, but he doubted if she would forgive force.
“Charlotte’s friend Genevieve watches over the children, as do another couple who stay within the compound. They would be glad for the company,” Tariq added.
Lorraine took a deep breath and stood, pushing back her chair as if she couldn’t wait to get out of there. He didn’t blame her. She had been the subject of their scrutiny for a long while.
They still suspect Sergey found a way to plant something in her. He sent that straight to Sandu. He knew the man was bound to Lorraine’s soul and only finding his lifemate would break that bond. In the meantime, he could touch her mind and feel her emotions. That would help to sustain him until he found her.
Do you not suspect this also?
Of course he did. Not only did he suspect, there was no other explanation.
You must convert her. Once her blood is replaced with ours, and her human body dies, whatever he planted will be far more vulnerable.
He knew that. Tariq knew that. The leader had been close to pointing that out to Andor, but Andor didn’t want Lorraine to make her decisions based on anything but what she truly wanted. She’d been traumatized enough. Conversion wasn’t easy, even with others aiding them, and then she would have to accept things such as sleeping beneath the soil and surviving on the blood of others.
He took her hand and walked out. Once out of the house and into the night air, he lifted his face to study the sky. The night seemed to be passing too fast. He knew, by the little shiver that ran through her, that she felt it, too.
“It’s beautiful here,” she commented.
“It is. I especially like that he found land where water and forest come together, yet it is clearly a modern estate.” The brethren had talked about how Tariq had situated his home for defense. He then bought up property all around his main compound with the idea that other Carpathians could settle close, making their protected world much larger and safer for their lifemates and hopefully any children that came along in the future.
Lorraine glanced at him, a quick little grin coming and fading just as fast. “Look at you, sounding all modern.”
“I could have pointed out the fact that this place is very easily defensible against any threat. Land, water or air.”
“I did notice that.”
She walked with him toward the house situated closest to the lake. It was far smaller than the main house and just a bit more so than the other homes on the property. The detail was attractive. All the houses were smaller replicas of Tariq and Charlotte’s home. He especially liked the porch. It looked cool and inviting. He would much rather be outside than inside, or rather, that had always been his preference until he found Lorraine. Now, he would be anywhere with her and be happy.
“What was Tariq going to say when you stopped him?”
His gaze flicked to hers. She wasn’t looking at him, but up at the exterior of the house. There was no lying to one’s lifemate. Avoidance might be a better way to go. “Lorraine.” He sighed when her gaze jumped to his and he found himself looking into those green eyes of hers. “Sometimes, it is better to let things be. You have been through a lot in a very short amount of days. We do not have to do everything at once.”
“No, but I would very much like to have all the information available to me. I’m like that, Andor. I need to know everything to make informed decisions. It takes a little while for me to process and then I feel like I’ve done the best I can with what I know.”
He took her hand and led he
r up the stairs. When he waved toward the door, it opened inward invitingly. He stepped inside and felt the wave of power under his feet and around him. This structure was protected. That made him feel better.
He tugged at Lorraine’s hand. She stood just on the threshold looking into the dark interior. Immediately he waved toward the inside, and lights sprang on. Hardwood floors gleamed. There was furniture in the room he could see. She took a deep breath and stepped inside. He watched her face and saw her look down at the floor. She felt that surge of power as well.
“The house is safeguarded. It allowed us in because Tariq gave us his blessing,” he explained, but he knew her hesitation came from the nightmare she’d stepped into when she’d returned to her family home from college.
She moved past him and stood in the front room, turning around to inspect everything. “I will be very grateful for a bathroom and an actual bed. Thank you for remembering my backpack.”
He saw that her pack was lying up against the wall where someone had put it when they had arrived. “The things in it matter to you.”
She sank down into what appeared to be a very comfortable sofa. He sat down beside her and when she shivered, he waved his hand at the fireplace. It immediately sprang to life, the flames flickering and dancing, adding warmth to the room.
“Please tell me, Andor.”
There was no resisting Lorraine when she wanted something. She didn’t whine. She just asked politely, and he could tell it mattered to her, just like those things in her backpack.
“By converting you, all traces of human would be lost. Carpathian blood would flow in your veins. If Sergey left something in you—”
“All of you believe he did, and so do I,” she interrupted.
He nodded. “There is no other reasonable explanation. So, whatever he left would have a difficult time hiding. Carpathian blood does not mix well with anything vampire. Also, you would be with me during our sleep cycle and I could better protect you.”
She sat for a long time looking down at her hand, specifically her left hand. He reached for it and slid his palm gently over her fingers.
Dark Sentinel ('Dark' Carpathian Book 32) Page 23