Above the grounds were raised balconies that circled the dark, rich soil, so that the Carpathian people could gather and watch the proceedings below and join in when needed with chants for healing. It was a perfect platform for them when another human woman or child was being converted.
Andor kept Lorraine’s hand tight in his as they took up a position in the middle of the healing grounds. He spotted his brethren, all but Ferro, scattered among those present. Val was there, and with him, Gary. He was grateful to see the healer in their midst, just in case. He hadn’t heard of even one ceremony going bad, but he didn’t want to take any chances.
“I need to remove your clothes, Lorraine,” he said. “I am aware that most humans have a problem with nudity, and I can assure you, I will keep it appearing as if you have clothes at all times. Is that okay with you?”
“It isn’t that I’m worried about everyone seeing my body,” she said, reluctance in her voice. “But when you remove my clothes, it makes me feel vulnerable. With you, I’m okay with that, but to have others see me that way, makes me feel particularly exposed and helpless.”
“I will give you my word that they will not see you as naked.”
Lorraine touched her tongue to her mouth, moistening her lips. His heart clenched hard in his chest. He wanted her to choose. Eventually, he would have to take that choice from her, but not right away.
She nodded her head slowly. “Tell me what’s going to happen.”
“I will give you the third blood exchange. Your body will begin the conversion. Sometimes it takes a little longer than others, but once it starts, no one, not even me, can stop it. Not even for you to take a breath. Everyone here will sing the healing chant and bear a part of the pain you would be expected to endure.”
“Other women have done this without everyone helping, right?”
He nodded, worried she suddenly wanted to go through it on her own, and he could never agree to that.
She let her breath out. “Okay. I just wanted to know if all these preparations failed, if I could still do it on my own. If others did, then I can. I just would have to be prepared to be a lot less comfortable than we both counted on.”
That made sense. He nodded. “You’re being very brave, hän sívamak, and I’m extremely proud of you.”
She flashed a nervous smile. “I’m not that brave. In fact, I’m questioning my sanity. On the other hand, I am looking forward to being able to do all the cool things you can do.” She lifted her head to search the small grouping of Carpathians for familiar faces. “Is this the extent of our army, because he had more crows than this.”
“Sadly, yes. We are hunters and are used to relying on ourselves. The good thing is, we are true ancients. In our society, anyone living over five hundred years is considered an ancient, after that we do not necessarily count the years. Time flows until it all becomes the same. We do not measure the years after, but it does not mean we do not improve our fighting skills or build in power as time marches on.”
“That makes me feel better. Sergey seemed to have a lot of men he could throw away.”
Andor sighed. “I talked to Tariq specifically about that and like me, he feels we neglected to consider what to do about the human psychic males. Clearly the Malinov brothers had no such problem. They are recruiting them with promises of giving them whatever they want most. They hook them by providing Carpathian blood, which makes them feel stronger and more alive. Eventually they see the donor, such as Val. He was kept in a cage, drained so he was weak, and the men accepted that they were taking his blood and making him weaker.”
“That’s terrible.”
“That is not the worst. They are introduced to the making of puppets, and over time, they lose their horror of the puppet tearing at a child’s flesh. They are mostly grateful it is not them being eaten alive. Those who want immortality are promised it, given it, but then sent out to be used as pawns to be slaughtered by one of us when Sergey needs to have numbers.”
“I feel so bad for them. Everyone has failings, and a master vampire could easily get into their heads. He would find a weakness and exploit it.”
Andor nodded. “Yes, that is exactly what he would do. Converting a psychic male is difficult and unnecessary until they are mortally wounded on our behalf and we know this is their wish. Ordinarily, they would live out their lives never knowing we existed, and finding true happiness with a woman in their world.”
“The Malinovs find them through the Morrison Center, don’t they?” Lorraine asked. “They were at my college, which means they could have recruited some of my friends.”
“It is possible, but we do not know that as of yet. Josef should be here soon. He is in contact with Tariq and monitors all activity on the database used for any human psychic.”
Once more she lifted her head to look at the gathering Carpathians. Andor was in her mind, reading her thoughts. She had pushed the time so close to sunrise, she was afraid they would all be caught out, yet she still couldn’t quite make herself give Andor the go-ahead. She wanted to be a Carpathian. She wanted to be with him, but she was very reluctant to slide under that soil.
“You are trembling. If you are not certain, sívamet, there is no need to rush this. You can choose another time.”
“Everyone is already here.”
He shrugged. “They will gather rising after rising until you are ready. You are in no way putting them out, nor will you, if you need more time.”
She turned fully to him, one hand sliding up his chest to tug at the vee of the neckline. The pads of her fingers brushed fire over his skin when she nervously pulled at the material. “I want to do this tonight. It’s just very overwhelming. I didn’t ask Emeline what it’s like to sleep beneath the earth. I had such an opportunity. I could have asked her or Blaze, or even Charlotte, although she’s a little like a queen or something, being royalty and all.”
Andor couldn’t help laughing. “Charlotte would never think of herself as royalty. Not in a million years. It just wouldn’t happen. She’s very much a part of all of us.”
“The blood part, which you’d think would sicken me, actually is kind of hot.” Her voice was a whisper, and when she made her confession, it dropped even lower. “If I told any of my college friends that, they’d think I was truly a nut. Sleeping in the ground is worrisome, though. I’m not certain I can get over feeling as if we’re being buried alive. I could take it when you were partially covered in soil, but the thought of your head being buried terrified me. It really did. I hated it.”
“You should have told me.”
She shrugged. “I didn’t think the closer I got to this moment, the more I’d think about that. What if I can’t do it?”
“I will help you. I helped you get water down a few times when you thought you couldn’t because your stomach was too upset. You were unable to eat food and the others helped. Sandu and Gary. Ferro. All three came to your aid.”
“They did?” She scowled up at the balcony where the Carpathians were murmuring softly to one another, catching up on one another’s lives.
“Yes. They didn’t bother to tell you because they are very much ancients.”
“What does that mean?” she asked suspiciously.
“It means they are set in the old ways. They may want to embrace the latest technology, but they still believe firmly that a woman is to be cherished, treasured and cared for whether she likes it or not.”
“All women would like that.”
He smiled at her and shook his head. “They would not like the way we go about it, taking the decision out of your hands. You do not like the thought that they fed you without your consent. You frowned and it was easy enough to read your expression.”
“It wouldn’t have hurt them to ask me first.”
“That is my point, hän sívamak, I doubt very much that they will ask their lifemates’ permission to do much at all. Ferro especially. He is too old and believes too strongly in what his role is and what that of
his woman is.” He sighed and rubbed his temples.
Whenever he thought of Ferro, his heart ached. He knew it was too late for his brethren. Ferro knew it as well. He would never embrace a modern woman, and no way would a lifemate be born in this time for him. Even a Carpathian woman brought up in the ways of his people would be exposed to the modern world and the way women were and be discontented.
“What’s wrong?” Lorraine asked abruptly. Her fist closed tightly on his shirt. “Tell me.”
“Ferro plans to leave when he rises. He will return to the monastery. He will be accompanied by Afanasiv Balan. Everyone refers to him as Siv if you do not recognize the name. He was at the meeting of the ancients. Most consider him extremely dangerous. He will be the gatekeeper as long as he is able.”
“Then Tariq will lose two of his best hunters.”
She looked close to tears, and his heart turned over. “I am well aware of that, but better Ferro turn far from here where those he cannot feel love for, but that he knows he does love, are away from him and safer.”
“You didn’t ask him to leave, did you?”
“No one would ever ask him to leave, sívamet.”
She took a deep breath. “I’m ready. Just do it now, Andor. Before I can think too much more and fear takes hold of me.”
Immediately, Andor felt elation rise. In only a short time, she would be wholly in their world. When next they rose, they would rise together as Carpathians. He found a seat on the ground and pulled her onto his lap. He was going to hold her as long as he was able. It was a mere touch of his mind and their garments were gone, but he shrouded them in flowing mist. One hand went to the nape of her neck, anchoring her to him. He kissed his way from the corner of her mouth to the tip of her breast and then back up to the top of the curve. His teeth sank deep, and she cried out.
Her blood held that perfect taste he craved. He took enough for a blood exchange and then opened a line right above his heart across the heavy muscle and pressed her mouth to him. The way she moved her body into his and didn’t hesitate to draw his blood into her set him on fire. He let it happen, feeling joy that he responded so completely to her.
When he stopped her from feeding, he lifted her chin, forcing her head up so he could take her mouth in a soul-destroying kiss. He would always crave her. This woman who was giving herself into his keeping even when she had to be terrified.
She had quite a lot of Carpathian blood in her system. The men who had tied themselves to her soul were powerful ancients. That blood would mix with his and the conversion would start rather rapidly, he was certain. He wasn’t wrong. Almost within moments, a ripple of unease went through her body.
Her body is preparing. Already, I feel it. He sent the alert to the others. At once they responded, their voices swelling with the healing chant. They had been using the lesser healing chant to aid a human woman or in Liv’s case, a child, in coming into their world. He shared her mind, entrenching himself there so he could monitor what was happening to her.
Lorraine dug her fingers into Andor’s shoulder, nails biting deep as something that felt incredibly like a blowtorch was turned on her stomach. The next pass hit her even harder. Then she was writhing, convulsing as wave after wave of excruciating agony took her without letup. At once he felt the worry of Dragomir and Tariq.
It was not this severe.
It was the combination of the ancients’ blood. So many of us, Gary explained. I should have considered this might happen. We have powerful blood. She has to be able to accept it.
She had no way to catch her breath. No way to rest. The waves kept coming, each one worse than the one before. Had he not had her in their sacred healing ground or the other Carpathians surrounding them trying to bear the brunt of the pain, Andor doubted if Lorraine would have survived.
She vomited repeatedly, and the toxins left her body, draining away into the soil. He kept the area clean, but once the convulsions continued, it was all he could do to stop her body from breaking bones with the violence of the seizures.
Emeline’s conversion was not this violent and she had your blood as well as mine, healer. Andor seconded Dragomir’s opinion of the healer’s assessment.
She did not have Ferro’s blood. There was the softest of sighs accompanying that revelation.
Andor closed his eyes. He should have known. The conversion seemed to take an hour or more, each minute seeming like a thousand minutes. Eventually the waves of convulsions and agony lessened enough that he thought it was safe to put her in the ground.
You have done well, he praised her, brushing kisses over the little beads of red dotting her forehead. You did not make a sound, Lorraine.
My father always told me to suck it up when I was in pain, but I never want to experience that again. Nor, if asked, would I ever recommend it. That was a distinct warning.
Andor thanked the other Carpathians, knowing the night was at its end and they needed to find sleeping arrangements. He waved his hand toward his woman and Lorraine’s eyes closed, her long lashes fanning her cheeks. Andor breathed a sigh of relief and opened the earth deep. He floated them both down, knowing the sun was already rising and the others hastened to get to their sleeping quarters. Most did not use the healing grounds to sleep. It was reserved for those in need. The Carpathians scattered around the compound as the sun rose, and even beneath the house, Andor winced, feeling the burn of the light against his skin.
He sank into the rich soil, laying Lorraine out gently onto her back. He lay beside her and watched as the earth began to fill in over their legs. Her body moved. Jerked. Andor frowned and leaned over her. She should be in a deep sleep. There it was again, that same jerk, her back moving back and forth as if rubbing into the soil. Suddenly, her eyes went wide, lashes lifting. Shock was there. Horror. He had sent her to sleep, but she was experiencing fear. Not just fear. Total terror. Her eyes stared into his.
“It’s loose, Andor,” she whispered. The same horror that was in her eyes was in her voice. “It was in his talons and he put it into my skin. Now it’s loose in the healing grounds. There’s no getting it back.”
There was no way to resolve the situation. Andor knew whatever Sergey had managed to release into the healing soil would have carte blanche for a few hours. His first guess would have to be a parasite that would kill all children or the ability for their women to conceive. How had they all missed that? It had been placed into her skin. Right on the surface. The wound had been cleaned and healed. No one, least of all him, had noticed anything amiss.
He closed his eyes and sank into the soil beside Lorraine, urging her to lie her down. Sleep for now. We will hunt at the next rising.
19
Andor burst from the soil the moment after he checked on his sleeping lifemate. He wanted her to stay asleep, although a part of him feared the parasite would enter her and prevent them from having children. Still, the most important thing was to go on the hunt. All of them.
We need to know what we are hunting for. That was Tariq, and he was not happy.
Andor couldn’t blame him. They had all checked Lorraine’s body repeatedly. She had been patient with them. She had wanted them to check her. He should have paid more attention to the little clues she gave him. She’d even mentioned that her back itched, right between her shoulder blades. He had thought that the itch meant the shallow laceration from the crow’s talons was healing.
She had been uneasy. The sight of the crows seemed to bother her more than they should. Even the children hadn’t paid as much attention to them. There were warning signs, but he hadn’t read them correctly. None of them had. Emotions got into the way.
O jelä peje terád. He swore in his own language. Furious at himself. Furious that one of the Malinov brothers had managed to fool every one of them. If Tariq had been the target … He brought himself up short.
“Go feed before we start this thing. I’ve called in Matt and his security force. They are willing for us to use them for sustenance whe
n needed. This is a need,” Tariq said. He stood on the edge of the healing grounds, looking it over, his hands on his hips.
“You could be the target, Tariq,” Andor warned. “It waited until Lorraine was here. Sergey knew I would convert her, and he programmed that thing like a missile to wait until she was in the ground.”
“Andor,” Tariq said patiently. “Go feed.”
Andor cursed again. “You cannot set one foot onto those grounds. Not one. Until your security force, and I do not mean the humans, get here, I am not taking any chances with your life.”
“Yet your woman still sleeps beneath the soil.”
“If he was targeting her, she is already dead and there is nothing any of us can do. I do not believe she is the objective. If that were so, he would have killed her when he had the chance. He could have used that crow to drive right through her head with his beak. You know that as well as I do.”
Gary appeared right beside Tariq and Siv emerged on the other side, both coming out of a mist. Gary inclined his head toward Andor. “I am sorry. We all looked where he knew we would.”
“Could it be a sliver of himself? Is it possible to put it in the skin?”
“It is possible, of course, but improbable. It would not be able to control the host at all. He wouldn’t have use of her eyes or ears. There would be no point,” the healer replied. “You need to feed, Andor.”
Andor didn’t want one more person to mention that he looked like hell without coming out and using those terms. He sighed and dissolved, hurrying quickly into the air outside where he saw several of Tariq’s human security force sitting on the ground or giving blood to one of the ancients. He chose one who looked healthy and fit. The man turned toward him as he approached. It was normal to wave a hand, take control of the mind and just feed. He did so without thinking and only realized after he had taken his fill that the blood had been freely given. He reawakened the man and thanked him as he helped him to the ground.
Dark Sentinel ('Dark' Carpathian Book 32) Page 35