Elisabeta’s voice dripped with tears, although Julija knew she wasn’t shedding any. That wasn’t Elisabeta’s way. Tears had been beaten out of her, along with any fight.
You know you can’t go back to him. You detest him.
More than anything. With every breath I draw. I just don’t know how to live without him. Until I can figure that out, I am staying right where I am. He gave me everything, Julija. I did what he said and in return he would supply me with the blood I needed to live. He especially liked to take my blood, so he would bring me blood from others.
There was a moment of silence. Julija could feel Elisabeta gathering her thoughts, and those thoughts were distasteful to her.
I suspected he murdered those he used for blood. This time the sorrow was not only heard but felt.
Julija hesitated, searching for the right words. You know you couldn’t do anything to stop him, Elisabeta. You still can’t. Please don’t throw your freedom away. I know it’s terrifying but give yourself time. The Carpathians there can’t wait to help you. And you have a brother.
Everyone tells me that. I don’t remember much of my childhood, just bits and pieces, and I’m uncertain if they’re real or if Sergey planted those pieces in my head. This time there was reluctance. If my brother comes, he will expect things from me I can’t give him. I feel so afraid and alone. At least I was protected from everyone by Sergey.
Julija closed her eyes, her distress level rising. She had hoped Elisabeta was in safe hands, but her friend was hiding from everyone. That made Julija feel all the worse that she wasn’t there to shield her friend and help ease her into some kind of a life. But what? What was there for someone like Elisabeta? The modern world would never understand her. They would expect her to go to counseling and be “cured.” That was never going to happen. Centuries of abuse couldn’t be swept away. Hundreds of years of submission couldn’t suddenly turn her into a fiery, independent woman. Julija knew that and feared for her friend.
Small steps, Elisabeta. Remember? We talked about this. You can’t expect to be on your own right away, if ever. You have to depend on those people who reach out to you, the ones that feel right to you.
There was silence. Rejection. You didn’t.
Julija cursed the fact that she’d ever told so much about her life to Elisabeta. I don’t know how to make friends easily. I didn’t have anyone to rely on.
She was a direct descendant of the high mage and her parents had never allowed her to forget it. They hadn’t wanted her befriending anyone else, mage or otherwise. She’d studied every spell, practiced casting and creating illusions and whatever else her stepmother had insisted on her doing. There hadn’t been time to learn how to be friends, or to have a childhood one could look back on and laugh about. Her brothers had often viewed her as a rival, but treated her as a pathetic mage and more of a food source than anything else.
You’re afraid of your brothers.
My parents as well. Don’t forget them. They were all involved in what my brothers were doing. Breeding cats to make them shadow creatures. It was inhumane and wrong. The cats suffer. They need blood to survive just as you do, but unless they cooperate, they aren’t fed.
That’s exactly the way Sergey treated me. Some nights I went until I was too weak to see. He would get so angry, he would beat me with a cane or a whip. Then I wouldn’t be able to stand. He would come to me, treating me so gently I would be confused. So confused. Not understanding it was the same man.
My brothers did the same with the cats, conditioning them to return to them always after their orders were carried out.
Why are people so cruel?
I don’t know, Elisabeta. Money. Power. Just because they can be.
He said I would never survive without a master. He said he made certain of that and then he would laugh so cruelly. He’s right, though. I will never be able to survive alone.
No one has to be your master. He’s wrong about that. I’ll help you as soon as I can return. It shouldn’t be much longer.
They are pushing me to rise. There was a little sob in Elisabeta’s mind, but not in her voice. I can hold out against them. I did learn to use silence and to be stubborn when I didn’t want to do something. I don’t believe they will beat me.
No, they won’t beat you. Why do I get the feeling you are not telling me everything?
There is always more to tell. You haven’t told me everything. What is this quest?
Julija tapped her chin with the pad of her index finger. Would Elisabeta worry too much about her if she didn’t explain? Probably. Elisabeta had been shaped into a pleaser. She nurtured others—even those who were evil. Sergey had taken all the sweet compassion Elisabeta had for others and amplified and twisted those traits into what he wanted from her. It was possible Elisabeta had always had a submissive nature, but her self-esteem would have been high and her ability to read others and trust them would have been developed as she grew older as well.
Elisabeta didn’t hurry her decision or try to persuade her, one way or the other. Like Juilja she was just happy to have a real friend, someone to talk with and bounce ideas off of.
Do you remember hearing the name Xavier? He was the high mage and offered classes for Carpathians to learn spells for safeguards.
Yes, of course.
Xavier was secretly conspiring to bring down the Carpathian people, along with every other species of power. He’s pretty much succeeded with the Jaguar race. He turned the men against the women and they have all but died out. The Lycans remain strong, but a war was barely averted between Carpathians and werewolves. That alliance is still shaky at best. Mages are regarded with suspicion by all species.
Elisabeta gave a small gasp. As if the vampires weren’t enough.
The vampires, under the Malinov brothers, have been forming armies, as you well know. Sergey has slivers of Xavier in him. At least two, perhaps three. He has a sliver of his brother in him as well.
I know this, but how do you?
The same way as you do, Elisabeta. I can feel even the vampires. When Sergey got close to me, even to kill me, I felt Xavier in him. Xavier’s presence is very distinctive, and I’m a direct descendant.
How?
Xavier kidnapped Rhiannon.
She disappeared. No one could find her. I thought, after Sergey had taken me, that perhaps one of his brothers had her. It was years after for me, but maybe she was still alive, and we’d find each other. I didn’t want to be alone. The last was said shamefully.
That is a very natural feeling. Especially given that Elisabeta was still a young girl. In Carpathian years, she was very young. Again, Julija wanted to wrap her arms around the woman and comfort her. Had anyone ever done that for her? It was Xavier who had taken Rhiannon. He wanted to be immortal. He was able through spells to keep her from calling out for aid, or to help herself. He had three children with her. Triplets. Soren, Tatijana and Branislava.
Elisabeta sighed. Poor Rhiannon. I had no idea Xavier was such a monster.
He kept the children and killed Rhiannon, feeling safer without her conspiring to find a way to kill him. He seemed to have tried to raise them somewhat as his children, but Rhiannon had already told them the truth. He imprisoned the two girls in an ice cave after they had shifted into dragons. At first, he did the same with Soren, but he wanted to use him, so he punished the two girls if their brother went against him. Soren quickly fell into line.
Elisabeta gave a delicate shudder. Watching someone you love get punished for your sins is very difficult. I was fortunate in that for a long time, Sergey didn’t allow anyone else near me. When he finally did, I found it was a nightmare. He liked the results because I could take his beatings for myself but detested when he hurt others.
Julija knew Sergey had employed that method often with Elisabeta, making her watch him destroy entire families and claiming it was her fault. The human puppets he created ate the flesh from living beings, mostly children. Elisabeta would do any
thing Sergey asked of her as long as he stopped them.
Xavier kept Soren separated from his sisters unless he needed to punish him. He allowed him to be with a mage, one of Xavier’s choice. She gave birth to a son, and they were told the baby died at birth. The infant was given to another mage to raise away from Soren and the birth mother was killed by Xavier in front of Soren because she had “failed” them. A few years later Soren married a human, I think her name was Samantha, another experiment, and Sergey didn’t want any children to be more powerful than Soren’s firstborn. They had twins, Razvan and Natalya.
Elisabeta gasped. Xavier is every bit as bad as Sergey.
I think they are close in their depravity. Soren’s firstborn son, Anatolie, was raised to be a powerful mage, one that would aid Xavier in wiping out their enemies. Anatolie married a mage woman of Xavier’s approval. It wasn’t a love match because I don’t think either knows how to actually love. They had twins, boys. The boys were to be their greatest asset, including giving blood to keep Xavier alive.
Mages have longevity, Elisabeta remembered. But they aren’t immortal.
Technically, neither are Carpathians because they can be killed. Still, to accomplish what they wanted, Xavier had to live, to be immortal. The twin boys were far more mage than Carpathian and their blood didn’t sustain the others. The three mages conspired to find a Carpathian female. They set the Malinov brothers on a Carpathian family, killing the male first and then the female. They took the girl. She was no more than sixteen. She gave birth to me. I’m mage and Carpathian. I fed them all with my blood. Apparently, my blood did sustain them.
Julija. Elisabeta breathed her name. She had given blood to Sergey nearly every day of her life since she was seventeen. She knew what it felt like to be used cruelly.
Julija stared up at the constellation. It was directly over her now and she felt as if a thousand eyes watched her. She stayed very still, part of the landscape. She was high up in the Sierras in a particularly rocky area. Large cliffs rose above her and more were below. Her “rocks” were just a few of many. She was usually very confident in her illusions but for some reason, maybe the conversation, she was a little anxious.
Xavier had this book of spells. He had recorded every dark spell possible. It was truly evil and held the means to destroy every species. The book was sealed until Xavier could get in place the powerful mages he needed to aid him. Soren stole the book and hid it in a bog. Xavier sent his demon warriors after him and tortured him to find out where it was. Soren’s daughter, Natalya, saw the entire thing in a vision and was able to find the book. In her vision from holding the ceremonial knife, she saw Xavier sacrifice a dark mage, a jaguar and Carpathian. The Carpathian was Rhiannon. Natalya thought that provided the entire seal. From things I’ve overheard, I believe she didn’t see anything more because she didn’t have access to all of Xavier’s prize ceremonial knives.
Elisabeta was silent a moment, trying to comprehend everything Julija was telling her. Natalya got to the book before Xavier.
That is correct. The book was given to the prince of the Carpathians.
And destroyed.
Unfortunately, no. It couldn’t be opened, which is a good thing, and it can’t be destroyed so easily. But the Carpathians thought it safe with Mikhail.
Elisabeta might not want to strike out on her own, but she was intelligent. She put it all together very fast. The shadow cats your brothers bred. They were bred specifically to get the book.
Exactly. My brothers took the cats to various countries to train them, so no one would put together what they were planning. They had other mages and humans set up just in case they were caught, and in a couple of countries, that did happen, but my brothers were able to get away without ever being seen or suspected. When they were able to get the perfect cat, they sent him to get the book.
Something went wrong.
That guess was easy enough. Julija had told Elisabeta that she was on an important quest, one that was necessary, and now she was saying she wouldn’t make it back at the three-week mark.
A Carpathian warrior, one who had just lost his lifemate. Julija’s heart contracted remembering how she felt the warrior taking the woman into his arms and holding her. How he’d brushed her eyelids and mouth with kisses so gentle they were soul stirring.
His name is Iulian Florea. His intention was to meet the dawn and then, all of a sudden, he changed his mind. I had the impression of the book. For a moment I thought he was going to try to bring his lifemate back to life. I didn’t want him to try. I knew, even if he could do it, anything coming from that book would be pure evil.
He took the book?
He wounded the shadow cat and took the book. I followed him here. I could feel his presence, that’s how I tracked him, but now I can’t.
She was suddenly very uneasy. The constellation remained right over her as if somehow spotlighting her. She had the urge to throw back the sleeping bag and run. The need to flee was so strong she found herself gripping the edges of the bag. The compulsion strengthened. She forced herself to breathe through it.
She couldn’t tell Elisabeta that she’d been discovered. She didn’t know who it was that had found her, but it didn’t really matter. Iulian, her brothers and any of their many allies, vampires and their puppets, or Carpathian hunters. They knew she was in the race to find the book. Even if she got there first, none of them would ever let up until they got her. The sensible thing to do was to join Elisabeta and help her. If the Carpathians already had gotten word she was mage and a traitor, she would look innocent helping one of their own.
Julija couldn’t abandon her mission. She wanted to, but it was impossible. She couldn’t allow her brothers to get their hands on that book. Not now, not ever.
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