“There is no need to be upset. I did not think there was a possibility so I did not ask you or give you an order. That is my failing, not yours.” He was silent again. “You disclosed this information to Julija?”
Again, there was no inflection in his voice, but she had the feeling he condemned her friend for not telling him.
“She was sworn to secrecy. I spoke to her only on the condition that she never let anyone know I was communicating with her.”
“This was a matter of your safety.”
There was no threat in his voice. No understanding, either. A shiver went down her spine and she was uncertain why. She was suddenly very, very uncomfortable and a little afraid, not for herself but for her friend.
“What did the vampire say to you?”
Ferro’s arms slipped around her body, holding her closer to him when she shivered almost uncontrollably. She couldn’t stop the trembling. She never should have told him about Julija, although it hadn’t occurred to her to keep anything from her lifemate.
“He said to come to him or he would kill everyone. He repeated it over and over each time I was awakened to feed. I didn’t want to open my eyes and rise even to get blood. It was terrifying to hear the things he said, and his pull was very strong. I was so afraid all the time. I didn’t know what was expected of me. And I knew there were children close. He was especially cruel to children.”
“What stopped his calling to you?”
“You, I think. Once you began sleeping close to me, I couldn’t hear his voice anymore.”
Again, there was a small silence while his hand moved in her hair and his arm remained locked around her, giving her strength. “That’s interesting,” he said finally. “I wove safeguards around the two of us, but you had safeguards around you at all times. I wonder what the difference was. Or is. I have to speak with Tariq about this.”
Her heart jumped. Did that mean he was going to leave her? Or would she have to go with him to face the unknown leader of the compound where the children were protected and she’d brought danger? There was no way he couldn’t hear her heart pounding. His hand slipped from her hair to massage the nape of her neck.
“Elisabeta, you have to have faith that I am going to take care of you. I will send for Tariq and also Julija and her lifemate, Isai, one of my brethren. Julija will be able to give us a clear timeline. It is necessary because with all the safeguards woven by so many of us, the vampire should not have been able to get through to you. We need to know when he was able to do so and why, for the safety of everyone here.” His fingers kept moving on the nape of her neck, feeling like magic. “You do understand that, right? And you know that I will not allow anything to happen to you.”
The last was a statement. It was difficult not to believe him. She had been lied to so much that she had stopped believing anything, but in a short period of time Ferro had managed to overcome every defense she had. He had shown her kindness when no one in her life that she could remember had, other than Julija.
Tentatively, because she was still afraid to do anything without express permission, Elisabeta wrapped her fingers around Ferro’s wrist. It was a strong wrist, a large bone covered with muscle and skin. She felt the connection of his veins, the blood running there, his heartbeat.
“Julija is the only person besides you who has ever cared for me, that I can remember, kont o sívanak.” She whispered the name for him she had in secret places of her mind. Strong heart. It was there beating under the pads of her fingers. Sometimes beneath her ear when she laid her head against his chest. It was in the sound of the rain and in his song.
“Julija seems to be so strong, and she is. A mage and a Carpathian. A modern woman, and yet she was raised a prisoner just as I was. Cruelly used and horribly treated. She risked everything to save our people and to save me. She has been waiting for me to rise to meet everyone. Please, if I can ask one thing of you—and I know I do not deserve it, but it is not for me—she is with child and she has been through so much, do not be angry with her.”
She didn’t want Ferro to upset Julija or her lifemate. What if Isai forbade Julija to speak with Elisabeta or refused to allow them to be together because Ferro was angry?
“Elisabeta.”
She recognized the soft command in Ferro’s voice and her stomach did a slow roll. It was strange to her how her body reacted just to the various tones of his voice. She knew he expected her to meet his eyes. That was one of the most difficult things for her to do. She had been taught never to look at her master. Never to raise her eyes. Centuries of keeping her gaze downcast made it nearly impossible to force herself to look into Ferro’s eyes, but he was isäntä—master of the house—and he was never to be disobeyed.
Silence stretched between them while she gathered her courage and then dared to lift her lashes and look into his amazing iron-colored eyes. She had dared before and it seemed the color was different every time. Right now, the color was almost gold. For the first time she noticed the long, dark lashes ringing his eyes.
“I will not jeopardize your friendship with Julija,” he promised solemnly. He bent his head and brushed a kiss over her forehead. “She is on the way. Tariq approaches with several of the brethren as well as the healer, Gary Daratrazanoff.”
Elisabeta stiffened. She couldn’t help it. Several meant more than one. Tariq was the leader of the people there in the compound. Daratrazanoff was a name even Sergey cursed often. The lineage was always second-in-command to the prince of the Carpathian people. They were very powerful, not just as healers but as warriors. More, these were Carpathians who had given her blood, and she’d sensed both Tariq and, especially, the healer trying to penetrate the shields in her mind.
She wanted to retreat into the ground, find a corner of the room and slide into the shadow, disappear into the wall itself, become part of it as she had for so many centuries. Ferro’s arms prevented her from disappearing, but she ducked deeper into them.
He nuzzled the top of her head. “You do not need to speak unless I ask you to. If you need to answer, you can speak to me on our path alone. No one else needs to hear the sound of your voice. You do not need to look at them. I will shield you at all times.”
Elisabeta was shivering again and there was nothing she could do to stop it. She wanted to be brave for him, especially since he continually persisted in calling her courageous, but already she felt the power building around the dwelling. They were coming. It wasn’t one or two. There were several ancients and they carried power easily, so easily that the house and ground fairly crackled with it.
Ferro waved his hand casually toward the door and the heavy oak swung open. A tall warrior strode in. Elisabeta kept her head buried in Ferro’s chest, her hand over her eyes, but she opened her fingers just enough to see him. His hair was a true black with strands of gray, much like Ferro’s only not quite as long. His shoulders were wide and he looked very muscular. His eyes were brilliant sapphire, almost startlingly so. She recognized him from Julija’s description. This had to be Isai, her lifemate and one of Ferro’s brethren from the monastery.
He came straight to Ferro’s side and reached out. Ferro’s arms abandoned her for one moment, reaching toward Isai, clasping forearms in the way of the Carpathian warrior greeting.
“Sívad olen wäkeva, hän ku piwtä,” Isai greeted.
May your heart stay strong, hunter, Elisabeta interpreted. Ferro was her lifemate. His heart was very strong. She called him kont o sívanak—strong heart—for a reason.
A faint stirring of what could have been amusement brushed a velvet caress in her mind. My fierce little protector.
A little shiver crept down her spine that had nothing to do with fear and everything to do with the strange way he made her body and mind feel. The fingers of one strong hand had gone to the nape of her neck and he massaged there, a slow, deep movement that eased the tension from her in s
pite of the fact that Isai was towering over the two of them. Ferro didn’t seem concerned. He was more relaxed than ever.
“Julija,” Isai called and turned toward the open door and held out his hand.
Elisabeta’s heart beat very fast. At last. Her friend. The woman who had risked everything to save her. She started to sit up straighter, but Ferro’s arms tightened a fraction in warning.
Wait until she is in the house and the door is closed behind her. You can sit up straight but stay on my lap in the shelter of my arms.
That was a clear order. It was also Ferro looking out for her. He was leery after she had revealed that Sergey had managed to speak to her before her lifemate had slept above her in the healing grounds, adding the weave of his safeguards over the others. She had thought the master vampire invincible, wholly powerful. It hadn’t occurred to her that something other than Sergey’s power had been the reason he had been able to reach out to her every rising until her lifemate had come to her. Now, with Ferro’s reaction, she wasn’t so certain.
She waited quietly, still on the outside but a mass of nerves on the inside. Her gaze was riveted to the door. A small woman with delicate features, dark eyes and hair, and a curvy figure came into the room, taking Isai’s outstretched hand. She recognized Julija immediately. The only thing different about her was the deep scar on her where Sergey had deliberately ripped at her throat in order to kill her. Or if not to kill her, then at least to prevent her from speaking to her lifemate.
Julija’s gaze was fixed on Elisabeta and she broke out into a wide smile. “At last. It’s wonderful to see you, although it’s very dark in here. Don’t you want some sconces lit?” Julija was mage-born and excelled at spells. “I can provide some beautiful ones that are quite dim, Elisabeta. They won’t hurt your eyes.”
Elisabeta couldn’t help the small little shudder that ran through her mind at the idea of the others coming. They would see her clearly. Stare at her.
“No,” Ferro said firmly. “I do not wish others to look upon my lifemate until we have a chance to bond. We have business to discuss or no one would be invited to speak with her this rising.”
Elisabeta was a little shocked at the sound of Ferro’s voice. He didn’t sound like the same man at all, so much so that she had to sneak a quick glance up at his face to make certain it was really him speaking. His expression could have been carved from stone. He looked remote. Not at all the gentle, kind warrior who had been so patient with her. Where his voice had held command before at times, his tone had always been firm but gentle. There was no trace of that now. He was in charge and no one dared cross him.
Julija took a step back toward her lifemate and glanced over her shoulder at him, lifting her eyebrow as if to say “I told you so.”
Ferro gestured toward the chairs across from them. “The others will be here very soon. Already they are on their way. Isai, Elisabeta has indicated to me that a short while ago she told your lifemate that Sergey was speaking to her each rising when she woke to take blood, trying to force her to communicate with him. Time is lost for her. It is possible your lifemate can help with the timeline.”
Isai’s head went up alertly. “Safeguards were put in place, both by those ancients already here within the compound and the brethren as well. How is this possible, Ferro?”
“I do not know, but it happened each time she was awakened to get blood. I heard her cry out and knew she was my lifemate. I began to sleep above her. When I did, I wove safeguards around her. Only then did his voice cease to call to her.”
Isai leaned toward Elisabeta and Ferro. “Has Sergey managed to call to you this rising?”
Elisabeta curled closer to Ferro, drawing her knees tighter into her chest. The two Carpathian hunters kept using Sergey’s name. There was power in names. They knew that. She also didn’t like the way those sapphire eyes pierced through the veil of darkness and shone right at her like a beam of light. She had too much to hide. Too many scars. Too many terrible things in her past she didn’t want brought to light. Too many things she was ashamed of.
“Speak only to me,” Ferro said. “I do not allow others to speak to my lifemate.”
Julija hissed out her displeasure. “Of course you don’t,” she muttered under her breath.
Isai turned his head toward her, his eyebrows coming together in a frown. Color rose in Julija’s face as her lifemate clearly reprimanded her telepathically. She sank into the chair opposite Elisabeta and crossed her arms over her chest.
“Ferro, has Sergey contacted her this rising?” Isai corrected himself.
Has he?
It shamed her a little that Ferro had to ask her. He should have known that she would have shared everything immediately. No. She kept her head down, not even looking at Julija. This reunion wasn’t going the way she had hoped it would but she didn’t know how to make it better. She was just so uncomfortable in the presence of others. She longed for the coolness of the earth.
Ferro’s hand came up to her ear, his fingertip tracing her lobe and sending little tingles of fiery heat spreading like electricity through her. This is not your fault. Let Julija answer the questions and then the two of you can talk together on your path while the others come in. We will try to ascertain where the breakdown occurred.
You do not mind if I speak with Julija?
Of course not. She is your friend.
She does not like you.
She does not know me and I do not expect her to like me, nor do I care. I am your shield, piŋe sarnanak, yours alone. I will ask the necessary questions and then you two can talk while the others decide the best course of action.
Elisabeta could barely contain herself. She glanced at Julija, found her gaze on her and sent a quick, reassuring smile. It was the best she could do before ducking her head.
“Sergey has not contacted her since I have been safeguarding her. If your lifemate can give us any kind of details regarding the timeline it would be helpful.”
“My understanding is that Sergey continued to plague Elisabeta every time she was awakened and given blood. He called to her every rising, whispering to her that he would kill everyone in the compound and torture the children in front of her if she didn’t come back to him. I believe he had done so since she was first brought to this place.”
Even to Elisabeta’s ears, Julija sounded disrespectful.
Is that so, piŋe sarnanak? If Ferro was upset with Isai’s lifemate, he didn’t sound it. Do you recall that the vampire always whispered to you?
I cannot recall a time that he did not until you stopped him, but time no longer means anything to me. She was frustrated that she couldn’t give him a definite answer.
He stroked a caress down the back of her head. You have given me all that I need, Elisabeta.
4
The earth may shake, and rivers may swell;
Yet here I stand, ready to break the spell.
Ferro wasn’t a trusting man. He had never been one to trust, not that he could remember. He had his brethren from the monastery, and even with them he was wary. Careful. Now, with Elisabeta to protect, he was even more so. He had thought to bring Isai there first, knowing that Elisabeta would be uncomfortable with visitors, but he needed to get to the bottom of how Sergey had managed to reach out to her in the compound, in the healing grounds, when she should have been protected.
He had that feeling of a threat coming to her from either Tariq or Gary, perhaps both. Now that he’d been in Elisabeta’s mind, he knew she was uneasy at the mere mention of the two Carpathians coming near her. He would have thought her anxiety was due to just being around others, but it was more than that. The healer had tried to examine her mind. He may have been trying to repair some of the damage the vampire had caused, but it would be unusual to do so without consent—and Elisabeta had closed herself off.
Ferro called Isai ekä, brother. Is
ai’s loyalty would be first to his lifemate, Julija, but he would fight with Ferro if need be, to get Ferro and Elisabeta away from the compound. Ferro also thought that having Julija there would help to calm Elisabeta when the others arrived.
He should have known that when Tariq Asenguard arrived, as the leader appointed to represent the prince in the United States, he would be closely guarded, and that meant more than Gary Daratrazanoff came with him. Chairs formed a loose circle around the large room, Tariq sitting directly across from him. Gary sat to his right. He was a strange man. At one time he had been fully human, but he had been turned and the blood of the Daratrazanoffs ran in his veins, and their knowledge of healing and battle experiences filled his mind. His eyes carried the peculiar, bluish-silver color only their particular line held. Power clung to him and he gave the impression that he saw everyone, including Elisabeta, which didn’t sit well with Ferro. The battle experiences and skills of every warrior that had come before in the Daratrazanoff line lived in every cell of his body and resided in his brain. He would be a difficult opponent and the one to kill first. Ferro didn’t want that to happen. He felt a kinship with Gary, but if his lifemate was put in jeopardy and he had to fight his way out, it was the healer who would have to go first.
Maksim Volkov sat on the other side of Tariq. Maksim had run with Tariq on and off for centuries. They hunted together as loose partners just as Ferro had with the brethren. Maksim was a force to be reckoned with. He could be very still and then explode into action with blurring speed. Maksim was a man never to be discounted under any circumstances, no matter how much he liked to fade into the background.
Valentin Zhestokly had been in the monastery on several occasions but the call of his lifemate had been strong and he had left several times to hunt for her. He had found her when she was still a human child. She had been taken by a vampire and given to a puppet to use as food. When she was rescued, eventually, the Carpathians had to convert her in order to save her. Valentin watched over her now, staying close to the Asenguard compound, where Liv resided. He sat in one of the chairs and it was impossible to know where his loyalties would be, so Ferro didn’t count on him.
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