Dark Song

by Christine Feehan

  She shook her head almost wildly, her arms sliding up around his neck tentatively as if she could hold him there. Ferro. Please. I cannot stop myself. I know I am making things worse for you. You do not have to defend me. Let me go into the ground. Send me away. Do not fight them because I cannot control myself.

  “I think that is more than reasonable,” Tariq said, his voice mild, as if there were no tension whatsoever in the room. “Does your lifemate agree, Ferro? I know this must be extremely difficult for her.”

  Ferro framed her face with his hands, tilting her chin so she was forced to look into his eyes. You do not have to subject yourself to anything more. You did what I told you to do. We can go. The brethren will go with us.

  He is out there waiting beyond the safeguards of the compound.

  Ferro knew Sergey was there, or at least his spies. They all felt him. They’d been feeling him since Elisabeta had been brought there. That is so.

  A delicate shudder ran through her body, but her gaze never left his, clinging there, as if he were her safe anchor in a terrible storm. Then have the healer access my memories.

  “Gary,” Ferro said, still holding Elisabeta’s gaze. “But you will be merged with me at all times, healer.” He decreed it. If Tariq and Gary were looking for anything but what they were telling the others, or they planned on hurting his lifemate, he would be there to stop them. He glanced at Sandu, then to Andor. Both men were tied soul to soul with him.

  Ferro felt Elisabeta’s unshed tears, but there were none in her eyes as she stared directly into his. He saw her make a tremendous effort to pull herself together. To still her mind. To let her heart calm along with her breathing. She took her direction from him, choosing to follow his lead. He was very proud of her, knowing how difficult it had to be and knowing she was doing it for him to avoid him having to fight their way out of the compound.

  Gary was already shedding his body, once more becoming healing light. Ferro didn’t want to leave her alone, but he didn’t like the idea of anyone entering her without giving her his protection. Piŋe sarnanak, I must watch over you. Sandu and the others will guard my physical body and yours.

  Her nod was barely perceptible. He didn’t wait. He shed his body and followed the healer, not trusting Gary with his lifemate. The healer knew him well enough that he waited, and the two of them flowed together to her brain once again.

  She is very afraid of Sergey. I think looking in the amygdala is our best choice to access any memory she might have of his calling to her.

  That made sense to Ferro. The amygdala was the part of the brain that regulated emotions like fear, which Sergey had trained Elisabeta to have in abundance. Again, Ferro stayed back, allowing Gary to take the lead, but he merged with that hot spirit in order to know any piece of information the healer discovered. He had no idea what he was doing and didn’t want to disturb the healer while he sorted quickly through Elisabeta’s memories, but he was determined to see each memory as it came to light.

  Here, Gary said. I have found her memories of his communication to her.

  The recall of the vampire’s voice whispered to them, filling her mind, filling theirs. He sounded commanding. Menacing. A snarling, ugly broadcast that hurt the ear.

  You will return to me or I will skin those children alive in front of you and allow my puppets to tear the flesh from their bones.

  Every man, woman and child will be burned alive when we are finished torturing them.

  Come to me now. You cannot exist without me. You do not know how to exist without me.

  Come to me now or when I get you back you will be punished for a thousand years.

  Each different refrain from rising to rising was repeated in a grating voice that was much like nails on a chalkboard. Ferro could imagine that someone as sensitive as Elisabeta would suffer endlessly just hearing his voice, let alone from the vampire’s actual punishments. Sergey’s threats weren’t empty ones, either. He had shown time and again that he would carry those intimidations out. Ferro had seen glimpses of her memories and knew that Gary had as well. They had gone through her brain, hunting for evidence that Sergey may have left a sliver of himself behind, and had to examine her so closely that they could see many of the terrible things the vampire had done to her and to others in order to force her to comply with his wishes.

  Elisabeta had been in the healing grounds for several weeks before her moans and cries had been overheard by Ferro and he had realized she was his lifemate. At that time, he had taken over feeding her, sleeping in the ground with her and weaving his own safeguards around her when he was hunting vampires. Each time he was with her, Sergey was unable to get through, or at least he had gone quiet. There was no evidence of him speaking to Elisabeta. On the occasions Ferro was gone, Sergey whispered more viciously than ever. Each threat became worse than the next, and with it, a memory of something horrendous he had done to her or someone else. Once, it had been the annihilation of an entire village.

  Ferro wanted to wrap Elisabeta in a silken cocoon, and at the same time he wanted to become what he was born to be, the fierce predator, hunting the master vampire until he found him and destroyed him. Such a vile monster couldn’t remain on earth where, eventually, as his power grew, his insatiable cruelty would demand more and more victims.

  Without Elisabeta, the decomposition of his body would begin to accelerate quickly. The memories of emotions would already be fading. If he didn’t have access to her, not even short visits to threaten her, he would unravel and become desperate to reacquire her. It was no wonder that he was stepping up his terrorization tactics. It was Sergey who was becoming frantic, but how could Ferro get Elisabeta to see that she was the one with the power?

  Sergey had beaten her down for centuries, making her so dependent on him, taking all power away from her. She was Carpathian and yet she didn’t know how to do what even a young human child could do, let alone a full-grown Carpathian woman. Ferro had been told that as a young girl, Elisabeta had the reputation for bringing peace to the Carpathian males. Ancient hunters would often visit the Trigovise household just to be in the same room with her to get a respite from the terrible emptiness of their lives. She had no idea of the gifts she held because Sergey had made her feel as if she were nothing, and yet he had targeted her, kidnapped and imprisoned her for those gifts.

  How is it possible he is getting to her? Can you see in her memories where he is getting in? This does not answer the question of how he is getting around the safeguards.

  I am well aware of that.

  Ferro could see that Gary was moving backward through Elisabeta’s memories, trying to find where Sergey could have planted something of himself in her to allow him to penetrate the defenses of the ancients inside the compound.

  No matter how hard either of them tried not to see the ugliness of Elisabeta’s life in order to spare her the humiliation of having others see things she didn’t want seen, there was no getting around it when shuffling through the years of her life. Ferro found he couldn’t be as detached as he thought he could be. He’d had centuries of no emotion. He could switch emotion off to hunt, and yet he found when it came to his lifemate, it was nearly impossible not to feel.

  His gut churned, knotted, an unfamiliar sensation that made him very aware the woman was getting inside him, a dangerous thing for him when he might have to leave her and go to the monastery after she gained her independence. The ties between lifemates couldn’t be broken. He knew that. He understood what they were, but he also knew he wasn’t the same man born to be Elisabeta’s lifemate any more than she was the same woman. They had both changed over the centuries. He had to provide her with what she needed because everything in him demanded he do so. Once that was accomplished, he would not be what she needed.

  He stayed merged with Gary as they moved through her memories, and while Ferro was wrapped up in emotion, unable to distance himself as h
e should have, the healer remained completely without feeling as he searched to find where Sergey was able to break through the safeguards. He was positive Tariq’s second-in-command was searching for more than that, but if he found anything, it wasn’t anything Ferro could identify.

  At once he found himself back in his own physique, weak, disoriented, a little shocked that he had all but been thrown out of Elisabeta’s body. He had gone from pure spirit back to his own ego, thinking of himself in that moment and the consequences of his actions. That had been enough to send him back to his own physical form. At once, Sandu was there again, giving him blood, as traveling as spirit depleted him.

  Gary hadn’t returned, and immediately Andor shed his body and entered Elisabeta to guard her while the healer continued to sift through her memories.

  Ferro? I can feel your sorrow.

  Elisabeta’s voice was like a breath of fresh air, a cool breeze moving through his mind, clearing away all doubt and the deep sadness that always took him when he thought about losing her after centuries of searching for her. He felt her fingers on his face, brushing along the lines carved deep there from centuries of wear, soothing him as nothing else ever could.

  I am here with you. I may be afraid of everything, kont o sívanak, but for you I will always find the courage needed to walk by your side, if that is what you decree, for as long as you want me.

  She sounded humble. A gentle woman, turning him inside out because all she thought of was him. There was no thought in her mind for herself at all. He knew that was a major part of her gift. She had to have been that way as a child, to be able to bring such peace to the ancient warriors.

  She called him “strong heart” and yet, after looking at what she had endured for centuries, often the worst of her punishments on his behalf, guarding his soul, he thought his little songbird should be the one called kont o sívanak, strong heart, not him. She filled his soul with light, sweeping the darkness in him aside just with the brightness in her.

  I will always want you with me, he assured her. That was the strict truth. Lifemates didn’t lie to each other.

  What did they see in my memories? Is he there? Inside me? Her voice trembled, but she continued stroking caresses on his face and in his mind.

  How did one answer that? He closed the wounds in Sandu’s wrist, politely murmuring his thanks, and shifted Elisabeta in his arms, holding her much more firmly to him. Sergey had been her entire world. The vampire had made it that way, ensuring there was no one else for her to talk to or interact with. Julija was really the first person she had ever connected with, and Sergey had held Elisabeta captive for centuries before that happened.

  He is there in your memories, but I saw no evidence that he left anything of himself behind. Do you recall him casting spells? He has slivers of the high mage, Xavier, in him. He would have access to Xavier’s spells.

  A little shudder ran through her body, but she had calmed. He realized it was because she was no longer thinking about the others in the room, or the healer examining her memories. She was focused on Ferro and the sadness that had swept through him. She was still trying to find a way to alleviate the dark melody that played repetitively through his mind. Ferro was still connected to Gary, a presence in his mind, staying very still but watching closely, just as Andor was.

  He is not very good at casting spells, but he practices. It scares him because there are severe repercussions when mistakes are made, and he makes many mistakes.

  Ferro considered that. If Sergey had access to Xavier’s spells but didn’t have the ability to actually cast them properly and was afraid of the consequences if he reproduced them incorrectly, then it was doubtful he used a spell on his favorite toy. Elisabeta had become necessary to Sergey. He had developed a need for her. Although Elisabeta had been his prisoner, in more ways, he had been hers.

  Her breath hitched in her throat and her head tilted toward his. He looked down into her dark eyes. What do you mean, Ferro?

  He liked that she wanted to enter into a discussion with him. She had a good mind. Sergey had convinced her she couldn’t use it.

  He was totally dependent on you all those centuries. He may have had his brothers around him, but remember, they had turned vampire. They no longer had emotions. He felt emotions only through you and he didn’t share you with anyone. He was afraid to and for good reason. The others felt he was less than they were. Only you had the knowledge that he was more. Only you could see that he was the strategist capable of biding his time to take the ultimate prize. He became dependent on the way you brought him peace. On the way you made him feel. He will be losing his mind now, unable to function without you.

  She was silent, turning his opinion over and over in her mind. How could you know that?

  If I lost you, even now, having you for such a short period of time, the loss would be . . . difficult beyond measure. Ferro told her the truth so it would sink in how valuable she was.

  I am your lifemate.

  He framed her face with both hands and stared down into her eyes, feeling as if he could get lost there. You are more than my lifemate, Elisabeta, which should tell you something, because a lifemate is everything to an ancient hunter. Everything. And you are so much more.

  It humbles me that you think that of me, Ferro. I will try to be worthy of your opinion.

  He could feel her resolve and wished the others were gone so he could kiss her. Instead, he brushed kisses in her mind, telling her without words what she meant to him, trying to give her courage to face whatever the healer was going to say when he returned from his examination. He knew there was a part of her that she held back, wary that his kindness was an act and at some point he would turn on her. He didn’t blame her for that worry. She had lived with treachery for too long. She had seen Sergey deceive others over and over. It would take time for her to trust Ferro fully.

  You are already worthy. Sergey needs you and knew that he would when he decided to follow along with his brothers down this path they chose. You were the one he depended on for the strength to get him through. His brothers beat him down, made fun of him and used him. They never acknowledged that he had the Malinov brilliance, that he was every bit as intelligent as they were. He feared them, not because they were any smarter but because he knew how vicious they were, and all his life, being the youngest, he had been the one they teased and made fun of.

  That is so. I was often stashed in a corner, part of the wall when one came in, and they would be quite cruel to him. He would talk to me and feel very smug and superior because his brothers never had a clue that I was there right in front of them. They could never detect me, although they often wondered how the master stayed so young and composed.

  He is not your master. Ferro couldn’t keep the clipped, fierce note from his voice. He went directly to dominant in seconds, without thinking. Just the idea that his woman would think of Sergey that way set his teeth on edge. He was never your master. He was a cruel Carpathian who kidnapped an innocent young girl. He will pay for what he did to you.

  At once that soothing breeze swept through his mind, clearing out his need to find the vampire and rip out his heart. There was only Elisabeta and her sweetness, that gentle soul with her light and the courage to guard his soul for centuries.

  You are right, she agreed. He is not my master. The point is, I can look a little closer at him with you here holding me and see things I could not before. I would not have the courage if you were not with me. I would fear he would find me the way he did when I was in the healing grounds. He always told me he could find me anywhere.

  Gary’s spirit emerged from her body, his light much dimmer than when he had entered, and his body jerked with weariness as he reentered. Siv immediately offered him his wrist and the others waited in silence for the healer’s verdict while he fed.

  Andor followed Gary out and fed as well, slipping into the background with
Benedek. Ferro met his eyes and Andor shook his head, indicating he didn’t think Gary had found anything Sergey had left behind in Elisabeta. Ferro frowned. If the breakdown of safeguards wasn’t in Elisabeta, where was it coming from?

  5

  The fog along the ridge, drifting through the trees;

  A shadow in the distance, nothing but a breeze.

  Elisabeta, you do not have to obey every single order your lifemate gives you. A woman can talk to other men. Some of the men in this room are barely out of the caves the way he is, but others are very modern and would address you themselves. They would treat you with the respect you deserve. Julija was totally indignant. Isai swore to me that Ferro would take good care of you and be whatever you needed.

  For the first time that she could ever really remember, Elisabeta felt what it was like to really know what humor was. What it felt like. Ferro is exactly what I need. I told him there were too many people and I could not have them looking at me or talking to me. He said he would take care of it if that was what I desired, and he did. He asked Isai to bring you to me so I would have you to visit with because he knew you did not frighten me.

  Elisabeta kept her eyes fixed on Julija’s face as she told her what her lifemate had done for her. Julija’s expression was priceless as her gaze flicked from Elisabeta to Ferro and then back to Elisabeta.

  Wait. Are you saying that Ferro deliberately made himself look like an asshole in order to protect you? Julija scowled at the ancient hunter.

  Ferro didn’t deign to look her way. The healer had gotten to his feet and once more had taken a chair beside Tariq.

  Yes. I do not like being in the open. This room is too big for me. He is protecting me so I do not have to look at the entire room. I do not like all these people seeing me but he does not want to hide me away like the vampire did, so he holds me in his arms where I can hide my face. I did not want to answer questions so he told them not to talk to me directly.