Tariq kissed her gently and rolled, taking her with him so she was on top. "I need you soon, Charlotte," he said, confirming he was still in her mind and could read her thoughts.
"I know. I want that, too, but I have to make certain I have everything in place for Lourdes and Genevieve. I'm Genevieve's only family now."
He shook his head and tucked hair behind her ear. "I'll be her family as well. So will Danny, Amelia, Liv and Bella. She's already fitting in, taking care of Lourdes the way she does."
"I want to take care of Lourdes myself," Charlotte said, pressing her face into his neck. He felt strong and warm. Definitely an anchor in a chaotic world. "How am I going to do that if I'm up all night and she is up during the day? I know right now you're pushing her to sleep during daylight, but that can't go on forever."
"Lourdes can't stay a human child. None of the children can," Tariq explained, his voice gentle. "They're known psychics. The vampires are hunting psychics, even children. We've got Josef, one of our technology experts, coming to try to get information off of the smashed computers, and he's young. By young, I mean in Carpathian years. He won't be considered an adult until he's fifty, and he's nowhere near that. He'll be good for Danny to know. We haven't thought much about converting men because there are so few women. Converting males is more difficult. They have to be accepted by the ancients. Once Danny is converted, I'll have to take him to Romania, to the Carpathian Mountains and the cave of the warriors. If they don't accept him . . ." He broke off, shaking his head.
She lifted her head. "What does that mean?"
"It means there are a lot of questions I don't have the answers for. I'm consulting everyone I know who could possibly give me the odds of a child converting without too much distress. I know it can be done, but there's pain involved. I can minimize it, but I can't take it away. I've explained that to Amelia and Danny and they understand. They're both a little hesitant because they don't want Liv to suffer anymore, and of course they're afraid for Bella, just as I am." He sighed. "And now Lourdes. Before I convert the children, I have to have those answers."
She liked that it mattered to him. More and more she was discovering Tariq didn't jump into anything. He studied a problem from every angle and found solutions before he made a move.
"I don't want Lourdes or Bella to suffer. They're only three."
He nodded. "So young for this to be happening. We could try to wait, but every day that we do, Vadim could be planning something. We can't keep them prisoners here on the property forever. Sooner or later all of them will want to go places."
"If we find and kill Vadim, won't that solve the issue?"
He stroked caresses down the back of her head, his fingers threading through her hair. "I've hunted vampires for centuries, sielamet. There is always another one. Always. Now, with their ability to band together and use modern technology, the threat is larger than ever."
His hand moved in lazy circles down her back until his fingers found the indentations of the dimples in the cheeks of her buttocks. "There's something very enticing about your bottom, Charlie. I love when I'm behind you and watching you walk away from me."
She raised her head to look at him. His smile was all Tariq. Charm. Sweetness. All for her.
"Then again, I like the front of you very much as well. I can't say which is better. Your breasts or your butt. I've given it a lot of contemplation."
She couldn't help herself. She laughed softly and settled her face back into his shoulder. His voice was as lazy as the touch of his fingers on her skin. "You've had such a lot of time for contemplation lately."
He smacked her bottom sharply. "Watch it, woman," he admonished.
His hand resumed its leisurely patterns as heat spread through her, and she had to press her face against his skin to muffle her laughter. Still, that heat went deep, igniting nerve endings she hadn't known existed. The intimate touch of his fingers sliding over that heat only added to the need suddenly, without warning, coiling inside of her.
"You know I have to get up and take care of Lourdes. Genevieve has been so great about it, but Lourdes is mine and she's in a new place. She needs to know this is home and I'm going to be her mom." She rubbed her chin on his chest, her hands moving over the places where wounds should have been on his shoulder and neck--but weren't. There was no sign of any laceration or burn.
Charlotte took a breath and decided to ignore the fact that a man could be healed overnight. She needed normal. "Lourdes has had enough trauma to last a lifetime, and she's only three. I can't imagine what Bella and Liv and the others are trying to deal with." Her eyes met his. "You know I have absolutely no experience dealing with children. I restore art, Tariq; I don't do counseling. I wouldn't even know where to start."
"Carpathians can read minds. You will be able to see their worst fears and you'll know what to say. We are polite and respectful and don't, as a rule, invade, not unless safety or health is at stake or we feed and have to remove the memory, but in dealing with these children--our children--I don't think we have a choice."
She sighed and went to roll off of him, but his arm tightened like a steel band across her back and the hand on her bottom slid down to cup her cheek, his thumb brushing strokes along the seam between her cheek and her thigh.
"Not yet, sielamet. I will know when the children awaken. Right now we have private moments and I need them with you. We face a long war. Vadim will not be easy to find, let alone kill."
"It worked last night. We drove him off the ship. If I can hear him, and you say he can use me to see what's happening around me . . ."
"Not here. As long as you're on this property, the safeguards we've woven together will hold. Emeline and Liv both need them."
"Still, if he can 'see' me, then I should be able to see him."
"We're removing that splinter tonight. It's too dangerous to play around with anything like that. That splinter wields power. Legend has it the carousel was cursed. The horses, the chariots. All of it. Owners and their children died and no one knew why, or they were brutally murdered with throats ripped and blood gone. We now know why. Vadim did something to that carousel, and it has to be destroyed."
"No!" She pushed up with both hands. "It's a piece of history. We need to remove whatever he did. I can restore it properly."
Tariq's hand went back to rubbing her bare skin. "You have no idea how dangerous Vadim and his brother, Sergey, truly are. Fridrick presents a terrible danger, but he is nothing compared to those two. You don't ever take chances with vampires, especially master vampires. You kill them without hesitation and you keep the risk to yourself as little as possible. We have several experienced hunters here. I put the word out, and those in the area are coming here as well as watching all harbors. We know he's been moving on ships out to sea in order to keep us from tracking him."
"How in the world can he feed if he's out at sea?"
There was a small silence. Her gaze jumped to his. "Tariq?"
"Lojos and Tomas have been watching them. They discovered that they meet up with human traffickers at sea. Ships bring them to him. All bodies are disposed of before they ever return to shore."
She closed her eyes and slumped against him, wrapping her arms around his neck. "He has to be stopped, Tariq."
"I know, sielamet, but it will take time. He has pawns like Fridrick. Fridrick isn't the only master vampire under his command. They will be sacrificed before we ever get to Vadim. He should leave this area because there are too many hunters. We think we will be able to divide and conquer that way."
Once again his fingers drew little patterns across her bottom, and it felt wonderful. She needed his intimate touch when they were discussing something as vile as Vadim Malinov. The thought of any part of a monster like Vadim being inside her was disturbing. She wanted him gone and she didn't want to chance giving him a glimpse of the children ever again. "I see what you mean about the splinter, but Tariq, I do have a way of tracking him. The carousel is in your basem
ent. If I touch it I can find him, now that I know what I'm looking for."
Tariq frowned and the hand moving on her bottom stopped. "That might work, under the right circumstances, but Charlotte, don't you dare try on your own. I mean that. I'll know, and this time, the consequences are going to be severe enough that you won't disobey me again when it comes to matters of your safety."
She clenched her teeth and her entire body went rigid. So much for her gorgeous, perfect man. Not. So. Perfect. "Don't threaten me, Tariq. I'm not five years old, and just a little FYI, I've been in your mind and you would never hit a woman or child. I think I'm pretty safe from your consequences."
"It isn't a threat, Charlotte; I don't make threats. I am far more modern than most of my brethren, but living for centuries among humans has not made me human. I am a Carpathian male. There are things you will have to live with about me, just as there are things about you I must live with. When it comes to matters of your safety, rest assured, lifemate, I take that very seriously. When I tell you to do something, I expect it to be done. You don't have to like it, but you do have to do it."
Once again she attempted to roll off of him, but he held her in place. "Stop struggling. It is useless and rather foolish to be angry over something neither of us can change. I could word it gently and you may like the sound of it better, but it all comes down to the same thing. What is so difficult about treating your safety as sacred? Will we not treat our children's safety that way? Or Genevieve's safety? What of Emeline's? Donald and Mary's? Should we neglect them because they are older? They all need our protection."
She huffed out a sigh of resignation. She was arguing over semantics. He was right even if she didn't want to admit it. She hadn't liked him giving what sounded to her like an order. Still, she'd already touched the carousel horse without him and was enduring the consequences. It stood to reason she'd learned her lesson without him going on about it.
"All right," she conceded. "You won't have to worry. You're the expert in all matters vampire and the like, so I'll follow instructions to the letter."
His hand resumed making little lazy patterns on her skin, this time sliding up to her back and moving around to her sides so he was tracing her rib cage and the side of her breast. Her blood turned molten and liquid heat gathered between her legs. She found it amazing that he could do that to her with just his touch. Her heartbeat throbbed between her legs and pounded in her neck, where every now and then she felt the warmth of his breath.
"That's my very smart woman. Your idea just might work, although I don't like the notion of your having anything to do with Vadim, even remotely. And we'd have to make certain there was no way for another sliver to get into your skin. I'm going to remove it now. I'll be heat, a white light you'll feel within you. Be still for me."
Charlotte subsided against his chest, letting her body go soft, melting into his. She wished he was still deep inside her, but at least he surrounded her with his arms, and one leg curved around her thighs as if he knew she needed to be wrapped up while he went after Vadim's splinter.
Tariq didn't wait. He didn't like the idea of a master vampire having put a cursed splinter inside his woman. More, if others had died because the splinter was inside of them, he had to see what it was doing. So far, she hadn't shown any signs of illness. She looked beautiful to him. A little wild. A little sexy. Just perfect. Her skin wasn't unusually warm, which might have indicated a fever--the human warning signal that something wasn't right. There was nothing at all to tell him there was something extremely dangerous in her.
He shed his body in the way of his people, becoming spirit without ego, a white, healing light that easily entered her body. He checked every organ for damage. The splinter was nowhere to be found in any vital organ. There was a subtle difference in her blood. Very subtle; at first he almost didn't notice, but the absence of the splinter worried him, so he was even more careful, determined to draw it out into the open.
He moved through her with meticulous care, sending small sound waves through her body to loosen the splinter's grip on whatever it had attached itself to. As he did so, he saw several of her white blood cells suddenly slide against a red blood cell and engulf it. He had to replay the scene in his mind several times to make certain he had seen it correctly. He watched for several more minutes but nothing else happened.
Once again Tariq sent the small sound waves crashing through her body, keeping his focus on her white blood cells. Instantly the same thing happened. A few of the white cells engulfed red cells, effectively eating them. At the same time, just to his right, along her ribs something wiggled for a moment and then settled back into the bones. His breath caught. The splinter had attached itself to the bone and had become part of her skeleton. Just the very tip remained. It was still pushing its way inside the bone.
He struck fast, using the burn of the white healing light to surround the small piece of ancient, cursed wood, to settle over it, needing to destroy it fast. The splinter didn't move. He couldn't see where her bone started and the splinter left off. Only just that little tiny piece wiggling to try to get away from the burn of white light.
He knew at once he couldn't remove it. The splinter had become part of her and would not be destroyed. Since there was no removing it, he had to forge a cell around it strong enough that the sliver couldn't penetrate it to do more damage to her body. Perhaps one of their greatest healers could perform a miracle and remove it. Unfortunately, none but Dragomir was close. Dragomir was . . . difficult. Not Carpathian. Not vampire. Somewhere in between perhaps. No one was certain whether they could trust him--including Dragomir. Siv . . . might, but again, he was very much like Dragomir. It seemed they lacked a talented healer in the area. All of them could get by, but right now, Tariq knew, he couldn't wait any longer. He had to send for a master healer, even if that meant one needed to come from the Carpathian Mountains.
He was meticulous in his work, taking his time, encasing the rib in a strong binding safeguard, weaving it with healing light the splinter winced away from. It tried to burrow deeper into the rib to escape the light and then when that failed, it curled itself around the rib, lying as flat as possible, like a fish's tail against the bone. He wove the cage stronger, thicker, layering the light through the safeguard until he was certain the splinter couldn't penetrate from any side and escape. When he was absolutely certain, he added several more layers. He wanted her safe. Only then did he move out of her body and back into his own.
He opened his eyes and she was watching him, a small frown on her face. Her hand smoothed the lines in his face, and then cupped his jaw. "You're so pale, honey. That took you forever."
He hadn't been aware of time passing, but staring into her eyes, he realized he'd been working on containing the splinter for some time. He hadn't fed, and leaving one's body and becoming pure spirit took a tremendous amount of energy.
"Tell me what you need, Tariq," she whispered, her voice dropping an octave. Husky. Seductive. A blatant temptation.
His woman had great instincts. He reached up, cupped the back of her head and pulled her face down to him so his mouth could take hers in a long, wet kiss. Hard. Meaning it. She ignited like she did for him, taking them both higher, burning hot and a little out of control. He kissed her over and over, his fist bunching her hair, controlling her head to keep her tilted just the way he wanted so he could drink his fill of her.
He kissed his way down to her chin, along her sweet jaw and down her neck to that intriguing little pulse point calling to him like a beacon. She knew, the knowledge was there in her mind, and she wanted his mouth on her. His teeth. He used them ruthlessly, scraping on her tender skin, marking her as his. He loved putting his mark on her and knew it was a trait of his kind. Possessive of their women. Needing others to know she belonged to him, was part of him--the best part.
"Keep you safe," he murmured against her throbbing pulse. "Always keep you safe." His teeth bit down, gently. He caught her skin and tugged. "Always
." He emphasized the word, made it a command, all the while using his teeth to put an exclamation point on the end of his declaration.
Charlotte gasped, stretching her neck as if she could get away from the sharp teeth that had her trapped and held close, but she didn't pull away, instead arching her body, pressing her breasts tight against him, as streaks of lightning seemed to zigzag through her body straight to her sex. She loved when he used his teeth. She never once in her life considered that she might, but it was the most erotic sensation when he bit down. Gentle or rough, it didn't matter.
His low, husky growl stating he would keep her safe only fueled the fire in her. She wanted his teeth, even needed them. She held her breath. The moment went on for an eternity, that perfect blend of anticipation, need and the ultimate hunger. His lips moved on her neck, right over her pulse, so that her heart beat right into his mouth. Her sex clenched. Wept. Burned. His teeth sank deep and pleasure burst through pain, radiating throughout her body so that every nerve ending was alive and desperate for him. Burning for him. A wildfire out of control.
His hand slid up her back to her neck and then his fingers slid into her hair, fisting, pulling her head back even farther until there was a distinct ache. That only added to the heat coursing through her veins. She felt the hard thick length of him pressed tightly against her stomach. Inches from where she needed him to be. Her core pulsed. Her sex spasmed. She shifted her body minutely. Subtly. Sliding down just that couple of inches.
Tariq didn't relax his hold on her hair, or allow her head to move at all. His mouth and teeth gripped her neck tighter. She felt that all the way to her soul. That connection. The primitive yet beautiful way they were joined together. She heard her own gasp. Her moan. She sounded . . . sensual. She felt sensual, something that had never happened in her entire life until Tariq. She wrapped her fist around the heavy length of him and guided him into her body, sinking down onto him.
His heavy erection pushed through the sensitive folds of her body, an almost excruciatingly tight fit. He took her breath. He sent waves of sheer pleasure building and building so that she felt tension coiling deep inside. His mouth moved again, his tongue sweeping over the marks on her neck to close the small wounds. Once, twice, his teeth scraped over the brand he'd left behind and each exquisite pass caused her body to bathe his shaft in liquid fire.
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