Dark Sentinel ('Dark' Carpathian Book 32)

by Christine Feehan

  When Andor had brought her back from the cave, she’d asked that they try again. This time, several shed their bodies and inspected her with meticulous care. Petru and Benedek had joined ancients named Siv and Val. All four had tried to find something, even a small dark spot somewhere inside her that might indicate Sergey had left a piece of him behind.

  When the ancients had returned to their bodies, shaking their heads, four more had examined her—again at her own request. She’d made it clear she was uncomfortable being around the children or women, especially Emeline, who was pregnant, if she wasn’t cleared. Three more Carpathians, triplets Tomas, Matias and Lojos, joined the grim-faced ancient she’d been introduced to earlier as Nicu. He had a curved scar on his face. The four of them had emerged some time later shaking their heads.

  Andor had brought her to meet Emeline, reassuring her that if she had been a danger, with all of them hunting so aggressively, they would have found it. She watched the two Carpathian males stride across the open grass. Dragomir reached down to swing Lourdes into the air. Andor did the same for Bella. The two little girls squealed with delight. The two men set them on the backs of the stone dragons guarding the playground.

  “Dragomir is going to make a good father, isn’t he?” Lorraine observed.

  Emeline smiled. “Yes, he is. He saved us. Our baby. He was patient and kind. I was so beaten down when he arrived. Vadim’s blood burned like acid day and night. The baby screamed in pain. I couldn’t sleep or eat. I knew I was going to have to tell Tariq, but I was terrified they would want to kill the baby. She was mine. I chose her. I told her I’d protect her. I couldn’t go back on my word, but had no idea of what to do. I think being sleep-deprived and hurting every minute took its toll. I really was confused and couldn’t seem to make decisions. Thankfully, Dragomir changed all that.”

  “How does it work? Dragomir’s blood has replaced all of Vadim’s in both of you, but how does that work now? I don’t understand very much about the Carpathian world. Andor told me that the girls would be easy to convert, but that Danny would have to go to the Carpathian Mountains.”

  Emeline nodded. “My daughter is safe now. Tariq and Charlotte want to convert Amelia and the two little girls. They could do that now, although Tariq wants to wait to make certain he has word from the prince and those working to make sure our children survive that Lourdes and Bella can live through the intensity of a conversion at their age. They know Amelia can. Liv is younger, and she did. But Danny …”

  “The girls won’t convert until they all can?” Lorraine confirmed.

  “That’s what they say. It may take time before Tariq can take Danny to Europe. It would be a fast trip, but we’re in the middle of a war with Sergey, and now Dragomir has said Vadim is still alive.” Emeline put a defensive hand to her throat. “I wanted to believe he was dead. We all did. Now … I’m terrified he might want to come after the baby, although he appears to only want males, not females. He probably is afraid the baby will turn out like her Aunty Ivory. She’s a hardcore vampire hunter with a reputation that scares them all. She’s also Vadim and Sergey’s sister. They want males to shape into the undead like they are.”

  “Doesn’t this all seem too unreal? Like a terrible nightmare you’re caught in and can’t wake up from? Not the lifemate part, but vampires? Puppets?” Lorraine shook her head. “I never want to see one of those things again as long as I live.”

  “They have worse, I think,” Emeline said. She looked around the compound. “I like to be here, where I feel safer. I know Charlotte sometimes wants to go places and do things. I like being here with the children and creating a home for Dragomir and the baby. Now that I know Vadim is still alive, I might never leave.”

  “What happens when the baby is born, Emeline? Does the baby go to ground with you or does Genevieve have to watch her aboveground while you sleep?”

  Emeline paled. Her dark hair emphasized the nearly pearl skin. “We don’t know yet. Some of the babies have been able to go to ground, others no. Vadim transferred parasites to both of us. Dragomir and the healer were able to rid us of them, but that doesn’t mean having had them in her, she won’t be affected like some of the other children were.”

  “How would you know ahead of time?”

  “They talk to us. She will tell us if she can sleep beneath the ground.”

  “What will you do if she can’t?” It was one of Lorraine’s worst fears. She didn’t want someone else to raise her children.

  “While she is an infant, Genevieve has agreed to watch over her. We hope that by the time she is a toddler, we can take over.”

  “Genevieve is pretty cool,” Lorraine said. “Very selfless.”

  “We’re lucky to have her. The Waltons try with the children, but they can’t really handle them very well. The children are growing to love Genevieve.” She looked across the lawn at the woman coming toward them. “That’s Charlotte. Have you met her yet?”

  Lorraine shook her head. “She was with the children the first night, and tonight she was talking to Amelia and Liv in their house. At least, that was what Tariq told us.”

  Charlotte had real curves, and an abundance of thick, wild, auburn curls. She moved with confidence and stopped to wave at another woman who hurried to join her.

  “That’s Blaze, Maksim’s lifemate. She and Charlotte are good friends, too. Blaze and I go way back. I was a kid on the street and I’d climb into her bedroom through the window on nights when the weather sucked. Blaze and her father lived over the bar they owned. Vadim had her father killed. He had taken the children, and Blaze and I went to get them back. That’s how he managed to get his hands on me.”

  Charlotte and Blaze joined Lorraine and Emeline, making themselves comfortable after introductions. Lorraine looked around the yard. “Where’s Genevieve?” She was the only human woman besides herself. She didn’t like to think that Genevieve was left out.

  “She was tired tonight,” Charlotte explained. “She takes care of all the children from sunrise to sunset. That’s a long time. Bella is upset because she doesn’t have Liv to play with anymore during the day, and she’s been a bit of a trial. We had no choice, we had to convert Liv in order to keep her alive. Bella doesn’t understand that.”

  Lorraine had seen evidence of Bella acting up. “Is there any way I can help? I used to teach a martial arts class for very young children. I wouldn’t mind doing something like that. It might give Bella something else to focus on.”

  There was a sudden silence. Lorraine looked at the women expectantly. She wasn’t about to apologize or back down. She believed in women knowing how to defend themselves. All of them were in a dangerous position. What Andor had said about the ancients meant that maybe the compound wasn’t as safe as they all thought it was. Tariq would know that. Would he share his concerns with Charlotte?

  Charlotte and Blaze exchanged a long look and then both broke out in smiles. “We are so glad you’re here,” Blaze said.

  “You have no idea,” Charlotte added.

  Emeline nodded. “I can’t say I’m going to be the best at it, but Blaze has been advocating all along that we need to learn to defend ourselves. Then along you came, Lorraine. Dragomir told me you attacked three men who had staked Andor when he was wounded.”

  Blaze grinned at her, leaning over the table. “With a frying pan.”

  “It was a saucepot,” Lorraine corrected. “I didn’t have time to get my gun. I should have been carrying it, but no one had been around forever and I was making this quick trip to the stream. I didn’t want to stop and get it out of my pack. It was really, really stupid of me. From now on, I plan to carry every kind of weapon I can.”

  “A couple of the men are working with Matt Bennet—he’s the head of Tariq’s security force,” Charlotte explained. “They’re experimenting with ammunition and weapons to help all of us better defend ourselves against the undead. Matt was Special Forces, and I think he’s a genius when it comes to weapons. In any ca
se, they’ve come up with a few things that might work for us so we don’t have to get too close.”

  Emeline leaned her elbow on the table and propped her head in her hand. “What we really need to do is teach the children, and all of us, I guess, how to see their illusions and not fall for their traps.”

  Charlotte nodded her agreement. “I was just discussing this with Amelia and Liv. Amelia was very excited about you joining us, Lorraine. She was impressed with the stories Dragomir told them. She’s been wanting to learn to fight, and she came to me the moment Tariq and I rose seeking our permission to ask you to train her. Blaze has been so busy—the vampires seem to be testing every defense we have. She goes out on patrols with Maksim, so she isn’t here to work with us very often.”

  Lorraine nodded. “I absolutely will train her, that is if Andor wants to stay here, and I think he does. You’ve heard that Sergey made a concentrated attack on me, right? I just can’t shake that he was up to something.”

  “I wholeheartedly agree,” Emeline said. “Sergey and Vadim are both Malinovs. From what the other ancients say, the entire family was brilliant at everything, especially strategy. Sergey wouldn’t have wasted all those pawns if he had no reason. He definitely had a plan.”

  “Well, if he did,” Lorraine said, “no one has discovered it as of yet, but I believe I’m going to be the hot topic of the conversation they’re all having at the knights’ round table meeting.”

  Charlotte’s eyebrow shot up. “Knights’ round table meeting?” She echoed.

  “Doesn’t that big table remind you of the knights and their round table? Every book I’ve read, or movie I saw, showed a big round table.”

  The three other women laughed. “I guess you’re right,” Blaze said. “I’ve actually called Maksim my knight, but he says if he is one, I have to call him the dark knight.”

  “I think that’s a movie,” Lorraine pointed out.

  “Absolutely,” Emeline said. “And one of my favorites.”

  “I’ll have to tell Maksim,” Blaze said, and another round of laughter went up.

  Andor. Thank you for this. I haven’t been able to sit around with girlfriends and just talk nonsense and laugh, not since Theodore murdered my family. I didn’t think I could ever have this again. You gave it to me, though, and I really appreciate it.

  Lorraine reached out to her lifemate, needing him to know what he’d done for her. What he’d given her. It was big. Enormous. Something beyond any price. She was beginning to understand the value system in the Carpathian world, and it had little to do with money or what they had. It was what they gave to one another.

  I did nothing to give you such a gift. The lifemates of my friends are good women. They are eager to accept you into our world.

  She felt the wash of love from him, brushing caresses in her mind. Again, the burn of tears was close, right behind her eyes, but she refused to shed them. She was happy. She enjoyed the sound of the other women teasing one another.

  Charlotte was the funniest and the most outgoing. She put Lorraine at ease immediately. Emeline was the sweetest. Lorraine wasn’t certain she had a mean bone in her body. Blaze was the most like her, a bit of a warrior woman.

  “Amelia is quite taken with you, Lorraine,” Charlotte said. “She told me you were talking together earlier. She wants self-defense lessons, but more, I would like you to really reach out to her and befriend her. She’s only fifteen. She recently had her birthday. Still a child, but she’s had to become an adult so fast. The past few weeks have been especially hard on her. It would be a big favor to all of us if you could become her friend and get her talking to you.”

  “She’s tried so hard with everyone,” Blaze said. “She loves Emeline, and we’re so lucky she’ll actually open up to Emme, but she needs to feel that all of us are here for her and that she has a much larger family. I’m hoping she looks at me like an aunt and that she’ll come to view you the same way.”

  Charlotte nodded. “They all need to feel as if we’re a family, especially Amelia. She’s so lost, and sometimes I’m afraid for her.”

  Emeline nodded, leaning into her hand so she could look Lorraine in the eyes. “Amelia is a sweet girl. This has all taken its toll on her, but she’ll come back. Give her time.”

  Lorraine knew there was a story there, but she wanted Amelia to tell her that story. “I would be more than happy to have another friend. Amelia seems like a wonderful girl. I really do believe in women learning to defend themselves. As for fighting vampires, which I believe is important to learn, all of my experience comes from picking the information out of Andor’s and the others’ heads.”

  “Wait.” Blaze held up her hand. “What do you mean by that?”

  “If you want to know how to fight a vampire, surely that information is in Maksim’s brain. You just have to access it.”

  “You said ‘others,’ ” Charlotte corrected. “As in more than Andor.”

  She nodded. “I’ve accessed Sandu, Ferro and Gary’s experiences, along with Andor’s. I think I’m fairly well-rounded when it comes to knowing battle techniques. I’ve been sorting through the information in order to see what specifically will work for women.”

  “How in the world can you see into Sandu’s brain, let alone Ferro’s and Gary’s?” Charlotte asked.

  Emeline pulled back in her chair, sitting very straight and regarding Lorraine as if she’d grown two heads.

  Lorraine shrugged, trying to be casual. Should I not have admitted I can see into the minds of others? Such as Sandu and Ferro, or the healer? Is that a breach of confidence?

  Of course not. The others would not care that those women know.

  “Lorraine?” Charlotte prompted. “How is that possible?”

  “When Andor was dying … Well, he actually appeared dead. The healer tried multiple times to find him and bring him back. In the end, Gary said it was impossible. He had to find a way to bring Andor back, but there was no following his soul. We weren’t bound together at that point, but Andor had explained the concept to me.”

  “That must have been terrifying, thinking you would lose your lifemate,” Charlotte said, laying a sympathetic hand over Lorraine’s briefly.

  She hadn’t known enough about being a lifemate at the time, but she’d known Andor was a lifeline. She’d been alone and drifting without a true purpose. She’d practiced meditation every day, sometimes several times a day, but she’d been unsuccessful in stilling her mind.

  She’d walked into her home and found a bloodbath. She’d found her parents, aunt and uncle and another pair of adults she’d known most of her life lying dead in a lake of blood. And Theodore.

  “Andor gave me back something I had lost, and I wasn’t about to lose him the way I’d lost everyone else in my life,” she explained. “I knew we had a strong connection and I asked the healer to let me try to find him. At first all of them protested, but you know, I was taught never to take ‘no’ for an answer if I knew in my heart I was right. So, I didn’t take ‘no.’ ”

  “That’s incredible, Lorraine,” Blaze said. “You went into the scary, between place?”

  “I don’t know what or where it was, but I told myself he was in a coma and couldn’t find his way out. I just had to reach him and I could guide him back. It didn’t quite work that way.”

  Charlotte nodded. “It couldn’t have, because you said you checked three Carpathian males’ minds for their experiences in battle.”

  Lorraine sighed. She didn’t know how to explain what had happened, but she was going to try. All three of the women were obviously fascinated. “Gary helped me shed my human body and I traveled with him into Andor’s body.” She gave a small little shudder, remembering the bitter cold. “I couldn’t reach him, but we came close. I could feel him. Gary explained it was further than he had gotten and we were running out of time.”

  She would never forget the urgency she’d felt. She’d nearly given in to a panic attack, but she’d managed to stave it o
ff with deep breathing. She’d idly expressed her regret that she and Gary couldn’t be tied together and both of them retrieve him. He would make her so much stronger. She hadn’t known what she was doing.

  None of the men had said anything for what seemed an eternity. The same urgency that had been on her before had worsened, until she’d wanted to scream. She’d pleaded with Gary to try again. It had been Ferro who’d reluctantly told her they could bind themselves to her and might be able to boost her strength and give her what she needed to pull Andor back. She’d jumped at the chance without knowing the consequences. Gary had tried to tell her, but all she’d cared about was bringing Andor back.

  “We performed a ritual to bind our souls together in order to reach Andor,” she admitted. “I didn’t realize that by doing so, I would have access to their private thoughts and also their battle experiences. Obviously, they can shield their minds from me, but no one does that day and night, twenty-four seven.” Looking at their shocked faces, she hastened to try to redeem herself. “I didn’t know what that meant. Seriously. I didn’t allow Gary to tell me when he wanted to. I just wanted Andor back and didn’t think beyond that.”

  “Ferro suggested it?” Charlotte asked.

  Lorraine nodded slowly. This was a bigger deal than you let on to me even when you explained about the danger to everyone.

  It is done. There is no undoing it.

  That much was the truth. Gary and the others had told her that once bound to her, they couldn’t undo the bindings. Only a lifemate could. She hadn’t cared. She’d only wanted to save Andor. She’d been very persuasive because the others had been adamant it wasn’t a good idea. She’d gotten her way.

  “The others tried to stop me,” she conceded. “I pushed and pushed until I finally got my way. That place is dreadful, filled with despair. It was just horrible and scary and took its toll on all of us, but in the end, it was so worth it in more ways than one.”

  “I don’t understand how that would work,” Emeline said, looking very confused. She looked to the two others as if they had the answer.