Cornel is arguing for a compromise. He wants Sergey to allow each of the master vampires to bring seven to ten servants with them.
Seven to ten? There were seven master vampires if one counted Sedrick and Edward. If they weren’t bringing all of their servants, that meant the Carpathians were outnumbered by far more than they had counted on. The Malinov brothers had planned their coup for centuries. They’d had a tremendous amount of time to find a way to get other vampires to follow them. No one had ever thought it possible.
They will call some to go with them, but not all, because they do not want a bloodbath in the city. That would draw too much unwanted attention. Cornel still wants to draw Josef to the underground club using a woman he would be attracted to. At that time, he would bring more servants to feast.
Ferro had wanted to kill Sergey. That had been his primary mission. Now, for the safety of the Carpathian people, as well as the humans who had thrown their lot in with Tariq and were helping to guard the children and even the Carpathians, the ancients had no real choice but to get the information back to the compound. With Sergey and the other master vampires traveling with such a large army, they wouldn’t be able to attack without the vampires becoming aware that they had overheard their plans and even knew their numbers. It went against the ancient hunters’ code to leave the master vampires without killing a single one of them. It was almost painful to let them go.
Ferro studied the exodus of vampires, the way each of the master vampires and his servants left the forest. Ambrus was the last to leave and he kept circling above the twisted trees with their dank, gray netting of poisonous webs. He showed the suspicion of a wild animal. At one point he even put his nose to the ground and sniffed and had his servants do the same. Eventually, he gave up and took to the air, heading in the same direction as the others.
He will come back. Do not move, Elisabeta warned.
Ambrus returned a few minutes later, swooping out of the sky and dropping low to examine the earth again. He quartered the area, using his heightened sense of smell. Finally, satisfied, he followed the others.
You cannot clean up the forest or clean out the lair yet, Elisabeta cautioned. Not if you do not want them to know you have been there.
That was also a blow to Ferro, but the safety of the compound had to come first.
17
A symphony of power rolling through the land;
You and I together, here we make our stand.
Ferro sang his song to wake his lifemate, to bring her to him. He had woken, his first thoughts of her, his woman, his true purpose now, where before his life had been consumed by hunting—and killing the vampire. Now, the first awareness was of Elisabeta. The joy of her. The compassion in her. The soft sweetness of her. Just . . . Elisabeta.
She had become his everything. His center. His world. He had always held such a misconception of lifemates. Maybe it was just him—or perhaps all males did. He had never thought to ask Isai or Andor what they had considered before they found Julija or Lorraine. Ferro had believed he would be Elisabeta’s center and she would devote herself completely to him. He would carry out his work hunting the vampire and return to her when he was able. It had never occurred to him that the power of lifemates meant he would never want to be without her. Again, it was possible that it was Elisabeta’s power over him.
The moment he was aware, even before he opened his eyes, he felt joy in just being. In the miracle of knowing she existed. He found her to be the most amazing, multifaceted creature on the face of the earth. She held so much talent, so many gifts, was so giving and yet was so selfless and thought so little of herself or for herself. She was a complex, wonderful puzzle he knew he would never completely understand in the time they had to share together.
He had hunted for fresh blood, taking enough for both of them, as he did each rising. There would come a time soon when he would have to teach her to be more self-sufficient, but there were so many other lessons, and she was pushed to her limit as it was. She never protested, but he could feel her struggling at times and he felt he walked that fine line of trying to shield her and letting her take those steps on her own.
Ferro opened the ground for her and met her there, his arms welcoming. The moment Elisabeta floated to him, her body tight against his, he took her to their forest, where he knew she was the happiest. Without the modern confines of a house and the pressures of trying to figure out furniture and entertaining, they could just be Ferro and Elisabeta, lifemates, learning about each other and enjoying the process. They had this one rising before they would have to once again serve their people. This time was theirs.
Elisabeta wrapped her arms around his neck and nuzzled him, the feel of her mouth against his skin exquisite. The softness of her breasts pressing tightly to him as she took his blood added to the sheer intimacy of the erotic feeding. He had taken blood over centuries and given it, but nothing had prepared him for taking from or giving to his lifemate. She made his blood rush hotly in his veins to pool wild and thick in his groin. He savored the feeling and always would, never taking it for granted after so many centuries without her.
He pushed back her dark hair, needing to see her beloved face, her high cheekbones, her large eyes and those lush lashes. He had memorized every detail of her, but each rising he marveled at her beauty. It seemed impossible to hold the exact feel of how soft she was, or how feminine her form truly felt against his no matter how many times he took those images into his mind and etched them there.
Ferro. You think these things and I do not know how to process them. The healing saliva closed the pinpricks, her tongue sliding over his neck in a velvet, sensual rasp. She slowly sat up, blinking up at him with a faint smile on her face.
His woman. She was still uncertain what she really meant to him. She had so long been made to believe that she was worthless. It was difficult for her to really understand his feelings even when she was merged with him.
He bent his head to take her mouth. Those lips of hers. So tempting. How could he possibly resist? I think those things because they are true, minan piŋe sarnanak. It would be impossible for me to do without you. You really are my world.
That mouth of hers. Hotter than hell. Igniting a firestorm in him—in her, in them—until it burned so out of control neither could think clearly. Kissing her took him to another realm, one he hadn’t known existed. Fire burned through him, flames licking along his spine, dancing over his skin, over their skin. Little sparks of electricity arced between them.
They had to stop before he couldn’t. He knew it was getting more difficult for him every rising, not claiming his woman. He didn’t want her to come to him for the wrong reasons—and she would. That would be so like Elisabeta, putting his needs before her own. Throughout the centuries they would spend together, he would always have to check himself that he didn’t take advantage of her giving nature.
He broke off the kiss reluctantly, clothing both of them as he stood, setting her on her feet, right on the narrow deer path just at the edge of the meadow.
“Ferro?” Elisabeta touched her lips with slightly trembling fingers. “Is something wrong?”
“Everything is right, sívamet. Too right. You are very difficult to resist.” He took her hand and began to walk along the trail with her, deeper into the woods. “I want you to pay attention to every detail around you. You are very good at that. You have to have every image in your mind so that you can reproduce each detail when you need it. That will be essential when we lay our traps this next rising.”
She moistened her lips, her gaze shifting up to his face. “Our traps?”
He nodded and pulled her closer, matching her shorter steps. “Cornel has devised a plan to attack the nightclub. He plans to let loose an army of their servants, all hungry for fresh blood, a diversion to acquire young Josef for them. And you for Sergey. We do not want to lose any humans to their army of
servants. We have called our own army to combat them. You are our secret weapon against them, Elisabeta. And you are my secret weapon against Sergey.”
She walked beside him in silence, her back and shoulders straight. His woman, up to the challenge. Thoughtful. “Sergey is very dangerous. Cunning. Never forget that he has slivers of each of his brothers residing in his brain. If that is not enough to beware of, he also has two of Xavier, the high mage.”
“Does he know how to access their aid without you?” Ferro asked, keeping the inquiry gentle. It was always a sore subject whenever he brought up just how much Elisabeta had helped Sergey against his brothers over the years. She didn’t really understand that her own nature had betrayed her. It was impossible for her to watch the victim of cruelty suffer, no matter if that person was good or bad themselves. She was compelled by her nature to help them.
“I have never seen him do so. He has a disconnect in his mind with certain things, especially anything to do with magic or psychic abilities beyond Carpathian skills. His safeguards were always the weakest of the brothers’. They were always extremely cruel to him over his safeguards.”
“And you aided him?”
Elisabeta nodded. “I had to be careful when I was teaching him to weave more strands because he would get so angry when he couldn’t do it. I felt bad that I made him feel less intelligent. I didn’t mean to. I spent time studying how he learned things. Once I knew, it was so much easier to teach him things.”
The entire time they walked along the narrow winding path in the deeper forest that moved around and between trees, he could see she was scanning both sides of the path and noting every tree and bush along the way. She didn’t seem to miss anything even though the conversation they were having was obviously important.
“You taught him every one of his safeguards? He has never made up any of his own?”
“No. He is incapable of straying from utterly basic safeguards or the more intricate ones I taught him. He normally used those to keep his brothers and cousins away from his sleeping chambers. He was always paranoid, with good reason, that they might want him dead.”
“Did they want him dead?”
“Yes, they thought him the weakest link.”
“And without you, he was.”
She nodded. “I made certain that he became an asset to them, without making them feel as if he was in any way a threat to them. It was a difficult balance and I made mistakes. His ego, especially when they made fun of him, could make him especially cruel. He had to believe he was the one outsmarting them. It is strange that over the centuries I lost sight of that. I began to believe he was the one who was so powerful on his own.”
“Sergey had to know it was you.”
“He knew, but that made him angrier and more resentful. I suppose that was why he set out to convince me I was worthless to him.”
Ferro realized just what a terrible balancing act Elisabeta always had to have with Sergey. He would want to feel as powerful as his brothers. He had been a mean, cruel boy, killing animals in the forest and then, later, human children, preying on those weaker than himself in order to bolster his belief that he was every bit as formidable as his brothers. He was just cunning enough to hide his sickness from those adults around him in order to keep them from destroying him.
His father was off hunting vampires, preoccupied with his life. In those days, parents often paid little attention to the children as they reached the older ages. Other Carpathians took over training. A boy like Sergey could easily slip through the cracks. He would become a loner, going into the forest to carry out his ugliness while his much more intelligent brothers held the spotlight.
“He was close to his sister, Ivory. She protected him from much of the teasing from his older brothers. I think she softened it so it sounded less cruel and more affectionate. They were often together. When she disappeared, he was devastated. Even that was seen by his brothers as weakness. They wanted him to hate the prince, to turn on him as they had. To blame Vlad for her disappearance. Sergey blamed himself for not looking after her. The crueler his brothers were to him, the more that sickness in his mind came out and he started that ugly behavior, going into the forest and hurting animals and then children.”
There was compassion in her mind for the lost soul of Sergey Malinov and for all those he tortured and destroyed over the long centuries he lived. She was incapable of feeling loathing for him or any other. There was no such thing as hatred in her makeup. She sought to prevent Sergey from feeling the need to hurt others. On some level she simply couldn’t understand that driving compulsion in him and others like him to watch others suffer.
“You are certain Sergey will only use safeguards you have taught him to weave, then?” Ferro reiterated.
“I am very certain,” Elisabeta said.
“I think we have gone far enough,” Ferro decided. “Have you memorized the entire pathway?”
Elisabeta looked around her and nodded. “I believe so.”
He framed her face and kissed her again, just because there was no resisting her, especially not there in their forest. “Of course you have. We need to put in a little time with shifting fast, piŋe sarnanak. I know you have no objections to that.” She particularly loved shifting and flying and she’d become very adept at it.
“Right here?” There was a touch of eagerness in her voice.
They were in deep forest and he had always had her shift near the edge of the meadow. It was much more dangerous with trees close together and branches overlapping. They had practiced flying through the forest, but they’d stayed within the trees on the outskirts just ringing the meadow.
“Yes. I believe you are more than ready for shifting and flying through the interior of the woods. We will start out slow, Elisabeta.” He couldn’t help pouring caution and command into his voice. It was always dangerous in the smaller confines of the trees. One mistake and it would be easy to suffer an injury—or worse. He knew Elisabeta had the skills. She was too detail-oriented not to. She hadn’t missed a single thing he’d shown or told her since he’d started with any of their lessons, and she loved flying.
“I want you to be able to move very fast through these woods, whether it be on foot, as an owl or in any other way you have to do it,” he added. “We’ve gone through them. This is our home. Our haven. It is where both of us feel safest.”
Dark suspicion crept into her mind and then her eyes but she refrained from voicing a single question, nor did she go into his head as she could have to read what his intentions were. Elisabeta’s brain was sharp and moved fast, figuring out what he planned. He didn’t want her to be afraid, not for herself or for him or anyone else. To distract her, he pointed to the upper branches of the shortest tree.
“We are both going to start at the bend in the path, running and shifting as we go. You will have to rid yourself of clothes, hold the image of the owl in your head, every detail, and lift yourself into the air all at the same time.”
They had practiced running and shifting in the meadow over and over, so he knew she could easily shed her clothes and become the owl. They’d also practiced the owl rising into the air and moving through the trees at the edge of the woods. Those trees were farther apart, but some branches were still interlocking. She had been extremely successful at that as well. Now, he wanted all the pieces put together because this might be life or death.
Ferro would stay merged with her so there would be no mistakes. He kept his hand firmly wrapped in hers as they walked to the bend in the very narrow pathway. The trail was no more than a deer path cut through the brush and trees, not really allowing for both of them to walk side by side. He had led the way so when he stopped and turned, she was ahead of him. He allowed her hand to slip from his.
Go, Elisabeta. Run. Shift. Fly. He pushed the commands into her mind.
She didn’t hesitate, taking off instantly. He
was right behind her, stride for stride, his footsteps in hers, his breath on her neck. She was astonishingly fast. They had practiced repeatedly and he had noticed that she had improved every time, but she also went over and over the procedure in her mind until she was faster and better at it every time.
Her clothes were gone and she was already the small Western Screech Owl in the air, maneuvering through the low branches of the trees toward the one he had indicated he wanted her to come to rest on. She actually flew faster than he would have liked for their first time, but he didn’t distract her by admonishing her to slow down. She landed on the exact branch he had designated, digging her talons into the limb, her wings out to steady herself, and then folding them neatly into her sides. Ferro landed beside her.
That was amazing, Elisabeta. I am very proud of you. Terrified, but proud. She might need that speed. We will fly back to the bend at a much more leisurely pace and do it again.
He didn’t want to tire her out. She would need every ounce of strength when they went up against the army the Carpathians were certain they would be facing. This night was for them—perhaps the only one they would have. One never knew what the future would hold and he wanted time for them. It seemed they got very little for themselves.
He had her make the run two more times before he called a halt to her continuing lessons. She really didn’t need them. They were more for his peace of mind.
We do not have a lot of time to be alone together, Elisabeta, and I wish to spend what we have enjoying every moment with you. I share you with so many out of necessity, but I do prefer to have you to myself. This night is for us.
I prefer that as well, she admitted.
There was a sensual quality in her voice he’d never heard before, one that played over his skin in spite of being deep within the owl’s body. He was merged with her, mind to mind, and it was impossible not to feel the way she responded to him both physically and emotionally. He wanted her with every breath he drew, and it felt as if Elisabeta wanted him the same way.
Dark Song Page 34
