Are you all right? He wasn’t certain he could get enough air to breathe, so it seemed much more prudent to use their telepathic form of communication.
I am not certain if I am alive. In any case, if I am not, I am good where I am. Do not send a rescue party.
He laughed, mostly in his mind, sharing her amusement. Sharing his joy in her—in them. He brought her hand up to his mouth and brushed a kiss to her palm before pressing her fingers to his lips. I think I might still be right there with you in outer space somewhere, riding the tail of a comet. He scraped his teeth back and forth over the pads of her fingers.
I think you should have started with that lesson, Ferro. Perhaps we could have dispensed with all the rest.
Elisabeta sounded very serious and thoughtful, but her mind, merged with his, mellow and serene, held that amusement he found so incredibly wonderful, mostly because it was so different from those first risings when he had sung to call her to him.
He drew his thumb back and forth across her knuckles. No doubt you are right, minan piŋe sarnanak. She was about most things. Who was he to say, especially on such an important subject, anything different?
Her soft laughter poured over and into him. When she did that, it always felt like a cleansing, like she filled every crack and tear in his mind that all the centuries of hunting and killing, all the centuries of living in a gray void, had caused. She filled him with love.
18
Once blinded by the wicked, now your eyes are clear;
Look inside yourself, there’s nothing left to fear.
Elisabeta can’t keep doing this every rising,” Ferro objected. “Gary, you see the toll it’s taking on her.”
Gary nodded. “There’s no doubt it’s hard on her. I still don’t know what’s causing the infection. I can heal the deep scoring to the brain, the one that results after the infection, as can some of the more skilled ancients, but none of us can actually take away the infection the way she can. I don’t know any other word to call it, although technically, it isn’t an infection. It isn’t bacterial or viral. If it was, I could heal it. I’ve tried to mimic her actions. She has a gift, Ferro. She’s unique.”
Ferro didn’t need to be told that his lifemate was unique or special or gifted. He already knew those things about her. He didn’t want to take out the frustration he was feeling at his failure to protect Elisabeta on Gary at every turn. He had hoped to give her female friends and a home, where she could slowly learn the things that would make her comfortable in their world, but instead, every rising she was called on to repeat the same duties, clearing up repeated infections.
Josef, Danny and Amelia were infected nightly, Tariq nearly nightly, the ancients the least. The numbers were increasing, although because everyone was scanned nightly, the scorching was much lighter and easier for Elisabeta to remove. Still, the number of people she had to help tired her, although she never complained. Sandu, Andor, Dragomir and Gary stayed closer, as concerned as Ferro about her health.
“We’ve been keeping track of what everyone has been doing throughout their days and nights,” Gary said. “Trying to find a pattern, something everyone has in common. Keep in mind, these are human, Carpathian, men, women and children. A huge mix.”
The door to Tariq’s large meeting room crashed open and Josef bounded in. Ferro tightened his arms around Elisabeta and swung her away from the entrance, shielding her with his larger body. Startled, the action took her out of Tariq’s brain, bringing her back into the mix with the various ancients who had come together to try to puzzle out what was spreading the infection.
Josef didn’t seem to notice the frowns or glares of the older Carpathians or the amused looks of the women. “I found it. I know what’s causing the infection. They were so clever. I can’t believe I didn’t figure this out sooner.” There was admiration in his voice. “Seriously. And by the way, Ferro, Cornel saying they were working on some new algorithm to track the hunters was a bunch a bullshit. He knew Sergey wasn’t going to understand whether he could or couldn’t do what he said. He wanted access to the computers. Although they do have a program that they started working on that senses energy if a hunter is moving in the air . . .”
“Josef.” Tariq sounded patient. “What is causing the infection?”
“Oh, yeah. It was a really simple idea actually, and I should have realized it. We all use computers now. Even the kids. They just needed to get someone to bring their program into the main computer and let the virus spread to all the programs. One of the kids downloaded a game that carried the virus and it spread slowly at first and then took off, moving from program to program. You don’t have to have the original game. Danny and Amelia both have the game. At first I couldn’t figure out how the scorching was happening in the brain, but then I had to think outside the box when nothing else added up. So eventually I came up with the idea that they were able to embed magic into the code through the process of elimination, and asked Julija to take a look.”
“Is that even possible?” Maksim asked.
Ferro kept his eyes locked on the kid. He settled back in his chair, Elisabeta beside him. It was no wonder Cornel had his sights on Josef. The boy really was a true genius. It would be such a relief to finally have the mystery solved.
“Not only possible, but they also programmed everyone who was infected to open the gates to the compound on command,” Josef continued. “That way, if one was stopped, a number of others would obey the vampires. The infection would cause chaos, hopefully turning the ancients against one another. It really is a stroke of genius. The code is simple but extremely effective. They covered all the bases.”
“Are you able to get rid of it?” Tariq asked.
Josef shrugged. “It’s eaten through most or all of your programs. Everyone’s personal computers have to be wiped as well. It’s going to take a while to fix this. Your security people, all the kids. It’s a process. I’m going to have to check your computers at the club as well. If you used any of the same programs, you could have infected those computers.”
Ferro winced inwardly. They had to tell the kid that he was being targeted by Cornel and Dorin. Sergey couldn’t think past getting Elisabeta back, but his two cousins were set on bringing Josef into their fold any way they could.
Tariq waved Josef toward a chair. “We have some things we have to go over with you, Josef. As you know, the Morrison Center for psychic research has become a front for the vampires to track possible lifemates for Carpathian males. They wanted to get to them before we could. They also found psychic males. They’re recruiting and using them as pawns. Some of the males have been hired to work in my club. Others are being turned into vampires and used as the first wave of their army against us, as you saw when they attacked the other night.”
Josef sat quietly, a feat Ferro hadn’t thought possible for the kid.
His brain is always assessing every possibility, Gary said. It never stops.
Elisabeta agreed. I do not think it is possible for him to slow his brain down. He tries to. When I was working on him, he tried not to think too much about what was happening to him or to the others, but he could not stop himself. He was especially upset with that first time, when he said things to Tariq. They were very unlike him. He went over and over the things he said in his mind to try to puzzle out why he had said them.
Ferro was gifted at reading others, and a young Carpathian should have been easy, but Josef held himself aloof, away from the others. Ferro could guess why. The boy was different and had been his entire life. He hadn’t lost his ability to feel emotions, and the opinions of others had to be hurtful. He often was the smartest one in the room but was overlooked because of his youth. He had to have been frustrated that no one listened to him. He’d learned to school his features into an expressionless mask when he was in the room with ancient hunters who most likely would look down on him. He wore his spiked col
ored hair and piercings as armor. All the while, he fought for his people in his own way.
The boy has courage. It was a high compliment coming from Sandu.
Ferro nodded his head. I agree. I do not want him walking into the lion’s den. No doubt he will volunteer to go to the club the moment Tariq informs him that Cornel hopes to lure him there with a woman and acquire him.
Gary, merged with the other ancients, gave the mental equivalent of shaking his head. We can’t take chances with him. He’s far too valuable to the Carpathian people. I gave my word to Mikhail that he would be safe. He gave his word to his adopted parents. They nearly lost him once before, and the prince doesn’t want to have to tell them again that Josef is in danger.
Ferro could well imagine that Josef was in a perpetual state of being in danger. The boy was slender but appearances were deceptive. A rod of steel ran through him. His devotion to the Carpathian people ran as deep as every warrior’s.
“Based on the intelligence Elisabeta has provided for us, we don’t believe Sergey is necessarily the mastermind behind the plot to bring Mikhail down. With his older brothers dead, we think Sergey’s cousins, Cornel and Dorin, are working behind the scenes to carry out the original plans. Both are gifted, as were the older Malinov brothers.” Tariq paused, his gaze sweeping around at the men and women sitting at the table in the room.
Josef followed his gaze and then came back to rest thoughtfully on the leader. “They’re planning a major bloodbath, aren’t they?” There was resignation in his voice. “It has to be a diversion. What are they really after?”
The boy was really too smart.
“Sergey hopes to lure Elisabeta there, and Cornel hopes to lure you.” Tariq was honest.
Traian shook his head. “Josef can’t go near that place.”
Josef frowned. “Excuse me, Tariq, but that doesn’t make sense. We have to break this down. If those psychic males were planted at the club over time and not just since Sergey took over, then there was no way of knowing that he would lose Elisabeta. Cornel would have no way of knowing I would make a trip from the Carpathian Mountains to the United States. If a plan was made by the Malinov brothers for the vampires to create a diversion, then it was for another reason altogether. Elisabeta and I are merely additional reasons now.”
That kid is worth his weight in gold, Petru said. He is right.
There was a stunned silence. Traian inclined his head in a show of respect toward Josef. “You never cease to astound me. Tariq, what do you have that the Malinov brothers would want that they would risk exposure to the world for? Not only exposure to the world, but the retaliation of every Carpathian hunter coming after them?”
“I can’t imagine.”
“You have lived here for a very long time. You have been in the States longer than any other Carpathian and lived among humans the longest,” Traian reminded.
Tariq shook his head. “I’m sorry. That’s all true, but it doesn’t mean anything to me. I have no idea why they would target me, other than I represent the prince here, and that’s recent.”
“Elisabeta?” Traian turned to her. “Do you have any idea what the Malinov brothers were after?”
As usual, when asked a direct question in front of so many people, she shut down, withdrawing into the safety of her mind merge with Ferro. Ferro mentally bared his teeth at her birth brother. He knew better than to put Elisabeta on the spot like that. There were too many people in the room, too many eyes on her. Too many ways for her to be wrong.
There is no wrong answer, piŋe sarnanak. Traian may be your brother, but he is a thoughtless lout and his lifemate will spend centuries teaching him how to be kind before she ever allows him in her bed again.
Not only did he allow his beloved woman to hear him, but Sandu, Andor and Dragomir heard as well. All three of the ancients looked at Traian and Joie. Red flames flickered in the deep black of Sandu’s eyes.
Strangely, Tariq and Gary had gone silent, and once again Ferro got the very uneasy feeling he’d had almost from the moment he’d brought his lifemate from the rich healing soil that first rising when he’d claimed her. He flicked them a quick gaze. There was nothing to be seen on either face, but he hadn’t expected there to be.
I apologize, Elisabeta, Traian said immediately. It was thoughtless of me. I was thinking only of solving the mystery. I know you’re tired and probably frightened by all of us. I have to ask you again, though, do you have any idea what the Malinovs may have wanted from Tariq? Did you overhear them talking? It would have to be something extremely important for them to risk so much. Sergey might not even know or understand what they were talking about.
I do not . . . She trailed off.
Cornel and Dorin would know. Sergey is fixed only on getting you back. That is all he thinks of. Cornel and Dorin would know what their cousins were after. They would know the importance of it and would seek it as well.
Ferro.
Ferro knew his lifemate deliberately addressed him alone.
I need time to think about this. There were so many conversations. So many things said, and this is important, so I have to really give myself time to sort it all out.
“Elisabeta will need time to think about this, Tariq. She does not want to rush an answer. In the meantime, we can discuss the fact that the danger to Elisabeta and Josef is very real and we need to keep a close watch on them. Josef, will you be able to work on the club’s computers remotely?” Ferro asked.
Deliberately, Ferro engaged with Tariq, pushing just a little to see if the leader really wanted answers to the question Traian had proposed.
Josef was slow in answering. He shrugged casually. “I’m not certain. I have to go over the programs here first and wipe everything clean and reinstall them. Julija needs to work with me just to make certain the magic isn’t lingering behind in the computers. In the meantime, everyone, including your security people, has to stay off their computers. If they took laptops or tablets home, they need to wipe them clean and start over. If they have families, they should make certain they do the same with those computers, and someone should check their children or spouses to make certain no one is infected.”
Ferro had the feeling the boy was hedging a bit. He was leaving himself an opening to go to the club. He didn’t think it was because Josef was foolhardy, it was more he thought he needed to serve the Carpathian people in whatever capacity he could.
He does not believe he will ever be a decent hunter of the vampire, does he? he asked Gary, deliberately engaging with him, trying to feel his way. That threat to Elisabeta was definitely back, yet Gary was still the same, still felt calm and matter-of-fact.
No. I’ve seen that in his mind many times. His genius lies with technology, although he is skilled in healing and he does have many skills in fighting already. He’s been in battles with werewolves and vampires and done very well.
He is alive, that is saying a lot about him if he managed to remain so after a fight with either. Ferro regarded the boy, trying to think ahead of him.
Elisabeta’s gentle essence filled his mind, her soothing nature creating that sense of peace she always brought with her. He glanced down at her and found she was looking up at him with her dark, beautiful eyes. His heart clenched hard in his chest. He tightened his fingers around hers and brought their clasped hands over his heart. He loved her with every part of his being. More than he thought possible. More than he knew love existed in the world.
He has been told often that he will never make a great hunter of the vampire. That he is too slow. Too thin. His body type too wrong. There is another who is close to him, one he admires, who says vicious, cutting things to him to make him feel less, and he believes it because he feels different and apart from others. He has been made to feel that way for many years.
Ferro felt a sense of protection well up for the boy. Where are those who should be ca
ring for this boy?
His parents are dead. He did not believe his adopted parents wanted him until they came for him when he went with Skyler to find her lifemate and took him back from the werewolves. Elisabeta had found that information in Josef’s mind.
Why would he think his adopted parents did not want him? Ferro had no idea why he was pursuing the matter. It wasn’t like he was in the market for taking on a boy like Josef. He didn’t know the first thing about young kids—especially modern ones, and Josef was definitely modern. Ferro considered himself a throwback to the old days.
They have a son. He was or is very jealous of Josef—at least it feels that way to me when he says the things to Josef that he does. I have no real way of reading him unless he was here. I feel sad for him as well. The misunderstanding of youth when parents are not paying close attention can be brutal.
Ferro didn’t know about that. His parents were long gone from the world and it was difficult to access any real memory of his childhood. He did know they had instilled a sense of duty and honor in him.
“We have to go to the club and identify those males working for the Malinovs,” Maksim said. “The club is quite large. We’ll need several of our most sensitive to move through the floors as quickly as possible and scan.”
“The Malinov brothers will have provided them with some kind of shield to prevent us from reading them,” Tariq pointed out. “If it was going to be that easy, we would have discovered them already.”
Ferro knew that was true. Elisabeta, these male psychics working in the club, if we go there and are in another form, moving unseen, as we were in the forest, would they be able to detect our presence the way the newly made vampires were able to do?
If they are close together, I think they will, although they will not know you are there for the specific purpose of finding them.
“When we were hunting Sergey and the other master vampires, the newly made vampires could detect us when they were together,” Ferro told the other hunters. “It has something to do with the psychics being close to one another and their gifts specifically blending together. However it works, they can detect our presence, even when we’re unseen. Elisabeta thinks it will occur the same way in the club if the males are close to one another, although they will not know the reason we are there.”
Dark Song Page 36
