“You have their names, right?” Josef asked.
“Naturally. They applied for the job, interviewed and got it,” Maksim said.
Josef put his laptop on the table and opened it. “This is clean, you don’t have to worry. If you have the names, I can check them against the ones in the database of the Morrison Center. They tried to wipe some of them, but I have all the original data and receive it as it comes in. I might not get all of them, but we can get most of them. That should cut down on a big part of the search.”
Ferro liked the kid more and more. He was also beginning to think there was more to technology than he’d given it credit for.
Tariq pulled up his laptop. “This isn’t clean,” he said. “But I’ve got our secret weapon, Elisabeta, if she doesn’t mind once more helping me out, so I can send these names to you.”
“Just lend me your laptop,” Josef objected. “I can do the work on yours and then wipe it, and if Elisabeta doesn’t mind, she can work on me instead. She’s getting used to the mess inside my brain.” He sent Elisabeta a small smile.
Elisabeta smiled back at him and nodded her head. “There’s no mess, Josef.”
Ferro was shocked that she spoke aloud in the room filled with so many others. Apparently she shocked all of them as well, but no one reacted or brought attention to the fact.
Tariq pushed his laptop across the table to Josef and they all watched as his fingers flashed across the keyboard. Ferro hadn’t thought it possible for anyone to type that fast.
Ferro, what is it that the Malinovs wanted more than anything else? Elisabeta asked.
Ferro frowned. What was it the Malinovs wanted? They were reputed to have had many fiery debates all night and close to the dawn with the De La Cruz brothers, Astors, their cousins and so many others before they turned vampire. They were always riling against the prince and discussing how he didn’t deserve to rule the Carpathian people. They felt they could do a better job. That others could do a better job. They claimed the Dubrinsky lineage had a defect that ran deep and would bring disaster to the Carpathians if they didn’t do something soon. They achieved quite a following with their persuasive arguments and fiery rhetoric.
Power? To rule? They wanted to become the prince. To have what the Dubrinskys had.
Elisabeta was silent. They could all hear the keys clicking as Josef sat hunched in his chair, his fingers flying madly over the keyboard. Ferro had eyes only for his lifemate as her mind turned over the puzzle set before her.
Ferro suddenly felt the stillness in the other ancients so connected to him—to Elisabeta. They were aware she was putting the pieces together. Like Ferro, they knew how astute she was.
The prince of the Carpathian people cannot want power, Ferro. He has to be selfless. He has to be a vessel for his people.
That is true, Elisabeta, but not everyone understands that concept. Many rulers, in fact most rulers, are just the opposite. They do not serve their people; they expect their people to serve them.
Again, there was silence. This time, Ferro realized even Tariq was aware, through Gary, that Elisabeta was considering what the Malinov brothers were after. He didn’t want to influence her thinking one way or the other, and he hoped the others wouldn’t make the mistake of asking her questions. Elisabeta had her own way of getting to the right conclusions. She had spent centuries observing the brothers, more time than anyone else. They hadn’t known she was there, so they hadn’t been guarded.
Was Tariq born around the same time? Or was he older than them?
It was nearly impossible to tell any Carpathian’s age. Tariq was born after we were, but before the Malinov brothers. He knew them. He knew Vlad’s oldest son. He knew many of the Carpathian people. He came to the monastery once.
Again, Elisabeta fell silent. This time, Tariq flicked a quick glance at Gary, and Ferro knew immediately the two men were communicating telepathically and no one else was privy to what they were saying, not even Maksim, Tariq’s partner. Another prickle of unease slid down Ferro’s spine, and this one was fierce. Often it was that first acting on the awareness of danger that saved one’s life.
There was no real reason to think that Elisabeta could be in any kind of jeopardy, but he wasn’t about to take risks with her. All along he had had a vague impression of danger toward her, and now it was definitely defined and emanating from Tariq’s second-in-command. Gary. A man Ferro trusted.
He stood up, all flowing muscle, his arm around Elisabeta’s waist, bringing her up with him and sweeping her casually behind him so he was shielding her body from those at the table but making it seem as if it was an automatic gesture.
“We will return when Josef has finished with his work. It is a little close in here. Elisabeta needs to feed after removing the infection from so many, and she’ll have to work on Josef.”
He took two steps toward the door when Tariq and Gary both rose as well. At once those in the room went on alert.
“I believe Elisabeta still has to work on Tariq,” Gary said smoothly. “She was interrupted. We can follow you outside.”
Tariq shook his head when his guards rose. “You stay.” There was complete authority in the leader’s voice. “I wish to have a quiet word with Ferro and Elisabeta.” He gestured toward the door.
Ferro couldn’t think of a good reason to keep from going out in front of him. He pulled his lifemate around his body. Stay directly in front of me and walk straight out the door and down the hallway to the outside door. Open it and go outside. Don’t stop moving for any reason.
Elisabeta didn’t question him. Alarms were shrieking at him. On their private path he felt the stirring in his mind—his brethren as uneasy as he. Ferro? What is it? Petru asked the question all the brethren wondered.
I have no idea. Has Tariq alerted his guards against you?
No, they are as uneasy as we are. They do not know what he is up to, but they do not like him unprotected. Isai gave the answer.
Ferro made a sound of disbelief in his mind. He has the healer with him. Gary has the knowledge of every battle fought by every Daratrazanoff in the entire lineage. I hardly think Tariq is unprotected.
If you have need, we will come to your aid. That was Sandu, always ready to stand with him. Is Elisabeta in danger?
That was the worst of it. Ferro felt danger, but why would Tariq, or even Gary for that matter, threaten Elisabeta, who had gone out of her way to aid them? That made little sense. All along, from the moment of her first rising, there had been something Gary, at least, had known that Ferro didn’t.
His lifemate followed his instructions to the letter. She walked briskly down the hallway, straight to the door leading to the courtyard.
“I would prefer to talk inside,” Tariq said from behind them.
Ferro didn’t slow down. “Elisabeta is uncomfortable inside. I told you, she needs to be out in the fresh air.” He pushed air at her back, urging her to open the door before either Gary or Tariq held it shut on them and he was trapped in the narrow hallway with little room to fight their way out.
She yanked the door open and stepped outside. Ferro was right on her heels and he whirled around the moment he had room to face the two men emerging from the house. Elisabeta, stay behind me. If necessary, trust only the brethren. I do not know what goes on here, but I feel a threat to you. I am uncertain why. You should be safe here with both these men, but I do not feel as if you are. Can you read either of them without their knowledge?
They would know the moment Ferro touched their minds. He wasn’t going to risk an all-out battle with two experienced ancients like Gary and Tariq when Elisabeta was in such close proximity.
Perhaps. I would have to be very careful. Gary is . . . difficult. He is closed off. Tariq is more open but right now he is watchful and much more like the brethren than I have ever seen him. He is very dangerous right now, Ferro. I do not
know why he is upset, but he is very upset.
“Elisabeta is asking you questions. Private questions, Ferro, and those questions are about me.” Tariq made it a statement. “Specifically, about the prince, the past and about me.”
“We asked her whether she could figure out what the Malinov brothers might want from you—want enough that they would be willing to expose themselves and the Carpathian people to the humans in order to get it. Now, because she needs to ask questions to get information pertinent to solving the puzzle, you are all but threatening her.” Ferro pushed back at both of them, daring them to deny it.
Gary and Tariq exchanged another long look and clearly another brief telepathic consultation.
Elisabeta assessed the two Carpathians carefully. They are both very unhappy. Uneasy. They are uncertain whether they can trust you, Ferro, because you have never sworn allegiance to the prince.
You are reading their actual thoughts?
No, more like their body language and the nuances of their eye movements along with the glimpses of images I’m picking up from their minds. I am more familiar with Gary through you and the others than Tariq, but Gary is very closed off and I cannot penetrate too deep without risk of detection. I hesitate with Tariq because it feels like invasion. Prying. He is a good man. A decent one. He has the good of the people placed before all else. Even confronting us is difficult when he knows we came to their aid.
“Why have you never sworn allegiance to Mikhail?” Tariq asked. “Few of the brethren have done so.”
“It has never been required of us,” Ferro said.
“That is so, but some have done so. Is there a reason you have not?”
“I have never met Mikhail Dubrinsky. I do not blindly follow anyone. His father ultimately betrayed us in order to satisfy his lifemate. She could not stand the idea of losing her firstborn son, even though he was sick with the taint of the bad blood. Vlad had enough precog that he saw the downfall of the Carpathian people. He knew what we would suffer. He knew what his younger son would face, the near extinction of all of us, and yet, to please his woman, he refused to have his second destroy his son.”
“And yet you continued to serve our people with honor.”
“Vlad continued to try to serve our people with honor. He was weak when it came to his family, with the people he loved. I did not have a lifemate. I had no way of judging what I would do if I was in his shoes. Perhaps the fault lay with his second-in-command. I have no idea how that pairing works or if Roman Daratrazanoff could have killed Draven without destroying the bond between the prince and him.”
Gary and Tariq again looked at each other before Tariq nodded his head. That feeling of imminent danger was beginning to fade just a little from Tariq, but Ferro wasn’t any less alert. He still felt Gary was the main threat.
Tariq feels he should share information that he believes I will eventually figure out. Gary is resistant and says it is dangerous to trust anyone with the information, especially one not sworn to follow the prince.
In spite of the seriousness of the situation, Ferro couldn’t help but feel amused. His woman was just a little too intelligent and perceptive for men in powerful positions. She had learned her observation skills out of necessity and honed them over centuries. Like Tariq, he had no doubt that she would eventually uncover whatever secret Tariq was hiding. Somewhere in the past, one of the Malinovs had to have mentioned it, probably more than once in front of her without realizing she was in the same room with them. Something would trigger that memory.
Tariq insists that I already know but just have to remember, and Gary says that would mean the Malinov brothers knew, and it was an impossibility that they knew.
Do you know what they mean? What is it that you might know, Elisabeta? Ferro knew he was pushing her when she really needed time, but Gary was clearly in charge of protecting Tariq as well as something huge, something very few in the Carpathian world knew of. Maybe a secret that could mean the downfall of the prince and therefore the extinction of the Carpathian people.
Tariq says not if their father was one of the members of the council.
The moment she repeated the word council to him she went silent, and Ferro felt her once again withdrawing to the past, searching for more information through those centuries of conversations she’d overheard.
He needed her to sort through those conversations fast. If Ferro and Elisabeta weren’t lifemates, Gary would be able to catch portions of their private communications. He already knew they were speaking telepathically to each other as Tariq and he were. As Tariq’s appointed second-in-command and guardian, he would fulfill those duties with honor whether he wanted to or not. He was uneasy and watchful. He knew engaging in battle with Ferro would start an all-out war with every ancient in the compound, and they would have to take sides.
Elisabeta, I need to know what Gary and Tariq are saying to one another. He detested pulling her away from her memories, but he had to be warned if Gary was going to attack. He had to get his lifemate to safety. Killing her would be the fastest way for Gary to defeat him. He should have had Sandu or one of the other brethren accompany him whether Tariq wanted it or not.
Tariq says the Malinov brothers may have overheard their father talking to Roman. That is always a possibility. Or he broke the rules and talked directly to them, which Tariq doubts. He believes their father was a man of honor, and he would be appalled if he knew what his sons had chosen to do.
Ferro edged back, away from the two men, forcing his lifemate to step back as well. Keep moving very slowly toward the house Dragomir and Emeline used when they lived here. Inch back, piŋe sarnanak.
You believe Gary will attack us.
It is a possibility.
Because I know something they do not want me to reveal to the others. Tariq really does have something the Malinovs want, and it is that important.
I believe so, yes. Keep moving, sívamet. I need fighting room. The brethren will come to our aid. He said it with conviction. He knew he could count on most of them. Others had made a home with Tariq and he was no longer certain if their allegiance held to those sharing centuries in the monastery or had switched to the prince’s representative there in the States. There was irony in the fact that the infection hadn’t divided the compound and turned ancients against one another, but the unknown item the Malinov brothers searched for was close to doing so.
“Ferro.” Tariq sighed. “The Daratrazanoff family have been the guardians of the Dubrinskys for as long as the Carpathian people have existed. The Dubrinskys are the vessels for the collective power of the people. You are aware of that. We exist because they exist. Gary was sent to advise and guard me here at Mikhail’s request. We don’t always agree on everything, but we do try to listen to one another.”
Elisabeta laid her hand very lightly against the small of Ferro’s back, connecting them physically as well as mentally. She was merged with him, that delicate, compassionate mind, quiet within his, waiting to hear Tariq out. Like Ferro, she was patient, waiting for Tariq to find the right words to express himself. Both felt Gary’s disapproval. He didn’t agree with Tariq’s decision to share with the couple.
“You are also aware that when there is power such as the Dubrinskys wield, there can also be weakness. The taint of bad blood.”
Ferro inclined his head. That streak, unfortunately, didn’t just run in the Dubrinsky family. It was in many of the very powerful lineages. Sadly, the Dubrinsky family had been hit the hardest.
“I must have your word of honor that anything I tell the two of you will be held in absolute secrecy no matter what.” Tariq looked Ferro in the eyes. Man to man. Warrior to warrior. “You must close off your mind to all your brethren, including those soul-tied to you.”
Elisabeta? Ferro was not going to commit both of them to something without asking her first. She had to agree. She was intelligent and she had
a way of reading others far better than he did. I know you do not like making decisions. They paralyzed her. I am not asking for that. Rather, I value your input. I will make our decision based on what we both think jointly. Hopefully she understood what he meant.
Tariq is a man of absolute honor. He cares deeply for those he leads. Not only the Carpathian people but the humans around him as well. I believe him to be a good man. He is very torn because in telling us, he must break his vow of secrecy, but he believes I will discover the truth anyway.
Do you already know it?
She hesitated.
Elisabeta?
I believe so.
“It is possible Elisabeta already knows what you are going to tell us,” Ferro admitted. He ignored the way Gary stiffened, although he did move subtly to indicate to Elisabeta to step back from him. “We do not want to put you in a position of forcing you to break a vow you have held for centuries if you do not have to.”
“If she knows, it would be best for me to tell you up front about it so there are no misconceptions. No one is going to harm either of you. I am making that perfectly clear,” Tariq decreed. He glanced at Gary. “You have my word of honor on that. I still need your word, Ferro. From both of you.”
I am willing, Elisabeta said without hesitation.
“We both give you our word of honor that whatever you say to us goes no further.”
Tariq walked over to the bench placed in the garden, the one Genevieve loved to sit on while she watched the children play on the playground. He sank down, suddenly looking as if the weight of the world was on his shoulders. Ferro waited until Gary had followed and placed himself in a watchful position at Tariq’s right side. Ferro made certain he kept Elisabeta in a position where he could defend her. He believed Tariq meant his decree, that both were safe, but he was taking no chances with his lifemate’s safety. Tariq had given his word, Gary had not.
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