“It was decided, long before Vlad became prince, that no one could have that much power without someone watching over them, especially when a strain of bad blood could mar the ruling family. A secret board was set up, a council to oversee the prince if there ever is a question of leadership or his state of mind. The council members are not known to one another. It is for their protection. If their identity is known to the prince, or to anyone else for that matter, they could be hunted down and killed for any number of reasons.”
Ferro frowned. He had been alive for more centuries than most and he had never heard the slightest rumor of such a thing. Not one whisper.
“It is my understanding that there are five council members. If the prince’s actions come under question, each member is contacted separately and asked to visit the prince on some pretense. One speaks with him and eventually discusses the matter. Individually, the council member must determine whether they believe there is cause for concern and give an opinion on whether the prince needs to be removed and his heir put in place or a different solution made. Some way to resolve whatever the situation is.”
“Five council members, so if three weigh in the same way, the matter is decisive,” Ferro said. “That makes sense.”
Tariq nodded. “We do not know who the other council members are and we’ve taken a vow of honor never to speak of this so we can’t consult with one another and persuade each other over to one side or the other.”
“What do you have that the Malinov brothers think would allow them to take over the leadership of the Carpathian people? Is there some actual tool that could take the power from the Dubrinsky line?” Ferro asked.
Tariq glanced at Gary and then shook his head. “There is a misconception perhaps. The Dubrinskys are vessels that hold the power of the Carpathian people. The Malinovs do not have that in their lineage.”
That said nothing at all. It was avoiding the question.
Elisabeta?
He is very concerned. There is something he guards. Each member of the council has something. He is worried that the Malinov brothers found their father’s when he died. It should have returned on its own to the Daratrazanoff line but it didn’t.
Ferro flicked his gaze to Gary’s impassive features. “It is impossible to hide things from Elisabeta. You know they have what should have returned when Malinov died. You have known this for some time.”
Tariq’s head jerked up and he glared at his second-in-command.
Gary shrugged unemotionally. “We suspected, but we had no way of knowing until now. We couldn’t do anything about it and there was no reason for anyone to know.”
Tariq stared at him for another long moment, clearly disagreeing. He turned back to Ferro and Elisabeta. “Each council member is given . . .”
“Tariq, this is going beyond what they need to know,” Gary cautioned.
“Is it?” Tariq asked. “If Cornel and Dorin are going to allow Sergey to use Elisabeta as their excuse to turn my club into a bloodbath, Ferro and Elisabeta should know what they are fighting for.” He smiled at Elisabeta. He looked tired. For the first time, the centuries—and his duties—seemed to really weigh heavily on his shoulders. “In any case, no doubt our Elisabeta will be able to find that piece of the puzzle somewhere in her memories as well, won’t you?”
To Ferro’s utter astonishment, she gave Tariq a tentative smile, surrounding him with her fragrance of soothing peace. “Yes.”
A small breeze rustled the leaves on the ground and blew them in small eddies around their feet, bringing with them a sense of comforting atmosphere. It was impossible not to relax in the wake of Elisabeta’s serenity. Ferro could see the darkness in Gary lifting, just being close to her, in spite of the heavy burdens centuries of warriors had instilled in him.
“There are five extremely small pieces of what is believed to be made from a single larger stone from the earliest history of the Carpathian Mountains. The flysch band is the only interconnecting band that runs throughout the entire mountain range. These five pieces should be fragile, as they are from what is essentially shale carved into interlocking pieces. They are of the earth, of the mountains. The piece I have is extraordinarily strong. Still, I have kept it safe and free from harm for centuries. I would imagine that Malinov did his piece as well, if, indeed, he was a member of the council.”
Elisabeta nodded her head. “He was. At least his sons talked as if he was.”
“Do you know where that piece is? Who has it now?” Gary asked.
I would have to think about it. It is not easy to remember all the conversations, but at least I know what I am looking for now.
“Elisabeta will try to remember,” Ferro relayed. He found it interesting that Elisabeta elected not to talk to Gary when she was willing to speak with Tariq.
Gary contemplated starting the war by killing me in order to get you to turn vampire. That would give him ample reason to kill you and force the other ancients to aid him in defeating you.
She wasn’t upset with Gary for considering killing her—that was acceptable because he was protecting the interests of the Carpathian people—but it wasn’t acceptable to her that the healer was putting Ferro at risk to lose his honor after so many centuries of holding on.
“She is not happy with you, Gary,” Ferro couldn’t help but add. “Looking into your mind and seeing your plan did not sit well with her. She didn’t mind that you would kill her, but she did mind that you wanted me to lose my honor and become vampire.”
“Had he carried out his plan, Elisabeta, which would have been despicable, we would have lost the potential to know where the Malinov piece was,” Tariq pointed out. “A little short-sighted.”
“That is why I am not the leader of our people,” Gary said.
“Cornel and Dorin believe that you hold this piece at the night club. Tell me you do not,” Ferro said. “I do not wish to know where it is, only that it is not there.”
“It is not. It is nowhere they could ever get their hands on it.”
19
The cage has collapsed, the prisoner stands tall;
The battle is ours to end, once and for all.
Ferro didn’t know if he sang their song or if Elisabeta did when he first woke that next rising to find them blood. He only knew that much later, when she came to him in the sanctuary of their forest, she surrounded him with love. He felt so much emotion he was drowning, threatening to a centuries-old warrior who fought without a single sentiment for so long. It was beautiful. She made the colors of the forest, already so vibrant now that he could see them, even more vivid.
He had doubts for so long that she would never be able to live with him as he was, but the way she looked into his eyes, holding his body close, her hands pressing into his back, fingers digging into his shoulders and then down to his hips, told him she would stay for eternity. She made the earth move under them while the moon and stars seemed to spin overhead. Sounds of the ocean roared in his ears, a symphony of the greatest music the world could give them.
He threaded his fingers through hers, there in the forest, their favorite place of complete harmony, his body deep in hers, surrounded by fire, by her tight, silken sheath, knowing what he had been given and yet already her body was claiming his, driving out every sane thought until it was only the two of them going up in flames. Her breathy moans, the way she chanted his name, as if he were her only focus in the world. She made him feel that way.
He loved her with every stroke of his body. Every movement of his surging hips. Of his fingers clamping down so tightly on her hips, urging her to meet his thrusts. He had wanted to be her shelter, and yet she had become his. He found himself lost in her. The way she came so gently into his mind and memories, filling all those tears and cracks that had formed over the centuries from the battles and kills, the wounds he’d sustained. She managed, with her compassion and soothing natu
re, to find a way to repair every tattered rend in his heart, those terrible black holes that had stripped his humanity from him.
Ferro framed her beloved face with both hands and looked down into her eyes. “I love you, sívamet. You are hän ku vigyáz sívamet és sielamet, keeper of my heart and soul, and you have done so in ways I could never imagine. I am so in love with you, Elisabeta. I will make mistakes, and I will forget to tell you how truly beautiful you are, both inside and out, and if that happens, please remind me that there are very necessary things to say to you each rising.”
He bent his head and brushed kisses over each eye, her nose, the corners of her mouth and then her lips. He loved her mouth. The curve. The definition. The way she tasted when she parted her lips for him. The fire there. The love he found there. The true meaning of lifemate when she gave him everything that she was.
“We could just stay right here, piŋe sarnanak. You could practice your flying, although you have gotten quite good. So much so that I believe that last time you were showing off a bit.”
She laughed. He loved when she genuinely laughed. He knew that was so rare for her, and when he could actually give that to her, those moments of joy, he found those were the times he valued the most.
“I would like that, kont o sívanak, but somehow I do not think they will allow us the freedom to do so. No doubt one of the brethren will be calling you soon, wondering where we are. We have this battle plan, and you and I are an integral part of it.”
“The more I think about it, the less I like this idea,” Ferro said with a sigh, rubbing his face on the curves of her breast, leaving red marks from the short stubble he knew she liked when he was extremely attentive between her legs. “Why is it that no matter what I do, you always seem to be in some kind of danger?”
“Tariq put the call out for more Carpathians and I thought many came. Am I wrong?”
Elisabeta was always that voice of calm—of sweet reason when there was none—when it came to putting her in danger.
He growled at her to show his disapproval. She laughed again, not in the least impressed with his very lethal imitation of a wolf. He bent his head to her bare breast and nipped. She jumped and settled when he lapped soothingly at the little mark with the healing saliva of his tongue. Her fingers fisted in his hair.
“Josef will be in more danger than I will. I do not like that he will put himself in the open like that in order to draw the Malinov cousins in. I honestly do not think it will work. Sergey I can call in. He will not be able to refuse my call, but they will send servants to collect Josef. They will be counting on the diversion to search the place they believe the object they seek is.”
“Have you remembered where that is?” He stroked his hand down her body, a bit possessively, from her throat to her waist.
Ferro knew they were running out of time. He detested giving up their brief moments together. It was never enough. No matter if they spent a day, a week, a year alone, for him it wouldn’t be enough. He wanted more time to just take her in. Revel in her. Please her. Find ways to make her laugh and enjoy life. Show her the wonders of the world. Learn things together. Have firsts. Just be.
“I have no way of knowing where Tariq put his piece of the object. But I am trying to find the Malinov piece. I think I am getting closer. It is a lot of centuries and conversations to go through in order to find that one thing we are looking for. Ruslan was the one who referred to it once. I think he was the brother who thought he knew where his father had hidden it. He did not want to tell anyone else, so they would consider him too important to conspire against. In the beginning, when they first turned, they all had major issues with vanity and the need to be the one in charge. All of them were quite cruel and violent. They had to overcome those traits to get back to working smoothly with one another.”
Elisabeta gave a delicate little shudder and Ferro immediately wrapped his arms around her and sat up, pulling her with him so she was sitting in his lap. He wanted to assure her that she was safe, but it seemed each time he said that, she was attacked in some way. He drew in a deep breath.
“We are powerful together, you know that, right, Elisabeta?” He rubbed his chin over the top of her head, back and forth, allowing her hair to catch in the stubble along his jaw. “I have always been a force against the vampire. They fear my name. We are twice that force when we are together. You may be gentle and kind but you have learned to bend with the wind, not break. We are forged together in a way few will ever understand, certainly not our enemies.”
“I no longer fear Sergey,” she whispered, tilting her head back to rest it against his chest. “I have learned so much from you. I realized that all this time I gave him power over me. He kept me starved and afraid. He kept me from knowing even the smallest thing so that I would feel completely dependent on him. You opened my cage and set me free.”
Ferro tightened his arms around her. “You were so terrified of being out of that cage at times I felt as if I was torturing you.”
“This journey has been frightening,” she acknowledged. “But in a good way, Ferro. I found myself learning faster and faster, taking in everything you showed me. Lorraine and Julija showed me many things. Even Emeline shared with me. So many people were around me, willing to give me knowledge. I was afraid of them, and if I’m honest, still am, but I can feel myself getting stronger, growing in courage with each rising, thanks to you. You give me courage, Ferro. You make me believe in myself.”
“You are going to need all that courage today, minan piŋe sarnanak.” Ferro knew he was going to need it as well.
He stood up reluctantly, taking her with him, setting her on her feet. With a wave of his hand he clothed both of them, dressing her in the longer dress she preferred.
“I heard you extend an offer to Josef to help train him in the ways of a hunter, you and your brethren. That was very sweet of you, Ferro.” Elisabeta turned into him, sliding her slender arms up his chest and around his neck to link her fingers together there.
He winced a little at the word sweet. He had never been considered sweet in his life. The kid needed confidence that he would make a good hunter of the vampire. Ferro was certain Josef would have no problem. He paid attention to detail. He had the desire and drive. Body type didn’t matter as much as stamina did. At the end of the day, sometimes it came down to who was in the best shape.
Josef didn’t back down from a fight. Ferro had studied him. It didn’t matter who confronted him; if he believed in what he said, he argued his position passionately. All of the brethren had respect for the kid. Like Ferro, they wanted to train him so that he had the best of chances when he was old enough to hunt the vampire. There would come a time when he would lose his emotions and his ability to see in color, and all that he would have left to him was his honor. It was then that he had to believe in himself. The foundation they gave him was important. He couldn’t be adrift, thinking he was never good enough. He had to believe he was an honorable Carpathian male and an asset to his people as a hunter.
“All the brethren are going to work with him,” Ferro told her.
“Because you asked them to,” Elisabeta pointed out.
He wrapped his arm around her waist. “Sívamet, do me a favor and never use the word sweet in front of any of the others. I would never hear the end of it. Especially in front of Sandu. Or Lorraine.”
“Lorraine thinks you are sweet.”
“No, she doesn’t. She thinks I’m a caveman and I like that she thinks that. It makes for fun evenings when she visits with you. Julija, on the other hand, can think I am sweet. You can share that with her as often as possible, just not when the brethren are around. I have no wish to be turned into a toad, or suddenly have a tail or donkey ears, no matter how temporary. She’s mage and can be vengeful.”
Elisabeta’s joyous laughter spilled out, filling the air, lighting Ferro’s world. The forest took on a dis
tinctly festive atmosphere, a phenomenon he found happened quite often whenever he was in Elisabeta’s presence.
“You deliberately keep the others from knowing you have a sense of humor.”
That was true. He wasn’t the kind of man who would ever be that comfortable being too close with his neighbors.
Elisabeta rubbed her face against his chest like a little cat. “You persist in thinking that once I come into my own power, growing as modern as Lorraine or Julija, that I would not choose you because you are a dominant, overbearing tyrant. That is completely absurd. First, you are not any of those things. And second, I am your lifemate. As you need to please me, I need to please you. That is the way lifemates work. And you lived with the brethren for centuries. All of you follow one another. You are a family. You fight for one another. You are already setting up homes here in this compound together, so that negates what you were just thinking about yourself.”
Ferro closed his eyes and held her to him, savoring her. Her scent. The feel of her feminine form up against his. “We are going to do this together. If nothing else, minan piŋe sarnanak, we will end Sergey’s reign of terror once and for all.”
She tilted her head. He saw trepidation, but there was also belief in him. In her. In them together. She nodded her head slowly. “We will, Ferro. And we will keep Josef safe as well.”
He took his time kissing her because he found he needed to. There was so much courage in Elisabeta. So much steel. She had thought herself small and insignificant, and all along she held so much power in her slender, womanly body and that quick, intelligent mind. He was fiercely proud that the universe had partnered him with such an unbelievable treasure.
* * *
Dark Song Page 38
