Dark Song

3

Open your eyes, piŋe sarnanak,” Ferro said in his soft, commanding voice.

Elisabeta took a deep breath and forced herself to obey. She liked his voice, and no matter how afraid she was of her new life and the huge terrifying changes, so far, although things had been overwhelming and emotional, they had all been good. She loved that he called her “little songbird” or, even better, “his little songbird.” Those variations created a strange new feeling in her, an affection that seemed to be growing the more she was with him.

She found herself looking at a tall massive door to a house. Ferro stood directly behind her, his hands at her waist, holding her close to him. She was grateful for his presence. She had no idea why they were standing on that cool, wide verandah, but suddenly her heart was beginning to accelerate again. Something new. Something she was going to have to learn.

“Ferro.” She whispered his name in a kind of protest.

“No one is here. Just the two of us.”

“It is too big.” It was. The door was gigantic. For Ferro it wasn’t, because he was a big man. His shoulders were wide, and he would go through that door so easily, but she was thin and felt insignificant. The door was tall and wide and seemed enormous to her. What could it possibly lead to?

“This will be our home. You will be mistress here. Not a prisoner, Elisabeta, but mistress.”

Already she was shaking her head. She knew nothing of taking charge of a house. She couldn’t possibly entertain his friends. Or clean a place that size. How did one know what to do? When she was little, did she live in a house? She tried to remember, and immediately her head exploded with such pain it nearly drove her to her knees. She knew better than to cry out, but both hands flew to her head and she hunched in on herself.

Ferro instantly shielded her, taking the pain away and soothing her mind. “The vampire placed a block on your memories so the moment you try to access anything to do with your family or childhood, you experience pain,” he explained.

She had come to realize that some centuries earlier, but that hadn’t stopped the occasional times when, unbidden, she reached out to try to remember something important to her.

Ferro wrapped one arm around her shoulders, pulling her back to his front. “He took so much from you, Elisabeta. We will get it all back, but you need to be patient with yourself. He had you for centuries. This process will take time. Do not judge yourself so harshly. This house is merely that at the moment—a house.”

“But you want it to be a home for you.” She pressed her lips together and then tried again. “For us.”

“I lived in a monastery, a shelter of rocks in the Carpathian Mountains shrouded by the mists. This place we will claim in small increments, one room at a time. As for caring for it, just as you learned about walking and you will learn about dressing yourself, you will learn to clean each room, taking the information from my mind, or Julija’s mind. Whoever you are most comfortable learning from.”

He was so matter-of-fact. So calm. Ferro never seemed in a hurry or in the least bothered by having to reassure her constantly. He simply provided a solution in his gentle voice.

“You will make it a home for us. I have no doubt about that. I have every faith in you. There is no time period that you must accomplish these tasks in. This is our journey together and we will make it ours as slow and as leisurely as we want. We both have had centuries of dancing to others’ tunes. This is our time and our song. I do not want anyone to dictate to us what we should do or when or how we should do it. We do not even have to open that door if you want to just make the verandah all we explore for this rising.”

He meant it. There was no lie in his voice. He didn’t seem to mind in the least standing there staring at the door while behind them was perhaps a view of nature. She didn’t know because she was too afraid of wide-open spaces. That made her feel like such a coward.

He bent his head and, when he did, his thick salt-and-pepper hair slid over the side of her neck, making her shiver with awareness. His hair was very long and thick, tied with a cord, but it felt soft against her skin and the slide along her neck was actually sensuous. His breath was warm in her ear when he spoke.

“You are no coward and I do not want you to think this of yourself again, Elisabeta. This does not please me. I have told you: I find you brave to face an entire new world the way you are doing. I am your lifemate and my opinion of you should matter.”

Instantly Elisabeta looked over her shoulder at him, worried that she’d upset him. “Your opinion really does matter to me, Ferro, that is why I worry so much that I cannot do the things I think I should be able to do.” She took a deep breath. “I want to go inside.” She realized she had dug her nails into his arm. “I really do.”

He waved his hand at the tall door. “If it is too much for you, just tell me and we will find the smallest room in the house and start there. I imagine the room we are going into will be the largest because it would be the room company would come into. At least, in the houses I’ve stepped into, that is the way the layout has been.”

Elisabeta stared into the cool darkness beyond the open doorway and tried not to hyperventilate. She told herself it was no different than entering a cave, or even going underground. There were no lights on. It was dark inside and she could feel the cool air coming out of the interior. Ferro didn’t try to hurry her. He made no move at all, just kept his arm locked around her shoulders and his front supporting her back.

There was a part of her that knew she was far too dependent on him. Julija wouldn’t approve of that. She had talked to her about a new start, about being her own person, standing on her own two feet, and already she was a failure. She didn’t want to be without Ferro’s support. Not without his strong hands and his tall, warrior-like demeanor that gave her confidence, his body that gave her strength and his voice that directed her, by turns gentle and commanding. She needed those things from him as much as she wanted them.

A shocking bite of pain flashed through her and then eased into something darkly erotic, a soothing blend of moist heat and rasping velvet. She gasped, realizing Ferro had nipped her neck right over her pulse and then pulled the injured spot into his mouth and sucked gently, his tongue stroking little caresses. He lifted his head, but as he did, his lips brushed several little kisses over the spot.

“Julija does not dictate to you what you are to be as a woman, minan piŋe sarnanak, any more than I should dictate this to you. You will find your own way in time. If you prefer my company and support and I do not object, and in fact like it, then it is no one’s business. Our relationship is ours alone.”

It wasn’t the first time he had said this to her, and she knew it wouldn’t be the last. His advice had to sink in and take hold. She had to believe she was really free to choose her own way. Her brain refused to believe, and anytime there was a choice to be made, she shut down and became paralyzed with fear. Ferro didn’t seem to mind. He showed endless patience with her.

“Thank you.” She took a deep breath and slid her hand along his very muscular forearm down to his wrist, as if that could give her the necessary strength to take the step toward the door, and maybe it did. She forced one foot in front of the other. She expected him to let her go, and he did, although he turned his hand and caught hers in a tight grip, so they were still connected.

“I will go in first and you stay right behind me,” Ferro said.

The relief she felt was so tremendous that for a moment her legs felt rubbery. She dropped back by a couple of steps, allowing his larger frame to step in front of her. She kept her head down, not daring to look around her for fear of seeing too much and getting dizzier than she already was.

“Once inside, if the room is too big and you want to keep moving to a smaller one, you tell me and we will do so, otherwise we will stop there, sit down and just take small pieces of the room to look at and familiarize ourselves with. I want to attempt to remove the vampire’s barrier on your memories.”

Elisabeta reacted, both with fear and with hope, tightening her fingers in his, knowing he was in her mind, although his touch was so light she could barely feel him there.

“Sívamet, do not let your hope grow too much.” His voice was very gentle. “After so many centuries of not remembering, you most likely will not be able to on your own. Your brother, Traian, is here with his lifemate, Joie. He did search centuries for you, refusing to give up when everyone else did. He will return as many memories to you as he is able.”

She didn’t want to think too much on what her brother would expect of her and how much she would disappoint him. Instead she considered that it was twice now that Ferro had called her sívamet. His heart. An exact translation was “my heart.” For some reason that made her stomach do a slow-rolling pitch and then continue into a complete somersault. He was slowly stealing her heart when she thought she no longer possessed one. She thought Sergey had chopped her heart into little pieces and removed them from her one by one. He had taken her trust and stomped that into those pieces and then strewn them across the ground like so much trash because he had no use for such things. Somehow, Ferro was finding them. She didn’t know how he could do that. Just that he could frightened her more than everything else combined.

“Sergey is a vampire, Elisabeta, but in his own twisted way, he felt something for you. You provided him with some emotion, which is why he survived so many years when others completely failed. He needed your heart, sívamet, and your ability to allow him to feel if just a little emotion, twisted and obsessed as it was.”

She kept her eyes closed, one hand in his, the other fisted in the back of his shirt, matching her steps to his as they entered the house. It was cool inside, and she pretended it was just another cave. Another cage. She wasn’t lost, and a monster’s puppet with wicked serrated teeth wasn’t going to jump out at her and tear at her flesh and try to devour her alive while her master laughed in amusement.

Abruptly, Ferro spun around and swept her into his arms. “Elisabeta, you are breaking my heart. Why would this vampire treat you so cruelly to make you so frightened to enter a new dwelling? Your mind is consumed with terror. I feel every one of your senses flaring out, seeking his puppets, certain they will set upon you at any moment to try to rip as much flesh off you as possible before he calls them off. Why does he do this to you?”

She pressed her forehead to his chest, refusing to meet his eyes. Refusing to answer.

Ferro caught her chin and forced her head up so that she was looking into glittering iron-colored eyes. Those eyes had gone hard and scary. “He did this too many times. I command you to answer me.”

Elisabeta touched her tongue to her suddenly dry lips. “I refused to give him access to your soul. I told him I would suicide first. He allowed his puppets to consume children and I carried out my threat. He was barely able to save me that time. Twice more he did things to others I couldn’t tolerate, and I suicided. After that, he only punished me. I knew you would survive if I died. I would be reborn with your half of our soul intact, but if he was able to take it from me, you could be made his servant, and he would have been able to corrupt or harm you in other ways. I couldn’t take the chance.”

She rushed the confession, ashamed that she couldn’t think of any other solution than to suicide when she had been told the Carpathian hunters in the monastery had endured for centuries and locked themselves away because they hadn’t believed in meeting the dawn and giving up on their lifemates. That was only showing him once again that she was a . . .

“Do not.” He hissed the command at her in obvious displeasure. “If you persist in thinking you are a coward, I will insist on punishing you, Elisabeta, and I promised myself I would not frighten you. Still, it is there in your mind. I see the image as clear as day. You continue to view yourself as a coward in spite of my dictates to you. This is a clear rule I have set for you. One of the very few I have given you.”

She tried to duck her head, but his hand under her chin refused to budge. It was true. He hadn’t really given her too many rules. That was probably part of the problem she was experiencing. She needed clear lines at all times. She couldn’t help trembling a little, wondering what her punishment was going to be. Ferro was a very big man and extremely strong.

The pad of his thumb slid gently over her bottom lip twice. “I told you what your punishment would be, piŋe sarnanak. Surely you listened to me.”

Panic rose. What had he said? Had she blocked it out because it was so terrible, she couldn’t face it? Over the centuries, Sergey had subjected her to so many punishments, she was fairly certain she had managed to encounter all of the nonlethal ones.

Ferro bent his head toward her, a faint smile in his eyes. “I do not think minan piŋe sarnanak listened at all,” he murmured, not sounding angry.

He sounded velvet soft. Like faint paint strokes brushing gently over her mind. Something else she couldn’t identify, something that turned her inside out. His lips brushed hers with such exquisite gentleness her heart turned over. Everything else in her froze. He kissed the corner of her mouth and then his teeth tugged at her lower lip and every nerve ending in her body leapt to life. She had never been so aware of herself as a woman. Her breasts ached and felt swollen and hot. Her nipples tingled and felt like hard pebbles. Lower, between her legs, she went damp and her sex clenched.

“Do not think you are a coward, Elisabeta. You are a very courageous woman. You are my woman. I am one of the most feared hunters on the planet. You are my lifemate for a reason. You are hän ku vigyáz sívamet és sielamet, keeper of my heart and soul, and you did just that. You guarded both for centuries under the worst of circumstances. I want you to remove my shirt, piŋe sarnanak. I have something to show you. Something that is for you alone.”

He stepped back and she actually felt the loss of both his strength and heat. Her hands went to the buttons, little squares she recognized as old-fashioned. Her lifemate hadn’t caught up with the times in his clothing as he had with hers. She pushed the little squares through the buttonholes and the edges of the material fell open so that he could shrug off the shirt. She took it automatically, rather than allowing it to fall to the floor.

He had tattoos scarred into his body, inked in the ancient language. He turned so she could read what he had so painstakingly put into his skin when Carpathians rarely scarred.

Olen wäkeva kuntankért. Staying strong for our people.

Olen wäkeva pita belső kulymet. Staying strong to keep the demon inside.

Olen wäkeva— félért ku vigyázak. Staying strong for her.

Hängemért. Only her.

Elisabeta read the lines several times, wanting—no—needing to commit them to memory. Seeing the words inked into his skin, knowing he had to have had them done repeatedly in order for the scars to actually take effect, nearly brought her to her knees. Staying strong for her. She had tried to stay strong for him. It was the only thing she had held out for. The only thing she had managed to keep from Sergey—Ferro’s soul. His light. She had that in her keeping and she had steadfastly refused to give it up no matter what he had done to her or to others.

Ferro slid into his shirt easily, and turned back to her, standing still, as if waiting for her to button it for him. Elisabeta did so with shaking fingers.

“That is the creed of our brethren, our code,” he said, as she slowly slid each button through the buttonhole. “It is what we sometimes chanted through the nights to keep ourselves from stepping off the path and losing honor. Always, our lifemates saved us. You saved me many times, Elisabeta, in my darkest hours. So many times through the centuries, I can’t even tell you. Never say to me, or to yourself, that you are a coward.”

She dared to look up at his glittering eyes. She’d never seen eyes so piercing, as if they could look right through her and see right into her— and she knew he could. He was in her mind as all lifemates could be. He was polite about it, gentle, but he was there, providing a shield because both of them knew Sergey was going to strike at her soon. He would know she had risen and he would insist she answer him.

Elisabeta shuddered at the mere thought of Sergey using her to bring down the compound and killing anyone there—especially the children.

“We will take care of that first. Come sit with me, here in this room. Do not try to look beyond this small area. I do not want you overwhelmed. This room is where our visitors will eventually come to see you. Julija and perhaps Lorraine.”

Lorraine was someone he really admired and wanted her to get to know. He thought of Lorraine as a sister. She was the closest thing he had to one. Elisabeta made up her mind that she would not only get to know Lorraine, but for Ferro, she would do her best to establish a good relationship with the woman.

Ferro took her hand and again walked in front of her, allowing her to keep her eyes closed in the large room. “You do not have to have a relationship with anyone, piŋe sarnanak, not for me. I am happy only with you. Others do not matter so much to me. I wish them in your life in order for you to be happy. If we left this place and went somewhere alone together, it would suit me just fine. I have no need of excess company.”

He sank into a large chair and pulled her onto his lap. One hand forced her head to his chest, tucking her face against him. “I am going to examine your mind and see what the master vampire has left behind that allows him a gateway, a path to reach you.”

“Centuries,” she whispered, appreciating that he rarely called the vampire by name. That would have frightened her more. Naming him would make her feel as if it gave the vampire even more power over her. “He had me for centuries. He knows my mind. He can find me anywhere.”

Ferro brushed a kiss on top of her head and then brought his hand down the back of her skull in a long caress, his strong fingers massaging her scalp as he did so. “Perhaps that is so, Elisabeta. But you have a lifemate, so you are changed. Your mind is changed. Your life is changed. You have accepted my claim on you and our soul is once more fully formed back together. I am older and more experienced than he expects his opponent to be. He will find it much more difficult to take on your lifemate.”

Elisabeta didn’t want her lifemate to have to take on a master vampire’s wrath. Sergey would never give her up and he had an army at his disposal. She knew his cruelty. Ferro had proven to be a kind man. She wasn’t certain if he could match Sergey’s ferocity in battle and she didn’t want anything to happen to him.

Ferro didn’t try to reassure her, nor did he reprimand her for not believing in him. He didn’t seem to have any kind of ego at all. She felt him moving in her mind, a more forceful presence than he had been, but not necessarily one that was taking her over. He was still gentle, but she felt him searching, making certain Sergey hadn’t left anything of himself behind. She knew mages could take small slivers of themselves and plant them in others to use them as spies. Some vampires had learned how to do the same. Sergey held the dark mage, Xavier, within him as well as his brothers. That gave him access to their knowledge, although, on his own, Sergey had never accessed those slivers.

“I am going to build a shield in your mind that he cannot penetrate. If by some miracle he managed to slip past all the safeguards woven by the warriors here as well as my brethren, he will not be able to get to you.”

She moistened her lips. She had to confess to him. “When I was in the healing grounds, before you came to me, he spoke to me every rising. He wouldn’t stop. I couldn’t make him stop. He told me to come to him or he would kill everyone harboring me.”

Silence met her disclosure. His body didn’t change in the least. He didn’t stiffen. His breathing didn’t change in the least, his hands didn’t tighten on her, but she was very tuned to him and she knew he definitely hadn’t expected the revelation.

Ferro’s hands came up to her hair again, stroking those gentle caresses, as if they not only soothed her but, in a way, brought him a type of peace as well. “That changes things a bit, sívamet. Anything to do with this vampire, or any of his suspected servants, you are to tell me immediately.” He poured command into his voice. “Immediately. First thing.”

“I’m sorry.” Clearly that oversight had been a mistake. She hadn’t wanted to think about Sergey let alone talk about him. She detested that she hadn’t said anything to Ferro. She had told Julija sometime earlier, when they had spoken in secret, but since then, she hadn’t communicated with anyone. Now she felt guilty and very distressed, almost as if by not telling Ferro, she had betrayed him in some way.

“There is no need to be upset. I did not think there was a possibility so I did not ask you or give you an order. That is my failing, not yours.” He was silent again. “You disclosed this information to Julija?”

Again, there was no inflection in his voice, but she had the feeling he condemned her friend for not telling him.

“She was sworn to secrecy. I spoke to her only on the condition that she never let anyone know I was communicating with her.”

“This was a matter of your safety.”

There was no threat in his voice. No understanding, either. A shiver went down her spine and she was uncertain why. She was suddenly very, very uncomfortable and a little afraid, not for herself but for her friend.

“What did the vampire say to you?”

Ferro’s arms slipped around her body, holding her closer to him when she shivered almost uncontrollably. She couldn’t stop the trembling. She never should have told him about Julija, although it hadn’t occurred to her to keep anything from her lifemate.

“He said to come to him or he would kill everyone. He repeated it over and over each time I was awakened to feed. I didn’t want to open my eyes and rise even to get blood. It was terrifying to hear the things he said, and his pull was very strong. I was so afraid all the time. I didn’t know what was expected of me. And I knew there were children close. He was especially cruel to children.”

“What stopped his calling to you?”

“You, I think. Once you began sleeping close to me, I couldn’t hear his voice anymore.”

Again, there was a small silence while his hand moved in her hair and his arm remained locked around her, giving her strength. “That’s interesting,” he said finally. “I wove safeguards around the two of us, but you had safeguards around you at all times. I wonder what the difference was. Or is. I have to speak with Tariq about this.”

Her heart jumped. Did that mean he was going to leave her? Or would she have to go with him to face the unknown leader of the compound where the children were protected and she’d brought danger? There was no way he couldn’t hear her heart pounding. His hand slipped from her hair to massage the nape of her neck.

“Elisabeta, you have to have faith that I am going to take care of you. I will send for Tariq and also Julija and her lifemate, Isai, one of my brethren. Julija will be able to give us a clear timeline. It is necessary because with all the safeguards woven by so many of us, the vampire should not have been able to get through to you. We need to know when he was able to do so and why, for the safety of everyone here.” His fingers kept moving on the nape of her neck, feeling like magic. “You do understand that, right? And you know that I will not allow anything to happen to you.”

The last was a statement. It was difficult not to believe him. She had been lied to so much that she had stopped believing anything, but in a short period of time Ferro had managed to overcome every defense she had. He had shown her kindness when no one in her life that she could remember had, other than Julija.

Tentatively, because she was still afraid to do anything without express permission, Elisabeta wrapped her fingers around Ferro’s wrist. It was a strong wrist, a large bone covered with muscle and skin. She felt the connection of his veins, the blood running there, his heartbeat.

“Julija is the only person besides you who has ever cared for me, that I can remember, kont o sívanak.” She whispered the name for him she had in secret places of her mind. Strong heart. It was there beating under the pads of her fingers. Sometimes beneath her ear when she laid her head against his chest. It was in the sound of the rain and in his song.

“Julija seems to be so strong, and she is. A mage and a Carpathian. A modern woman, and yet she was raised a prisoner just as I was. Cruelly used and horribly treated. She risked everything to save our people and to save me. She has been waiting for me to rise to meet everyone. Please, if I can ask one thing of you—and I know I do not deserve it, but it is not for me—she is with child and she has been through so much, do not be angry with her.”

She didn’t want Ferro to upset Julija or her lifemate. What if Isai forbade Julija to speak with Elisabeta or refused to allow them to be together because Ferro was angry?

“Elisabeta.”

She recognized the soft command in Ferro’s voice and her stomach did a slow roll. It was strange to her how her body reacted just to the various tones of his voice. She knew he expected her to meet his eyes. That was one of the most difficult things for her to do. She had been taught never to look at her master. Never to raise her eyes. Centuries of keeping her gaze downcast made it nearly impossible to force herself to look into Ferro’s eyes, but he was isäntä— master of the house—and he was never to be disobeyed.

Silence stretched between them while she gathered her courage and then dared to lift her lashes and look into his amazing iron-colored eyes. She had dared before and it seemed the color was different every time. Right now, the color was almost gold. For the first time she noticed the long, dark lashes ringing his eyes.

“I will not jeopardize your friendship with Julija,” he promised solemnly. He bent his head and brushed a kiss over her forehead. “She is on the way. Tariq approaches with several of the brethren as well as the healer, Gary Daratrazanoff.”

Elisabeta stiffened. She couldn’t help it. Several meant more than one. Tariq was the leader of the people there in the compound. Daratrazanoff was a name even Sergey cursed often. The lineage was always second-in-command to the prince of the Carpathian people. They were very powerful, not just as healers but as warriors. More, these were Carpathians who had given her blood, and she’d sensed both Tariq and, especially, the healer trying to penetrate the shields in her mind.

She wanted to retreat into the ground, find a corner of the room and slide into the shadow, disappear into the wall itself, become part of it as she had for so many centuries. Ferro’s arms prevented her from disappearing, but she ducked deeper into them.

He nuzzled the top of her head. “You do not need to speak unless I ask you to. If you need to answer, you can speak to me on our path alone. No one else needs to hear the sound of your voice. You do not need to look at them. I will shield you at all times.”

Elisabeta was shivering again and there was nothing she could do to stop it. She wanted to be brave for him, especially since he continually persisted in calling her courageous, but already she felt the power building around the dwelling. They were coming. It wasn’t one or two. There were several ancients and they carried power easily, so easily that the house and ground fairly crackled with it.

Ferro waved his hand casually toward the door and the heavy oak swung open. A tall warrior strode in. Elisabeta kept her head buried in Ferro’s chest, her hand over her eyes, but she opened her fingers just enough to see him. His hair was a true black with strands of gray, much like Ferro’s only not quite as long. His shoulders were wide and he looked very muscular. His eyes were brilliant sapphire, almost startlingly so. She recognized him from Julija’s description. This had to be Isai, her lifemate and one of Ferro’s brethren from the monastery.

He came straight to Ferro’s side and reached out. Ferro’s arms abandoned her for one moment, reaching toward Isai, clasping forearms in the way of the Carpathian warrior greeting.

“Sívad olen wäkeva, hän ku piwtä,” Isai greeted.

May your heart stay strong, hunter, Elisabeta interpreted. Ferro was her lifemate. His heart was very strong. She called him kont o sívanak—strong heart— for a reason.

A faint stirring of what could have been amusement brushed a velvet caress in her mind. My fierce little protector.

A little shiver crept down her spine that had nothing to do with fear and everything to do with the strange way he made her body and mind feel. The fingers of one strong hand had gone to the nape of her neck and he massaged there, a slow, deep movement that eased the tension from her in spite of the fact that Isai was towering over the two of them. Ferro didn’t seem concerned. He was more relaxed than ever.

“Julija,” Isai called and turned toward the open door and held out his hand.

Elisabeta’s heart beat very fast. At last. Her friend. The woman who had risked everything to save her. She started to sit up straighter, but Ferro’s arms tightened a fraction in warning.

Wait until she is in the house and the door is closed behind her. You can sit up straight but stay on my lap in the shelter of my arms.

That was a clear order. It was also Ferro looking out for her. He was leery after she had revealed that Sergey had managed to speak to her before her lifemate had slept above her in the healing grounds, adding the weave of his safeguards over the others. She had thought the master vampire invincible, wholly powerful. It hadn’t occurred to her that something other than Sergey’s power had been the reason he had been able to reach out to her every rising until her lifemate had come to her. Now, with Ferro’s reaction, she wasn’t so certain.

She waited quietly, still on the outside but a mass of nerves on the inside. Her gaze was riveted to the door. A small woman with delicate features, dark eyes and hair, and a curvy figure came into the room, taking Isai’s outstretched hand. She recognized Julija immediately. The only thing different about her was the deep scar on her where Sergey had deliberately ripped at her throat in order to kill her. Or if not to kill her, then at least to prevent her from speaking to her lifemate.

Julija’s gaze was fixed on Elisabeta and she broke out into a wide smile. “At last. It’s wonderful to see you, although it’s very dark in here. Don’t you want some sconces lit?” Julija was mage-born and excelled at spells. “I can provide some beautiful ones that are quite dim, Elisabeta. They won’t hurt your eyes.”

Elisabeta couldn’t help the small little shudder that ran through her mind at the idea of the others coming. They would see her clearly. Stare at her.

“No,” Ferro said firmly. “I do not wish others to look upon my lifemate until we have a chance to bond. We have business to discuss or no one would be invited to speak with her this rising.”

Elisabeta was a little shocked at the sound of Ferro’s voice. He didn’t sound like the same man at all, so much so that she had to sneak a quick glance up at his face to make certain it was really him speaking. His expression could have been carved from stone. He looked remote. Not at all the gentle, kind warrior who had been so patient with her. Where his voice had held command before at times, his tone had always been firm but gentle. There was no trace of that now. He was in charge and no one dared cross him.

Julija took a step back toward her lifemate and glanced over her shoulder at him, lifting her eyebrow as if to say “I told you so.”

Ferro gestured toward the chairs across from them. “The others will be here very soon. Already they are on their way. Isai, Elisabeta has indicated to me that a short while ago she told your lifemate that Sergey was speaking to her each rising when she woke to take blood, trying to force her to communicate with him. Time is lost for her. It is possible your lifemate can help with the timeline.”

Isai’s head went up alertly. “Safeguards were put in place, both by those ancients already here within the compound and the brethren as well. How is this possible, Ferro?”

“I do not know, but it happened each time she was awakened to get blood. I heard her cry out and knew she was my lifemate. I began to sleep above her. When I did, I wove safeguards around her. Only then did his voice cease to call to her.”

Isai leaned toward Elisabeta and Ferro. “Has Sergey managed to call to you this rising?”

Elisabeta curled closer to Ferro, drawing her knees tighter into her chest. The two Carpathian hunters kept using Sergey’s name. There was power in names. They knew that. She also didn’t like the way those sapphire eyes pierced through the veil of darkness and shone right at her like a beam of light. She had too much to hide. Too many scars. Too many terrible things in her past she didn’t want brought to light. Too many things she was ashamed of.

“Speak only to me,” Ferro said. “I do not allow others to speak to my lifemate.”

Julija hissed out her displeasure. “Of course you don’t,” she muttered under her breath.

Isai turned his head toward her, his eyebrows coming together in a frown. Color rose in Julija’s face as her lifemate clearly reprimanded her telepathically. She sank into the chair opposite Elisabeta and crossed her arms over her chest.

“Ferro, has Sergey contacted her this rising?” Isai corrected himself.

Has he?

It shamed her a little that Ferro had to ask her. He should have known that she would have shared everything immediately. No. She kept her head down, not even looking at Julija. This reunion wasn’t going the way she had hoped it would but she didn’t know how to make it better. She was just so uncomfortable in the presence of others. She longed for the coolness of the earth.

Ferro’s hand came up to her ear, his fingertip tracing her lobe and sending little tingles of fiery heat spreading like electricity through her. This is not your fault. Let Julija answer the questions and then the two of you can talk together on your path while the others come in. We will try to ascertain where the breakdown occurred.

You do not mind if I speak with Julija?

Of course not. She is your friend.

She does not like you.

She does not know me and I do not expect her to like me, nor do I care. I am your shield, piŋe sarnanak, yours alone. I will ask the necessary questions and then you two can talk while the others decide the best course of action.

Elisabeta could barely contain herself. She glanced at Julija, found her gaze on her and sent a quick, reassuring smile. It was the best she could do before ducking her head.

“Sergey has not contacted her since I have been safeguarding her. If your lifemate can give us any kind of details regarding the timeline it would be helpful.”

“My understanding is that Sergey continued to plague Elisabeta every time she was awakened and given blood. He called to her every rising, whispering to her that he would kill everyone in the compound and torture the children in front of her if she didn’t come back to him. I believe he had done so since she was first brought to this place.”

Even to Elisabeta’s ears, Julija sounded disrespectful.

Is that so, piŋe sarnanak? If Ferro was upset with Isai’s lifemate, he didn’t sound it. Do you recall that the vampire always whispered to you?

I cannot recall a time that he did not until you stopped him, but time no longer means anything to me. She was frustrated that she couldn’t give him a definite answer.

He stroked a caress down the back of her head. You have given me all that I need, Elisabeta.