Dark Song

Ferro felt a small shudder go through Elisabeta’s body and he wrapped his arm around her tighter, pulling her front to his side. “Just look at the beauty surrounding you, piŋe sarnanak. Tariq Asenguard found a place to build his world a long time ago. The others have been securing the land around his compound to add to this fortress. We weave safeguards together to keep everyone protected.”

She tilted her head up to look at him. “No one will ever be safe from him as long as I’m here. I think you know that.” Her voice trembled.

He realized it took great effort for her to speak to him at all, to voice her concern. Just talking was a strain on her when she hadn’t done it in so many centuries. She didn’t think herself brave, because she didn’t understand true courage. Just the fact that she could stand there beside him instead of staying crumpled in a little ball in the earth the way she wanted was a testimony to her mettle.

Ferro brushed his lips on the top of her head in a little caress, trying not to frighten her. He was feeling his way with her. Elisabeta had had no human contact other than when Sergey punished her for infractions. Now, he was surrounding her with—him. He wanted her to get used to relying on his strength until she found her own. He was determined she would find it, even though, for him, it would mean she would most likely not want to remain with him. He couldn’t think too long on that or what it would do to him. That way lay insanity. Elisabeta deserved a chance at life after all the centuries she had endured as a prisoner, and he intended to give her that chance.

“You are now bound to me, Elisabeta. I will build a shield in your mind he cannot get through. He cannot command you as you fear. He cannot use you to spy. You will never give him information on anyone here as you have been so afraid of. I have been alive far longer than he has been, and I am more powerful.”

He felt the quick shake of her head, but she didn’t speak. In fact, her hand came up to press her fingers against her lips to hold back whatever was on her mind.

He gently captured her wrist and pulled her hand down. “Speak to me, päläfertiilam. I wish to know what is on your mind.”

Her long lashes fluttered, but she didn’t look at him. She shook her head twice before she finally spoke. “Is this a command?”

“If it needs to be.”

The tip of her tongue came out to moisten her lips. For some reason he found that little action much more sensual than it should have been. He waited, holding her close to him, staring down at her instead of at the beauty of nature surrounding them. The gardens and lake seemed to pale in comparison to her.

“Everyone always underestimates him. His brothers did. The mages have done so. He has slivers of them in his head now, so that gives him access to their knowledge. He has created spies using human psychic males. He has an army of vampires here in this country and abroad. He planned for centuries so quietly, allowing others to make fun of him and to treat him as if he wasn’t bright. He never quite lost all of his emotions because he thought, ahead of time, to take me prisoner. If you underestimate him, the way everyone has, simply because you’re older and have more fighting experience, you will lose.”

Her voice was so low he could barely hear her, but it was impossible not to catch the notes of fear, of weeping, of utter hopelessness. She didn’t believe he would listen to her. Men were arrogant. She had seen so many die over the centuries, men who had been intelligent and had risen to power only to be defeated in the end. Sergey was the last of the Malinovs, the last of the five brothers and the only brother no one, Carpathian and vampire alike, thought would ever be leader, yet he had proved the most powerful of them all.

“I did not live this long by underestimating my enemies, piŋe sarnanak,” Ferro said gently. “I appreciate that you would worry about me, Elisabeta. Always tell me when you have concerns.”

Her lashes lifted again, and this time he found himself staring into her dark, liquid eyes. His stomach did a strange clenching. His groin tightened. It would not be good for either of them if that liquid spilled over onto her high cheekbones. He wouldn’t know what to do with tears. He had never dealt with such things.

“You aren’t going to punish me for the things I said to you?” Her hand tightened in his shirt as if she were bracing herself. He felt a little shudder go through her body.

“I might have to kiss you now and then,” he said. “That is the closest you will get to a punishment and only because it is difficult to resist you.”