Dark Song

She blinked up at him as if she couldn’t process what he’d said. He took a step out of the healing grounds, forcing her to move with him. That instantly took her mind off what he’d just said and put it back on the world around her. He kept her in the gardens, avoiding the playgrounds where the children might be or the homes where the women often gathered to talk on the front porch. He wanted to just walk with her in the beauty of nature so she could feel air on her face and freedom surrounding her.

Ferro knew she couldn’t be out of the ground too long. They were going to have to start their life together in baby steps. So many people were waiting to meet her. Tariq, the owner of the compound—the man the prince of the Carpathian people had appointed to take his place in the United States—wanted Gary Daratrazanoff to examine her for signs that Sergey had left something of himself behind in her to spy on them. He wanted that done as soon as possible. Although he understood why Tariq felt it was needed, Ferro would rather take Elisabeta and leave than subject her to that.

Ferro was very uneasy subjecting Elisabeta to Gary’s examination. Both Carpathians had given Elisabeta blood numerous times. Ferro’s soul was tied to Gary’s through Andor and Lorraine, a tie that bound them together with several other ancients. Ordinarily, that would have assured that Gary’s first loyalties were the brethren, but Gary was second-in-command to Tariq. His lineage, the Daratrazanoff line, had always been second-in-command to the prince. Gary had been sent by the prince to guard Tariq, and that would put his loyalty to Tariq first. Ferro knew the strange, vague threat was emanating from one or both of the two men he should have every reason to trust.

Women were sacred, particularly Carpathian women. Lifemates were held as cherished treasures. In a time when children were so scarce their people were on the very verge of extinction, the last thing a Carpathian male would do was threaten a female, especially a lifemate. Ferro couldn’t even say if there was a concrete threat, only that he had the vague impression of one and that it seemed to emanate from a man tied to him soul to soul. Even that he wasn’t one hundred percent certain of, but to a man like him, it was enough to make him wary and to want to take his woman and leave.

Her brother, Traian, had arrived with his lifemate, Joie, from the Carpathian Mountains. Traian was very eager to see his sister after so many centuries. Ferro knew it was natural to want to see her, but she was nervous and didn’t clearly remember him. Sergey had deliberately stamped out her memories of her past as much as possible. When she tried to remember, there was pain involved, although she didn’t associate the emotional and physical pain with the vampire anymore. It was going to be a long road back for her.

The moment Ferro had heard the sound of Elisabeta’s voice and knew she was his lifemate, he had taken over her care when he wasn’t hunting the enemy. He very gently moved through her mind to examine the fragmented pieces of her memories each rising as he fed her. He hadn’t been invasive on purpose, not wanting her to associate him with Sergey. The glimpses he caught of the vampire’s punishments had set the predator in him snarling and ready to hunt down Sergey until the task was complete. He knew, right then, Elisabeta needed him more, and he would have to wait to hunt the master vampire.

Elisabeta stumbled as she walked, every step hesitant, like a small child relearning her steps. She didn’t take her eyes from the ground and her fingers dug into his arm and rib cage as if those were her lifelines. The ground was very uneven on the path through the gardens, unlike the healing grounds made up of soil rich in minerals smoothed over every day by the Carpathians. Ferro inwardly cursed himself for not considering that Elisabeta wasn’t simply having a difficult time walking because she wasn’t used to shoes, it was because she hadn’t walked.

“Kislány piŋe sarnanak, I want you to look into my mind.”

She gasped and shook her head, halting, her hands gripping him so hard he thought her fingers might actually meet in the middle of his skin. He very gently pried them open and held both hands to him.

“Only so you can see how to move your feet. It will help you. I will teach you so many things this way. You do not remember, but it is the way Carpathian people instruct one another. We pass information back and forth in this manner. I am your lifemate. You have nothing to fear when your mind touches mine. I will shield you from too much information at once.”