Dark Song

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 distinctly 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.

* * *

Music blared, the lights spinning dark purple and blue as Josef sauntered into the underground nightclub, his gaze arrogantly scanning the crowd. Women turned to look as he passed them. Like all Carpathians, there was a magnetism to him that was blatant in the fluid way he moved. He was dressed in black leather pants, a black shirt with cord laces going up the front. He appeared confident, sexy, charming and very modern as he walked briskly through the first bar straight toward the second one.