“That’s why my father wanted a female child so much. My mother never got to tell him she was pregnant, but in her diary she said he had been disappointed when Noelle gave birth to a male child.”
“I met your father briefly,” Raven said softly. “He was very distraught over Noelle’s murder. He wanted to hunt the assassins, but Mikhail told him it was too dangerous, he was too involved. He was sent to sleep for several years.”
“He just went to sleep?” Shea was furious for no reason she could actually name. To think of the man sleeping while his wife lay murdered, his mistress pregnant and alone, and some one else raising his son, made her very angry. She had a feeling she would not like her father very much.
“You need to understand these people, Shea, the kind of power they carry, the kind of devastation they’re capable of. They can command the land, cause an earthquake that could destroy whole cities. Control is a huge issue with them at all times. Someone like Gregori is a time bomb. He knows it, Mikhail knows it, all of us do. Rand was so distraught, he was dangerous to everyone around him. Mikhail did what he thought was right for the protection of humans and Carpathians alike. Rand obeyed because Mikhail is their chosen leader. He never seemed very attached to anyone, least of all his son. Even now, he is a loner rarely seen. He spends most of his time in the ground.”
“And Rand neglected to say anything about my mother to anyone,” Shea said bitterly. “My mother’s life was destroyed. He could have prevented that.”
“I’m sorry, it must have been terrible for you growing up. If your mother was Rand’s true lifemate, then she would have been unable to live without him. It is a bonding of the soul.” Raven sighed, looked away from the distaste on Shea’s face. “Noelle was not Rand’s true lifemate. I would like to think she loved him, but by all accounts she was simply obsessed with him. I have no idea why Rand went along with it. Noelle was a foolish woman not to have waited for her true lifemate. Rand is a very good-looking man. She mistook lust for love.”
“I have wanted to tell Rand what a worm he is from the first day I ever read my mother’s diary. And I don’t want to feel about Jacques the way she felt about Rand. Not to the extent that I would neglect a child, live as if I was already dead, just waiting until she was old enough to be on her own.”
“Not everyone is strong, Shea,” Raven counseled gently. “Look at how long Gregori has lasted without his lifemate. Mikhail and Jacques, Aidan and his brother Julian, have all lasted far longer than most of the others. There have been so many over the years that have turned, not strong enough to hold out. Why? Why Gregori and not this vampire? What happened to your mother would not happen to you because you are not the same person. You’re very strong. And your mother had no way of knowing what was happening to her.”
Shea paced the length of the room, suddenly restless. The conversation was giving her a knot in her stomach. Was Gregori really capable of creating an earthquake that could destroy cities? Keeping the unborn child safe was even more important than she’d thought. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of lives could depend on it. That was what Gregori was trying to convey to her. He needed this child in order to survive much longer without turning vampire.
“I’m sorry, Shea, you’ve been thrown into deep water and told to swim without a lesson. I wish I could help you,” Raven said softly.
“I feel as if I’ve been afraid for so long now, I don’t know any other way of life,” Shea confided. “Jacques depends on me to keep him sane, and now all this is happening. I hope you’re right, Raven. I hope I’m very strong.”
Chapter Thirteen
Jacques reached the edge of the meadow at the timberline to find Mikhail pacing carefully across a patch of earth. “Wolf traps,” he said tersely and continued his inspection.
“Watch for thin wires, perhaps not visible to our eyes,” Jacques cautioned. “He must be able to do something to hide the wires from us.”
Gregori’s form shimmered into solidity. He stood very still, inhaling the early-morning air. “This is one giant trap, my friends. I am very uneasy finding only one human with Byron.”
“If Byron is even inside,” Jacques agreed. “Where are the others?”
“The vampire must be in the ground, away from the sun,” Mikhail said. “There is nothing that could allow him to see the light of day once he has turned.”
“So where is the human’s partner?” Jacques asked aloud.
Mikhail shrugged uneasily. “I suggest we approach soundlessly and invisible to the human eye. Spread out so we can help one another should there be need.”
“The wire.” Gregori’s voice was a mere thread of sound. “It is strung crisscrossed throughout the meadow at various heights. A thin, garrote-like affair meant to slice through the throat, but also hung in such a way as to cut us in many places, making us weak. Obviously no thought was given to other humans or animals who might venture near this place.”
“Ah, yes, I see them now. Very clever, our vampire,” Mikhail said. “We are definitely expected, though not, I should think, until tonight. Perhaps his human friends have gone for supplies, thinking they have the entire day to torment Byron without fear of interference.”
“I do not know, Mikhail. Something here makes me uneasy,” Gregori warned. “Something not quite right.”
“I feel it also,” Jacques agreed, “although I cannot explain what it is exactly. It is as if this is all prearranged, and we are walking into a spider’s web. I know this place. I can feel the pain and torment as if it was happening all over again.” And he was, his insides writhing and his gut clenching. It was difficult to maintain his outward calm when his flesh crawled and pain tore at him, splintering his mind so that he didn’t know what was real and what was part of his never-ending nightmare.
“Perhaps you are feeling Byron’s pain,” Mikhail suggested with concern. Jacques’ face remained impassive, but the lines in his skin deepened, and crimson smeared his forehead.
Jacques, are you hurt? I will come to you.Shea’s soft voice swirled in his mind, caught fragments of his thoughts and seemed to piece him back together. She was, as always, his one and only anchor to reality.
Stay there, but stay connected to me, Shea. Being so close to this place is disorienting me. I need you to keep me together.Hewas begging, but Jacques had no choice. She was his lifemate, and her presence in his mind could mean the difference between success and failure to their mission. He did not want to be the cause of the others’ deaths.
A grim smile touched Gregori’s sensual mouth, his silver eyes humorless and pierced with dangerous light. “They mean to capture us, Mikhail. Us, the two most powerful-of our kind. Perhaps they need a real demonstration in power.”
Jacques glanced at Mikhail uneasily. Maybe it was the way his body was remembering every burn, every slash. With age the pain became more intense, if one could feel. Unlike a vampire, a Carpathian was capable of tremendous sensation. Jacques had suffered what no man, human or Carpathian, should have endured. It wasn’t even in the name of science, just a sadist bent on inflicting as much pain as possible.
Come back, Jacques.Shea’s voice was filled with concern.
I cannot. I cannot leave Byron to suffer my fate.