She shook her head. “That man, Xavier’s grandson, Anatolie, is my father. My mother was a sixteen-year-old Carpathian girl named Francise. They wanted someone to use for blood to sustain them as they grew older. They used her until I was old enough and then they killed her.”
He frowned and rubbed his finger over the bridge of his nose. “You know they killed her, you know this for a fact? You saw the body?”
“Yes. I’m sorry. I know it’s hard to think that they would kill a young girl like that, but they did. I wasn’t that old, but I remember. They wanted me to remember. Before my mother, my father married a mage, a woman very powerful in her own right. She gave Anatolie two sons. She was on board with him impregnating Francise. Theirs isn’t a love match. She wants power just as Anatolie does.”
“She isn’t a very wise woman. They killed Rhiannon and then Francise. Why won’t they kill her when she no longer serves a purpose?”
“I hadn’t thought of that. In any case, I overheard them talking about the book and how whoever had it would wield a tremendous power and could destroy any species. It was the chance to rid the world of the Carpathians. My brothers, along with my father, had devised a plan. They were developing a creature everyone refers to as a shadow cat. These cats are part illusion, part shadow and part real. They are trained to slip in where no one can go. They’ve been training and practicing with them in other parts of the world away from the Carpathian Mountains because they didn’t want to tip off the prince that they were coming for the book.”
“You overheard them, broke with your family and set out to warn Mikhail.”
She met his eyes. “That’s the truth. I don’t understand why you look and sound as if I’m lying about this.”
“Perhaps because sacrifice seems out of character for you.” Again, he kept his voice mild. There was no point in arguing. He could look into her mind. She had a shield and it was a strong one, but he had no doubt that he could bring it down when he needed to do so.
She opened her mouth and then closed it, pressing her lips together tightly. Finally, she sighed. “Just because I don’t want to be with a dictator doesn’t mean I don’t do what’s right.”
“Are you telling me it would be wrong for a woman to save a man? Save a Carpathian male from turning vampire?”
“You’re twisting my words.”
3
Isai had the most beautiful sapphire blue eyes Julija had ever seen. They were so intense she was fairly certain they could melt the panties right off a girl—or accuse her of being selfish beyond all things. When he looked at her directly, she wanted the ground to open up and swallow her. She supposed from his perspective, she did look selfish. On the other hand, he didn’t know one single thing about her life.
“Please continue. It doesn’t matter anyway.” Isai motioned in the air with his hand as if dismissing the entire conversation.
Julija wanted to defend herself, but how? What could she say? She did know about lifemates and what that meant in the Carpathian world. Their world and their rules were far different than the human or mage world. She hadn’t wanted to save him, although she hadn’t thought of it in those terms. More like she wanted to save herself.
“I can sometimes connect with others if their feelings are overpowering. A Carpathian hunter doesn’t feel his emotions, but they are still there—inside of him—sometimes all the stronger because he can’t let them out. I found myself caught in the mind of a Carpathian hunter who had searched the world over for his lifemate and like you, had gone centuries looking for her. He found her, but she was dying of old age. She had never married, and by the time he got to her, she was in a nursing home and practically taking her last breath.”
Just the memory made her so sad she wanted to cry. She pressed a hand over her aching heart. “He was unbelievable with her. So gentle. He held her and pressed kisses down her face. She couldn’t speak but she did open her eyes and look at him before she took her last breath. He took her with him and put her in the ground in some place that was sacred to him. It was a cave. The shadow cat that my brothers had bred was in that same cave.”
“Could you tell what he was thinking?”
His voice was strictly neutral, but for some reason, tension coiled in her. She was missing something important. “It’s more like I can feel what he’s feeling and when it gets intense then I see the images. I saw him become alert, but at the time, I didn’t know why. He had planned to stay with his lifemate until the dawn and then he was going to suicide.”
Isai shook his head and turned away from her. His hair was the true black of the Carpathian people, mixed now with gray strands. He didn’t look at all old, his body in superb condition without an ounce of fat and muscles rippling everywhere. If he’d been walking down the street, she would have stopped in her tracks and stared at him. Maybe she would have followed him. Okay, she would have followed him. She had a strong sex drive beyond imagining thanks to things she didn’t want to think about. True attraction for a man had never been so intense with anyone the way it had been with him. Not ever.
“Keep going.”
Yes, for certain she was missing something. His voice was mild, calm, but there was an edge to him.
“His name is Iulian Florea . . .”
“I’m aware.”
“You are?”
“He’s my brother.”
Her heart thudded hard in warning. She took a cautious look around her. Would his first loyalty be to his brother? Was it a conspiracy? No. She felt the sorrow in him. She also felt his utter and complete disappointment in her. His rejection of her as his lifemate. It was one thing for her to reject him, but it stung when it was the other way around. She told herself to be grateful that he didn’t want her, but she wasn’t.
If he didn’t claim her, what would that mean for him? She couldn’t think about that, but it was already there in her mind and now she wasn’t going to be able to get it out.
“He abruptly left the cave and it was clear he was following the shadow cat. I was elated. He would save the day and I wouldn’t be involved.”
“Of course not,” Isai said.
Did she hear sarcasm in his voice? Judgment? She clenched her teeth together and then let out a large sigh. “You’re determined to think the worst of me. You’re the one who spanked me. If you do that again, I’m going to stab you through the heart.”
“It won’t be necessary to spank you again. In my world, at least during the time I came from, a man treasured his woman. If she needed a lesson as you did, it was his duty to give it to her. He was responsible for all aspects of her care. Times were very dangerous, and obedience was necessary for safety. Others, not Carpathians, over the centuries abused their women and I suppose it became something else. Something not between two people who love each other.”
She started to tell him it wasn’t love, but then what he said caught at her. “What do you mean it won’t be necessary?”
“You are clearly not my treasure.”
She frowned and pushed a hand through her hair in agitation. She examined his tone. It was neutral. Matter-of-fact. Dismissive and, unfortunately, genuine. She didn’t care. He wasn’t making any sense. He was so old-fashioned he thought spanking was caring. People didn’t even spank their children anymore to correct their behavior.
“What are you going to do?” she whispered, afraid of his answer.
He shrugged. “Find my brother, get the book back, take it to Mikhail and return to the monastery. Hopefully, my emotions will fade with time.”
There was no self-pity, simply acceptance. She wasn’t the lifemate he had envisioned. She didn’t want to be a lifemate but . . .
“Please continue.”
She forced herself back to the main, very important topic. “The shadow cat did manage to steal the book. Iulian severely wounded the shadow cat. It was a terrible battle, but he was able to get the book back. I thought Iulian would return it to the prince, but instead, he took off with it. I knew because I saw the entire conflict in his mind. I didn’t want to waste time, so I didn’t continue on my journey to see Mikhail Dubrinsky, but instead, chased after him.”
Julija pressed her fingers to her eyes. She had run after him without too many supplies. “I had to get a regular flight. I’m also dodging my family. They pretty much want to kill me . . .”
His head jerked up. “What did you just say?”
“I am betraying them and now they know it.”
“They can’t know it. For all they know you were trying to get the book for them.”
“We had a terrible fight before I left. At least, my father and I did. He sent me to my room and put a holding spell on it. The thing is, I’m good at spells. Not just good, very good. I can blow my stepmother right out of the water matching her spell for spell. Same with my brothers. My father is used to dealing with them and he underestimated the force he needed to keep me in. I’ve always been careful not to show all my abilities or power.”
“You told him you would warn Mikhail?”
“Yes. He wants the book in order to carry on Xavier’s work. They all do. It’s been their goal all along. I wasn’t privy to it because they felt I had too much Carpathian blood in me and might betray them. Xavier had forced Soren to be with a mage because he needed his own bloodline to be the more powerful of the two in Anatolie. They needed me to be more Carpathian so they could live off of my blood.” She gave a little shudder and rubbed her hands up and down her arms. “All of them.”
“Where is Iulian now?”
She sighed again. “I was taken prisoner by Sergey. I would have broken loose when he wasn’t around but there were children and Elisabeta to free. I wanted to try to find a way to help them and I thought, even being a couple of days behind Iulian, that I would be able to catch up. I’d been in his mind and I had a clear path to it. I just needed to find a direction.”