“But?”
She shrugged helplessly. “I did connect with him briefly and knew he had come this way. He likes the high places, the lonely places. He doesn’t want to be around people at all, not even to feed.”
Isai frowned. He leaned closer. “Julija, that isn’t a good sign.”
“What does it mean?”
“He doesn’t expect to live or fight. If he thought he would need to fight in order to protect the book, he would stay where he could find sustenance. He doesn’t intend to have to fight. He lost his lifemate and he determined the book wasn’t safe where it was. He is taking it somewhere and he will suicide in order to stop anyone from finding the book’s final resting place.”
She couldn’t tell what he felt. Before, she’d connected with him, but once he determined she wasn’t lifemate material, he’d withdrawn and put up some impenetrable shield. She knew, because she tried to get in. He probably knew she’d tried, but he’d kept her out. She didn’t like being separated from him. It made her edgy. Uneasy. Incomplete. Still, if she could best a powerful mage, she could best a Carpathian hunter.
“Are you going to go after him?”
“Of course.” Isai unfolded his long frame. “I have to find a suitable place to sleep during the day. Your brothers are most likely the two campers I saw not more than a few miles from here. If you want to try to outrun them on your own, that, obviously, is your right. If not, you’re welcome to come with me. You need have no fears. I won’t try to change your mind, nor will I try to have sex with you.”
She should have reveled in his statement, but inexplicably she wanted to weep. She actually felt as if she’d lost something very valuable, and it wasn’t the sex even when she tried to tell herself it was. She detested that he had such a poor opinion of her. Again, he didn’t look at her when he spoke, and she wanted to remain silent, hoping he would turn those incredible sapphire eyes on her, but she couldn’t take a chance that he would just leave.
“I’d rather go with you,” she said hastily. “I’d really like to know about the tattoo on your back. It’s different. I believe it’s in the ancient Carpathian language, isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
He said it tersely. Clipped. That hurt, but she persisted. “What does it mean?”
“It is for my lifemate alone. No one else.”
She stuck her chin in the air, challenging him. “But I can know then. I am your lifemate.”
Those blue eyes drifted over her. Remote. Not even judging her. She’d already been judged and found wanting. She found herself shivering and rubbing her arms. Waiting for him to tell her.
“Those words are sacred. To me, they mean something. So much so, I etched them into my body so I would feel them in the darkest of times. So she could pull me through the worst hell. The vows would not mean anything to you. You are not mine and I am not yours.”
Again, his tone lacked accusation or inflection. He had stepped back in his mind, so far from her, she couldn’t reach him. He was lost to her. Completely lost to her. She found herself so confused she didn’t know how to react. She wanted to weep at the loss when she should be celebrating. It shouldn’t matter what he thought of her, but it did. To hear him say he wasn’t hers was terrible. Each word felt like the slice of a sword in her bones.
Isai suddenly looked up but leapt right at her. Hard hands pushed her down and he hurdled right over top of her. Cognizant that sound carried great distances at night, Julija managed not to scream. He looked terrifying there with the moonlight spilling down on him. He was a warrior and he looked it, looked invincible. Fierce lines were carved deep into his face, and those blue eyes were so intense blue flames seemed to come out of them. He caught something in his arms. It was black, no gray, almost insubstantial, but it was heavy enough to bowl him over backward.
She scrambled out of the way as the shadow cat turned its head toward her. Glowing red eyes locked on to her. It was so evil, her entire body shuddered. She could feel hatred coming off of the creature in waves.
Isai refused to let go and the cat tore at him, shredding his shirt and leaving long bloodred streaks down his chest.
“Get out of here.” Isai snapped the command at her as cat and man rolled back onto their feet. The cat took two steps toward her and Isai mirrored the movement, forcing the animal to turn its attention back to him.
Her brothers had found her, or at least their killer cat had. Of course. It would hunt by scent. They had her blood. She would be easy to track. She refused to retreat and leave Isai to fight her fight alone. She lifted her hands into the air and cleared her mind.
That which is shadow and blood scent I bind.
The cat stopped in its tracks.
Sending you back to those who would seek to find.
The cat slunk away, over the rocks, back into the night. Something fierce yowled from out in the darkness a distance away.
Take back that which is shadow, now turn it to smoke.
By the power of air my will be invoked.
Isai sank down onto the rock ledge, looking down at his chest. “You did the majority of that. I was just the convenient weapon.”
She hurried to him. “That poor demonic creature tore up your chest.”
He held up his hand as if to ward her off. “I can heal the wounds. They’re deep scratches, but I’m used to wounds.”
“You’re very pale. You need blood.” Again, she moved toward him, driven by more than the fact that he’d saved her—and he had. If that thing had jumped on her from above, it would have killed her. Isai had sacrificed his body in order to protect her. She detested seeing him injured, and a compulsion so strong it bordered on desperation urged her to help him.
Isai smoothly stepped back away from her. “I’m used to dealing with these types of injuries. The cat has some kind of poison in its claws. Burns like hell. I need to examine it. Do they come in pairs? Whatever yowled out in the distance sounded as if it was calling to it.”
“I believe so. When I stumbled across the building where they were housing them, it was horrible, like a place where animals are butchered. Several cats were half formed and had parts missing. Some were starving because they couldn’t eat. It was clear some had been fed blood. The place was ghastly, truly out of a horror film. I was appalled and began sneaking in at night to try to help them. Some had to be humanely put down. I hated that, but what else could I do? Let them suffer? I brought water to them every night. They were so thirsty. I think my brothers were instilling hate in them. Once I came in and one had terrible wounds all over it. I tried to get close, but it snarled and warned me off. Eventually, I found a way to make it sleep and I cleaned all the wounds and dressed them. Each night I checked on the big cat and dressed the wounds.”
That compulsion in her she couldn’t help had her inching forward as she spoke.
“You took a hell of a chance.” He moved away from her again, out of reach. “You did tonight as well. Thank you,” he said quietly, sincerely.
Julija detested that he wouldn’t allow her to help him but that low acknowledgment of his gratitude made her feel a little better. “You saved my life. I’m the one who should be thanking you.”
Those blue eyes flared in the darkness, lighting up the night. The sight of them like that, glowing almost, caused a slow roll in her stomach. The sensation was unlike anything she’d experienced. Still, she could see by the blank expression on his face that he wouldn’t expect her to thank him. He didn’t expect anything at all from her. He had withdrawn so completely from her, shut down any kind of relationship, even friendship, that she didn’t know how to approach him.
He rested his back against a rock wall and concentrated on the wounds on his chest. She felt the surge of power. It was incredible. Shocking even. Her father commanded tremendous power, more than any other she knew. Anatolie kept his abilities a secret from most in the mage world. He was the well-kept secret. No one was to know of his existence. He was Xavier’s secret weapon.
Those with mage blood had scattered since Xavier’s death, fearing retaliation by the Carpathian people after the attacks on them by the high mage. Then the truth had come out that he was one of triplets. Anatolie didn’t seem in the least surprised, but her brothers were. Their father made it clear they were never to admit Xavier’s blood ran in their veins. He said it would make them a target of jealous mages and the Carpathian hunters.
Isai wielded power so easily, as if it was a part of him. He didn’t call it up with ceremony, he simply used it. Casually. Easily. The shirt fell away, disappearing as if it had never been. The bloody streaks in his chest were already turning black as if some poison was eating away the flesh. She shuddered, one hand going defensively to her throat. Those claws would have gotten into her. Even if she’d managed to drive them off with a spell, the acid would have most likely killed her.
She couldn’t tear her eyes away from the sight of him. He was mesmerizing as he pushed the poison out of his body through his pores. She knew it had to burn, but he never winced. Pale yellow droplets fell to the ground. The beads seemed to have some kind of magnetic attraction to one another and they rolled until they pooled together to form a light buttery-colored puddle at his feet.
“They used sulfuric acid or some combination with that in it,” she identified. “That explains why so many of the cats ended up dead with burns on their faces and feet. Somehow the acid leaked out of their venom sacs, right?” She stared in horror at the evidence at his feet. She wouldn’t have survived an attack with that acid. He had to be in terrible pain.
“I will be fine. Stand back for a minute. I have to get rid of the poisonous acid.”
She moved to the other side of the rock.
“Turn away when I bring this down.” He was already looking toward the sky.
Her heart pounded. He was calling down the lightning. It was a feat no other species could do. No mage had been able to wield lightning, even if they could draw it down.