Total pages in book: 182
Estimated words: 165649 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 828(@200wpm)___ 663(@250wpm)___ 552(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 165649 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 828(@200wpm)___ 663(@250wpm)___ 552(@300wpm)
“We don’t have much time to figure this out,” Tariq said. “If we wait too long to go after him, Sergey will know we’re onto him.”
Ferro wanted to curse at Gary for forcing him into the position of bringing Elisabeta to the surface immediately. He dissolved into mist and streamed away from the others, back toward his house, where his lifemate waited for him. He had looked forward to every rising with her. Now, he dreaded calling her to him.
He opened the earth above her as he woke her, singing their song softly promising to always be at her side, swearing with every breath he drew that he loved her more than life itself. He didn’t have her exert energy but brought her to him, right into his waiting arms, freshening her, dressing her, holding her close to him, caring for her in the loving way he wanted and needed to do. For her. For himself.
He took them into the woods, the place where she felt the most sense of peace and belonging with him. She cuddled into his lap, looking up at him, and though he could see far too much knowledge in her eyes, she didn’t ask him questions, and he was grateful. He opened his shirt for her. Right before she bent her head, she touched his face, sliding her fingers along his jaw so gently it turned his heart over.
She knew he was upset and she sought, as always, to comfort him. He felt her familiar soothing grace settle around him, cocooning them in her world of tranquility. She nuzzled his chest. Her tongue slid over his skin and his body reacted in spite of the gravity of the situation. Elisabeta would always bring him both serenity and an impossible erotic rush that spread through his body like a fireball when she sank her teeth into him.
Tell me what he has done. Now, while we are one.
He stroked her hair back from her forehead, looking down on her beautiful face. Her eyes were closed. Long lashes—two thick crescents, dark and beautiful fans—lay against her pale skin. She was still recovering from centuries of starvation. Her cheekbones were high and prominent, her mouth generous and her lips such a perfect bow.
We are always one. He can never separate us. I just need these few minutes for me, piŋe sarnanak, holding you close to me. You bring me joy and allow me to feel peace when sometimes I feel there is no longer harmony in the world.
She slid one hand up his chest to his shoulder and then curled her slender arm around his neck. The gesture felt intimate, causing his belly muscles to tighten in reaction. She was quiet while she fed, giving him exactly what he asked for without hesitation.
Around him, the forest creatures moved, going about their business, when they never would have had he been alone. He was a predator and they would have recognized him as one. Elisabeta masked that trait in him with her tranquility. She was extraordinary and he was humbled that she was his. Such a gift. Such a miracle.
All too soon, her tongue swept across the twin holes, closing them and healing the small openings. She lay in his arms, waiting. There wasn’t a single sign of impatience. Not in her body language, and not in her mind.
“Sergey left a message for you—us. Three bodies.” Ferro dropped his head over hers to comfort her, to comfort both of them. He said it fast, no preamble, needing to get it over with. There was no use dragging it out any further when it had to be said.
She made a single sound of such pain, such agony, not aloud, not in her throat, but in her mind, as if she didn’t dare let that sound loose in the world where Sergey might hear and rejoice.
I was so afraid he would resort to his old method of controlling me. He threatened to continue until I returned to him. She made it a statement.
It was a measure of her terror of the vampire that she didn’t speak aloud to Ferro but had crawled into his mind and stayed there, whispering to him as if Sergey would hear.
“Yes. We are going to lay a trap for him. We will allow him to believe the ancient hunters have taken the bait to follow his trail, leaving the compound with few to guard it. We hope to draw him close. Elisabeta, several within the compound have the infection back. We believe that it has been introduced in order to destroy us from within. If ancients turn vampire and/or begin fighting one another, it would not be difficult to do such a thing. Could Sergey be behind this infection?”
She sat up, her eyes meeting his. As her confidence in herself had grown, so had her clarity in the way she saw her time with Sergey. She was no longer starved and in terrible pain. She wasn’t terrorized. She could think very clearly. She took her time again, and now, very slowly, she nodded her head. Ferro could feel her struggling to remember something. Merged as he was with her, he could feel her frustration when she couldn’t grasp the fragments she needed to put the pieces together.