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)
Ferro understood why Sergey had made his plan to take Elisabeta with him once he realized his brothers were going to voluntarily turn vampire. They would expect him to choose their way. If he didn’t, they would kill him. In his mind, he had no choice, so he plotted to take the one person he knew could make him feel better and subject her to the life he was terrified to lead with the brothers he feared.
I had forgotten that Sergey did not always understand what they were doing. I was very afraid at first. He kept me away from them. One day, they came unexpectedly and he had to hide me. He was almost euphoric that they had no idea I was there. They talked openly in front of him—and me. He made me repeat everything they had said. I caught all of their inflections and hand movements, every nuance. Every detail. I could tell when any of them was misleading him or one of the others.
Ferro held himself very still at her innocent revelations. Sergey wasn’t the genius. Elisabeta was. Sergey’s brothers had laid out their plans and strategies far in advance and set things in motion. Those plans were most likely already in play, with or without Sergey, but Sergey wasn’t going to plan the meticulous battles that his brothers were able to, not without a general like Elisabeta.
How is it that Sergey ended up with slivers of Xavier and his brother, Vadim, and yet he is nowhere near their intelligence? How did he become the last brother standing?
Ferro was in the mountains now, flanked by Sandu and Gary. Benedek and Petru had come in from the east, careful not to move against the wind or disturb any of the owls or insects in the trees, all most likely servants and watchers for Sergey.
He has slivers of all of his brothers, Elisabeta told him in a small voice. He can access them for their ability to plan battles or use technology. He can use the ones of Xavier to call upon mage spells if he needs them.
Ferro had to revise his thinking. All of us believed that Sergey was the genius all along, that he devised the plan from the very beginning, but he was scared. He was more than scared, he was terrified. That was why he took you with him. You brought him not only peace but courage. You listened to the brothers, Elisabeta, their plans. You heard them, and you helped Sergey get through those centuries by coming up with ways for him to strike back at them.
Yes, she admitted. They were horrible. He was, too, but not like them. I knew he did not have the ability, even if he had the slivers of his brothers in his mind, to fully access and understand what they were talking about, not without me to explain, and I often misled him. When things did not go right, I took my punishment and acted innocent, as if I had no clue what went wrong.
Ferro turned the information over and over in his mind. Sívamet, were you going to tell this to me?
I have only just begun to realize it. The vampire kept me in such a state of terror that I believed him to be completely invincible. In some ways, I still do. I can barely overcome that way of thinking. Sometimes I am very clear, and other times I feel like a child huddled in a ball of terror on the floor.
Ferro could understand that. The more she grew in confidence and strength, the more her mind cleared. The infection and strange speck left behind in the brain to open the gates was most likely done by one of the others, and now Sergey just thinks it is one more thing he does not understand without you, is that safe to say?
Yes. I have never heard or seen such a thing, though. Not even a whisper of it. If it was planned, it was never done around me. Sergey had to have known about it, but he did not share it with me, which was unusual.
You gave him the idea to talk his brothers into sharing a tiny piece of themselves to aid him in understanding their plans? Ferro wanted to make certain he was very clear on that.
Again, there was a hesitation. Yes. It was long ago, Ferro. Centuries earlier. Xavier and the Malinovs were so treacherous. I thought I could at least manipulate Sergey a little bit.
This is good news, not bad news, hän sívamak. Sergey will be unraveling the longer he is away from you. I am coming up to the lake and woods and do not want to put too much energy into the air. Stay quiet until I have need.
15
I can’t heal your scars or take away the pain;