"You just gave me the world," he said softly.
"You are my world," she told him. Meaning it.
Reluctantly, Aleksei's body slipped from hers. "I have to go, Gabrielle. Stick with Trixie and Teagan unless the sun really begins to rise. Go to my room and use that ground. The mists and the gates will protect you. Fane has woven strong safeguards so do not try to leave this place for any reason. Andre and I will be adding to the safeguards, so you will be fine while we are gone."
She shook her head as he lowered her feet gently to the ground and swept his hand over her, clothing her. He did the same for himself.
"We have gone over how to open and close the earth. You can do it if need be, kislany. I expect you to do as I say. I will not be pleased if you disobey me. This is for your own safety."
"But you'll come back. Before we have to go to ground. You'll come back." She clutched at his shirt, suddenly afraid. She didn't like even thinking about him not coming back. She found she was suddenly very anxious, those knots of dread beginning to form in her stomach. Not just beginning, she realized. She'd been tense since they first faced the ancients.
"I do not foresee a problem, Gabrielle," he said quietly. "But you have to always be prepared for an emergency. I need to know you can take care of yourself if I do run into trouble and I am delayed. Eventually we will have children. I will need to know that you can protect them."
Gabrielle bit her lip hard. "I am not good with violence, Aleksei, but I would never allow anything or anyone to harm our children." She rubbed at her bracelet, wanting to cling to him, to keep him with her. She knew he was making sense but the very idea made her uneasy.
"Or you," he persisted. "If they harm you, kislany, they harm me. If anything happens to you, it happens to me. When you are protecting you, that is you protecting me."
She nodded slowly. She would never allow harm to come to Aleksei, either, if she could help it. "I'll go to ground if I have to." She wondered if Teagan and Trixie had already mastered that particular stumbling block. If they had, both were a lot stronger than she was. If not, it would be up to her to help them.
Aleksei rewarded her with a smile. "That's my girl."
She couldn't help but feel a warm glow as they made their way back to the other two women. Trixie and Teagan both were wearing their own glows. She wasn't the only one who had been pushed up against the wall. The three women exchanged smiles. Trixie held out her hand to Gabrielle.
"You boys go ahead and find yourselves something to drink. We'll be just fine. I've got my vampire-hunting kit and we're good," Trixie announced, as Gabrielle took her hand.
"Woman. Do not try to use that kit on anyone, especially one of us when we return," Fane warned. His warning would have been far more effective had he not been laughing. Clearly he found his lifemate both entertaining and amusing.
"I want to see this kit," Gabrielle said. "Maybe we can improve on it."
"It needs improving," Trixie said. "Waste of money, most of it."
Teagan burst out laughing. "Grandma Trixie, you're incorrigible."
Fane joined in with Teagan's laughter and then took to the air, following Aleksei and Andre down toward the village where they could find strong men to give them the sustenance they needed.
20
Gabrielle waved her hands so each of the three women had comfortable chairs to lean back and take in the last of the stars. The night was cool and she added a fire pit so the warm glow could heat them while the crackling flames brought a kind of comfort. She took a long, slow look around, still feeling uneasy in spite of the fact that she knew the three ancients had triple safeguarded the gates and wove more safeguards into the thick mist surrounding them.
"There are a few things about being Carpathian I could like," Trixie announced contentedly. She stretched her hands toward the fire and pinned her granddaughter with her steely eyes. "You know I came looking for you. And I brought that passel of trouble with me. No fool like an old fool."
"Grandma Trixie." Teagan breathed her name softly. Lovingly. "I think fate brought you here to Fane. I have to admit I never ever considered that you would be with a man, but the way he looks at you and the way you look at him, it's beautiful."
Trixie scowled at her granddaughter. "That man thinks he can handle me and he's got himself another think coming. He thinks my attitude is cute. Cute. Worse, when I get snarky, he laughs. It doesn't faze him a bit. And then he . . ." She broke off abruptly, scowling even more.
"Kisses you senseless," Teagan filled in, and burst out laughing.
"Enough of that nonsense. What are we going to tell your sisters?"
Teagan sobered immediately. She took a breath. "That we both are in love, Grandma, but we can never tell them what we are. We'll have to be careful to always appear fully human. If we choose to live in that world and our lifemates agree to do so for us, we have to follow the rules of the Carpathian people. We're under the rule of the prince, and humans don't know about us--not even family."
Gabrielle held her hand out to the fire. She felt a chill creep down her spine in spite of the dancing flames. She sat up slowly, listening to the two women teasing each other. She took a look around, not understanding the chill, but not ignoring it either. The safeguards were so strong, she didn't think even a master vampire could penetrate the guards. Her bracelet drew her attention, the low humming it had been emitting becoming stronger. Louder. More insistent. The flames in the links were glowing red now, and it had gone from warm to hot. Not burning her, but definitely hot.
"What is it, Gabrielle?" Trixie asked.
"I don't know. Do you feel strange? Do you hear any notes that just don't sound right?" The feeling persisted, even though she wanted to tell herself it was nothing and she had always been afraid. Too afraid. Aleksei was gone, and it stood to reason why she didn't like him being away from her. Why she suddenly didn't feel safe. She didn't know what her mysterious bracelet could or couldn't do. Maybe it didn't like the ancients and the lingering power there in the monastery.
Before Trixie could answer, she jumped up and hurried across to the gates. "I think I'd feel better if we put up more safeguards," she said. "I've seen it done, but I've never actually done it before." She was being paranoid and showing the other two women she was, but without Aleksei, she couldn't help it. That chill down her spine had developed into a full-fledged shiver that gave her goose bumps all over her body. She had to grit her teeth to resist calling Aleksei back to her.
"Fane, Aleksei and Andre tripled the safeguards," Teagan said.
"I know. I know," Gabrielle repeated. Her stomach churned so badly she began to search around the compound itself, looking up on the rooftops, all along the wall itself. She had no idea what she was looking for, something out of place maybe.
"I've unraveled them," Teagan said, watching her closely. "I could probably figure out how to reverse that and set them." She followed Gabrielle to the gate.
Trixie remained seated, closing her eyes for a moment and reaching out to listen to the mountain and the play of the wind. "I hear the music of the mountain," she reported, "and your music, Gabrielle. You're frightened, but I can't find anything for you to be afraid of."
Gabrielle shook her head, and halted. She was such a baby without Aleksei. She'd promised him she would learn to protect their children. That she'd have his back, but she was such a coward, always afraid.
"I'm just being silly," she admitted. "A bit ridiculous." She tried a small, self-deprecating laugh, her fingers once more dropping to her bracelet, now lit with a steady, angry fire. The links glowed with flames. "I've always been one of those people who are afraid of certain circumstances. I was never a camper like you, Teagan. I wouldn't ever go off by myself and travel. Joie, my sister, and Jubal, my brother, would drop everything and go in a heartbeat. I'm more of a planner and I like four solid walls around me. I'm sorry if I made you all nervous."
Trixie sat up straighter and held her hand up for silence. Gabrielle clo
sed her mouth and then bit her lip--hard. Another chill went down her spine, and this time the air felt heavier. Ominous. The wind stilled. At once she held her breath. The air changed swiftly without the breeze from clean and fresh to a heavy oil, very dense atmosphere.
"We need to get inside one of the buildings right now, and, Teagan, you begin weaving safeguards for the house itself," Gabrielle ordered, and sprinted back toward Trixie to yank her out of the chair. "Hurry. We only have a few minutes." Aleksei! Tell me what to do. Because now she was certain. There was a vampire close. Her mind told her that. Her bracelet had been trying to tell her that. He's inside with us. I feel him, Aleksei. How could he get through the safeguards? How could we not spot him?
Stay calm, Gabrielle. Look around. I feel the danger through my link with you, but I have to see it to give you aid. If he was floating, molecules in the air, above the monastery all the time you were working with the ancients, it could be done. He would have been inside already. But he would have to be very old and very skilled. Aron would have been his servant.
Oh. God. That means he has to be extremely powerful, right?
I am on my way to you.
His voice steadied her. Calm. Like a rock. Her anchor in a storm. She took in a breath of tainted, foul air as she pulled Trixie from the chair and pushed her toward the relative safety of the four walls. If they could get inside and weave safeguards, they could hold out until the hunters returned. As Trixie ran toward the nearest building--which was Fane's--she looked scared.
"I can't hear his song."
Trixie can't hear his song.
She will not be able to because he is in a form that would not have one. He is part of the air. You feel the thickness. The foulness. He is there.
"Just get inside. Teagan, hurry," Gabrielle hissed, as she shoved Trixie inside.
She took one step toward Teagan and felt a hand in her hair. The vampire dropped from the sky, forming as he did so, his hand reaching down to grip Gabrielle's long hair in a terrible fist of iron. He yanked her so hard she went flying back against him, coming off her feet, unable to turn her head to look at him, to give Aleksei what he needed.
Teagan skidded to a halt and backed up, both hands up in a placating position. "Let's all calm down," she said softly.
I can't see him, Gabrielle told Aleksei. He's got me and I can't get away.
Do not fight him. Stall. We are on the way back. He will want to brag. To talk. Let him.
Gabrielle closed her eyes for a moment and then made herself obey. She sagged against her captor as if in surrender. Without warning he bent his head and drove his teeth into her neck. She screamed. It hurt beyond anything she could imagine. The burn was fierce, like an acid dripping all the way to her bones while teeth tore at her flesh.
Teagan screamed as well and ran toward them. Trixie burst out of the building, armed with her gun, firing the wooden stakes. The first hit the vampire in his neck as he bent over Gabrielle. The second hit his throat as he turned, his glowing red eyes finding a new target.
"Get away from her," Trixie yelled.
The bracelet on Gabrielle's wrist released, spinning, the flames dancing in the air in a whirling circle straight at the vampire's thick wrist. It sliced through flesh and bone cleanly, leaving flames behind, flames that swept up the vampire's arm so that he shrieked and let go of Gabrielle.
Teagan caught Gabrielle's arm and yanked her away from the tall vampire, who had his attention centered solely on Trixie. Blood poured from Gabrielle's neck where the vampire had torn great ragged lacerations in her flesh to get at what he wanted most. Teagan continued to drag her as far from the vampire as possible before she helped her to sit on the ground.
Gabrielle turned her head toward the vampire to allow Aleksei to use her eyes in order to see the undead who had lain in wait, keeping hidden, biding his time to wreak his revenge on the three hunters. The action caused more blood to gush from the wound in her neck.
The vampire made a horrible sound, a rattle in his throat as he put out the flames, the sunken holes he had for eyes centered on Trixie as he stepped toward her. Trixie backed up but gamely let loose another wooden stake. This one hit the undead in the center of his chest. He snarled, batted at it and lunged at Trixie, raising his good arm, fist clenched so that his forearm and fist had become a huge hammer. He was so fast there was no getting away from the killing blow.
Trixie threw the gun at him and turned to try to run, knowing it was too late. She heard, as if in the distance, Teagan and Gabrielle scream. She tripped and fell as a blast of hot air burned her skin. Her flesh seemed to shrink in an effort to avoid an unnatural abomination--to prevent it from touching her, let alone striking her.
She rolled to see him standing over her, his hideous teeth jagged and covered in Gabrielle's blood. Black blood dripped steadily from the stub where his hand had been. His skeleton-like face was smeared with blood. His arm raised and descended, and she knew she was dead. She closed her eyes and prayed Teagan and Gabrielle were running.
The blow never came. She heard a grunt and a horrible growling rattle in the vampire's throat a second time, as if he was choking. Cautiously, she opened one eye and saw another man there. He wasn't as tall as the Carpathians she knew, but his hair flowed around his shoulders. He was leaner, but all defined muscle. She could see the ripple beneath the shirt as he backed the vampire well away from her.
"Gary." Gabrielle breathed his name. How he had gotten there, made it through the safeguards and managed to save Trixie was a miracle.
Gabrielle stared in awe at the man she had known and loved for so long as Gary Jansen. That man was gone. In his place was an ancient warrior. A Daratrazanoff. He flowed when he moved. Glided. His strength was enormous as he shoved the vampire's arm up and away from Trixie and backed him up, forcing him away from the fallen woman.
He moved with absolute confidence, his features impassive, his eyes cool as he held the one arm up out of the way like a bridge while he slammed his fist straight into the vampire's chest, driving for the heart.
Trixie scrambled to her feet and made her way cautiously around the two circling fighters to get to the other two women. Teagan was on her knees beside Gabrielle, her eyes closed, and clearly Andre was directing her how to heal the wound in the Carpathian manner.
Gabrielle, making a soft sound of dismay, didn't take her eyes from the scene of combat. Gary had been an academic. More, he was a brain beyond most people's comprehension. He had served the world and then the world of Carpathians with his ability to see what others could not. She knew he still possessed that brain, but her Gary was no longer there. The ancients had poured themselves into him, giving him their blood and their memories. Good and bad. Skills and darkness.
She wanted to look away from the violence. It seemed such blasphemy when it was Gary, not Aleksei, battling the undead. A scholar with a gentle soul, a poet, a man with such a brain . . .
Kislany. That single endearment whispered into her mind so intimately. She closed her eyes, feeling his love surrounding her. She wasn't lost anymore, not when she had Aleksei.
He's gone, Aleksei, completely gone. I'm looking at him and almost don't recognize him. It's as if he's aged a thousand years.
He has.
She knew Aleksei spoke the stark truth. He didn't sugarcoat the truth for her. She bit her lip hard, wanting to weep for Gary. Inside she was weeping.
Gabrielle. You did not do this. He was converted and then brought to the cave of warriors for recognition. Had Gregori not claimed him, he could have lived a half-life. Carpathian and yet not, with no hope of a lifemate. No one knew exactly how it worked. Andre said few males are converted. Until the prince converted his lifemate it was not known it was even a possibility without madness setting in. There was never a reason to convert a human male.
Not until they fell in combat defending Carpathian women and children. She tried not to be bitter.
He is alive, kislany, that is a gift in itself.
He isn't Gary. I don't know this man, he isn't Gary. Over time, I saw the difference in his build and his combat skills. He had to become a fighter in order to defend the children, but he's completely different now. He looks like . . .
Gregori. The Daratrazanoff family.
Yes.
Because that is what he is. That is who he had to become to come fully into our world. Just as you are changed, so is he.
Aleksei was wrong. Essentially, she was still Gabrielle. She wasn't blind. She knew her looks were enhanced, but inside, she was Gabrielle. Gary was no longer Gary. He was all of those ancients who had gone before.
He was a hunter of the vampire. Skilled. Merciless. Capable of ripping out a heart and throwing it onto the ground. Capable of withstanding horrendous wounds without flinching to get the job done. Capable of calling down the lightning and incinerating the blackened, wizened heart and bathing his arms and torso in the white-hot energy in order to get rid of the acid-like blood from the undead before he directed the whip of lightning to the vampire's body.
"Eww," Trixie whispered. "So that's how it's done. I don't suppose they can put lightning in a bottle and sell that in their vampire-hunting kits on the Internet."
"I don't think so, Grandma," Teagan said, her voice even softer than her grandmother's. "I saw Andre do that several times and it never feels real."
Gary turned toward them, and Gabrielle's heart thudded wildly. Aleksei?
"I'm here, kislany," he said, and he was, striding toward her, right past Gary to wrap his arm around her, to inspect the side of her neck.
I have to go to him.
I know. Give me a minute to make certain this wound is thoroughly cleaned and as healed as possible until we get to ground.
I know. Two little words, but they said everything to her. Meant everything.