We have put that subject to rest, Gabrielle.
Aleksei's voice was stern, yet soothing at the same time. She didn't know how he managed that.
You are not to be embarrassed about that anymore. Do you understand me? Let it go.
Gabrielle sighed. There it was again. His demand for her to let something go that ran through her head like a loop playing. Half the Carpathian world had to know by now. She knew Gary had been taken to the cave of warriors for healing by the prince and Gregori. Every Carpathian knew that; the news had gone out on the common path. She figured they were all talking about her betrayal on more common paths.
It isn't that easy, Aleksei. He was there.
He reached behind him and caught her free hand, pulling it down to his thigh, his hand pressing her palm into the hard muscle there. He'd done it before, and for some reason she felt that gesture so deep she had to drop her forehead against his back, drawing in a deep breath to keep the tears clogging her throat at bay. He was so sweet. Instinctively, she knew few people would ever see that side of him. He reserved that for her.
Sweet and bossy.
You like my bossy.
His tone implied all kinds of things, sexy, erotic things. Images filled her head because they were filling his head. Some of those images made her blush, so she was glad she was hiding behind his large body and Andre couldn't see her face.
Being tied down is not sexy. But it kind of was.
It will be when I do it to you.
She did a full-body shiver and decided it was prudent, due to the circumstances, to quit talking, but she realized she wasn't embarrassed anymore. She was too busy thinking about those images in Aleksei's head and wanting to try them all.
A heartbeat later, a smaller owl joined them, spiraling down to land beside Andre. Teagan was much lighter skinned than her grandmother, but both were beautiful. Gabrielle could see glimpses of Trixie in her. She had a lot of hair, tons of it, cascading down her back, and she wore the same intricate braids that Trixie did.
The moment Teagan arrived, Aleksei drew Gabrielle to his side, clamping her there with an arm around her waist. He introduced her immediately. Andre introduced Teagan. Aleksei turned on the charm and his high-voltage smile.
"Your grandmother came to Gabrielle's aid and I am indebted to her," he greeted. "She is a very wise woman."
Gabrielle's heart did another stutter. Aleksei did that for her. That was not something he would normally say, she knew that instinctively. He was being friendly toward Teagan because he intended to make amends with Trixie. For her. Because she asked him to and he knew Trixie mattered to her. She slid just a little bit more in love with him.
Teagan instantly beamed. "She is, isn't she? I can't wait for Andre to meet her, although I'm a little terrified she might try to use her vampire-hunting kit on him."
To Gabrielle's shock, Aleksei casually delivered information he hadn't even told Gabrielle. "Fane told me she used the gun on him, trying to stake him with ridiculous darts."
"Oh, dear," Teagan said.
Both women glanced up at Andre's impassive face. Andre's mouth didn't so much as twitch. Neither did Aleksei's. The two women looked at each other and then burst out laughing, and Gabrielle didn't know if they were laughing at Trixie's gutsy attack on Fane, who must have been shocked, or the two men who refused to laugh, but had to think it was funny.
"And she threw the vial of holy water at him, but she forgot to take out the stopper, not that it would have done much more than get him a little damp." Aleksei delivered that tidbit with the same expressionless face when they had sobered.
The two women dissolved into laughter again. Neither man laughed.
Gabrielle rolled her eyes at Aleksei. I guess macho, arrogant, bossy men don't laugh in front of other macho, arrogant, bossy men? Because this is funny. Although not quite as funny as you and Andre pretending it isn't.
If we laugh we would lose the status of macho, arrogant, bossy men. Aleksei caught her chin and looked into her eyes. You are giving me a hard-on right now, teasing me like that and rolling your eyes at me.
You can't get a hard-on from being teased or having your lifemate roll her eyes at you.
I can when she is you and you are teasing me and rolling your eyes, because it means something.
Gabrielle stared into his piercing green eyes. Her heart stuttered. Her belly somersaulted. And he got an answering spasm in her sex. A direct shot. With his look. With his words and the intimate delivery straight into her mind.
His words echoed through her. I can when she is you and you are teasing me and rolling your eyes, because it means something.
She knew what he meant. Teasing and eye rolling meant she was comfortable with him. That she knew him enough now that he wouldn't be upset by her antics. That he even liked them. That love was growing, and she belonged. She had accepted fully that she belonged with Aleksei.
She moved into him, sliding her arms around his waist, uncaring that Andre and Teagan knew all about Gary. Uncaring that anyone knew. Now I wish we were alone and I had your cock in my mouth. I would do my best to show you the care I intend to take of you, honey.
His eyes narrowed. Against her stomach she felt the hard evidence of his response, growing even harder.
Kislany, you know better than to say things like that around me. And if you do not, you had better learn fast. I could take you right now, hard and fast right up against the monastery walls, and shield others from seeing us. You keep that up, it will happen.
Gabrielle laughed softly in her mind, all the while holding his gaze, letting him know his warning didn't scare her in the least. If he wanted her that way, she was ready and willing to oblige him. She let it show in her eyes. In her mind. She wasn't going to be intimidated by something that promised total pleasure. If no one could see, who cared where they were?
He shook his head. She felt his slow smile. He liked it that she was all right with his threats.
We will be taking care of this business fast, my little cat, because I like that you will have me in your mouth each time we play out one of those images you saw in my head.
She bit her lip. Hard. She liked that, and suddenly taking care of business didn't seem as important as it had. They went through the gates, Aleksei's hand on her back, guiding her, making her feel safe, his soft, intimate laughter in her mind.
19
Gabrielle watched the reunion between Trixie and her granddaughter. Trixie enfolded Teagan into her arms and kissed her on each cheek. Both women had tears in their eyes. It took their men stepping up, wrapping an arm around each of them to bring out watery smiles while introductions were made. Andre was gallant, leaning down to brush a kiss on Trixie's forehead, while Fane kissed Teagan's hand. Gabrielle was happy to share that moment, even from a distance, because the ancients emerging from the ground or buildings were terrifying.
Even if Teagan can really give these men a little more time, Aleksei, I don't think it would be a good thing for them to be let loose in the modern world.
Gabrielle bit her lip hard, her fingers moving to the bracelet on her wrist. It felt warm and maybe a little comforting. She had no problem with Aleksei keeping his body between her and the seven men forming a semicircle around them--in fact she liked that he was there. Solid. Safe. She could tell Trixie had the same opinion she did. Trixie was plastered to Fane's side, her worried eyes on her granddaughter approaching the ancient called Dragomir. Andre was beside Teagan, his arm around her, his body very protective. Still, the ancients were both beautiful and terrible.
Tension was so thick one could cut it with a knife. The ancients were no longer men. They were mostly demon, so dangerous their own kind feared them--and Fane, Aleksei and Andre were powerful and dangerous in their own rights. Still, they approached the ancients carefully, without the women, persuading them to try Teagan's healing stone.
Now, with the ancients sitting tailor fashion on the ground, Gabrielle felt as if she was in a cage of ti
gers--tigers that hadn't been fed in months. Years even. The men were large, built like Aleksei, very muscular, with ropes of defined muscle. It was their faces that held a strange masculine beauty, almost as if each had been meticulously chiseled from the hardest, but most beautiful stone on earth. They all had the same tattoo covering their backs and reaching up over their shoulders and down their arms with their creed flowing in ancient letters. They each had long, flowing salt-and-pepper hair. Each had a few scars, showing the fatal battle wounds they had somehow managed to survive. That was where the similarity ended.
Dragomir's attention seemed wholly focused on Teagan as she came close to him, his golden eyes--and they were absolutely gold--boring right through her. His teeth were very white. Gabrielle could tell because he clenched them tightly as if Teagan invading his space hurt him in some way. Since he couldn't feel, Gabrielle knew it was because he was holding himself back from harming her. He looked as if ice ran in his veins--the coldest arctic temperature ever recorded. He was more than terrifying.
Gabrielle gripped Aleksei's hand as Dragomir's body shuddered, and a low, rumbling growl emerged. Andre halted Teagan's progress abruptly by stopping and clamping her to his side. Dragomir's rumble made it clear, the distance was as near as he could tolerate. Her bracelet had definitely gone warm, as if it had become watchful. She tried to block out the low hum emerging from it, but fortunately it was low enough that the ancients didn't do more than glance her way.
Teagan knelt in front of Dragomir, a stone in her hand. It was round and flat and unpolished. Still, it gleamed as gold as old and ancient as the gold of Dragomir's eyes. Gabrielle felt the instant connection, the pull. At the same time, she felt compelled toward the maps drawn in the soft, rich dirt. She moved away from Aleksei and crouched close to the ground, her hand hovering over the lines there. Trixie's swift indrawn breath told her that she was seeing what she called a song emerging from Dragomir.
Teagan began a soft chant, her eyes closing. To Gabrielle's complete shock, she could see Teagan's aura begin to expand from where she was kneeling in front of Dragomir to surround and encompass his aura. His aura was layer after layer of unrelenting dark. Teagan's aura was a cool, fresh green, like the springtime. As her aura stretched and enveloped his, a rainbow of colors began to infiltrate the darkness.
The sight was so amazing and unexpected that Gabrielle could barely pull her gaze away to observe the effect on the other ancients. They were staring impassively, but she could see their eyes beginning to go from dead to something else. They wouldn't be able to see the actual color, but they could see light moving in streaks through the gray.
The one called Sandu, the complete opposite of Dragomir with fire in his eyes, rather than ice, seemed to call up flames so that his black eyes burned a deep red. Isai, with his sapphire blue eyes, leaned forward to watch more closely. Petru had eyes that were mercury in color and right now they were an eerie liquid, as if deep inside of him a volcano had erupted and sent heat throughout to turn him fluid.
Gabrielle glanced at Aleksei, her fingers on her bracelet, that warmth there. He, like Andre and Fane, stared at Teagan as if she were a miracle. It was awesome. More colors were added into the layers of darkness, infusing Dragomir's unrelenting gray world with streaks of brightness. Gabrielle realized no one could live in that world for long without suffering the effects. To know that these men had done so for centuries made her respect them all the more.
Aleksei had done that. Her Aleksei had lived in that terrible, unrelenting gloom. A shadow world where he could never connect with anyone. And her Gary had been dropped abruptly into it with no slow conditioning. After having emotions and colors for his entire life, how could he experience the loss of emotion and color of every single warrior who had gone before him in the Daratrazanoff lineage and not go insane?
She wanted to weep. She was weeping. So was Trixie. They all felt it. The burden these men had carried for far too long. Aleksei's hand found her shoulder and slid to the nape of her neck, holding her steady.
Honey, she whispered softly into his mind. You were like that. You endured that. And I . . .
You were my personal miracle, and those colors she's pushing into that darkness have not penetrated beyond that first layer. Your colors streaked through the darkness in me all the way to the very core. You gave me that, Gabrielle. You.
He humbled her. His caressing voice. The tenderness in his eyes. She could barely look at him when he looked at her like that--as if he believed every word he said. And the thing was--he did believe it. She felt herself slipping further under his spell. Sliding from "falling" straight into "in" love. Not just "in" but wholly "in."
His eyes began to glitter. You cannot look at me when we are in the middle of something this important. I need to be alone with you when you give that to me, kessake.
Instantly the familiar reaction spread through her body like a firestorm. Her body tightened and a very pleasant spasm happened in her deepest core. She sent him a small smile and turned her attention back to what was happening.
Benedek, another ancient with the same etched tattoo, long salt-and-pepper hair and his own unique midnight black eyes, actually flowed to his feet, stepping closer to Dragomir in order to try to ascertain what was happening. Gabrielle knew they didn't see the colors, but they were all sharing the same psychic path and they could feel the difference in Dragomir. The ancients saw the streaks of lighter gray moving through the darker gray of his aura.
Trixie moved a little closer and cocked her head to one side, listening. She was also using the same path, enabling the others to hear the mournful notes playing through her head. Not just mournful--Gabrielle grasped--but the notes of a feral predator searching for prey. She shivered, hearing those notes, knowing that was Dragomir's song. The notes sprang into the air above the map drawn on the ground. Notes that held no real color, only the same darkness that permeated through all the ancients.
Andor, an ancient with indigo eyes, inky blue black, stood abruptly, reaching for one of the notes as if he could capture it in his hands. His hair, so long it hit his waist, moved with the slight breeze, and his muscles rippled beneath his skin, bringing his tattoo to life. Fane moved in closer to Trixie, stepping between Andor and Trixie without hesitation, a subtle warning that the women were trying to aid the ancients, but not to get too close.
The moment Fane moved in between his lifemate and the ancient, the seventh ancient, the one they had introduced as Ferro, came to his feet as well. His eyes were the most unusual of all. The color of iron, complete with the rust. Every bit as piercing as Aleksei's eyes, maybe more so. He was tall. His shoulders were wide--wider even than those of the other ancients. He was a very imposing figure in the midst of such powerful men. He glided across the ground, and Gabrielle held her breath as he neared Trixie. He wasn't looking at the woman, but rather at the notes and the way they surrounded Gabrielle.
She bit her lip hard. She didn't like attention. At all. She was used to being alone in her laboratory for nights on end, weeks, months even, staying alone. She didn't have the vivid personality of her mother--larger than life--or her sister and brother. She faded into the background, at least she did her best to, and having the focused attention of all seven ancients was disconcerting.
Still, it was her turn. She had to try to help them with her silly parlor trick. She shouldn't have mentioned it to Aleksei, that she might be able to do this. The small flames seemed to have come to light in her bracelet, the links dancing with fire, yet only warm and reassuring against her skin. She rubbed at them nervously.
Teagan had done her best for Dragomir. Trixie had found his unique, signature song and sent it to Gabrielle. Now, it was up to her to try to find a location somewhere in the world, where his lifemate might possibly be. Andre would contact Josef, who was standing by with the database, and he would look up any psychic women in the vicinity.
Gabrielle's heart pounded. Teagan had done amazing work. Astonishing. A miracle
really. Trixie had given her a key. Now it was up to her to unlock the door so Dragomir had a chance to find his lifemate. Sitting in the monastery afforded him nearly a zero chance. She knew what she was doing wouldn't get an exact location. It didn't work that way. Countries were big. They covered a lot of ground.
You can do this.
Aleksei. He believed in her. His voice alone steadied her, but his fingers on the nape of her neck made her feel grounded. She took a deep breath and let go of her own ego, her own personality, all that she was, much in the way Carpathians healed one another. She didn't become white-hot healing energy, she simply expanded, her consciousness reaching out into the universe. She took Dragomir's song with her. As dark and dangerous as it was, as untamed and feral, as violent and mournful, as in need. She took it with her as the energy that was her moved over the map drawn into the dirt.
At first she felt nothing at all. She didn't let that discourage her. If she did, she would retreat back into her own body, and this wasn't about her. This was about a man of intense honor who had no hope. He deserved so much better than he got. She didn't know what kind of woman would be strong enough to handle these ancients, so far gone there was nothing civilized left in them. Nothing remotely human. She couldn't think about what it would be like for them to go out into the modern world, even with Andre giving them every scrap of information that he had accrued about that world as well as Aleksei and Fane adding what they had learned from their lifemates.
Then she felt it, a pull that came out of nowhere, slight at first, but she honed in on her target range. The United States. Somewhere in the northern part of California. California was a big state. Gabrielle tried to pinpoint the pull a little closer but she couldn't. She shook her head and drew a circle with her fingertip, keeping the strongest part of that pull inside the center of the circle.
"I'm sorry," she said. "That's the best I can do. I think she's somewhere in that range, but it's a big range."
There was a silence while the ancients stared down at the circle. Dragomir cleared his throat. When he spoke his voice was husky, as if he hadn't spoken aloud in ages. "You believe my lifemate exists and she is somewhere inside that location? That circle? On another continent?"