Liv looked up at her for the first time with a fierce, possessive look, and she wrapped her arms around Charlotte’s waist, holding on to her sister and locking her against Charlotte. “You’ll do it then. You’ll be our mother.”

“I want to be,” Charlotte agreed softly. “I think we all belong together, don’t you?”

Liv nodded. “And Emeline. She belongs with us. She’s broken, too.”

Charlotte dropped her hand on top of Liv’s head. “We might all be a bit broken, honey, but together we’re very strong and we’ll grow stronger as we get to know one another. We can help one another get through this. And we will get through it.”

“You believe that,” Liv said. “Amelia, she really believes that.”

Amelia managed to stop the tears, and she just rested her forehead against Charlotte’s shoulder for a moment before straightening and directing a smile at her younger sister. “I know she does. And I’m beginning to believe it myself.”

“What are these?” Liv asked, turning back toward the rock dragons. “They look like fun. They’re all very different, aren’t they? Where did they come from?” She fired off the questions rapidly.

Charlotte laughed softly, still holding Amelia. They weren’t through talking but they had a good start. “Which one appeals to you?” She wondered if each individual dragon made by the three Carpathian hunters had been created with one of these children in mind. That would be… incredible. That would mean that in the middle of putting together a plan to leave a dangerous situation, knowing they were going into battle, they’d thought about the children and found a way to make each dragon significant and appealing to them. She loved that a Carpathian male would do such a thing.

Liv let go of Charlotte and Amelia and walked slowly around the other dragons. She put her hand on each of them. Lourdes’s blue dragon. Bella’s red dragon. Amelia’s orange dragon. Her hand stroked down the brown one and then settled on the green one. At once her mouth broke out into a smile and she pushed her face close to the rock, whispering. Charlotte let out her breath slowly. That was exactly what Lojos, Tomas and Mataias had done – created a rock dragon for each child. The children couldn’t leave the property, and they were all, in their own ways, suffering from their parents’ death and the events that followed, but this had been done for them. Something unusual and beautiful. She wanted to kiss each of the triplets.

There will be no kissing other men. Amusement tinged Tariq’s voice.

Did you know they did this for the children? You should see their faces, Tariq; these dragons are incredible.

You don’t know the half of it. We’ll have to watch Bella and Lourdes to make certain they don’t fly off. But they have protection as well as something fun and unique to play with.

She turned Amelia so she could see her sisters and Lourdes playing on the rock dragons, whispering to them and then laughing. “Look at their faces, honey,” she whispered softly, in awe. She might not know how to help the children, but she wasn’t alone in trying. All the Carpathians were willing to work toward healing them.

All children are sacred to Carpathians, Charlotte. Each child belongs to all of us. We help raise them and care for them. They are loved by all.

I thought hunters couldn’t feel emotion.

She felt his hesitation as he tried to explain, but even by touching his memories, she would never fully understand. With children there is a softness brought only by them. Not an emotion, but a stirring, an echo maybe of what we had before we lost the ability to feel.

She felt his sadness, his sorrow, for the hunters protecting them, the ones unable to see in color or feel the things they should even while they thought of helping children who desperately needed it. “See, Amelia, look at Liv’s face,” she reiterated. “She’ll get through this. We all will, together. Help me help them all. Stand with Tariq and me. We can be a family. It won’t be the one you had, or the one I had, but we’ll be good together. All of us. Even the hunters protecting us. We’ll count them as family, too.”

Amelia looked back at her with a hint of laughter in her eyes. “Even the scary ones? Because there’s one that…” She trailed off and looked around her to make certain no one else was close.

Deliberately Charlotte leaned close. “Dragomir. I know exactly who you’re talking about.”

“You haven’t met Val yet,” Amelia said. “I saw him once in the tunnels. He was as scary as Dragomir, although Liv doesn’t think so. And the one Tariq calls Siv.”

Charlotte nodded. “I have gotten that impression from everyone, including Tariq.” She seemed to catch a lot of thoughts even when she wasn’t looking for them. She was changed already, more in Tariq’s world than in her own. Food was abhorrent to her, and when she couldn’t eat or drink anything, Tariq had helped her. It hadn’t been easy; she had a heavy shield on her mind, something that helped when vampires wanted to control her but was a deterrent when her man wanted her to eat something she didn’t want.

“Can you help Emeline?” Amelia asked. “Liv is so worried about her. She goes to see her every day, and every day she comes home saying it’s worse. I feel better talking to you.” Her gaze shifted to the ground. “Touching you is like holding on to an anchor. I don’t know why I’m so clingy; I’m not like that naturally. You just feel so real to me. The things you say give me hope.”

“I’ll try to help her, Amelia,” Charlotte said. “I want to help her. I don’t know Blaze, but she’s family to Emeline and she hasn’t been able to do anything for her, so I don’t know that I’ll be able to, either, but I promise, honey, I’m going to try.”

They stood together, holding each other, Amelia’s hand on the orange dragon, both watching the younger children playing on the rock statues that were far more than they looked. Charlotte had an overwhelming sense of sadness. These were her children. Her family now. They were locked behind the high fences like prisoners, unable to go anywhere or have friends. Their families had been ripped apart. Tariq put them to sleep during the day, and they had an older couple watching over them in case Vadim sent humans or puppets after the children during the daylight hours when he couldn’t protect them. It was a beautiful prison, but it was still a prison. She had to help Tariq find a way to get them out.