Why didn’t your aunt come for you?

She sagged a little with relief. She drank a lot. By that I mean every single night, an entire large bottle of vodka. I don’t think she remembered me.

Is she still alive?

There was a bite to his voice. A hint of menace that made her shiver. She moved back against the couch where he had sat the morning before. No. She died fairly young. Her liver didn’t hold up.

How very fortunate for her. This time there was no mistaking the threat. What happened to you? Who took you in?

She drew up her knees and circled them with her arms, hugging herself. No one. I was a street kid like Danny, Amelia, Liv and Bella. Maybe that’s why I had to save them. And the baby. She put her hand over her stomach protectively. I never had a home or brothers and sisters. Well, I had Blaze. She was always good to me. She let me climb in her bedroom window and sleep there whenever I wanted to. Her father let me stay and paid for classes and schooling. Even dance. He was a good man.

I will be rising soon, Emeline, Dragomir said, and then we will remove the remaining parasites from you and the baby. What we are going to do will seem scary. You must trust me implicitly. I know that is asking a lot when you barely know me, but I swear to you, I will keep you safe and do what is best for you and the baby.

She wanted one night without scary. One night to just breathe. She’d told the truth about being Vadim’s lifemate and about carrying her child, and so far, no one had thrown her out of the compound. They knew the worst. Maybe they would ask her to leave, but she knew that Dragomir would go with her. She wouldn’t go alone.

We have to do this tonight? But she knew they did. She was in bad shape. She couldn’t eat or sleep. He would take one look at her and know.

Yes. Vadim will fight for you. We must get every single one of his tormenters out of you and the baby. It will take all of us to turn you without pain so the baby will survive.

Turn me? Like Charlotte and Blaze. She bit her lip hard. She knew she was well on her way. She probably was more vampire or Carpathian than human. The baby, Dragomir. She’s suffered enough. Blaze and Charlotte told me it can be extremely painful.

Vadim’s parasites had flooded her heart. He was going to kill her. I do not understand his plan for you or why he would attack the child he put in you, but he will make another attempt on her life if we don’t do this.

She frowned, trying to piece together just why the master vampire would go to such great lengths to impregnate her and then decide to terminate the pregnancy. That doesn’t make sense at all. She glanced out the window and watched the sun dip down toward the horizon. The sun is beginning to set. She couldn’t keep happiness from her mind and knew he saw it. It didn’t matter. He would be there soon.

I must feed and then I will be right there. Tariq is back. I will meet with him first. We won’t have much time. I need your consent, Emeline, to speak on your behalf and make decisions. I will tell you what the plan is as we make it.

I should face him. Apologize for not telling him the truth and for bringing the battle right into his compound.

Those children let in evil so they could play.

She winced at the hard, unyielding voice. He was angry. He might not show it, but deep down, he was. She felt it in his mind. Dragomir.

Give me a few minutes.

She dropped her head into her hand and took a deep breath, wishing he was there with her now. Wishing she really was his lifemate. But she knew better. Street children like her didn’t get the gorgeous, courageous man, the sweet one, the one who would take on a baby along with its mother. No, they got the villain, the monster. And she got the worst monster on earth.

“But not you, baby,” she whispered aloud. “You’re going to be loved. Very, very loved.”

Dragomir read her thoughts, because now that he was in her mind, he couldn’t quite let go. He wanted to go to Emeline and reassure her, to find a way to make her see that he was her lifemate, that he would never leave her, but there was too little time. He switched from his intimate path with his lifemate to the more common path of the Carpathian people. Tariq, I must meet with you immediately. I am hunting for sustenance, but will return in a few minutes.

Come to the house.

Dragomir left the compound. Sandu, Ferro and Andor fell in with him, taking to the sky as birds. They had hunted many times together, long before they ever made the decision to go into the monastery. Their flight took them a distance from where they slept. It was ingrained in them to hunt away from the places they frequented.

Deep within the bird, Dragomir puzzled out the strange emotion bothering him. Hurt. Emotional hurt. He knew physical pain, but he had never experienced emotional pain until his lifemate had restored feeling in him. The pain of destroying friends and loved ones ran deep, holes in his soul he knew he could never repair. Intellectually, one might say the person he loved had died when they’d made the choice to turn vampire, but that didn’t stop the pain of having to terminate the corrupted shells of those who had once been friends.

This hurt was different. His lifemate refused to believe she was his. Even after tying them together – and she felt the effects, she just didn’t recognize them – she wouldn’t believe it. Why? He turned that over and over in his mind as the four of them circled above a back road where three men dressed in business suits had parked their cars. Clearly they waited for someone else. With the advanced technology of cameras on cell phones and seemingly everywhere, the Carpathians had to coordinate their confrontation. The blitz had to be fast and simultaneous, all keeping their prey from using cell phones, cameras or any technology. They simply made certain none of them could be seen from the road, not the hunters and not the prey.

Three dropped down, Sandu, Andor and Dragomir, while Ferro kept watch above, staying in the form of a bird. They each picked their prey, materialized behind them and took control of their minds. Dragomir sank his teeth into the neck, taking in the life-giving fluid. He knew he needed more time beneath the ground to fully heal, but that would have to come later. He was about to engage in the battle of his life, and this time he had something to lose.

Emeline. His woman. Had she been born Carpathian she would have recognized all the ties between them. Those differences she felt would have been instantly attributed to their bond. But she wasn’t Carpathian. She had been born human. She might know of their world, but she had never experienced it. She’d never had a family. She’d been thrown away by her relatives.

She had thought she was sacrificing her life for the children in that underground city Vadim had created, but instead, he had other plans for her. That had blindsided her. Her precog dreams only took her so far and the outcomes weren’t always what she thought they would be. That was probably why she didn’t trust that her bond with Dragomir was real. She didn’t believe because she couldn’t let herself believe. He would have to put aside hurt feelings and get her there. She needed kindness. She needed to be cherished. She needed to know he would always be there for her. He would find out the things that mattered to her and give them to her.

Politely, he closed the wound on his prey’s neck and helped him to the ground so that the man sat against his car. Then Dragomir took to the sky. Minutes later, they found Ferro his quarry then headed back to the compound.

Tariq Asenguard was a good man. More, he was an intelligent one. Others had thought him strange with his interest in humans, yet he had assimilated into the human world far better than most. He used their technology and began researching ways to advance it. He had amassed a fortune, bought land and established a business. He had a way of blurring facial recognition so anyone checking could never quite identify him.

Tariq had shared his knowledge with the ancients, transferring all he’d learned about the advances made while the ancients had been locked away from the world. Not only was he intelligent, he was generous. His lifemate had been human, and she seemed as generous as her man. Perhaps talking to her might help… if they both agreed to allow Emeline and the baby to remain. The compound was the safest place for her. Tariq had been building up the number of hunters, and with that came the protection of many.

Vadim had elected to stay in the area when common sense and his centuries of experience should have urged him to leave. Was Emeline really that important to him? The child wasn’t the reason he kept trying to get her back. He had directed the parasites to the baby’s heart, knowing they would eventually kill it. So, what made him so determined to recapture Emeline that he would not only remain in a territory inhabited by so many ancient Carpathian hunters, but also openly attack their compound?