“She dreams. Emeline dreams. She’s a strong psychic, able to resist Vadim’s compulsions. She remained alive and kept the baby alive when all those other women we found down in the underground city died. They hadn’t been able to withstand the torment of Vadim’s parasites. He might want her for either reason or both.” Dragomir still hadn’t gotten over the sight of those dead bodies carelessly thrown aside like so much garbage. Vadim had been trying for some time to find a woman who could carry his baby.

Tariq rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Charlotte mentioned this to me. She said Emeline can share her dreams, that when they were together and Emeline dreamt, Blaze had the exact same dream.”

“Wait a minute.” Gary paced back and forth across the room, all pent-up, restless energy. “You told me about the machines down in the underground. The computers and how they were tracking hunters and sending out alerts to leave an area if a hunter arrived. He’s using widespread communication with his army. It doesn’t matter that they’re a world away, they just have to have access to the Internet. But the Internet can be hacked. We have a few weapons on our side. There’s a kid, a Carpathian. His name is Josef and he’s brilliant with computers. He can do just about anything with them. He’s the one that got the Morrison database for psychics. He’s on his way here. In any case, it would be interesting to know if Emeline’s dreams can be shared by several people at the same time.”

Icy fingers of fear crept down Dragomir’s spine. “Could he force her to dream?”

“He didn’t when he had her,” Gary said.

“He had her less than an hour,” Tariq said. “We were hard on his heels.”

Dragomir found himself swearing, using his ancient language, wanting to hit something hard. Emeline had a talent of dreaming and one didn’t think much about it. But Emeline didn’t just dream; she had prophetic dreams. And she could change the course of events by continually dreaming the same dream over and over and changing details in it, until the dream itself changed. She could literally figure out how to best others every time. She would be a huge weapon in Vadim’s arsenal. She’d gone for psychic testing and she’d been off the charts. Vadim had realized her potential immediately.

“I’ll talk to Emeline and see what she thinks is possible. She must have some idea of the scope of her talent. I don’t want Amelia anywhere near her.” Dragomir was adamant on that.

“You’re going to have trouble with that,” Tariq said. “Amelia was cultivating a relationship with her. They shared a similar experience. In truth, we were all playing right into Vadim’s hands by trying to get Amelia to talk to her. We thought it would be good, they both could open up to each other about what had happened to them. Once they started talking, Charlotte had hoped to bring in a professional. In the end, Amelia talked to Charlotte, not Emeline, but I fear she didn’t tell the entire truth.”

Andor scowled to show his displeasure at the idea. “We can’t mix with humans to that degree. A counselor?”

“We have an experienced counselor,” Tariq said. “She’s in London at the moment, but she is wrapping things up and will arrive in a week or so. If she doesn’t work out, there is another in South America we will try. These women and children have the right to feel whole again. If talking to a professional works, then that’s what we’ll get for them.”

“What are we going to do about Amelia?” Dragomir brought them back to the problem at hand. “Because she isn’t getting near Emeline, and that’s going to alert Vadim that his plan isn’t working.”

“Not necessarily,” Gary mused. They all turned to look at him. He wore a faint, humorless smile. “You made your dislike of her apparent already. Vadim knows you’re at odds with Amelia, that you don’t like her.”

“She’s smug.”

“Vadim is smug,” Tariq corrected.

Dragomir shrugged. “Right now, she is Vadim. Everything that comes out of her mouth is because he’s her puppet master and is controlling her.”

“It’s important that you understand Amelia is a victim in all this. She’s being controlled, it isn’t her choice.” Tariq was adamant.

“She can fight him. Not allow him to swallow her whole.”

“She’s fourteen, Dragomir, and not Carpathian. She is without shields of any kind. She was taken before Emeline was and subjected to Vadim’s form of rape. He also managed to invade her mind somehow.” There was a clear reprimand in Tariq’s voice.

Dragomir shrugged. While he could acknowledge that Tariq made a good leader, and he could even find compassion for the girl, he couldn’t find it in his heart to agree with the man on this particular subject. The bottom line was simple: Amelia wasn’t getting anywhere near Emeline. He hoped they could save the girl, but he wasn’t risking Emeline.

“If we have conversations in front of Amelia about how we didn’t find any parasites and you must accept that verdict, that she’s clear of all evil. If all of us argue with you, Vadim will think the split between you and the rest of us is going along happily for him. It makes sense that you don’t like her and would want to keep her away from Emeline,” Gary pointed out. “Vadim will love the fights you have with your lifemate over him.”

“Great.” Dragomir knew Emeline wasn’t going to like any of this.

“We should feed Amelia some small bit of information that requires activity on his part, just so we can be certain,” Gary said.

Tariq sighed. “I guess it’s necessary, but I don’t like it.”

“A location of a lair?” Sandu suggested. “We’re going out hunting now. Andor found some possible activity in Cuyamaca Rancho State Park. We were going to check it out. She can overhear us talking, making plans to raid it.”

“That’s a pretty big target to give up,” Dragomir protested. “One of Vadim’s lairs?”

Sandu shook his head. “No, the safeguards were pathetic. No one was home, but we think they’ll return before sundown. In front of Amelia we can say we’ll be waiting for the vampire when he rises on the next day, but we’ll get him tonight.”

“Vadim won’t have a chance of finding out until it’s too late. He’ll send someone to aid the vampire against the hunters and we’ll get them as well. Vadim won’t know that we killed the original vampire the night before. He’ll just know he’d better be careful with the elite hunters in the area.” Gary turned his head, those slashing silver eyes meeting Dragomir’s.

They were both eager for the hunt. Men like them didn’t sit around talking. They weren’t diplomatic. They left that to the leaders, like Mikhail, their prince in the Carpathian Mountains, and Tariq, the acknowledged leader here in the United States.

“It is best if we test our theory before condemning Amelia,” Tariq acknowledged. “I believe Vadim has found a way to control her, just as all of you do, but I would prefer proof.”

“We can set a trap for Vadim,” Dragomir said. “Using me as bait.”

Tariq glanced up sharply. “You have a lifemate. Emeline’s been through as much as she can take. You have a daughter. Both need you.”

Sandu nudged him, a psychic nudge, not a physical one, but it was the same, only others couldn’t see it. He means keep your ass home. Perhaps your woman could find a broad leaf and fan you.

Terád keje, Dragomir responded mildly, telling his friend to “get scorched.” Life as you know it is going to end.

You’re soft now that you have a woman. I will bet that the moment she cries because she cannot see this girl, you will give in and the teen will move right into your house.

Dragomir turned cold golden eyes on his friend. There was nothing remotely humorous about his reaction. I will kill that girl before she gets near Emeline, he vowed. He glanced toward the house where the children were.

Not yet, Sandu said. If it needs to be done, I will do it for you. You cannot afford to have your name attached to her death. Your woman and the rest of the community would find it difficult to forgive you.