I have the right to keep my woman safe.

You need to spend a little time at the computer. The days are long past where we kill our enemies and are glorified in song.

Dragomir frowned. You were glorified in song?

Of course. My deeds were great. Weren’t yours?

My deeds were great, and yet no one glorified me in song. Köd alte hän. Darkness curse it, Sandu. That’s just not right. There must be some mistake.

Andor nudged him next. Pay attention. Tariq is sharp, and he’s watching you two. He knows you’re up to something. You planning to kill that girl? Because if you are, I’ll do it. You do have a lifemate you have to think about.

Do I look like I’m going to kill her? Dragomir asked, exasperated.

“I want all of you to remember, Amelia is my daughter. I have taken her and her siblings as my children. I would track any man who harmed her to the ends of the earth.”

“Do I look like I’m going to kill a child?” Dragomir snapped aloud. He had an expressionless mask for a face. There was a multitude of scars, but he didn’t show what he was thinking.

“Yes.” Tariq looked him in the eye. “That’s exactly what you looked like. You also look as if there might be a few others willing to help.”

“Were you ever glorified in song?” Dragomir asked abruptly.

Tariq’s brows came together. He looked at Dragomir as if he’d grown two heads. “Yes. Of course I was. Several centuries ago. Weren’t you?”

“Köd alte hän, darkness curse it and all songs glorifying the lot of you.” Dragomir pushed himself away from the wall. “I’ve had enough. I’m going hunting.”

It was all he could do to keep from answering Tariq’s grin. Humor was still new to him. Abruptly he turned away from Tariq. The man had the right to protect his family – the same right Dragomir had. Dragomir knew he’d kill any man threatening his lifemate or his daughter. Despite his diplomacy, despite looking as if he had been born and raised in the current century, Dragomir had no doubt that Tariq would hunt him down if he harmed Amelia.

That knowledge would never stop him from doing what he considered right. Dragomir liked Tariq – more, he respected him. Tariq wasn’t blind to the fact that Amelia was tainted. Frowning, he regarded Gary. “You said we had to figure out just how Vadim is able to use Amelia as his spy when she has no parasites in her.”

The others had all turned to go separate ways, but at Dragomir’s question, they all turned back to listen.

“I have an idea or two,” Gary said. “None are good.”

“Let’s hear them,” Tariq said.

Gary shrugged. It was more of a shoulder roll. His shoulders were wide; his muscles, once sleek and strong, were now more defined, rippling loosely beneath the material of his clothing. “Xavier, the high mage, could take splinters of himself and place those splinters in very unlucky people. The splinter was actually a true part of him so he could take over the body and see and hear what was happening around his chosen vessel. Xavier is dead, but two of his splinters remain behind and the common consensus is that those splinters reside in Sergey, Vadim’s brother, and in Vadim himself.”

Tariq’s breath left him in a long, slow hiss. Dragomir froze in place. Sandu leaned his palm against the wall, allowing it to take his weight.

“What are you saying, Gary?” Ferro was the one who asked. Ferro was quiet and rarely spoke, so the sound of his voice was disconcerting, adding to the building tension between the ancients. “You believe that Vadim knows how to splinter himself and would introduce slivers into others? He could have spies everywhere.”

“There is danger in splintering,” Gary cautioned. “It diminishes the man performing the magic. It leaves him weaker, his power less. He must bring the splinters back to him. That’s imperative. If we were to find those splinters, remove and destroy them, he would never get his full capacity for magic back. That’s what happened to Xavier.”

There was a small silence.

“Having said that,” Gary continued, “being in possession of Xavier’s splinters gives Vadim access to the knowledge Xavier had.”

Tariq glared at him. “You didn’t think to tell us this before?”

“Before what?” Gary asked, his tone mild, but there was a curious menace to it. Those silver eyes slashed at Tariq. “I haven’t exactly been idle since I arrived.”

Tariq gave a small, courtly bow. “Forgive me, Gary, I am so worried about Amelia and knowing this hasn’t helped.”

“At the moment, Amelia is a valuable asset to him. He can hear and see everything she does. He can attack his enemies using her. He doesn’t have to worry about the safeguards because Amelia is already in the compound. She brought him in with her. He most likely hadn’t even considered putting a child in her. He knew from experience that she was too young and fragile. He needed her to have those memories so the one of him entering her body and leaving a small but extremely valuable piece of himself behind wouldn’t be noticed.”

“We all saw the ‘rape’ in her mind,” Tariq said. “Not the fact that he entered her body in the way a healer might. What happens if Amelia is killed? If she dies?” His voice was low. Anguished.

For the first time, Dragomir put himself in Tariq’s shoes. If that were his daughter, how would he feel? What would he do? Knowing a piece, even just a splinter of such evil was in his daughter would be horrifying. The parasites did Vadim’s bidding, tormenting Emeline and the baby, but they hadn’t been so evil that they could take over the bodies. The splinter of Vadim was powerful. Evil. A part of him. That part allowed him to take total control of the vessel.

Dragomir found his compassion for Amelia was growing. She wouldn’t be able to fight Vadim’s influence. She might fight off the parasites that tormented her, refusing to give in to the pain or their sway, but what human could defeat the power of a master vampire?

“If Amelia dies, does the splinter die with her?” Tariq persisted.

Gary shook his head. “The splinter would look for a host. It would abandon the dying body and find another. That’s what Xavier’s splinters did. They also try to get back to the original brain they were taken from. So each hop from host to host would take them closer to their ultimate goal.”

“With the splinter gone, will Amelia return to her true self?” Dragomir asked.

Gary frowned and rubbed at his temple with his thumb. “She should. But she’s very young. These attacks on her will stay with her. I’m inclined to think she will need counseling.”

“If I was to turn her,” Tariq persisted, “would the splinter abandon her then?”

Gary shook his head. “You are not thinking logically, Tariq. This is your daughter. You’re too close to the situation. Vadim is vampire. Originally, he was Carpathian. The death of the human body in order for the Carpathian body to be reborn would not kill it. If anything, the splinter might grow more powerful. Vadim would have access to everything she learned of us. Of the healing grounds, of resting places, of every weakness this compound has – and there are many.”

“Many?” Tariq’s eyebrow went up. “We have thought of nearly every contingency. Every way they could attack us.”

“You are under attack,” Gary insisted. “Your own daughter is being used against you. The biggest weakness the compound has is you. Your heart. You take in these abandoned people and collect them like others collect wine. You have a security force made up of human Special Forces soldiers. Every one of them has seen too much combat and is ready to implode. You have an elderly couple, the Waltons, wandering around holding hands as if they’re in a musical. You have four street kids, all traumatized by what they’ve been through. You have a woman, unmarried, no lifemate, but by any standards beautiful, watching those children, and she doesn’t have a clue they can put her to sleep at will. You have a three-year-old child, the niece of your lifemate, whose father was murdered by a vampire and who has been uprooted several times avoiding them. Carpathians do not live this way.”

Dragomir had to agree, but he also disagreed. “That’s all true, but he’s created a safe zone here, one where Carpathians and humans can live together without fear.”