“Gregori, I thank you for the warning and the help. You need not worry over the betrayer. That is my job, though I admit I have been attending to other things than hunting recently.”
“As you should have,” Gregori acknowledged with a gentle smile. “A lifemate comes first in all things.”
“Why is it you fear yours will not have an easy life?” Aidan asked.
“I have hunted too long to ever stop. I am used to my own way in all things. I have waited too long, fought too hard, and suffered too much to allow her the freedom she will desire. Her life will never be her own, only what I make of it.”
Aidan smiled then, and Alexandria could feel him relaxing. “If you do as you believe, put her before your own comfort, you will have no choice but to allow her freedom.”
“I am not like Mikhail or Jacques or, it seems, you. I intend that her protection come above all else.” Gregori’s voice held an edge.
Aidan grinned at him, laughter spilling from his golden eyes. “I can only hope I have the chance to see you, Gregori, under the spell of your woman. You must promise that you will bring her to meet us one day.”
“Not if I end up like you or Mikhail. I will not have my dangerous reputation destroyed in such a way.” A hint of humor seemed to creep in and then was quickly gone, as if the wind had carried it away.
“I will see to the vampire,” Aidan said. “You should avoid confronting death.”
“I killed him from a distance. You will find it... unsettling,” Gregori warned.
“You are even more powerful than I remember.”
“I have acquired much knowledge over the years,” Gregori conceded. His pale eyes rested thoughtfully on Aidan’s face. “You will find your brother much changed, also. He is a fast learner, that one, and unafraid of reaching too far into the shadows. I tried to tell him the cost, but he would not listen.”
Aidan shook his head. “Julian always said rules were made to be broken. He has always gone his own way. But he did respect you. You were the only real influence in his life, maybe the only one he ever listened to.”
Gregori shook his head. “He could not listen any longer. The wind called, the mountains, the far-off places. I could not hope to stop him. He was dark inside, and nothing would ever satisfy him.”
“You call it darkness. But it was that quality in you that made you open the world for us. It made you seek out the healing techniques that you have passed on to me, to others. It allowed you to perform the miracles that you have performed for our people. It has done the same for Julian,” Aidan replied softly.
The silver eyes paled to steel. Cold. Bleak. Empty. “It led both of us to things that should never have been learned. In the acquisition of knowledge comes power, Aidan. But without rules, without emotions, without a concept of right or wrong, it is far too easy to abuse that power.”
“All Carpathians are aware of that, Gregori,” Aidan argued. “You, more than most, know the concept of right and wrong. And so does Julian. Why have you endured, resisted wrong, when others turned? You fought for justice, for our people. You had a code, and you have always lived up to it, as you are doing now. You say you have no feeling, but what of the compassion you felt for your lifemate when she was so frightened? You cannot turn. Every moment is an eternity for you, I know, but you have an end in sight.”
Gregori’s cold eyes seemed to impale Aidan, but the younger Carpathian did not flinch. He held Gregori’s gaze until Alexandria could have sworn she saw a flicker of fire, a flame, springing from one to the other. Gregori’s hard mouth softened slightly. “You have learned well, Aidan. You are a healer of both body and mind.”
Aidan inclined his head in acknowledgment of the compliment. The wind howled, the waves crashed, and Gregori launched himself into the dark, roiling clouds. A black shape spread across the sky, an ominous shadow staining the heavens, and then it moved north and faded away as if it had never been, taking the storm with it.
Aidan sank into the sand, his head bowed, his shoulders shaking, as if he was trying to control some great emotion that had overcome him. Alexandria circled his head with her arms. She could feel sobs tearing at his throat and chest, yet he made no sound. Only a single, blood-red tear marked his great sorrow.
“I am sorry, cara, but he is a great man, one our people cannot afford to lose. I could feel his bleakness, the inner demon waiting to devour him. To have to honor my promise to him, to have to hunt him...” He shook his head. “It is such a disservice to one who has dedicated his life to our people, to our Prince.”
Alexandria’s breath caught in her throat. She had thought Aidan invincible. Capable, even, of hunting vampires and triumphing over their evil power. But Gregori was a different proposition. Even with two hunters such as Aidan, it didn’t seem possible that he could be defeated. “Can’t you contact this woman, the one who could save him?”
Aidan shook his head regretfully. “He would continue to honor his vow, and her presence would only make things worse.”
She touched his hair with gentle, loving fingers. “As I made it worse for you.” She rubbed her chin thoughtfully against his hair. “I can understand that girl’s being afraid. You scared me. You still do. But Gregori, he’s terrifying. I would never want to be tied to such a being. And she’s only a child.”
“Why would you still be afraid of me?” Aidan lifted his head and touched her face reverently with his fingertips, with a tenderness that turned her heart over.
“Your power. Your intensity. Maybe when you teach me a few things, I won’t be so nervous of it, but now it seems you have too much power for any one person to wield.”
“Your mind holds the same powers as mine. You simply have to think of what you want, Alexandria. If you wish flight, you simply hold the picture in your mind, and your body is light, and you float.”
His arm circled her waist, and they rose slowly into the air. “Merge with me. See it for yourself. There is no need to ever fear me.” He set them gently back to earth.
“Tell me about the ‘claiming’ he was talking about. What did he mean? And who is Mikhail?”
“Mikhail is the oldest of our people, our Prince. He has led us for centuries. Gregori is only a quarter of a century younger, so in our terms, they are nearly the same age. Our people have been persecuted over the years, driven into hiding, and many were massacred. Our women have become so few, the men cannot find lifemates to bring light to their darkness, and more and more turn vampire. Though no one has yet discovered why, the few children born to us are male, and most do not survive the first year of life. Those women who give birth and lose the child grow despondent and refuse to try after a time. So the men without lifemates are lost, without hope. They either greet the dawn and perish or succumb to the demon within. Become vampire, true predators.”
“How terrible.” She meant it, sorrow filling her mind and heart.
“Mikhail and Gregori have been trying to find a way to avoid the inevitable, the extinction of our race. They discovered that a small group of human women possessing psychic abilities were capable of bonding chemically with our males.”
“Like me.”
He nodded. “You did not find human men physically attractive. For some unknown reason, you were not born into our race but were made for me specifically. Your body and mine have a need to be one. Your heart and soul are the other half of mine. Mikhail and Gregori believe that those psychic women of human descent are capable of producing female children, and that those children will also be capable, or at least more likely to produce female children. So you see why you are so treasured.”
“What is the claiming?”
Aidan let his breath out slowly. “Alexandria...” There was hesitation in his voice.