“I agree,” Nicu said. “I do not ever have the kinds of thoughts that are running wild in my mind.”
“We are lucky that you haven’t been caught in this compulsion, Mataias,” Benedek said. This was his quest, the finding of his lifemate. He was the acknowledged leader. It was up to him to find solutions.“You will have to be the voice of reason when any of us are out of control. I think if we all put our heads together, we can come up with a plan to defeat our enemy.”
“I agree,” Tomas said. “We aren’t going to allow this vampire to get us to forget our honor. I have a lifemate waiting for me. Each of us does. I refuse to give in to temptation now, when I know she’s alive and I can find her.”
Benedek liked the utter resolve in Tomas’ voice. “I find it telling that I am seeking my lifemate as all of you are, and we’ve been attacked in a way that would eternally prevent us from uniting with them.”
“Diabolical,” Lojos said. “And brilliant.”
“So, what are we going to do?” Nicu asked, looking straight at Benedek.
“Stick together. Trust each other. Have one another’s backs. We can’t trust ourselves when we feed, so it is imperative Mataias is watching us, ready to pull us back. We’ll have to feed in pairs until we figure out how to counteract the compulsion and hopefully reverse it. Or if worse comes to worst, Mataias will have to hunt for all of us and feed us, as the gatekeeper in the monastery did.”
“Do we attack the watchers in the clouds?” Tomas asked.
“It’s possible once the storm is gone the compulsion will be, too,” Mataias said. “I don’t hold out a lot of hope, but it is a possibility.”
“If they wanted us dead, they would have attacked us when they knew we were disoriented,” Nicu ventured. “Killing us isn’t the goal.”
“Clearly, they want us to turn,” Benedek said. “Can you imagine the triumph if they managed to get five ancients to join their ranks? We would be powerful weapons in their fight against this village. The guardian of the gate and the demon slayer must scare them. They would have attacked that village long before this when they realized we were on the way. Lilith can’t make her move yet for a reason we don’t know.”
“That makes it all the more important we don’t allow this to delay us any more than necessary to shake this compulsion,” Lojos said.
Benedek wasn’t as certain as the others that they could figure out what dark art had been used and how they could counter it. He didn’t have any real ideas. Not yet. His mind was still roaring for fresh blood. He had managed to find his control and discipline, hidden as he was in the small shelter away from the violence of the storm. That didn’t mean his control would stay with him once he left the cave.
And what of the demon slayer? His lifemate. He knew nothing of her other than that the enemy regarded her with enough respect to hold off attacking. He didn’t trust the unknown woman. He knew Nicu and the others held on to their honor through the vows they made to stay strong for their lifemates. He had that code carved into his back. He had done so with the hope that he would feel the way the others did, but he was already too far gone. His code of honor kept him alive, refusing to give in to any temptation so he could rid the world of every vampire, every demon, anything that threatened his people.
Over and over, throughout the centuries, he had learned not to trust anyone. Once, he had saved an entire village, fighting off a pack of vampires. He had nearly died from mortal wounds, wounds that should have killed him. Several of those in the village gave him blood, but three women tracked him to his shallow sleeping grounds. He had been unable to protect himself during their attack, which came before the sun set. He was in the paralysis of his kind.
The three women had been the very ones he had prevented the vampires from killing. They had been subjected to horrendous abuse before he had arrived on the scene and come to their aid. That didn’t earn him loyalty or even mercy. Their hatred of him was palpable as they dug at the earth above him to expose his helpless body to the rays of the sun.
He had learned so many times not to trust anyone, male or female, human or Carpathian. He kept those lessons close so he would never make the mistakes he had when he was younger. Unfortunately, he knew every bit of his heart was dead. He had lost all hope and belief in the true bonding of lifemates. He hoped his lifemate would settlefor loyalty, fidelity and respect in place of love. Love seemed to be fleeting, one minute there and the next gone. He’d witnessed betrayal in human bonds thousands of times over the centuries.
“I believe if we attack those watching from the storm clouds, the cravings will either go away altogether or lessen,” he finally said. “Whoever is orchestrating the storm can feed our need for blood. Without the storm raging, we might have a better chance to break free. That’s my assessment. Does anyone have a different take? A reason to leave the storm raging and the spies in place untouched?”
The men were silent, contemplating the idea of striking at the watchers and what the repercussions might be.
Lojos shrugged. “I’m willing to risk it. Anything to lighten the burden Mataias is carrying for me.”
“I say let’s go for it,” Nicu weighed in. “It may give us a reprieve, but at the very least, we can try to feed without them watching us and pushing us to kill.”
Tomas thought it over carefully. He wasn’t a man to make snap decisions. He heaved a sigh and rubbed at his temple. “I vote to go after them.”
All of them turned to Mataias. He tapped his thigh with a steady finger as he weighed the pros and cons of attacking the spies in the storm. “I think it best if we keep the eyes off us, so I’m in agreement with all of you. Most likely they’ll be waiting for us. If they had eyes on us when we managed to turn to mist, they will be looking for the most likely place we have taken shelter.”
“That’s a good point,” Benedek said. “We’ll have to orchestrate the attack carefully. We’ll have to shift inside this cave and go out one by one in separate directions until we’re all in place. Once we’re ready, we can strike hard.”
They discussed how best to find the watchers in the clouds. How to take over the lightning whips so they couldn’t be used against them. Benedek wanted time to study the storm, how it was developed and what, if any, safeguards were used to protect the demons spying onthem. That would tell him quite a bit about their enemy. Every Carpathian hunter had a signature. He’d been around far too many centuries not to be aware of other hunters. He had familiarized himself with any he came across and those he heard of but never met. His mind held facts about all of them because they were all potential enemies.
“Lilith was injured in the battle in Dellys,” Benedek said. “All of us felt that moment when Petru struck at her and scored. Essentially, we won because he took her out of the fight. It is possible she’s still healing, trying to gather her power, and that’s why she hasn’t attacked Nachtbloem. These delaying tactics are giving her more time to heal and prepare her army for war. She has plans for us, and I’ll admit as a general she’s quite brilliant, but she’s also emotional. Very emotional. If these spies lose us, she may well turn on them and the vampire creating the storm. She has a low tolerance for mistakes.”
That brought him back to the thought of his lifemate. The demon slayer. What would she do if she saw them all now? Understand the battle they waged for their honor? He had been driven to find her, to reclaim his soul, but the others came with him to aid her. They had lifemates and yet they risked themselves to help him—and her. Would she be able to look beyond the fight inside them—if she was able to see it? A demon slayer was intuitive. They could never hope to enter her realm and act as if nothing were wrong.
He would have to confess he was close to turning, and so were his brethren. Would she be able to trust total strangers to wage a war with blood and battle all around them, preying every moment on their dark cravings? She would worry, with good reason, about those in the village they would use for sustenance. She would have to worry about herself. He certainly couldn’t claim his soul until he knew what was happening to him. Or could he? Would taking back his soul stop the vile compulsion?
He didn’t voice his concern for his lifemate’s reaction because there was no use in worrying about something that hadn’t happened and might never happen. He pushed the thoughts from his mind andturned his attention to the battle plan. He was good at strategy. He was a Carpathian who planned each battle, never acting impulsively. Despite the intensity of the unfamiliar cravings, he focused solely on how they would defeat their enemy.
“Mataias, it will be important for you to gain control of the lightning. The rest of us will be in position to strike at the spies once you signal you’ve taken over. If we’re lucky, we will be able to destroy one or two of them before they can be pulled back,” Benedek said. He gave the coordinates for each hunter to position himself.
