“I’m Silke Reinders, and this is my mother, Fenja. Tora is my friend.” She indicated both women. Tora, like Silke, was suspicious of the ancients. Silke had immediately shared with her what she’d found in the demons’ origins.
Silke kept her tone noncommittal. She wasn’t about to start a war in her own home with her mother right there. Annoyed that she could go into battle and keep her heart from elevating, but she couldn’t sit in the room with her potential husband without her pulse racing. That made no sense. She feared all of them could hear her heart accelerating. She knew from experience that a heart beating too fast made her prey. She shifted in her chair, her weapons at her fingertips.
“You must be wondering why we didn’t come to you the moment we arrived,” Mataias said.
“Thank you, slayer, for removing the demons from us,” Nicu added. “We had to fight the compulsion and were unable to feed on our own for fear of giving in to it. It’s been difficult.”
Lojos nodded in agreement. “We’re ancients, and in our world, we no longer even hear whispers of temptation, yet these parasites managed to infect us. We kept ourselves away from anyone we could harm. I add my thanks to Nicu’s.”
“And mine,” Tomas said. “We were attacked numerous times on the way here. As you must be aware, we hunt vampires and have throughout the centuries. We push parasites from our bodies all the time. This time, one remained, but none of us could locate it.”
“Because it was demon, not parasite,” Silke said. The demons had seemed very much at home in the four men chosen as hosts. She didn’t add that, but Benedek’s cool obsidian eyes jumped to her face, drifted over her almost possessively and then came back to look her straight in the eye.
More so in me than the others.Benedek pushed the words into her brain, confirming he was merged with her.
Silke shivered and rubbed her hands up and down her arms, uncaring if she gave away the fact that she was afraid of him. She lifted her chin, forcing her gaze to remain on his.Yes, it isn’t the same as the demons from the underworld. There is no taint, but there is something in you that is more than Carpathian.
She wasn’t judgmental. Fenja had made certain of that. There was no room for ego or judgment as a slayer. But she was fearful, not trusting any of them, especially the man who would claim her if she allowed it. She had no intention of allowing it. He was in her mind, just as she was in his. He could see that she had made up her mind they weren’t a good match.
You haven’t taken the time to know me.
Deliberately she raised an eyebrow.Do you want me to believe you aren’t more than a Carpathian ancient? You are well on your way to being the very thing Tora keeps behind the gate for the safety of all of mankind. Even Lilith fears what is kept prisoner behind the gates.
Tora continued a conversation with the other Carpathians. Fenja remained a silent observer. Silke had never known her mother to sit quietly when they had guests. She was a perfect hostess, always ensuring the comfort of visitors. It was disconcerting to have her be so quiet. She had her attention on Benedek, just as Silke did.
This man was the potential husband of Fenja’s daughter. The others were his friends. Fenja had always told Silke one could learn a lot about people just by seeing who their friends were. Supposedly, these ancients had traveled across foreign lands to aid them in the upcoming battle with Lilith’s army. It wasn’t as if they hadn’t suffered their own trials en route. Silke could feel, despite the expressionless masks, that the journey had been difficult. They didn’t seem to acknowledge how hard, not to each other and not to themselves. But she felt it for them.
Benedek sent her the faintest of smiles. Nothing showed on hisface. Not with those chiseled lips or in the coldness of his eyes. It was in his mind, which made that small smile entirely too intimate. A little shiver of awareness crept down her spine.
Lilith is right to fear what is behind the gates. A Carpathian named Justice. He is considered legendary among our people. But he is no longer Carpathian. He has become far too powerful for any hunter to bring down should he escape.
The way those eyes of his stared into hers. No blinking. A steady focus as if he only saw her. She knew that wasn’t so. This was a man who saw everything. Nothing escaped him…
That isn’t the truth,he objected, proving he could easily read her thoughts. I didn’t find that tiny demon, nor did any of the others. You did.
She couldn’t keep talking to him so intimately. It was connecting them somehow, and she didn’t want any connection between them. They weren’t compatible.
“The times Tora and I fought a vampire, they always injected these horrid little parasites into us wherever we were wounded.” She gave him the information aloud rather than continuing to speak to him telepathically. “You were searching for parasites, not a demon bred just for the purpose of turning hunters vampire.”
“And killing slayers,” Benedek pointed out.
His voice was different. Very, very low and raspy. His harsh features hadn’t changed expression, but she felt waves of disapproval rolling off him. His focused gaze moved over her face again in a long, slow inspection. Again, that shiver of awareness crept down her spine. Icy fingers seemed to be gripping her. He moved in her mind.
Startled, she gave up every pretense of being relaxed and calm.What are you doing? What are you looking for?
Your encounters with vampires. You are the demon slayer, not a hunter.
Again, he sounded very calm, very matter-of-fact, but he didn’t feel that way to her. She felt threatened. Hunted. Judged.
She lifted her chin at him. She knew her eyes had gone stormy. She had never been able to control the change in color when her temperflared. That was a dead giveaway, but then if he was in her mind, he would know she was not in the least happy with him.
It is not necessary to be happy with me when I am seeing to your safety.
She lifted an eyebrow at him. She really wanted him out of her head. His voice was far too intimate the way it seemed to brush along the walls of her mind. Like everyone, she had her secrets. Mostly emotions she kept hidden. He was the last person she wanted to share her confidences with.
I am the only one you should share important emotions with. Or your dreams. You are my lifemate.
Again, so matter-of-fact. He could have sounded arrogant, but his tone wasn’t pitched that way. It was more as if their being together was a foregone conclusion.
