There was no challenge in his voice, no disrespect or even disapproval, but Tomas felt the weight of those things regardless. “I thought it best. She is in jaguar shifter territory, and the males are aware of her. With all of us in the ground, she will have little protection should they manage to get to her. The faster she is converted, the safer she is.” He kept his gaze steady on Sarika’s cousin. “Do you have an objection?”
Luiz once again raised his hand to dig his fingers into the back of his neck as if he hurt. That gesture bothered Tomas.He shouldn’t feel pain. And if he does, why isn’t he healing himself?he asked his brothers.
“I would have done the same. I believe she needs to be converted quickly and have as many protections in place as possible, yet I believe by making that decision, there is every possibility that you have made your life much more difficult.”
Tomas’ eyebrow shot up, mostly because he’d come to that same conclusion. “Don’t know anything about relationships but will do mybest. I know she’s family to you.” He gestured toward his brothers. “I swear to you, I’ll do everything in my power to make her happy.”
Luiz seemed to accept that declaration, so Tomas deemed it time to move on. “We have a larger problem. We have been attempting to track Justice. He escaped from the underworld and is loose on the world. He isn’t vampire, so there is no way to track him as one would the undead. He’s a shadow. Very hard to track a shadow.”
“He’s recruiting vampires and attempting to bring in ancients.” Mataias took up the story. “He doesn’t necessarily want the ancients to turn. He’s building an army against the prince. Gustov was running the ambush, and he spoke of a weapon his master—that’s what he called him—was searching for. I understand it is in three pieces, and the pieces are in different places, far from one another. They were fashioned centuries ago, before our time even, out of metal from the sky.”
Lojos indicated Luiz. “Technically, you are the oldest of us. Every De La Cruz warrior ever born and who has died throughout the centuries poured their memories into you. The only two Carpathians that I’m aware of that have this advantage—”
“Disadvantage,” Luiz corrected. There was a grimness to his voice. And an edge that told the others the weight of the warriors he carried added to the terrible burden every ancient shouldered the longer they were alive.
Tomas could understand it. He still worried that he had lived far past the time he should have. He knew he was evolving. He hoped his lifemate would stop the process because where he was going wasn’t good. He had thought to give her choices until the moment he heard her voice. Saw in colors.Felt.There was no going back from that. Whatever was taking place inside him, she would have to come to terms with it as well. Did that mean he had already lost his honor as a Carpathian?
“In this case, Luiz,” Dominic said, “you may be the only one to answer the question of what this weapon is and if it really is capable ofdestroying our prince. If that is the case, we will need to know where each piece is located and what it is we’re searching for.”
Luiz’s fingers squeezed the back of his neck hard. It was all Tomas could do not to go to him and heal him. Why was Luiz enduring something that should be easy enough to get rid of? They healed incredible wounds on their bodies after a battle. He had seen Luiz fight. The man was lightning fast, deadly, and his restorative abilities rivaled some of their best healers.
“When I took Sarika’s blood, she was wearing a chain around her neck with an amulet on it made of ancient metal,” Luiz informed them. “I had never seen anything like it.”
The others looked expectantly at Tomas. “She was wearing it,” he confirmed. “It had the raised image of the face of a jaguar. It would be good to examine it closely and ask her where she acquired it. She has traveled extensively. She could have picked it up anywhere.”
“Including,” Lojos said, “on the internet. You can order anything, even a custom necklace.”
“This was made of ancient metal,” Luiz said. “I felt the older vibrations it gave off.”
Tomas could confirm that as well. “Very strong.”
“It warrants looking into,” Dominic said. “Sarika could be what drew Justice here.”
“Or a piece of this weapon is somewhere close. The ruins aren’t far from here. The temple is still standing, along with a few other buildings,” Luiz added. “If I had gotten hostile vibrations from Sarika’s amulet, I would have ripped it off her.”
“I am uncertain anything destructive could be against Sarika’s skin,” Tomas said. “She has rare gifts, and one is protection.”The blood exchange was not easy,he confessed to his brothers.Even under compulsion, exhausted and asleep, she resisted. When I had her take my blood, it felt for a brief moment as if there was a power struggle.
Both his brothers refrained from turning their puzzled gazes onhim. They were used to looking expressionless around others, no matter what they discussed.
We are ancient, Tomas, and extremely formidable,Mataias stated.There should be no contest between a young female shifter and any of us. What exactly happened?
Not exactly a power struggle.He tried to explain the strange thing that had happened.She was lying in the hammock, looking fragile and lost. I shared that moment with you and Lojos because the way she looked in her sleep tore me up, and I needed the two of you to balance the overwhelming emotion I was feeling for the first time. Each emotion seems a first, and the need to inspect it and understand it after the blow of feeling it is strong.
How did one explain a miracle to his brothers? He had tried to show them just as he shared his emotions with them. Just as they had shared everything for centuries. Information was valuable—one of the most valuable things in their world, they’d discovered. It gave them even more power and made them far better hunters of the undead.
Dominic and Luiz talked in quiet tones, discussing the women and Dominic’s lifemate, Solange. He heard Dominic say, with humor in his voice, that it was a good thing she wasn’t present. She had been converted and was Carpathian, but like Luiz, she retained her jaguar. Solange was all about women’s rights. Their choices. She wouldnotbe down with taking Sarika’s blood or claiming her without her consent.
Tomas had believed he thought the same way as Solange until the moment he realized Sarika was his lifemate and she’d been in danger. Nothing else mattered to him but keeping her safe. He wasn’t sorry to claim her or start the conversion process, especially when he realized Sarika was very conflicted. She might actually take it in her head to make a run for it. He would follow. His brothers would follow, and they had a duty to their people. They were on the trail of one of the deadliest Carpathians living, and they had to get to him before he turned his attention to mass murder.
Tomas.Mataias brought his attention back to his brothers and what he was trying to convey. Tomas decided to open his memories tothem, although it would be giving a great deal away from the lack of control, not only of his emotions but of his body’s reaction.
Every protective instinct I possessed kicked in. Instincts I didn’t know I had, not like that. I have always been protective of you two, we have of each other, but feel what I felt.He invited them to share his memories.
He allowed the memory to surface, complete with every uncontrolled, wild emotion that raged through him at the time. They had to know what it was really like. The tarot readers had predicted that their lifemates were in this life cycle. If they found them, it was necessary for them to know that they very possibly could go temporarily insane. After centuries of nothing, colors and emotions were almost too much to take. It felt as if he were in a thrall, one he had no control over. But Sarika lay there, so fragile and lost, sohis, that he needed to ensure he could protect her. He needed to do that even more than he needed to smooth their relationship.
It most likely wasn’t the right decision, but his always logical brain was in total chaos. He drew Sarika gently into his arms and pulled her onto his lap. That might have been a mistake. He had an unexpected and unacceptable response to the feel of her bottom sliding over his groin. The response was instant steel.
It was exhilarating—and painful. Not in the way of a battle wound, but something altogether different. He hadn’t thought he would have to fight his body for control right along with his mind, but he did. He shared all of that with his brothers.
