Time passed while the waves crashed and foamed. He thought Adalasia might have slipped away from him she was so still, but there remained a feminine presence in his mind. He had been alone for endless centuries, a long gray void of nothingness, but even with her being so still, she brought him comfort.
He heard her sudden intake of breath. What is it?
This person you speak of embarking on the journey with you? Is this a new relationship? A love interest?
He considered that. A love interest was a way a human would define a relationship. A lifemate was so much more. His other half. He couldn’t survive without her. He was speaking with her right at that very moment. Was she as moved as he was? Most likely she was unaware of the significance of their exchange. No other would have been able to penetrate his defenses.
I have yet to meet her, but she is within my reach. That was honest enough.
This journey is not without risks, but it is worth it. You may need to expand your views, be willing to experience new visions that are not your own.
She sounded reluctant to say the least. She also sounded as if she was giving him a bit of a lecture, telling him to expand his views as if he was too narrow-minded to see other people’s ideas that weren’t his. Did that mean she thought he didn’t listen to other people’s opinions? That could be true. At least not human opinions. He had been around for centuries and seen countless scenarios. In the grand scheme of things, humans were babies, thinking they were experts.
The journey I must undertake to another land?
Again, there was silence, as if she was mulling something over. Must you? Go to another land, or do you want to go to another land? You have to decide for yourself if it is a want or a need.
The reluctance was much more pronounced.
Adalasia, you have an idea you do not wish to share with me. Are you a seer?
I can sometimes be a guide. The admission was hesitant.
For the first time, Sandu heard a discordant note, as if she wasn’t telling the exact truth. That displeased him. Lifemates didn’t lie to each other. She didn’t realize she was his lifemate, but she was the keeper of the other half of his soul. Did she know that? Was she aware? He knew there was no mistake. She had restored color into his world. Color and emotions. As he sat on the roof watching the waves come and go, catching the sheen of the moon, he experienced a variety of unfamiliar feelings he had to sort through in order to identify.
You are sometimes a guide? He echoed her statement.
She sighed. I can’t always see everything. In your case, the way is murky. There is danger everywhere I turn. I can’t see a clear path for you.
He believed she spoke the truth. Her assessment didn’t surprise him. Clearly, she was upset on his behalf. She sounded as if she thought she was failing him. He had a much clearer direction now. She was behind him, somewhere away from the ocean. He needed to keep her talking, and she wanted to end their conversation because something she saw frightened her.
Do you believe in monsters? Sandu kept his mind calm and his voice absolutely matter-of-fact so as to sound as if he were merely engaging in discussion. For one terrible moment, it flashed through his mind that she was talking to a monster. He shut that down, not wanting to take a chance on sharing with her any of the battles he’d been in.
He stood, keeping his weight from the rooftop, hiding his presence from anyone who might look up. He was a big man and would draw attention if he wasn’t concealing himself. He took to the sky but stayed low, skimming the rooftops, moving slowly in the direction he was certain she was. He didn’t want her to know he was on the move. She seemed a little skittish to him, but he wasn’t certain why. She didn’t seem like a woman who lacked confidence.
As in human monsters? They certainly exist.
He was definitely closer. The farther he got from the roaring of the waves, the more he heard the sounds of laughter and music surrounding her voice. Blending with it.
Yes. Human monsters. Have you ever encountered any monster you thought might not be human?
His question was met with silence. She hadn’t withdrawn. He felt her presence. At least a full minute went by. He was guided by the sounds of the music and laughter.
Who are you? Her voice was very low. She sounded frightened.
Never your enemy.
You’re a hunter.
What did she mean by that? Did she know what a Carpathian was? Was she a female Carpathian? If so, what was she doing without protection in the city where vampires were known to slaughter prey?
I am merely someone at the crossroads. Wondering which direction to travel on his journey. Searching for my lifemate to travel with me, but I have a need to know if this is a good idea right now. Keeping her talking to him when she wanted to stop was the best of ideas.
There is always calculated risk when starting any new journey, whatever it may be. My next client is here and I have to go. It was nice talking with you, Sandu.
Before he could say another word to her, she was gone and he was alone. He had been used to being alone, and yet after sharing his mind with her and their brief exchange, he felt—bereft.
She’d left him abruptly, as if she was afraid of something. Of him. Of something she saw. He had dark, violent memories, and he had protected them. He knew she couldn’t possibly have gotten past his shields. Even if she was Carpathian, and that didn’t feel quite right to him, he was too strong. Too old. Too experienced. Too brutal . . . But then . . . she had caught him off guard and entered his mind so smoothly. Very seamlessly, as if she’d been doing it forever.
He kept moving slowly over the rooftops, invisible to the crowds and cars below, following the faint sounds he had picked up in the background. Increasingly, he was deeper into the city. He preferred the outskirts, where he could breathe without the smell of fuel and exhaust. Without the continual scent of bodies crammed into small spaces. Office buildings and malls meant hundreds of people talking, seemingly all at once. He had to sort through those conversations, tone them down, hear what was needed, and discard the rest. Cities were not places Sandu would ever feel comfortable.
Within a matter of a few minutes, he had found the faint note he was looking for. It was blended in the muted voices that were blurred in the background of so many other conversations. He adjusted his line of travel until that blurred conversation became just a little stronger. The fact that those in the buildings he traveled over continued to be so much louder no matter how much he tuned to those other sounds, filtering out the notes he didn’t want to hear, meant she wasn’t inside those buildings. She was somewhere else. Under them? In the middle of them? Was she surrounded by them?
Was magic involved? He didn’t feel the prickle of energy on his skin or in his mind. He was far too old for a mage to fool him for long. No, the notes he sought were below the louder ones, and he was beginning to move away from them. He doubled back and once more sat on a rooftop to scan the area for his greatest enemy—the undead.
This time of night, the malls were closed, but the bars and nightclubs were full as people had gotten off work, eaten and were looking for company and a good time. He knew from his long experience that vampires would welcome the hunt in the crowded, dark taverns, luring their victims outside, where they could take their lives and discard their bodies like so much garbage.
Sandu found no evidence of the undead anywhere nearby. He was uneasy but could find no reason for his alarm to be giving him even a vague warning. Somewhere close, his lifemate could be in danger. The apprehension might be about her. He’d been in her mind, just as she’d been in his. There was now a path forged between them, whether she knew it or not. That meant he would feel any threat to her.