Total pages in book: 153
Estimated words: 141492 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 707(@200wpm)___ 566(@250wpm)___ 472(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 141492 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 707(@200wpm)___ 566(@250wpm)___ 472(@300wpm)
She took a deep, steadying breath and turned to face her older brother, forcing her gaze to meet his.
He frowned at her, but his expression, his eyes, were gentle as only Izem’s could be. “Petru Cioban has no intention of giving up his claim on you. He made that very clear to Baba and to me.”
Safia had prepared herself for Izem to let her down gently, to tell her that Petru didn’t want her after all. For a moment, she could barely process what he was saying. Then she didn’t know what to feel. Elated? Scared?
She touched her tongue to suddenly dry lips. “What did he talk to you about? He had been very attentive, and suddenly, he withdrew. He left me completely alone with Jeddi in the cave of the ancestors. He said he was patrolling, familiarizing himself with the area.”
Izem nodded. “He has to know the battlefield, Safia.”
That was true. “What did he want to talk to you and Baba about?” she persisted.
“He explained that there were some things that he had no choice about, that he had to do to keep everyone safe. He had to claim you immediately. He regretted not being able to give you time to get to know him, especially since you were not told of him until recently. He wanted to know our ways. To learn the things that mattered to you. He asked if we would guide him to be a better husband to you and make the transition easier for you.”
Heat blossomed low in her stomach. “He did?” She couldn’t imagine a man as strong and powerful as Petru humbling himself to ask for help and guidance from her father and brother just to make her passage into his life easier. He seemed . . . omnipotent. As if he wouldn’t notice lesser mortals and their struggles, although why she thought that after the way he’d healed her wounds, she didn’t know. Her own insecurities?
“He did. He said he wasn’t used to talking with others so much. He was a hunter of the vampire and spent most of his time alone. He didn’t think he knew the things a woman would like, and he felt he had already hurt you with careless words. He didn’t want to make that mistake again.”
“He said that?” she whispered, her fingers stroking over the pulse in her neck where it suddenly burned, sending fiery licks of heat through her body.
“He did. There was no doubt he was sincere. He had a strange method of obtaining the information. I wasn’t certain I was comfortable with it at first, but he took his time explaining that it was the way his people communicated during a battle and the way they shared information.”
“Blood.”
He nodded. “Although he said if we were uncomfortable with giving and receiving a small amount of blood, he could read what we were willing to share with him.”
“Did it bother you to give him blood?”
Izem shook his head. “I don’t know why, but it seemed natural. I don’t remember him giving us blood if he did. But he could speak in our minds after that.”
That did make Safia feel a little less special. The entire ritual had felt intimate between Petru and her. The way he spoke in her mind had been almost sensual, as if it had been for her alone. Knowing he did the same with her father and brother, preparing them for war, let her know she had misread what Petru had been doing.
Color swept up her face. Had he known her thoughts? Had she given herself away? Probably. He seemed to be able to read what was inside one’s mind. She immediately became determined to strengthen the barrier in her mind. She didn’t need him to read every little thought she had about him.
She turned back to the path determinedly. “We’d better hurry. If I’m right about what is attacking the fishing boats, I need to find where they’re slipping through and consecrate the ground so they can’t return to the underworld and no others can come through, and then go after the ones that are here.”
“You have an idea where the demons might be getting through?”
“Aura told me of a place close to the harbor but very deep. She said there is a gate she guards. Lately she’s been worried that there were places thinning in the ground. She feared something might slip through. I was going to come with her tonight to check it out.”
“But you don’t know exactly where it is?”
“She left a map in my mind. She does that sometimes. It isn’t the easiest to follow because the caves have quite a few twists and turns, but I think I’ll feel the way.” She knew she could. If she was close to demons or anywhere they had traveled, her body reacted like a tuning fork. Already she could feel a pull to the left, and when she rounded a slight bend, there was a fork. She took the left tunnel that dropped steeply downward.