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)
Aura has led a terrible life. She has lived for the same two thousand years you have, Petru. You had no emotions. While that was horrible for you, she had no family other than her mother, who lived with one foot in this world and one with her dead husband. She barely spoke to Aura. She certainly didn’t counsel her in Carpathian ways.
There must have been other Carpathian families nearby. Males to watch over her.
No. She was five when the war took place. My family became her family. She grew up with us. Over and over, she grew up with us and trained the next generation, century after century. When a guardian for the gate was needed, she volunteered because she was here. She learned to fight vampires and did so alone because no one else was here to do it. Often, she was horribly wounded. She knows more of our culture than her own. You have no right to come here and treat her as an outsider. She is my sister. My family. The things we say to each other are private between sisters.
She felt fiercely protective toward Aura, and she didn’t hold back that feeling from him. He might as well know how she really was. He wanted her for a wife. He said they were compatible. He needed to know whom he was dealing with. She wasn’t going to back down for him or be afraid of telling him how wrong he’d been.
Aura is courageous beyond measure. She’s gifted. Without her, I would have had no training. She’s the one who taught me your language and worked with me on my weapons skills. In fact, she’s the one who taught my mother and my grandmother.
Petru was silent for a long time. She raised her head to peek at the land below them. She didn’t recognize where they were. The sky was clear, although the night was cold. She was surprised that she wasn’t cold. Clouds drifted above their heads, but very few. There seemed to be a million stars looking down at them.
I have never known a Carpathian woman to be so isolated. This is an unusual situation. I will apologize to her. I’ve sent word of her situation to the others to better understand. We’ve met two other guardians. They were independent, but they were versed in Carpathian ways. She is fortunate in that she was not killed by a vampire.
Safia liked that he immediately said he would apologize and sounded sincere. He also was considering the best way to help Aura. He didn’t like that she’d been so alone and had no real knowledge of her people or customs.
I should have asked you about her before I assumed she was raised as all other Carpathian women. Nothing here is as it was supposed to be.
She caught the hint of conflict in him, and self-doubt crept in despite her resolve not to allow the things imprinted on her by the vampire to get to her. She refused to feel less than Petru. Wasn’t that one of her worries over their relationship? That he was so certain his species was superior to hers?
I do not think my species is superior to yours, Safia.
She slipped one hand from his neck to his shoulder. You shouldn’t be listening to my thoughts. That’s an invasion of privacy. You notice I’m careful not to invade your privacy.
Sívamet. There was a hint of amusement in the caress in her mind. We are talking intimately, mind to mind. It is impossible to speak telepathically without being in your mind and seeing your thoughts. You can easily see mine.
I’m not looking because I’m polite. She wasn’t looking because she had already caught so many glimpses of his past, and it was all so sad, she didn’t dare have any more sympathy for him until she had talked out every issue. I don’t invade your privacy without permission.
Below them was a forest of trees. She had only traveled to the protected park a couple of times alone. By car, it was a distance, and she had so much to do, but Aura had taken her there to practice with weapons at night. When she looked down at the canopy of trees swaying in the breeze, there didn’t appear to be breaks in the thick forest, but she knew there were clear meadows, some large and others small, but ones they could use when they wanted to practice unobserved.
* * *
• • •
Petru found himself amused by the little snippy note in Safia’s voice. He hadn’t known happiness, and she gave that to him. Even now, when he knew he was walking through a minefield, he felt the brightness in her that had passed to him. He wanted to do everything right with her, and so far, that hadn’t happened. There was more about him and his people she wasn’t going to like. It was important to get everything out in the open between them.