Total pages in book: 158
Estimated words: 145341 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 727(@200wpm)___ 581(@250wpm)___ 484(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 145341 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 727(@200wpm)___ 581(@250wpm)___ 484(@300wpm)
There were few brave enough to have homes near those high ridges and deep gorges. The snow was deep and food was scarce. The village Andros’ woman came from was very old-school. They adhered to the old ways of the Lycans and believed in the very oldest of the versions of the Sacred Circle. That was a belief still practiced by many of the older Lycans, although it had been proven corrupted by a dark mage. Most modern Lycans refused to continue following the old customs—at least in public. Those in the outlying village near the eastern border practiced openly. They made no bones about viewing the mixing of blood as sacrilege.
Allow your mind to calm, my lady, Afanasiv said gently. There is little we can do until we know the facts. Before all else, we must ensure your brother Garald’s safety. The best way to do that is to stop Vitus from reaching him. Vitus will have more than one plan. He has not survived this long without having something else up his sleeve. He is not counting solely on his demon allies.
Vasilisa thought that over. He was right. As a rule, she was not one to panic. She did so only because these were her brothers, and she wanted them out of the hands of the demons. She had studied the underworld from the time she was very young. She knew how twisted and depraved the creatures were. The tortures they could conceive and delighted in had been so disturbing, when she’d first been studying them, she’d had nightmares for years.
There was nothing she could do for either of her brothers at the moment if they were already in the hands of the demons. She had to make certain Garald didn’t fall. She wasn’t making a very good showing for her lifemate.
You’re right, Afanasiv. I’m sorry. As a rule, I am careful to look at every angle. It makes no sense that my brothers were able to be captured and used. I know what demons can do, and there is a part of me in total panic.
Vasilisa, you must be kinder to yourself. Anyone would want to rescue their siblings from the hands of these demons or a vampire. The vampires will find that the underworld will not give them exactly what they bargained for. That is always the way with these creatures.
She noticed he streaked through the night sky without hesitation, following some unknown trail only visible to him. She would never have been able to find the vampire. Her brother, on the other hand, she could have found. They had an unbreakable bond. Blood called to blood, even hers, so different now. She had found that the Carpathian blood hid itself deep within the Lycan blood when her brothers reached for her, so they never suspected she was different.
Afanasiv had confidence born of experience. He wasn’t cocky or a braggart, and she liked that about him. He didn’t treat her as if she were less than him. She liked that, too. She settled into his mind, trying to track the vampire with him, determined to learn from him, just as she felt he was willing to learn from her.
At first, she couldn’t see what Afanasiv was following. She tried to see with her eyesight and then with her other senses. Her acute hearing. Her sense of smell. She was used to relying on physical senses because hers were developed. After a time, she realized Afanasiv wasn’t using any of his physical senses. He was using the owl’s senses but also relying on a psychic trail, a kind of foul footprint left behind in the sky by the vampire.
It was automatic for her lifemate to track the vampire the way he was. He didn’t think about it; he just did it, the same way she tracked prey when she was hunting on her land. He had provided the information for her there in his mind; she just hadn’t utilized it.
I have never noticed that sticky mark in the sky before. It’s no more than a smudge. How did you ever see it and associate it with a vampire? She often hunted with Sorina, a Carpathian one had to consider quite old, although she appeared very young. They had defeated vampires together out of necessity. They hadn’t deliberately sought them out. Never once had she noticed the little dark smudges that looked almost like the beginning of a cloud forming. Not even that. The mark was faint in the night sky.
When you follow a master vampire, you have to look for anything that is consistent, no matter how small. That little piece of dust in the sky was a comet in his wake. I do not know how often I missed it to begin with, but once I did notice it, I would instantly recognize it and lock onto it. The trail does fade over time, but it is as if the touch of the vampire has fouled the air itself, and it takes time to heal.