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)
Vasilisa flung herself backward in her chair again. “I know. I’ve never been able to tell a decent lie. I used to try, but I always got caught. Fine. I’ve got this impression of a massive man. Not in terms of his body but his brain. One who is very intelligent, quick-witted and stubborn as hell. He goes his own way.” She frowned, concentrating. “I just got a small glimpse of him, but his mind is a minefield.”
“What does that mean?”
“All joking aside, he’s scary, Sorina, and very dangerous. I just caught a glimpse of what he’s capable of.”
“When a Carpathian male is born, his soul is split. He retains the darkness, and the light is given to the female to protect. It is his responsibility to find her. He loses his ability to see in color and feel emotion when he is around two hundred years old. Sometimes it happens to him much earlier, depending on the circumstances. He hunts the vampire and searches for his lifemate. There is only one woman who can restore color and emotions back into his life. If he lives for centuries, can you imagine how difficult it would be killing old friends or even those he grew up with in his family? Seeing people from his village die? It wouldn’t matter if he had emotions or not, it would still register somewhere.”
Truthfully, Vasilisa couldn’t imagine such an existence. “Why in the world would fate complicate his life even more by matching him with someone like me? I’m the absolute worst of the worst as far as matches go.”
Sorina shrugged. “You may think that . . .”
“I know it. He’ll be under such scrutiny. The moment I show any interest at all in a male, my brothers are going to study him with a magnifying glass. You know they will. Then it will be the villagers. Not one or two, all of them. And we don’t know if we’re compatible. I’ve become someone different. He might not like that.”
Suddenly, a headache came out of nowhere, her temple pounding. It came on fast, a hard punch over her left eye that felt as if someone had shoved a hot poker into her skin, right through her bone. It was excruciatingly painful, so much so that she clapped her palm over the offending spot with a soft cry.
“What is it?” Sorina asked.
“Pain,” she managed to gasp out. “It’s bad.”
Sorina reached out and gently removed Vasilisa’s hand to place her two fingers over the pounding spot. She closed her eyes and inhaled sharply. “Vasi, let me in for just a moment.”
Vasilisa hesitated and then opened her mind to her friend. The pain was so bad she knew she needed help. She didn’t want to cause a scene in front of everyone. At the moment, they were in a secluded corner where no one was paying attention to them, but if she began vomiting, everyone would look.
“This isn’t your pain,” Sorina said. “This is his. You have to disconnect from him. You’re feeling a kind of echo of what he’s enduring.”
“His pain? What’s happening to him? What do you mean, echo?” If she was feeling just a portion of what he was feeling, he needed help. She had to find him. She kept one hand pressed tightly over her eye.
“He’s in some kind of battle. Sit down, Vasi. That’s what these men do. They go after vampires. Evidently, he’s found one.”
“You don’t know that. He’s in wolf country. He could have stumbled onto a large pack.” She sank back into the chair she hadn’t realized she’d vacated.
“It didn’t feel like wolves to me.”
“Or worse. When the earthquake occurred, it opened a vent to the underground. I think something evil is escaping,” Vasilisa continued. “He could need assistance. That’s what I’m trained for. Even if he’s an expert in vampire fighting, it isn’t the same thing as battling demons from the underworld.”
She rubbed at her head and started to make a deliberate attempt to disconnect from the man who she was supposedly destined to be with for the rest of her life. She stopped. She would need a way to find him. Perhaps distancing herself just a little bit would ease the ache in her head.
The door opened, allowing a blast of cold air in. The flames rolling over the logs in the fireplace flared into bright, hot tongues of fury. A sudden hush fell over the bar as the newcomers came inside, stomping the snow from their boots and removing their scarves, gloves and hats.
Sorina leaned across the table. “I can’t take the chance of being seen. They’re certain to come over to talk to you.”
Vasilisa knew it was true. She wasn’t going to get out of the inn without a conversation with at least one of the government agents. They were looking for members of the monarchy, and she was sitting right there.