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  "All right. It's done. Now, really, you have to get into the earth and let it heal you."

  "Almost. Ainaak sivamet jutta oleny. You are bound to me for all eternity. Ainaak terad vigyazak. You are always in my care." He turned her hand over and brushed his lips over her knuckles.

  The gesture was pure intimacy, sending heat waves through her body. Her heart seemed to have found the rhythm of his. The longer she spent in Dragomir's company, the more she fell under his spell.

  "Now, will you please go to ground?" She needed him to do so. The moment he did, she intended to find Blaze and Maksim and tell them the truth. She had to save Dragomir from himself.

  "Not until I remove the parasites from your blood."

  "After. Tonight. That doesn't give you much time to heal." She kept her voice low and soothing, because more than her next breath, she needed to take care of Dragomir. She didn't want him out of her sight, but he had to heal properly. The healer had made that clear. And no way in hell was Vadim touching him with his disgusting parasites. She was determined to protect Dragomir. It was the least she could do after what he'd done for her. He'd made her feel human again, beautiful and worthy.

  "Can you go to ground under my home, so I know you're close?"

  She had no idea why the thought of him leaving her made her feel anxious and even desperate, but she needed to make certain he was alive and well.

  "I'm going to remove the parasites from your body and heal you. I took Daratrazanoff's blood twice so I would have the strength. It was imperative that I live so I could ensure there is no trace of Vadim's attack left on you. I will remove his parasites and any possible way he can contact you."

  She caught his long hair in her hand and leaned over him, burying her face in the thick mass. All along, when he'd been so wounded and torn, he hadn't been thinking of himself or his pain, or even if he would live or die; he'd been thinking of her. Living for her. She could love this man. She really could. But she wasn't surviving for herself.

  Emeline straightened and forced her fingers open so his hair slid from her palm. "Go to ground, Dragomir. I have things to do now. Important things." Like pack a bag, pull every cent she'd stashed out of her hiding place and run before the sun set on the next day. "I don't want you to take the parasites from my blood, not until you've spent at least one full day in the soil. I mean it."

  "I am unused to women believing they can give orders to their men. Make no mistake, sivamet, I am your man. Your . . ." He frowned, propping his head up with one hand while he tried to remember the correct word. "Spouse. Husband. We are wed. Our souls are complete. I cannot go to ground when my woman is hurting, and you're . . ." He broke off again, his gaze searching the room and hallway. "Who else is here?"

  She stiffened and tried to slide off the couch. His arm kept her thighs locked in place, preventing her escape. "No one." Her voice was small. Too small.

  His gaze jumped to her face. Those golden eyes refused to allow her to look away. "I hear a heartbeat. Not mine. Not yours. Fast. Galloping. I thought one of the children, but it's faster, out of rhythm." He frowned. "Painful. As if something is squeezing the heart."

  His eyes left hers and began to drop lower. Her lips. Her chin. Her throat. Breasts. She held her breath as his speculative gaze dropped to her stomach. There was no way she could stop the involuntary gesture--she covered her womb with her hand protectively.

  Dragomir sat up slowly. Stood. Flowed across the room with the grace of a lion. Turned and stalked back toward her, as if she were the prey. Terrified, she held up one hand, a pitiful defense against him as she surged to her feet with the hysterical idea of fighting her way out of the house.

  "Kod alte han." The guttural words came out like a curse. He towered over her. Close. Their bodies almost touching. "Tell me." It was a command, nothing less. "Sit in the chair over there." He indicated the most comfortable seat in her home with a jerk of his chin. "You tell me everything. Everything. You do not leave a single detail out."

  She shook her head. The tears were burning behind her eyes. The endless, useless fountain she couldn't seem to turn off. She'd lived without hope for so long, weeks of pain and torment, afraid to sleep, unable to eat, terrified someone would learn her secret and force her to leave the safety of the compound.

  "Sivamet." His voice softened to a brush of velvet, a stroke she felt over her skin. He cupped her face in his hands. His hands were big and surrounded her with his strength. "I am your lifemate. It is my duty and my privilege to see to your happiness. You must give me the details. All of them. You must tell me what you want. The truth of what you want. I cannot do what is best for us until I know these things."

  "You can't help me. No one can help me." She was so damn tired of feeling sorry for herself, but the last thing she wanted was to trap Dragomir into her mess. There was no way out for her. She knew because she'd had weeks to try to find one. "You're like a beautiful white knight in the movies, riding on your horse, or in this case maybe a dragon to save the damsel in distress. Believe me, I know if anyone could do it, you could, but there isn't a solution I can live with."

  "There are ways to remove it." Again, his voice was gentle and there was no judgment of any kind. He wasn't trying to persuade her one way or the other, he simply was voicing what she already knew.

  "Of course, my first thought was I had to get rid of it. A child of the vilest creature on the face of the earth? There was no question. I couldn't stand the thought of it growing inside me like some monster with claws ready to tear me apart from the inside. The pain was so excruciating. I was terrified of what it would be, what horrible thing Vadim had conjured up and put inside of me. Every bad horror movie ever made played through my mind over and over." She was shaking so hard she could barely stand.

  He moved into her and gathered her into his arms. His body was large, strong; his arms felt like security, a security she hadn't known ever in her life. He sheltered her against his heart. She could feel it beating, strong and steady, just as he was. He felt invincible.

  "You're the most unbelievable man," she whispered, awed by his reaction. He hadn't yelled at her, or accused her of betraying those in the compound by bringing a child of Vadim's into the only small part of the world safe to them. He simply ordered her to tell him everything so he could find solutions.

  "Stop crying, sivamet. I am unused to dealing with a woman's tears, and I find yours--unsettling. You aren't alone anymore." He walked her over to the large armchair, sank into it and pulled her onto his lap. "Talk to me, Emeline."

  His voice was perfectly pitched. That deep timbre was difficult to ignore, but so velvety it softened the command. He created an intimacy she couldn't resist. She knew it was wrong to sit on his lap, to allow him to be embroiled further into her insanity, but she couldn't stop herself. She had to tell someone, and for some reason she couldn't understand, that someone--the only one she would consider--was asking her at a time when all her defenses were down.

  "I made up my mind to get rid of it, but then I heard screaming. Crying. A baby in such pain. I realized she was in pain, just as I was in pain. When I didn't obey Vadim and go to him when he demanded it, his parasites would attack. Not just me, but the baby as well. He tortured her, and she wasn't even fully developed. Not nearly so." She pressed her hand over her womb and lifted her head to look at him. "How can he do the terrible things he does?"

  "He is incapable of feeling unless he invokes a strong enough reaction in another. Vampires get high if they kill while feeding. The blood is laced with adrenaline. They can get a rush from someone feeling terror or any strong emotion. The negative emotions are intense. If their puppet eats their prey alive, all of them get a rush. Torturing an unborn child, especially if it distresses you, would be a rush for him."

  "Even his own child?"

  "He doesn't feel. He cannot feel any attachment."

  "Then why go to such lengths to get one?"

  His fingers came up to the nape of her neck in
an effort to ease the tension out of her. "A tool. He has some plan in mind and children factor into it. Vadim was always incredibly intelligent. All the Malinovs were. He has embraced technology, and clearly Carpathians must do the same if we want to survive in this world. He has a master plan."

  Emeline pressed her forehead to his chest, unable to meet his eyes. "I know she's alive, aware, and she's innocent. She didn't want what happened any more than I did. I have to protect her. There's no one else. I don't know how she can survive much longer, not with him torturing her to get to me. I know if the others find out about her, there is a very large possibility that they will want me to leave the compound, and maybe rightly so. I don't know how much control Vadim will gain over her as she grows. I know you can't possibly understand . . ."

  "You are not thinking clearly, sivamet. The baby will not survive his torture. He knows that. As she grows, his tortures will worsen. Eventually, as you grow to love the child, he will use that against you. He knows you will go to him in an effort to save your daughter."

  It was true. Knowing she would end up in the hands of a master vampire, she had still gone into the underground city to save children she didn't know. Strangers. The only thing she had in common with them was that they were street kids like she had been. She hadn't been able to stop herself. Vadim knew her better than she knew herself. Already the baby's piteous cries day and night, echoing through her mind, were wearing on her. She had already considered--and discarded--the idea of giving in and going to him, but as the child grew, so would the connection between them. If Vadim stepped up his torture, what other recourse would she have?

  She moaned and shook her head in defeat. "I don't know what to do. I considered ending both our lives. All those women down in the tunnels. Dead. Their unborn children dead. I didn't want to be like that."

  "Tell me what happened." His voice was so gentle it turned her heart over. She had never had gentle. Never. She'd been homeless. She didn't even remember her mother and father, only relatives that treated her like a burden. Never gentle until this man.

  She closed her eyes and leaned into him, tried to burrow into him, become part of all that strength. She had tried to forget. To put those minutes--not even a full hour of her life--behind a solid steel door in her mind, but she couldn't. Those seconds and minutes were carved deep into her soul and would never fade. She hadn't told anyone, not even Blaze. She couldn't.

  The thought of telling it, reliving it . . . But she had to. Dragomir deserved to know. He was sticking by her, even going so far as to believe she was his lifemate, mostly, she was certain, so others would believe it. He made her feel cherished, sitting in the chair, on his lap, his arms holding her securely, as if he could keep her safe from evil.

  "Vadim had several others with him. They were so hideous. Teeth so pointy and stained with blood. They dug their nails into me, into my arms to hold me. Not like regular fingernails, but these long, thick claws like a grizzly bear." She rubbed her arms, from her biceps to her wrists, feeling those long talons digging into her flesh, right down to the bone. The pain had been unlike anything she'd ever experienced. The wounds deep, burning, as if they'd poured acid into her veins.

  "Even so, I fought him. I kept thinking if I fought, someone might come. Someone would help me." The lump in her throat grew until she thought she might choke. "Someone would save me," she whispered, remembering the hopeless feeling she had had when they took her to the ground. "I kicked him hard, really hard, and he just smiled at me." Her body shuddered and she pressed her forehead to his. "I was scared. So scared." Her confession came out in a whisper because she couldn't speak above that mere thread of sound. She didn't want Vadim in the room with them.

  "You are safe now, sivamet. I am with you, and I am not going anywhere." He rubbed the nape of her neck, his body rock solid, arms strong as they encircled her. "He didn't control you with his mind?"

  Another tremor shook her. "He tried. I thought he'd be furious when he couldn't, when I continued to fight him, but he seemed pleased. Why? Why would that make him happy? He tries now and when he can't he is extremely angry. It doesn't make sense."

  He framed her face with his hands. "You're strong. Psychically strong. He needed that in a host body. He hunted you because you could resist his compulsions. Now that he needs to reacquire you, it isn't an asset for him. He wants you back and he can't force you."

  She searched his eyes. Those strange, golden eyes--so hot they burned. She brought her hands up and tried to put her fingers around his thick wrists. She felt his pulse beat beneath the pads of her fingers. Strong. Steady. So like him. He should be dead, or at least unconscious in the ground, but he was holding her close, like she mattered to him. Giving her a feeling of safety in a world she knew wasn't safe and never would be again.

  "They held me down by pinning me to the ground with long claws, almost like ice picks only much thicker. They stretched my legs so far apart I thought they'd tear them off and then they pierced my arms and legs, driving what felt like spikes through my muscles and bone right into the ground. I was surrounded by them, so many." The shaking was impossible to stop, and Dragomir pulled her close again, holding her against his chest, his arms a sanctuary. "I didn't know anything could hurt like that."

  He stroked his hand down her hair, and she wished she'd brushed it, that the tangles were gone and she was beautiful for him. He deserved beautiful. It was a strange desire, when she was reliving the worst moments of her life, but the way it felt, that hand moving through her hair, made her want to look her best for him.

  "Vadim knelt down, between my legs, and I thought . . ." She touched her tongue to her top lip, her brain trying to shut down to protect her. "He gripped my body right over my ovaries, squeezing, pressing so hard it felt as if he was trying to shove his fingers through my skin. He kept massaging and then he . . ." She turned her face away from him, a sob escaping. She shoved her fist into her mouth.

  He immediately pressed her head into his chest, his hand on the back of her skull, fingers in her scalp, creating a soothing massage. "I would not ask you to relive this moment, Emeline, if it didn't matter. I need to know what he did. I can take these memories from you, or ease them to make the burden lighter, but I must know. I do not ask idly."

  God. He was so amazing. So perfect. She was desperate to protect him, but she couldn't stop the compulsion to tell him the entire vile story. It was almost as if he were taking part of the pain, the suffering, onto his shoulders and off hers. She pressed her forehead into his chest, staring down at the rows of muscles his tight shirt revealed. Concentrating on them, on the beauty of his body, she continued.

  "He was kneeling between my legs and my clothes were suddenly gone. He'd removed them without touching them. I was already feeling so vulnerable, and that made it all the worse. They were all staring at me, grinning macabrely. He put his hand in me." She stuttered over that, her heart pounding. Her mouth went dry. "It hurt. Really, really hurt. Then it felt like he was moving in me, oily and foul, moving through my body, but he was kneeling right there."

  "In the same way a healer does? Going outside his body?"

  "Maybe, but the healer completely left his body. I could tell. He was pure spirit, pure energy. Vadim was still in his own body." Somehow talking about it with Dragomir being so matter-of-fact, as if it didn't disgust him that Vadim had touched her body so intimately, the way it disgusted her, made her feel stronger.

  "He wouldn't risk his body to other vampires. They are not a loyal lot. He couldn't take that chance. Emeline, you're being so courageous for me. I know this is difficult for you, but it helps me understand."

  She nodded, keeping her head tight against him. He was her courage. He gave her that when it had been long gone. "He suddenly became gleeful and he started yelling to the others that now was the moment, to hurry. He gripped my body both inside and out, and one of the vampires, one he called Sergey, brought him this enormous needle. The tube was about ten inches long and fill
ed with a dark liquid. I knew. I knew exactly what it was. The needle was very long. He shoved it into my skin, and it burned like hell. Then he began moving it around as if searching for something. There was so much pain."

  She closed her eyes and inhaled, needing the scent of him in her lungs. He filled her with strength. "It seemed to take forever. I was so terrified. I felt sickened by what they did. I am so afraid they might have done the same thing to Amelia. She's just a little girl. Fourteen or fifteen. She doesn't really talk about it and I've tried to get her to open up. I know something terrible happened."

  "We need to concentrate on what he did to you. We will help the girl once we know how. What did Vadim do next?"

  "I was bleeding everywhere. They . . . he . . . they licked at the blood on my body and between my legs. It was horrible. Foul. Then Vadim sank his teeth into my neck." She brought her hand up and touched the scars there. "He took so much I was dizzy and hoped he would kill me. I knew he wouldn't, but I thought he might accidentally go too far. He was acting so crazy, like it was the best blood in the world--" She broke off abruptly.

  "And then?"

  She shook her head. She'd told him the worst. The absolute worst. "He forced me to take his blood. He said it was laced with ancient Carpathian blood to make the child survive. I could feel the parasites wiggling inside me. From that moment to this, I can't sleep or eat, and I hurt with every breath I take."

  "It makes no sense that he didn't give you a male child. I would think that for his ego, he would have done such a thing."

  She was silent a moment and then she sat up and looked him in the eye. "He thought he did. He isn't the only one able to manipulate the human body."

  "You changed the sex of the baby?"

  Emeline nodded slowly. "Yes, I changed the sex by fertilizing the egg with female chromosomes. He had no way of knowing. I dreamt so many times of what would happen to all of us down in those tunnels. I knew Vadim would rape and impregnate me. He wanted a male child; it was always there in his mind when I dreamt of him."