Total pages in book: 131
Estimated words: 118860 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 594(@200wpm)___ 475(@250wpm)___ 396(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 118860 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 594(@200wpm)___ 475(@250wpm)___ 396(@300wpm)
Chapter
16
Tomas watched his lifemate pacing back and forth across the wide wraparound porch. He knew his brothers and Luiz watched her as well. They were in the shadows, keeping guard, but they were upset with him because he didn’t take over her mind and find out what was bothering her so much.
They each tried to persuade him that a lifemate didn’t allow his woman to suffer as Sarika clearly was. Every cell in his body demanded he do just that, wave his hand and stop her in her tracks, slide into her mind when she was unaware and ferret out the problem.
He was Sarika’s lifemate, and his brothers and her cousin were right. His number one priority had to be to see to her health and happiness, not just her protection.
How you handle your lifemates is for you to decide. You are the ones who must get to know what makes her happy. What scares her. If you feel that taking away all freedom of choice can be justified, that is what you must do with your woman. I know if I take that path with Sarika, she would be a long time forgiving me.
The point is, Lojos objected, she wouldn’t know.
You believe in deceiving your lifemate? It was difficult enough to feel Sarika in turmoil without his brothers pushing their ideas at him so relentlessly.
How is it deception? She won’t know, so therefore won’t ask. You’ve removed any threat to her, and she’s calm and accepting of her fate rather than questioning every custom and ritual we have, Lojos said.
No. Mataias, always the thoughtful one, suddenly backed up Tomas. It is deceiving, and eventually it would come out. Are you looking to have a puppet for a lifemate, Lojos?
There was silence as Lojos considered his answer. I am not like either of you. You know that. If my lifemate is a Carpathian woman raised in our traditions, I doubt there would be conflict. But Sarika isn’t my lifemate. She is my little sister, and I can’t bear the thought of her in danger. Or the way she becomes so fearful after examining one of her memories. Why should she suffer if we can prevent it? How would I be able to endure these things from my own lifemate without intervening?
That was what came of sharing emotions with his brothers. They felt Sarika’s fears. They felt her need to run. The way she vacillated between trust in him and fear of him. Tomas understood his brother. The compulsion to protect was overwhelming in all of them, but Lojos was the one who was weighed down by that need. He put himself in the most dangerous position during battles with their enemies to keep them off Mataias and Tomas. Tomas understood what was happening to Lojos, because it was happening to all three of them.
The triplets had stayed alive and sane, keeping to the code by weaving their spirits together and sharing every scrap of information possible. They knew the moment one was injured or in trouble simply because they’d lived too long and none of them truly believed they had a lifemate. Until the tarot cards had revealed that somewhere in the world, in this life cycle, they would be able to find her.
That revelation had been a shock, but more importantly, none of them truly believed. They’d seen the evidence of their fellow ancients finding lifemates, and it was still inconceivable that it would happen to one or all of them. Sarika was sacred. She made it real. She represented the hope they’d lost centuries earlier. It wasn’t just his hope, his miracle; she was that for Lojos and Mataias as well.
Tomas had to acknowledge that his brothers could feel emotion through Sarika. They saw in faint color, more like memories of color, but it had changed their lives. It also was a heavy burden. Away from her, those colors and emotions would fade, making it more difficult to accept the gray nothingness of their existence.
That was when they would turn to battle, actively hunting for vampires, aggressively hunting them. They had made a pact with one another that they wouldn’t go off alone when they realized they all felt a rush when they took on the undead. So far, all three had kept their word.
Tomas’ intention was to remain with his brothers throughout their journeys to find their lifemates. That meant Sarika would be traveling with him. She couldn’t be aboveground in unfamiliar and dangerous territory while he was sleeping the rejuvenating sleep of his kind.
They hunted Justice. Tracking him was extremely difficult, and Gustov and his followers weren’t the first vampires to be thrown in their path. Now it was imperative to find this weapon Gustov had told him about. They had to get to it before Justice and find a way to destroy it for good. It couldn’t be allowed to exist on earth because sooner or later the enemy would find a way to acquire it and use it against their people.