Damonq pushed back strands of damp hair from her face. She was sweating blood. There were dots of it on her forehead and smears on her body. He opened the earth right next to them, making it deep. Seeing the shimmer of rich minerals made his heart a little lighter.This is the scary part. Buried alive.Her voice tried to make light of it, but he felt the undertone of horror. You will sleep and the baby will sleep. When you wake, you will be out from under the soil. On your rising we will practice opening and closing the soil until I know you are always safe and feel confident in your abilities.He brushed a kiss across her mouth. He, as always throughout her ordeal, had swept away the dots of blood on her forehead and the smears on her body. All toxins were gone and the air was sweet-smelling and fresh. Still, she turned her head away.I am not clean.You are very clean. I will put you under before the next wave starts. I’ll sleep beside you this night. He waited for her consent. It
Behind him, Damonq heard Claire begin an argument with her lifemate, begging him not to allow Damonq near the children. She feared what he might do. She should fear the repercussions of such a grave offense. It angered him that Tensel hadn’t done more than confine the children to their home. Jane watched over them, which to him was laughable. She had succumbed to a sleeping spell already, so the children knew they could manipulate her.“They may decide to fight for the children,” Sandu murmured.Damonq glanced at him, his features set and hard. He knew every scar on his face showed, every line depicting his many battles. “You do not have to accompany me.”“I believe you are right in what you do. More than right. I will admit I know little about the human world, but these children live in our world. That means they follow the rules. They can’t have human rules and get away with a slap on their hands when we are dealing with life-or-death matters.”“Then what?”“Your woman lies beneath
“They didn’t happen because I was alerted to the danger and took care of it. Would you like to see my back where the threads of fire Darkness created burned through my skin to the bone?” Damonq demanded.Liv shook her head, sending her older sister a quick glance of sympathy. “I’m so sorry, Damonq. I would never want to hurt Elina. She’s been one of my best friends. She saved us.” The last was said in a whisper, on a hiccup.“Elina trusts you. Tensel trusts you. We all do. You betrayed that trust to have fun. Just for fun.” He let that sink in.Liv was silent for a long time, staring up at his face with too-old eyes. “You’re right, Damonq. I didn’t think of the consequences, only that I wanted to fly my dragon. I couldn’t wait.” She took a deep breath. “I wanted to show Danny and Amelia what I could do so they would want to be ancient, too. I should have thought it out first. What can I do to help the families of the two men who died?”“They are dead. There’s no bringing them back fr
“This is so stupid,” Amelia said. “A baby? You think Darkness chose a little baby to rush outside when we were all supposed to stay inside. Where was Jane? She always watches May.”“I believe the last time you wanted to go flying you sent Jane to sleep,” Tensel answered. “That’s enough, Amelia. We’re going to get to the bottom of this tonight.”Amelia fell silent, but clearly she was still angry. Damonq would bet his last dollar from the considerable fortune he’d amassed in his lifetime that the girl was the one Darkness had used to take over the lightning whip used to try to kill him.Gary emerged almost immediately. “There are parasites in this child’s blood.”Tensel closed his eyes. Damonq shook his head. “It isn’t her.”“No, it can’t be her,” Gary confirmed. “I found a fresh entry wound on her thigh. It was up high and cleverly concealed, but someone pushed a needle into her and shot her full of parasites. It is so new, they haven’t had time to take root in her bloodstream. I have
Damonq wasn’t about to let it go. Amelia had allowed Darkness to influence all of the children, but in particular, Liv, the ten-year-old. Claire hadn’t found parasites in her blood, so how was Darkness controlling her?“Check me, then,” Amelia demanded of Tensel. She refused to even look at Damonq. “I want you to. Check my blood. I know I didn’t do something like that.”“You did,” Damonq said softly. “Darkness found a way to control you.”“That’s not true,” she denied. “Tensel” – she turned to her guardian – “I swear, it isn’t true. I would never hurt my little sister, or Elina. Either one of them. Where would I get a needle filled with parasites? Tell me that.”“When I went up to get May and Lana,” Damonq said. “He had plenty of time to give you whatever he wanted to give you. You were out of my sight. Danny had run for safety. You were supposed to be right behind him, but you weren’t. Was she, Danny?”Her brother frowned and then shook his head, his eyes sliding away from the ancien
“She dreams. Elina dreams. She’s a strong psychic, able to resist Darkness’s compulsions. She remained alive and kept the baby alive when all those other women we found down in the underground city died. They hadn’t been able to withstand the torment of Darkness’s parasites. He might want her for either reason or both.” Damonq still hadn’t gotten over the sight of those dead bodies carelessly thrown aside like so much garbage. Darkness had been trying for some time to find a woman who could carry his baby.Tensel rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Claire mentioned this to me. She said Elina can share her dreams, that when they were together and Elina dreamt, Jane had the exact same dream.”“Wait a minute.” Gary paced back and forth across the room, all pent-up, restless energy. “You told me about the machines down in the underground. The computers and how they were tracking hunters and sending out alerts to leave an area if a hunter arrived. He’s using widespread communication with his
Gary shrugged. “I didn’t say I thought it was too risky, only that it is a flawed system. There are weaknesses and they have to be addressed if all of you want to be safe.”Damonq noticed the healer had said “all of you.” He hadn’t included himself as if it didn’t matter one way or another that he was safe. It hadn't been to Damonq before he’d found Elina. He knew it still didn’t to Sandu, Andor or Ferro. He looked around at the other ancients. So many without lifemates. The burden of an entire species fell squarely on the shoulders of a very few couples.“Elina wishes to remain here. She wants to have a home here near her friends,” Damonq said. “She will go with me if I choose to leave, but she would much rather be here. I would like to buy property bordering this one and add to the compound. I would also like to go through the entire compound with you, Gary and Tensel, to see if some of these weaknesses can be addressed.”Tensel inclined his head. “I’m grateful you wish to stay. Jane
Tensel inclined his head at Damonq’s observation. “Perhaps,” he agreed. “On the other hand, I have found my love of humans is both a strength and a weakness. Thanks to the prince, we do know some human women can be converted. Those of us who did not find their lifemates, century after century, still can have hope. That soul is reborn again and again until we find her or we go into the next life. There are women out there, human and ancient, protecting the soul of a hunter.”“We left the monastery because three women came together and gave us hope. They told us that our lifemates were waiting in this century for us. I am not certain I really believed them at the time. I may have needed to believe them, but I was skeptical. Then I heard Elina’s voice, and my world changed from darkness to light. I hope that finding Elina continues to give the others hope that they might find their lifemates, too. Like me, they don’t think they belong anymore. We are ancients, and while we locked ourselv