Fero hadn’t known there were so many shades of green. Or blue. Just looking at her hair, that dark silk, shining in the moonlight, he could see so many colors, and she had given him that. The garden, the lake, the sky, the birds and even the ground itself. She had made him see the world again in an entirely different light.Touch. He had never allowed anyone to touch him unless he planned to use them for sustenance, or he planned to kill them. Elizabeth showed him that touch could be something different, something warm and gentle. Tender even. Touch could mean so many things other than the precursor of death. Then, there was the feel of her skin, like the finest satin. Her hair, like silk. In a very short amount of time he had learned the beauty of touching.Sound. Her voice was like music to him. Soft. Intimate. Pouring over him like a gentle summer breeze. When she spoke, her voice was pleasing, moving through him, equally as effective as the touch of her fingers on his skin. That
Why? Elizabeth tipped her head up to look at him curiously, her dark eyes roving over his face as if he were her anchor.Fero couldn’t help himself. He bent his head and brushed her lips with his. It was the briefest of contacts, but her lips were quivering, just that little bit, just enough to break his heart, and he wanted to reassure her he would take care of her.“Did you notice how well you were able to walk? I did not feel you stumble once. You learned simply by looking into my mind and taking what you needed from me. Just keep putting your trust in me, Elizabeth. I know that is difficult when you have had no reason for centuries to have faith in anyone, but if you keep looking to me, I give you my word, I will not let you down. Lifemates cannot deceive one another. You can hear lies if you listen for them.”She didn’t answer him, but her body felt as if it might shake apart any moment.“Tell me what you fear the most. What is the worst of what is happening to you right this mome
He was so matter-of-fact. So calm. Ferro never seemed in a hurry or in the least bothered by having to reassure her constantly. He simply provided a solution in his gentle voice.“You will make it a home for us. I have no doubt about that. I have every faith in you. There is no time period that you must accomplish these tasks in. This is our journey together and we will make it ours as slow and as leisurely as we want. We both have had centuries of dancing to others’ tunes. This is our time and our song. I do not want anyone to dictate to us what we should do or when or how we should do it. We do not even have to open that door if you want to just make the verandah all we explore for this rising.”He meant it. There was no lie in his voice. He didn’t seem to mind in the least standing there staring at the door while behind them was perhaps a view of nature. She didn’t know because she was too afraid of wide-open spaces. That made her feel like such a coward.He bent his head and, when
Elizabeth touched her tongue to her suddenly dry lips. “I refused to give him access to your soul. I told him I would suicide first. He allowed his puppets to consume children and I carried out my threat. He was barely able to save me that time. Twice more he did things to others I couldn’t tolerate, and I suicided. After that, he only punished me. I knew you would survive if I died. I would be reborn with your half of our soul intact, but if he was able to take it from me, you could be made his servant, and he would have been able to corrupt or harm you in other ways. I couldn’t take the chance.”She rushed the confession, ashamed that she couldn’t think of any other solution than to suicide when she had been told the ancient hunters in the monastery had endured for centuries and locked themselves away because they hadn’t believed in meeting the dawn and giving up on their lifemates. That was only showing him once again that she was a . .“Do not.” Fero hissed the command at her in ob
Fero didn’t try to reassure her, nor did he reprimand her for not believing in him. He didn’t seem to have any kind of ego at all. Elizabeth felt him moving in her mind, a more forceful presence than he had been, but not necessarily one that was taking her over. He was still gentle, but she felt him searching, making certain Levon hadn’t left anything of himself behind. She knew mages could take small slivers of themselves and plant them in others to use them as spies. Some vampires had learned how to do the same. Levon held the dark mage, Xavi, within him as well as his brothers. That gave him access to their knowledge, although, on his own, Levon had never accessed those slivers.“I am going to build a shield in your mind that he cannot penetrate. If by some miracle he managed to slip past all the safeguards woven by the warriors here as well as my brethren, he will not be able to get to you.”She moistened her lips. She had to confess to him. “When I was in the healing grounds, be
Fero nuzzled the top of her head. “You do not need to speak unless I ask you to. If you need to answer, you can speak to me on our path alone. No one else needs to hear the sound of your voice. You do not need to look at them. I will shield you at all times.”Elizabeth was shivering again and there was nothing she could do to stop it. She wanted to be brave for him, especially since he continually persisted in calling her courageous, but already she felt the power building around the dwelling. They were coming. It wasn’t one or two. There were several ancients and they carried power easily, so easily that the house and ground fairly crackled with it.Fero waved his hand casually toward the door and the heavy oak swung open. A tall warrior strode in. Elizabeth kept her head buried in Fero’s chest, her hand over her eyes, but she opened her fingers just enough to see him. His hair was a true black with strands of gray, much like Fero’s only not quite as long. His shoulders were wide
Fero wasn’t a trusting man. He had never been one to trust, not that he could remember. He had his brethren from the monastery, and even with them he was wary. Careful. Now, with Elizabeth to protect, he was even more so. He had thought to bring Isai there first, knowing that Elizabeth would be uncomfortable with visitors, but he needed to get to the bottom of how Levon had managed to reach out to her in the compound, in the healing grounds, when she should have been protected.He had that feeling of a threat coming to her from either Tensel or Gary, perhaps both. Now that he’d been in Elizabeth’s mind, he knew she was uneasy at the mere mention of the two ancients coming near her.He would have thought her anxiety was due to just being around others, but it was more than that. The healer had tried to examine her mind. He may have been trying to repair some of the damage the vampire had caused, but it would be unusual to do so without consent—and Elizabeth had closed herself off. Fer
“I have searched for anything Levon may have left behind and found nothing,” Ferro said, keeping his tone mild. He didn’t protest Tensel’s decree, but made it clear that Tensel was going to have to challenge his abilities. That would be difficult in light of the fact that he was an ancient and few could match his skills.He waited for the leader of the compound to make his next move. ‘There is no need to shake until your body falls apart, my little songbird. No one is going to harm you. My brethren are here to protect you. Look carefully around the circle. I want you to try to determine which stayed with me in the monastery in the Mountains.’Perhaps that would take her mind off the fact that Tensel and his guards were regarding his lifemate with piercing eyes, as if they could see beyond her flesh and bones to what lay beneath. She shivered again. He didn’t want to be like Levon, hiding her away in a cage from others, but he felt she was going to be sick if this kept up.‘Elizabeth