It is done, Val vowed. Kulkesz arwa-arvoval, ekäm.
Walk with honor, my brother. Tariq repeated the sentiment back to the Carpathian in English. He meant every word. Val was a good man. A strong one. An elite hunter. He had endured torture beyond imagination and survived to help a small child through a horrific nightmare. He had forged a bond with Liv, one Tariq didn’t altogether understand. Val couldn’t feel, and yet that bond was strong enough to allow the ancient hunter to awaken from his sleep and attempt to soothe and steady the child through the daylight while she waited for the vampires to decide her fate.
Tariq turned his head slowly to look at the woman lying tucked into his side. Very gently, using his fingertips, he pushed back the thick fall of hair from her face. This rising they faced a battle for a child’s life. Possibly her soul. Liv would never survive intact without conversion. If they did that, the other children would insist they follow her into the Carpathian world. He had no choice but to chance the conversion, just as he had no choice but to allow Charlotte to risk herself when the time came. They were parents. There was no question that they would risk everything for their children. It didn’t matter to him that other hunters he respected might not agree with their decision – it was theirs to make.
Wake, beloved, and come to me. See me. The earth has healed you and you are fully in my world. Wake now.
He made certain the soil was open above their heads and their bodies were clean and fresh after their resting. Charlotte’s long lashes lifted and the impact of her beautiful eyes felt like a punch to his gut. Hard. In there. Dead on. For a moment she was all his, soft and loving, a ghost of a smile there for him. Then she was present, in the moment, and the daylight battle and kidnapping of their child came flooding back.
“Liv,” she whispered, her throat closing on a lump. “Tariq, she’s so frightened. I can feel her through you and she’s terrified. She wants to die. She’s figuring out a way to provoke them.”
He had known Charlotte was strong from the moment he’d laid eyes on her. As he’d gotten to know her, had been in her mind, the conviction had grown. When she’d awakened from her slumber in the earth because Liv had been sleepwalking, that had cemented his knowledge. Now, as she woke, she automatically scanned his mind, learned every detail of what had gone on while she slept.
“We’re going to get her, sielamet. Your first time in the sun will be vicious. It will feel as if you’re burning. You can take it, Charlotte. If we don’t get everything in place before Fridrick rises, we might miss our chance to get her back.”
Charlotte nodded immediately and allowed him to help her into a sitting position. “Tell me what you need me to do.”
There had been no hesitation, and he was proud of her for that. “We both have to feed. Our security crew is still here, guarding the property. They’ve been cleaning up. I told them to gather every single piece of the carousel horses and, wearing thick gloves so there was no chance of getting a splinter, put them in bags and bring them to the workroom. I will ensure all pieces are accounted for down to the smallest sliver. When I am certain, I’ll feed and then you will.”
She touched the tip of her tongue to her lips, looking a little apprehensive, but she didn’t protest. “Reach out to her again, Tariq. Let her know we’re both with her.”
“She knows, beloved.” He was as gentle as possible. “She’s holding herself together by a thread. We can’t snap that thread, nor do we want anyone to be aware we’re communicating with her. They have to think we won’t be on the move until sunset.”
“You reassured her all day,” she protested.
He nodded, gathering her into his arms and brushing his mouth gently over hers as he floated them to the surface and then closed the soil behind him. “We did. Val woke as well to aid me. But she asked for quiet to try to concentrate. She said she was afraid she’d betray the fact that I was with her. She was very close to falling apart so I told her I’d give her that, but would stay connected with her.”
Charlotte bit her lip and nodded her understanding. She didn’t like it, but Tariq knew she understood. It took every ounce of Liv’s courage to keep from wailing and screaming for them to come for her. She could see it in the child’s mind, just as he could. She could also see the small cage she was in as well as the horrifying puppets surrounding it. They were brutes with rotting flesh sloughing off. Jagged, serrated, bloodstained teeth. Fetid breath. No longer human, craving blood and flesh, they were monsters beyond anyone’s imagining, let alone a ten-year-old child’s.
“I need to get to her, Tariq. I need to. I can barely breathe.”
He felt the same way. He was cool and calm, able to push emotion aside, and yet, with Liv taken, his gut was twisted into hard knots and his lungs refused to cooperate. His child. He’d promised her she would be safe and they’d taken her a second time. He had no idea what that would do to her, but he was fairly certain she would be scarred for life, no matter how good they made things for her.
“We’ll get her,” he reassured, letting her see the truth of his statement, his firm conviction, because there could be no other outcome. They had to get their daughter and bring her home safe.
He clothed them as he took her through the house to the front door. “You’ll need to wear special sunglasses at all times, Charlotte. Don’t take them off until sunset.”
“What else?”
“You will follow my instructions to the letter no matter how much you want to go to Liv. If you trust me, Charlotte, and you’ll have to for us to pull this off, then you need to remember, no matter how bad it seems, that I’ll get Liv away from them.”
She looked him straight in the eye. “Absolutely, Tariq. I won’t let you down.”
“It could get bad. Bloody. Your impulse will be to do whatever Fridrick tells you. If things go bad, they’ll hurt her in front of you to make you compliant. You have to trust me then more than ever. Our job is distraction and getting the safeguards down. The others will take out the guards and engage the army. Val will get to Liv. Believe that. Val will get to Liv.”
“Whatever it takes. I can be strong for her.”
He searched her mind and saw only acceptance. She would stand with him. Do whatever it took to bring Liv home, even if it meant seeing her suffer.