None of the men made a move to help the child, but two of them frowned and stared after her, both shifting uncomfortably. They weren’t altogether happy with Vadim and his new regime. She focused on them so that any of the Carpathians she was connected with would remember their faces.
I will not ask you again, Charlotte. You are ice-cold and shaking. You’re too far gone. Come back to me now.
She wanted to go to him, she really did, but she also wanted to reassure Val that he made it out of there. She needed to do the same thing for Liv. The child had to know that rescue was close and that she wouldn’t die at the hands of that gruesome puppet. Charlotte forced her body forward, slipping past Vadim to get to the cage where Val was held. Fridrick was at him, tearing at his flesh with horrid teeth, snarling and gobbling blood as fast as he could. Charlotte reached out to Val. She’d never thought of trying to have someone in the past know she was there. They were memories. Not real. But Tariq had known. He’d turned his head and, for one moment, she knew he was aware of her when he was carving the carousel horse. If he could be aware, so could Val and Liv.
She turned sideways and made herself as small as possible as she extended her arm, fingers settling delicately around Val’s bicep. His flesh felt strange. Cold. Icy cold as if she stood in an ice cave and the cold permeated not only the atmosphere surrounding her but entered her along with every occupant.
Icy fingers crept down her spine. Very, very slowly, Val turned his head toward her, but he made no sound. His eyes, piercing cold, black as ice in a violent storm. She didn’t know if he saw her, but he felt her presence. You will survive this. She used the common pathway she’d picked up from Tariq’s mind. So will the child. She needed to give him that reassurance. Liv’s survival was more important to him than his own. She didn’t know how she knew that, only that she did.
Instantly, Vadim roared with rage, and Fridrick renewed his frenzied gulping. Sergey turned around sharply in a circle searching for an unknown presence. She let Val go abruptly, afraid she was making things worse for him. Had they heard her as well? Of course. It was a rookie mistake. The vampires had once been Carpathians. Of course they would hear anything said on that particular path. She’d whispered it. Poured truth into it. Now the monsters were alerted not only to her presence but also to the fact that Val survived. She hoped they would eventually think her whispered words had been false.
She backed away from the cage, careful not to touch any living thing. She needed to get to Liv, to assure her, to make certain the child knew she would be saved. Stepping into the next room, she saw the child on the floor, the hideous puppet tearing at her flesh in a feeding frenzy. Vadim, Fridrick and Sergey rushed past her, Fridrick nearly hitting her as he dashed through the room where a monster was feeding on a child, to the safety of the labyrinth of tunnels. The human men followed, the last two glancing down, slowing, as if they might intervene.
Vadim’s voice boomed. Quickly, they’re coming. Now is our chance to get her.
Firm hands yanked at her. She was turned into a hot embrace, a hard body radiating such heat it nearly burned her skin. A mouth crushed hers under it. The tunnel was gone and she was left freezing, shivering uncontrollably, her body icy, so cold her insides felt like shards of icicles that could shatter at any second.
It took a moment to realize Tariq held her tight against his body. His arms surrounded her and his head was down so that he could whisper in her ear, reassuring her, talking so softly she didn’t think she would understand the words. It took a moment to realize she couldn’t yet hear him because part of her was still in the cold, dark past.
Her legs barely held her up and she burrowed closer to the heat of Tariq’s body. Clinging, when she wasn’t a woman to cling. Crying when she wasn’t a woman to do that anywhere someone could see. She couldn’t stop the terrible tremors or the continuous shivering any more than she could the tears.
Tariq wrapped Charlotte in his arms, holding her close, her ear over his heart, while it pounded with fear for her. He realized when he waited for her to return that somehow she actually managed to go back into the past when she touched an object. He knew astral projection was possible, but to actually go to a specific place in the past and hear and feel what was happening around her was far too dangerous. He’d never heard of astral projection taking one’s spirit to the past.
Instinctively he knew she shouldn’t interact with those from the memory she had accessed. The longer she remained in the memory, the more withdrawn and cold her body had become. Her skin felt like ice and she was barely breathing until it had reached the point where he felt desperately terrified for her. When he’d caught her by her arms and forced her head up, her eyes were blank, and that had been the last straw.
“I should never have put you through that.” Allowed her to put herself in such a position. He was asking this woman, the one woman, his miracle, to join him in a world that would be terrifying for her. He’d spent lifetimes in it. Centuries. Taking blood to survive, sleeping in the ground, hunting the vampire, all of that was familiar to him. Not one single aspect of his world was comfortable to a woman raised in the modern world. Not. One. Single. Thing.
She didn’t move, just took the shelter and comfort he offered, her hands fisting in his shirt. “You had to know. I had to know. The enormity of this…” She broke off, drew a ragged breath into her lungs and held on tighter. “It’s so unreal. You’ve lived with this knowledge, that you could become – that – a monster like no other.”
Tariq’s heart stuttered at the sound of her voice. Soft. Distressed. In tears but trying to hide them. Her body trembled against his, shivering continuously, probably without her knowledge. Stroking a caress through her silky hair, he cupped the back of her head and held her to him.
“Coming into my world means dealing with vampires and their puppets. With their cruelty.” He hated that for her. Hated that he needed her so much he knew he was going to bring her into his world no matter what. No matter that she deserved different – a good man who would worship the ground she walked on. The thought of it set his teeth on edge. He tightened his hold on her. He’d lived with honor for centuries. In his world, the male was born imprinted with the ritual binding words that tied his lifemate to him for all time. It was done. No reversing it. No going back.
“I’m sorry for that, sielamet. I’m not sorry that I found you, or that I claimed you, but I am sorry that you have had to see and feel the things you have.”