Total pages in book: 182
Estimated words: 165649 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 828(@200wpm)___ 663(@250wpm)___ 552(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 165649 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 828(@200wpm)___ 663(@250wpm)___ 552(@300wpm)
Already a plan had formed in his mind. He’d allowed Elisabeta to stay hidden in the healing grounds longer than was strictly necessary while he thought out his strategy to find a way to empower her. In the beginning, he knew the world around her would be too big for her. After being in such a confined space, just being out in the open would be disorienting and frightening. He would have to go slow, introducing her to small portions of the compound rather than all of it at once.
Everyone was eager to meet her, but she couldn’t be overwhelmed with too many people. He would have to shield her, although he knew others would misinterpret what he was doing, thinking he was keeping his fragile lifemate from them because he was an ancient and held to the old ways. Opinions didn’t bother him in the least. He was ancient and he did hold to the old ways.
Ferro also had a strange foreboding. Elisabeta had been given blood by several of the ancients before he had discovered he was her lifemate. That had been an accident. He had heard her moaning. That soft little sound of distress had opened an entire new world for him, but it had also triggered his very sensitive alarms. There was danger stalking his woman—and it wasn’t coming only from the master vampire. He felt a vague threat to her coming from inside the compound. From someone he trusted. Someone who should be protecting her. The threat was so vague, almost as if it wasn’t fully formed, but it was enough to put him on alert.
Ferro felt a small shudder go through Elisabeta’s body and he wrapped his arm around her tighter, pulling her front to his side. “Just look at the beauty surrounding you, piŋe sarnanak. Tariq Asenguard found a place to build his world a long time ago. The others have been securing the land around his compound to add to this fortress. We weave safeguards together to keep everyone protected.”
She tilted her head up to look at him. “No one will ever be safe from him as long as I’m here. I think you know that.” Her voice trembled.
He realized it took great effort for her to speak to him at all, to voice her concern. Just talking was a strain on her when she hadn’t done it in so many centuries. She didn’t think herself brave, because she didn’t understand true courage. Just the fact that she could stand there beside him instead of staying crumpled in a little ball in the earth the way she wanted was a testimony to her mettle.
Ferro brushed his lips on the top of her head in a little caress, trying not to frighten her. He was feeling his way with her. Elisabeta had had no human contact other than when Sergey punished her for infractions. Now, he was surrounding her with—him. He wanted her to get used to relying on his strength until she found her own. He was determined she would find it, even though, for him, it would mean she would most likely not want to remain with him. He couldn’t think too long on that or what it would do to him. That way lay insanity. Elisabeta deserved a chance at life after all the centuries she had endured as a prisoner, and he intended to give her that chance.
“You are now bound to me, Elisabeta. I will build a shield in your mind he cannot get through. He cannot command you as you fear. He cannot use you to spy. You will never give him information on anyone here as you have been so afraid of. I have been alive far longer than he has been, and I am more powerful.”
He felt the quick shake of her head, but she didn’t speak. In fact, her hand came up to press her fingers against her lips to hold back whatever was on her mind.
He gently captured her wrist and pulled her hand down. “Speak to me, päläfertiilam. I wish to know what is on your mind.”
Her long lashes fluttered, but she didn’t look at him. She shook her head twice before she finally spoke. “Is this a command?”
“If it needs to be.”
The tip of her tongue came out to moisten her lips. For some reason he found that little action much more sensual than it should have been. He waited, holding her close to him, staring down at her instead of at the beauty of nature surrounding them. The gardens and lake seemed to pale in comparison to her.
“Everyone always underestimates him. His brothers did. The mages have done so. He has slivers of them in his head now, so that gives him access to their knowledge. He has created spies using human psychic males. He has an army of vampires here in this country and abroad. He planned for centuries so quietly, allowing others to make fun of him and to treat him as if he wasn’t bright. He never quite lost all of his emotions because he thought, ahead of time, to take me prisoner. If you underestimate him, the way everyone has, simply because you’re older and have more fighting experience, you will lose.”