Total pages in book: 153
Estimated words: 141492 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 707(@200wpm)___ 566(@250wpm)___ 472(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 141492 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 707(@200wpm)___ 566(@250wpm)___ 472(@300wpm)
Azul, Safia.
Petru’s warm masculine strength poured into her mind, filling her with him. With his essence. He felt like velvet brushing at the walls of her mind intimately. She hadn’t realized how many times she had tried to tune herself to him and stopped. How many times she had wanted—no, needed—to feel him close until he was there.
You are distressed. Have you need of me?
His voice was gentle. Kind. She had the feeling that if she answered in the affirmative, he would instantly stop whatever he was doing and come to her. She had often felt lonely, even in the midst of her family. In those moments, with the intimate way Petru communicated with her, she felt she belonged with him. What had Aura felt all those years? She had to have been so lonely.
Thank you for asking, but I am fine. I am talking with a close friend of mine, and she is upset. I didn’t realize I was broadcasting my reaction. I will be more careful not to disturb you.
No one else caught the slightest hint of your feelings, sívamet. I am your lifemate. Although we are not bound, we are connected. Reach for me if you have need.
He was gone before she could react, and she felt . . . bereft. She took a moment to process the feeling and why she would feel that way. Her emotions when it came to Petru made no sense at all. She thought of herself as a logical person, but with him, more often than not, she was just plain confused.
“I wouldn’t want you to leave, Aura, but would you if you were given the opportunity? Had you shown me the gate and asked me to guard it for you so you could go, it would be heart-wrenching to lose you, but I would have taken that task for you. Now I have no idea what is going to happen to me in the future. I am uncertain if I have a say in where I will go.”
“It is my responsibility to guard the gate, just as yours is to destroy demons and aid me if necessary. You protect the cards. The duty of the cards increased when the gates were built.”
“Aura, do you think Petru plans to take me away from my family?”
Aura hesitated, and Safia’s heart skipped a beat and then accelerated. There was something she was missing. Petru was like a giant puzzle. She was collecting pieces, but she didn’t have them all. She didn’t understand the undercurrent, but she felt it coming at her from every direction.
“What is it?”
“Only Petru can answer that question. I would directly ask him about his intentions, Safia. Don’t wait until he binds you together. Ask him to explain everything he’s doing and how he intends for the two of you to live together.”
Once in the larger chamber, Aura made her way to the grotto. She rested her hands on the railing and looked out over the sea. “I’m Carpathian, and every sunrise I sleep beneath the ground. The soil welcomes and rejuvenates me. If I have the least little cut, or a broken bone, the rich minerals will heal me. But during that time, I am very vulnerable. I lay as if dead, in a state of paralysis. If you found my body, you would believe me to be dead.”
“I understand.”
She told Aura she understood, but it wasn’t the truth. Perhaps she did in theory, but in practice, the Carpathian culture was an extremely difficult concept to understand. She had studied cultures. Amastan had insisted every member of the family respect the way others lived; however, the thought of drinking human blood and sleeping beneath the ground conjured up the idea of vampires. She tried to get that vision out of her head, but now that she’d met one, it was impossible.
But then there had been the exchanging of blood with Petru. She struggled with where to place that experience in her mind—how to understand the strange, erotic desire that had stolen over her. She secretly hugged that experience to her. She didn’t just want to repeat it—she needed to repeat it. She found it took tremendous discipline to keep her mind from reaching out to him, as if she needed constant reassurance that he was alive and well.
“Petru will sleep beneath the ground during the day and come to you at night, as I did. Once you are bound to him, it is nearly impossible to be separated in that way.”
Safia’s chin came up, and she studied her friend’s face. There was a note in her voice that was cautionary. Worried. Aura was in the shadows, but Safia had always had superior vision. She seemed to have even more so now. She could see Aura quite clearly, and for the first time, Safia could see the worry lines around her eyes and mouth. Again, she had that strange premonition, the crawling of icy fingers down her spine. She was missing something huge.