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)
“Who are you? What are you doing in here?”
Elisabeta studied the teenager. Her fists were clenched. There was belligerence stamped on her face. There was no doubt, even without checking further, that Amelia had been infected. Elisabeta sent a sweet breeze to surround the girl, a soothing peace. “I am Elisabeta. I was visiting with Emeline, Lorraine and Julija, but their lifemates came for them and mine is late.”
The peaceful calm settling over Amelia seemed to drain some of her anger, or at least minimize it. Ferro stepped up behind Amelia, materializing and waving his hand toward her as he did so. The teen froze just as Josef had done.
Josef knew what was happening to him. Does she? Elisabeta didn’t want the child to suffer any more than she already had.
“Josef is Carpathian, and Gary wanted him to know what was happening, so he shared with him all information. Once you removed the burns, he could understand and was not angry. There is no need for her to know anything is wrong.” Ferro spoke aloud, indicating to Elisabeta that they could do so.
As pure light, Gary entered the child first, allowing Ferro to follow through their bond. Merged as she was with her lifemate, Elisabeta moved straight to the damaged areas. She was prepared to see burns, but not to the extent that they were in Amelia’s brain. The scoring was far worse in the teenager than it had been in anyone else she’d encountered so far.
This is horrible. This has been done over a period of time, longer than a couple of days. Perhaps a week? Two? She didn’t want to think longer, the same amount of time she had been at the compound in the healing grounds. Did you find burns in anyone else?
No other hunter. Gary and I checked Lorraine, Emeline and Julija. They show no signs of burns.
Why the children and Tariq? Sandu? Dragomir? What of Traian and Joie? Elisabeta felt a little anxious over her birth brother and his lifemate.
No trace of burns. Neither were infected. I wish I had an answer for you, piŋe sarnanak, but I do not, and neither does Gary. We can only try to fit the pieces of the puzzle together. Can you rid her of these burns?
Elisabeta studied the terrible, angry dark red slashes. They were deep, and so many it looked as if they were one continuous mass coloring over the areas of the brain affecting Amelia’s abilities of judgment and rational thinking. She was shocked that the teenager hadn’t had far more outbursts.
She has more damage even than Josef, yet Emeline was not certain if Amelia was infected.
Gary answered her. This child is extremely strong. She fought a master vampire’s hold on her. She did her best against him, although eventually he did wear her down, and she still feels guilty over it. She most likely has restrained herself in order to keep from lashing out, knowing instinctively something is wrong.
Elisabeta immediately felt kinship with the girl. She began to flood the teenager’s brain with a cool, healing breeze, this one much stronger than she had ever used on the others. It was going to be a very difficult and long process to remove the deep scoring in her brain, but Elisabeta was determined.
Someone must examine Danny. If Amelia is this bad and Danny actually pushed Genevieve, then he could be worse. Can Sandu inspect him? Tariq or Maksim must be able to lead him into the boy’s brain, Ferro suggested to Gary.
Elisabeta could tell Ferro was worried for her, not for the unknown boy. He didn’t know the children, but she was expending a great amount of energy on Amelia. If Amelia’s brother was as bad or worse, to clear out the burns and rid him of the infection, Elisabeta would be exhausted beyond measure. She wanted to surround Ferro with soothing peace but she knew she couldn’t waste even a small amount of energy to reassure him. The task before her was too great.
I am worried for the boy. And what of the little ones? She kept working as she addressed both Carpathians.
Tariq would prefer either Dragomir or Andor go with him into Danny’s mind. Gary addressed Ferro’s concern. They have lifemates to anchor them.
That made no difference to this infection, Ferro pointed out.
That is true, Gary agreed, in no way perturbed. But Sandu is still without his lifemate and, this infection aside, would be a threat to Tariq’s children. He has adopted these children, human or not. He loves them.
Elisabeta stayed silent through the exchange, hoping the healer would address her concerns and allow Ferro to understand what Gary had said about Tariq and the children. Ferro had been sequestered in the monastery while the world around him changed. He had little to do with humans before that. He might have caught up with knowledge simply by extracting it from those around him, but that didn’t give him the emotional understanding needed in these circumstances.