Total pages in book: 158
Estimated words: 145341 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 727(@200wpm)___ 581(@250wpm)___ 484(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 145341 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 727(@200wpm)___ 581(@250wpm)___ 484(@300wpm)
For centuries we endure the whisper of temptation to kill while we feed so we can once again feel the rush. Just feel. That temptation, at times, is difficult to resist, but honor keeps us from ever giving in. We live the code of our hunters, waiting for our lifemate. Then comes that moment when even the whisper of temptation goes silent, and there is absolutely nothing at all. Nothing. You believe the whisper is the worst, but it isn’t. That silence is.
She took air into her lungs—the fresh snow pack that had just fallen in the early morning hours. It was still so pristine in most of the gorge. She was impervious to the ice, not even feeling it against the bare soles of her feet. She breathed for both of them. Vasilisa and Afanasiv.
I realized that where before my soul had become tattered, torn into so many holes it seemed impossible to repair, now there were scars developing on it. Thick, dark scars that I couldn’t remove in spite of having knowledge of healing skills. I have good skills with magic and I could not overcome these scars. The more I hunted the vampire and went into battle, the more I seemed to feel something when I fought. Before I planned carefully and would barely have a scratch, but I needed the brutality of the battle. It gave me a strange kind of vicious rush. When I hadn’t felt anything in centuries, that euphoria became addicting.
She had seen one of those scars. A glimpse only, but she knew what he was talking about. Is it possible for me to remove the scars?
One of my brethren, Sandu, has a lifemate, and she was unable to do so. I try not to allow the weight of those scars to rule me in battle, but it is difficult to overcome that need. I can be more brute than human in those moments.
How is my brother doing?
They worry that they struck him too hard. Your brother and I agreed it would be best that they thought him unconscious, so I have kept him that way.
I can live with the fact that you struggle against becoming more of a brute during battle.
Liking it too much, my lady. Wanting to make the kill. This is against my code of honor.
It isn’t if whatever you are doing battle with is evil. I trust you never kill an innocent.
That would not be likely.
Then I can accept your secret, Afanasiv Belan. I hope that you can accept mine. I told you that I have a friend who is Carpathian. We grew up together and have spent time together over many years. We have other friends we occasionally have traveled a great distance to see. Spain, Italy, the border of Algeria.
He was horrified. She could tell he was. She felt his protest, but he didn’t voice it.
We often went alone to see our friends, and as two girls, teens and then young women, we got into a bit of trouble. We managed to get out of it, but not always unscathed. Sometimes that required giving her blood. Sometimes, if I was severely wounded, she would have to give me blood. We had no idea that, over the years, by saving each other’s life, we would make the other one into something beyond what they already were. Carpathians exist on blood. The only real difference for her is that now she has the ability to walk into sunlight during the day if she desires. She’s faster, stronger, and she can tolerate the sun if she needs to. It is uncomfortable for her, but she can do it if necessary to save her life. And she can tolerate drinking tea. There was the slightest amusement in her voice.
There was a small silence again, and she sobered instantly. He knew of the war that had just barely been avoided between Lycan and Carpathian. No one wanted to speak of it. Certainly, there on the mountain they didn’t, not where Dimitri had a residence and where he’d worked so hard to keep the land safe for the wolves.
Dimitri had been at the very heart of that war. He had been taken to a war camp deep in the forests of Russia and hung by silver, allowing the silver to drop into his body, killing him slowly. They had wrapped him in silver so he couldn’t call out to his Carpathian brethren and let them know where he was. No one had counted on the bond between him and his lifemate, Skyler. With two of her friends, she had tracked and saved him. Dimitri would forever bear the scars of the silver. The Lycans would forever bear the shame of that underhanded treachery.
Even though she knew every Lycan said aloud that they condemned what the rogues had done to Dimitri, she knew they secretly feared him and wanted nothing to do with him. He had been a longtime resident of their world and had done such good, yet they would shun him—or even side with the rogues over his horrendous treatment.