Nicu nodded. “It is the only one we have.”
“What if I can’t find him?”
“You will. That will not be the problem. I believe he will be taken to the Cave of Fire.”
“He’s freezing. Wherever he is, he’s alone, sick, disoriented and freezing.” Adalasia knew she should be grateful he wasn’t in the Cave of Fire already. The fight to save Sandu’s body was taking an enormous amount of time. Too much. She didn’t want the night to pass. They would all have to go to ground, and Sandu would be lost to them.
“He is a hunter, sisarke,” Nicu explained. “An ancient. His instincts will be to survive no matter the cost to him, especially if he is aware of you.”
Adalasia turned that information over in her mind. “Why wouldn’t you want me to reach out to him? That would give him hope. He would know I would come for him.”
“He would never consent to you coming for him. The land of the shadow realm is too dangerous. It is reputed to be a place where souls go after death to repent their dark deeds. They are given a chance to see the error of their ways. Most do not want to accept responsibility. Those who turned vampire continually try to find a way back to this realm.”
“I could perhaps provide that way?”
“It is possible they would think so. It is possible that you might even be able to,” Nicu added. “We discussed the shadow realm at great length when we gathered together in the monastery. It was an intriguing subject. Manolito De La Cruz and two other Carpathian ancients are the only ones I know of personally who managed to come back from that place. All information on that realm came from them.”
“Luiz might have more details than we have,” Adalasia said.
“Perhaps. He was Jaguar before he was Carpathian. He was turned when he was dying because he was a good man, and he’d saved the women under the De La Cruz protection. When he woke, he would forever live a half life with no lifemate, as he wasn’t a true Carpathian male.”
“I was given this information.”
“But you have to understand it. Jaguars are solitary creatures. He was a Jaguar man, and he went against Brodrick, the ruler who was systematically destroying their species. Luiz tried to tell the other males that they needed to provide for the females and protect them. It didn’t make him a popular man. He was shunned by his kind. That made him even more alone. When he rose Carpathian yet not, he was once again on the outside.”
“The De La Cruz family don’t sound like the kind of people to cast one out because you aren’t perfect. They might boss you around, but from all the glimpses I caught in Sandu’s mind, that is a very feared but respected family that is tight knit.”
Nicu nodded his agreement. He paced away from the body and then looked to the canopy. Adalasia knew he needed blood. She also knew if she were to offer hers, he would refuse.
“You are right about the De La Cruz family, Adalasia,” he agreed. “They didn’t abandon Luiz, but he knew he was different. Zacarias, the eldest, wanted to ensure that when Luiz rose starving for blood, his true nature would prevail. Although a fierce fighter, he is naturally protective of women and children, which is the Carpathian way.”
“That was what they were looking for?”
Nicu shook his head. “Not all. He was also tremendously strong-willed, which would be needed if he was going to become a warrior. When Zacarias saw into Luiz’s true soul, he invited him to become a De La Cruz. He explained the risks and all that it would mean to him. You have to remember, very few human males had ever been granted such a gift. I do not remember any others, to be honest.
“In all the centuries you lived, no one converted a human male?” Adalasia was a little shocked.
“There was no reason to do so,” Nicu assured unapologetically. “Simultaneously, Gary and Luiz, both humans, were taken to the cave of warriors. There was another taken there as well, Zev. He was both Lycan and Carpathian, mixed blood. We call their kind Han ku pesak kaikak, which is ‘guardian.’ The Tirunul lineage claimed him, but he was also claimed by the extinct line of Dark Blood. They were a powerful line of warriors. Few found lifemates, and it was long thought there was no one carrying that blood in their veins. It was shocking and also very welcome news.”
Adalasia paced a distance through the trees and then came back, each time stepping a little closer to Sandu’s body. “I thought that if you took them to the cave of warriors and they were judged worthy, they became of that bloodline. They were no longer what they had been before. Their souls were split.”