Dark Tarot (Dark Carpathians)

Sandu’s heart jumped. At last, someone who had actually been with his family. “I wasn’t there?”

Dax shook his head. “No, but your parents spoke of you often, as did your sister. Arabejila was happy to visit with other women. I think your father, Domizio, thought it scandalous for a woman to be traveling alone with a man without his lifemate, but he didn’t voice his opinion. Your mother—Madolina, I believe was her name—and your sister, Liona, talked all night with Arabejila.”

Adalasia leaned toward Dax. “Do you recall where this was?”

Dax nodded. “They made their home in what now would be considered Italy. They were a very tight-knit family,” he added. “I can draw you a map of the area and where I last saw them. That doesn’t mean they stayed there. In those days, we were all very nomadic, especially a family like the di Berdardo. Domizio had to cover a tremendous amount of territory, searching for the undead preying on humans. He liked to keep his family close, not just because he wanted to be with them but so he could protect them as well.”

That made sense to Sandu. “Did they indicate where I was? Why I left my father to deal with the undead on his own in such a large territory?”

Dax rubbed the pad of his thumb back and forth across his forehead. “Your father didn’t say anything to me, but Liona spoke with Arabejila about you. She said she was lonely without you, that the two of you were close. That you and your father hunted together often, and eventually, the two of you spoke in hushed tones, and you left and never returned. Your father refused to tell her or your mother where you went. He said only that it was necessary for you to leave, that all would be revealed someday in the future.”

“That’s cryptic,” Riley said.

“Domizio was said to have precog,” Dax said with a shrug of his broad shoulders. “Years later, there was a rumor that he was gone, and with him, Madolina. No one knew what happened to Liona. She disappeared. The family of di Berdardo was no more.”

Sandu was quiet for a long time, turning the information given to him over and over in his mind. “Do you know if anyone looked for Liona after my parents moved on to the next life?”

Dax shook his head. “I was traveling fast, hunting Mitro. He was destroying humans and Carpathians alike in his path. Arabejila was growing weary of finding the vicious, brutal kills her lifemate had made. No matter how often I told her she wasn’t responsible for what Mitro did, she took that burden on. She believed she should have been able to keep Mitro from turning vampire, that she should have somehow been stronger. When we realized Domizio and Madolina had moved on to the next life, she was certain Mitro had killed him, and Madolina followed him.”

“Was that a possibility?”

Dax nodded. “It was, but I have never believed it to be true. Mitro was a braggart. He liked to tell everyone who would listen how he killed and how often. He even would tell hunters he engaged in battle with of the lesser vampires he made into pawns. He would have bragged about killing a hunter such as your father.”

“Mitro was that experienced in battle that he always managed to kill his pursuers?”

“He was a master at concealing himself and then running before he was found. He concealed himself in the tiniest of insects or the largest mammal. He did not mind running as long as he was able to live. He hated like no one I ever met before or since,” Dax said. “He struck at Arabejila over and over, but although he was undead and he deliberately chose to give up his soul, he could not kill her. He sent others after her so many times I would have to make the choice to save her or chase after him.”

Adalasia frowned. “If she died, wouldn’t he?”

“He was already vampire. He would not die,” Sandu said. “If lifemates are not tied together, the male can rise vampire, or he can follow his lifemate into the next life. Clearly, Mitro would not choose to follow Arabejila.”

“Why was it so important to him that she die?” Adalasia persisted, her hand going defensively to her throat. She stroked the pads of her fingers there in the way she often did when she was nervous.

“No matter where Mitro went or how far away he got from us, Arabejila could always find him. She was his lifemate and he couldn’t hide from her. When she went on the actual hunt with me when I had him cornered, even his concealment spells didn’t work for long. She had a kind of magnet for finding the direction he had taken. Once Mitro realized Arabejila was the one responsible for tracking him, he devised plan after plan to get rid of her.”