Dark Carousel (Dark 26)

Charlotte frowned. "I can't hear it. What's it saying?"

Amelia circled the orange dragon's neck with her arm and pressed her mouth against the ear. "It's telling me I'm safe with it. I can't hear any of the other dragons, but Bella and Lourdes are both talking to their dragons. I think they have chosen us. Or Lojos, Tomas and Mataias created them for us."

That had to be. Lojos, Tomas and Mataias were ancient hunters. They hadn't found their lifemates, yet they thought to give each of the children living on the property their own special dragon--dragons created under duress, when a battle was imminent. It was more than thoughtful, yet none of them could feel emotion for the children. What was the explanation? They were good men. It came down to that.

"Can the dragons fly?" Charlotte eyed Lourdes and Bella warily. The dragons had flown, but could they still? Certainly not with two three-year-olds on their backs.

Amelia frowned at her. "They're made of stone."

"That's true, but still, they flew before." She whispered so the two little ones couldn't hear. "The dragons defended us when we were ambushed by Fridrick and some of his vampire friends."

Amelia touched a long gash in the side of her dragon. She was silent for a moment and then she nodded. "That's what happened here. It hurt. Yes, they can fly when needed. We have only to say . . ."

"Don't say it aloud. Bella and Lourdes cannot be flying dragons around. Don't let them know how it's done."

To her credit, Amelia didn't laugh. "They would, too, the little demons. Bella's so smart, Charlie. Even after everything that happened, she's the most resilient of all of us. At first she was in a cage, but the monster threatened Liv with her. Indicated he would eat her alive. He actually pulled her from the cage, but she got away and from then on, she kept moving herself inside the tunnels so when a vampire or puppet tried to get her, she just simply went somewhere else. Once she knew they were bad, she played hide-and-seek with them."

"Telekinesis," Charlotte guessed.

Amelia nodded. "She wouldn't leave Liv or me, although we both tried to make her go to Danny. We ended up making it a game, so fortunately, she wasn't as traumatized as she could have been. Liv had it the worst, and I couldn't do anything to prevent it."

The guilt and sorrow in Amelia's voice ate at Charlotte. Touched her heart. Tariq was right. The children needed guidance. Someone to love them. To help them.

"What gift do you have?"

Amelia rubbed between the ears of the dragon and then scratched the scales going down the graceful neck. "I can talk to animals."

"What did they do to you in the tunnels, Amelia?" Charlotte kept her voice low. Gentle. No one talked about Amelia or what had happened to her. They knew Vadim had given Liv to a puppet and that Emeline had been assaulted by the master vampire, but what happened to Amelia remained a mystery and she evidently hadn't talked about it to anyone.

Amelia's smile faded, and she shrugged her shoulders. "Liv had it the worst," she muttered.

Charlotte moved closer. "Whatever Liv suffered doesn't take away from what was done to you, hon," she counseled. "I hate what happened to me. It isn't as bad as what happened to Liv, but it's still mine. I have to live with it. You have to live with whatever those monsters did to you."

Amelia tightened her hold around the orange dragon as if gathering courage from the stone. She looked out over the play yard and then back at the two little girls playing on their dragons. "This is such a wonderful place for us," she whispered. "We lived on the streets after our parents died. They wouldn't keep us together in foster homes. No one would take all of us. Everyone wanted Bella, though. If we hadn't run away, we wouldn't have been able to stay together. But if we hadn't done that . . ." She trailed off, shaking her head.

"Amelia," Charlotte said softly. "Honey, it's no good to ever think that way. We make the decisions we make based on information we have at the time. You did what you thought was right. How could you possibly have known there were such monsters in the world? I didn't know. They killed Genevieve's boyfriend and her grandmother. They killed my mentor and my brother. I still didn't know, not really, not until I saw them for myself. You can't blame yourself for something that is out of your control."

Amelia searched her face for a long time, looking for reassurance. Charlotte wanted to wrap her arms around the girl, but was afraid of overstepping boundaries. She was already pressing the teen to talk to her when no one else had. Amelia had been overlooked because of the obvious damage to Liv and Emeline.

"He's going to marry you, isn't he?" Amelia said. "Or whatever is the same in their world. Tariq is."

Charlotte nodded, hoping that would buy her some credit with the girl. It was important that she connect emotionally with Amelia. Amelia needed looking after. She clearly was trying hard to be grown-up for her sisters, but she'd been traumatized as well. She needed . . . Charlotte.

"When we are married, or lifemates, as he says in the ceremony, I hope that you accept Lourdes and me into your family, as you have him. I know he plans to adopt all of you legally."

"He's talked to us about becoming like him. Fully Carpathian. I want to. Danny wants to as well, but we're worried for Liv and Bella, that they're too young and it might harm them in some way." She bit her lip hard. "I want to be Carpathian because I want to learn to be a hunter, and so does Danny. I don't care if they don't like women going after vampires. I'm going to do it, just like Blaze."

"Does Blaze actually hunt vampires?" Charlotte asked, careful to keep her tone neutral. She wasn't certain what Tariq would think of the decision. It wouldn't surprise her if Blaze did hunt vampires, given what Emeline had told her about Blaze when they were in Paris and what Tariq had said recently. Still, it would be very unusual for a human to be able to learn that quickly how to kill a vampire successfully. From what she'd seen, it would take years of experience. The vampires were old and had a lot of battle experience.

Amelia shrugged. "I'm going to learn," she repeated stubbornly.

Charlotte nodded. "I think all of us need to learn, whether or not we actively hunt them. You're young, so you'll have a lot more time than the rest of us."

For the first time Amelia seemed to relax. Charlotte hadn't told her she was being silly or stupid, and it seemed to matter to her. She flashed a tentative smile. "You're going to have to argue with Tariq for us."

"I think I'll be doing that a lot," Charlotte agreed with a small smile. "He's very . . ." She hesitated, searching for the right word. "Old-fashioned in his thinking."

Amelia nodded. "But not like some of the others." A little shiver went through her body. "They're just plain freaky."

Charlotte couldn't help noticing that Amelia continually stroked the stone dragon's neck and the touch seemed to calm her. "They can be scary," she agreed. "But Amelia, you still need to talk to someone about what happened to you. If not me, then let me find you someone else."

Amelia shook her head. "Not anyone else. They'd think we were crazy. You can't go back, you know. Once you know about this other world, the monsters that live with us, there's no going back and pretending, is there?"

"Is that what you tried to do?" Charlotte kept her eyes on the little girls, but they continued talking to their dragons. Neither seemed to try to get their dragon to fly. So far neither child had thought of it.

"Yes," Amelia admitted. "I wanted to pretend all of this away." She pushed a hand through her thick hair. "Even with my imagination, I couldn't manage it."

Charlotte moved closer to the girl and laid a hand on the orange dragon's neck. The stone was warm in spite of the night. Amelia looked utterly lost and alone. She was fourteen years old and trying to be an adult for her two sisters who had suffered at the hands of monsters.

"I tried to pretend it away as well, especially when my brother was murdered so cruelly. Lourdes was there. They killed him right in front of her." Charlotte glanced over at the little girl whispering to the blue dragon. "She won't talk about it, but she has nightmares.

She barely knew me when I showed up to take her home with me. We don't have relatives, so they put her in emergency care until I came for her. They wouldn't even allow her nanny to take her. I was in Europe." She hesitated and then decided to be fully honest. "Fridrick was the vampire who killed my brother. He said he spared Lourdes so I would come back to the States. They wanted Genevieve and me here."

Amelia looked over at Lourdes, compassion on her face. "I don't know what to do to help them." There was despair in her voice and etched onto her face when she turned back to Charlotte. Tears glittered in her eyes. "I can't help them any more than I can help myself."

Charlotte had been edging closer to her, and Amelia turned into her so Charlotte pulled her tightly against her and held her. Amelia burst into quiet sobs.

"I don't know how to help them, either, Amelia, but I think we're stronger together than apart. I think if you and I work together, we can eventually help each other and then the children."

There was no way she could stand there in the night, holding the weeping teenager, and not want to be a mother to her. Someone needed to help them all. She didn't think she was qualified to be a mom, but she was all they had and she was determined to be whatever they needed. "We can do this together, Amelia. Whatever Tariq decides about all of us, we can do it together. You know he won't let us down. He'll find a way for all of you to be safe outside the property, and in the meantime, we can find a way to help our little ones."

Amelia lifted her head. "Do you think so?"

Charlotte nodded solemnly because she meant every word and she wanted Amelia to see the truth. "When Tariq adopts all of you, I will as well. That would make me the mom and him the dad. He wants to make certain no one can step in and take any of you from us."