Dark Promises (Dark 25)

"We are leaving." Gregori jerked his chin toward Mikhail, and the prince shook his head, a small smile softening his hard features.

"Andre. Good to see you. I hope to meet your lifemate soon. Raven was very pleased when word came down that you had found Teagan. She is very fond of you."

"Mikhail." Gregori growled his name, patience gone. "Your enemies are everywhere. We have no idea how close any of those in the monastery are. And we need to get Gary into the ground." He played his trump card, knowing Mikhail was fond of Gary. Fortunately, Gary understood what he was doing and remained silent.

Mikhail shifted immediately and took to the sky. Gregori waited for Gary's body to shift, staying in his mind, just as Mikhail was. Gary did so with such speed and precision, Gregori found himself wondering just how much of the information the ancients in the Daratrazanoff line had given him the man had already processed. He was "getting it" at an alarming rate of speed.

Mikhail is correct, Gary, Gregori said. You will do great things for our people, more than you've already done. Hold to your honor, brother. Hold to it and when there is nothing else for you, you will have that.

I will.

Two words, but Gregori felt the truth of them. The sincerity. He'd always known. From the moment he'd met Gary, when they walked down the street together in New Orleans, he had known then that this man was connected to him. He shifted and took to the sky, the two Daratrazanoffs doing what they always did, positioning themselves on either side of their prince for the long flight home. They were many, many miles from Romania, where they all resided, and it would take a good part of the night to return.

Far off, they heard the sound of a rifle. They were too high, in the mist, and the shooter was closer to the lower part of the mountain, but still, all of them knew that was no hunter, but one of the society members eager to make a kill.

How would they know we are not anything but what we appear? Mikhail asked Andre through their common telepathic path, suddenly worried about the ancients in the monastery.

Teagan can tune herself to vampires and follow that path straight to their lair, Andre admitted, if a little reluctantly. I believe that is her grandmother with those men and she has the same talent.

Andre. Teagan breathed his name. Filled it with anguish. A sense that he had betrayed her. You do not know that.

Teagan, our first duty, always, is to the prince. Without him, our people are lost. His son is still too young to assume the mantle. He is too small to be a vessel for our people. The prince must stay alive or all of us will die and our species will be extinct. Andre did his best to explain to his lifemate.

Teagan was young. She had been human and he had very recently converted her. She had come to the Carpathian Mountains in search of a particular stone that would help her to "cure" her grandmother's growing insanity. Her grandmother believed in vampires and had gone so far as to order a vampire-hunting kit off the Internet. Her family had tried to convince her to stop talking about them and then sent her to professionals. In the end, Teagan, afraid for her grandmother's sanity, took matters into her own hands and made the trip to the Carpathian Mountains, only to find her grandmother was right and everyone else was wrong.

The problem was, her grandmother didn't discriminate between a vampire and a Carpathian. She had no idea the dangerous, ruthless people she traveled with.

Teagan came out of the mist, walking toward him, taking his breath away like she always did when he laid eyes on her. She was beautiful, no doubt about that, but more, she was alive as in alive. She lived life large. Right now, she was very unhappy with him, and there was no misreading that look on her face. With Teagan, what you saw was what you got. She adored her grandmother. Family was all-important to her.

The danger, Andre decided, of bringing humans into their world, was that it would take a long time for them to realize the importance of protecting the prince and his children. They couldn't understand that one man held the entire future of their species, which made him vulnerable to outside attacks.

Her grandmother was being used as a pawn, or she was just plain fanatical. If it was the latter, Andre knew he would have to kill her. If he killed her, Teagan would have a difficult time forgiving him. Still, it would have to be done, and lifemates didn't lie to each other.

"She isn't vicious," Teagan greeted. "She's misled."

"Regardless, she's with four men, Teagan. Four men who have come here determined to kill us. You. Me. The men in the monastery. She's leading them right to them. We are going to have to stop them."

"I didn't know you were different when I met you, Andre, and she won't, either. We can casually meet them on the trail and say we've been camping for our honeymoon. Because we've just gotten married, it will seem natural for us to want to be alone, even in the daylight hours." Teagan stepped close, putting her hand on his chest and looking up at him.

His heart did a slow somersault when he looked down into her eyes. He would give her the world if he could. He wanted to give her this. They'd be walking right into the enemy's camp. He had no doubt that he would have done that on his own, but to bring Teagan along was sheer madness.

"It is dangerous, sivamet. These people have killed many of us. They find our sleeping places and murder us when we have no way to fight them. They kill the innocent. I doubt they've ever killed a real vampire in their lives. Your grandmother is the one leading them to us, abusing a special gift."

"But she doesn't know that's what she's doing," Teagan insisted. "She's funny and smart and loves to be snarky, but she wouldn't kill an innocent person. She just doesn't know."

"Teagan." He said her name gently. Lovingly.

She shook her head. "Don't. She's my grandmother, Andre."

She blinked up at him with her dark, chocolate eyes and those luscious eyelashes that never failed to catch his notice. She was pulling out all the stops, and because she was the world to him, he knew he was susceptible. Still. It was dangerous.

"Even if you were to convince her, Teagan--and I am not saying I will allow you to take that risk--her friends will not care one way or the other. I have seen their kind many times. They will not tolerate different. I am different. You are different. The ancients up in the monastery are different. And they will not come at us at night. They know better. They will strike during the day, when we are vulnerable."

Andre knew he wasn't convincing her. She loved her Grandma Trixie and she wasn't going to back down over the issue. He took her hand and brought the tips of her fingers to the warmth of his mouth.

"Csitri." Again he used his voice on her. Soft. Mesmerizing. Loving. Pure silk and velvet with the rasp that always shook her. She wasn't immune to his voice.

"She's my grandmother. She raised me. Imagine how you would feel, Andre, if you had to even think about killing someone you loved."

He closed his eyes briefly. He had destroyed several people he cared for. Friends he'd grown up with. Friends who had lost the fight against the darkness in them--darkness Teagan had saved him from.

"You cannot ever be blinded by love, Teagan. By anything. We will be in danger every moment we are in the company of humans. Unless you can feel the threat, such as we do now, because they are in that mode, you could be right next to a member of the society and not know it."

"She isn't evil."

"I did not, at any time, say your grandmother was evil, Teagan." He framed her face with both hands, tipping her head up so she was forced to meet his eyes. "You love her. You want her safe. I will move heaven and earth to accomplish that for you. But, csitri, you have to get what I am saying to you or I cannot have you anywhere near those people. They are dangerous. They would kill you without even thinking twice about it. I have to know you are with me. Me. Your lifemate. Not your grandmother."

"Can't I be with both of you?" she asked in a small voice.

He ran his finger down her soft, mocha skin. Beautiful skin. His beautiful empath. "No, sivamet. Not this time. This time we have to g

o into this situation with the knowledge that things could go wrong. If that happens, I have to know I can trust you to have my back--that no matter how difficult, you can accept my decisions."

Her eyes searched his. He liked that about Teagan. She thought things out for herself. She liked to chatter when she was nervous, something he found he liked far too much, but she was always serious when it was called for. She knew what he meant. She knew her grandmother could be facing a death sentence and he wouldn't hesitate if she stayed with the members of the fanatical society. Still . . . She bit her lip. It was her grandmother. The woman who had raised her.

Trixie had a difficult life. She had her only child at fifteen. A child raising a child. She loved her daughter with all her heart and poured every waking minute into seeing to her care and education. She wanted her daughter to have everything that she didn't have. She'd named her daughter Sherise and loved her more than anything else. When Sherise fell in love in high school and repeated Trixie's downfall, getting pregnant at sixteen, Trixie loved her through it. Fortunately, Sherise's man loved Sherise and stuck by her, marrying her. They moved in with Trixie.

Teagan bit her lip nervously. Her grandmother was an extraordinary woman, quite brilliant, and had she had the chance for a good education, in a different place, Teagan knew she would have excelled. As it was, she excelled at making a family. She worked hard until she had enough money to move Sherise, her husband, Terence, the baby and herself into another, much better part of the city. She worked so they could continue their educations.