Shea leaned against the bed and studied Raven. She was a beautiful woman, a little pale, with unusual blue-violet eyes. “Jacques is still quite ill. He’s struggling to remember his life. It’s difficult.” She paced restlessly. “I worry about him. He doesn’t believe he is always sane. There is such torment in him.”
Shea? you need me? Jacques’ voice was clear in her mind, anxious, as if he had caught her thoughts.
She realized that Jacques was unable to release her completely. She should have felt resentful, cornered, but the truth was, she felt safe. Already she was becoming accustomed to their closeness. I’m fine, Jacques. Just take care of yourself. It was an exhilarating feeling that she could talk across time and space, that she could touch him whenever she wanted or needed, that he would always know when she was troubled.
Shea watched Raven and, noting her elevated breathing, automatically walked over to her to take her pulse. Raven laughed and pulled away. “My husband is being naughty. He likes to keep me thinking about him while he’s away from me. I’m fine. They’ll drive you crazy, but they’re always intriguing and usually lots of fun. It’s a good thing, as they have long life spans. Wouldn’t it be hell to be stuck for centuries to someone you found incredibly boring?”
“How dangerous is the healer?”
Raven inhaled sharply. “The truth is, Gregori is the most dangerous of all Carpathians. Mikhail thinks Gregori is more powerful than he is, and that’s saying quite a bit. He knows things, more than any other. Mikhail fears for him all the time now. If he turned vampire, we’d all be in grave danger. Mikhail loves him. We both do. That’s why we decided to try for a baby now rather than later. To produce a lifemate for him. Carpathians never have female children anymore. No one knows why, but the children that are born rarely survive the first year of life. Mikhail and Gregori both believe a human lifemate can produce them a female child, and I guess they’re right, since Gregori says this child is a girl. He would know.”
“That’s why my father wanted a female child so much. My mother never got to tell him she was pregnant, but in her diary she said he had been disappointed when Noelle gave birth to a male child.”
“I met your father briefly,” Raven said softly. “He was very distraught over Noelle’s murder. He wanted to hunt the assassins, but Mikhail told him it was too dangerous, he was too involved. He was sent to sleep for several years.”
“He just went to sleep?” Shea was furious for no reason she could actually name. To think of the man sleeping while his wife lay murdered, his mistress pregnant and alone, and some one else raising his son, made her very angry. She had a feeling she would not like her father very much.
“You need to understand these people, Shea, the kind of power they carry, the kind of devastation they’re capable of. They can command the land, cause an earthquake that could destroy whole cities. Control is a huge issue with them at all times. Someone like Gregori is a time bomb. He knows it, Mikhail knows it, all of us do. Rand was so distraught, he was dangerous to everyone around him. Mikhail did what he thought was right for the protection of humans and Carpathians alike. Rand obeyed because Mikhail is their chosen leader. He never seemed very attached to anyone, least of all his son. Even now, he is a loner rarely seen. He spends most of his time in the ground.”
“And Rand neglected to say anything about my mother to anyone,” Shea said bitterly. “My mother’s life was destroyed. He could have prevented that.”
“I’m sorry, it must have been terrible for you growing up. If your mother was Rand’s true lifemate, then she would have been unable to live without him. It is a bonding of the soul.” Raven sighed, looked away from the distaste on Shea’s face. “Noelle was not Rand’s true lifemate. I would like to think she loved him, but by all accounts she was simply obsessed with him. I have no idea why Rand went along with it. Noelle was a foolish woman not to have waited for her true lifemate. Rand is a very good-looking man. She mistook lust for love.”