“Gregori, I thank you for the warning and the help. You need not worry over the betrayer. That is my job, though I admit I have been attending to other things than hunting recently.”
“As you should have,” Gregori acknowledged with a gentle smile. “A lifemate comes first in all things.”
“Why is it you fear yours will not have an easy life?” Aidan asked.
“I have hunted too long to ever stop. I am used to my own way in all things. I have waited too long, fought too hard, and suffered too much to allow her the freedom she will desire. Her life will never be her own, only what I make of it.”
Aidan smiled then, and Alexandria could feel him relaxing. “If you do as you believe, put her before your own comfort, you will have no choice but to allow her freedom.”
“I am not like Mikhail or Jacques or, it seems, you. I intend that her protection come above all else.” Gregori’s voice held an edge.
Aidan grinned at him, laughter spilling from his golden eyes. “I can only hope I have the chance to see you, Gregori, under the spell of your woman. You must promise that you will bring her to meet us one day.”
“Not if I end up like you or Mikhail. I will not have my dangerous reputation destroyed in such a way.” A hint of humor seemed to creep in and then was quickly gone, as if the wind had carried it away.
“I will see to the vampire,” Aidan said. “You should avoid confronting death.”
“I killed him from a distance. You will find it… unsettling,” Gregori warned.
“You are even more powerful than I remember.”
“I have acquired much knowledge over the years,” Gregori conceded. His pale eyes rested thoughtfully on Aidan’s face. “You will find your brother much changed, also. He is a fast learner, that one, and unafraid of reaching too far into the shadows. I tried to tell him the cost, but he would not listen.”
Aidan shook his head. “Julian always said rules were made to be broken. He has always gone his own way. But he did respect you. You were the only real influence in his life, maybe the only one he ever listened to.”
Gregori shook his head. “He could not listen any longer. The wind called, the mountains, the far-off places. I could not hope to stop him. He was dark inside, and nothing would ever satisfy him.”
“You call it darkness. But it was that quality in you that made you open the world for us. It made you seek out the healing techniques that you have passed on to me, to others. It allowed you to perform the miracles that you have performed for our people. It has done the same for Julian,” Aidan replied softly.
The silver eyes paled to steel. Cold. Bleak. Empty. “It led both of us to things that should never have been learned. In the acquisition of knowledge comes power, Aidan. But without rules, without emotions, without a concept of right or wrong, it is far too easy to abuse that power.”
“All Carpathians are aware of that, Gregori,” Aidan argued. “You, more than most, know the concept of right and wrong. And so does Julian. Why have you endured, resisted wrong, when others turned? You fought for justice, for our people. You had a code, and you have always lived up to it, as you are doing now. You say you have no feeling, but what of the compassion you felt for your lifemate when she was so frightened? You cannot turn. Every moment is an eternity for you, I know, but you have an end in sight.”
Gregori’s cold eyes seemed to impale Aidan, but the younger Carpathian did not flinch. He held Gregori’s gaze until Alexandria could have sworn she saw a flicker of fire, a flame, springing from one to the other. Gregori’s hard mouth softened slightly. “You have learned well, Aidan. You are a healer of both body and mind.”
Aidan inclined his head in acknowledgment of the compliment. The wind howled, the waves crashed, and Gregori launched himself into the dark, roiling clouds. A black shape spread across the sky, an ominous shadow staining the heavens, and then it moved north and faded away as if it had never been, taking the storm with it.