Total pages in book: 155
Estimated words: 142916 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 715(@200wpm)___ 572(@250wpm)___ 476(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 142916 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 715(@200wpm)___ 572(@250wpm)___ 476(@300wpm)
How very strange. I am well aware you are an ancient Carpathian and extremely experienced in the matter of battles with vampires and other such evils in this world. Still, as your lifemate, I find I wish to protect you. Even aid you in battle as I have Tora.
His gut clenched. Knotted. That hot volcanic bubbling beneath the glacier of ice in the pit of his stomach began to rise. Do not remind me of how you and Tora fought vampires. Both of you could have been killed so easily.
There was a long silence, and then he felt her amusement slipping into his mind, soothing, unkinking the knots in his guts. That easily. Her amusement was at his expense, but his entire body relaxed. There was just something about the way she viewed life. He hadn’t known fun or how to experience joy, but she was teaching him very quickly.
She was not going to be intimidated by him. She wouldn’t apologize for the things she’d had to do before his arrival. He loved that about her. Loved that she was very confident in her abilities to do her job. She saw herself as the demon slayer, but that didn’t end her duties.
He had wanted someone intensely loyal. She was loyal to Tora and backed it up with action. She was human, not Carpathian, yet she didn’t hide behind Tora. She fought at her side. That was loyalty. She had to be terrified. She didn’t have the ability to shift or do most of the things a Carpathian could do, but she still fought at her friend’s side.
Where are you? He was already reaching out to find her.
Of course, she was ensuring Raik Bootsma was free of all parasites and demons and that he was healing.
Leaving now, she assured him. Raik is a good man. Under the influence of the demon, he was very ugly to his wife and daughter. Tora didn’t want to chance completely removing the memory because it could become a buried thorn that crops up unexpectedly.
A thorn? He liked the way her mind worked.
Something nagging at Imka or Julia, and they end up being angry with Raik but not really knowing why. I’ve seen it happen. We left the memories, just faded the hurt. They know he was attacked by a demon from the sea. Imka defended him. She’s a good wife to him.
Is he a good husband?
Yes, and a good father. His behavior will haunt him. We don’t want that for him.
Benedek knew by “we” she meant Tora, Fenja and herself. She cared about the villagers. Another sign of loyalty. The fact that she’d sought Bootsma out to make sure he was healing and the family was intact and doing well together showed what kind of a person she was. He felt even more respect for her that she worried for the family and wanted them to be happy.
Tora gave a push toward happiness together. He made it a statement. He would have done so. It wasn’t taking away free will, it was a small compulsion to become closer together as a family.
Yes. She is always careful of interference. Fenja always cautioned us that interfering in personal relationships could easily backfire.
Benedek found it fascinating that they had even discussed such a matter. He avoided being with humans if possible. He’d gone with his brethren to the United States to search for their lifemates and aid friends, but it hadn’t been easy or comfortable. He preferred the wilds. He avoided contact as much as possible.
Living close to humans will take getting used to, he ventured. She was making the sacrifice to come into his world for him. He knew he would gladly make the sacrifice to go into her world for her.
There was a small silence. He sensed she was close. She didn’t fly, and she wasn’t using the dragon. She walked. She often walked from her home to the meadow and then into the forest, where she ensured that the plants and inhabitants were healthy. In some ways, she was the keeper of the forest.
Tora is the real keeper of the forest, Silke said, letting him know she hadn’t let go of their mind merge and was reading his thoughts.
Benedek had studied the way the lifemates he knew moved in and out of one another’s minds. He thought that practice would bother him, so much so that he had made sure that the barriers in his mind were strong and in place. Now, having Silke, he found he needed the intimacy of sharing minds. There was something comforting in knowing she was with him, that close, just the two of them, even when there were others around them.
I am coming for you, he informed her, already on the move. He took to the sky, moving fast, a streak of light much like a comet but staying low.