did connect with him briefly and knew he had come this way. He likes the high places, the lonely places. He doesn’t want to be around people at all, not even to feed.”
Isai frowned. He leaned closer. “Julija, that isn’t a good sign.”
“What does it mean?”
“He doesn’t expect to live or fight. If he thought he would need to fight in order to protect the book, he would stay where he could find sustenance. He doesn’t intend to have to fight. He lost his lifemate and he determined the book wasn’t safe where it was. He is taking it somewhere and he will suicide in order to stop anyone from finding the book’s final resting place.”
She couldn’t tell what he felt. Before, she’d connected with him, but once he determined she wasn’t lifemate material, he’d withdrawn and put up some impenetrable shield. She knew, because she tried to get in. He probably knew she’d tried, but he’d kept her out. She didn’t like being separated from him. It made her edgy. Uneasy. Incomplete. Still, if she could best a powerful mage, she could best a Carpathian hunter.
“Are you going to go after him?”
“Of course.” Isai unfolded his long frame. “I have to find a suitable place to sleep during the day. Your brothers are most likely the two campers I saw not more than a few miles from here. If you want to try to outrun them on your own, that, obviously, is your right. If not, you’re welcome to come with me. You need have no fears. I won’t try to change your mind, nor will I try to have sex with you.”
She should have reveled in his statement, but inexplicably she wanted to weep. She actually felt as if she’d lost something very valuable, and it wasn’t the sex even when she tried to tell herself it was. She detested that he had such a poor opinion of her. Again, he didn’t look at her when he spoke, and she wanted to remain silent, hoping he would turn those incredible sapphire eyes on her, but she couldn’t take a chance that he would just leave.
“I’d rather go with you,” she said hastily. “I’d really like to know about the tattoo on your back. It’s different. I believe it’s in the ancient Carpathian language, isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
He said it tersely. Clipped. That hurt, but she persisted. “What does it mean?”
“It is for my lifemate alone. No one else.”
She stuck her chin in the air, challenging him. “But I can know then. I am your lifemate.”
Those blue eyes drifted over her. Remote. Not even judging her. She’d already been judged and found wanting. She found herself shivering and rubbing her arms. Waiting for him to tell her.
“Those words are sacred. To me, they mean something. So much so, I etched them into my body so I would feel them in the darkest of times. So she could pull me through the worst hell. The vows would not mean anything to you. You are not mine and I am not yours.”
Again, his tone lacked accusation or inflection. He had stepped back in his mind, so far from her, she couldn’t reach him. He was lost to her. Completely lost to her. She found herself so confused she didn’t know how to react. She wanted to weep at the loss when she should be celebrating. It shouldn’t matter what he thought of her, but it did. To hear him say he wasn’t hers was terrible. Each word felt like the slice of a sword in her bones.
Isai suddenly looked up but leapt right at her. Hard hands pushed her down and he hurdled right over top of her. Cognizant that sound carried great distances at night, Julija managed not to scream. He looked terrifying there with the moonlight spilling down on him. He was a warrior and he looked it, looked invincible. Fierce lines were carved deep into his face, and those blue eyes were so intense blue flames seemed to come out of them. He caught something in his arms. It was black, no gray, almost insubstantial, but it was heavy enough to bowl him over backward.
She scrambled out of the way as the shadow cat turned its head toward her. Glowing red eyes locked on to her. It was so evil, her entire body shuddered. She could feel hatred coming off of the creature in waves.
Isai refused to let go and the cat tore at him, shredding his shirt and leaving