There was silence while Elisabeta thought what the absence of Dragonseeker marks on Julija’s family could mean.
A man has come to me. He says he is my lifemate. Julija thought she might as well tell her friend. I refused him.
Elisabeta’s gasp of horror was instantaneous. You cannot. You cannot refuse him, Julija. You have condemned him to death, or worse. So much worse. He could be another Sergey. Is he young?
He is an ancient. Very much so I think. He was one of a few Carpathian males determined to be so dangerous they locked themselves away in a monastery.
There was another gasp from Elisabeta. One of his brethren is here. He lies close to me to prevent the constant whispers from Sergey. He’s very powerful. He has claimed that I am lifemate to him. I’m terrified, but I would never think to refuse him.
Of course Elisabeta wouldn’t refuse a Carpathian male, Julija told herself. The woman had been caged for centuries, taught to do whatever a man ordered her to do. Every Carpathian female seemed to do her man’s bidding. Not that she’d been around too many. Still, Elisabeta’s accusation echoed through her mind. You have condemned him to death, or worse.
Julija closed her eyes tightly but there was no shutting out the truth of that. Tell me why a woman must give up her rights but a man doesn’t.
I am uncertain what you mean.
Elisabeta, you were born into a different century. You wouldn’t know about women’s rights, but we own our lives. No one can tell us what to do.
You speak of a different culture. Carpathian women have those rights and have always had them. We follow our men, but they do whatever it is that makes us happy. It is their duty. I am not certain I can fully explain, but it is imprinted on them before they are ever born. The ritual binding words that tie us. Once said, there is no taking them back . . .
Wait. Julija’s heart suddenly beat too fast. He could have tied us together?
Yes, of course. Once he says those vows for the two of you, nothing can tear you apart, not even death. You belong to each other. You cannot be without him nor he without you. If you die and he does not follow immediately, he can go into a thrall and become vampire. Otherwise, once tied to you, it is impossible for him to become vampire.
Isai could have taken the decision out of her hands the moment she’d refused him, but he hadn’t. He had declared she wasn’t worth the centuries of searching for her. Of waiting for her. She almost asked Elisabeta about the flow of ink scarred into his back and what those words said, but it felt as if she was betraying Isai and she couldn’t do that. The words he’d put there had been for her. His lifemate. If she found out what they said, it had to come from him.
Lifemates belong to each other, Julija.
You say you have been claimed as well, but your voice trembles when you tell me. You are really afraid, almost more so than you are of Sergey.
That is true. Elisabeta didn’t try to deny it. I am no longer that girl with her foolish dreams of lifemates. I have been with a vampire for centuries. I am . . . altered.
Again, Julija felt tears dripping down Elisabeta’s face, but they were not in her voice. Just that quaver, the one that conveyed so much.
Julija had never known girlish dreams. She’d had the occasional fantasy when she’d watched human women fall in love. When she’d seen human families and the way they’d interacted. Some of them, not all. She’d wanted those things for herself, but she’d been younger than ten. Eight perhaps? She’d already known those things, like love and happiness, weren’t for her. There would be no man to love her and no children for her. Her family would never allow such a thing. More importantly, she didn’t want to trade one cage for another.
Can you refuse your lifemate? Julija asked.
I suppose it is possible, but if yours did not tie you together, I am certain mine would do so immediately. He is . . . hard. Disciplined. I cannot think about it yet. I do not know how to think for myself. I cannot see how I can please a lifemate.
This time the sob was in Julija’s throat, choking her. In her mind. Swamping her. She immediately