What was she doing here in the mountains on an impossible quest when the only friend she had in the world needed her desperately? She couldn’t help herself. She was telepathic and very, very powerful. Elisabeta was hundreds of miles away and in the ground, but Julija reached out to her anyway, knowing Elisabeta was just as powerful.
Elisabeta. Can you hear me?
The Carpathians were all telepathic and used a common pathway to talk to one another. Julija was well aware of that pathway and wanted to avoid it at all costs. She and Elisabeta had created their own conduit of communication to keep their vampire captor from knowing that they were talking. At the time they’d been focused on Elisabeta escaping. She had been terrified to do so for many reasons.
Julija had only then realized the extent of the problems the other woman would be facing if she got away. She had been cared for since she was only seventeen and before that, her family had watched over her. Elisabeta remembered that much about her childhood. She’d been so young, and she’d followed Sergey, a childhood friend of her family. He had built a wall in memory of his missing sister and she’d gone willingly to see it. Instead, she’d found herself taken prisoner by a madman.
Julija pushed more power into her query, sending it out toward the location she knew Elisabeta to be in. Can you hear me? Are you awake? Out from under the ground yet?
She waited, counting the most prominent stars overhead, wishing on them like a child. When had she been a child? She didn’t even remember. Elisabeta was at times very childlike still and yet she’d gone through more than any being should ever have to.
Julija?
The voice was faint, not from the distance—Julija was providing the bridge and she was immensely powerful. She could manage the distance, and it helped that she knew exactly where her friend was. Elisabeta was uncertain. Frightened. Julija didn’t like that.
Are you alone, my friend?
Yes. Elisabeta relayed that without hesitation. Underground. I don’t want to face the world yet. Not ready.
I will come as soon as possible. This errand is taking longer than expected.
There was a small silence while Julija’s heart pounded. She pressed her hand, beneath the cover of the sleeping bag, to her heart. She wanted to wrap her arms around Elisabeta. She was still that young girl, never given a chance to blossom and grow into the woman she should have been.
Are you safe?
Julija didn’t know why that simple inquiry coming from Elisabeta brought tears to her eyes. Was she? She stared up at the constellation slowly shifting position in the sky. How did she answer that? I’m not certain. Someone is hunting me. I told you about my brothers and what they wanted.
The two women often had talked to each other when Sergey had thought they couldn’t. Julija had told Elisabeta all about her brothers and what she’d discovered they’d been up to over the years and why. In turn Elisabeta had told her about her life with Sergey. Julija had known she never would have gotten any explanation out of the woman without giving up personal information. She was far too scared to talk to anyone without Sergey’s express permission.
And yet you stay on your course. I’ve never met a woman like you. Julija couldn’t help but hear the admiration in Elisabeta’s voice.
There are many like me, and many in this world like you.
She knew her statement to Elisabeta was true when she thought of women in other countries without the chances she’d had to become what she wanted to be. Julija had studied at the best universities just because education appealed to her. Knowledge was power, her teachers had always said, and she agreed. They just hadn’t agreed on what kind of knowledge gave one power.
The world has changed considerably while you were held captive.
He calls to me.
Julija’s heart skipped a beat, then thudded wildly. Sergey calls to you?
Yes. I’m afraid I will go to him if I go aboveground. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know how to be anything but what he wanted from me.
Elisabeta’s voice dripped with tears, although Julija knew she wasn’t shedding any. That wasn’t Elisabeta’s way. Tears had been beaten out of her, along with any fight.
You know you can’t go back to him. You detest him.
More than anything. With every breath I draw. I just don’t know how to live without him. Until I can