should there be need—all thanks to his woman. She’d borne the brunt of the night’s work, taking down the grid of defense, the layers of safeguards that would have taken Isai all night. Dawn would have come, and he might not have managed to unravel the complicated patterns. Nor would he have pulled Vasile’s teeth the way she had, stealing his magic. That had been the most incredible feat he’d witnessed.
Stealing magic wasn’t only extremely difficult, it was extraordinarily dangerous. He was so proud of her, and yet at the same time, he wanted to shake her until her teeth rattled. He imagined, if he did that, it would be considered right up there with spanking. His arm tightened around her, holding her to him.
“I couldn’t watch you as you got closer to him,” Julija confessed in a little rush. There was guilt in her voice. “I had to concentrate, focus wholly on his magic. I knew he would have traps set, but I counted on you being able to navigate them. Was it bad?”
Had it been? He didn’t think in terms of something being difficult or not. One did what one had to do. He had gone up against monsters for centuries. He shrugged and pulled his wrist from the female shadow cat.
“I did what I had to do to get to him. I would not have succeeded before dawn came had you not brought his safeguards down. He had erected a complicated barrier that was very effective. Inside of it, he had multiple traps.”
“The multiple traps are what I’m referring to,” she pointed out.
He looked down at her. She was very pale. Her eyes closed, the thick fan of dark lashes in stark contrast to her white skin. “I need to find us a place to rest, Julija. Let us take our cats and go.”
The lashes fluttered, and she managed to open her eyes, although he could see it took effort. The dark chocolate appeared soft, melting. His heart turned over. She looked around at the six shadow cats all sitting close, waiting to see what Isai would do.
“What are you going to do with them? You’ll take to the sky and they’ll have to run the rest of the night trying to find us.”
“They all have my blood. They can shift, become shadows on my skin, much like the writing on my back, although I suspect much more insubstantial.”
“Because they are Carpathian.”
He nodded. “The mages turned them without realizing it. That is the reason they need blood to survive. They will always need blood. That means, my little mage, we will always need to take care of them and make certain they know the rules. They cannot ever prey on humans or we will have no choice but to destroy them.”
He turned his attention to Blue. “You make certain they all understand what I am saying to you. I lay down the rules and they are sacred. We do not ever kill when we feed. If that is ever done, it is a death sentence I will not hesitate to carry out.”
Blue turned his head toward the others, and Isai caught the wave of telepathic energy. He gathered his woman and stood, indicating to the cats to leap on his back. They hesitated, uncertain as to what he meant. He formed the image in his head. There was a woman in the Carpathian Mountains who had a wolf pack. The wolves rode on her as tattoos, part of her skin. Or they provided a long winter coat for her. Few knew they were actual wolves, turned accidentally when they were quite young. He had taken the idea from her. He could travel with his cats as she did, with few ever realizing they were real.
Blue caught the idea when he turned and showed his tattoos. He was patient. The shadow cats were skittish for a reason. They had no real reason to trust Isai yet, but they put their faith in Blue. Even Comet and Phaedra. Blue leapt onto his back. Claws dug in for a moment, as the extremely large panther-like creature tried to adjust to what was needed of him. He dropped back to the ground and paced for a moment.
Again, Isai didn’t hurry him, although they were going to run out of night soon and he still had to find a resting place and take care of his woman. Again, he pushed the images of shapeshifting into Blue’s mind as the cat leapt and