ones and nearly destroyed Vadim’s puppets and hybrid army without losing any of their hunters. He’d take that any day of the week.
Ryan and Andrew lay on the floor, blood trickling from their ears, but both were aware as the hunters entered the room. They looked very apprehensive.
“We’re going to remove the shadow splinters from you,” Tariq assured. “You’ve come this far. You’ll have to trust us.”
Both men nodded, and that added two more to his ever-growing family.
20
Charlotte left the nightclub with Blaze a little early. She wanted to check on the children before she sprang her surprise on Tariq. Nearly a week had flown by since the battle with Fridrick and Vadim’s army. Vadim had disappeared. Even looking at sea, none of the hunters had been able to follow him. Still, she felt it was the calm before the storm. She meant to enjoy every moment they had before things blew up in their faces.
Tariq had explained to her that it was the Carpathian way of life. Even if had they gotten Vadim this round, another master vampire would take his place. There were always more vampires. There would always be vampires and as a hunter, Tariq would defend those humans and Carpathians alike in his territory.
Danny and Amelia had opted to wait until the healer arrived from the Carpathian Mountains before being converted. As long as Bella and Lourdes had to remain aboveground during daylight hours, they wanted to as well, just in case, and neither Charlotte nor Tariq wanted to chance converting Bella or Lourdes without a powerful healer present. Charlotte loved the two teens all the more for insisting on staying with the little ones.
Charlotte looked carefully around her, scanning for people, for enemies, for anyone in the vicinity that might witness her shifting. She’d practiced shifting often because she loved that she could do it. Loved that she could fly. Loved that she could always touch her children and know they were safe. Liv was still in the ground healing. Charlotte, Tariq and Val took turns giving her blood, but then sent her back to sleep. Charlotte wasn’t quite as good at that as the other two, so she made certain Tariq reinforced the command.
“That’s good, Charlotte. You’ve got scanning down very well,” Blaze said.
Charlotte sent her a quick grin. “I love being Carpathian. I’ve been working on Emeline, telling her all the benefits. She seems interested.”
Blaze exchanged a smile with her. “I’m happy that she’s letting you into her life.”
“It’s slow. She doesn’t like me in her house. She likes to sit outside on the porch with me, but she always comes out when I visit, which is every night now. Genevieve comes with me most times.”
“She’s still getting headaches,” Blaze said, her voice expressing worry.
Charlotte understood. She knew Emeline was getting the headaches, but she had indicated that Vadim had left her in peace since the attack on the compound. No one knew if he’d given up on acquiring her, or if he was too far out at sea to reach her. Tariq didn’t believe Vadim would give up, but like all of them, for Emeline’s sake, they hoped so.
“I know. And the headaches are bad. When I visited her before we left for the club, she was in tears. I asked her to allow Tariq to help ease them. She hesitated but then agreed, which is so rare for her I almost fell over. I’m hoping that means she’s coming to accept Tariq and Maksim into her life as brothers.”
Blaze nodded. “She’s definitely more comfortable with them. Thank you for being so kind and patient with her. I love her as a sister and seeing her so broken has been really hard, especially when I’ve been unable to do anything about it.”
Charlotte sent her a conspiratorial grin. “Between you, Genevieve and me working on her, we’ll get her to come over to the dark side.”
The two laughed together, and then Charlotte did one of her favorite things. She put the picture of an owl in her head, paying attention to the smallest detail, just as Tariq had taught her. She couldn’t wait to work with Liv on shifting. She knew the child would love it. It was getting easier the more she practiced and when Liv was awake, she planned on the two of them practicing everything together.
In moments she was spreading wings and stepping off the roof of the nightclub. Tariq, as a rule, would never have let her go by