Dark Carousel (Dark #30) - Christine Feehan Page 0,159

weight lifted. He wasn’t alone in this decision or even the doing of it. They floated down to the center of the rich bed of soil, where Val cradled Liv in his lap. He continued to stroke her hair back, his fingers gentle as he murmured reassurances to the child.

Tariq reached for her, and Val instantly shifted Liv’s slight weight to him. Her eyes had been closed but when Tariq’s arms went around her, her eyelashes fluttered and then lifted. His heart stuttered. His little Liv was nearly gone. Val and Charlotte were both right: if they didn’t take this chance, they would lose her.

Is this what you want, Liv? To come into our world fully? To be our daughter? When I complete the conversion, you will be ours. Charlotte’s and mine.

Her nod was barely perceptible, but it was there. Her gaze shifted to Charlotte. Charlotte smiled at her. “Come here, baby,” she whispered. “I’ll hold you. Tariq and Val will be right here to keep you safe, and you’ll feel all the others just as I did. They’ll take away the pain. You’ll feel a part of them all.”

Liv’s lips parted. She took a breath. “I’m not afraid.”

“Of course you aren’t,” Charlotte said. “You know Emme would be here, but she has a concussion, a very bad one, and she can’t get up.”

Liv nodded and curled into Charlotte. Tariq bent his head to Liv’s little neck and took her blood without waiting. She lived in a nightmare world and there was no getting her out of it. It was far safer for her to be where he could protect her at all times. He made the exchange and then opened the earth. Just as he had with Charlotte, he shielded Liv’s body from the others as he floated Charlotte and Liv into it, covering all but their heads. He stayed at her head and Val took the other side of her where he could hold her hand.

Her body was small and she was already more than halfway into their world. It didn’t take long for the process to begin. For Liv, it was as if she had a bad flu. For Tariq and Charlotte it was terrifying, painful and seemed to last forever. Val shouldered as much of the pain as possible, and the other Carpathians took on the burden as well. Still, Liv felt every wave of pain, cried out when her body expelled the toxins and began to reshape her organs.

Charlotte crooned softly to her, rocking her little body beneath the blanket of soil. Val began to sing a lullaby softly to her in his language. “Tumtesz o wäke ku pitasz belső. Hiszasz sívadet. Én olenam gæidnod. Sas csecsemõm, kuńasz. Rauho joŋe ted. Umtesz o sívdobbanás ku olen lamt3ad belső. Gond-kumpadek ku kim te. Pesänak te, asti o jüti, kidüsz.”

As Val sang, Tariq translated the words for Charlotte and Liv in their minds. Feel the strength you hold inside. Trust your heart. I will be your guide. Hush, my baby; close your eyes. Peace will come to you. Feel the rhythm deep inside. Waves of love that cover you, protect until the night you rise.

Charlotte had tears in her eyes as Val sang to her child. She was Tariq’s lifemate, fully in his world, and this was the first of their children to follow her into it. The sweetness in Val’s voice, coming from a hardened, scarred warrior, moved her, just as the love she felt pouring into Liv’s mind from Tariq did. She lifted her gaze just once to Tariq’s and he saw the answering love. The commitment he needed from her that she was his and she would help him with these broken children and the damaged adults he claimed as family.

“It is time. I can send her to sleep,” Tariq said softly after what seemed like an eternity. Converting an adult was bad enough, but to see a child writhing in pain, her stomach cramping and the convulsing that accompanied the transition, was difficult, even shouldering the brunt of the pain among the Carpathians.

Charlotte kissed Liv’s forehead and Tariq smoothed back her hair as he commanded she go into the healing sleep of their kind. Tariq wanted to crush the child to him, but he forced himself to just continue stroking her hair until the terrible fear inside him subsided. Liv was safe. She was in their world and hopefully they could find a way to ease the trauma enough that she could be