Dark Carousel (Dark #30) - Christine Feehan Page 0,74

through the conversion. Don’t shut me out. No matter what happens, stay open to me. Give me your word, Charlotte. I need to know you’ll give that to me.

She pulled her head back and he leaned down to rest his forehead against hers, his blue gaze drawing her in. Asking her this time. Wanting her to give him that as well.

Charlotte sighed. “Will I die?”

“It will feel like death, I’ve heard. Your organs will change. It isn’t easy, sielamet. That I can’t take away, no matter how much I want to be able to do it for you. But if you really make this choice, in your heart, in your head, when the time comes, it will be easier. Accepting it. Letting it happen and not fighting it.”

She knew he was trying to reassure her, but the unknown was still frightening. “I have to go see to Lourdes. I’ve left her alone with Genevieve too long. And we have to sort out where Genevieve will live.”

“For now, she can live in this house. That will allow her to care for Lourdes during the day should she have need. Eventually, when I know Lourdes and the other children can take it, we’ll bring them into my world. They’ll be much safer that way.”

Charlotte shook her head and tried to step back, but the wall was right behind her. “You can’t make that decision for them. They have to do it when they’re adults.” She wasn’t even certain what “it” entailed, but it felt huge. Changing one’s entire species. Living differently. She didn’t even know what that was. Another terrifying thought occurred. “You don’t sleep in a coffin, do you? Because I am so not doing that.”

“No. But we do not go out in the sun. That can burn us. We can handle early morning and early evening. Every Carpathian’s sensitivity is different, but as a rule, we can’t take the sun. We must sleep during the day, and we’re at our most vulnerable then. I’d guess your three stalkers from Paris are vampire hunters and they kill anyone they suspect, vampire, Carpathian or human. They aren’t in league with Fridrick.”

“How do you know?”

“I’d know. We can scan minds, and if a vampire has taken over a human and made him into his puppet . . .” He trailed off, his blue eyes going wide. “Those men with Fridrick were human. I didn’t feel them, not even when I scanned their minds, yet clearly they were under Fridrick’s control.”

He stepped back, keeping his hands on her shoulders. “We have to find out what they were doing in the tunnels before we drove them all out. Maksim just told me that when he went back under the city to find out what they were doing with all their experiments, everything was destroyed. All the equipment. The cages. Their control room with their computers. It’s all rubble. We need that information or we’re only guessing at their intentions, and now it’s lost to us.”

“I can get it for you. If there’s rubble down there, I can still ‘see’ what it was used for by touching what’s left of it,” Charlotte said. “I’ve been doing that kind of thing since I was a child. Of course I never actually told anyone but Genevieve and the people at the psychic testing center in France, but I figured I had plausible deniability if anyone found out. I’m really good at it.”

Tariq stared down at her for a long time, his expression a mixture of awe, approval and pride. The way he looked at her made her feel warm inside. She’d give a lot to see that look on his face often.

“You would be willing to go down in the tunnels and sift through the rooms with us? It could be very ugly, sielamet. You saw what they did to Liv. Reliving others being tortured can mess you up in ways—”

She put her hand on his arm to stop him. “I wouldn’t have said anything if I didn’t think I could handle it. I touch antiques all the time. I’ve run across torture before. I know it can be ugly, but if this helps get rid of Fridrick and any of his friends, I’ll help in any way I can.”

That earned her another kiss. A long one. One she could take with her when she went into a vampire’s lair.

10

Charlotte stuck the tip of her finger in her mouth. It hurt. Not bad, just a dull, irritating ache.