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him. "I want children and I don't want them to suffer like that, or to ever believe they weren't wanted."

He leaned forward and took her mouth, his kiss gentle, pouring as much reassurance into it as he could. "They will know they are wanted,fel ku kuuluaak sivam belso ."

She loved the way he whispered "beloved." The Carpathian phrase had music to it, a tenderness that shook her each time he said it to her. It was always more than just the word, but the true meaning behind that word as well. His overwhelming emotion for her. And she believed him.

Because he made her believe a man like him could love her and accept her, even damaged from the trauma of her childhood, she found the strength to hunt for the microbe, to see for herself if either was infected-and only she was. The one inside of her was newly there, and hadn't had time to establish

itself. Her body was still treating it as an intruder. So that meant either the men weren't infected, and Shea's theory was incorrect, or that because she had only recently gotten together with Nicolas, he had passed her the microbe and had not yet been exposed to reinfection.

"You didn't sleep in the soil, Nicolas, You stayed on the bed with me."

"We need to go talk to Francesca and Gregori about this," Nicolas said.

She would never feel comfortable around Gregori with his strange-colored eyes, but she nodded. She had to journey into the other pregnant women this evening and hopefully Francesca would be able to follow the faint trail of the killer to aid in removing the microbes from all the other women. And she wanted the one in her out-this rising.

Lara felt drained when she came out of the healing cave with Nicolas at her side. She had aided two other pregnant women and also led the microbe within her to the surface for Natalya to destroy. They had experimented, taking both Natalya and Francesca along, but Francesca, try as she might, could not detect that faint, tainted path, and something in Natalya served as a warning to the extremophile and it successfully hid its presence from them, ruling out the possibility of Natalya tracking them.

A microbe was found in Mikhail and one in Gregori. Shea was excited that she might actually be on the right track at last to solving the problem of miscarriage. She, Gregori and a man Lara had never met named Gary, retreated together to try to explore ideas on how to combat the microbe.

Nicolas walked through the village with her. She wanted to visit Gerald and check on Terry while he and Vikirnoff finally searched for another entrance to the ice cave.

"I will not be gone long," he assured.

"And you won't go in without me," she added, giving him a quick, warning look.

At the bottom of the steps leading to the inn, he wrapped his arm around her and pulled her close. "No, I told you I wouldn't. You look pale, though. If you can manage to get some broth down, do so. If not, Lara, we cannot wait much longer to convert you."

She moistened her lips. "I have avoidance issues, I think. When I don't want to think about something, I just put it out of my mind and pretend it will go away. I like being mage. I rely on being mage."

"Mage blood aids in casting and learning, but Carpathian blood does as well. Our two species were intertwined for centuries, Lara. Xavier came up with the safeguards, but in the end Carpathians improved on them. Mages had longevity, so did lycanthrope, but even mortal wounds could sometimes be healed by Carpathians, leading others to believe our species is immortal. But we can be killed."

She tilted her head, facing her worst fear. "And that's what all the experiments on Razvan are about, aren't they? It's the reason Xavier has kept him alive. He's trying to find a way to kill Carpathians."

Nicolas held her close to him. "I am afraid of that, yes."

"Then if there is a chance he's alive, Nicolas, we have to find the evidence in the ice caves. I owe him that."

He tipped her face up and kissed her gently. "I will only be gone a couple of hours. Stay in the inn with the innkeeper and wait for me."

Lara nodded and with reluctance, left his side, stepping onto the first stair. Standing there in the dark, she watched him go-a tall, handsome man striding down