importance that must reach our prince as fast as possible.”
“My room’s just down the hall,” Gary offered.
All three of the Sanderses stood. Gary hesitated and looked to Traian for guidance. He nodded and Gary, with a small shrug, led them through the narrow hallway to unlock the door to his room.
“Nice,” Jubal commented. “We’re on the second story with small balconies. This is great.” He looked out the double doors to the spacious verandah. “Joie, we should have asked for the ground floor.”
Gabrielle looked around. “This is a nice room. Our rooms are much smaller.” She smiled at Gary.
A dull red swept under Gary’s skin as he hastily cleared clothes from a chair. “Sorry about the mess.”
Gabrielle’s smile widened. “You should see my room. We were in a cave, and our clothes were filthy. All I could think about was taking a hot shower.” She blushed, turning away from Gary to study the verandah Jubal seemed so interested in.
Gary nodded toward the Sander siblings. “Forgive me for asking, but are you certain everyone in this room can be trusted?”
“I am more certain of them than I am of you,” Traian answered.
Gary smiled, relaxing for the first time. “That’s good enough for me. I can give Mikhail your news, although he asked me to have you return home as soon as you are able. He has called in the ancients his father sent out. He needs their knowledge to make informed decisions in the ongoing war with the undead.” He glanced at Gabrielle as he added the last.
She shuddered and moved a little closer to her brother. “I never, ever, want to meet another one as long as I live.”
“You encountered one?” Gary asked, obviously shocked. “And lived through it?”
Gabrielle nodded. “Jubal . . .”
“Perhaps that discussion is best left for another time,” Traian interrupted. He didn’t know Gary Jansen. He believed him an emissary of the prince, but he needed to protect Joie’s family from all possible harm. The last thing he wanted was for the mage weapon to be brought out into the open. “Suffice to say, we escaped and hurried here to give Mikhail the news. Is he well? In danger?”
Gary shook his head. “Raven was pregnant and she lost the baby.”
Traian met his eyes. Joie caught the echo of his instant sorrow. Somehow that baby had meant the world to all Carpathians, representing hope.
“That is sad news. I had thought perhaps, with her having been human, and carrying successfully once, she would escape the fate of our women.”
Traian sighed. He’d hoped to avoid repeating the subject in front of her family, but honor compelled him to answer Jubal’s direct question. “Over the last few centuries, fewer and fewer babies survived. Those that did were usually male. It became very rare to have a female child. When our prince found his lifemate in a human psychic, the males had renewed hope. She gave birth to a female child—the first in a very long time. Unfortunately, miscarriage is common and if the child is born, more often than not, they do not survive beyond their first year.”
Joie pressed her lips together tightly and looked at her sister. Gabrielle looked as if she might cry.
“How terrible,” she whispered.
“I’m doing research,” Gary said. “Hoping to find the cause.”
“Have you discovered anything that might point you in a direction?” Gabrielle asked, real interest in her voice. “I might be able to help.”
Gabrielle, Jubal cautioned. Slow down. We don’t know anything about this man.
Gabrielle stuck her chin out. If Traian is discussing important things with him, he obviously trusts him.
Traian ignored the sibling debate. “I came across a group of vampires traveling together. Not one master and a puppet, but at least three master vampires, each with their own following, even several well-seasoned ones—all traveling and hunting together with an actual battle plan. I have never seen such a thing before. There is definitely something brewing and the conspirators are determined to assassinate the prince. I managed to kill a couple of them, but was wounded, and instead of killed, taken prisoner and used for a food supply, but I had the feeling they wanted to use me for something else. What that could be, I do not know.”
“Mikhail wanted me to ask you why you did not simply give him the information when you requested that someone join you here,” Gary said.
“Had I used the common telepathic link, the undead would have heard what I