“She was ill,” Solange repeated gently. “Let us take care of her in the way of our people. She is royalty and should be treated as such. Then we’ll go home to Jasmine and Sandrine while the others dispose of these rogues.”
Jubal nodded and gathered the body of his mother in his arms. Dominic was there, wrapping his arm around Solange as they went to the sacred burial ground where the ashes of her mother and aunt were buried. Sandu and the brethren followed them and stood solemnly as Dominic opened the ground and Jubal placed his mother’s body in the rich soil. Solange conducted the ritual ceremony, and the body was burned until it was reduced to a fine ash, and the earth was closed over it.
They stood for a long time while the sounds of the rain forest played music for them. Solange put her hand on Jubal’s arm. “Let’s go home, brother.”
Jubal nodded. “Let’s walk partway. Just for a little while.”
That was what all of them did, allowing the rain forest to bring them all a sense of peace.
Sandu had visited the Brazilian rain forest on many occasions in his travels throughout the centuries. He had never encountered Danutdaxton in Peru. Many centuries earlier, Dax had been in various locations in the Carpathian Mountains, traveling with a Carpathian woman, Arabejila, unclaimed lifemate to a very powerful Carpathian male who had deliberately turned vampire. Mitro Daratrazanoff had led the two on a chase over the continent. He’d been on a terrible killing spree, taunting the hunter and doing his best to kill his lifemate so she couldn’t help track him.
Danutdaxton was a renowned hunter, and even as he tracked Mitro, he would destroy any of the undead he crossed. He had always, even as a young boy, long before he had grown in power and skill, made grown Carpathians uneasy. He had a talent that no other Carpathian had ever shown at such an early age and was unsettling to most males. Dax could see the dark shadows growing in the males from the time the boys were young, and he would know instinctively which were going to turn.
He admitted that, at times, he could be wrong. Sometimes honor was equally as strong or stronger in a Carpathian as that darker shadowing. Dax couldn’t see that trait, nor could he know when a man would chance upon his lifemate. A lifemate could save a hunter from turning, overcoming the darkest shadowing.
There were many other factors going into what defined a Carpathian hunter. He had to be able to think like his enemy. He had to be experienced in battle. Fast. Have tremendous knowledge of the undead. Each kill brought him closer to the brink of disaster. The whispers of temptation grew louder. The damage to one’s soul when it was already dark and only half a soul was tremendous. Dax saw all those things, and no one wanted those sins exposed. It made for a lonely childhood that only worsened as he got older. Everyone avoided him.
Sandu was happy that Danutdaxton had found his lifemate. Dax’s life had been extremely difficult hunting a dangerous enemy for so many centuries. He had disappeared for over five hundred years in South America. It was now known he’d been sealed in a volcano with the undead by Arabejila. Somehow, both hunter and hunted had survived—and changed—becoming something different. Dax was tasked with finding Mitro and destroying him once they escaped the volcano, and he had done so, although it hadn’t been an easy feat.
The Andes Mountains stretched across the entire length of South America along the western coast. It was the perfect range for a Carpathian like Danutdaxton to call home. He could move from country to country, have several homes in the shelter of the mountain, and find places to set his dragon free. At the same time, if his lady needed the company of humans, he could easily establish a home on the outskirts of a small town, and they could integrate for a time in that area, or visit with any of the Carpathians living in one of the South American countries.
As they had approached the region Danutdaxton had directed them to, they had taken their human forms and walked along the forest trail. This was cloud forest, covered with the mist, a beautiful, unexpected world of explosive color and sound, even at night, different from the Brazilian forest where Solange and Dominic made their home.
“He is watching us,” Nicu announced.
“I feel him,” Sandu said. “He’s been aware of us for some time.” Sandu had been careful to keep their approach to Dax’s home as open as possible.
Sandu had asked for a meeting, explaining he was traveling with his lifemate and four unmated brethren from the monastery as guards because their journey was dangerous. He added they would meet with Danutdaxton away from his home anywhere, if Dax was willing, as they were certain their enemy was close behind them.