Very gently, he stopped her and allowed her to come out from under the light thrall he had induced in her. It didn’t surprise him that she stepped away from him, putting a good portion of the chamber between them.
“What have you done?” she demanded, pressing her fingertips to her lips.
“Only what was necessary.”
“You bound us together.” It was an accusation.
“You knew it was necessary.”
“I most certainly did not.” Tears shimmered in her eyes.
His heart contracted. He hadn’t expected that. “Why are you so upset? All along, you’ve known what to expect.” He kept his voice gentle. Low. Suppressing his nature. His need to leap across the room and take her in his arms whether she liked it or not.
“We were supposed to talk about it.” She backed up more.
Sandu waved his hand, and a chair immediately was behind her. When she felt it against the backs of her knees, she dropped into it and gripped the stuffed arms.
“We were supposed to discuss it,” she whispered again.
“There is no reason to discuss binding us together,” Sandu said. “That had to happen.” He felt no remorse, although he didn’t like to see his courageous woman truly upset, and she was. “If you know I am ancient, then you know I can’t stay with you during the day. You must sleep, and I have to weave safeguards to protect you. I have to be able to monitor you and know where you are if we ever are separated. You have to be able to reach for me. This is a protection for both of us, as it restores my soul to me. I cannot turn.”
Her lashes fluttered. “Cannot turn?”
“There are monsters in the world that are very real, Adalasia, as you well know. I am a Carpathian. When we are born, our soul is split in two. A female is given our other half to hold in her keeping until we can find her. She holds all the light. We have only darkness in us. We lose all color and emotion after two hundred years. Eventually, we have nothing but our honor to sustain us while we look for our lifemate. I hunt the undead, but without you, I could go down that path. It is not possible now. You are the keeper of my soul, born over and over until I found you.”
He saw knowledge in her expression. In her eyes. There was wariness. And exhaustion. She was at a breaking point, and he didn’t want to push her any further. They had accomplished far more in one night than he ever thought possible. He would command she sleep and go to ground. They could start their journey the next evening together.
Adalasia realized that being alone in a cave system with five very large, scary-looking men and not feeling intimidated just underscored how far from normal she really was. Okay, maybe she did feel some trepidation. A little. Her mouth was drier than usual. It took some work to control her heartbeat, but there were some good reasons for that.
She was in a labyrinth of caves somewhere in the San Bernardino National Forest, one no one knew existed, with ancients no one knew existed, and she didn’t even know how to get out of the caves. She was fairly certain all of the men existed on the blood of humans. She was the only human in that chamber, but they looked well-fed to her. She glared at Sandu.
They fed aboveground, not on you. They are here to protect you, Adalasia.
Of course they were there to protect her. Just as he was there to protect her. She pushed down her resentment. They were all waiting for her to start. To give them answers. Where did one begin? She couldn’t help looking at Sandu. He was so gorgeous in a rough-looking way. She tried not to let the tremendous pull he had on her or the fact that physically she was attracted to him persuade her in any way.
He had taken decisions out of her hands by binding them together. Maybe she would have agreed to it once she understood what it meant, but he hadn’t asked. He hadn’t told her exactly what it entailed. He’d taken. He’d compounded that sin by taking her blood without her permission. Again, she most likely would have given it to him freely, but she thought they were entering into a partnership. Now she knew that wasn’t so. That meant she had to be very, very careful what she told any of them, Sandu included.
Was this really about him? His past? His family? She moistened her lips and decided to just plunge in, although she wasn’t going to tell perfect strangers everything, even if they had fangs and she was the only human and they were underground in a cave system she couldn’t hope to find her way out of alone.
“I read the tarot cards not only for others but for myself. My deck is very old and has been in my family for generations. It’s been passed down from mother to daughter, the same deck for centuries. Long before credit was given for tarot readings.” She had to admit that. There was no getting around it.