I’m happy you find me attractive. It would not be good if my lifemate was not in any way sexually interested in me.
Adalasia narrowed her eyes at him. I’m fairly certain I didn’t have anything about being sexually attracted to you in my mind.
You were thinking in terms of raging passions and intense emotions and me inspiring you.
He looked at her with his dark eyes that had that curious red gleam, like warm candlelight, sexy as sin. Why was she thinking that when she should be thinking feral, predatory animal?
“You know Lucian, Sandu,” Benedek said. “He and his lifemate have a residence somewhere in the States. He may recall something of your childhood.”
“Lucian?” Adalasia echoed. “Who is Lucian?”
Sandu smiled at her. A charming smile. A sexy smile. He was definitely doing his best to win her over. She tried thinking of him as a shark. Unfortunately, that didn’t fit him very well. It was all that hair. It should have been dark to match those black eyes of his, but instead, it was light with those impressive streaks of silver and gold. She had to stop looking at him. Or thinking about him. He was already arrogant, and she was far too susceptible. She was predisposed to think of him as her partner, and she couldn’t let her guard down for a minute.
“Lucian and Gabriel Daratrazanoff are twins. They are legends in our world. Definitely skilled fighters, few have ever come up against them and lived. Lucian knew Gabriel had a lifemate, and to keep him from turning or suiciding, he deceived his brother into believing he had turned vampire so Gabriel would hunt him until he found her. Lucian is a protective man.”
“He resides here in the States?”
“Yes. He chose to stay here. He travels back and forth between here, France, where Gabriel resides, and the Carpathian Mountains, where he consults with the prince,” Nicu volunteered.
Sandu raised an eyebrow. “You certainly are aware of Lucian’s business.”
“I’ve run into him a time or two in my travels, both in France and in the Carpathian Mountains. Both times, I needed blood to survive, and he gave it to me without hesitation,” Nicu admitted.
“Where is his main residence?” Sandu asked.
“I believe he owns an estate in Montana somewhere in the wild. He keeps wolves,” Nicu said. “Most people don’t go uninvited to his home. It isn’t safe.”
Adalasia didn’t like the sound of that, but when she looked down at the cards, she knew that was exactly where they had to go. She sighed. “You really need a good jolt to the brain, Sandu. That way we wouldn’t be taking chances like this.”
Sandu laughed, and the sound was mellow and rich, sliding into her body like a fine wine. She gathered the cards. “We have a direction to go. How do we get there? Car?”
“Fly,” Sandu said.
She raised an eyebrow. “Really? I’m not flying across the United States like a bat. Or a bird. Or whatever you were.”
He laughed. “We do use airplanes, just like everyone else.”
“You do?”
“We didn’t just emerge from caves.”
“Just from the monastery,” Benedek pointed out. “We haven’t been out that long, but we’re learning fast. We just take information out of people’s minds.”
“You can read anyone’s mind?” She carefully placed the cards back inside the velvet pouch. “At any time?”
Adalasia didn’t like the sound of that. She thought only Sandu could read her mind. She was going to have to be very, very careful and work on the exercises her mother had insisted she learn as a child that would aid in strengthening the barriers in her mind against demons. She didn’t know if that would help in stopping these men from reading her, but she hoped it would.
Adalasia pushed to her feet. Immediately the five men stood as well. “So, how do we get out of here and onto a flight to Montana, or wherever this Lucian might have his home? How do we contact him so he doesn’t get upset that we’re coming to see him?”
“We have our own plane,” Sandu said. “Carpathians rarely take the chance of flying with a full flight of humans. The risk is too great. Our plane is specifically equipped to allow us to sleep during daylight flights.”
“Do you have your own pilot, or does one of you fly the plane?”
“We have a human pilot,” Sandu said. “Zenon Santos has been with us for a long time now and is very loyal. He comes from a family in South America, studied in England and grew to love flying in service to his country. When he got out, he asked to be employed in some capacity as a pilot. Since we needed pilots, we hired him immediately.”