“Csitri.” Andre murmured the endearment softly.
She leaned into him. “I’m very happy here. My grandmother and Fane visit often. My grandmother is so happy with Fane, and it’s about time she has her own life. My sisters come to visit with my nieces and nephews. There’s Gabrielle and Aleksei—they come sometimes. They live the closest to us, but she is very involved in her work. She’s amazing, and I love to help her with her research when she needs it. She’s brilliant. But still”—she smiled at Adalasia—“it’s nice to have a woman visitor to talk to.”
“I would want the occasional visitor,” Adalasia said supportively.
“I do love it out here. There’s great climbing. As in boulders. I enjoy climbing, although Andre thinks I’m a little crazy, since I can simply float to the top of a boulder, but that isn’t as fun to me as figuring out the path to actually climb it.”
“You can float to the top of a boulder?”
Teagan laughed. “I could. I don’t. I like puzzles, and when I climb the face of a boulder, that’s what it is to me—a puzzle. I have to work out how to get up to the top.”
“She’s my little daredevil,” Andre said. “If you only knew half the things this one does to make my life terrifying.”
Sandu didn’t think he was joking even though Teagan laughed. Her laughter was contagious, and it was impossible not to smile, even under Andre’s watchful, piercing blue eyes.
Teagan shook her head. “He fights vampires and doesn’t break a sweat, but he says I make his life terrifying because I like to climb boulders even though he knows I can float down to the ground if I fall. Does that even make sense?”
Adalasia looked more at ease than ever, settling back in her chair as if Andre wasn’t quite as scary as he had been just minutes earlier. “No, not really. Are there vampires here, too, Andre?”
“I’m afraid they are trying to establish a foothold in as many places as possible. They like the wilds just as we do. We live on the very edge of civilization. Like us, they need blood to survive, so they try to prey on the towns and farms we protect. They have no idea we are in the vicinity. We try to keep a very low profile, so we always have the element of surprise.”
“How do you keep those closest to you from suspecting you are Carpathians? You can’t possibly be awake during the day, right?” Adalasia glanced at Sandu, her fingernails biting into her palm. “Wouldn’t it be better if one of the couple is awake and alert during the day?”
Sandu felt the tiny hopeful note in her mind. She didn’t want it there, but he was her lifemate, and it might not be in her voice for everyone to hear, but it was definitely in her mind.
Andre shook his head. “That would cause so many major problems, Adalasia.” His voice was as gentle as Sandu had ever heard him.
“You would believe your lifemate was dead to you, and you would not be able to stand it. You would suicide, and he would follow you.” Andre stated it as fact—and it was. “You are too far in our world and too far committed to Sandu as your lifemate. He cannot do without you. You cannot do without him. He is not fully anchored, and for long centuries, too long, he has been fighting the temptation to turn into the very vile, evil monster we destroy. Without you, he is still vulnerable—and will be until you are fully in the world with us.”
Andre did sound like the mentor now. A wise monk, attempting to guide her along the path by telling her the truth of what could happen to her lifemate and even to her if she wasn’t converted.
Adalasia frowned, turning to look at Sandu. You didn’t tell me any of this. Why?
I did tell you most of it, just not the way he put it to you. I knew you had little choice, and I wanted what little choice you had to be me.
He rubbed their linked hands under his jaw so that the shadow of bristles slid along her knuckles. He knew there was an ache in his mind, and it slid into hers. Her eyes darkened with desire and something else, something very close to affection.
“You are not safe above ground, either, Adalasia,” Andre continued. “The undead must sleep in the ground as we must, but they have puppets they send out, ones who eat human flesh. They would seek you. You are in between the two worlds and would attract them. A beacon. Right now, any vampire close would feel you if we were not shielding you from them. The puppets would be sent to acquire you. Sandu and your guardians would be helpless to stop them.”
Sandu wasn’t so certain that was entirely true. He had practiced, over the centuries, a few tricks while he lay paralyzed beneath the earth.