Carpathian 16 - Dark Demon

comforted. "Tell me, ainaak enyém ." His voice was infinitely gentle.
    Natalya was grateful he didn't probe into her mind. She felt raw. Betrayed. Ashamed.
    Was it the legacy of her mage blood? Was it possible her whole family was so tainted? A small sob escaped before she could choke it back. She huddled closer to Vikirnoff while he rocked her, stroking her hair and holding her close to him.
    "He's alive."

    "Xavier? We knew that."
    She shook her head, tightened her fingers around his wrist, needing to hold onto his solid strength while her world shattered around her. "Not Xavier. Razvan. He's alive. He's the Troll King." Her hand crept down to rub her ankle. "And that means he's in league with Xavier and Maxim. He's in league with vampires."
    Vikirnoff brushed the top of her hair with a kiss and rubbed his cheek against the back of her head in an effort to soothe her. "How do you know this?"
    "Remember when we were in the cave and Maxim attacked me, was able to get into my head so easily? My safeguards were gone. You replaced them, not me. You wove a different thread through my mind, not one I've ever used."
    "How does that make him alive?" Pain radiated off of her in waves but all Vikirnoff could do was hold her, feeling utterly helpless in the face of her anguish. All of his centuries of education, all of his vast power could not prepare him for this moment when she needed him the most. He could only hold her to him and feel her terrible grief.
    "My dreams have always been of my childhood with him. It was the only time we were together. We separated to be safe from Xavier, but we'd meet in our dreams and share information. We did that for years. After he died, I summoned the dreams and they would repeat and it would comfort me. But somewhere along the line the dreams started changing.
    I don't even remember when. We would talk about things pertinent now, in this time. I just assumed it was because I was lonely and I wanted to share my thoughts about things so the dreams changed to suit me."
    "That's logical, Natalya. Things occurring during the day that prey on our minds often will creep into dreams. At least that's what I've read."
    She shook her head, her eyes dark with pain. "It wasn't like that. He would ask me questions about experiments just like in the old days, but these were new ones."
    "The challenges. You said you were challenged to make things work. I thought Xavier challenged you."
    "It was Razvan. Razvan has been using me, for I don't know how long. It's why I can't remember things. Not Xavier. He didn't have my blood." A sob escaped, torn from her throat, the sound piercing Vikirnoff like a knife. "When I was a child, Razvan protected me from Xavier. He took the punishments and he went to the laboratories. He came up with ideas, but I figured out how to do them and gave Razvan the information. It was how we prevented him from receiving Xavier's punishments. Xavier thought Razvan was the one who had the natural abilities. We tricked him for years into thinking that." She wiped at the tears running down her face; the pain was so deep she felt as if her brother had torn out her heart. She pressed her hand there, trying to still the agony.

    "And you believe somewhere over the last few years, Xavier managed to recruit Razvan to his side?" Vikirnoff kept his voice strictly neutral. Natalya was so devastated and he was helpless in the face of her suffering. He snapped his teeth together hard, rage building in spite of his effort to be calm. His arms tightened. He wanted to take away all of her pain, protect her from any further hurt, but Natalya was not a woman to wrap in cotton. She would face this in her way. On her own terms.
    "He had to have. I don't know how. I don't even know why. Living a long time without happiness sucks. Why would either of them want that?"
    His arms tightened, sheltering her even closer to him. "I have no idea. But are you certain, Natalya? Is it possible you really were discussing your everyday thoughts in your dreams?"
    "You provided the safeguards and he couldn't reach me. He couldn't track me. That's why the Troll King didn't show up when you were fighting the vampires. It was so strange that he wasn't there." She raked her fingers through her hair in sheer agitation. "That bugged me.
    He'd been there every other time. He didn't have the advantage of being able to read my mind. He couldn't find me."
    "Because I used a completely different safeguard, one unfamiliar to