Carpathian 16 - Dark Demon

barrier burning while he aided you in unraveling the safeguards. The burns were very severe. Gregori feared there would be scars and Carpathians rarely scar."
    "How awful. I could feel his pain occasionally, but he shielded me for the most part. I couldn't help him at all, even though I knew he was suffering."
    "Carpathian males protect our women, Natalya. It is who we are."
    She rubbed his arm lightly, back and forth. "I know I'm difficult."
    "We will work out the kinks. All relationships have them."
    She pulled back enough to look into his eyes. "We won't be working anything out if you mean I'll be tucked away in a corner when trouble comes."
    "I can only wish." He kissed her nose. "I was proud of you during Gabrielle's conversion.
    You really helped her get through it. Hopefully, when her sister arrives and she awakens, she will be happy."
    "I think she will. Her main concern seemed to be for Gary and what the Carpathian males will expect of her now. If she loves Gary, I can't imagine anyone objecting to her being with him."
    Vikirnoff remained silent, his hands sliding up and down her bare skin just to feel how soft she was.
    Natalya shivered under his touch, leaning closer so that the tips of her breasts pushed against his chest. "I don't suppose your Mikhail can find a way to destroy the book?"
    "Even if he cannot, it will be safe in his care. He has no wish to open it, let alone use it, so I believe, until he figures out a way to get rid of it, we will not have to worry."
    "I'm glad I don't have the responsibility of it. He was amazing. Have you ever seen that before?"

    Vikirnoff shook his head. "There were rumors, legends of the Dubrinsky and Daratrazanoff alliance, that there was some weapon that could be unleashed, but I am uncertain just what happened. I am just grateful that it did happen."
    "Me, too. And did I say thank you for getting rid of that knife? I couldn't stand to know it was still in the world and might find its way back to Xavier."
    He caught her hips and lifted her off of him, setting her to one side. Natalya gave a small cry of joy. "Hey! I'm getting the jeans off."
    "Yes, you are." He flicked his hand toward her and the offending material vanished. "We will practice removing your clothes hour after hour, but for now, I cannot wait any longer."
    He moved up behind her, bending her forward, bracing her palms on the log. His hand slid between her legs, stroking and caressing, fingers dipping deep.
    Her entire body shuddered and she pushed back against him. "So impatient," she teased.
    "But then, so am I."
    He thrust into her, a long deep stroke, welding them together, hearing her soft cry of pleasure and feeling fire streak through his body. It would take several lifetimes to ever sate him. It would take even more before he could fully believe the miracle he had been given.
    "You are ainaak sívamet jutta . Forever to my heart connected."
    "As you are to mine."

    Appendix 1

    Carpathian Healing Chants

    To rightly understand Carpathian healing chants, background is required in several areas:

    • The Carpathian view on healing
    • The "Lesser Healing Chant" of the Carpathians
    • The "Great Healing Chant" of the Carpathians
    • Carpathian chanting technique

    1. The Carpathian view on healing
    The Carpathians are a nomadic people whose geographical origins can be traced back to at least as far as the Southern Ural Mountains (near the steppes of modern day Kazakhstan), on the border between Europe and Asia. (For this reason, modern-day linguists call their language, "proto-Uralic," without knowing that this is the language of the Carpathians.) Unlike most nomadic peoples, the wandering of the Carpathians was not due to the need to find new grazing lands as the seasons and climate shifted, or the search for better trade.
    Instead, the Carpathians' movements were driven by a great purpose: to find a land that would have the right earth, a soil with the kind of richness that would greatly enhance their rejuvenative powers.
    Over the centuries, they migrated westward (some six thousand years ago), until they at last found their perfect homeland—their " susu"— in the Carpathian Mountains, whose long arc cradled the lush plains of the kingdom of Hungary. (The kingdom of Hungary flourished for over a millennium—making Hungarian the dominant language of the Carpathian Basin—until the kingdom's lands were split among several countries after World War I: Austria, Czechoslovakia, Romania,