Carpathian 17 - Dark Curse

allies and we need to actively find them.\"
    Mikhail\'s voice was quiet, but carried the weight of his absolute authority. \"We cannot abandon other species Page 147

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    to fight the vampire alone. We need to change with the times and become more open to friendship and alliances.\"
    \"The more we let into our circle, the more difficult it will be to protect our women and children,\" Gregori pointed out. \"We are surrounded by enemies and we do not know friend from foe at this point.\"
    \"Then all of us need to be trained in destroying vampires,\" Jaxon proposed. \"It should be mandatory, so no matter where we are, we have a chance to get out alive.\"
    \"We train the male children from the time they are born now,\" Mikhail said quietly. \"I am already passing my knowledge to my son who is in Raven\'s womb.\"
    \"What about your granddaughters, Mikhail?\" Jaxon asked. \"Is anyone teaching them?\"
    Gregori scowled, his silver eyes glittering with something close to a warning. \"My daughters and my life mate will never be allowed into a dangerous situation.\"
    Destiny\'s eyebrow shot up. \"You can\'t possibly know that. You can\'t. No one, not even you have that kind of control throughout a lifetime, especially a lifetime as long as we have. Absolutely all women and even our children should be trained in how to destroy a vampire,\" Destiny said. \"It only makes sense.\"
    Jaxon nodded her head. \"Why should you only train the male children? Even if a woman never has to use her knowledge, she should have it. You never know when she may be attacked and males are not always by our sides.\"
    \"Why not?\" Nicolas demanded. \"Your life mate and every other male whether he is attached or unattached should be with one of our women when they go anywhere. Each and every one of you, and especially our children, should have bodyguards. Ivory died because she left the safety of her family. We lost Rhiannon for the same reason. The moment Xavier closed his school to males and took only our females, we should have refused to allow them to attend.\"
    There was a murmur of agreement in the chamber and several nodded their heads. Destiny glanced at her life mate, clearly asking him questions. She scowled at his answers.
    \"You re talking about something that happened centuries ago, Nicolas. Times are different and the world is different. You can\'t live in the past.\"
    \"No, but we can learn from it,\" Nicolas said. \"We lost everything by not protecting our women. Everything .
    We are down to thirty or so women who can maybe provide one or two life mates for our males, if we manage to figure out what is killing our children. We cannot afford to think in terms of humans or any other species that have numerous numbers to fall back on. If they choose to forget their women and children, that\'s their problem, but we cannot. We have to do everything in our power to protect the few that we have.\"
    \"You can\'t lock up the women, Nicolas,\" Lucian said, \"as much as we may want to.\"
    \"We could try,\" Dimitri, one of the single men, muttered under his breath.
    Jaxon shot him a hostile look. \"You can try, but I wouldn\'t count on it ever happening.\"
    Gregori stirred, drawing all eyes instantly. \"Destiny is correct in that our women and children should be taught how to defend themselves. But I agree with Nicolas on this point. No child and no woman should go Page 148

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    unescorted. We have too many enemies and if we can no longer detect them, they could walk through our village and would never be aware of the danger.\"
    Jaxon frowned. \"Do you really think any grown woman is going to sit in her home waiting for an escort when she has things to do?\"
    \"We all make sacrifices in times of need,\" Gregori said.
    Jaxon rolled her eyes. \"Then you wait in your house for one of us to come escort you. Try it for a few risings and see how you like it.\" She turned her head and met her life mate\'s icy gaze. \"If I feel like visiting a friend or relative, I\'m certainly going to do it.\"
    \"Now you sound like a sulky child deliberately misunderstanding what I am saying to you,\" Gregori said.
    \"No one wants to dictate to you. The reality is quite simple. We need children, not fighters, and women have babies not men. We have a surplus of fighters and very few women so the task of giving birth falls to the women.\"
    \"Really?\" Destiny\'s eyebrow shot up. \"So what I\'m hearing is that Nicolae