Carpathian 18 - Dark Possesion

strong, protective males would have felt it was their duty and pleasure to protect and serve that one small child. To fail must have been intolerable.
    "When word came that a vampire had attacked and killed her, we were all devastated. Worse, we were in a killing rage. Ruslan and Zacarias for the first time were not the cool heads they always had been. They wanted to slay the prince. We all did. We blamed him for countermanding our orders and ultimately causing Ivory's death." Manolito slowly shook his head. "We could not find her body to even try retrieval from the shadow world, although any and all of us would have gladly followed her to make the attempt."
    MaryAnn's heart jumped. The shadow world, land of mists, the place where the Carpathians went after death.
    Where Manolito still partially dwelled. "How can you follow someone to such a place?"
    His gaze flickered. "Rumor was, only the greatest warriors or healers attempt such a feat, or a loved one—a lifemate—but any of us would have gladly gone. And obviously it can be done. Gregori did it and then you."
    She hadn't realized what she was doing when she'd stepped into that other world. At times she still didn't want to believe it was real. "I didn't know what I was doing."
    "Apparently it is dangerous to one who is not yet dead."
    She sent him a small, reluctant smile. "Maybe it was a good thing I didn't know that. But none of you could follow her path, because you didn't have her body."
    "If the spirit leaves the body, the body must be guarded until the spirit returns and enters it; otherwise our enemies can trap us in the other world for all time." He shrugged his shoulders. "Suffice it to say, only the dead go there. The reason must be great for a living person to attempt it."
    "That's what Gregori and your brothers did, then. They followed you into the land of mists and shadows and brought your spirit back," MaryAnn reiterated, wanting to understand. He was still partially there. If that was so, she had to find a way to bring him wholly into their world again. This was far beyond her realm of expertise.
    "Yes, but we did not have that chance with Ivory. She was lost to us for all time, and we seriously began to question Vlad Dubrinsky's judgment. He had no right to interfere in family matters. It made no sense to us. If his son was mad and he did nothing, was it possible the madness was in him as well? The more we'd discussed what he'd done, the stronger our anger became. We began to think of ways to end his rule. One step led to the next. We realized the other species who were allied with us might fight with Dubrinsky to keep him as ruler, and the Carpathian people would be divided, so we figured out how to get rid of everyone else. The jaguar-men never stayed with their women. The women already were mating with humans and choosing to stay in that form. It wouldn't be difficult to turn the remaining women against their men and to capitalize on the brutality of the animal form."
    "Which is what eventually happened."
    He nodded. "Worse, MaryAnn, there is no hope of saving the jaguar race. Even if ten couples survived, it is too few to save them."
    "Evolution may have played a larger part than you think. Because you spoke of a plan, one, by the way, you reasoned out intellectually by observing what was already happening, doesn't mean you had the responsibility of the destruction of the species. You aren't a god."
    "No, but we did nothing to aid the jaguar in seeing their own destruction. We left them alone, and while we did, the Malinov brothers implemented the plan and helped to push the jaguars to their own extinction. If they have done that, what other parts of the plan have they begun?"
    MaryAnn waited, watching the shadows chase across his face, watching him flex his fingers as though they were aching. There was a new note in his voice, the soft rumble of a growl, every bit as sexy as his hypnotic velvet voice, maybe more so. The notes played over her skin, making her feel edgy.

    "The humans fear Carpathians because they fear vampires; The legends had to come from somewhere.
    Whispers and rumors of killings and the loathing and fear grew until the Carpathians were no longer allies of humans. We are now hunted and killed. And with the werewolf, the one ally that we knew had the power to stop us, it would be easy enough to do the same thing, to drive a wedge between the species, divide and conquer. The werewolves were elusive anyway, and driving them