“What is it, Gabrielle?” Trixie asked.
“I don’t know. Do you feel strange? Do you hear any notes that just don’t sound right?” The feeling persisted, even though she wanted to tell herself it was nothing and she had always been afraid. Too afraid. Aleksei was gone, and it stood to reason why she didn’t like him being away from her. Why she suddenly didn’t feel safe. She didn’t know what her mysterious bracelet could or couldn’t do. Maybe it didn’t like the ancients and the lingering power there in the monastery.
Before Trixie could answer, she jumped up and hurried across to the gates. “I think I’d feel better if we put up more safeguards,” she said. “I’ve seen it done, but I’ve never actually done it before.” She was being paranoid and showing the other two women she was, but without Aleksei, she couldn’t help it. That chill down her spine had developed into a full-fledged shiver that gave her goose bumps all over her body. She had to grit her teeth to resist calling Aleksei back to her.
“Fane, Aleksei and Andre tripled the safeguards,” Teagan said.
“I know. I know,” Gabrielle repeated. Her stomach churned so badly she began to search around the compound itself, looking up on the rooftops, all along the wall itself. She had no idea what she was looking for, something out of place maybe.
“I’ve unraveled them,” Teagan said, watching her closely. “I could probably figure out how to reverse that and set them.” She followed Gabrielle to the gate.
Trixie remained seated, closing her eyes for a moment and reaching out to listen to the mountain and the play of the wind. “I hear the music of the mountain,” she reported, “and your music, Gabrielle. You’re frightened, but I can’t find anything for you to be afraid of.”
Gabrielle shook her head, and halted. She was such a baby without Aleksei. She’d promised him she would learn to protect their children. That she’d have his back, but she was such a coward, always afraid.
“I’m just being silly,” she admitted. “A bit ridiculous.” She tried a small, self-deprecating laugh, her fingers once more dropping to her bracelet, now lit with a steady, angry fire. The links glowed with flames. “I’ve always been one of those people who are afraid of certain circumstances. I was never a camper like you, Teagan. I wouldn’t ever go off by myself and travel. Joie, my sister, and Jubal, my brother, would drop everything and go in a heartbeat. I’m more of a planner and I like four solid walls around me. I’m sorry if I made you all nervous.”
Trixie sat up straighter and held her hand up for silence. Gabrielle closed her mouth and then bit her lip—hard. Another chill went down her spine, and this time the air felt heavier. Ominous. The wind stilled. At once she held her breath. The air changed swiftly without the breeze from clean and fresh to a heavy oil, very dense atmosphere.
“We need to get inside one of the buildings right now, and, Teagan, you begin weaving safeguards for the house itself,” Gabrielle ordered, and sprinted back toward Trixie to yank her out of the chair. “Hurry. We only have a few minutes.” Aleksei! Tell me what to do. Because now she was certain. There was a vampire close. Her mind told her that. Her bracelet had been trying to tell her that. He’s inside with us. I feel him, Aleksei. How could he get through the safeguards? How could we not spot him?
Stay calm, Gabrielle. Look around. I feel the danger through my link with you, but I have to see it to give you aid. If he was floating, molecules in the air, above the monastery all the time you were working with the ancients, it could be done. He would have been inside already. But he would have to be very old and very skilled. Aron would have been his servant.
Oh. God. That means he has to be extremely powerful, right?
I am on my way to you.
His voice steadied her. Calm. Like a rock. Her anchor in a storm. She took in a breath of tainted, foul air as she pulled Trixie from the chair and pushed her toward the relative safety of the four walls. If they could get inside and weave safeguards, they could hold out until the hunters returned. As Trixie ran toward the nearest building—which was Fane’s—she looked scared.
“I can’t hear his song.”
Trixie can’t hear his song.
She will not be able to because he is in a form that would not have one. He is part of the air. You feel the thickness. The foulness. He is there.
“Just get inside. Teagan, hurry,” Gabrielle hissed, as she shoved Trixie inside.
She took one step toward Teagan and felt a hand in her hair. The vampire dropped from the sky, forming as he did so, his hand reaching down to grip Gabrielle’s long hair in a terrible fist of iron. He yanked her so hard she went flying back against him, coming off her feet, unable to turn her head to look at him, to give Aleksei what he needed.