"You tried talking to them about Dimitri?" Josef asked.
Skyler nodded. "I knew something was wrong, that Dimitri was troubled the last time we talked. He left abruptly for the Carpathian Mountains a few weeks ago and then he was in a terrible battle. I felt him slipping away from me. He was so far away, and I almost couldn't reach him. By the time I did, he was nearly gone. I could feel his life force fading." She looked up at him. "You remember that night? I called you to come and help me."
"You were in the college library and fortunately I'd come to visit you, so I wasn't far away," Josef said, "but you didn't tell me what happened. Only that Dimitri needed you. You were wiped out."
The memory of that night shook her. Dimitri had been badly wounded. Mortally wounded. She was far from him, studying in the college library-so mundane-the distance dimming their connection. She'd reached for him, knowing he was in trouble, and it was his brother she found. When she touched Dimitri, he had grown so cold, ice-cold. She shivered, the coldness still in her bones. Sometimes she didn't think she'd ever get it out.
"His brother was there, fighting for him, following after his fading light and trying to bring him back. I called to Dimitri and begged him not to leave me. I did my best, even across such a great distance, to help his brother bring him back to the land of the living. I just couldn't let him go."
She caught her lower lip between her teeth, biting down hard. Even now her heart ached. She pressed her palm tightly over the pain. "I can't lose him, Josef. He has always been there for me, as long as I've needed him, any way that I've needed him. It's my turn now. I won't let him down. I'm going to find him, and I'm going to help him escape."
"Before, when he was dying, you could reach him," Josef ventured carefully, knowing full well he was walking through a minefield. "Why do you think you can't now?"
"I know what you're getting at, Josef," she snapped, "and it isn't true. Dimitri is alive. I know he's alive."
Josef nodded. "I hear you, Sky, but that doesn't answer my question. Maybe we'd better figure out why you can't reach him when the two of you have always been able to communicate telepathically. You're extraordinarily powerful. More so than some Carpathians. Many of us can't cover the kinds of distances you've been able to. So what's different now?"
She frowned at him. Josef was incredibly brilliant and even if she didn't want to hear it, she needed to listen to him. He had a point. She'd been able to cross great distances to connect with Dimitri-and him with her. She had known when he was in trouble, when he had fought in a battle with a rogue pack and took the brunt of the attack in order to give his brother the opportunity to destroy a very dangerous vampire/wolf cross.
She had felt Dimitri's pain, so terrible she could barely breathe. Right there, in the college library she had nearly fallen to the floor, with that flash of pain that wasn't hers. She had followed that trail back to him unerringly despite his fading light. Over the years of talking telepathically, the connection between them had grown strong, and she found him even as his life force was fading away, traveling to another realm. If she could do that, Josef was right, why couldn't she find him now? It didn't make sense-and she should have figured that out on her own.
"You're too close to the problem," Josef said, proving he was so tuned to her he could practically read her thoughts.
"I don't like it when I'm not thinking straight," Skyler said. "He needs me to be one hundred percent on this."
"I think it's called love, Sky, as much as I don't want to admit you could love anyone but me." Josef winked at her.
"Something's really wrong, Josef. I know it is. How could I find him when he was already technically dead, but I can't do it now?"
"Perhaps he's unconscious," he ventured.
She shook her head. "I thought of that. I could still find him. I know I could. There's something about our connection. It's so strong, I can follow him anywhere. I could touch him when he was underground, rejuvenating in the soil."
Josef's eyes widened. "No way, Sky. No one can do that. We stop our hearts and lungs and we can't move. That's our most vulnerable time. How could he be aware?"
"I don't know, but whenever I reach for him, day or night, he's always been there for me. Always. I can't remember a single time that I couldn't find him. Mother Earth always sang to me, a vibration I could feel, and I would know where he was."
"Did you tell Gabriel and Francesca you could do that? Could you do it with them? With me?"
Skyler paced across the floor, looking once more at her watch a little impatiently. "I never thought to tell anyone, not even Dimitri, the how of it. But no, I never tried to wake anyone else. Francesca and Gabriel get very little time alone together these days, so I never considered waking them. It seemed natural to turn to Dimitri. I knew that he needed me as much as I needed him."
"All this time I thought you were afraid of a relationship with him," Josef said.
Skyler's smile held little humor. "I was never afraid of a relationship with him. How could I be? We have a wonderful relationship. He treats me like I'm the greatest, most desirable woman in the world. He's intelligent, we can talk about anything together for hours. He's kind and gentle. He's everything a woman could want in a partner."
"I'm hearing a ‘but' in there."
"I am not certain I can be the lifemate he truly deserves. I'm great at the emotional relationship and the intellectual relationship, but I have no idea if I can ever be what he needs physically. That's an entirely different matter."
Josef shook his head. "Skyler, don't get all psycho about that. It will happen when it's supposed to. Dimitri will never want another woman. Not ever. He'll give you all the time you need."
"I know. I do. Dimitri would never push me and he never has. It isn't him that's worried. I just get anxious thinking about it. I want to be the best lifemate possible to him, but my mind just can't go to a physical relationship yet."
She glanced again at her watch. "Paul had better get here soon. Are you certain he got away without anyone being suspicious?"
"Yeah, he's on his way. Only a few minutes out. You said Dimitri was alive. If he is, we'll find him."
Skyler let her breath out slowly. "I don't like any of this. I detest the fact that the prince, along with everyone else, has abandoned him."
Josef slung his arm around her and hugged her tight. The smile faded. "We'll find him. We will."
Skyler clung to him for a moment and then nodded, straightening her shoulders and stepping away from him. "I don't like the only explanation I can think of for not being able to connect with him."
"What is it?" Josef asked.
"He's blocking me." There was hurt in her voice. "He has to be. There's no other explanation that makes sense."
2
Paul Jansen gathered Skyler into his arms and hugged her hard. He was taller than she remembered, his shoulders wide and chest deep. He'd filled out and looked more of a man than a boy. He worked hard on his family's ranch and it showed in his deep tan, strong build, defined arms, and confidence. He looked older than his twenty years, responsibility weighing on him.
Skyler hugged him back just as hard. "Thank you for coming. I wouldn't have asked you if I wasn't so desperate."
He held her at arm's length, looking her over carefully, a small, affectionate grin on his face. "I wouldn't miss this for the world. We made a pact a long time ago, the three of us, if any one of us was in trouble, we'd come running. I'm glad you called me."
Josef caught his forearms in the traditional Carpathian greeting between warriors, shocking Skyler a little. There was nothing traditional about Josef, and when he used any of the ancient rituals it always surprised her.
"Good to see you, brother. It's been too long. They don't let you get off work very often, do they?" Josef said.
Paul hugged him in the more traditional human way. "I look after my sisters, especially Ginny. The De La Cruz brothers and their lifemates have enemies, and there's a ranch to run and Ginny to look after during the day."
"You always did work too hard," Josef commented, hugging him back. "It's good to see you. Talking online doesn't cut it. How is your sister? She's growing up fast."
"Ginny is amazing with horses, just like Colby always has been. She's beautiful, too, which means I have to watch all those ranch hands and make sure they don't get any ideas." Paul grinned, but there was no amusement in his eyes.