So, Gregori.Mikhail’s voice was a mere thread of sound in the healer’s mind. Tell me what you found.

The woman would have healed his wounds eventually. She is an excellent physician. It is a miracle he managed to keep himself alive until she found him. His mind is completely shattered, Mikhail. Very dark and violent. He has bound the woman to him, and the tie is strong.Gregori’s reply was thoughtful.

Why do I hear the inevitablebut in there?Mikhail, a little weak from donating blood, sat down to rest.

Gregori righted a chair and sat facing him. I think he turned the woman, maybe accidentally, maybe on purpose. She is Carpathian, yet human. She is weak, as if her internal organs had very recently suffered a trauma.

How could you know this? You have not touched her,Mikhail pointed out.

His mind never quite releases hers completely. She anchors him. He is extremely dangerous, Mikhail. His rage seethes in him. A good part of him is pure animal instinct. His nature is predatory— you know that. What was done to him has shaped his life for all time. That I cannot change.

Mikhail rubbed his forehead, unconsciously sought to touch Raven’s mind with his. Immediately she was there, flooding him with warmth, surrounding him with love. His lifemate could take away every sadness with one melting look from her blue eyes, one touch of her mind to his.

Mikhail mentally laced his fingers through Raven’s, even as he turned to Gregori. Do you think he will turn?

Gregori gave the mental equivalent of a shrug. I think he is dangerous either way. Only the woman can control him. She is the answer to that. If I am correct and she knows nothing of our ways, it will be difficult. She is determined he survive, but I sense she has accepted that it is inevitable that she die. She has no clear idea of what she has been committed to here.

Mikhail glanced at his brother, saw him gently, even tenderly stroke back Shea’s hair. The gesture touched his heart.

Gregori sighed. It is obvious how he feels, but he does not always know what he is doing. He is quite capable of harming her if something triggers the beast in him.

Mikhail rubbed the heel of his hand over his forehead. The Jacques he knew and loved was so different. His laughter came readily, and compassion always tempered his predatory nature. Jacques was so intelligent, so easy to love. Long after Jacques had lost his ability to feel his emotions, he had retained the memory of them. He had often helped the older males to recall memories of their own laughter. Who had done this to him? To be forced to sentence another brother to death... Mikhail couldn’t do it. It was time to step down, time to hand someone else the weight of responsibility for their dying race.

Mikhail felt Raven slip her arms around his neck. “Jacques is strong, love. He will find his way back to us.”

Mikhail turned her palm up, kissed the center gently. Gregori thinks Jacques turned Shea O’Halloran without her knowledge or consent.His black eyes met her blue ones, filled with guilt, tenderness. He does not think the woman has any idea of our ways.

Jacques will—

No, little one, Jacques remembers very little of anything. Hatred, rage, revenge, the woman— that is all he thinks of. We are not certain he is capable of taking care of her.

Look at him with her,Raven instructed. She repeated it aloud. “Look at him with her.”

Jacques wanted the strangers to be gone. So many males pressing close to Shea kept him on edge. He trusted none of these people, with the possible exception of the blue-eyed woman. Jacques could hardly bear to look at the one who claimed to be his brother, the one who had attacked and nearly killed Shea. Strangely enough, it hurt to look at the man. Jacques’ head seemed to want to disintegrate every time their eyes met. Memories. Fragments. Pieces of nothing.

Enough,hewhispered to Shea, his words a soft command. Her tongue stroked across the wound to close it, a seduction of pure sensation.

Shea came out of the trance slowly, a sweet, coppery taste in her mouth. The terrible gnawing hunger was gone, but her body was on fire, soft and pliant, in such need. Suddenly aware of the others in the room, she burrowed closer to Jacques for protection. If they all were just gone, she could sleep, figure things out later. She could sort through all the data she had and determine just what these people were.

Fear slammed into her, her mouth went dry, and her heart began to pound in alarm. Shea could feel Jacques’ hands tightening like bonds on her arms. A hypnotic trance. Jacques had induced it. Her green eyes slowly opened to move over his face in a slow, terrified study. So why wasn’t she joyful, ecstatic, that they had found his people, his family? Why wasn’t she thrilled at the arrival of a healer?

There was something wrong here. Her only hope was to get out of the situation, leave Jacques to his family. There were now plenty of people to care for Jacques without her. The healer obviously was far more skilled than she was. Shea was shaking, embarrassed that those surrounding them could see how badly she was trembling. She was always in control. She just needed distance to regain it.

No!Jacques’ voice was much stronger now and much more frightening. Youcannot leave me.

Shea knew he was capable of far more power than she could conceive of. And he was manipulating her, had been all along. For the first time she allowed the facts to come together in her mind. Vampire. Jacques was a vampire. All of these people were. Her hand went to her throat. She was probably one of them now.

“Let go of me!” Shea struggled in earnest now, shocked at how physically strong Jacques had become with the infusion of Gregori’s blood.

Jacques snarled, black fury rising along with fear of losing her, fear that she could not survive without him, fear of once again being alone in utter darkness. He held her down easily, but the sound of her heart racing was alarming to him, dragging him back to a shred of sanity.

Into the swirl of violent emotions came the healer’s voice. “She does not understand the ways of our people, Jacques. You must be gentle with her, guide her, as your brother guided Raven.”

Shea fought the compelling voice, a weaver of spells. “I want to leave. You can’t keep me here.” Jacques, please, don’t do this. Don’t make me stay when we know it’s impossible for me. You know me, know me inside and out.

Stop it, Shea,Jacques pleaded with her, knowing he was holding on to his intellect and reason by a thread. Nothing has changed.

Everything has changed. These people are your family.She tried to take a deep, calming breath. Jacques, I was your doctor, nothing more. I don’t belong here. I don’t know how to live like this.

You are my lifemate.Thewords were firm in her head. You are tired, my love, tired and afraid. You have every right to be. I know that. I know I frightened you, but you belong with me.He did his best to keep his voice a soft whisper of sense, but it was difficult with the beast rising and the fragments in his brain confusing him.

She lay looking up at his strong, harsh, uncompromising features, the warning in his furious eyes. I don’t even know what it means to be your lifemate, Jacques. You know I want the best for you, I want you well and whole again, but I can’t be with all these people. I need time to sort out what’s happened here. What I am. I can hardly breathe right now, let alone think things through.

She was telling the truth. Merged as he was with her, Jacques could feel the familiar pattern in her brain, her intellect leaping forward to protect her from any overwhelming emotion. She was too tired and drained to succeed at her attempt. He struggled once again to reassure her. You are my lifemate. It means we belong together, never apart.