Gary looked at her for a long time, obviously choosing his words carefully. "The Carpathians are born with a soul that must find its other half. The light to their darkness. Only that soul can restore colors and emotions and prevent a Carpathian male too long in the world without those things from turning. Without that one woman who is the other half of his soul, he will choose between giving up his soul and becoming the very thing he hunts, or he must seek the dawn and suicide. He must find his lifemate."
At the word her heart clenched. She pressed her hand over her heart, suddenly barely able to breathe, her mind racing. "Gary, what's the Carpathian word for lifemate?"
Gary looked her straight in the eye. "Palafertiilam."
Riley slowly nodded her head, trying hard not to notice that her blood surged hotly at the word, or that her mind continually reached for Dax. She pressed her lips together to keep from smiling. "I understand."
"Do you?" Gary asked.
She shrugged. "Not really, but I'm certain I'll figure it out."
Outside the tent, ash blanketed everything. It was still falling through the canopy of trees, turning everything a snowy gray. Riley looked around, easily spotting Jubal and Ben along with some natives gathered around a central fire pit. The camp was surprisingly large. As she walked toward Jubal and Ben, another group of men came in from a trail off to her right.
She spied Alejandro, one of their guides, along with Miguel, Hector, Don, and Mack Shelton. They were obviously one of the returning search parties, but since there was no sign of Marty or Pedro among their numbers, it seemed clear their search hadn't been successful.
Jubal approached. "Hey, Riley. Good to see you up and about. You feeling okay?"
"I'm good, thanks." She turned to watch the returning search party. "Gary told me Marty and Pedro went missing."
"Yeah. Looks like they still are. Can't say if that's good news or bad."
"Vampires like to play with their victims," Gary explained in a quiet voice. "Turning people into walking puppets isn't uncommon. If Mitro is the reason those two are missing, whoever finds them will probably get a very unpleasant surprise."
Riley spun around in shock. "Did you tell them that?" She nodded her head in the search party's direction, lowering her voice so they wouldn't hear.
Gary and Jubal's silence was all the answer she needed.
"Why wouldn't you tell them? If you're sending out a search party and putting them in harm's way, shouldn't they know what they're dealing with?" She scrubbed her hand over her face. "Gary, Jubal, how fair is that?"
For the second time since waking, she felt the sensation of a warm hand touching her back, calming her and drawing the focus of her anger away from Jubal and Gary. She turned to glance behind her, but no one was there.
"We considered it highly unlikely they'd find Marty or Pedro," Gary said. "Before Dax went to sleep, he ran a preliminary search in a five-mile radius around the camp, and found nothing."
"Riley, you have to understand," Jubal added when she continued to shake her head. "Gary and I swore an oath, to keep the Carpathians' secrets at all cost and by doing so keep their race safe. We didn't make that vow lightly, and we don't keep it lightly. There are men, women and children ..." He paused for a fraction. "And babies counting on us." He watched the returning members of the search party as they separated and sought out their own tents, and his expression turned resolute. "We will not fail them. We can't share even a hint of what we know with others. Too many lives depend on our silence-not to mention, do you really think the likes of Don Weston would believe us?"
"Gary, how long have you known about the Carpathians?" Riley asked.
"For some time now," he admitted. "Several years."
"And in that time you've never told anyone else about them? Ever?" Her question made the two men go still, as if she had touched something sacred.
After a long silence, Jubal finally said, "Riley, you're the first person either of us has ever told." The way he said it made her wonder how these two men lived with such a big secret. How the world looked to them, as they went into coffee shops and airports, listened to news reports about unexplained events, knowing what they knew.
The ground under her seemed to shift a little. Riley looked down and sent a thought spiraling into the ground. Go to sleep. I'm not dealing with you right now.
Riley tried to put herself in Gary's and Jubal's shoes, to imagine what she'd do in their place. If an entire race of beings depended on her for survival, would she betray their trust and reveal their secrets to others? Or would she keep their secrets even if that meant she might put other people in danger?
Truth be told, she'd already made that choice. She and her mother, both. They had come here to this mountain to work the ritual that had been passed down from generation to generation. Her mother had known about the evil imprisoned in the mountain, but she hadn't warned the others in their party. Neither had Riley, when the secret fell to her to keep. She'd done what needed to be done. Was she really any different than Gary and Jubal?
"Riley, I know it's hard for you to understand. It's hard for us to withhold information when we know it might cost lives. But have you ever been a part of something so important that your own needs become insignificant? That's what this is to us." Jubal paused to let his words sink in.
"Even though we can't talk about what we know, we still do what we can to protect the innocent," Gary added. "Like the way we accompanied you up the volcano. We suspected what was up there. We couldn't tell you our suspicions, but we came with you to protect you all the same."
Riley saw the same defenseless honesty in Gary's face that she had in Jubal's. That helped put her own feelings of guilt to rest.
She felt Dax before he spoke to her this time. They are both great men, sivamet, both have tremendous capacity for caring for others. It is a very rare trait. It is no wonder my people have chosen to bring them in.
Dax had a way of bringing a calming stability when he spoke to her. They helped as much as they could on the trip here, and on the mountain. I owe them a debt. It was odd speaking in her head to someone, but she had to admit she liked the intimacy of it. Strangely, when his voice filled her mind, she sometimes caught a hint of life, his memories, as if more than just his voice had entered her mind.
It seems we both do. Riley heard the conviction in his voice.
If you're going to keep talking to me, I don't see why you're pretending to sleep.