He thought it best—and much safer—to ignore her question. “What are you doing in here? I was worried about you.”
She studied his face for a few moments before she slowly took her feet from her thighs and stretched a little. “You were gone for a while. I’m looking for something very important to me and I think it’s somewhere in this chamber. I can’t quite get a lock on it though.”
He reached out a hand to her. Teagan hesitated, only a half second, before placing her hand in his, but he caught it. She’d had a nasty experience with a man she considered her friend. She wasn’t going to be so trusting of a man she didn’t know, no matter how drawn to him she was. And he’d ensured she would be drawn to him. The lifemate ritual had sealed them together as had their first exchange of blood. She might not remember it, but she wouldn’t be able to be far from him for very long.
Andre drew her gently to her feet and let go of her, making certain she was a little distance from him so she would feel safe. She wasn’t, but she didn’t need to know that.
“Perhaps I can help in your search.”
She glanced at him from under her long lashes, a small frown on her face. She gave a little shrug accompanied by a sigh. “Actually, if I tell you, you’ll think I’m totally crazy. Everyone does.”
He waited in silence for her to continue, but she didn’t, forcing him to have to pry the information out of her. “Tell me.” He did his best not to make it sound like an order, but even his softest voice appeared to be a command.
Her frown deepened. “I came here looking for a certain item. A stone. Or a gem. I’ll know it when I ‘feel’ it. I know that sounds crazy, but it’s what led me up here. My body tunes itself to the precise stone, gem or crystal I need for my work in healing. I knew it was here in the Carpathian Mountains and I had to come. I knew the general location and what part of the range to search because I was drawn to it on the map.” She waited for him to laugh. To make fun of her.
He studied her face. She didn’t know it of course, but he was already in her mind. She could do exactly what she said she could.
“Why would I not believe you? You are a gifted healer.”
“I didn’t get the chance to heal you. How would you know that?” she countered.
He hadn’t talked so much in ages. It was rather wearing. “I feel your power. Why do you need this particular stone?”
Her face crumpled. She looked almost as if she might cry. Her look did strange things to his insides. His belly formed hard, protesting knots and his chest ached in the region of his heart.
“My grandmother. Grandma Trixie. She raised me, and she’s the kindest, most thoughtful, wonderful person you can imagine. She raised my three older sisters as well. It wasn’t easy. She had to work all the time but she never complained. She even helped us out with school when she didn’t have to. She’s incredible.”
“Is she ill?”
Teagan looked down, studying the toe of her boot as she scuffed it in the dirt. “She’s gone a little crazy. Her mind isn’t right. A while back she began to mutter under her breath about this mythical man named Gary. She despised him. I asked her about him numerous times, but she just said he was a man who had betrayed everyone. He was a spy and he needed to die. That’s totally not like my grandmother.”
He held out his hand to her. “Keep talking. We should go back to your campsite and start a fire. You are beginning to shiver a little. That is the only chamber with a decent chimney.”
She took his hand without hesitation, more because she wasn’t paying as close attention than because she was no longer leery of him.
“About two months ago, she began talking about Gary to my sisters. She’s become totally obsessed with him. She said he runs with vampires and he has to be stopped. My sisters took her to a psychiatrist. He said she was slowly losing her mind. She wouldn’t back down. She swore vampires exist and that this Gary is a traitor to the human race and needs to die.”
Andre knew a man named Gary Jansen. He was highly respected among the Carpathian people. He had fought beside them in battle, led the way in research to find the cause of why their women couldn’t produce babies and worked to find a way to save the children who were born. He was also instrumental in finding the flower needed for their fertility. Gary was fully Carpathian now and a brother to Gregori Daratrazanoff. He was a little alarmed that his lifemate’s grandmother might actually know something about Gary.
He remained silent. Teagan sent him a hesitant look. He nodded at her, making certain he looked interested.
“I found a vampire-hunting kit she bought off the Internet stashed in her closet. I wasn’t snooping. She’d asked me to get her yarn and knitting needles. I didn’t even know she knitted. I think she plans on using her needles to stab someone through the heart if she can’t use her vampire-hunting kit.”
“What’s in a vampire-hunting kit?” he asked, genuinely intrigued.
“She has some gun that shoots wooden stakes. A rosary. A bible. A silver cross and holy water. There are all kinds of bottles filled with stuff, but I don’t know what’s in them.” She sighed. “My grandmother wouldn’t hurt a fly. Seriously, we had to put spiders outside rather than kill them, and now she’s going to hunt vampires, specifically a man who I can’t find out about anywhere, and shoot them with a wooden stake. It’s scary that her mind is going so fast.”