“Yes. I think so. He is working with the healer to check everyone who might have been infected. Poor young Josef was mortified at the things he said to Tariq.”
“What exactly is happening?” Julija asked.
Elisabeta frowned. She was uncertain how much she should say.
“There seems to be something causing a burn across the brain in two different areas, one controlling emotions and the other, judgment.”
“On the ancients,” Emeline said, making it half question, half statement.
Elisabeta shook her head. “Josef was also infected. In fact, his burns were worse even than Tariq’s.”
The women looked at one another. Emeline tapped the arm of her chair and then seemed to make up her mind. “Is it possible that this could affect children as well? Or older people? Would they necessarily have to be Carpathian? Can anyone be infected?”
“Yes, I believe we all are at risk,” Elisabeta replied. “I do not know what it is, or where it is coming from, but yes, everyone is at risk, including the children. Most likely those humans in the compound as well. Until we figure out the cause, all of us need to watch one another.” She kept her gaze on the other woman’s face, sending out her soothing energy.
Lorraine leaned toward Emeline. “Are you worried about the children, Emme? One in particular? Is someone showing signs of temper?”
Emeline tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. Elisabeta noted that her hand trembled just a little.
“Genevieve told me they all seemed out of sorts lately.” She looked at Elisabeta. “Genevieve is their nanny. She’s human, the sweetest woman ever, a good friend to all of us. She and Charlotte were best friends long before Charlotte found Tariq. Genevieve told me Danny shoved her. Danny is the most polite boy on the planet. He really is. And Amelia yelled at Lourdes and Bella and made them cry. Liv kicked her stone dragon and chipped out a piece of the rock, and then when she couldn’t repair it herself, threw a temper tantrum. Genevieve said all the children have been out of sorts over the last few days.”
“Last few days?” Elisabeta echoed.
She kept the soothing energy moving through the room, making certain that Julija and the baby she carried in her body as well as the child in her lap would only feel happiness and peace. “You mentioned older people, Emeline? Do you feel they are upset as well?”
“Yes, Donald and Mary Walton. They live in the converted boathouse next to the lake. They’re the sweetest couple and they never fight. The last few nights they’ve barely spoken to one another and Mary’s been crying a lot. It just seems like everyone is going a little nutty. I talked to Dragomir about it and we both thought maybe it was from everyone being cooped up for so long. No one has been able to leave the compound in a while.”
Elisabeta couldn’t help but feel guilt. Maybe, had she not been there, the occupants wouldn’t be so trapped.
Emeline gave a sigh. “I feel so bad that everyone’s been here since the children and I were rescued. Vadim found a way to impregnate me, and if it wasn’t for Dragomir, I would be dead and so would our daughter. Dragomir was able to change her blood and make her his.” Her eyes met Elisabeta’s. “I was one of his experiments.”
Elisabeta had often been down in the labyrinth of tunnels the vampires had taken over beneath the city and seen the horrors visited upon women and children. She’d been helpless to do anything but watch. So many times she’d been taken to places of torture and no one had ever known she was there other than Sergey. If it hadn’t been for Julija, no one would have even known she existed. Even when the hunters came and the vampires fled, Sergey would have been able to come back and retrieve her, but Julija had managed to allow Elisabeta to be seen, and the Carpathians had taken her with them back to the compound.
