Amato introduced Tiberiu to Aria, and then Sandu stepped forward to greet the ancient warrior.
“Arwa-arvo pile sívadet,” he murmured as he clasped Tiberiu’s forearms in the way of their warriors greeting each other. Facing each other full on made them vulnerable to attack.
May honor light your heart, he interpreted for Adalasia as he introduced her.
“En jutta félet és ekämet,” Tiberiu answered him.
I greet a friend and brother. Sandu continued with the interpretations.
One by one, the four guardians also greeted Tiberiu in the same manner, each greeting a little different. All expressing the desire that they hold on to honor.
Aria waited politely until they were finished with their salutations before she put her hand in her husband’s. “Amato and I have quite a bit to discuss. We’ll leave you to it while we do.”
Sandu nodded. “We will be going out in a short time, Aria, so it is best if your talk is a fast one.”
She nodded and the two left them alone.
Tiberiu looked around the small room and inhaled with a short breath, as if he couldn’t get enough air. “It is long since I have been inside a house such as this. There is unrest here. You summoned me, Sandu, and said the matter was urgent but that you could not wait for me if I was late. I am here.”
There was no censure in his voice or curiosity. Neither. Tiberiu Bercovitz was an ancient who went his own way and tolerated few around him. He hunted the undead ruthlessly, with no thought of the damage to his body or soul. There was nothing to hold him to the world, no remaining family and no lifemate.
“We came across information that may pertain to the disappearance of your little sister.” Sandu saw no reason to prolong suspense. Tiberiu wasn’t the kind of Carpathian male to linger long in one place.
Tiberiu didn’t move, remaining as still as a statue. Adalasia was cleansing her tarot cards a small distance from them, with Nicu and Benedek solidly between her body and Tiberiu. He would have noted their protective positions. Petru and Siv were on either side of the room but in good defensible positions, as well.
“Part of what we learned, I will admit, is speculation on our part. Adalasia’s family wrote down their history in images, and one depicted a mage, clearly Xavier, exchanging a Carpathian female child of about ten for parasites. He did so with a female demon. The time period was the same as when your young sister disappeared. I was recently dragged through a portal into another realm, and a female thrust me back into this realm.”
For the first time, Tiberiu moved, turning toward Adalasia, who stood by the window. “She needs to move away from there. She is a beacon.” He didn’t speak directly to her. Ancients often didn’t address the lifemates of others.
Adalasia didn’t wait to be asked or told to move. She did so immediately.
Tiberiu nodded and turned back to Sandu. “Continue, please.”
“I was in the shadow realm, in the Cave of Fire, and was chanting my oath of honor. A voice joined me. A male voice. Then I heard a feminine voice. I tried to get her to come with me out of there, but she refused. Adamantly. The male was not her lifemate, but she still refused. She was definitely a Carpathian female. She knew the Carpathian language, I imagine through him.”
Tiberiu was silent for a long while. Sandu was uncertain whether he believed, after centuries of not hearing a single whisper of information on his sister, whether or not he could process what Sandu told him. Or dared to believe. Or even cared anymore.
“You go to stop these demons from coming through the portal?”
“Yes.”
“It is possible you will encounter this woman again?”
“Yes.”
“Then I will accompany you.”
The wind blew off the mountains in small gusts, as if it were gasping for breath. The smallest traces of sulfur could occasionally be caught and then would be torn away on the next draft. Adalasia felt the guardians and Sandu moving in tight formation around her. Tiberiu seemed to concentrate a certain amount of his attention toward her protection as well. She was much freer than they were to get a feeling for exactly what they were up against. This was no vampire. There was no lair for the undead concealed in the cave system hidden in the mountains.
Sandu’s father had discovered something evil making its way into the world. There was something else Domizio had known happened here in these mountains. Something he sacrificed his daughter’s future for—and she agreed to it. Adalasia knew Liona agreed because she felt Liona’s empowerment every step of the way. She was no shrinking violet, cowed by her father or any other. She had her own power. She made her own choices. In what she had done, she had a choice; her father hadn’t made it for her.