She felt a melting sensation around her heart. At the borehole, Dimitri, Fen and Zev tossed anchored ropes into the opening while several Lycans quickly set up lights. Andros peered down, gripping the warm blanket someone thrust into his hands.
“Get her up here,” he called down to Afanasiv.
“Bringing her up now,” Siv answered. He didn’t grip the ropes. He just ascended, his arms around the child, making his body smaller tofit the close confines of the borehole. “I’m bringing you to Andros,” he assured her in a soothing voice.
He had reached into the child’s mind to help calm her. Vasilisa had stayed partially merged with him and found Alyona was more wild wolf child than human. Afanasiv had gently and skillfully reached the animal in her, allowing it to read his intentions. That also helped to calm her.
When Afanasiv emerged from the borehole with the little girl in his arms, his clothing was stained with oil, as was the gear he wore. He looked like any member of a search-and-rescue team who had volunteered to go into the hole and retrieve the child. She was even messier, the oil covering every inch of her, including her face and hair. The Lycans erupted into wild cheers, some yelling out, “She’s alive! She’s alive!”
Andros dragged her from Afanasiv, heedless of the oil, and wrapped his arms tightly around her, burying his face in her neck. There was an abrupt silence, with the exception of Andros’ choking. When he lifted his oil-smeared face, there were tears running down it.
“Thank you,” he said simply. “I don’t know what else I can say to you, Siv.” He looked around at his people. They had come to his family’s aid earlier when they’d been attacked, and they hadn’t hesitated to search for Alyona. “All of you, thank you.”
He took the bottle of water Vasilisa handed him and held it to the softly crying child’s lips. She drank a little and then drank some more. She kept patting Andros’ face with her oil-covered hands.
“The medics are here,” someone stated.
When Andros tried to set her on the gurney, she clung like a little monkey, refusing to let him go. She buried her face in his neck, so in the end, he held her while they did a quick examination.
“Mommy’s going to meet us at the hospital,” Andros whispered. “We’ll get the oil off you and make you feel so much better.”
“I’m so glad you found her alive,” Nikolay said.
Andros looked up, his features giving away the fact that the agents had been so far from his mind that he’d all but forgotten them. “I’m sorry, Nikolay.” He walked with the medical people to the ambulance. “I’m going to the hospital with her.”
“No worries. You do what you have to do. We’ll visit another time.” Nikolay waved him away.
“I think my driver is around here somewhere.” Andros looked distracted.
Klim came forward. “I’ll get them back to the inn, Andros.”
“Thanks, Klim.” Andros accepted the warm, wet towels and began to wipe off the oil as best he could from Alyona’s face. She was lying passively in his arms, and Vasilisa could feel fear building in her brother.
I healed every wound she had, or at least from the inside, so if the agents checked, they would find she had been beaten before being thrown in the borehole,Afanasiv said.I also carried water down with me and gave it to her. Small amounts so her body could handle it. They will find her in surprisingly good shape. Andros does not have to worry.
Vasilisa relayed the news to her brother, assuring him that the child was merely falling asleep in his arms. Around them, the Lycans were cleaning up the field of all gear and covering the boreholes. She waited until the government agents were safe in the car with Klim before she turned to Afanasiv.
“You look very cute with oil all over you.”
He stepped toward her as if he might take her in his arms and hold her close. Laughing, she pushed him away.
“I thought I was cute.”
“Not that cute. You just stay over there until we can get you cleaned up.”
Afanasiv accepted the towels handed to him by Fen, who shook his head. “Some men will do anything for attention, Dimitri.”
Afanasiv wiped his face and noticed the oil came right off.
“You should know, Fen,” Dimitri said. “You should see him with Tatijana, Siv. She’s so sweet, I don’t think it would occur to her that Fen was being a baby when he gets a scratch on him. He gets all dramatic, and she falls all over him to make him better.”
Afanasiv flashed his lady a quick grin. She knew she wasn’t the type to fall all over him to make his wounds better, at least not in public. She would keep her anxiety to herself.
Have I told you that I have fallen in love with you, Vasilisa? Because if I have not, it is a grave oversight on my part. I do not expect you to feel the same, nor do I expect the words from you, but it is important that you know. I have taken the time to know you. To see you. To see who you are. Everything about you moves me.
Vasilisa couldn’t help herself. She knew she was looking at him with her heart in her eyes. In terms of days and nights and long weeks and months, they hadn’t known each other for any time at all. But they were in each other’s minds. She saw him—who he was—she saw his spirit and the goodness of him. He might have darkness—that was undeniable—but he had a code of honor he didn’t deviate from. That was why he had wrestled so long with whether or not he had broken that code.
You know something, Dragonseeker? I find that I’ve fallen in love with you, too, and I don’t even know when it happened. Come home with me to my apartment. Let’s see if I can take as good care of you as Tatijana does her lifemate when he’s been showing off.