Free Dark Illusion by Christine Feehan

me.
    That alarmed Julija. She knew exactly who Elisabeta was referring to. Sergey would only be able to call to her at night. Julija felt as if she could almost hear him whispering to her friend. She had all but forgotten Sergey in her rush to go after the book. Xavier might be dead, but the master vampire had slivers of the high mage embedded in his brain. She had no idea if those slivers could feel the book had left the relative safety of the Carpathian Mountains and was now vulnerable somewhere close.
    I almost forgot that he’s doubly dangerous with the slivers of the high mage in him. He was already scary enough. I’m sorry, Elisabeta. I should have been more careful.
    Even if the vampire didn’t feel how close the book was, it wasn’t like something as huge as the evil book of spells being stolen would stay a secret. Sooner or later, the news would get to Sergey and he would start his own hunt for it.
    Will your father and brothers help him? Will they have other mages helping?
    The anxiety Julija heard in Elisabeta’s voice was for her, not the woman who had been caged for centuries and forced to do a vampire’s bidding.
    I don’t know. She hadn’t thought of that, either. She knew her father wanted the book for himself. He wouldn’t want Sergey to get near it. On the other hand, if it was the only way to get the book back, he might form that alliance. Those slivers of Xavier might actually seek him out to aid him; after all, Xavier was his grandfather.
    Julija? If your father is Rhiannon’s grandson, he is part Dragonseeker. No Dragonseeker has ever turned vampire.
    He is not vampire, but he is evil.
    I do not see how that is possible.
    Julija knew there was something that was supposed to be extraordinary about the Dragonseeker lineage, but she wasn’t certain what it was until that moment. He bears a mage mark, the same as my brothers. The same as me. But I was also born with a dragon mark low, on the left side of my body where my ovaries would be. When I asked my father and brothers, none had that mark. They couldn’t see my mark so they had no idea what I was talking about. It was like the dragon hid from them.
    That had made her feel different, even more apart from the rest of her family when she’d already felt that way. For the longest time she’d thought she was treated differently because she didn’t have the same mother as her brothers and her stepmother was jealous of her dead mother.
    There was silence while Elisabeta thought what the absence of Dragonseeker marks on Julija’s family could mean.
    A man has come to me. He says he is my lifemate. Julija thought she might as well tell her friend. I refused him.
    Elisabeta’s gasp of horror was instantaneous. You cannot. You cannot refuse him, Julija. You have condemned him to death, or worse. So much worse. He could be another Sergey. Is he young?
    He is an ancient. Very much so I think. He was one of a few Carpathian males determined to be so dangerous they locked themselves away in a monastery.
    There was another gasp from Elisabeta. One of his brethren is here. He lies close to me to prevent the constant whispers from Sergey. He’s very powerful. He has claimed that I am lifemate to him. I’m terrified, but I would never think to refuse him.
    Of course Elisabeta wouldn’t refuse a Carpathian male, Julija told herself. The woman had been caged for centuries, taught to do whatever a man ordered her to do. Every Carpathian female seemed to do her man’s bidding. Not that she’d been around too many. Still, Elisabeta’s accusation echoed through her mind. You have condemned him to death, or worse.
    Julija closed her eyes tightly but there was no shutting out the truth of that. Tell me why a woman must give up her rights but a man doesn’t.
    I am uncertain what you mean.
    Elisabeta, you were born into a different century. You wouldn’t know about women’s rights, but we own our lives. No one can tell us what to do.
    You speak of a