Tatiana awoke abruptly and bolted up in her dark bedroom, aware that although she could see no one, she wasn't alone in the room. Instead of apprehension, a warm feeling settled over her. A sense of peace she had not felt in over three hundred years overwhelmed her.

She jumped from her bed and stood staring into the shadows of the room. Suddenly, the figure of a slender, dark-haired woman appeared.

I heard your cries and I came to comfort and protect you, my little one.

Tears welled in her eyes and quickly spilled down her cheeks. "Mother! You came?" she whispered.

"I will always come when you call, my little one. Come." She opened her arms. "You will tell me what troubles you and I will make it right. Yes?"

Tatiana stumbled forward into her mother's arms. When they closed around her, she sobbed, burying her head against her shoulder. "I called and you came...you came!"

"Did you think I would not?"

"I didn't know... I haven't been very... I haven't tried as hard as I should have to makes amends with you. I had no excuse not to welcome you back into my life."

"It does not matter. What matters is that you called to me. There is no power on earth that could have kept me away from you." Her mother lifted her and carried her to the chair by the window. Sinking down into it, she rocked her, stroking her hair. "Tell me what troubles you and I will make it right-no matter what it takes."

Tatiana shook her head. She could not ask her mother to choose sides, not when she and Vlad were still trying to make their peace with each other. Perhaps Aleksei would forgive her if she interrupted his time with his new family to ask him to try to change Vlad's mind.

"Thank you for coming, but this is not something I can ask your help with."

Her mother slipped a hand under her chin and lifted her face. "There is no need to disturb Aleksei when I am here and capable of helping."

Tatiana sighed and decided not to complain about Palea invading her thoughts. "Shouldn't you be with Mikhel? How is he?"

"He is surrounded by love. Not only are Erica and Dimitri at his side, but his father is there as well. He is fine. He understood when I told him of your call. His friend Cal Harris piloted one of Mikhel's jets to bring me here."

She moistened her lips. "And Serge? Has Derri finally heard from him?"

"Yes. He had a little trouble with a former lover, but he was able to overcome her and break away."

"He's all right?"

"Yes. He and his boys are on their way home."

"And this former lover who held him hostage?"

"She will be dealt with at the proper time. Now, what troubles you, little one?"

"I... don't want you to have to choose sides."

"Sides? Between you and who?"

"Vladimir."

She felt a shiver pa.s.s through her mother's body. "Vladimir?"

"Never mind. It's really not-"

"No, my little one. Tell me what troubles you or I will have to resort to probing your mind for the information." She stroked her cheek. "I know you have studied the shadow arts, but they will not help you in blocking my probe of a mind that is a part of mine. Trust me to do the right thing. Tell me."

"First I have to tell you that the dispute between myself and Vladimir is entirely my fault. I've betrayed him-again. He's right and I know he is, but I can't help how I feel."

"What has happened?"

"Oh, Mother, he's going to kill him and there's nothing I can do to stop Vlad without challenging him. I can't do that. But how can I allow Vlad to...how can I stand by and do nothing while Vlad kills him?"

"Who is this male Vladimir wants to kill, and why?"

Tatiana closed her eyes and pressed her face against Palea's body. In a small, shamed voice, she told Palea about her relationship with Jason. When she fell silent, she lifted her head, ready to face the condemnation she'd see in her mother's gaze.

Chapter Twelve.

Vladimir was surprised and pleased when he found his mother standing on his doorstep the next morning. "Mother! Come in." He put his arm around her shoulder and urged her into his foyer. "What brings you here?" He frowned. "It's not Mikhel? Is he all right?"

"Yes. He is fine."

They moved into the living room. When she sat on the sofa, he sat with her. "I didn't expect to see you here."

"I would not have come without an invitation, but-"

"You don't need an invitation. You're welcome here anytime."

She smiled and glanced around the living room Adam had furnished. "You are happy here with Adam? Yes?"

He nodded. "Yes."

"Where is Adam?"

"Upstairs asleep." After his argument with Tat, he'd been angry and hurt. He had spent hours rutting into Adam, who had finally shoved him away just before dawn. When he had reached for Adam again, Slayer had intervened, shifting to his natural form and a.s.suming a battle stance over the exhausted Adam.

Father leave Adam...too tired...need rest. Father leave room.

Palea rose and walked over to the patio doors. After staring out for several moments, she turned to face him. "We need to talk, solnyshko moy."

Even as she called him her sun, he noted the abrupt cooling of her tone. He rose. "So this is not a social visit, Mother?"

She sighed. "I have wanted to come. You understand that? Yes? But I have come on Tatiana's behalf."

He narrowed his gaze. "If she asked you to intercede for that piece of dirt she's sleeping with-"

"She asked me not to intercede. She is afraid of upsetting the... balance you and I are establishing."

"Then why are you here?"

She crossed the room to look up in his face. "I am here to ask you to leave this Makefield alone."

"What? Do you know who he is? What he tried to do? Do you know what nearly happened to Aleksei and Mikhel at the hands of his master?"

She nodded, her dark eyes narrowed. "I am aware of all you mention."

"Then how can you expect me to allow him to live?"

"Expect? Have I not made myself, clear, solnyshko moy? I do not expect anything. I demand that for the sake of Tatiana's happiness, you give up your rightful claim to vengeance."

"Demand? If it's rightful, why shouldn't I kill him?"

She placed her hands on his chest and bared her incisors. "Because I will not allow it."

He flashed away from her. "I don't recall your having any say in the manner."

She crossed the room to stand in front of him, her eyes glowing. Then, without warning, her right hand shot out in a blur.

Several moments later, Vlad picked himself up from the far wall where she had tossed him. She flashed forward and stared up at him. "This is not a discussion, Vladimir. You are happy with Adam and we all rejoice with you. This Makefield is someone whose heart I would like to rip out from his chest and tear into little pieces while he watches. But he is important to Tatiana. She denies it, but I fear he is her bloodl.u.s.t. Having experienced the happiness a full-blood can only know with his true mate, would you wish to deny Tatiana that same joy? Would you kill a man you know to be her bloodl.u.s.t, knowing that some vampires only bloodl.u.s.t once?"

"Yes!" He shot to his feet, glaring at her.

"I am sorry to hear that, Vladimir, but as the head of this family, I am not prepared for your selfish desire for vengeance to rob Tatiana of her bloodl.u.s.t."

"And if I go after him anyway?"

She shook her head, her eyes filling with tears. "Then I will stop you. You will not have vengeance at the expense of your little sister's happiness."

He felt as if she had driven a sharp knife through his heart. "You would challenge me physically on his behalf?"

"No, solnyshko moy, it would not be on his behalf. I despise him. It would be on her behalf, but it would be no challenge. Do not make the mistake of thinking you, for all your height and muscles, would be a physical match for me. Live to be thousands of years old and you will never be a physical match for me."

She stroked a hand across his cheek. "I beg of you, do not force my hand. Give me your word you will make no move to hurt this Makefield. You do not have to like him, but as Tatiana's older brother, you are charged with helping to ensure her happiness.

"How can you do that if you kill the male she loves?"

"How can she love him?"

"She would not be the first full-blood to bloodl.u.s.t unwisely. She has struggled with her feelings but cannot reject them. Do not make me have to choose between stopping you or doing nothing and condemning her to a life devoid of joy.

"Having found Adam, you know what that would be like. Give me your word."

"No. d.a.m.n it, no," he snarled and raced across the room and out the door. To his surprise, she didn't follow. When he returned home several hours later, she had gone. Adam met him in the foyer as he let himself in. One look at Adam's handsome face and he knew Palea had confided in Adam.

"Go ahead," he said wearily. "Jump all over me like everyone else and tell me how wrong I am to want to kill the man who wanted me dead."

Adam, with Slayer perched on his shoulder, crossed the floor to kiss him slowly on his lips. "Come to bed and make love to me."

He nodded and allowed Adam to lead him to their bedroom. He was tired, hurt and angry, and he needed s.e.x with his bloodl.u.s.t to soothe him. After Adam had loved him, he'd decide how to handle the G.o.dd.a.m.ned Makefield.

Jace sat up in his dark bedroom. He glanced at his bedside clock. 2:10 a.m. What had awakened him? He stared around the room. Heart racing, he blinked several times. He closed his eyes and slowly counted to ten. When he opened them again, nothing had changed. Carollina, just as he remembered her, a beautiful, slender blonde with an amazing smile, stood near his bedroom window-naked. She looked so real...almost as though if he touched her he'd feel her soft, warm flesh.

He got out of bed and moved slowly across the room. Stopping within arms length of her, he extended his right arm. His fingers brushed against her small, pointy b.r.e.a.s.t.s with erect nipples. Instead of the warmth he had expected, her skin felt cool and not as supple as he remembered.

What did that matter in a dream?

"This is not a dream, my love. This is real."

The soft words, spoken in the sweet voice he had not heard in over half a century, sent a shock through him. He s.n.a.t.c.hed his hand away from her. "I must be asleep."

She smiled. "Oh no, Jace darling, this is not a dream."

"It must be, because you are dead."

She took his hand in hers and placed it between her legs. "This is real, my love," she told him. "I couldn't go on without you, so I have come to make you mine again. I've come to make love." She rotated her hips. "Feel how much I want and need you, my love."

He felt moisture against his fingers. The scent of her aroused p.u.s.s.y permeated the air, seeming to invade his nostrils, overwhelming his senses. He blinked, feeling lightheaded. "This can't be real... you can't be real."

"But I am real, my love." She took his hand in hers and led him back to the bed. She pushed him on his back and quickly straddled his hips. He felt her p.u.s.s.y dripping onto his pubic hair. The evidence of her pa.s.sion failed to arouse him.

He had once loved her with a depth of emotion so strong, her death had nearly driven him insane. Much had happened since then. Meeting and falling in love with Tatiana had given his life a new focus. While he still believed in the work he did for Wilfredo and he still wanted to find and punish those who had killed Carollina, they were no longer the primary goals in his life. His chief goal in life was convincing Tatiana they belonged together. He and Tatiana...not he and Carollina.

He frowned. This was wrong. Not only was she long dead, but she had been haunting his dreams, turning them into nightmares. He closed his hands around her slender waist. "No."

"Oh yes!" Her hands, imbued with all the power of a full-blood vampire, closed around his wrists. She forced his hands away from her waist and stared down into his gaze. "The time when I could be so easily dismissed is long past, Jace." Retaining her grip on his wrists, she manipulated her lower body until she managed to maneuver his c.o.c.k between her wet folds.

He stiffened. "I don't want this and I don't want you anymore. Let me up."

Her eyes blazed down at him. "If you think I'm going to lose you to her, you're mistaken. You're mine. You've always been mine and I've come back to reclaim you." She pushed her hips downward.

Her p.u.s.s.y quickly swallowed his c.o.c.k, holding it in an uncomfortably tight, viselike grip. Although his c.o.c.k was erect, he felt no pa.s.sion or desire.

"This won't change anything," he warned her. "My affections belong to another now."

She slowly slid up and down on him, her body shuddering each time her p.u.s.s.y completely enveloped his c.o.c.k. "Your heart and your affections are of little consequence to me. She can have them. I have what I want. I went through h.e.l.l to reclaim your hard c.o.c.k." She lay her cheek against his shoulder and ground her hips against his, squeezing her internal muscles around him.

"Who are you?"

"I'm the love of your life, my darling Jace."

"Carollina's dead."

"I've risen from the dead to reclaim the one thing that mattered most to me-you. Now, please...make love to me, my Jace."