Murgatroid-98: You know, the first sentence of this chapter was actually planned as the last sentence of the last chapter; seems like we were thinking the same thing there...

apalusa-light: I know, both, chapter 2 and 3 have been rather short, especially compared to the first chapter. It was just that I felt the chapters needed to end where they did. I could have put the following chapter immediately after the last one, but seeing as I only finished this chapter last weekend and I didn't return home from work before 7 pm this week I thought it was better to post a short chapter then and a normal one now than a long one first and none this weekend. Okay, and now I'm babbling. So I just shut up now and let you read the next instalment.

Kalli bit her lip. There was a way to end this now, before anyone would get hurt. All she had to do was open her mouth and...

"What is all that ruckus about? Put down those guns, someone could get hurt!"

"What is your sister doing here?" Kalli shook her head in bewilderment at Doru's question. She couldn't believe that she was really seeing Ley standing there in the door, dressed up as though she was going to a summer party.

***

Damyan hissed as he heard the woman speak. Her voice cut straight through to his heart. His eyes hurt as they tried to get used to the colours he was suddenly seeing and his heart clenched with an unknown pain. It took him a moment to register that he could see colours. Real colours again. He should have been euphoric. There could only be one reason why he was able to see them again. Only when he found his lifemate would colours and feelings be restored for him. But why did everything still feel so numb then? It had been a long time since he had felt or seen as he could right now but he had thought it had been more intense back then. But maybe that had only been his mind tricking him over the last centuries.

Because it is wrong. He heard Gregori's voice in his head. I don't know what kind of magic this is, but she isn't you lifemate. Trust me, there wouldn't be any doubt in you if she were. Mikhail, what do you… Gregori felt silent when he suddenly saw the two men actually lower their guns to the floor and turn towards the blonde woman. They looked at her like two puppies might look up at their owner.

"Uh, could someone remove those two they are sweaty and stink." Ley looked at the two men in front of her as though they were mere insects, not even worth being in her presence.

***

Kalli iterated over and over in her mind how this was not happening right now. But unfortunately it didn't help. Her sister stood at the other side of the room and every single male who was standing in it was starring at her as though she was some miracle. From the corner of her eye she saw the French woman slapping her boyfriend's arm at gapping at the foreign woman. Not that it did any good. Ley was turning heads with her looks alone. But once she opened her mouth every male was lost.

Now her sister had caught her eye and smirked at her.

"There you are." She pushed herself past the two men in front of her and farther into the room, not even noticing how the two were following her like moths would a light. Kalli noticed that the Carpathians in front of them tensed as Ley and her admirers came towards them, the leader of the three was once more being shielded by the other two.

Ley cast one appraising look over the three men and grinned wickedly as she stopped in front of her sister.

"So you run off to a village in some not yet developed country to play with the locals and leave me back home with Mama and Papa? That is really not nice sister. You would have let me die of boredom at home while you have all the fun." Kalli's eyes widened at her sister's words and she saw Doru next to her stiffen.

"Luckily I had been following grandma to the lake and overheard you two talking. Although you could have really chosen a nicer place to go to. You know, Venice is supposed to be really nice this time of the year… And you, aren't you ashamed of yourself for dragging my sister into this mess?" Doru narrowed his eyes at Ley as the blonde Siren stuck her finger into his chest and looked scoldingly up at him.

"How about you simply leave this awful place and go back home? We wouldn't want you to be too miserable here, would we?"

"Oh now, you're not getting rid of me this easily. I'm Kalli's older sister, I should look out for her. As long as she is staying so am I. Now," Ley cast a glance over her shoulder expecting to see the two men from before still leering at her but they had disappeared as she had been talking to her sister. Ley smiled sweetly at the people around her and softened her voice.

"So, where will I be staying?"

***

"Well, I guess it is better than that place you were staying in." Ley looked around at the room her sister had been given and sat down on the large bed, gingerly testing the mattress with her hand.

"I wouldn't have been able to stay even an hour in that place. I would never have thought that your taste was so low. I mean, Doru might not be a Dragon but at least he is kind of cute. Like the rest of the men here. I mean, have you even noticed them?" Ley fanned herself and fell back on the bed, closing her eyes as she lay there.

"Honestly, it is hard to tell who is the best looking of them. They might almost pass for Dragons themselves, don't you think?"

Kalli didn't answer. She stood in front of the window, her arms crossed in front of her chest, her teeth buried in her lower lip to keep from screaming. She knew she should have Doru come here alone.

After the men in the inn had been 'taken care of' – whatever that had meant – the leader of the three Carpathians, who turned out to be their prince, had invited Doru to come with his to his house, where they had wanted to talk with him about what he was and about his family. Doru had only agreed to go on the condition that Kalli would come as well. Kalli had seen that the Carpathians had been uncomfortable with this request and had insisted that Doru would go alone. It was his family after all. But Doru had stood firm. Of course Ley wouldn't be left behind and once they had stepped foot into the prince's home Kalli knew it had been a mistake to bring her here.

Two women had awaited them upon their arrival – the prince's wife and their daughter, lifemate to the second man that had come to the inn – and several men. The men had reacted strange to Ley, who couldn't stop talking for even a minute. Not like humans, there were no happy-puppy-faces. They looked at her with a mixture of awe, hope and wariness. And Kalli, upon remembering what her grandmother had told her on their way back from the lake to her home had felt dreadful.

From watching the scene earlier Kalli had the misgiving that a Siren's voice was somehow giving a Carpathian the illusion of having found their lifemate. And of course, Ley was far from being silent while being surrounded by a group of men.

"You know, it may be awfully dreadful here, but the men might just be worth spending some days here in the middle of nowhere." Ley curled a strand of her golden hair around her finger and hummed softly.

"And to think that you wanted to have all of these splendid specimens for yourself. Shame on you!" Ley opened her eyes and turned her head to regard her sister.

"Hey, are you even listening to me? Or don't you talk to me anymore?!"

Kalli's eyebrows rose high on her forehead. She hadn't spoken a single word all day and now her sister noticed.

"What? You look at me as though I'm a little child which was caught with the hand in the cookie jar. I don't like it!" Ley's pout did indeed look like that of a little girl's. And sadly more often than not she got away with that face. Kalli had always watched her older sister walking through life, not caring for the repercussions of her actions.

"Do you even once think before you open you mouth?" Kalli hissed at her sister, trying to keep her voice down. She knew she was close to yelling.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You claim you heard what grandma told me before I left. You should know that these men downstairs have lost their emotions. Don't you think it odd that they swarm around you like humans do when you speak?" Ley looked at Kalli as though she had hit her head.

"No, of course not. Men always react like this to us."

"In case you haven't noticed, these men aren't like the humans at home. They are different. And you are doing something with your voice to them. You have to stop it!" Ley laughed resoundingly and slowly arose from the bed.

"You expect me to stop speaking? To men? I always knew you were strange, but this is hilarious. I tell you something little sister. You're jealous." she stopped right in front of Kalli and looked down and the smaller woman, flipping her long golden hair behind her shoulder. Kalli was too shocked to respond.

"I am right. Of course. You thought you could come here and charm all these men and now I come along and you realise that you have no chance against me." Kalli felt rage burning inside of her. She felt it slowly crawl up inside of her. Any moment she would start to scream. Any moment...

"Don't worry too much. It's not like I'm doing anything to steal your boyfriend away from you. You can keep him." Kalli took a deep breath and spoke through her gritted teeth.

"Doru isn't my boyfriend. I've told you this before. He's like a brother to me."

Ley looked disgusted by this thought.

"Why would you want someone like him as your brother?"

"Maybe because my own sister is so awful!" Ley took a step back as this time, Kalli did scream.

"You are selfish, arrogant, stubborn, stupid and think you are the middle of the universe. You don't ever think about anyone but yourself. You are the picture perfect of the sirens people described for centuries in their horror stories!"

A knock at the door interrupted Kalli in her unusual outburst and she spun around to face the wooden barrier between her and whoever was out in the hall. Flinching about having been heard she opened the door and let out a relieved sigh when she saw Doru standing in the door.

"How was it?" she asked as she pulled him inside her room, referring to the conversation he had just had with his uncle and the Carpathian prince. Doru ran a hand nervously through his dark hair, unsure of how to answer that question. He had the feeling he had been hit by a truck and left on the road; so much had been explained to him in the past hours. And he still had so many questions left. Some which he hadn't even had before today.

"Yes, tell us what you've been told. When will you start to grow up and look all manly like those relatives of yours?"

Doru and Kalli both shot Ley a look that was telling her to shut up. Of course the blonde wouldn't be silenced so easily.

"What? It's not like I called him ugly. But with those men downstairs you can't compete, pretty boy." She teased in her sing-sang voice.

"Aren't there any sailors you are supposed to sing into an early grave somewhere? Preferably on another continent?"

"Ouch, I hit a nerve. Afraid my sister will get a wake up call and leave you behind to get involved with one of your new friends? Because really, dearest sister, you should. I could sort out those who aren't interesting enough for me so you could choose among them." Ley smiled sweetly, patting Doru on his cheek before he could move away.

"Actually, I think I should go look if I can find some of them right now, to let you know the chosen ones as soon as possible. See you two later."

"Ley!" Kalli made to grab her sister's arm but she evaded her easily and slipped out of the room, her laughter light in the empty hallway.

"Damn!"

"Let her go. She's annoying as hell, as soon as she sees no one wants her around, we might be lucky enough to see her get bored and leave."

"If only." Kalli said more to herself. But a look at her best friend's face showed her that his mind was somewhere else anyway.

"Want to talk?" Doru shrugged and looked out of the window.

"Let's take a walk, I think I could need some fresh air."

They left the house silently, without being noticed by anyone. A small distance from the front door they saw Ley easily wrapping a three of the Carpathians around her little finger. Doru frowned as he saw this but then shook his head and continued onto the path into the forest.

They walked in silence for some time. Kalli switching between watching the way before her and Doru's face. Finally she stopped him and looked questioningly at him. When he didn't say anything, Kalli motioned something with her hands.

"You can speak, you know. There is no one around to hear you." Kalli bit her lip, not sure whether Doru was really able to tell if any of his people were nearby, but finally deciding that he wouldn't sound so sure if he had the slightest doubt.

"I was expected to see an overjoyed you standing in the door earlier. You don't seem happy, though."

"It's not that I'm not happy. I am." Doru sighed and sat down on a large stone. "It's just so much, you know. They knew my parents." Kalli refrained from pointing the obvious out. As one of them was his uncle it was only natural that they would. Instead she crouched down in front of him and put her arms on his knees.

"What did they tell you?" she asked silently when he didn't continue himself.

"My... uncle..." Doru stumbled over the word and swallowed hard, "told me about them. Bilyana and Gavril. I never even knew their names." Tears gathered in Dorus eyes and he angrily wiped them away with the sleeve of his shirt. "He told me what they looked like. How they had been. How happy they had been when my mother was pregnant with me. And how proud they were when I was born." All the wiping didn't help anymore and Kalli rose to sit next to her friend and let him cry against her shoulder.

Neither of them knew how long they sat like that. Once Doru had calmed down he told her what else he had been told. That it was his own uncle, his mother's oldest brother, Yakov, that had killed his parents.

"You're not going to do anything stupid are you?" Kalli voice was worried.

"Like what?"

"Like what? Like trying to go after him." Doru looked darkly at her before turning his gaze away and looking into the darkness of the forest around them.

"Doru,"

"They wouldn't let me anyway. Not yet." He sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

"Twenty-five doesn't seem to be that grown-up to Carpathians as it is to humans. Or even Your people. While your parents want to marry you off, I'm not much more than a child. Especially since I don't know what I should at my age." Kalli looked confused at what she had just heard.

"Oookay, could you repeat that for me. Please?" Doru sighed again and arose.

"I have so much to learn about being a Carpathian. So much I wouldn't even have imagined. I will hunt him. I will find him and avenge my parents. But I won't go into this unprepared. I won't give him the satisfaction of killing me as well." While Doru made his pledge Kalli had another thought crossing her mind.

"That is why you never reacted to our voices." She whispered more to herself than to him. Doru still heard her and turned back to her.

"What do you mean?"

Kalli smiled sadly at him and stroke through his unruly dark hair.

"As you said. Your age is different. Human children don't react to a Siren's seduction either. They can be calmed by us, yes. As I am always able to calm you. But no boy would look at a Siren with lust. Once you loose the ability to feel and see colours you will react like everyone else."

"Nonsense! It must have something to do with me being Carpathian that I don't react to your voice. No one reacted to Ley either."

"But they did. The do. And so will you. One day." I will loose you after all. But she didn't say that.

"No. No Kalli, I won't." Doru grabbed her shoulders. "And even if this were true. It won't happen for almost two hundred years." Doru was right, of course. And two hundred years were a long time. A long time to forget each other when Kalli would go back to Germany and leave Doru here with his family. But she decided that now was not the moment to speak of the impending goodbye. Especially when her stomach rumbled right now.

Doru heard it and looked at Kalli.

"You still look very pale. Are you really sure, your stomach is better?"

"Of course." Kalli lied through a smile. She did feel a bit better. But then, she hadn't dared to eat or drink anything since they had left the inn for fear her stomach would rebel again. But now she was awfully thirsty. She wouldn't be able to keep from drinking anything much longer. She needed something liquid.

"I still think we should go back. The sun will rise soon, and you have been up all night. You need to rest. We will talk later. You could support me when I start my lessons at dusk." Kalli smiled up at Doru as they headed back towards the house.

Before she went to bed Doru made sure she would drink some tea, obviously not really trusting her earlier claim of being alright.