The rest of the day was uneventful for Aleksandra - but not boring. She wandered the grounds, approaching some humans she saw working with cattle and spent a few pleasant hours watching them. They were friendly and open and spoke a lilting tongue that was very musical to the ears. She learned a bit of the language from hearing them talk and associating the words with the pictures she got in her head. She then amused herself the rest of the afternoon practicing the slurring "sh"s and curling "w"s of their melodic tongue.
She had also gathered a bit of information from the talkative humans about the place and their hosts, the de la Cruz family. The patron was Zacarias, apparently the oldest brother. The humans spoke of his wisdom and power in a tone that was almost reverential - privately Aleksandra thought he just sounded really bossy. There were four other brothers –she had met Rafael and Manolito the day before - who lived on the estate as well, which would explain the number of (empty) houses. The two women she had just met were kin to one of the brothers' lifemates and they occupied yet another house of their own. No mention was made of the baby's father and none of them projected any memories or thoughts of him.
Hmm, she thought. Strange. But even stranger to her, really, was their having been summoned to this place. Summoned , she thought. Even the word was so as if. She had come because of her brother - save for Julian they hadn't been around any Carpathians since the whole furor in Gabriel's house two years ago and she wasn't about to let him face the situation alone.
When it had happened, Aleksandra had been tormented by the possibility that she had done a bad thing. Now she knew otherwise. Without the bond and the intense connection with his lifemate, Dimitri was calmer, infinitely more at peace. Unmated, her brother had been angst-y to begin with and the addition of the lifebond to Skyler had made him nearly insufferable for the two years they had been linked. He had confided in her what he knew about the girl and Aleksandra was convinced that Skyler's tortured past was exacerbating everything. Dimitri's guilt at not having been able to protect her had colored every single action and thought of his for those two years and being especially sensitive to her brother, it had been damned near unbearable for her. He had tried to send her away again and she had pretended to comply but unknown to him she had not left him by himself for more than a few days at a time over that period. Being unmated had pushed him close to the edge, but being mated to someone who wanted no part of his life had ended up pushing him over. Aleksandra understood Skyler's resentment at being forced into a lifebond - she knew she herself would have hated it. But she did not understand the girl's callousness while watching her lifemate literally turning vampire before her eyes. That was the one thing Aleksandra would never be able to forgive.
Still things had turned out well. Though severing his lifemate bond had not made all of his guilt disappear, Dimitri was far more relaxed, and an added bonus was that Julian had come into their lives. Now that someone else knew about Aleksandra and his friend had pledged his protection, her brother had allowed her to spend time with Julian and his lifemate Desari and she had really enjoyed it. Now they considered her extended family and she liked that even more. The time since then had been really really nice.
Aleksandra sighed. She couldn't shake the feeling that something was about to change soon. Here. In this place. But although she dreaded it she knew that she couldn't hide.
As wise man said – the only constant is change.
The main reason she was here was to protect her brother. She was almost certain he had been summoned because of her - the invitation (if it could be called that) had extended to his "family". She could tell from his tense demeanor that he felt it too. But just as he was here to protect her she was here to protect him. She wasn't going to let him bear any consequences of what she had done - had unilaterally chosen to do - those two years before. At eighteen she was certainly old enough to stand up for herself - even against a prince and a bunch of macho Carpathians.
She headed for the perimeter of the estate as the sun began to set, thinking to explore a bit of jungle before her brother rose and the gather started. As she stepped through the trees at the edge of the garden, however, she was knocked off her feet from behind and landed face first on the ground.
Rafael, having just risen, was walking with his lifemate Colby and her sister Ginny through the garden when sudden noises made him stop. Yells, crashes, the thudding sounds of hitting and being hit. Someone was having a knock-down, drag-out fight. Not sensing any real danger, however, Rafael glanced at Colby and sprinted in the direction of the noise. Probably some cowhands getting physical with each other. Brazilians, like most Latinos, wore their emotions on their sleeves and were quite capable of starting a fight over the smallest slight, real or imaginary. This would not be the first fight he broke up in all his long years living in close proximity to humans.
What he saw stopped him in his tracks however. "What the hell?"
Two figures engaged in an all-out battle greeted him in the copse, leaping from tree to tree and ground to branch and back again, first one pursuing the other and then turning the tables on each other. They kicked, threw each other to the ground, rolled to their feet only to do it again. They were sparing no punches - Rafael got a glimpse of more than one bloody nose, and the sound of the hits - made with skin on skin - was evidence that neither of them was faking it. Suddenly one produced a long staff- just a broken branch, really - and the other did the same. One swung and the other ducked, swung again and the other jumped to avoid being whacked in the knees. They both leapt, one coming down with a strike directed at the head, the other blocking. The blow split one staff in two but the wielder seemed unconcerned, twirling the shorter sticks, now using them independently but with the same degree of skill as with the single staff. They twirled, hit, blocked, lashed out, rolled and jumped, knocking down flower pots and divesting trees of their leaves and plants of their flowers.
Suddenly a deafening whistle pierced through the air, freezing one fighter in mid-strike and the other in mid-parry. They both turned at the same time in the direction of the whistle. They froze, as if suddenly realizing they had an audience and then, surprisingly, exchanged glances as they straightened. Both were suddenly completely calm, lowering their weapons like nothing had happened.
But nothing hadn't happened.
"What's going on here?" Rafael asked at last, more flabbergasted than angry. That he hadn't sensed danger the entire time the pair were fighting disturbed him. One of the culprits was Dimitri's younger sister Aleksandra, who looked a little guilty but seemed unconcerned with the fact that her nose was bleeding and she had an absolute beauty of a black eye. However, her opponent, also bearing marks of battle, was a stranger to him.
He looked from the girl to the lanky newcomer, his eyes narrowing. If he was older than Aleksandra it wasn't by much. He looked like trouble. He had unruly sandy hair, falling almost to his shoulders, and naughty brown eyes in the kind of face that would make mothers who had been teenagers themselves lock up their own teenaged daughters. Had Aleksandra been his sister he would have locked her up himself, Rafael found himself thinking. As it was the urge was strong.
Then the boy smiled and the alarm bells in Rafael's head went up three octaves.
